Durham
Out of the Blue
Sheafer Theater at Duke UniversityArchipelago Theatre Director Ellen Hemphill tackles big issues in her new original work, Out of the Blue, which “explore(s) the desire and effort it takes to create balance in our lives, those provocations that tip the balance and change life for all eternity, the ways in which we respond to those changes, and the synergy of multiple axial moments in collision.” The plot involves a series of scenes or scenarios that bring the characters to the point of change or transformation, most often as a result of something “out of the blue.” The performances run through Feb. 28 Thursdays through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. For more information, call 684-4444 or visit www.archipelagotheatre.org. Zack Smith
Raleigh
The Proclivities, North Elementary
Tir Na NogPlenty of pop perfection in the pub tonight. With scads of charm and sincerity, Matt Douglas leads Raleigh three-piece The Proclivites through sharp, punchy tunes with as many smarts as hooks, all dressed up with licks courtesy of guitarist Chris Boerner. Chapel Hill quintet North Elementary’s spacey shimmer peeks out from beneath daydream haziness, with noisy squiggles and scraps startling the lush substratum of keyboard washes and guitar jangles. The Love Language frontman Stuart McLamb opens the show, offering a few glimpses of the band’s nearly completed, BJ Burton-produced Merge debut. As always, this 10 p.m. WKNC-sponsored show is free. See www.tnnirishpub.com. Spencer Griffith
Durham
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom
Manbites Dog TheaterTo preemptively answer your question: No, there was not a Neighborhood 1 or 2. Jennifer Haley’s darkly satirical play concerns suburban teenagers addicted to a hyperviolent online video game that, thanks to a GPS component, lets you kill zombies in a replica of your own neighborhood. Naturally, parents soon discover that their kids are out of control. Who says porn is the most dangerous thing on the Internet? Manbites Dog’s take on this Twilight Zone-esque story runs through March 6. Shows are at 8:15 p.m., except Sunday, Feb. 28, which is at 1:15 p.m. Tickets for the Feb. 18 performance are part of a special pay-what-you-can preview. Call 682-3343 or visit www.manbitesdogtheater.org. Zack Smith
Durham
Hayti Heritage Film Festival
Hayti Heritage CenterThe Hayti Heritage Film Festival unspools with a free screening of The Providence Effect. This feature-length documentary tells of a school on the West Side of Chicago that, serving an all-black student body, transformed itself into a demanding institution that sends its students to top colleges. This film begins at 7:15 p.m. If you can’t make the Thursday opening, consider the Friday night (and official “opening night”) screening of Mississippi Damned, at 7 p.m., with a post-film party to transpire 10 p.m. at The Cotton Room at Golden Belt. Mississippi Damned is Tina Mabry’s autobiographical account of her troubled upbringing. What’s interesting from a local standpoint is that the film was produced in North Carolina, with locations in the state’s northeast substituting for Mississippi.
Not to be missed are two Haiti-themed films screening Saturday, Feb. 20: At 11 a.m., there’s The Agronomist, Jonathan Demme’s 2004 doc about the journalist Jean Dominique; at 5:30 p.m., there is a peek at The Other Side of the Water, about rara music and its development among Haitian émigrés in Brooklyn. Both are free and are being shown in a partnership with Duke University’s African and African American Studies Working Group. Visit www.hayti.org. David Fellerath
