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Falls Church and the wider Washington area have a crowded calendar of community gatherings, concerts, films, exhibitions and theater from Aug. 6 through the following week. Highlights include a neighborhood potluck, Berman Park’s playground reopening, free outdoor entertainment and several closing-weekend productions.

Falls Church community events

Falls Church Forward will welcome new and longtime residents to its annual summer potluck from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, near Lincoln Avenue and Greenwich Street. Organizers will provide the exact location closer to the event, which has a rain date of Aug. 17.

This year’s “Local & Seasonal” theme encourages guests to bring food featuring summer ingredients or local produce, though fruit, baked goods and other picnic-friendly dishes are also welcome. Questions may be sent to evan.vahouny@gmail.com.

Berman Park at 236 Irving St. will celebrate its renovated playground and new pedestrian crosswalks with a Play Day from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 11. The city event will include free Kona shaved ice, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, community remarks, music and children’s activities. Falls Church City Council members are expected to attend.

Registration is also underway for the City of Falls Church Recreation and Parks Department’s fall programs. Enrollment opened July 31 for residents and at 10 a.m. Aug. 7 for nonresidents. Programs include dance, cooking, technology, tennis, pickleball and fitness, along with new offerings such as Junior Engineers, Stix n’ Snacks Cooking, Global Explorers camp and Animal Planet camp.

Registration for Senior Center membership programs opens Aug. 14 for city residents and Aug. 21 for everyone else. Programs can be booked at fallschurchva.gov/register.

Games, dancing and family activities

The DC Bocce League’s summer season continues from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Pinstripes, 1064 Wisconsin Ave. NW, through Sept. 23. Both new and experienced players may organize teams for the Georgetown competition, which began Aug. 5.

The final Tuesday installment of Dancing on the Waterfront will run from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 12 at Georgetown Waterfront Park, 3200 K St. NW. The free, all-ages makeup class will focus on line dancing. The broader program offers styles including salsa, square dancing, bachata, country line dancing and kizomba, accompanied by a DJ. Regular Saturday classes continue through October.

The Library of Congress will celebrate baseball with a free Family Day from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, inside the Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First St. SE. Visitors can create baseball cards, examine material from the Library’s collections and meet Washington Nationals mascots from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are required, and special entry restrictions may apply.

ADA accommodations for Library of Congress events should be requested five business days in advance by calling 202-707-6362 or emailing ADA@loc.gov.

The Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s monthly New Yorker Discussion Group meets from 2 to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7. Adults can participate in person in the Upper Level Conference Room at 120 N. Virginia Ave. or request a Zoom invitation. The article for discussion had not yet been selected.

Films indoors and under the stars

The National Gallery of Art will screen two documentaries about the 1963 March on Washington from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, in its East Building Auditorium.

James Blue’s 33-minute film “The March,” released in 1964, documents preparations for and events surrounding the historic gathering where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It was produced through the United States Information Agency, established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 to promote American policies abroad.

Haskell Wexler’s 62-minute documentary “The Bus,” released in 1965, follows members of the San Francisco delegation traveling across the country to the march. The version being shown was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with National Film Preservation Foundation funding.

Film curator Richard Herskowitz will lead an in-person discussion afterward. The former Flaherty Film Seminar programmer is completing a book about Blue’s work. Admission is free, but registration is required.

The Library of Congress will show “Iron Man” on the southeast lawn of the Thomas Jefferson Building from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7. The screening is part of the Library’s annual Summer Movies on the Lawn series featuring titles from the National Film Registry.

No tickets are required, but space is limited. Guests may bring chairs, blankets, food and nonalcoholic drinks. Themed refreshments will be sold before the film. Restrooms are available after U.S. Capitol Police screening in the James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave. SE.

The Wharf’s free Sunset Cinema series continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays on Transit Pier, 970 Wharf St. SW. “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” screens Aug. 7, followed by “Pitch Perfect” on Aug. 14, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Aug. 21 and “La La Land” on Aug. 28.

A limited number of Adirondack chairs become available at 7 p.m., and visitors may bring blankets or folding chairs. All ages and leashed dogs are welcome. Food may be carried in from Wharf restaurants, but outside drinks are prohibited. Alcohol is restricted to guests 21 and older. Closed captions are available upon request, and weather updates will be posted on The Wharf’s Sunset Cinema Facebook event page.

Music across Northern Virginia and D.C.

Maverick City Music brings its mix of gospel, R&B and contemporary Christian music to Wolf Trap’s Filene Center at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, with Blessing Offor. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets start at $62.50 including fees. Ovations Restaurant will be closed for the performance.

