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The Culture Calendar

London
After television stints both stellar (The West Wing) and less than (Out of Practice), Tony winner Stockard Channing returns to the stage in the Almeida Theatre’s production of Awake and Sing! She will play Bessie Berger, the manipulative matriarch of a multi-generational Jewish family. (Aug. 31 to Oct. 20 at the Almeida Theatre, Islington, London N1 1TA; 44 020 7359 4404)
Madrid
A self-proclaimed disciple of the "true religion" of abstract expressionism, painter David Brody also works with computer-generated abstract forms. In his recent animated short, Proliferation, a "cross-like fractal form" gyrates in sync with classical music. (Sept. 9, 16, 23, and 30 at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Santa Isabel 52, 28012, Madrid, Spain; 34 92 774 10 00)
Boston
Allie Humenuk, a documentary filmmaker for PBS, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel, visited Cuba for her latest effort, Shadow of the House. The film traces the life of Cuban-American photographer Abelardo Morell, who struggles with his national identity. (Sept. 12 to Sept. 22 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass.; 617-267-9300)
Everywhere
Tommy Lee Jones stars opposite Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron in The Valley of Elah. He plays Hank Deerfield, an Army veteran who discovers that his son, recently home from Iraq, was murdered by members of his own platoon. The film, inspired by a Playboy article by Mark Boal, is named after the place where David fought Goliath. (Opens nationwide Sept. 14)
Cleveland
The elaborate constructions of installation artist Diana Cooper have been compared to both Frank Lloyd Wright’s suburban office parks and computer circuit boards. Cooper creates sprawling three-dimensional works that, in her words, "comment on the tension between order and chaos in a networked world." (Sept. 28 to Dec. 30 at MOCA Cleveland, 8501 Carnegie Ave.; 216-421-8671)
Reims
Mimi Oka and Doug Fitch’s multisensory "Orphic Feasts" have included floating dinner parties and edible costumes. Their new installation, an homage to Bruegel the Elder’s The Land of Cockaigne, is a mountain of dough made from polyurethane. (A Nap in the Land of Cockaigne runs June 24 to Oct. 18 in the Parc de Champagne, 10 Ave. du Général Giraud, Reims, France; 03 26 35 52 50)
budapest
Conductor and pianist Joel Sachs will be directing the Danube-Hudson Project, new works by composition students from Juilliard and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, in Budapest and New York. (Oct. 21 at the Franz Liszt Academy, Liszt Ferenc, tér 8, Budapest, 1061, 36 1 462 4600; and Oct. 29 in the Paul Recital Hall at The Juilliard School, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York; 212-721-6500)
New York
After appearing partially nude in Goya’s Ghost, and doing her best to make us forget Padmé Amidala, Natalie Portman goes indie again in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman, about three brothers seeking enlightenment in India upon the death of their father. (Premieres Sept. 28 at the New York Film Festival)
New York
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "sundown towns" across the American South warned African- Americans to clear out before sunset. Documentary filmmaker Marco Williams explores the legacy of three such towns in his new film Banished, a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. (Opens Oct. 10 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston St., New York; 212-727-8110)
Everywhere
Mira Sorvino, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1995, stars opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo in Reservation Road, an adaptation of John Burnham Schwartz’s novel about two families torn apart over a child’s death. The film also stars Jennifer Connelly and was directed by Terry George of Hotel Rwanda. (Limited opening Oct. 19)
Everywhere
Television star Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy, Grey’s Anatomy) plays Sylvia in The Jane Austen Book Club, a film adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler’s book about six Californians— five women and one man—who gather to discuss the high priestess of chick lit and discover that their lives are modern- day versions. Directed by Robin Swicord. (Opens nationwide Sept. 21)