What to see, do and hear: “Shirley Chisholm,” “Lear,” “Das Rheingold” and more

MUSIC

The Atlanta Opera takes on perhaps the most ambitious production in its history with the first part of Wagner’s masterwork “Ring” cycle, Das Rheingold. The show opens Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and there are four performances through May 7. The May 5 show will be live-streamed free. ArtsATL writer Mark Thomas Ketterson calls the “Ring” cycle “one of the greatest musical achievements of Western civilization and an ultimate challenge to the few companies who elect to produce it.” Tickets start at $56.

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The Amplify Decatur Music Festival begins Friday night with a free concert at the Decatur Square Bandstand beginning at 6:30 p.m. The main festival begins Saturday at 2 p.m. with headliners St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Patti Griffin and James McMurtry. In addition there are free concerts at various venues around the city, including a tribute to the late Elliott Smith at Waller’s Coffee Shop Sunday at 7 p.m. See the festival website for details. Tickets to the main festival start at $75.

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BOOKS

Authors Rick Riordan and Atlantan Mark Oshiro will talk about their new book, The Sun and the Star, May 4 at the Gas South Convention Center’s Hall A. Riordan is a New York Times bestselling author of Lightning Thief, part of a young adult series. He and Oshiro teamed up to co-write their second book, a fantasy tale that follows two unlikely heroes who must work together to save the world from an evil force. Tickets are $25.

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THEATER 

Vernal & Sere Theatre’s final production of Lear by Young Jean Lee is on stage this weekend at the Windmill Arts Center and promises, according to ArtsATL critic Benjamin Carr, “visually stunning design, some truly absurd laughs, an energetic cast and a devastating theme of family grief.” He adds that the play is “worth seeing for the wild set alone, designed by directors Erin Boswell and Erin O’Connor.” Tickets start at $15.

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Also this weekend, Out of Hand Theater wraps up the in-home, one-woman show, Shirley Chisholm: Unbossed and Unbowed. Written and performed by Ingrid Griffith, the show depicts Chisholm from girlhood to the campaign trail. ArtsATL critic Benjamin Carr spoke to Griffith about performing in private homes and how she “turns Chisholm into more than just a figure from a history book.” Tickets start at $30 with discounts available. Locations vary.

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Act3 Productions of Sandy Springs presents its final performance of August: Osage County this weekend. Written by Tracey Letts and directed by Brian Wittenberg, this Pulitzer-winning play follows a Midwestern family on the brink of destruction and offers plenty of laughs. Tickets start at $24 with discounts available. 6285-R Roswell Road, Sandy Springs.

ART+DESIGN

Now for something completely different: copy paper as art. A new outdoor installation on the Georgia Tech campus is made from thousands of sheets of copy paper, culled from the recycling bins at Georgia Tech Library, creating a fluttering “kinetic screen” suspended between the trees on Cherry Street. As night falls, projections of daytime skies illuminate the paper and are recorded around campus. Inversion is the first artwork created as part of the university’s Media Arts Artist-in-Residency program and is best enjoyed after sunset.

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If Buddhist philosophy interests you, check out Seven Dreams of the Lotus Sutra by Alan Caomin Xie, which opens this weekend at Sandler Hudson Gallery. Originally from Shanghai, China, Xie is an Atlanta-based artist who explores the seven parables of the Lotus Sutra through personal interpretation, iconography such as landscape, and references to ancient Chinese manuscripts. This body of work was created during the pandemic when the artist says he had “ample reason to indulge in depression and daydreaming.” Through June 10. Opening event Saturday 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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Opening at MINT gallery this weekend is Inexhaustible Offering, an Open Call exhibit by Evan Blackwell. According to the artist “this body of work challenges the established idea that abstraction exists outside of the representational realm and vice versa.” Opening reception Saturday 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Through May 27. While you’re at the gallery, check out All Together Whole, a solo exhibit by Ayana Ross, graduate of MINT’s Leap Year residency program. The collection features images that stem from the artist’s family history and narratives often rooted in the American South. Through May 20.

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FILM+TV

On Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. West End Performing Arts Center’s Black Box series will host a screening of Home Again: A Bike Ride to a Bike Race. The film is written by Chris Jarrett and focuses on a group of cyclists discovering community in the era of the pandemic by setting out for Tour de Lunsar, the first stage race for Sierra Leone. Free. 945 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard SW.

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DANCE

It’s that time of year again: the Inman Park Festival will burst the seams of the intown neighborhood this weekend. The dance component takes place at the Trolley Barn at 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Expect a sampling of ballet and modern dance. Free.

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The Kennesaw State University Department of Dance has turned out some terrific dancers over the years. You can see some of the current students in action – as performers and/or choreographers – at the Student Dance Concert on Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Kennesaw State University Dance Theater in Marietta. Tickets start at $15.