Geekend Picks: Pride & Prejudice, They Live @ the Colonial Theatre, Naked Girls Reading @ PhilaMOCA

Hello, fellow geeks!

There’s plenty going on all three days of the weekend. The Beautiful Life of the Woman Komachi will be at the Connelly Cinema at Villanova, presented by Villanova University Asian Studies Program and Villanova Theatre. Written by Professor of Theatre Joanna Rotté, it’s a “staged reading of a new play in five acts adapted from five short plays of Traditional Japanese Noh Theatre, depicting transformative events in the astonishing life of, Ono no Komachi, Japan’s best beloved and most admired woman poet, beauty, lover, teacher, and ultimately spiritual adept.” It will be showing on Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm and 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm, and all performances are free. The 2pm Saturday performance will be followed by tea and sweets, and at 4:30, there will be music of the Noh by David Crandall.

You can also see Catch Me If You Can, the Musical at the Academy of Music all three days as well (we even gave some tickets away!). The weekend showings are Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 1pm and 6:30pm. Or you could change up your regular weekend affair by seeing the Pilobolus Dance Theatre at the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Theatre. They’ll be performing Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm. According to NYC Newsday, it’s a “mind-blowing troupe of wildly creative and physically daring dancers who leap, fly, intertwine and break all the rules… Audiences should expect the unexpected!”

Want to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice a little early? Go to the Kennett High School for the Kennett Amateur Theatrical Society’s “Pride & Prejudice: The Panto!“ It’s based on the Austen classic you know and love, spiced up with some “bad jokes, bawdy humor, catchy tunes, and flashy costumes.” Also this: “The wicked Lady Catherine de Bourgh, aided by a sinister servant and a horde of evil kittens, plots to undermine the marriages of the Bennet sisters.” Sound awesome? You can see it for $10 on Friday at 7:30pm, or Saturday at 2pm or 7:30pm.

Friday, January 18

Friday starts off right with Free at Noon at World Cafe Live. Aaron Neville is performing this week. As always, it’s free, and it starts at noon.

Later that night, you can hit up the International House for the Janus Collection: Daisies at 7pm for $9. From the Czech Republic, this “absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be ‘spoiled,’ they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing—food, clothes, men, war—is taken seriously,” and is “widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.”

Or, if you’d rather spend your Friday night with some mindless fun, you can go see They Live at the Colonial Theatre at 10:10, also for $9. One of my favorite John Carpenter movies, They Live stars Roddy Piper as a normal guy who comes upon sunglasses that allow him to see the world as it really is: full of frightening aliens and subliminal messages. Spouting great lines like “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubble gum,” They Live is a movie you should definitely see in the theater – and a great way to spend your Friday night.

If you’d rather spend the night moving and shaking, you could check out Philly’s own G. Love and Special Sauce, who will be performing at the Theatre of Living Arts. The show starts at 8pm and costs $25.

Saturday, January 19

There’s plenty to do on Saturday! There’s a Teacher Workshop: African American History and the Common Core at the National Constitution Center, which starts at 9am and ends at 3pm. The workshop “invites participants to explore African American history through engaging lectures, discussions, and an investigation of primary sources correlated to Common Core State Standards. Teachers will connect with the content and conversations of the past with renowned experts in the field of African American history and teaching.” It costs $25, which includes breakfast and lunch vouchers.

Where the Wild Things Are is playing at the County Theater as part of the Saturday Family Matinee, starting at 10:30 for $4. There are also two family/kid-friendly events happening at two Free Library locations as well. The Crochet and Knitting Club is meeting at the Wynnefield Branch at 1pm – be sure to bring your own materials! There’s also the R.A.D. Book Club at the Torresdale Branch at 1pm, which “features a book appropriate for kids in grades 3 to 7″ and also has a “kiddie corner” for the younger kids. Contact Khadijah Johnson if you want to RSVP.

Looking for something a little different? Redcap’s Corner will be having a Warhammer 40,000 1,750 point tournament. Doors open at 11 and games start at noon and run until 9pm. The entry fee is $10, and they’ll be using 6 edition rules. There’s no painting requirement, and the following is allowed: fortifications, forge world, and conversions (proxies are not allowed). You can RSVP on Facebook. There’s also something neat and interesting at the Lauren Hill Cemetery. Starting at 1pm, they’re having a walking

tour called Edgar Allan Poe: A Birthday Tribute. The tour costs $12, and will depart from the Gatehouse entrance. Saturday the 19th is the 204th anniversary of Poe’s birth, which makes him four years older than Pride and Prejudice!

It’s another day of L.A. Rebellion movies at the International House. The first one, at 2pm, begins with As Above, So Below, and also features the short films I & I: An African Allegory, Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School, and Medea. The second set of films start at 5pm. The feature film is Your Children Come Back to You, and the short films are Fragrance, Shipley Street, and Rich. The final set, at 8pm, will be showing the feature film Black Art, Black Artists, and the short films Bellydancing, Festival of Mask, Four Women, and Define. Full details for all the films can be found on their individual pages, and each event costs $9.

Sunday, January 20

Sunday starts off back at Redcap’s Corner with their Philadelphia Legacy Series for Magic players. Registration is from 11am to 12pm, and it costs $30 to enter. First place is $400 store credit and one round bye for the Philadelphia Legacy Series in April. There are more prizes for the top eight, which you can read about on the event’s Facebook page, where you can also RSVP.

From 9pm-11:30pm, it’s Naked Girls Reading Science Fiction! The girls are completely naked, and they’re reading science fiction. It’s a geek’s dream come true! The show is $15 per person or $25 per couples. You get the host, Miss Rose; returning reader, Hayley Jane; and D20 Burlesque producer and performer, Anja Keister.

Recess: one woman show about 7-yr olds in NYC public school will be at the Rotunda, playing at 3pm and 7pm. Performed by Una Aya Osato, “this award winning one-woman show takes audiences on a field trip into the hearts and minds of 7-year-olds navigating their way through life and public school in NYC. Recess is Una’s impassioned response to her experiences attending, witnessing, and teaching in NYC schools.” Tickets range from $8 to $20.

Average Superstar Films presents A Night of Short Films IV at the Trocdero on Sunday night at 6:30. This 21+ show costs $6, and features a film by our very own Dan Tabor! Check out more details on his second short film Trade. The other films are Battle In Suburbia, Bring Her Back, Flesh Eaters, It’s Brad’s Birthday, Moronocaust, Pound For Pound, St. Blacktrick, Setting Them Straight, The Son She Never Knew, The Visitation, and Wicked Wicked World. Tickets can be purchased at Ticket Fly.

That’s all for the Geekend! And again, remember that Naked Girls Reading will be THIS Sunday at PhilaMOCA. You don’t want to miss your chance
to see these beautiful naked ladies reading science fiction!