Davidson Community Players’ the Connie Company and the Davidson College theater department will present the children’s adventure story “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Friday through Sunday, Jan. 25-27, at Cunningham Theater Center Barber Theatre, off North Main Street in Davidson. Read the full story

Live music tops the schedule of events this weekend, from opera to a classical trio, and an open mic night at Kadi Fit to a CD-release party for Davidson’s Rusty Knox Saturday at Summit Coffee. Warehouse Performing Arts Center has one more performance Thursday of “The Last Five Years,” a concert version of Jason Robert Brown’s contemporary musical about the five-year life of a marriage. There’s a winter tailgate market Saturday morning at Davidson Farmer’s Market, and local residents plan a Day of Service Saturday at Ada Jenkins Center. Meanwhile, Davidson College’s basketball teams have several games, including the annual Kicks from Cats fundraising night Saturday, when College of Charleston plays the men’s team at Belk Arena.

On the big screen, Our Town Cinemas has “Gangster Squad,” “Les Miserables,” “This is 40″ and “Zero Dark Thirty.” Opening Friday, it’s “Lincoln,” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” See showtimes at right on this page. Read the full story

Davidson College graduate Allie Coker will be at Summit Coffee in Davidson Saturday night to read and sign copies of her new book “What I learned at Davidson.” Ms. Coker is a 2010 graduate who now lives in Durham. Her book includes interviews and insights from dozens of professors, students, and alumni about their experiences at Davidson.

The reading will include a Q&A and discussion with the author. It’s scheduled from 5 to 6:30pm at Summit Coffee, 128 S. Main St.

Info: 704-895-9090 or visit www.summitcoffee.com.

Davidson College’s calendar of public events begins this week with a performance by local organist Jane Cain, in the Organ at Davidson series at Davidson College Presbyterian Church. On Monday, Jan. 21, the college hosts a series of events related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Other events this month include a two-day opera theater workshop, a children’s theater production of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and a visit by pianist Phillip Bush. Also ahead: Music and dance performances, lectures and films. Here’s the schedule:  Read the full story

Organ at Davidson presents its first concert of 2013 on Tuesday, Jan. 8, with a program of Christmas and Epiphany music by Jane D. Cain, the music director at Davidson College Presbyterian Church. The free concert begins at 7:30 in the Davidson College Presbyterian Church sanctuary, 100 N. Main St., Davidson.

She’s calling the program “Sing We Now of Christmas,” which also is the name of the carol that highlights the program in Marcel Dupré’s challenging “Variations on a Noel.” Other pieces include organ works by Buxtehude and Bach and a dynamic, driving piece called “Everybody Dance.”

Since this season’s Organ at Davidson theme “Organ-Plus,” the concert will feature guest sopranos Elisabeth Davis, Christina Tarry and Amy Weir, singing Christmas songs from the Romantic era by Peter Cornelius. Read the full story

Political activist and academic Angela Davis will visit Davidson on Tuesday, Feb. 12, to present the college’s annual Wearn Lecture, on the subject “Political Activism and Protest from the 1960s to the Age of Obama.”

Her talk is Feb. 12 at 8pm in Duke Family Performance Hall in the Alvarez College Union. It’s free and open to the public. Read the full story