THEATER
Othello has already extended its run and should continue to please the masses. Treat a teen (or anyone) unfamiliar with the tale.

The usually artful Strawberry Theatre Workshop opens The Elephant Man with a promising cast of Seattle pros.

You often get way more than you pay for at the free-of-charge Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival. (But bring a chair: a blanket only seems like summer comfort.)

CLASSICAL & MORE
Sci-fi fans will probably pack Benaroya for Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s second-to-last operetta, Utopia, Limited, doesn’t get performed too often; Seattle’s G&S Society give it a go again (they did it back in 1991).

DANCE
Energetic teens mesh their talents to professional choreographers at the annual Dance This…. Guests include multi-talented musician and performer Daniel Bernard Roumain, who mixes hip-hop sensibility with classical technique.

CONCERTS
Kyla Fairchild has done everything but donate a kidney to keep roots music in the media. I know I’ll be there applauding her efforts—and looking forward to Gillian Welch, the Maldives, and others—at the first annual No Depression Festival on Saturday.

No roots for you? Watch Reverend Horton Heat swing into his raucous rockabilly at Showbox at the Market that same night.

FILM
Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton’s Humpday just got a sweet review from the New York Times—and its limited release includes the Harvard Exit this weekend—but I’m more excited about another female director: Kathryn Bigelow and her big-buzz action comeback with The Hurt Locker. (You may laugh at Point Break but its on-foot pursuit scene belongs right up there with the car chases of The French Connection and Bullitt as far as I’m concerned.)

VISUAL ART
Western Bridge is worth the trip for its multi-genre Underwater exhibit, a beach-and-ocean themed group show including photographer Richard Misrach.

BOOKS & TALKS
Gloria Steinem is penning her memoir at Whidbey Island’s Hedgebrook and appears with folk legend Holly Near at Town Hall under the auspices of the women’s writing retreat.

The Seattle Public Library hosts a free reading from Rebecca Wells, the best-selling Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood local author who returns with The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, about the life and loves of a Louisiana girl.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Summer in Seattle is here—it’s called Seafair, which turns 60 this year and is still kickin’ it with that kind of charming milk-carton-boat thing. You can also head over to the three-day West Seattle Summer Fest or find fine French food at Seattle Center’s Bastille Day Celebration on Saturday and Sunday.