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Falls Church and the surrounding region have a crowded calendar for Nov. 5-11, with a Veterans Day ceremony, repair help, concerts, theater, visual art, family programs and workshops among the options.

Falls Church events

The City of Falls Church will hold its annual Veterans Day ceremony from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the Community Center’s Kenneth R. Burnett Building, 223 Little Falls St. Presented by the Greater Falls Church Veterans Council and the Recreation and Parks Department, the free event will honor military service members and include a patriotic performance by the Falls Church Concert Band. Registration is not required.

Mary Riley Styles Public Library, 120 N. Virginia Ave., will host a brain-health discussion for adults from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. Tonya Embly, director of memory care at The Kensington in Falls Church, will discuss memory, focus, cognitive wellness and signs that may warrant a neurologist’s evaluation. Registration is required and closes at 2 p.m. Nov. 8.

The library will also welcome the Fairfax County Repair Café from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9. Volunteer fixers will offer free help with appliances, clothing, jewelry, toys, computers, phones and other damaged belongings. Knife sharpening is available with a limit of three blades per visitor. Registration is requested but not required, and walk-ins are welcome.

Cherry Hill Farmhouse, 312 Park Ave., will offer a pressed-flower workshop from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. Admission is $10.

Falls Church City has also launched a new online dining guide highlighting local restaurants.

Concerts, dance and film

The Smithereens return to the State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., on Friday, Nov. 7, with John Cowsill. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8:30 p.m. The New Jersey rock band’s catalog includes “Blood and Roses,” “Only a Memory,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep” and “A Girl Like You.” Tickets cost $30. Guests must be 18 or accompanied by a parent, and valid identification is required.

North Mississippi Allstars bring their Still Shakin’ Tour to the Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road in Vienna, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. Led by brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, the blues-rock group is marking the 25th anniversary of its debut, Shake Hands with Shorty. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets start at $60 including fees.

The 21st Fuego Flamenco Festival opens with the Washington premiere of Rafael Ramírez’s Crónica de un Suceso at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. Performances run Nov. 6-9 at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The expanded festival continues through Nov. 22 with artists from the United States and abroad.

Capital One Hall’s Vault will host an adults-only Tay Tay Dance Party on Friday, Nov. 7. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the Taylor Swift-themed event, featuring DJ Swiftie and a synchronized laser show.

At Paragon Theaters Founders Row, Bugonia follows two conspiracy-driven young men who kidnap a powerful corporate executive because they believe she is an alien planning Earth’s destruction. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the R-rated science-fiction comedy thriller runs 118 minutes.

Theater takes center stage

Creative Cauldron, 127 E. Broad St., opens Peter Pan and Wendy on Friday, Nov. 7. The family production follows Peter, Wendy and the Darling children on their flight to adventure and runs through Nov. 23. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Adult tickets cost $20, student tickets are $18 and a limited four-ticket package is $65.

Synetic Theater’s new interpretation of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus continues at Thomas Jefferson Theatre, 125 S. Glebe Road in Arlington, through Nov. 23. Paata Tsikurishvili directs a version of Mary Shelley’s story set in a storm-battered world at humanity’s end. Performances this weekend are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. The estimated running time is 95 minutes, and tickets range from $35 to $65.

Fair Play has been extended at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road in Tysons, through Sunday, Nov. 9. Ella Road’s play follows aspiring champions Ann and Sophie as their bodies, relationships and identities face public scrutiny. Deidra LaWan Starnes directs. Remaining performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Little Theatre of Alexandria has added an 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, performance of Grease at 600 Wolfe St. The musical follows Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski through romance, cliques and peer pressure at Rydell High in 1959. Regular shows are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays with 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Reserved tickets cost $36, and the production runs about two hours and 15 minutes with intermission.

Dominion Stage closes Noël Coward’s supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit on Saturday, Nov. 8, at Gunston Theatre Two, 2700 S. Lang St. in Arlington. The play centers on writer Charles Condomine after a séance summons his mischievous first wife, Elvira, complicating his marriage to Ruth. Performances are at 8 p.m.

