Atlanta Weekend Best Bets: Celebrate the Year of the Dragon and More!

Special Chinese New Year Celebrations:

Spice Market is hosting a Chinese New Year celebration to welcome a year marked by excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity. Spice Market will offer comp nibbles in the bar area, a four-course tasting menu for $28; beer and cocktail specials; and fortune cookies containing discounts for future visits. read more

Sunday, Jan 22 5:00p to 10:00p
at Spice Market, Atlanta, GA
Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta

Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year– is the longest and most important of the traditional Chinese holidays.
Chinese New Year’s Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as the “Eve of the Passing Year”.
Join the Imaginators in celebrating this colorful holiday by creating your own
fabulous dragon and march in a parade!read more

Saturday, Jan 21 1:00p

Chinese New Year at Rosebud!

Monday, Jan 23 5:30p to 10:00p
at Rosebud, Atlanta, GA

The Year of the Dragon begins on Jan. 23, 2012, & to kick off the Chinese New Year with a bang. From 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Chef Eyester presents a menu of specials honoring the flavors of Asia & traditional Southern dishes. Specials include Bacon & Grits (soy braised bacon, ginger salad, pickled egg & Riverview Farm grits), Breakfast Fried Rice (duck, soy braised bacon, Hakurei turnips, corn pops & scrambled egg) & more. read more

Chinese New Year Festival – Year of Dragon

Saturday, Jan 21 10:00a to 4:00p

The local Chinese communities are hosting a 2-day festival to celebrate the upcoming Year of Dragon Chinese New Year. It will be held on 1/21 – 1/22/2012 at Cultural Center of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta.
The festival features traditional dragon dance, lion dance, drum performance, authentic Chinese food, arts and crafts, calligraphy demonstration, Chinese musicand dance performance, etc. read more

FRIDAY
Stage: In the Atlanta Opera’s “The 24-Hour Opera Project,” composers and lyricists who have been selected to participate will be randomly paired together, and will have 12 hours to write an opera scene. At the end of 12 hours, the pieces will be assigned to a stage director, who will draft singers from a pool of applicants, and have eight hours to rehearse before presenting the pieces in a showcase concert 24 hours after the project begins. Kick-off event is at 5 p.m. Jan. 20; composition begins at 6 p.m. Jan. 20 (both take place at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta). The final concert is at 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Atlanta Opera Center.

Stage: 35 brass, percussion and visual performers come together in “Blast,” a blend of musicand theater that received a 2001 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. Catch it at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre through Jan. 22.

Stage: Bill Oberst, Jr. portrays the late columnist, author and humorist in “Lewis Grizzard: In His Own Words.” It’s at Stone Mountain’s ART Station Jan. 20-22.

Stage, music: The Stage Door Players pay tribute to one of America’s best loved entertainers with “My Way, A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra.” It runs Jan. 20 through Feb. 12 at North DeKalb Cultural Arts Center in Dunwoody.

Dance: Dance Canvas presents “2012 Introducing the Next Generation,” a choreographers series that introduces audiences to world premiere work from nine professional Atlanta choreographers. 8 p.m. Jan. 20 and 21 at 14th Street Playhouse

Stage: “Bolsheviki: A Dead Serious Comedy” examines the relationship between an Irish-Canadian soldier and a French-Canadian soldier during World War I, and how that experience lead to the politicization of the working classes and the rise of the labor movement in Canada. This is the U.S. premiere of a play by Montreal playwright David Fennario. 7 p.m. Jan. 20- 21 at Emory University’s Mary Gray Munroe Theater.

Stage: In the Actor’s Express production “Next Fall,” 20-something Luke, who believes in God, is deeply in love with the slightly older Adam, who believes in everything but. When a tragic accident interrupts their perfect life, Adam must turn to Luke’s friends and deeply religious family for support — and answers. The show continues through Feb. 11 at the company’s stage in the King Plow Arts Center.

Stage: After two young boys clash, their parents meet to discuss the matter, but the civil discussion soon devolves into irrational arguments in “God of Carnage.” Yasmina Reza’s play won the Tony Award for best play in 2009.  It’s the latest production from the Alliance Theatre and continues through Jan. 29. The film version, “Carnage,” directed by Roman Polanski and starrring John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz is also playing in the metro Atlanta area this weekend. See our preview of the play.

Stage: Horizon Theatre Company brings back its successful 2011 production,  “Avenue Q, “ an upbeat, puppet-filled musical that is most definitely for grown-ups. It  runs through Feb. 26.

Stage: World War II has just ended as secrets are revealed in the South Georgia town of“Second Samuel.” New London Theatre’s production of the Pamela Parker play runs through Jan. 29 at the company’s Snellville home.

Exhibition, religion: “Passages” is a traveling exhibition of the world’s largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts.  It continues at the Perimeter Expo in Dunwoody through May 13.

Stage: Atlanta Shakespeare Company continues its chronological run through the Bard’s comedies with  “The Merchant of Venice” . The show continues through Jan. 29  in repertory with“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta.

Stage: A husband’s efforts to deny his visit to the Moulin Rouge lead to mistakes and plausible presumptions in “The Ladies Man,” a Theatre in the Square

SATURDAY

Stage: Tuneful political parody is the specialty of the Capitol Steps, a Washington-based musical comedy troupe. It might be the perfect bi-partisan outing for a contentious primary season. The show starts at 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at Rialto Center for the Arts in downtown Atlanta.

Kids, family: Kids can walk the plank, or live out their fairy tale dreams at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Pirate & Princess Weekend. The fun begins at 10 a.m. Jan. 21 and noon Jan. 22.

Festival: Sample a wide variety of brews at the Buckhead Beer Fest, happening 1-6 p.m. Jan. 21 in the parking lot at the Gold Room.

Music: The Atlanta Sacred Chorale hosts the Emory Community Choral Festival with the Festival Singers of Atlanta, Just Voices and the Georgia Festival Chorus. 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

Music: The Branford Marsalis & Joey Calderazzo Duo brings music from the pair’s 2011 album, “Songs of Mirth and Melancholy,” to Spivey Hall in Morrow at 8:15 p.m. Jan. 21.

Music: Organist Nicole Marane, percussionist John Lawless and narrator John Lemley presentProkofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at 10 a.m. Jan. 21 at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.

SUNDAY
Music: The Music on the Hill series continues with Cello-Piano sonatas by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Fauré and Pärt. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Jan. 22 at  Northside Drive Baptist Church.

Comedy: Actress, comedian and former NFL cheerleader Anjelah Johnson has appeared on “Mad TV,” “Ugly Betty,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and, most recently, in “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” She’ll bring her stand-up comedy show to the Buckhead Theatre at  7 p.m. Jan. 21.

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