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In Raul Garza's very funny and thought-provoking play, a Mexican-American urban sophisticate who wants to connect with his roots ventures deep into the Mexican interior and, ah, learns a thing or two about himself and the world. Featuring Mical Trejo, as directed by Ken Webster for Hyde Park Theatre. Note: When this excellent show debuted a few years ago, Robert Faires interviewed the playwright right here and – this just in! – reviews the current show.

Dance, dance, and dance. And live music and films and more dance. And of course that's live music for dancing to, and films about dancing. And dance workshops and master classes, as well, because this is the latest edition of the annual Theorist Festival from that Amy Morrow and her restless cadre of kinetic savants – this time, 44 artists from across the U.S., México, Canada, India, and the Middle East – galvanizing the Zilker Hillside Theatre and other venues for four days and nights in the wake of ACL. See website for details, yes – and be prepared to move yourself around.

Siddiq began his stand-up career while in prison and has been captivating audiences ever since. With a win in Comedy Central’s Up Next Competition and a slew of album releases, he's a force of laughter to be reckoned with.

This Murphy's been a crowd favorite in the scene since he moved here from New York in 2011, and the idolatry's only growing now that he's started up the Bob Ross-channeling The Joke of Painting thing. Your little trees will be very happy to see him, we reckon, even without the brushes. And, bonus: Lea'h Sampson and friends open.

This native Austinite specializes in graphics that are deconstructed into patterns of light and shadow and then sprayed through layers of intricately hand-cut stencils onto canvas or found objects. Stop in at Art on 5th and see what he's worked up now.

That's Lenny Bernstein, not Lenny Kleinfeld, mind you. And here's that Peter Bay leading the Austin Symphony Orchestra (with guest vocalists Ellie Jarrett Shattles and Said Pressley) in celebrating the former's birthday, with two evenings of popular selections from Candide, On the Town, West Side Story, and more.

In which 11-year-old artist Beck Seitsinger debuts his art in a gallery setting, joined by grown-up Austin artists B. Shawn Cox, Richard Ashby, and Scott Rolfe, all rendering a colorful exploration of the night.

In which Austin favorites June Julian, Katherine Altobello, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Stephen Burnaman, and Martha Mortensen Ahern present music to fit the season, featuring vocal solos, duets, trios, and piano duets from the likes of Wicked, Sweeney Todd, Dracula, Aida, and more.

The Austin Dance Festival is a modern dance festival (coming in April 2019) that produces professional showcases, a youth concert, master classes, artist interviews, pop-up community dances, and a dance-on-film screening. Artists working in the fields of modern dance, postmodern dance, and contemporary dance are invited to apply for the professional showcases. Youth companies may apply for the Youth Edition Concert. The festival is also accepting submissions to “Dance on Film.” See the website for guidelines and applications.

The author, a native of Reykjavík, arrives in Austin to presents his novel showcasing the brutal elements of humanity and wilderness in Iceland's most desolate region.

It reflects well on the whole Tito's Prize thing, we think, that this year's recipient is one of the most interesting and relentless, one of the most community-oriented, artists in our creativity-glutted town. Whether you're an aficionado of the possibilities of visual art or the unexplored potential of musical instruments, Steve Parker's latest confluence of those two realms will delight your senses and inspire much thought.

This new exhibition, organized by the Vitra Design Museum and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, presents the work of more than 120 artists and designers, displaying sculpture, prints, fashion, furniture, film, photography, apps, maps, digital comics, and more to show how African design generates innovative design approaches and solutions with worldwide relevance.

This exhibition is enhanced with artifacts providing historical context for the paintings, rich with the unbroken connection the Comanche people have with their roots. Also, Rodeo: The Exhibition. Boy howdy, it's the history of the Texas rodeo – vibrant, interactive, and fully documented in this fine new show.

This three-person exhibit featuring the work of Austin artists Joseph Hammer, Chun Hui Pak, and Gabe Langholtz focuses on each artist’s ability to dismantle their subjects and reimagine them into new compositions.

That intimate but powerful gallery on Springdale has selected its fellowship artists for the coming year, and this is the inaugural group show for those chosen, reflecting on the dichotomy between things and projects coming ephemerally into fruition before disappearing or transforming. Reason for rapt anticipation: Jade Walker, Suzanne Wyss, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Laura Latimer, David Wright, Tammie Rubin.

The GAP presents denial.of.service's first solo exhibition in Austin, featuring six generative videos and 21 digital prints by the award-winning creator and performer whose work uses math, myth, code, software, human psychology, and alien aesthetics to "slice through cultural barriers and trigger the amygdala, releasing a cascade of emotions and memories." It's a neural-networked, glitchmapped, pixelfracking novadose of brilliance, is what it is – and highly recommended.

Listen: "Scattered along the shores of a growing lake, small volcanic rocks disintegrate from endless fractures. Left behind in the wake of a glacier’s now constant recession, these scarred tokens from the mountain show an array of colorful shards between their dark crevices." And this new exhibition by Dameon Lester is the exploration of one such rock, transmediated via modest materials and repetitive minimal shapes, abstractly focusing on our cause and effect with nature.

Ed Ruscha, anyone? We'll bet yes – we're big fans ourselves – and now here's a diverse selection of the celebrated American artist’s books, photographs, drawings, and pprints. With archival production materials, preliminary sketches, and studio notebooks; with more than 150 objects providing visitors an unprecedented look into Ruscha's creative process. And the Chronicle's Melany Jean tells more about this show right here.

In which The Baron's Men galumph forth with a most rowdy rendition of the Bard's work for your thespian pleasure. It's "that kinda fun play you read your Senior year, but now with 100% more bawdy jokes and the raucous humors you always wanted and suspected it to have – lakeside on a thrust stage under torchlight."

Les Bijoux Burlesque invites you to "step into the world of cinematic sin, intoxicating femmes fatales, and all the glittering bright lights and intrigue of mid-century Hollywood," with burlesque doyenne Ruby Joule and the live big-band sounds of The Copa Kings.

How about a bit of Europe right here at home, citizen? Here are 16 new paintings by the popular artist, vividly depicting the streets of Croatia, Italy, and Paris.

The Bass Concert Hall's gallery curator Selene Bataille has chosen this diverse collection of works in various mediums by members of the Creative Arts Society.

Here's an exhibition of lithographs and sculpture by Ed Ruscha. "Paradox and absurdity have just always been really delicious to me," says the artist. "I've always been dead serious about being nonsensical."

"Immerse yourself," say the producers at Stage Austin, "in a festival-style production of Shakespeare's wondrous comedic tale of lovers and their demise." With dark fairies, music, dancing, food trucks, and more.

Spanning several cities, the depths of the ocean, and the point of view of a killer shark, this Dan Caffrey play examines "how our internal anxieties are often just as terrifying as our national catastrophes." Directed by Alice Stanley for UT's Department of Theatre and Dance.

This exhibition presents Mexic-Arte’s 35-year quest to educate the public about the significance of Dia de los Muertos, offering displays of art, ofrendas, and archival materials as a historical survey and a testament to the holiday’s unique character in the region.

In this classic August Strindberg play, passion and sexual desire collide with class and gender warfare during a Midsummer's Eve celebration in 1880s Sweden. Directed by Elizabeth V. Newman for Filigree Theatre.

Photographer Alec Byrne covered the rock and roll scene in London from the mid-Sixties through the mid-Seventies as a teenage freelancer for New Music Express and other publications during the height of London’s rock revolution. Now, he brings his work to the U.S., with an exclusive show opening at this fine gallery in the Canopy compound.

Based on the 2007 Oscar-winning film, Once is an enchanting, modern love story about the complexities of relationships and the power of music to connect us all. Directed for Zach Theatre by Dave Steakley, with musical direction by Allen Robertson. And here's what our reviewer thought of the show.

This excellent group show, curated by Emerson Granillo, features artwork by Christa Blackwood, John Cruz, Annalise Gratovich, Ariel Rene Jackson, Dave McClinton, Andrea Munoz Martinez.

The year's final exhibition at SouthPop is a celebration of the life and art of that Austintatious punk cowboy Davy Jones, with part of the show reserved for selling the man's creations.

The Austin History Center's latest exhibit spotlights local efforts to create social change over the decades, including the Civil Rights and Women's Liberation movements. Residents are invited to upload personal photos of recent marches and rallies for inclusion.

Under the direction of Acia Gray, some of the best young tap dancers from around the world hit the stage in sharp percussion, experimenting with the textures, emotion, and reactions of the sounds of everyday lives and the unspoken relationships we have with each other.

This? Is one of those ooooh-this'll-look-great-on-Instagram pop-ups that all the like-hungry kids are flocking to, cameras at the ready, surfaces polished for posing. The venue's packed with a colorful array of ice-cream-themed environments, obvs, and so they'll offer you free samples of frozen confections, too. Note: See David Brendan Hall's photo gallery of the place right here.

Theatre Synesthesia presents a play by Katie Bender, in which three sisters struggle to reconcile the culture of their itinerant family with their disparate ambitions and addictions. Directed by Devin Finn. And here's Robert Faires' review of the show.

This classic Agatha Christie whodunit starts off with a stranger seeking refuge in a nearby house … only to find a man shot dead and his wife standing over the corpse with a smoking gun. Um, yeah: Awkwarrrrrrrd. The drama that ensues is directed by J. Robert Moore for TexARTS and stars Aaron Black, Mary Cox, Sarah Fleming Walker, Jeff Jeffers, Brandon Lindsey, Tyler Keyes, Carson Petocz, Val Williams, and Ben Wolfe.

Salvage Vanguard Theater presents the world premiere of this play by Boston-based experimental playwright Adara Meyers. Tryouts, directed by Diana Lynn Small, "casts a satirical gaze on women, femininity, and motherhood, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, and Sigmund Freud’s debunked maternal psychosexual essay on the painting."

The Chicago-based poet is in town to read from her newest collection. Bonus: Simone Muench and Katy Chrisler.

Mia Carameros and Holly Wilson's work incorporates the idea of the shadow both literally and figuratively, through Carameros' botanical creations and Wilson's narrative sculptures.

Candace Hicks' new show features a series of rooms constructed in miniature and vignettes created from cut paper, each reconstructing a tableau plucked from crime fiction, offering viewers the experience of playing a detective searching for clues. See our review right here.