“Thanks for bearing with us through all the glitches!” For the third time in five minutes, Carmen Wong lets her audience know how grateful she is for their presence. At the end of A Tactile Dinner, the futurist food performance running through July 19 at the Arthur S. Flemming Center, the show’s chirpy artistic director is candid about both the successes and failures of her unique production.

What did you like? What didn’t you like? Does anyone have suggestions? After a wham-bam, avant-garde, seven-course meal for all five senses, it’s likely that many “diners” have questions concerning what just hit them, and the open-forum post-performance session gives the rare opportunity to seek answers and provide feedback on the experience.   

This chance to participate in something kind of kooky is precisely what’s so cool about the Capital Fringe Festival, the 18-day, 100-plus-performance event currently happening all over DC.  Banished Productions, the company responsible for Tactile, is a proud member of this artistic celebration. By providing the very things that usually water down performance art (financial backing and access to large pools of patrons and media coverage), Capital Fringe leaves room for uniqueness, variety, and experimentation in arts performances that will challenge audiences and introduce nontraditional performance methods to the local cultural scene. Thanks to the power of numbers, Washington hopefuls such as Wong get a shot at sharing their creative concepts with the public and infuse DC theater with progressive inspiration along the way.

If you like what you hear but still aren’t sure what to expect, read on for what we learned from the tactile dinner, and you’ll pick up some useful insight into what that pink-lipsticked, pill-popping Fringe button (required for entrance to all of the festival’s events) will do for you this July. 

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Happy Food Hours in Washington

1. Eat your way through Reston this weekend at the 19th annual Taste of the Town. On Friday and Saturday, more than 30 local restaurants will be on hand with samples of their best dishes. The event also includes live music, entertainment, and kids’ activities. Admission and parking for the event are free, but tasting tickets are $1 each. Bites cost one to five tickets.

2. Broken Social Scene’s Andrew Whiteman takes the stage with his side-project band, Apostle of Hustle, at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Friday night. Whiteman was inspired to start the band after spending two months in Cuba with his godmother’s family—so expect strong Latin American influences in his set. Advance tickets—sold until 4 PM on Friday—are $10; at-the-door tickets are $12. Doors open at 8:30, and the show starts an hour later.

3. Meat lovers should head to Capitol Skyline Hotel for Spike Mendelsohn’s burger-themed pool party. Sundays throughout the summer, the Top Chef star is grilling up his Good Stuff Eatery creations from noon until 6. The $10 admission includes a burger.

4. Don’t forget about the National Gallery of Art’s Jazz in the Garden series on Friday nights. Bring a picnic blanket or a lawn chair to enjoy an evening of free jazz. This week, blues artist Deanna Bogart takes the stage from 5 to 8:30.

Shakespeare Theatre Harman Center for the Arts

Ion by Euripides, translated by David Lan, opens March 10. Director Ethan McSweeny says the play about abandonment and reconciliation is “by turns funny, touching, dramatic and it’s a Greek play with a happy ending. . . . Euripides was really busting the form; there’s a reason he’s called the father of modern drama.” Closes April 12; tickets are $20 to $79.75.

Shakespeare Theatre Lansburgh Theatre

The Dog in the Manger, a romantic comic tragedy by Lope de Vega, closes March 29. The title, which comes from both the Bible and Aesop’s fables, refers to the notion that people often begrudge others what they can’t enjoy themselves. For tickets ($23.50 to $74.75), call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org.

Ford’s Theatre

The Civil War —a musical combining the words of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, and Walt Whitman with the stirring songs and music of the time—opens March 27. A decade ago, when the show was on Broadway, it was nominated for a Tony Award. Closes May 24; tickets are $25 to $52.

The Heavens Are Hung in Black, about President Lincoln and Congress in 1862, closes March 8. For tickets ($25 to $52), call 202-397-7328 or visit fords.org.

Monday, January 26
Former Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., reads from his debut novel, The Rules of The Game, at Politics and Prose at 7. In the thriller, a Washington journalist covering politics traces a conspiracy all the way to the White House. We think we’ve seen this one before.

Tuesday, January 27
The Library of Congress screens the 1935 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities at 7. The movie will play at the library’s Mount Pony Theater at the Packard Campus (19053 Mount Pony Rd.; Culpeper). Call 202-707-9994 for more information.

Wednesday, January 28
The Natural History Museum’s Ask an Expert series presents a conversation with the museum’s resident National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration scientist at 3. Learn about new discoveries and field studies through a lecture and a presentation of specimens and artifacts.

Monday, January 12:
Some of the world’s top scientists are gathering today at the Natural History Museum to debate the possible extinction of the rainforest. Cristián Samper, the museum’s director, and Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will moderate the discussion from 1 to 6:30 in Baird Auditorium.

Tuesday, January 13:
The New Republic’s Clay Risen will read from his A Nation on Fire at Politics and Prose at 7. The book examines the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., its violent repercussions, and the end of the 1960s civil-rights movement.

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Thursday, January 8: Always hunting through thrift stores for that treasure? Can’t get enough of Antique Roadshow? Then you’ll want to head to the Washington Antiques Show, which kicks off today at American University’s Katzen Center and goes through the weekend. Over 40 antiques dealers will be showing off their wares. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Good news, craft cocktail lovers: there’s a new happy hour in town, just for you. Punch Club at the Warehouse Theater is a weekly night of cocktails, held every Thursday, conjured up by bartender Dan Searing of the Looking Glass Lounge. Head over from 6 PM to 11 PM to get your fix.

Looking to add a little, say, spontaniety to your life in 2009? You should check out the free intro to improv workshops that excellent local improv group WIT is holding this weekend. From 7 to 9 PM today and Sunday, the group will be showing you the ropes of how to get up on stage and improvise, hilariously so. Email topher@washingtonimprovtheater.com to request a day and more information.

Monday, January 5:
Cultural historian and author Steven Johnson brings his newest book, The Invention of Air, to Politics & Prose at 7. In the book, Johnson chronicles the life of Joseph Priestley, an 18th-century scientist who discovered oxygen and helped influence the Founding Fathers.

Tuesday, January 6:
The Library of Congress screens Pick Up on South Street at the Packard Campus’s Mount Pony Theater tonight at 7. Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film stars Richard Widmark as Skip McCoy, who winds up with a piece of a top-secret microfilm after picking the purse of Candy, played by Jean Peters. Call 202-707-9994 for more information.

Wednesday, January 7:
The Corcoran’s Wednesday Jazz Series continues with the Frank Russo Trio today at 12:30 in the Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium.