March Highlights

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
The Vermeer Quartet
8 p.m. Wednesday, March 23
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. 702-7059. http://rockefeller.uchicago.edu.
$10 general, free for youth 17 and under. Tickets are available only at the door.

The internationally renowned Vermeer String Quartet will perform Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, paired with original meditations by eight distinguished speakers. Composed in 1786, The Seven Last Words of Christ was first presented on Good Friday in 1787 in Cadiz, Spain. The work’s seven main sections, each based on one of Jesus’ final phrases, were prefaced by brief, spoken homilies by the Bishop of Cadiz. In keeping with that tradition, several speakers will present homilies between musical movements, including Martin Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School; Jean Bethke Elshtain, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School; Demetri Kantzavelos, chancellor of the Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox church; Rev. Yvonne Hawkins, associate minister at Friendship Baptist Church, and more.

The Law School
Panel: “Social Security and Its Reform”
4 p.m. Tuesday, March 29
The Law School, Weymouth Kirkland Courtroom, 1111 E. 60th St. Free.

At this panel, five Law School faculty members will discuss Social Security reform. The panel will include Richard Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School; Saul Levmore, Dean and the William B. Graham Professor in the Law School; Richard Posner, Senior Lecturer in the Law School; Cass Sunstein, the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School; and David Weisbach, the Walter J. Blum Professor and Director of the Program in Law & Economics in the Law School.

Court Theatre
Travesties
5535 S. Ellis Ave. 753-4472. http://courttheatre.uchicago.edu. $26-50. Student and senior discounts are available.
Thursday, March 24 through Sunday, April 24

Court Theatre continues its 50th Anniversary season with a revival of Court’s 1995 production of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties. With a plot that stems from the faulty memory of Henry Carr, a minor official of the British consul, Travesties is the witty and brilliant collision of Lenin, James Joyce and the Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara in 1917 Zurich. This historical jaunt is replete with limericks, puns, word play, contradiction and paradoxes. Artistic Director Charles Newell will direct, and Lance Stuart Baker, Sean Allan Krill, Heidi Kettenring, Cristen Paige, Mary Beth Fisher, Tim Donaghue, Matthew Krause and Jay Whittaker will return to Court to perform in this production.

International House
40th Annual Eastern European Spring Festival of Folk Music and Dance
8 p.m. Friday, March 18
9 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturday, March 19
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, March 20
International House, Assembly Hall, 1414 E. 59th St. 753-2274. For ticket information call 324-1247. http://ihouse.uchicago.edu. Prices vary for each event.

Each spring, International House celebrates Eastern European culture with the Annual Eastern European Spring Festival of Folk Music and Dance. The festival will feature music, dance, food and cultural programs representing Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria and other cultures of the region throughout the weekend. Year after year, the event draws professional artists and teachers from Chicago and across North America to campus for this cultural celebration. Friday’s program will begin with a dance workshop and party featuring the music of Jim Stoyanoff & Orpheus, as well as performances by the Hellenic Ensemble, Petar Vodenov and Georgi Petrov. Saturday and Sunday will feature dance and music workshops from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, a dinner of Balkan delicacies will be served, followed by a 7 p.m. concert line-up. Reservations are required for the dinner.