ARCHITECTURE
`TAKING THE FIELD’
Four prominent stadium architects, including a key designer of the Soldier Field renovation, will speak at a symposium Monday about the future of sports architecture. “Taking the Field,” co-sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Clio Society, an arts and humanities group at Northwestern University, includes scheduled speakers Dan Meis of NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, Marina del Rey, Calif.; David M. Schwarz of David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services in Washington, D.C.; and Carlos Zapata of Wood + Zapata of Boston, part of the Soldier Field design team; 3 to 6 p.m. at Northwestern’s Thorne Auditorium in the Arthur Rubloff Building, 375 E. Chicago Ave.; $10; 312-922-3432.
`FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’
The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis presents a daylong symposium, “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Architect & the Person,” exploring such topics as how Wright shaped interiors to provoke emotional and psychological responses. Speakers include architectural historian Robert Twombly and Chicago architect Thomas Beeby; 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Ganz Hall, the Auditorium Building, 430 S. Michigan Ave.; $125; 312-922-7474.
— Blair Kamin
ART
`HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: SEA OF BUDDHA’
Photographs of dawn light on 1,000 statues of an enlightened being of boundless compassion; opens Thursday at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave.; free; 773-702-0200.
`SECRETS OF ORDINARY THINGS’ and `OCTOBER LEAVES FALLING’
A performance and exhibition by Fluxus artist Alison Knowles; opens Thursday at the College of DuPage’s Gahlberg Gallery, 425 22nd St., Glen Ellyn; free; 630-942-2321.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
VERMEER QUARTET
The program holds quartets by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms; 3 p.m. Sunday at the DePaul University Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave.; $28; 773-722-5463.
NEWBERRY CONSORT
Chicago’s flagship early-music ensemble commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth I with a colorful consort of instruments and voices performing music by contemporaneous composers William Byrd, Thomas Morley, John Dowland and others. Regular performances are at 8 p.m. Friday in the Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall, 60 W. Walton St.; 8 p.m. Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church, 924 Lake St., Oak Park; and 3 p.m. Oct. 5 at Northwestern University’s Lutkin Hall, 700 University Pl., Evanston. Open rehearsal will be at 3 p.m. Thursday at the library; $13.50-$37; 312-255-3700.
`THREE TALES’
In their three-part digital documentary video opera, composer Steve Reich and video artist Beryl Korot examine the pros and cons of what 20th Century technology has wrought — focusing on the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg, the 1946 atom bomb testing at Bikini Atoll and the 1997 cloning of Dolly the sheep; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southpfort Ave.; $35; 773-722-5463.
`THE SOUND OF A VOICE’
Court Theatre begins its 49th season with the world premiere of a new music-theater piece reuniting composer Philip Glass with librettist David Henry Hwang, his collaborator for “1000 Airplanes on the Roof” and “The Voyage.” Inspired by Japanese ghost stories, the chamber opera explores the idea of intimacy and how the sounds of other people’s voices draw us out of our existential isolation. Opens Saturday, with regular performances Oct. 8-Nov. 2 at the Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.; $35-$50; 773-753-4472.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
NICHOLAS PAYTON
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The formidable New Orleans trumpeter brings his funk-tinged Sonic Trance band to Chicago for the first time; Tuesday through Sunday at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $20; 312-670-2473.
AVISHAI COHEN
The brilliant bassist leads a quartet staffed by artists from various nations; 9 p.m. Friday at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive; $18; 312-362-9707.
— Howard Reich
MOVIES
`IKIRU’
Akira Kurosawa’s poignant 1952 Japanese masterpiece is a tragicomedy about how our best intentions are misinterpreted and is a profound meditation on an old man’s reactions to impending death. The print is newly struck and newly subtitled in English subtitles. No MPAA rating; Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; $8.50; 773-871-6604.
`THE NAVIGATORS’
Ken Loach’s film shows the harsh lot of a group of longtime South Yorkshire railroad workers, some of whom are privatized out of their jobs one morning. No MPAA rating; Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; $7; 773-281-4114.
`WINGS’
The Silent Film Society screens “Wild Bill” Wellman’s 1927 World War I aerial drama, co-starring Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen and Clara Bow; 2 p.m. at the Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles; $10; 773-205-7372.
COCTEAU TRIPLETS
Jean Cocteau’s informal film trilogy consists of his 1930 dream-film “The Blood of a Poet,” his 1950 romantic myth “Orpheus,” and his 1960 swan song, “The Testament of Orpheus.” No MPAA rating. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, through Oct. 11, at Flatfile Photography Gallery, 118 N. Peoria St.; free; 312-491-1190.
ROCK
CALEXICO
Their gypsy country tunes sound like the long-lost soundtrack for one of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns; Wednesday at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.; $15; 773-549-4140.
KINGS OF LEON
This quartet, whose members are ages 18 to 23, injects Southern soul into the garage-rock revival with their blend of holy-roller testifying, straggly Lynyrd Skynyrd-style guitars, and a beat that grooves rather than pummels; Thursday at Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave.; $10; 773-489-3160.
POLYPHONIC SPREE
Their Chicago debut performances earlier this year will go down as two of 2003’s unforgettable events. Can they duplicate the grandeur?; Saturday-Oct. 5 at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.; $12; 773-276-3600; Oct. 7 at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.; $15; 773-549-4140.
— Greg Kot
THEATER
`ANNA IN THE TROPICS’
A lovely little play — with atmosphere thicker than the Tolstoy novel inspiring it — Nilo Cruz’s 1929-set story takes place in a love-starved cigar factory outside Tampa. Following a fast-fading oral tradition, a charismatic new lector, or reader, entertains the workers with “Anna Karenina.” Before long, he is entertaining himself with an affair with one of the owners’ daughters. It’s a charming tribute to the power of great literature and a good smoke; through Oct. 26 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $22-$35; 773-871-3000.
`BALM IN GILEAD’
The grungiest all-night diner in Manhattan teems with unruly life in this Hypocrites revival of the Lanford Wilson play, nearly 40 years old now. Director Sean Graney does well by this ensemble effort, overlapping dialogue that’s already overlapped to begin with; through Nov. 2 at Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division St.; $15-$18; 312-409-5578.
`TOPDOG/UNDERDOG’
Brothers, adversaries and pathetically funny American dreamers, two men named Lincoln and Booth share a dingy room. To some fans (including me) of Parks’ earlier, less conventional wonders, “Topdog” disappoints. Yet the acting of K. Todd Freeman and David Rainey shouldn’t be missed; through Nov. 2 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; $36-$52; 312-335-1650.
— Michael Phillips
`DEATH AND HARRY HOUDINI’
Watch House’s newest show, a remarkably eclectic and entirely original piece of self-created homage to escapology called “Death and Harry Houdini,” and you come to realize its single most important asset: The youngsters at House don’t have any fear to hold them back. Therefore, they can throw themselves into this huge, wacky, wonderfully messy show ; through Saturday at the Viaduct, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $15; 773-251-2195.
`DR. SEX’
Thanks to remarkably witty lyrics and a zestful and eminently hummable score, “Dr. Sex” is a remarkably entertaining little musical satire about Alfred Kinsey (of sexual report fame). There’s more than enough sizzle, flesh and anti-puritan sentiment to attract the alternative crowd — and just enough old-fashioned theatrical wit and modesty not to turn off the mainstream fan of old-line musical comedy; through Oct. 26 at Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.; $25-30; 773-883-1090.
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— Chris Jones