Lyle Lovett and his Large Band perform at the Filene Center at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, with Asleep at the Wheel opening the show. Lovett’s set draws on country, swing and other styles, while Asleep at the Wheel pays tribute to artists including Hank Williams and Bob Wills. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets start at $55.50 including fees.

Blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Albert Cummings performs Aug. 10 at The Vault inside Capital One Hall in Tysons. Doors open at 7 p.m. His 12-track album “Strong,” released Feb. 16, 2024, through Ivy Music Company, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Blues Album Sales chart. Grammy-winning producer Tom Hambridge recorded the album with Cummings at Ocean Way Recording Studio in Nashville.

Creative Cauldron’s 14th annual Summer Passport Music Festival continues through Sept. 14 at 127 E. Broad St. The series spans Latin, jazz, blues, folk and world music.

Jazz vocalist Lena Seikaly performs “Ella Sings Duke,” a program honoring Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8. Tickets cost $30 for Tier One, $25 for Tier Two and $15 for the livestream. A table for two with two cups of wine costs $90, while a table for four with a bottle of wine costs $180.

Founders Groove continues from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at Founders Row, 110 Founders Ave. in Falls Church. The free family-oriented series features the New Orleans and Cajun sounds of Mardi Gras Kings on Aug. 7 and country performer Ty Sherwood on Aug. 14. Guests may bring folding chairs.

Glen Echo Park’s free Summer Concert Series runs from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays in the Bumper Car Pavilion through Aug. 21. Kiti Gartner & the Drifting Valentines perform Aug. 7, followed by Justin Trawick and The Common Good on Aug. 14 and the James Bazen Big Band on Aug. 21.

The rain-or-shine concerts welcome dancers and offer free parking. Seating is limited, so folding chairs are permitted. Beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks will be sold, but guests cannot bring their own alcohol. Reservations are preferred but not mandatory.

At The Wharf, Rock the Dock presents free concerts at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on Transit Pier through Labor Day. The JoGo Project performs go-go and funk Aug. 6, DuPont Brass brings big-horn electric soul Aug. 13, Uncle Jesse plays 1990s pop Aug. 20 and Pink PaLiSh performs funk and soul Aug. 27.

The series is open to all ages and leashed dogs. Seating is first-come, first-served. Guests may bring restaurant food but not outside beverages, and alcohol service is limited to people 21 and older. Weather notices will appear on the Rock the Dock Facebook event page.

Exhibitions and art programs

Falls Church Arts will introduce its all-media exhibition “Layers” in mid-August at 700-B W. Broad St. The show features work by 68 local artists and runs through Sept. 28. An event announcement lists a meet-the-artists opening for Friday, Aug. 15, while a separate preview identifies the public reception as 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16.

The gallery’s All-Member Show featuring artists with last names beginning M through Z closes Sunday, Aug. 10. The exhibition contains work by 67 artists. Claire Willard’s acrylic-and-embellishment painting “The Worth of a Woman: Marilyn as Lucretia” received its People’s Choice Award.

The National Portrait Gallery offers “First Thursdays: Come Look with Us” from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. Aug. 7 at Eighth and G streets NW. Educators will guide visitors through close observation and discussion of selected portraits. The program is free, with registration suggested. Accessibility questions and accommodation requests may be directed to npgeducation@si.edu, preferably two weeks ahead.

At the National Gallery of Art, senior lecturer David Gariff will examine Vincent van Gogh’s art and correspondence from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10. The free East Building program explores nearly two decades of letters addressing Van Gogh’s paintings and his ideas about art, religion, nature and life. Registration is required.

ArtRave’s Dupont Market Artisan Fair will bring local art, fashion, plants and other goods to 1913 Massachusetts Ave. NW from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9.

The Reston Art Gallery at 11400 Washington Plaza West hosts an artist reception for its “Textile Paintings” exhibition from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10. The exhibition remains open through Aug. 31.

“Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady’s Portrait Negatives” remains at the National Portrait Gallery through 2028. Brady first became famous for portraiture before documenting the Civil War, and his studios produced thousands of glass-plate negatives used for inexpensive cartes de visite.

The museum acquired more than 5,400 Brady studio negatives in 1981 from a larger collection assembled by amateur historian Frederick Hill Meserve. The exhibition presents nine modern prints, including portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ulysses S. Grant and Emma, Queen of Hawai‘i. It also includes an original glass-plate negative and one of Brady’s wooden storage boxes.

