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Check it: "Shakespeare's Ophelia rises up out of the water, dreaming of Pop-Tarts and other sweet things. She finds herself in a neo-Elizabethan Appalachian setting where Gertrude runs a brothel, Hamlet is called a Rude Boy, and nothing is what it seems. In this mirrored world of word-scraps and cold sex, Ophelia cuts a new path for herself." This Caridad Svich play is directed by Jess Shoemaker.

The willful self-destruction of humanity by Earth’s most formidable species – humans – is the topic of New Orleans-born and Dallas-raised photographer Tia Boyd. Through a series of portraits, Boyd reveals "a surviving race of godlike women warriors who have come to terraform the planet for future inhabitants." And here's our full review of the show.

Yippee ki yay, space cadet, it's time to head 'em off at the Pass Nebula as the State History Museum presents an exhibition that spans more than 150 years of Western and science fiction history and features 100-plus artifacts (including props from Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, and other skiffy media fare). And our arch-geek himself, the estimable Richard Whittaker, also a part-time Sith Lord, reviews the show for you here.

The show's name is a play on Systema Naturae, Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus' monumental work that documented the entire system of classification that's still in use for all biology. The show's creator is the man who, with his wife Moya, runs the gallery in which it's displayed; and who created The Resonant Lung; and who reformed, in discrete parts, the warped and buckled floor from an ancient warehouse into an abandoned Austin church; and who – well, it's Colin McIntyre, of course, with a series of works that explore imagined lifeforms with varied morphology, rendered via sinuous, flowing forms forged in steel and blazing with the liquid-metal sheen of nickel plate. And then there's that … viscous, pulsating abomination in the center of it all.

Imagine a dystopia in which women suffer endless harassment, and right-wing politics wrenches away women's control over their own bodies; in response, American women heed the call of Dionysus, and flee to new, strange, euphoric rites in Iraq, the cradle of civilization, and … you won't believe what happens next in this radical re-writing of The Bacchae from acclaimed poet and combat veteran Jenny Pacanowksi. Produced as part of this year's Austin Veterans Arts Festival, this is a collaboration between military veterans and their families, an Iraqi composer, a diverse cast, and an all-Austin community chorus. Directed by Karen Alvarado and J.M. Meyer for Thinkery & Verse and Canopy Theatre. And, look, here's our review of the show.

This new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale is a sensual fantasy with a surprising twist: a bold heroine who dares to defy the ruler of the night. "Seductive, romantic, and empowering, this foray to the dark side is a juicy date-night," we're advised – and that seems, yup, just about right. Written and directed by Steven Dietz for Zach Theatre, with a kickass cast featuring Sarah Kimberly Becker as Mina Harker and Keith Contreras-McDonald as the titular bloodsucker.

20 million years ago, two supernovae collided – causing ripples in the very fabric of space-time. 20 million years later, generative artist James Pricer created cataclysmic portraits of this event using the actual gravitational wave data. The exhibition features a box set of eight gravitational wave prints, a collision video, two unique explosion prints, and several generative objects.

Some artists try to capture their city, their geographical region, and they succeed at it. Only the best will ever succeed as well as Austin's John Mulvany does in capturing his Eastside neighborhood. Listen: "Everything in life is present in the neighborhood," says the artist. "If you are inclined to walk around with your eyes and senses open, you notice things you might otherwise miss. A dead grackle in the road, the unkempt beauty of East Austin backyards, the violent magenta-pink veil of cherry blossom enveloping a vacant house, a cockroach carried away by ants. This exhibition is an invitation to look closer. The neighborhood, like the natural world, is in a constant state of creation, transformation and decay." And this is precisely what you'll see, in Mulvany's array of realist, atmosphere-haunted paintings on the familiar grayDUCK walls. (See Barbara Purcell's review of the show right here.)

Those who love English novelist Jane Austen’s work will have the opportunity to see the Austen in Austin section of the Harry Ransom Center's "Stories to Tell" exhibition, then watch a lineup of films based on her enduring work – on Sundays in October. This week: Sense and Sensibility. See website for more.

Here's an exhibition of original artwork based on Jewish themes and symbols, including mosaics, hamsa, and Zentangles, by Marvin Beleck, Marion Stoutner, Ginette Jordan, Martha Kull, and Susan Ribnick – also featuring reproductions of 18 mosaics honoring the victims of the shooting of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life or L'Simcha Congregation.

Alicia Philley and Emily Hoyt-Weber present their new body of paintings and sculpture, created around conversations about color, light, and shadow, resulting in an exhibition in which Philley’s colorful compositions of curving linear elements serve as a counterpoint to Hoyt-Weber’s mathematically inspired line drawings.

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's classic musical about an insatiable man-eating plant is staged for TexARTS' professional series, with a fine cast cavorting with the pithy and puppeted carnivore, the whole spectacle under the direction of Val Williams.

Join the local author in celebration as she releases her debut memoir, now in print from She Writes Press.

The dark, celebratory, and comical work of Christine Garvey and Bonnie Staley has much in common with rotten little fruit – the outsider, problematic, misbehaving body – as both artists "reference the history, anatomy, pains, and joys of the female body to create objects that operate in a space between traditional classifications of painting, drawing, and sculpture."

The Great Exhibition of 1851 marked the beginning of the age of world's fairs, technology, and mass media. Austin art historian Karen Pope leads an exploration of the exhibition – including the influence it exerted all the way out in Texas.

Explore the music of a composer who has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual music of his times. This class will focus on the music of Glass' opera Akhnaten, about the Egyptian pharaoh of the same name. Note: The Metropolitan Opera will be broadcasting a live performance of Akhnaten on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Arbor Cinema on Great Hills Trail, and you can attend this showing as an optional class event.