7 things to do in Annapolis in the next 7 days

The entertainment calendar in Annapolis starts to pick up in the seven days through Jan. 24, with three new art exhibits, fresh theater productions, a first album release by an Annapolis singer-songwriter and a nostalgia tour from Three Dog Night.

Art crawl

Thursday, Friday and Saturday

These three Annapolis art shows could be seen separately. But if you hit all three in a row, it counts as an Annapolis art crawl. Is there a prize for completing this? Just the satisfaction.

“This Art is For Sale: An Exploration of Artwork as Work” opens with a 5:30 p.m. Thursday reception in the two main galleries at Maryland Hall and continues through March. Curated by AND Creative Studios, an Annapolis arts promoter, the show celebrates work, craftsmanship and process that goes into functional artwork. Free admission, works priced separately.

“Sampling a Sampler Sampling” consists of a single work by New York artist Polly Apfelbaum made specifically for this exhibit — assembled from unaltered, commercial fabrics and laid out in a grid across the entire floor. The exhibit opens at the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Friday and continues through April 14. Free.

If you want to help a small business recover from the 5.1-inch flood that inundated downtown Annapolis and Eastport on Jan. 10, head to the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery Winter Open House on Saturday. The one-day event at the Dock Street gallery runs from 2 to 5 p.m. and features works by painters Bill Sutton, Sharon Littiig, and Collin Cessna and Maryellyn Lynott. All four artists will be at the show.

Owners Kate and Samantha Wilkerson saved the artwork as the water rose but lost their carpeting and the gallery suffered additional damage in the storm. Free, works priced separately.

What is polyphony?

8 p.m. Friday

Merriam-Webster defines “polyphony” as a musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively independent melodic lines. So, what does a music group that takes this as its identity sound like? You can find out when New York Polyphony kicks off the Spring Formal Lecture and Concert Series in the Key Auditorium at St. John’s College. In “The Undone Heart,” the four-member group will perform songs ranging from Gregorian chant to modern vocal compositions. Free.

Make ’em cry

8 p.m. Friday

If classical vocals aren’t your thing, maybe Indie folk intended to make you cry does it for you. Daphne Eckman, an Annapolis singer-songwriter who has been opening for national acts over the last year, releases her first album, “Where You Left Me,” with the Heartside Trio at Rams Head on Stage.

Eckman, a Key School graduate performing in Annapolis venues since she was 15, describes her narrative first album as a farewell to her teenage self. Her album release tour will visit eight Northeast cities before returning to Maryland on Jan. 27 for a show at the Avalon Theater in Easton. $25, plus fees.

A director’s return

8 p.m. Friday

Rick Wade has been part of the Annapolis theater scene for decades, with 30 credits as a stage director and more as a playwright and actor. He returns after a long hiatus for his first show with Compass Rose Theatre, directing well-known regional actors Janet Luby and David Elias in “The Gin Game.”

It’s a 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about two retirement home residents who explore their lives over repeated gin rummy games. Evening performances in the third-floor theater at Maryland Hall repeat on Fridays and Saturdays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 18. $25, plus fees.

Cold and hot

5-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Sometimes, the rhetoric gets out of control. The marketing folks at Annapolis Town Center describe their “Frost and Flame Festival” as “a nautical fire and ice event that melds the cool elegance of ice with the fiery fervor of flame.“

OK. But the details back it up. Ice sculpting demonstrations and displays contrasted with fire dancers and fire swallowers top the entertainment list, while food trucks selling oysters, lobster and cupcakes round out the offerings. Free, but tickets required.

To the stars

Noon-1 p.m. Saturday.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Family Concert features a mix of video matched with live music designed to delight. The program includes works by Bedřich Smetana, James Horner, Gustav Holst and John Williams along with NASA Goddard video of Earth’s waterways and objects beyond our solar system. $10.

It’s one of two symphony concerts at Maryland Hall on Saturday. The Londowntowne Symphony Orchestra is offering An Armed Forces Salute! at 7:30 p.m. $25 plus fees, free for students.

A good friend of mine

7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday

It wouldn’t be a week in Annapolis without a nostalgia tour playing somewhere.

This time, it’s Three Dog Night, the classic rock band whose 1971 hit “Joy to the World” features Jeremiah the bullfrog (he always had some mighty fine wine) in a lyric that still sticks in people’s heads for no good reason five decades later.

The band, which still includes some original members, is at Rams Head on Stage for two nights. $120, plus fees.

Rick Hutzell

rick.hutzell@thebaltimorebanner.com

Rick Hutzell is the Annapolis columnist for The Baltimore Banner. He writes about what's happening today, how we got here and where we're going next. The former editor of Capital Gazette, he led the newspaper to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2018 mass shooting in its newsroom.

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