EVENT CATEGORIES

ART 

Through Dec. 2

Expressions: Photographs by Natalia Terry

Natalia Terry freezes fleeting moments — fading sunsets, unrepeatable trips, things “dancing” in the wind — to reveal the essence of people and places in a beautiful game that transforms movement, landscapes, smiles and acrobatics into timeless images (part of FotoWeekDC).

Embassy of Argentina

Through Dec. 11

Gender Equality: We’ve come a long way – haven’t we?

Sweden’s achievements in gender equality are hailed as inspiring examples. Focusing on four sub-goals of gender equality set up by the Swedish government — equal division of power and influence; economic equality; equal distribution of unpaid housework and provision of care; and men’s violence against women — this exhibition aims to inspire and reflect as well as discuss the changes that have been made and to initiate the changes still needed.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 11

Spirit of the Wild: Through the Eyes of Mattias Klum

All life on earth is interconnected. Cities, societies and nations depend on healthy natural ecosystems to survive and prosper. Mattias Klum, one of the most important natural history photographer of our time, shares the stories of his journeys; from deep in the Artic to wild places like the Borneo rainforest, to the savannahs of Tanzania and the life under the sea.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 11

Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Unfolded

The freedom to express oneself in speech and writing is one of the basic human rights according to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Act was passed almost 200 years earlier, in 1766. This unique timeline exhibition reveals how Sweden’s freedom of the press came about and focuses on some of the advances and setbacks that have shaped it.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 11

Viktigt by Ingegerd Raman

With love of craftsmanship and simplicity at the heart of it all, Viktigt pieces do their job in silence. Ingegerd Råman, the House of Sweden’s own designer, explores the craftsmanship behind her IKEA collection of glass, ceramic, bamboo and natural fibers.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 11

Wingårdhs

The House of Sweden turns 10 years this fall. The architects behind the beautiful building tell us what motivated the design of this stunning example of contemporary Scandinavian architecture.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 11

Woodland Sweden

Nature is prevalent everywhere in Sweden and there is a long tradition of using nature’s raw materials in the country’s built environment. Wooden architecture and design, in fact, are becoming a new Swedish export item. This exhibition shows the rapid development of Swedish innovative contemporary architecture and examines different aspects of construction work with wood.

House of Sweden

Through Dec. 16

A Myriad of Voices

SPAIN arts & culture presents “A Myriad of Voices,” showcasing a small sample of the work done by former winners of the prestigious Revelation Award by PHotoEspaña, Madrid’s international photography and visual arts festival. The body of work presented in this exhibition reflects the incredible richness, diversity and creativity in modern photography as part of FotoWeekDC 2016.

Former Residence of the Spanish Ambassador

Through Dec. 18

Alex Katz: Black and White

This exhibit showcases renowned American realist artist Alex Katz’s lifelong interest in stripping color out of his prints and replacing sensual pleasure with intellectual design. Design versus color is an artistic debate that goes back to the Renaissance.

American University Museum

Through Dec. 18

Challenging Adversity – IberoAmerica Copes with Climate Change

This exhibition examines how populations of Ibero-American countries have managed to face the vicissitudes caused by climate change through small ventures with varying degrees of technological influence. The resulting images not only focus on the aesthetic aspects of photography itself, but also aim to show how imagination, hope and sustainable projects have emerged as a means of survival.

Hillyer Art Space

Through Dec. 18

The High Stakes of Macedonia’s ‘Colorful Revolution’

Several years ago, the Macedonian government embarked on a highly controversial and hugely expensive “urban renewal” of the capital city, Skopje. Most of this renewal consisted of large monuments of “historic figures” and new, quasi-classical facades over old buildings. This year, these monuments and buildings came under attack by various groups of citizens of this multi-ethnic country who rose together in street protests. This exhibition of photographs tells the story of the “Colorful Revolution” through the work of photographers Robert Atanasovski, Kire Galevski and Vancho Dzambaski.

