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Kaleidoscope


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Published: Jan 26, 2011

[ kaleidoscope ]

sketch comedy

When High Dramma performs, the first row is a raincoat-required "splash zone," and the complimentary 3-D glasses are meant to enhance the moment when Skittles are heaved at your face. High Dramma: Live in 3-D, at Walking Fish Theatre through Sunday (Jan. 27-30, walkingfishtheatre.com), promises laughs, live music and sharp sketches. Says member Jen Jaynes, "We understand why things are going to be funny." If you remember the incident of the fake vomit made from oatmeal, you can probably attest.

—Kala Jamison

jazz

Although she lived in Chicago by the time she joined the AACM a year after its 1965 founding, Amina Claudine Myers brought her Arkansas roots with her. The blues and the Southern church are constant presences in Myers' piano, organ and vocal work, along with elements of her peers' commingling of history-spanning jazz and African music. Already a rare local appearance, this performance (Jan. 28, arsnovaworkshop.com) is unique in seating Myers at St. Mark's Church's 1937 Aeolian-Skinner organ.

—Shaun Brady

country

If "Notes to the Coroner" sounds bleak for a country song, Chely Wright 's memoir, Like Me, makes clear she wasn't kidding. When you're in a place so dark you fantasize about the medical examiner reading your diary, it's time to get some help with your heartbreak. That's easier said than done when you're the Brad Paisley-datin' songwriter best known for "Single White Female," and you can't tell anyone that the guy who smashed your heart's actually a gal. Wright, who lived to tell the tale on her seventh album, Lifted Off the Ground (Vanguard), plays Sellersville Theater Friday (Jan. 28, st94.com).

—M.J. Fine

dance festival

Spotlighting performing artists who create collaboratively, Micro-Fest Philadelphia (Jan. 28-30, ensembletheaters.net) packs a lot into three days. What's on tap: The Elastic Theatre in association with New Paradise Laboratories, Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, Headlong Dance Theater, Justin Jain, Jeremy Gable and Sonni Shine, Lyrical Playground, Fatima Adamu, Vince Johnson/illreality and Leah Stein Dance Co. (pictured) with Toshi Makihara. It's like a mini-Fringe Festival, smack in the middle of winter.

—Deni Kasrel