Friday, May 13

Festival of the Arts (FOTA) 2005, an annual weeklong celebration of the arts across campus, kicks off its festivities today with its launch party and fashion show at the Smart Museum. This event features music by DJ Ruici Tio and refreshments. For a full schedule of the week’s events and installations—and there are a lot of them—go to fota.uchicago.edu/schedule.html. (9 p.m., free, Smart Museum)

Head over to Doc to see 16 original film shorts produced by U of C students in today’s Silent Film Festival, put on by Fire Escape Films. You won’t watch them in silence, though, as there will be live, student-composed music. A discussion with Tom Gunning, James Lastra, Heidi Coleman, Yuri Tsivian, and Ron Gregg follows the viewing. (2 p.m., free, Max Palevsky Cinema)

UT’s Far Away, written by Caryl Churchill and directed by Sarah Nerboso, opened yesterday at the First Floor Theater. It runs through Sunday. (8 p.m., $10, Reynolds Club)

Today marks the second day of “Aliens of Extraordinary Ability: a Symposium on Immigration, Alienation, and Contemporary Art,” put on by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. It focuses on the topic “Alien Communities: Displacement and Isolation,” and features visual artist Maria Paschalidou of Greece and performance scholar Paul Edwards of the U.S. (6:30 p.m., free, Biological Learning Center Room 001)

Med school students rapping? See it for yourself tonight at Wrigleyville’s Goose Island, when U of C rap act Zinc Finger and the Major Groove performs songs from its new album, Chronic Illness. Other med school bands are playing, too, including Northwestern’s Prescription to Rock (Rx to Rock). All proceeds go to the NU-AID medical charity. (8:30 p.m, $5 cover, $3 drinks for 21+, 3535 North Clark Street)

Featured performers and students bare all—their souls, that is—in “Roots and Rhymes: A Night of Poetry and Spoken Word.” (7 p.m., free, Reynolds Club)

Mike Doughty plays at the Black Orchid with Kelly Buchanan. (9 p.m., $20, 230 West North Avenue)

Saturday, May 14

Are you a Sondheim fan? Then go see Naked Theater’s production of Anyone Can Whistle, which began its run yesterday and continues through next Saturday. (8 p.m., free, Burton-Judson)

Rock hard at the Hyde Park Rock Fest, featuring many local musicians, or head over to BARS two hours earlier to hear acoustic performances. (2 p.m., free, Bartlett Quad)

Spend a day with filmmaker Barb Cranmer. First there’s a screening of Cranmer’s films Laxwesa Wa (Strength of the River) and Gwishalaayt (The Spirit Wraps Around You), followed by a panel discussion with Cranmer and several other guests. Dinner rounds off the day’s events. (1 to 5:30 p.m., free, 3rd floor of Cobb)

And if you’re already hanging out in the Reynolds Club courtyard between the hours of 1 and 3, consider participating in Project Photoshoot. A team of research assistants and photographers are taking pictures for a U of C hospital website called “Project Catch-It,” which provides resources on teen issues like depression and relationships. (1 p.m., free, Reynolds Club courtyard)

Le Vorris & Vox Circus, in conjunction with FOTA, presents “Chimaera,” a staging of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. The Circus’s rendition of an unlikely love between the God of Love—and the beautiful woman his mother orders him to kill—features cyclists, stilt-walkers, trapeze swingers, poi spinners, actors, singers, dancers, and a live band. (9:15 p.m., free, Classics Quad)

Sunday, May 15

If you liked Fiddler on the Roof, consider going to the Chicago Temple to check out Ten Acrobats In An Amazing Leap of Faith. It’s been advertised as a Muslim Fiddler—without the music, that is. Playwright Yussef El Guindi holds a Q&A session following the staged reading. (12:30 p.m., free, 77 West Washington Street)

Come out to Harper Quad for some anachronistic fun: chariot races! It’s kind of like a toga party, minus the drinking and debauchery, and there will be free doughnuts. Ooh. (2 p.m., free, Main Quad)

The Smart Museum features a public tour, Antiquity in the Reproductive Print, for its paper museums exhibit. (1:30 p.m., free, Smart Museum)

Motet Choir and Rockefeller Chapel Choir put on The Sacred Spirit of the Night In Song and Verse, a concert featuring readings and music, at Rockefeller. (8 p.m., free, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel)

Monday, May 16

Rilo Kiley and Neva Dinova play at the Metro. (7 p.m., $16, 3730 North Clark Street) It’s Industry Night at the Red Orchid Theater. You pay what you can (i.e. nothing!) for its current play, 4 Murders, which runs until June 5. Call (312) 943-8722 for reservations. (8 p.m., free, 1531 North Wells Street)

Tuesday, May 17

University Theater, together with FOTA, presents a week of workshop performances in the Francis X. Kinahan Third Floor Theater, starting tonight with Stymied, created by the Ensemble. Tomorrow and Thursday you have the chance to see Thirty-Two Hours, a theater and performance studies B.A. project, and Durang Durang, a collection of Christopher Durang plays directed by Raf Kuh. The week finishes off on Friday with Psychle, a rock musical extravaganza show. (8 p.m. each day, free, Reynolds Club third floor)

Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, and Lisa Kaplan present Contempo. (7:30 p.m., free, Mandel Hall)

Adam and the GoComets play at Schubas with Absent Star and Carbonfour. (8 p.m., $7, 3159 North Southport Street)

Wednesday, May 18

Find out at last why Anakin turned to evil—and the answers to all your other burning questions—in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, opening tonight at midnight in theaters nationwide. The word is that it’s an improvement over the last two Star Wars prequels; here’s hoping.

Catch Peter Murphy at the Metro as he performs songs from his eighth solo album, Unshattered. Sarah Fimm opens. (8 p.m., $25 in advance, $27.50 day of show, 3730 North Clark Street)

FOTA presents an a cappella showcase featuring Voices in Your Head, Men in Drag, Unaccompanied Women, Ransom Notes, and Soul Umoja. (7 p.m., free, Hutch Courtyard)

Thursday, May 19

Give blood and get a cute free T-shirt saying, “Are you my type?” as well as snacks and drinks, at the Red Cross Club’s quarterly blood drive. You can watch Family Guy while you wait for your turn to donate a pint. (10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Ida Noyes)

The Renaissance Society, in conjunction with FOTA, presents MAVerick Ensemble. (8 p.m., free, Cobb Hall)

Spend an evening at the Field Museum at the 21+ event “Play the Field!,” featuring Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket. Listen to music and drink cocktails in celebration of Sue the T-Rex’s fifth birthday. (6 p.m., $15, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive)

The Do The Bambi tour, featuring the French-German garage/rockability duo Stereo Total, along with Hawnay Troof and Les Georges Leningrad, comes to the Abbey Pub tonight. Apparently, “Do the Bambi” means something like—and I quote from abbeypub.com—”Show the beautiful eyes beneath your long lashes and rescue me from the inferno of my ego in this sad and mean world!” … Yeah. (9 p.m., $12 in advance, $14 at the door, 3420 West Grace Street)