MONDAY, APRIL 16
DRINKS Bluejacket is hosting a beer and whiskey dinner on Monday night with Master Distiller Dave Pickerell and Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s Beer Director Greg Engert. Pickerell, who worked for 14 years at Maker’s Mark, is the man behind the brands WhistlePig, Hillrock Estate, and Ragged Branch. Each meal in this 5-course dinner will be paired with a different beer from Bluejacket as well as a whiskey from one of Pickerell’s brands. $125, 7 PM.
BOOKS In The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery, Barbara K. Lipska recounts her personal experience with a melanoma that leached into her brain and caused symptoms of dementia and schizophrenia. Lipska, director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health, is an expert in mental illness and brain development. With her miraculous recovery, she’s able to explain how brain injuries and mental illness can change behavior and personality. Lipska will discuss her research at Politics & Prose. Free, 7 PM.
TUESDAY, APRIL 17
THEATRE Signature Theatre presents the DC premiere of the coming-of-age musical Girlfriend, inspired by Matthew Sweet’s 1991 alt-rock album of the same name. The play follows the budding romance between two teenage boys in the summer after high school in small-town Nebraska in 1993. Featuring the Sweet’s music and lyrics alongside a book by Todd Almond, the story balances the excitement of first love with the awkwardness of teenagers. Through June 10. $40-$94.
MUSIC Chicago trio RLYR is somewhat of a supergroup featuring members of other notable experimental and post-metal bands such as Locrian and Pelican. The group’s newly-released second album Actual Existence features four epicly-long tunes; RLYR will play at DC9 with Fotocrime, the new project of former Coliseum frontman Ryan Patterson. $10-$12, 8 PM.
THEATRE Playwright Samuel Beckett’s legendary work, Waiting for Godot, opens at the Shakespeare Theatre on Tuesday. This new interpretation by Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes is a funnier take on the classic plot of two men waiting on the side of the road. Through May 20. $38-$118.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18
MUSEUMS Artist Do Ho Suh’s “fabric architecture” sculptures have been on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum since March. On Wednesday evening, Sarah Newman, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art, will discuss the artist’s representations of his past homes as well as the themes of identity in his works. Free, 5:30 PM.
FILM Wu-Tang Clan co-founder RZA is merging his loves of music and martial arts films at a special screening of the 1978 Shaw Brothers film, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, at the Warner Theatre. Using his extensive library of instrumental tracks, beats, and effects, the two-time Grammy-nominated artist will perform his own live score to this film. $36-$49, 8 PM.