American University Museum

Through Dec. 18

Martha Wilson & Franklin Furnace

“Martha Wilson & Franklin Furnace” highlights Wilson’s four decades creating innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformations and invasions of other people’s personae.

American University Museum

Through Dec. 18

Melissa Ichiuji: Make You Love Me

The doll reminds us of the first objects that comforted us in childhood. For Melissa Ichiuji, it helped to renew the creative energies within the family space. The doll, with its suggestive and “rudimentary” shape, gives free rein to everyone’s imagination.

American University Museum

Through Dec. 31

Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945

The style that came to be known as art deco, which flourished from the 1920s to 1940s, was a vivid reflection of the modern era and the vitality of the machine age. Between the wars, as normalcy returned to politics, jazz music blossomed and the flapper redefined the modern woman, art deco left its mark on every form of visual art. This exhibit explores how the Japanese interpreted the style and transformed it through their own rich art and craft traditions.

Hillwood Museum, Estate and Gardens

Through January 2017

Resilience: Reclaiming History and the Dominican Diaspora

Resilience is defined as the human ability to cope with difficult times and bounce back from personal trauma. The Inter-American Development Bank, with support from the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Embassy of the Dominican Republic, examine how artists create a space for society’s healing and growth. Today, the Dominican Republic is one of the most dynamic economies in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the advances in reducing poverty and inequality have not kept pace with GDP growth. Looking toward the future, the country needs to improve the quality of education, health care infrastructure and services, diversify exports and boost productivity, while also adapting to climate change and promoting innovation.

IDB Cultural Center

Through Jan. 2

Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt

Dutch landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life possess a remarkable immediacy and authenticity, giving the impression that Dutch artists painted them from life. However, artists actually executed these works — as well as biblical and mythological subjects—in studios, often using drawings as points of departure. Over 90 drawings and 25 paintings by renowned Golden Age masters reveals the many ways Dutch artists used preliminary drawings in the painting process.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 2

Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art

Nearly 700 photographs from Eadweard Muybridge’s groundbreaking publication “Animal Locomotion,” acquired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1887, became the foundation for the institution’s early interest in photography. The Key Set of more than 1,600 works by Alfred Stieglitz, donated by Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Estate, launched the photography collection at the National Gallery of Art in 1949. Inspired by these two seminal artists, Muybridge and Stieglitz, the exhibition brings together highlights of the recently merged collections of the Corcoran and the National Gallery of Art by a range of artists from the 1840s to today.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 2

Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings

“Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings” encompasses landscapes, seascapes, portraits, still lifes and history subjects that demonstrate the originality of Dutch and Flemish draftsmanship and its stylistic evolution.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 2

Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa

This exhibition features six internationally recognized African artists and examines how time is experienced and produced by the body. Bodies stand, climb, dance and dissolve in seven works of video and film art by Sammy Baloji, Theo Eshetu, Moataz Nasr, Berni Searle, Yinka Shonibare and Sue Williamson, all of whom repeat, resist and reverse the expectation that time must move relentlessly forward.

National Museum of African Art

Through Jan. 5

North Is Freedom

This photographic essay celebrates the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery in the United States by fleeing to Canada. In the years before the American Civil War, approximately 30,000 fugitive slaves followed the “North Star” to freedom, using a network of clandestine routes that became known as the “Underground Railroad.” Some 150 years later, Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc explores the northern end of the “Underground Railroad” and presents a series of 24 portraits of descendants. This exhibit honors the contributions of once-enslaved African Americans and their descendants to Canada and celebrates the opening of the newest Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Embassy of Canada Art Gallery

Through Jan. 7

The Overflow of Productivity Logic

“The Overflow of Productivity Logic,” with works by artists Cristina Lucas, Irving Penn, Abraham Cruzvillegas and more, features a selection of pieces that, through gestures, evocations or representations, displace the conceptual pillars of the prevailing economic model. Through three thematic axes, the exhibit calls into question production processes and economic exchange, reflects on the role that the economy plays in the constitution of an individual and challenges the logic of “productivity” within the capitalistic economic model.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Through Jan. 8

NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection

Born in 16 countries across five continents, 37 contemporary artists use their aesthetically diverse work to address varied political and intellectual themes. This exhibition centers on the process of making as well as on images of the female body — both topics that extend from the feminist art movement of the 1970s.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through Jan. 8

People on the Move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

The Phillips Collection reunites all 60 panels of “The Migration Series,” Jacob Lawrence’s seminal masterwork depicting the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between the World Wars. Shaped by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this exhibition explores the historical, literary, socio-cultural, aesthetic and contemporary manifestations of migration that underlie Lawrence’s powerful visual narrative. The presentation is complemented by a new interactive website, featuring the artist’s first-hand accounts as well as contemporary responses to migration.

The Phillips Collection

Through Jan. 8

Ragnar Kjartansson

“Ragnar Kjartansson” is the first major survey of the work of the internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist and his prodigious output since his debut in Reykjavík in 2000. It features the artist’s most celebrated works, including many never before seen in the U.S., and encompasses the entirety of his practice — live endurance performance, large-scale video installations, drawings, photography and painting.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through Jan. 8

Whitfield Lovell: The Kin Series & Related Works

The work of internationally recognized Bronx-born artist Whitfield Lovell powerfully examines “the markings that the past has made — and continues to make—on who we are.” In his exquisitely crafted Kin series and related tableaux, Lovell combines freely drawn Conté crayon figures of anonymous African Americans with time worn objects from everyday life, such as a brooch, clock or flag.

The Phillips Collection

Through Jan. 13

Light from the Other Side: Shadowgraphs by Tim Otto Roth

Shadows underscore the beauty of nature and escape the captivity of their surfaces in the shadowgraphs created by German conceptual artist Tim Otto Roth. Usually referred to as photograms, these highly differentiated shadow records on light-sensitive surfaces are created in a process similar to an X-ray, with Roth dedicating 15 years of research and development into this medium.

Goethe-Institut

Through Jan. 27

Sertão Cerrado by José Diniz

Sertão refers to backland region located inside Brazil, far from the coast, while Cerrado occupies much of the interior. In addition to providing water that feeds aquifers and basins to major cities, the region is home to a cycle of fire and water, after periods of drought and fire, that gives birth to lush flowers rising from the ashes — an elemental process of earth, water, fire and air documented by Brazilian photographer José Diniz.

Art Museum of the Americas

Through Jan. 28

DeLIMITations

This exhibit chronicles a 2,400 mile-long, site-specific installation that traces the border between Mexico and the United States as it existed in 1821. In marking the short-lived historic boundary with a series of monuments that mimic those installed along the contemporary border, artists Marchos Ramírez Erre and David Taylor question the permanence of borders while recognizing the shared history and common interests between the two neighboring countries.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Through Jan. 29

Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971

The remarkable career of gallerist and patron Virginia Dwan will be featured front and center for the first time in an exhibition of some 100 works, featuring highlights from Dwan’s promised gift of her extraordinary personal collection to the National Gallery of Art.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 29

Turquoise Mountain: Artists Transforming Afghanistan

Decades of civil unrest nearly destroyed Afghanistan’s vital artistic heritage. Over the past decade, Turquoise Mountain, an organization founded in 2006 at the request of the prince of Wales and the president of Afghanistan, has transformed the Murad Khani district of Old Kabul from slum conditions into a vibrant cultural and economic center.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Jan. 30

Bingata! Only in Okinawa

The first major American exhibition of Okinawa’s textile treasures — brightly colored fabrics known as bingata — introduces U.S. audiences to the history and culture of Japan’s southernmost administrative district through dozens of bingata textiles, ranging from 18th- and 19th-century court robes to contemporary works by Okinawan artists and fashion designers.

The George Washington University Museum / Textile Museum

Through Feb. 7

No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting

“No Boundaries” showcases the work of nine Aboriginal artists from remote northwest Australia, revered as community leaders and the custodians of ceremonial knowledge. They took up painting late in their lives, but quickly established themselves at the forefront of Australian contemporary art. The paintings of these nine men cannot be understood outside of the rich cultural traditions that inform them. At the same time, these artists are innovators of the highest order.

