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The Big Ticket

Muslim Comedian Azhar Usman
Laughter is the best medicine. Thursday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m. UT’s University Center Ballroom. Free.

Ballet Hispanico
Tango de la Muerte? Thursday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m. Clarence Brown Theatre. $20 general, discounts for UT students, faculty.

Anna Karenina
Tolstoy’s tragic heroine lives on stage. Preview Oct. 7, 8 a.m. Premiere Oct. 8, 8 p.m. Continues thru 24. Ula Love Doughty Carousel Theatre. Call the box office at 974-5161 for details.

Harvest Jam Fest with Stormy Mountain, Garage Deluxe and Roddy Branch
Two great causes that taste great together. Friday, Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. Bijou Theatre. $5 w/ two cans of food; $10 no food.

Race for the Cure
Run so that others may live. Saturday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m. Knoxville Civic Coliseum. $30 for 5K and 1-mile fun run; $10 for Kids for the Cure.

Hispanic Heritage Festival
Viva everything Hispanic—food, music, art, and more. Saturday, Oct. 9, 12-6 p.m. University of Tennessee Student Center. Free.

Historic Parkridge Home Tour
Old houses strut their stuff. Sunday, Oct. 10, 1-6 p.m. Starting at Caswell Park. $8 adv., $10 day of tour.

Show What You Know Festival’s Samba Ensemble
Learn to dance and sing. Start a parade. Sunday, Oct. 10, 3-5 p.m. Market Square. Free.

Tommy Emmanuel
A versatile, prolific player, Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel works the fertile ground where blues, folk, country, jazz and assorted world musics intersect; his 15 solo recordings have included duets with the likes of Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, and the late Chet Atkins, and he even recorded one album, 1996’s Classical Gas, backed by the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra. His latest, Endless Road on CPR Entertainment, is a solo acoustic affair replete with the same sort of daring technical facility and musical cross-pollination that have long made him a favorite among people who know.
Emmanuel is truly a guitar player’s guitar player; folks who have seen him perform testify that simply watching him coax, strum and slap amazing sounds out of his chosen instrument is almost as entertaining as simply closing your eyes and partaking of the rich aural results. (Mike Gibson)
Tommy Emmanuel w/ Wild Blue Yonder • Thursday, Oct. 7, 6-10 p.m. • Market Square • Free.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has been subject to treatments and interpretations from animation to a Broadway musical. Now the Actor’s Co-op takes the beloved, yet reviled, Headless Horseman for a spin with Dennis E. Perkins at the directing helm in a Whippersnapper production of the classic. The Co-op’s resident playwright Alan Gratz (Measured in Labor: The Coal Creek Project) gave the legend a less Disneyfied slant to capture the humor while preserving the beauty of the dialogue. “We had Alan adapt it, because most of the other stage versions talked down to the audience and ignored some of the best parts of the story, being the syntax,” Perkins says. The story’s vocabulary is infamous for its complexity; rather than over-simplifying it, Gratz keeps the orignal dialogue intact, but shrewdly has the characters repeat some of the exchanges in plainer English.
Expect the eeriest of staging with shadowy branches to exaggerate gloominess, and actors bounding from end to end of the unusual stage arrangement. With the talents of Gratz and Perkins, the Co-op’s treatment of “Sleepy Hollow” could become the children’s theater standard for the murky masterpiece. (Clint Casey)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • Oct. 8 thru 24, Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. • Black Box Theare • Admission is $8 for adults and $5 children under 12. Call 909-9300 for reservations and information.

Fall Native Plant Sale & Garden Festival
Going native could save you time and money on gardening. Native plants require less maintenance than non-native species, cause less strain on the environment and enrich the natural beauty of East Tennessee. Ijams Nature Center’s Fall Native Plant Sale & Garden Festival features multiple regional nurseries that specialize in native plants, particularly fall-bloomers like the beauty berry shrub, native sunflowers, rhododendrons, azaelas and hollies. It’s a rare opportunity to shop nurseries that aren’t always open to the public. Craft booths will display handmade birdhouses and feeders, plus handcrafted pottery to house native or non-native plants. Gardening workshops will teach the art of wild-scaping—making your backyard a haven for native plant species—and tips for creating a bird-friendly yard. The festival will include kids’ activities, food and live music from local funk artists Sharon and Brian Beach. Ijams will also sell its own special blend of bird feed during the festival. Proceeds from the event will help fund the Ijams Nature Center Education Programs, which educate Tennesseeans about environmental preservation. (Melissa Elkins)
Fall Native Plant Sale & Garden Festival • Sunday, Oct. 10, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. • Ijams Nature Center • Free.