‘Dreambook’ premieres at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre  

Dreambook
Friday through June 25
Boston Playwrights’ Theater
949 Comm. Ave., Boston
$14-$20, 866-811-4111
web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/956983
Fort Point Theater Channel presents this premiere of a work by Dan Osterman and Nick Thorkelson, which takes place in New Orleans in 1848, but with an eye on the present moment of race relations. Theatergoers will be familiar with one character, the poet Walt Whitman, but not necessarily as he’s presented here. For one thing, he’s played by a woman!

Twelfth Night/What You Will
Through July 1
Central Square Theater
450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$39-$55, 617-576-9278
www.centralsquaretheater.org
Given that Shakespeare has been endlessly re-imagined, it’s not so weird that theater company Bedlam is simultaneously presenting two quite different variations on Shakespeare’s popular role-swapping comedy “Twelfth Night”, “What You Will” being the master’s alternative title. Each version plays by itself on a different night; the same actors perform in both. The essence of the play hangs elusively somewhere in between.

Extraordinary Playscapes
Through September 5
BSA Space
290 Congress St., Boston
Free, info@designmuseumboston.org
designmuseumfoundation.org/boston/blog/2016/04/28/extraordinary-playscapes/
Organized by the Design Museum, this interactive exhibition examines the world of play, from the perspectives of art, science and history. Any psychologist can tell you play is serious business — it’s the laboratory where we learn to be human. You’ll find out what goes into the design of a modern playground — and some of the amazing examples here will make you re-think what a playground is.

Joe’s Jazz and Blues Fest
Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Powerhouse Park
4 Liberty Ave., Somerville
Free, 617-625-6600
www.somervilleartscouncil.org/jazzblues/2016
Conceived by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, this afternoon-long outdoor music festival includes a diverse lineup of performances from the Somerville High School Street Holler Serenade, Danielle M. and the Glory Junkies, Dan Fox Foxet, Alexei Tsiganov Group, The Barrett Anderson Band and Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica.

South End Summer Soulstice
Friday, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Blackstone Square
1525 Washington St., Boston
Free, 617-542-1234
www.gatewaymainstreet.org/event-calendar/
The Solstice happens later in the week, but the Soulstice is this Friday. This block party will have a bevy of food trucks for every taste, plus a beer garden in addition to five musical acts, including Diversity Band, Soulshine and the Henry Acker Gypsy Jazz Trio. Get a blanket for the lawn and celebrate the beginning of summer—it’ll be over before you know it!

Becoming Undone
Friday and Saturday
Black Box, Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St., Boston
$20, 617-933-8600
www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/iBecoming-Undonei/
Zoe Dance presents, in their words, “an evening where the cinematic and performative entwine.” As the title alludes, the theme of the show is opening one’s self up to new perspectives and redefinitions—in short, digging deeper into the mysteries one’s identity, beyond the paradoxically rigid and flimsy defense we call “ego”. Rather than remaining distantly seated, viewers can walk about within the performance.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater
290 Harvard St., Brookline
$9-$12, 617-734-2500
www.coolidge.org
Although only one of them would develop a major Hollywood career, the charming chemistry of Keanu Reeves (Ted) and Alex Winter (Bill) turned what could have been a forgettably stupid sci-fi/fantasy buddy pic into an offbeat comedy classic. Oh, it’s still plenty stupid, but it has heart. A round of history trivia will precede this screening.

The Dirty Dozen
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy St., Cambridge
$9-$11, 617-495-4700
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
Robert Aldrich directed this 1967 film, set on the battlefield in World War II, but in the light of the ever-worsening quagmire of Vietnam. The plot: an Army major is tasked with assembling a motley crew for the suicidal crashing of a Nazi gathering. This outrageous assembly of alpha males is a fine study in what’s referred to today as “toxic masculinity.”

Something Big
Thursday, 8 p.m.
Davis Square Theater
255 Elm St., Somerville
$10, 800-838-3006
sbcomedy.bpt.me
This new monthly showcase brings New York-based comedians up to enemy territory to win ‘em over with laughs. Comics Anthony DeVito (no relation to Danny), Sam Evans (who, after winning “Funniest Person in Cincinnati,” moved to NYC) and Kenice Mobley (who you may have caught at the Boston Comedy Festival or the Women in Comedy Festival) kick of the initial installment.

Gravity
Friday through July 15
Brookline Arts Center
86 Monmouth St., Brookline
Free, 617-566-5715
www.brooklineartscenter.com
More than 25 artists from across the U.S. contributed to this multidisciplinary show centered on the theme of gravity, both as a concept in physics and in its more metaphorical senses. The observation that “what comes up must come down” is just the beginning. Catamount Arts gallery director Katherine French juried the show, and the opening reception is Friday at 6 p.m.

On Display: a Movement Installation
Through Sunday
Institute of Contemporary Art
25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
$10-$15, 617-478-3100
www.icaboston.org
Heidi Latsky, a former dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is the mind behind this museum-wide performance piece, which calls attention to our culture’s issues with body image, featuring, we’re told, “more than 30 local performers representing the dance and disability communities.” It’s interrogating the idea of the body as spectacle, which means your role as spectator will not be overlooked.

Mychal Denzel Smith
Friday, 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books
25 White St., Cambridge
Free, 617-491-2220
www.portersquarebooks.com
This author, a Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute, will discuss his memoir “Invisible Man Got the World Watching”, which chronicles his education as a young black American in the era of the Obama administration and the Black Lives Matter movement, detailing his personal experiences of problems facing his people from within and without.

Dungen
Thursday, 8 p.m.
The Sinclair
52 Church St., Cambridge
$14-$16, 21+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
Though this Swedish band’s blistering, Hendrix-esque psychedelic fuzz may have been the most exciting aspect of their 2004 breakthrough, “Ta Det Lugnt,” it was the mellower passages that Gustav Ejstes would develop on subsequent releases, to the point that today, they sound more psych-jazz than psych-rock, but they remain sublime. Their latest, and their first in five years, is “Allas Sak.”

Oh Wonder
Saturday, 6:30 p.m.
Royale
279 Tremont St., Boston
$20-$23, all ages, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
This British pop duo is blowing up so fast that a second Boston show was added after the first sold out. Their mellow, R&B-influenced tunes are irresistible and timeless — this stuff could’ve been a hit any time in the last 30 years. They impress as performers, producers and songwriters, at a time when being all three is pretty rare in mainstream pop.