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art marks the 20th anniversary of the former Greater Reston Arts Center’s Market Street gallery with “IMPRINT 2.0.” The exhibition revisits the artists featured when the gallery opened June 10, 2005, including Maggie Booth, Adam Grossi, Elizabeth Kendall, Pete Petrine, Marco Rando and Yumi Janairo Roth.

Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, photographs and video are displayed at Tephra ICA’s main gallery at 11850 Freedom Drive through Aug. 10 and its Signature satellite gallery through Aug. 30.

Idylwood Studios, on the upper level of Idylwood Presbyterian Church at 7617 Idylwood Road in Falls Church, is displaying new paintings by Susanne Kamalieh through Aug. 16.

Photographer Jessica Caso’s “Côte d’Azur Mon Amour” remains at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St., through Sept. 28. The photographs explore Nice, Èze and other locations along the French Riviera.

At George Mason University’s Fenwick Gallery, “NEITHER/NOR” brings together work by MFA candidates Traci Reynolds and Liz Johnson through Sept. 5. The collaborative exhibition uses handmade paper and photography to examine gendered bodies, social expectations and states of transformation.

Johnson’s “Ripe and Rot” series pairs photographic self-portraits with decaying fruit to consider fertility, time and bodily change. Reynolds’ large handmade-paper sculpture “Raise” incorporates hair and latex while drawing on ideas of identity, protection, body horror, destruction and repair. Fenwick Gallery is inside Fenwick Library at 4400 University Drive in Fairfax.

“Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest” continues through Sept. 28 on the third floor of the Phillips Collection’s Goh Annex and Sant Building. Paintings, prints, works on paper and archival material trace more than four decades of Browne’s career.

Browne, who lived from 1929 to 1993, helped establish the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, belonged to the SOHO20 women’s art cooperative and taught at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1992. Her work moved between abstraction and figuration while connecting art with political engagement.

Theater openings and final weekends

Signature Theatre opens “Play On!” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12, at 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington. The musical reimagines Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in 1930s Harlem using Duke Ellington songs including “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Mood Indigo,” “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”

The story follows aspiring songwriter Vy, who disguises herself as a man after discovering that women are denied the same professional opportunities. Her attempt to sell songs to a composer known as the Duke draws her into romantic complications involving Cotton Club performer Lady Liv.

The production runs through Oct. 5 and lasts about two hours and 30 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. It contains strobe and lighting effects, loud sounds, theatrical haze, herbal cigarettes and adult themes involving gender, sexuality and sex. It is recommended for ages 8 and older, and children under 6 are not admitted.

Chelsea Marcantel’s “Everything is Wonderful” opens Friday, Aug. 8, at Theatre on the Run, 3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive in Arlington. Performances begin at 8 p.m. through Aug. 23.

The play centers on an Amish couple whose two sons die in a car crash. They take in Eric, the young driver responsible, as they struggle with grief and faith. His arrival exposes the family’s past and prompts the return of Miri, their eldest daughter, who was excommunicated five years earlier. The production addresses death, grief and sexual trauma.

“Kinky Boots” continues at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe St., through Aug. 16. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Featuring music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein, the musical follows Charlie Price as he tries to rescue his late father’s failing shoe factory. Drag performer Lola inspires him to enter a new market by making women’s-style footwear for men. Tickets are $36 for reserved seating, and the estimated running time is two hours and 30 minutes with an intermission.

Greg Kalleres’ comedy “Apropos of Nothing” enters its final weekend at Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW, closing Aug. 10. Owen’s admission that he loves his best friend’s wife upends the relationships among five friends and forces them to reconsider their lives.

Ray Ficca directs. Performances are generally at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, with select Monday and Wednesday shows at 8 p.m. Adult tickets cost $54, while tickets for seniors 62 and older, students and people under 25 cost $44. Each single ticket carries a $5 service fee.

Synetic Theater’s wordless adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” also closes Aug. 10 at Olney Theatre Center’s Roberts Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road in Olney. The production uses physical storytelling to depict Shakespeare’s tangled romance among young lovers, amateur actors and warring fairies.

Ben Cunis and Paata Tsikurishvili adapted the play, with Tsikurishvili directing and Irina Tsikurishvili providing choreography. The production won Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Resident Play and Outstanding Ensemble. It runs 100 minutes without an intermission and carries PG-style guidance for some adult moments.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is scheduled for the National Theatre at 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW as part of its first North American tour. The six-time Tony Award winner, including Best Play, follows Harry Potter’s son Albus after he befriends Scorpius, the son of Draco Malfoy, setting off a journey that threatens to alter the past and future.