Embassy of Australia Art Gallery

Through Feb. 12

Notes from the Desert: Photographs by Gauri Gill

Since the late 1990s, Gauri Gill (born 1970) has been photographing marginalized communities in western Rajasthan, India. Featuring 57 of her prints, this exhibition showcases Gill’s work in the remote desert region and draws on her extensive archive.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Feb. 20

The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts

In recognition of one of the world’s extraordinary collections of Qur’ans, the Freer|Sackler is hosting a landmark exhibition, the first of its kind in the United States, featuring some 50 of the most sumptuous manuscripts from Herat to Istanbul. Celebrated for their superb calligraphy and lavish illumination, these manuscripts — which range in date from the early 8th to the 17th century — are critical to the history of the arts of the book. They were once the prized possessions of Ottoman sultans and the ruling elite, who donated their Qur’ans to various institutions to express their personal piety and secure political power.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Through Feb. 26

Evolving Elections; Comparing the 1916 and 2016 Presidential Campaigns

“Evolving Elections” attempts to make sense of presidential politics then and now, exploring the political campaign season of 100 years ago vs. the current election. The modern day complaints about primary fights, the importance of party unity, a bitterly divided party, the grueling length of campaigns and outsiders seeking nomination would have been familiar to the voter during the contentious election of 1916. More contentious than 2016? You decide.

Woodrow Wilson House

Through March 5

Photography Reinvented: The Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker

The collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker brings together works of critically important artists who have changed the course of photography through their experimentation and conceptual scope. Especially rich in holdings of work by photographers of the famed Düsseldorf School, among them Struth, Candida Höfer, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff, the collection also includes examples by photographers exploring the nature of the medium itself, such as Demand, Cindy Sherman and Vik Muniz.

National Gallery of Art

Through March 5

Stuart Davis: In Full Swing

As one of the most important American modernists, Stuart Davis (1892–1964) blurred distinctions between text and image, high and low art, and abstraction and figuration, crafting a distinct style that continues to influence art being made today.

National Gallery of Art

Through March 26

The Great Swindle: Works by Santiago Montoya

Colombian artist Santiago Montoya uses paper currency as the base for his work, re-contextualizing one of our most basic and intimate relationships: the relationship with money. Comprised of works that Montoya has made over the last 10 years, “The Great Swindle” represents a sustained examination of the complicated, fluid relationships we have with financial systems, as well as a journey through the artist’s forays into the materiality of paper bills — raising questions and taking positions on our place within the financial system.

OAS Art Museum of the Americas

Through Aug. 6, 2017

José Gómez-Sicre’s Eye

A half-century ago, Cuban-born curator José Gómez-Sicre took the reins of the OAS’s art program, thrusting himself into the rapidly expanding Latin American art world and bringing young, emerging talent to the OAS’s budding exhibition space. Impassioned by the arts, Gómez-Sicre planted the seeds of what is today considered among world’s finest collections of modern and contemporary Latin American and Caribbean art. The OAS will be celebrating the centennial of Gómez-Sicre’s birth throughout 2016, honoring his contribution to the legacy of the hemisphere’s art.

OAS Art Museum of the Americas

DANCE

Dec. 1 to 24

The Nutcracker

This perennial favorite returns as the Washington Ballet’s celebrated production brings to life the classic tale with a twist, transplanting it to historic Georgetown with George Washington and King George III among other historical figures, all set to the iconic score by Tchaikovsky. Special events include a behind-the-scenes family day (Dec. 4), military appreciation night (Dec. 6) and post-performance tea party (Dec. 11). Please call for ticket information.

Warner Theatre

Tue., Dec. 13 and 20, 6:30 p.m.

Tango Lessons

The Embassy of Argentina invites you to an immersion in the world of tango dance in four lessons for beginners taught by Argentine instructor Jorge Pereyra. Admission is free; register before Dec. 9 at eventos@embassyofargentina.us.

