Time to plan the week. Here’s some of what we recommend:
Through 5/18: The MFA Show at Sullivan Galleries (33 S. State, seventh floor) features work by graduating SAIC MFA students, including stand-out pieces by Robert Burnier and Orkideh Torabi.
5/2-5/8: It’s no secret that this city is home to some of the world’s most talented improv actors. The Chicago Improv Fest celebrates them with a weeklong series of events all over the city, ranging from musical comedy to longform, as well as dramatic and experimental performances.
Tue 5/3: This edition of the lecture series Wine and Wildlife at the Lincoln Park Zoo (2200 N. Cannon) features Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, discussing his book The Humane Economy: How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers Are Transforming the Lives of Animals. 6 PM
Tue 5/3: Tuesday Funk, the monthly reading series at Hopleaf (5248 N. Clark), features eclectic works by local writers. This month’s lineup includes Elizabeth Gomez, J. Preston Witt, Martha Bayne, Kimberly Dixon-Mays, and Sara Ross Witt. 7 PM
Tue 5/3-Wed 5/4: The sixth annual One-Minute Play Festival at the Den Theatre (1329-1333 N. Milwaukee) features a marathon of 60-second works by women and women-identified playwrights and directors. 7:30 PM
5/4-11/4: The Art Institute of Chicago (111 S. Michigan) presents “Foot Soldiers of Fashion,” an exhibit inspired by the Landsknechte, 16th-century German mercenaries famous for their elaborate attire as much as their formidable pikes and halberds.
Thu 5/5: Organic Bridgeport restaurant Nana (3267 S. Halsted) celebrates Cinco de Mayo with a four-course dinner including a kingfish ceviche, chicken roulade, and cochinita pibil. Specialty cocktails included. Reservations required. 7 PM
Thu 5/5: Local indie-rock duo Earring play the Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia) tonight. The Reader‘s Kevin Warwick writes, “Their debut full-length, Tunn Star (Fire Talk), is at its most hypnotic when Balla orchestrates crescendoing deep dives with his shoegaze-tinted guitar lines, and during the slogging repetition of a track like ‘Silt Fence,’ the pair together create a dim landscape that feels at once hopeful and bleak.” 9 PM
For more stuff to do this week—and every day—check out our Agenda page.