Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, April 10-17

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the tax-time B9:

➤ Is there a more well-known or beloved depiction of womanhood in the American South than Robert Harling’s funny/sad/moving “Steel Magnolias”? Up at Mountain Community Theater at Park Hall in Ben Lomond, “Steel Magnolias” has been a phenomenon, with standing ovations punctuating every performance. The good news is that there’s still one more weekend left in the show’s run, Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoon. Director Peter Gelblum, a veteran at MCT, said he’s never seen anything quite like the audience reaction to his all-female cast. He was lucky enough, he said, to have gathered some of the area’s finest stage performers for the comedy/drama set in Truvy’s beauty parlor. In fact, the casting call was so successful, he said, “I had 30 people come out for six parts, and I called back 20 of them. I could have cast this show two or three times over.” Check out what all the fuss is about this weekend in Ben Lomond.

➤ The greatest of Jamaican roots-reggae groups tend to last a long time, even across generations, and that’s certainly the case with the legendary act Third World. The group, which often shared the stage with Bob Marley & the Wailers, dates back to 1973, becoming international stars in the 1980s for its reggae sound that embraced elements of R&B and soul. A special show with a special band, Saturday night at Moe’s Alley.

➤ Multi-Grammy winning jazz pianist Kenny Barron has worked with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, and many other jazz luminaries. On Monday, the veteran bandleader and teacher brings his latest ensemble to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, just shy of his 82nd birthday. It’s not everyday that a bonafide American Jazz Hall of Fame inductee comes to town.

➤ It’s kind of amazing, the staying power of Fleetwood Mac. The 1970s-era supergroup has found the second life that has evaded other equally famous stars of that era. And that’s all for the good for Fleetwood Macramé, a Bay Area-based tribute band that knows all the hits and a few deep cuts as well. Find your favorite Stevie Nicks Welsh witch outfit and drop in on the party Friday at Felton Music Hall. 

➤ Santa Cruz County’s Poet Laureate program has given accomplished local poets a platform for more than 15 years, and it’s still going strong. On Monday, at Bookshop Santa Cruz, the county’s outgoing laureate, Farnaz Fatemi, hands over the baton to the incoming laureate, Nancy Miller Gomez, in a literary celebration with wine, munchies, and stimulating conversation.

➤ Cinephiles and music nerds alike are likely to be seduced by a Sunday afternoon event at The Rio. On the big screen, 12 short films from pioneering French artist Georges Méliès will include live accompaniment from a trio of musicians, playing both traditional and highly unusual instruments. It’s an ambitious multimedia project designed to bring new life to cinema’s earliest visionary. “Right in the Eye,” named for the most famous Méliès image of the man in the moon, comes to town Sunday. 

➤ Speaking of poets laureate, the county has a parallel program for young people. The position of Youth Poet Laureate is drawn from local poets under 18, and next week, the newest laureate will be announced. Five finalists have been selected and one of them will be named as laureate at a special celebration at Cabrillo College’s Samper Hall. For a stirring glimpse into the literary future, check it out next Thursday.

➤ If you’ve never experienced the astonishing phenomenon of Tuvan throat singing, there’s good news out of the Tannery Arts Center. A shaman from the Republic of Tuva named Chingiz Kam is conducting a program of shamanism including chants from his home region. Accompanying him is “punk ethnomusicologist gone rogue” Arrington de Dionyso in a show sure to bring an otherworldly vibe to Santa Cruz. It all goes down Sunday afternoon. 

➤ Every month, the performers of Sin Sisters Burlesque and Drag bring a defiant sense of outré queer sensuality to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, playing with all kinds of well-known icons and images of the feminine mystique. The Sisters, including Lady Satan and Cyanide Cyn, return to the Kuumbwa stage Saturday night.