Embassy of Argentina

FESTIVALS

Sat., Dec. 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Christmas Market

The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA invites guests to its first annual Christmas Market featuring music by the Alpine Singers along with vendors selling a variety of Christmas favorites and other unique crafts, delectable treats and drinks. Tickets are $20; for information, visit gahmuse.org.

German-American Heritage Museum

Dec. 6 to 8

Borges, Eternal Fictions from Argentina

The Argentine Embassy brings together artists and intellectuals to pay tribute to a great 20th century author Jorge Luis Borges. Events include a film screening of “The Books and the Night,” followed by an expert discussion and wine reception (Dec. 6); a conversation with María Kodama (Dec. 7 at the Library of Congress); and performances by Argentine actress Muriel Santa Ana and Hugo Medrano of GALA Hispanic Theatre following by tango music and dancing (Dec. 8). For more information or to RSVP, email events@embassyofargentina.us.

Embassy of Argentina

MUSIC

Thu., Dec. 1, 6:30 p.m.

Itamar Zorman, Violin

Amy Lang, Piano

Violinist Itamar Zorman, joint winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, is joined by pianist Amy Lang for a program of Ben-Haim, Granados, Schubert and Ravel, co-sponsored by the Israeli Embassy. Tickets are $75, including wine reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Venue TBA

Tue., Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.

Christian Gerhaher, Baritone

Gerold Huber, Piano

Vocal Arts DC is delighted to welcome back to D.C. the formidable team of baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber, whose long and close cooperation, be it in music of the classical or romantic periods or in contemporary music, has enabled them to achieve a superlative level of interaction, giving their music penetrating interpretations and meaning. Tickets are $50.

University of the District of Columbia

Theatre of the Arts

Thu., Dec. 8, 7 p.m.

Virgil Boutellis-Taft, Violin

Angela Draghicescu, Piano

Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft’s concerts as a soloist and chamber musician have led him through Europe and the United States, while pianist Angela Draghicescu, a native of Romania, has toured globally as a duo and chamber music pianist in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Mahidon Auditorium in Thailand. Tickets are $95, including buffet reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Romania

Dec. 10 to 18

The Christmas Revels

The Washington Revels’s flagship production is an annual festive celebration of the winter solstice and the wonders of Nordic winter traditions, with haunting melodies, breathtaking dance, epic folk legends and joyful carols get you into the holiday spirit. Please call for ticket information.

GW Lisner Auditorium

Dec. 15 to 18

National Symphony Orchestra: Handel’s ‘Messiah’

Get in the holiday spirit with Handel’s epic masterpiece, performed each year with a fresh perspective by the National Symphony Orchestra. This year, Laurence Cummings conducts four gifted singers and the University of Maryland Concert Choir in this NSO tradition. Tickets are $15 to $89.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Dec. 11, 17, 20, 21 and 22

The Washington Chorus: Candlelight Christmas

Each year, the Washington Chorus delights D.C. audiences with its Candlelight Christmas concerts — resplendent affairs comprising a candlelight processional, brass, organ and audience sing-alongs. This year’s concerts will feature star tenor and D.C. native Carl Tanner as soloist, along with guest conductor Andrew Clark, director of choral activities at Harvard University, and the Northwest High School Chamber Singers and the H-B Woodlawn Chamber Singers as part of the Side-by-Side program, a 24-year-old program that supports music programs in area high schools. Tickets are $18 to $72.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Music Center at Strathmore (Dec. 19)

Sun., Dec. 18, 4 p.m.

Vienna Boys Choir: Christmas in Vienna

Celebrate the holidays with these extraordinarily talented young Austrian choristers in concert as they perform sacred hymns, holiday pop favorites and Christmas carols. Tickets are $33 to $55.

