Be Fabulous Music and Arts Pride Fest

Formerly known as the Harvey Milk Festival, the Fabulous Arts Foundation’s fourth-annual Be Fabulous fest offers a full afternoon, evening and night of eclectic and inclusive entertainment and advocacy from LGBTQ+ performers. Artists from Sarasota to Tampa will perform, following a 3 p.m. opening ceremony hosted by emcee and FabArts board member Jay Moore. Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter Grace Cespedes performs first, at 3:15 p.m., followed by the rock quartet Nowincolor (4 p.m.), singer-guitarist Brittany Zeff (5 p.m.), solo saxophonist and one-woman-band Zeta the Babe (6 p.m.), alternative pop singer Summer Hoop (7 p.m.), and electro-rock trio MeteorEYES (8 p.m.). A DJ and drag performers conclude the festivities at 9 p.m. It’s all happening on May 4 at Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center, 525 Kumquat Court, Sarasota. fabaf.org

The Immigrant

The American dream is alive and well in this moving play by Mark Harelik, which was later adapted into a Broadway musical. The story literally hits close to home for Harelik: The main character, Haskell Harelik, is the author’s grandfather, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who fled czarist Russia in 1909 for the port city of Galveston, Texas, and the freedoms promised in the New World. Haskell becomes the only Jew in Galveston’s then-population of just more than 1,200 people; enraptured by the “miracle” of a banana, he opens a fruit cart, selling his wares door to door in a story that will expand over three decades of clashing religions, cultures and fears. This production from Sarasota Jewish Theatre runs May 2-12 at The Players Center, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. (941) 365-2494, sarasotajewishtheatre.com

Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens: Sound and Silence

Continuing its mission of cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration, the Hermitage’s latest sunset program will pair two creators whose emotionally resonant work contains multitudes without the necessity of the English language. A student of Marcel Marceau, Bill Bowers is among the world’s foremost mimes; he has performed in all 50 states, and his Broadway stage credits include The Lion King and The Scarlet Pimpernel. He’ll perform his silent craft alongside Kavita Shah, a jazz vocalist/composer from Manhattan and the daughter of Indian immigrants, who has sung in more than 20 languages and performed on six continents. We don’t know what to expect from their collaboration, but it’s safe to say that you’ll be at a loss for words. See them at 6:30 p.m. May 2 at Selby Gardens at Historic Spanish Point, 401 N. Tamiami Trail, Osprey. hermitageartistretreat.org

Nostalghia

The great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky is the embodiment of a particular strand of art-house impenetrability in cinema, and if you’re not in the proper space of mind, his poetic stories of displacement, alienation and sorrow can feel like eating one’s vegetables. But his best films, and 1983’s Nostalghia should be considered among them, transcend expectations as a sensorial experience that only the movies can provide. There is a story—involving a Russian writer who travels to Italy to research the life of an 18th century expat composer, but who instead falls under the spell of a homeless, mentally unbalanced doomsday prophet—but like Tarkvosky himself, you may find yourself putting aside narrative in favor of the film’s dreamlike progression and surreal cinematography, with countless images not soon forgotten. The movie opens May 3 in a new 4K 40th-anniversary restoration at Burns Court Cinema, 506 Burns Lane, Sarasota. (941) 955-3456, filmsociety.org

Petticoat Painters

The struggle to achieve gender equity in the male-dominated art world is at the heart of the Petticoat Painters, a women’s art group founded here in Sarasota in 1953. Banding together to exhibit and sell their work, the Petticoat Painters—the very name satirized the second-class status that art by women was afforded, and in some ways still is afforded—remains one of the longest continually exhibiting women’s arts groups in the United States. A new exhibition, “The Petticoat Painters: Courage in the Lifelong Pursuit of Art Making,” will explore its history, mission and art from its members, now totaling 19 diverse voices spanning abstract and figuration, oil and acrylic. The show opens from 6 to 8 p.m. May 3 at SPAACES, 2051 Princeton St., Sarasota, where it continues its run through June 1. (941) 552-8298, spaaces.art

Sailor Circus Academy: Origins

This spring showcase from the Circus Arts Conservatory’s circus arts training program takes the long view—as its “origins” theme suggests, the really long view. Structurally it starts at the Big Bang and ends with a supernova sometime in our future. In the middle, the timeline explores Adam & Eve, the age of the dinosaurs, Paleolithic humans, ancient Greece, the industrial revolution and the development of contemporary art and music—all conveyed through the wonder, skill and dexterity of circus arts. Nearly 50 students will perform acts such as the trampoline wall, acrobatic roller skating, clowning and aerial wizardry, culminating in a dramatic flying-trapeze closer. See the performance at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on May 4 and 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. May 5 at Sailor Circus Arena, 2075 Bahia Vista St., Sarasota. (941) 355-9805, circusarts.org

The Lubben Brothers

The triplets comprising this family band—the collective half of six siblings from a hearty Iowa clan—have been playing together since they all took up the violin at 5, then folk instruments by the age of 10. Founded as the Lubben Brothers in 2013 in their adopted hometown of West Palm Beach, they now play at least 10 instruments between them, forging their own take on Americana with banjo and mandolin, tin whistle and accordion, hammered dulcimer and fiddle. Their set lists may encompass everything from cowboy sing-alongs to hymns to African-American spirituals, Irish jigs and Appalachian ballads. See the brothers take the stage, for the cost of a gardens ticket, at 1 p.m. May 5 at Selby Gardens at Historic Spanish Point, 401 N. Tamiami Trail, Osprey. (941) 366-5731, selby.org.

Miró Quartet

Audiences and critics are one thing, but in the case of Beethoven’s beloved late quartets, even his fellow-composers were enraptured. Of String Quartet No. 14, a gobsmacked Schubert reportedly remarked, “After this, what is left for us to write?” The composition will open this Sunday afternoon performance from Miró Quartet, an Austin-based string quartet that has been impressing international audiences and garnering awards from its very first performances, in 1995. After an intermission, the group will return with guest violinist Sandy Yamamoto and pianist Julio Elizalde to perform Ernest Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet. The concert runs from 4 to 6 p.m. May 5 at First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak St., Sarasota. (941) 306-1202, artistseriesconcerts.org