Compiled by Richard Selden
BASTILLE DAY A DAY EARLY
A day-early celebration of Bastille Day will take place on Friday, July 13, from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. at the Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Road. Showcasing food and wine from France’s Alsace region on the Rhine, the event also includes a silent auction, live music by the Hot Club of Baltimore and dancing. General admission is $115. Proceeds benefit the Tricolore Committee, a nonprofit network that supports D.C.’s Francophone community. For details, visiteventbrite.com.
NATIONAL DANCE DAY, JULY 28
The Kennedy Center will celebrate National Dance Day on Saturday, July 28, with free activities from 10:15 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., including morning yoga; a master class with Lucy Bowen McCauley; tap, traditional, modern and hip hop performances; and “Dancing Under the Stars”with soukous (Congolese) and champeta (Colombian) lessons. Choreographed by Mandy Moore, the 2018 National Dance Day routine, set to Kylie Minogue’s newest single, “Dancing,”is available on Dizzy Feet Foundation’s YouTube channel, where the public can submit videos.
MADE IN HONG KONG FILM FESTIVAL
The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery host the 23rd annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival, a nine-film series of free Friday night and Sunday afternoon screenings starting July 13. The featured films include Hong Kong Film Award winner “Our Time Will Come,” directed by Ann Hui, about the World War II Japanese occupation (July 29), and “Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu,” a 1982 film directed by Lau Kar-leung, with a new score mixed live by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL
This year’s Capital Fringe Festival runs through Sunday, July 29. Venues include Arena Stage,Blind Whino, Caos on F, Christ United Methodist, City Bar, DC Arts Center, Market SW (the box office location), Pearl Street Warehouse, St. Augustine’s Episcopal and Westminster Presbyterian. Tickets are $17 plus a Fringe button ($7), with multi-show passes available. Thefestival’s parent continues to fundraise to renovate Logan Fringe Arts Space, a former autodetailing shop on Florida Avenue NE.
NEW SHAKESPEARE CENTER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
The new artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center — which presents works by Shakespeare and others in a Staunton, Virginia, recreation of the Bard’s post-Globe theater, Blackfriars — is Ethan McSweeny, former associate director of D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. A Columbia University graduate, McSweeny won a 2018 Helen Hayes Award for his direction of a STC production of “Twelfth Night,” which won for outstanding play. He succeeds co-founder Jim Warren.
