Theater: I kid playwright Michael McKeever whenever I see him, asking whether he has completed another play this week. The South Florida writer-actor-designer is not only extremely prolific, but as his output has deepened and grown more dramatic, he has shown signs of his arrival as a major voice in the theater. A case in point – but merely the latest – is his play After, receiving its world premiere at Miami’s Zoetic Stage in the Arsht Center’s Studio Theater through this Sunday. In its opening scene, it has much in common with the Tony-winning God of Carnage, as two couples meet and try to maintain civility as they rehash a confrontation between their unseen sons. One has texted the other a threat of violence and a crude epithet, for which an apology is demanded. Without giving away too much, the threat escalates, violence occurs, but it is the aftermath that McKeever wants to explore, cutting to the bone. He is part of a first-rate ensemble that includes Mia Matthews, Jeni Hacker, Tom Wahl and Karen Stephens. This is a play you do not want to miss, but it will surely have a life beyond Miami. Call 305-949-6722 for tickets.
Art: This week, the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens prepares the way for its annual Festival of Trees, which this year focuses on design, with a show of iconic photographs from the Holden Luntz Gallery on Palm Beach. Images by artists such as Berenice Abbott, John Dugdale, Elliott Erwitt and Clive Arrowsmith are arranged in rooms with different themes from fashion of the 1960s to American architecture of the 1940s. Gardens trustee Frances Fisher says the exhibit is part of the museum’s effort to “raise the bar” for the kinds of exhibits the West Palm Beach museum produces. The Luntz show runs through Dec. 28. Admission is $10, and the Gardens are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Call 832-5238 or visit www.ansg.org for more information.
Film: Loving is the last name of an unassuming man who had the audacity to fall in love with, get married to and live together with an African-American woman named Mildred Jeter. But this was the late 1950s, when such things were illegal. The case of Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) and his wife (Ruth Negga), which they take all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the focus of Loving, a low-key, but very involving drama, directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter). Of course there have been many other films about the history of civil rights, but few are as muted and cerebral, while also tugging at the viewer’s heartstrings. In the Lovings’s quest to be allowed the right to marry, the parallels to the recent battle by the gay community are unmistakable. Look for Loving to grow in prominence as we get closer to awards season. Opening at area theaters this weekend.
Music: Time was when orchestras in the big cities would regularly make bus tours to less symphonically blessed parts of the country, and while those days have mostly gone, the Cleveland Orchestra is now in its 11th season as a regular guest at the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall in Miami. Tonight the orchestra wraps its first concert appearance with the stellar violinist Gil Shaham playing the beautiful and popular Violin Concerto of American composer Samuel Barber on a program that also features another big 20th-century hit, the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. Giancarlo Guerrero, the energetic, bubbly regular guest conductor, leads the concert, which is bound to be at a very high level indeed. Call the box office at 305-949-6722 or visit clevelandorchestramiami.com.