June-July Highlights

	Joe Foust (left) and Allen Gilmore in Court Theatre’s production of Endgame.

Court Theatre
Endgame
Through Sunday, June 26
5535 S. Ellis Ave. 753-4472. http://courttheatre.uchicago.edu. $26-50. Student and senior discounts available.

Court Theatre will complete its 50th Anniversary Season with Samuel Beckett’s modernist classic Endgame. Beckett’s finest and wittiest parable of human fate in a collapsing world, brought to life by celebrated director Christopher Bayes, tells the tale of the blind, bullying Hamm and his shambling servant Clov. The two are trapped in a strange room where Hamm’s elderly parents, Nagg and Nell, are kept in ashbins. Written in 1957 during the Cold War, Endgame explores the lives of the four characters living out what could prove to be their last few days in a bunker-like environment. While at times tragic and frightening, Bayes’ production envisions a world that offers glimpses of happiness and beauty amidst Beckett’s ironic humor and clownlike characters.

	Michael Dinges, PVC Drum, Engraved Plastic Bucket, Acrylic Paint, 2005.

Committee on the Visual Arts
2005 Chicago Masters in Fine Arts Program Exhibition: “Research and Development”
Thursday, June 9 through Saturday, June 25
Exhibition hours: Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, 1060 E. 47th St. 285-1211. http://www.blackpearl.org/about/. Free.

This show of new work by graduating Masters in Fine Arts students at the University will feature new work by Kate Baird, Michael Dinges, Ben King, Caroline Mak, Merry-Beth Noble, Julia Oldham, John Preus, Tara Strickstein, Lindsey Walton and David Wolf. “Research and Development” engages various themes, including money and patriotism, conflict and causality, self-transformation and animal behavior, adhesion, hybridity, small engines, ontological mapping, color ethics, depression and other recesses, storytelling, story wrecking, conjuring imagined worlds, and uprooting old ones. There will be an opening reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 9, and a gallery talk by the artists will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25.

	Statue of woman grinding grain, Limestone and pigment, ca. 2477 B.C., Giza, Egypt.

Oriental Institute Museum
Gallery Talk: “Dining Like an Egyptian”
1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9
1155 E. 58th St. 702-9507. http://oi.uchicago.edu. Free.

Egyptologist Emily Teeter, a Research Associate in the Oriental Institute, will lead this tour, which will explore the significance of ancient foods and beverages that were preserved in the tombs of the pharaohs. Among the artifacts on display to be discussed are ancient Egyptian bread, eggs, wine and even a mummified duck, as well as elegant platters, vessels and goblets used more than 3,000 years ago.

	Two participants in a hands-on art activity featured at one of last year’s Art Afternoons sessions.

The Smart Museum of Art
Art Afternoons
Noon-3 p.m. Wednesdays, June 15 through Aug. 31
5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 834-1066. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Free.

Each Wednesday this summer, Smart Museum staff members will lead a free, hands-on activity for children of all ages. All young guests must be accompanied by an adult.