APRIL-MAY Highlights

Earth Week activities

Through Saturday, April 27

The Astronomy Club will host a star-gazing evening from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, on the roof of Ryerson Laboratory, 1100 E. 58th St. Hear about the campaign to reduce campus lighting pointed skyward. Also that evening, the Environmental Concerns Organization will host “Save the Ales!” beginning at 9 p.m. at the Pub, on the lower level of Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. Enjoy organic beer and learn how global warming threatens hops production. The Environmental Concerns Organization also will host a free vegetarian dinner and cooking demonstration, courtesy of the restaurant Soul Vegetarian, at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27, in Ida Noyes library. All week, get free coffee at the Divinity School, Cobb and Uncle Joe’s when you bring your own mug.

Janos Starker

University of Chicago Presents

Janos Starker, cello, and Shigeo Neriki, piano

8 p.m. Friday, May 3

Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. 702-8068. $29 general, $11 students.

The University of Chicago Presents will close the 2001-2002 Chamber Music Series with a rare recital appearance by cellist Janos Starker, considered by many to be one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Starker will perform cello sonatas by Strauss, Beethoven and Brahms with pianist Shigeo Neriki.

Kate Fry stars as Eliza Doolittle.

Court Theatre

My Fair Lady

Through Sunday, May 26

Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green St. (312) 327-2000. Previews: $35-40. Regular performances: $45-55.

In order to share its upcoming production of My Fair Lady with an expanded audience, Court Theatre is presenting its intimate, re-imagined staging of Lerner and Loewe’s beloved musical on the main stage of the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, a new performance space located in Chicago’s River West neighborhood. Court’s production features a rare, two-piano rendition of this musical, starring Kate Fry as Eliza Doolittle and John Reeger as Colonel Pickering.

Ken Burns

The Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellows Program

Film screening and Q&A with Ken Burns

3 p.m. Friday, April 26

Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. Free. 702-8925.

Following a screening of selections of his work, documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Florentine Films Ken Burns will participate in a Q&A session, which will be moderated by James Lastra, Chairman of the Committee of Cinema and Media Studies. For more than 20 years Burns has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including the 1981 Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge, The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994).