George Mason University Center for the Arts

THEATER

Through Dec. 3

A View from the Bridge

Internationally renowned Belgian director Ivo van Hove presents a limited engagement of Arthur Miller’s masterwork, winner of two 2016 Tony Awards including Best Director and Best Revival of a Play. Join tragic protagonist Eddie Carbone in this dark and passionate tale of family, love and duplicity. Tickets are $45 to $149.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Dec. 6 to Jan. 8

Into the Woods

Venture into the woods with the acclaimed Fiasco Theater’s production that became New York’s surprise hit of the season. This witty and wildly theatrical re-invention of Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical classic is staged like you’ve never seen it before. Tickets are $45 to $175.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Dec. 7 to 18

Goyescas by Enrique Granados

This year marks the centennial of the 1916 war-time world premiere of Enrique Granados’s opera “Goyescas” in New York. To mark the occasion, the In Series presents a new framing of this renowned Spanish classic — inspired by the dramatic paintings of Francisco de Goya and infused with Spanish dance — which explores the tensions of romantic betrayal, the omnipresent class system and the reflections of a composer torn between New York and his beloved Spain back in war-torn Europe. Tickets are $46; in Spanish in surtitles.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

Dec. 7 to Jan. 8

Sleeping Beauty

Synetic’s award-winning ensemble takes on the classic tale of a princess, an evil sorceress and a centuries-long sleeping curse in this darkly elegant, wordless adaptation of one of the Grimm Brothers’ most beloved stories. Tickets start at $35.

Synetic Theater

Dec. 9 to 31

The Second City’s ‘Twist Your Dickens’

The Second City parodies Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” for an interactive experience that Scrooge will never forget as the legendary comedy troupe brings its improvisational skills and sketch comedy mastery to “the night before Christmas.” Tickets are $39 to $79.

Kennedy Center Theater Lab

Dec. 14 to Jan. 8

Wicked

Back by popular demand: From its first electrifying note to the final breathtaking moment, “Wicked” — the untold true story of the Witches of Oz — transfixes audiences with its wildly inventive story that USA Today cheers is “a complete triumph!” Tickets are $99 to $359.

Kennedy Center Opera House

Through Dec. 21

The Second Shepherds’ Play

This magical retelling of the Nativity story combines beautiful music and a moving story for the holiday season, featuring the Folger Consort, the award-winning early music ensemble in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, performing festive medieval English tunes against the backdrop of this engaging mystery play. Tickets are $40 to $60.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Through Dec. 24

Carousel

Named the best musical of the 20th century by Time magazine, “Carousel” follows Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan through their journey of love, loss and redemption and soars with unforgettable songs including “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Tickets are $50 to $99.

Arena Stage

Through Dec. 24

Moby Dick

Set sail on an epic adventure this holiday season with a dramatically reimagined production of “Moby Dick,” which uses bold trapeze and acrobatic work to bring to life Captain Ahab’s harrowing quest for the legendary great while whale. Tickets are $40 to $90.

Arena Stage

Through Dec. 31

A Christmas Carol

Join the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as they lead Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey of transformation and redemption in this production that captures the magic and joy of Charles Dickens’s Yuletide classic with abundant caroling, spooky stage tricks and cheerful dancing for the holiday season. Please call for ticket information.

Ford’s Theatre

Through Dec. 31

The Secret Garden

When 10-year-old Mary Lennox loses her parents to a cholera epidemic in the British Raj of India, she travels to England to stay with her remote and morose uncle, still grieving the death of his wife 10 years ago. Terrified of every nook and cranny of the haunted Craven Manor on the Yorkshire Moors, Mary seeks refuge in her late aunt’s mysterious walled garden, where she discovers amazing secrets. Please call for ticket information.

Shakespeare Theatre Company

Harman Hall

Through Jan. 1

The Second City’s Black Side of the Moon

The Second City renews its long-running, hugely-successful partnership with Woolly Mammoth by shining the light of satire on a nation eclipsed by its own divisiveness. In “Black Side of the Moon,” a cast of Chicago’s funniest and most audacious African American sketch and stand-up artists deconstructs and reconstructs blackness through comedy, illuminating the challenges of the past and promises of the future. Tickets start at $20.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company