Best Bets: Islamic Arts Festival, Playhouse Creatures and Myths and Leyendas

One time change later, and it's another week, another list of best bets. This week, we've got an immersive theater experience, a musical trip back to the Harlem Renaissance, and a celebration of Islamic arts. Keep reading for these and more events that got our pick for the best things to do this coming week.

Imagine a Major League Baseball player making a political protest on the biggest stage – Game 7 of the World Series – and you've got Gabriel Greene and Alex Levy's , a 90-minute immersive production that the University of Houston's School of Theatre & Dance will open tonight, Thursday, November 7, at 7 p.m. at Schroeder Park . Director Jack Reuler, who has directed every production of to date, recently told the that though the play uses baseball as a metaphor, the immersive 90-minute production is " really a play about us, immigration policy, about Major League Baseball's relationship to its players from other countries, our fascination with celebrity. " Performances will continue at 7 p.m. through Sunday, November 10. Tickets are available here for $15 to $20.

Delve into Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi's eighth book of madrigals, published in 1638, during Ars Lyrica 's latest program, Madrigals of Love and War , at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 8, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts . Six singers – bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca , countertenor Michael Skarke , sopranos Amia Langer and Erica Schuller , and tenors Steven Brennfleck and Thomas O'Neill – will join eight musicians playing period instruments to perform a selection of Monteverdi's part-songs, including one of his most famous works , as well as instrumental pieces from fellow Italians from the early Baroque period like Giovanni Paolo Cima and Bartolomeo Montalbano. Tickets to the in-person concert can be purchased here for $15 to $80, or you can stream the performance from home with a $20 digital ticket.

Step back in time to the Harlem Renaissance for a jazzy evening inspired by nightspots like the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom when the Houston Symphony presents It Don't Mean a Thing: Swingin' Uptown Classics with Byron Stripling at Jones Hall on Friday, November 8, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. Conductor, trumpeter, and singer Stripling will lead the Symphony, along with guests Carmen Bradford and Leo Manzari , in a program of jazz standards from artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway. The concert will also be performed on Saturday, November 9, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 10, at 2 p.m. In-hall tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $40 to $115. If you can't make it, you can access a livestream of Saturday night's show here for $20. Spend time with five actresses, some of the first to be allowed to act publicly, in Restoration-era London on Friday, November 8, at 8 p.m. when Lionwoman Productions TX opens the Texas premiere of British playwright April De Angelis's 1993 play at the MATCH . De Angelis has said audiences " will be able to travel back in time watching this play and be in the company of these exciting actresses " and see what it may have been like " to have all that attention and be artists in the public eye" at a time "women were a bit seen and not heard. " Performances will continue through November 23 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and November 11, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, and 4:30 p.m. November 16. Tickets are available here for $17 to $40.

For the first time, the 11th Annual Islamic Arts Festival , a two-day celebration touted as the largest festival of Islamic arts in the country, will be held at the University of Houston starting this Saturday, November 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. In addition to more than 5,000 works of art on display, a variety of activities for children, and live demonstrations of calligraphy, henna, and ebru, this year, festivalgoers can attend a spoken word program, a film festival celebrating Muslim voices in cinema, a performance by the Spain-based Al-Firdaus Ensemble , and a Muslim comedy show. The festival continues on Sunday, November 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission to the festival is free, but a $15 ticket (or $45 VIP seating ticket) is needed to attend Saturday's comedy show and performance by Al-Firdaus Ensemble. Americans were formally introduced to now landmark anime series , about a group of bounty hunters traveling through space in the year 2071, in September 2001 when Cartoon Network premiered Adult Swim, their new late-night programming block. The series, which ran for only one 26-episode season in Japan, has been described as a " 1:1 mix of sci-fi western and film noir, steeped in American jazz and blues and framed by retro James Bond-meets-Blue Note credits " that " was guaranteed to spawn a reverent cult. " On Saturday, November 9, at 7:30 p.m., Asia Society Texas will celebrate its latest exhibit, " Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis ," with a series of space-themed anime films – the first being from 2001. Tickets for the 18-and-up screening can be purchased here for $12 to $15.

Celebrate the Latin American collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , and be present for the unveiling of new sculptures by six local Latinx artists on Sunday, November 10, from 1 to 5 p.m. during the Myths and Fall Festival in the museum's Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza and the Cullen Sculpture Garden . The family-friendly festival will feature art activities, music and dance performances, plenty of food vendors, film screenings from the Houston Latino Film Festival , and a game of lotería. Admission to both the festival and general admission to the museum will be free all day, and you must reserve a ticket here . If you can't make it, the sculptures – created by artists Loriana Espinel , Diana Gonzalez, Francisco Pereira, Jean Sandoval, Alma Soto, and Ashley Raquel Trejo – will remain on view through November 17.