Wed 8 – Allison Gregory (see: Monday blurb) has written two plays adapting Barbara Park’s Junie B. Jones books to the theater, but it won’t be one of hers that Artisan Center Theatre puts on this evening. Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich’s Junie B. Jones the Musical sets the plucky kindergartner’s adventures to song and dance. The show runs thru Apr 25 at Belaire Theater, 444 E Pipeline Rd, Hurst. Tickets are $5-10. Call 817-284-1200.
Thur 9 – Van Cliburn contestant Steven Lin returns to play a free concert at the Fort Worth Central Library. He’ll play Bach’s French Overture and Chopin’s impromptus (both of which he played at the competition to great effect), as well as Mozart’s 12th Piano Sonata and Ravel’s La Valse, a barn-burner in the proper hands. The concert is at 6:30pm at 500 W 3rd St, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-871-7701.
Fri 10 – This is racing weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, and the marquee race is on Saturday, but we’d rather not spotlight an event that’s named after the company founded by those ignorant, intolerant duck-hunting brothers in Louisiana. So we’re pointing you toward the NXS O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 tonight. The green flag waves at 7:30pm at 3545 Lone Star Cir, FW. Tickets are $30-70. Call 817-215-8500.
Sat 11 – Not content with crippling the Texas Rangers’ 2014 season, the injury gods have kept hammering away at the team’s roster in 2015. Still, the club’s home opener comes this week, and spring is a time when every team has reason to hope for a resurgence. The team plays against the Oakland A’s Fri-Sun at Globe Life Park, 1901 Rd to Six Flags, Arlington. Tickets are $13-210. Call 817-273-5100.
Sun 12 – Movie fans know John Logan as the screenwriter who wrote Gladiator, Hugo, and Rango, but he’s also a playwright who won a Tony and a Drama Desk award for Red, his 2010 play imagining the artist Mark Rothko hiring and working with a new assistant. Stage West now brings this highly acclaimed work to Fort Worth. The play runs Fri thru May 10 at 821 W Vickery St, FW. Tickets are $17-34. Call 817-784-9378.
Mon 13 – Parodies of Euripides started shortly after his death with Aristophanes’ The Frogs. Allison Gregory’s Not Medea continues in that hallowed tradition, with its story about a working mother who finds herself at a theater production of the Greek tragedy and interferes with the story to fit her experiences of motherhood. Amphibian Productions gives a staged reading of this Sun thru today at 120 S Main St, FW. Tickets are $7-17. Call 817-923-3012.
Tue 14 – The artist Mario García Torres is based in Mexico City, but his Focus exhibit opening this week at the Modern owes a heavy debt to Texas. His video installations explore the theme of how art’s meaning changes over time by re-imagining the artist Robert Smithson’s proposal for DFW International Airport and the artwork in Amarillo left unfinished by Smithson’s death. The exhibit runs Sat thru Jun 28 at 3200 Darnell St, FW. Tickets are $4-10. Call 817-738-9215.