The V Side: From PopUp Art to Shakespeare in the park

The V Side offers these offbeat entertainment options for the weekend, from NolaVie.

The NOLA Project brings ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ back to the Sculpture Garden in City Park.

Thursday / The play’s the thing: Shakespeare returns to the garden – the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, that is – with an encore performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. More than 2,000 people saw the play when it first bowed in the spring. For those who didn’t, and wished they had, The NOLA Project waited for just the right weather to stage a replay. Opening night is 7 p.m. Thursday at the garden in City Park, with the run continuing through Oct. 16. For times and tickets, click here. For The Times-Picayune review of the play, click here.

FRIDAY / Into the woods: For the past decade, artists have been rejuvenating and creating at A Studio in the Woods, a 7+-acre wooded retreat on the West Bank sponsored by Tulane University. To celebrate such inspiration, alumni will show their works in an exhibition, “10 Years, 47 Artists,” at Tulane University’s Carroll Gallery. An opening reception for the retrospective takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Woldenberg Art Center on the Tulane campus, with special performances by former residents poet Moose Jackson and members of ArtSpot Productions. It’s free.

Dawn Dedaux riffs on ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ for an installation at NolaVie’s PopUp Art event

Saturday / Healing arts: It’s funky; it’s fun; it’s free: What’s not to like? NolaVie hosts a one-night-only Art PopUP from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at The Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude Ave. New Orleans artist extraordinaire Dawn Dedeaux will preview her Prospect 2 piece, based on John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, at an event that also features paintings, photographs, NolaVie writers and editors and wine and cheese. The St. Claude arts district holds gallery openings the same night, making it a prime time to check out this very happening part of the city. The Healing Center, if you haven’t yet seen it, is well worth the visit as well.

Saturday / And later: After the NolaVie PopUp Art event (above), stay in the hood for What Up Grilllllll?!, a Second Saturday after-party featuring music (The Tin Types, Whom Do You Work For?) and food (La Divina, Il Posto, The Rusty Nail) and more from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Backyard Ballroom, 3519 St. Claude Ave. Admission is $10 at the door, and proceeds will go toward funding Skin Horse Theater’s next original work, “Sarah,” which will debut at the New Orleans Fringe Festival in November. After 11, a shake-your-booty dance party with DJ Miss Asa Metric is free.

Sunday / Salivate: Meanwhile, Back at Café DuMonde … is a play not a place. A unique festive food monologue show presented by chefs, foodie personalities and local celebs returns to New Orleans at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in the Riverwalk. Who could resist Nell Nolan discoursing about ‘Pineapple in a Can,’ or Dian Lusher’s ode to a Southern staple, “I Love Me Some Okra”? Tickets are $20; call the museum at 504-569-0405 for reservations.

The V Side is published every Thursday by NolaVie.