What to do in Madison this week: Curling championship, First Look at the Fest and more

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Note: Public Health Madison and Dane County allowed the most recent face covering public order to expire on Feb. 28. Many venues and businesses may continue to maintain individual requirements for masking, as well as proof of COVID-19 vaccination and/or a negative test for entry. Before heading out for any in-person event, confirm it is still taking place and check for any attendance guidelines on the relevant business websites or social media accounts.

USA Curling Mixed Doubles National Championship, March 8-13, Capitol Ice Arena, Middleton: After seeing America’s top-ranked curlers compete on the world stage in this year’s Winter Olympics, get a dose of up-close curling action right here in your own backyard. Watch America’s top mixed doubles teams (including Madison’s own Olympian siblings, Matt and Becca Hamilton) battle in Middleton to determine which duo will advance to the 2022 World Mixed Doubles Championship. Tuesday kicks off with round robin matches, with competition beginning at 9 a.m. March 8-10 and 11 a.m. March 11-13 (note updated schedule information). The winners will represent the United States in Geneva, Switzerland, starting April 23. Find ticket options at tickets.capitolicearena.com.

Alison Townsend, Tuesday, March 8, Crowdcast, 7 p.m.: Wisconsin writer Alison Townsend will be discussing her new book, The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home, with essayist Catherine Jagoe on Crowdcast in this Wisconsin Book Festival event. Townsend, who has published several volumes of poetry, turns to the essay here to parse five rural and wilderness landscapes, and how we as humans connect to the land.

Crossroads of Ideas, Tuesday, March 8, UW Discovery Building, 7 p.m.: The Morgridge Institute for Research is looking at “Big Questions” in this semester's Crossroads of Ideas panel discussions. The March event examines a very big one: “What is Free Will?” The topic will be discussed by UW philosophy professor Martha Gibson, Duke University professor Tamar Kushnir; UW professor Adam Nelson will moderate the discussion and lead a Q&A. Register for the in-person presentation at warf.org (where you can also find information on a Zoom option).

NASSIM, March 8-12, Overture Center-Promenade Hall: Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour created White Rabbit Red Rabbit while he was barred from leaving Iran as a conscientious objector to military service. That play has since been performed around the world in many languages — with each performance featuring an actor who had not read the script before. Soleimanpour brings that concept to NASSIM, in which a guest starts each night's performance and navigates through the play in collaboration with Soleimanpour himself. Madison's guest performer lineup is drawn from the business and arts communities: Karra Beach (Overture), Jessica Cavazos (Latino Chamber of Commerce), Francesca Hong (Culinary Ladies Collective co-founder), Oscar Mireles (poet and author), Angela Russell (CUNA Mutual Foundation), and Anne Strainchamps (Wisconsin Public Radio host). Shows at 7:30 p.m. nightly, plus a 2 p.m. matinee on March 12. Find tickets at overture.org.

A Piece of My Heart, March 8-11, UW Vilas Hall-Hemsley Theatre, 7:30 p.m.: University Theatre will perform the two-act A Piece of My Heart, written by UW-Madison alumna Shirley Lauro. The play tells the true stories of six women — five nurses and a country singer — who were sent to Vietnam during the war. The experiences of each woman before, during and after their respective tours are detailed. Sacrifice and human loss portrayed in the play characterize the period of history as harrowing and intense. Tickets at artsticketing.wisc.edu.

First Look at the Fest, Wednesday, March 9, Great Dane-Hilldale, 7 p.m.: Excitement is building for the return of an in-person Wisconsin Film Festival April 7-14, and you can find the Film Guide along with the March 10 issue of Isthmus. Can't wait to see the schedule? Pick up an advance copy and also help fund the festival with a ticket purchase to First Look at the Fest, which also returns as an in-person happening this year. The event includes a screening of trailers for 2022 fest films, food and drink, and even a chance to reserve tickets for your must-see picks.

Checking In: Hotels, Camps and Motor Inns, Wednesday, March 9, Zoom, 7 p.m.: If the prospect of checking in to an old-timey motor court makes your heart beat faster, this nostalgic/history discussion is for you. Hotels, tourist camps, cabins, motels and motor inns have all captured the traveler's heart over the course of the 20th century, and Michael Bridgeman of the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation will discuss them with special attention to in-state examples and those close to Madison. This Zoom event is a fundraiser for the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation. Tickets here.

Lúnasa, Wednesday, March 9, Garver Feed Mill, 7:30 p.m.: Madison may be missing its annual St. Patrick's Day parade, postponed for another season, but fans of Irish music have some good choices on the concert calendar. Among upcoming shows is the legendary Lúnasa, a supergroup of players who have performed with The Waterboys, Kate Rusby, Flook, Bruce Springsteen and even Riverdance tours. Dance to the band's traditional folk during two sets at Garver; find tickets here.

The Mytilenian Debate, through March 13, Overture Center-Playhouse: Poet, award-winning author, and Forward Theater writer-in-residence Amy Quan Barry will present the first full production of her new play The Mytilenian Debate. Barry’s story examines questions of identity and familial expectations that arise between a Black woman struggling to start a family and her father, whose much younger girlfriend has become pregnant. While far less violent than the history that inspired its name — an ancient Greek Athenian Assembly action that ended in mass slaughter and enslavement of citizens of the city-state of Mytilene — Barry’s play tackles complex subjects. Performances at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, plus 2 p.m. on March 5 and 12.

Into the Magic, March 10-13, Alliant Energy Center-Coliseum: This Disney on Ice touring production for all ages features characters from Coco, Moana, Tangled and more classic family films. Shows at 7 p.m., March 10-11; 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., March 12; and 1 and 5 p.m., March 13. Tickets here.

Gaelic Storm, Thursday, March 10, Barrymore Theatre, 8 p.m.: Regular visitors to Madison and the upper Midwest in the vicinity of St. Patrick's Day before the touring world shut down in 2020, Gaelic Storm is back for their first Madison show since 2019 on the aptly-named “We Missed You Tour.” Gaelic Storm's lively take on Irish music is rowdy enough for the rockers and rooted enough for the traditionalists. (They even have a Packers-esque scarf in their merch assembly for this tour, as modeled on the group's Facebook page by co-founder Patrick Murphy.) Tickets at barrymorelive.com. Hot tip: Make a night of it by catching Killarney Blarney playing next door at the Atwood, starting at 7 p.m. before and following the Barrymore concert.

Silk Stranger, Lunar Moth, Supper Club, Thursday, March 10, The Bur Oak, 8 p.m.: Three Madison-based bands come together for an evening of alternative music and rock. 2022 WSUM-FM Battle of the Bands contestant Silk Stranger, a self-proclaimed “genre-fluid rock band,” has reunited after a short hiatus with more fervor than ever. Lunar Moth, a garage rock trio with influences from psych and doom metal, released their first full-length album, Honestly, Maybe, in 2021. The group's newest single, “Toaster Bath,” a satirical Valentine's Day release, chides that “If you want to stay looking good, all you need’s a toaster bath.” Rounding out the night is Americana quintet Supper Club, who most recently released “Nowhere To Go,” a single reminiscent of early pandemic days.

We hope it’s handy for you to find Picks grouped together in a single post. The individual Picks can still be found in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.

Editor's note: This post has been updated with new schedule info for the curling tournament.