5 Things To Do This Weekend, Including JP Porchfest And A Roving Play

It’s nice to see that a lot of companies are choosing to keep some of their COVID-19 practices in place, especially livestreaming and virtual options for events. This allows for so much more accessibility and I'm hoping it’s something that stays permanent even after COVID-19 is long gone (if it ever goes away). This week’s roundup of events includes a festival, a festival and...oh yeah, another festival! (It’s festival season.) But they’re all different. There’s the JP Porchfest, Boston’s GreenFest and the Dudley Jazz Festival. But in case you’re not a festival-goer, I’ve also included a couple of suggestions — either in person or virtual — from a roving adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” to a virtual readthrough of a Chinatown-set musical. Happy weekend!

Kit Yan and Melissa Li are the 2020-2021 PlayLab Pao Fellows, a two-year-long commission supporting the creation of art-making centered around community. This virtual concert will showcase their work-in-progress musical about a hoarder grandma who has lived in Chinatown her whole life and is now dealing with the threat of gentrification. Join them as they perform this story of the grandmother recounting the history of the objects in her home to her trans grandson as they decide whether to stay in the neighborhood or leave. The event will also include a conversation between artists and the community that’ll touch upon the creative journey they’ve embarked on, along with the rise of anti-Asian rhetoric and racism.

Boston’s GreenFest is a multicultural environmental music festival. This year, the theme for the event is “Environment Equality NOW” and it’ll be both in-person and streamed online. The festival will offer up the chance to do some hula hooping, yoga, and even the opportunity to participate in a scavenger hunt. Throughout the weekend, there will also be electric vehicles and robots roaming around. Lastly, there will also be an EcoFashion show that might make you reconsider your wardrobe!

JP’s Porchfest is back for its seventh year — a chance for local musicians to perform in front of the community, on a porch! The event will be spread across two days and due to COVID-19, performances will be capped at a maximum of 18 porches each day. . This year’s festival will also include Couchfest for people who would prefer a virtual event. Performers include Urbano Project, Amanda Shea, Fabiola Mendez and many more!

Presented by the nonprofit Creative Cultural Arts, this year’s Dudley Jazz Festival lineup will include Fred Woodward, Tyson Jackson and Bill Pierce. The Tyson Jackson Trio will open up the festival to welcome people in. In a Facebook post, Jackson wrote “As an artist, I realize that I serve as a vessel for music to flow through. It is my duty to continue to pay homage to the masters who have come before me, while incorporating an innovative approach to my artistry...” If you’re ready to listen to some jazz, be sure to head to Dudley Miller Park in Roxbury.

This bilingual production of “Romeo + Juliet” will be in English and Spanish and will be a moving production with actors and audiences moving through the street and park of Chelsea Square. There will be a pre-show before the play, and BearMoose Brewery will be on hand to provide drinks and food! The play will be approximately 90 minutes long and they encourage you to move your feet along with the action of the play about the tale of forbidden love. If you miss it this Saturday you have one more chance to catch this production on Aug. 28. [Read more about this production in this piece from contributor Shira Laucharoen.]