Amy Herzog’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People runs through Nov. 23 at Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. Directed by János Szász, it follows a small-town doctor who discovers a public-health catastrophe and encounters an effort by powerful figures, including his brother, to silence him. The production runs two hours and 45 minutes and includes strobe lighting, haze, loud noises, simulated violence and herbal cigarettes or water-based e-cigarettes.

The Keegan Theatre’s punk-rock Lizzie the Musical continues through Nov. 30 at 1742 Church St. NW. The show reimagines the 1892 Lizzie Borden murders through an all-female rock score. A free audience talkback will follow the Sunday, Nov. 9, matinee.

Nova Y. Payton takes the title role in Hello, Dolly!, opening Nov. 6 on Olney Theatre Center’s Roberts Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road in Maryland. The musical runs through Jan. 4, 2026. Tickets range from $42 to $133 including fees, and the production carries PG-level age guidance.

Reggie D. White’s Fremont Ave. continues through Nov. 23 at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater, 1101 Sixth St. SW. Directed by Lili-Anne Brown, the dramatic comedy follows three generations of Black men confronting love, identity, resentment and silence over a game of Spades. The world premiere runs approximately two hours and 25 minutes and contains mature language and sexually suggestive material.

Shakespeare Theatre Company has extended The Wild Duck through Nov. 16 at the Klein Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW. Simon Godwin directs David Eldridge’s adaptation of Ibsen’s drama about the devastating costs of exposing the foundations of another family’s life. The production lasts about two hours and 30 minutes.

Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play enters its final weekend at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington, closing Nov. 9. Matthew Gardiner directs the 70-minute comedy about a man and woman whose online match leads to an awkward date and an uneasy search for something genuine. It contains adult language and themes and is recommended for ages 13 and older.

Arena Stage’s revised revival of Damn Yankees also closes Nov. 9. The baseball musical retains songs including “Whatever Lola Wants” and “Who’s Got the Pain?” while updating the story for its first major 21st-century revival. The production runs about two hours and 10 minutes and uses haze, fog, strobe effects, bright lights and loud sounds.

Museums and galleries

The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road NW, will hold a free Neighborhood Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. The family event includes art activities, a sculpture scavenger hunt, a djembe drum circle, a read-aloud, a Washington Ballet movement program, a collaborative wing-themed installation and live jazz by an American University student combo. The permanent collection and Anonymous Was a Woman exhibition will be open, and visitors may picnic in the Sculpture Garden. Reservations are not required.

Catherine Day and Betsy Packard will open Subtle Energy with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Fred Schnider Gallery of Art, 888 N. Quincy St. in Arlington. Refreshments will be served.

Mason Exhibitions’ Before the Americas remains at the Gillespie Gallery in Fairfax through Nov. 15. Curated by Cheryl Edwards, the survey brings together 45 works by Afro-Latino, Caribbean and African American artists around genetic memory, migration, invisibility and interconnectivity. A recently donated Sam Gilliam painting is included.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Hiromi Isobe’s Can I See? runs through Nov. 30. The exhibition uses paintings, fiber, mixed media and sculpture to explore unseen systems, uncertainty, spirituality, belonging and humanity’s relationship with the cosmos.

McLean Project for the Arts opens a Bernard “Bernie” Boston retrospective Nov. 6 with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Boston, a longtime McLean resident, became the first African American member of the White House press corps and covered presidents from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton. The exhibition, curated by Phoebe Mills Farris, continues through Feb. 24, 2026, at the McLean Community Center and Historic Pleasant Grove Church.

Other continuing exhibitions include Marthe McGrath’s The Language of Color at Reston Art Gallery through Nov. 30 and Imagining Together: Share Your Memories and Dreams at the PARC Gallery in Tysons, featuring work by artists from ages 7 through adulthood.

Falls Church Arts’ Paper exhibition continues through Nov. 16 at 700-B W. Broad St. Juror Jennifer Wilkin Penick selected 50 works by 31 regional artists working in photography, drawing, painting, collage, mixed media and other forms incorporating paper. Admission is free.

Herndon artist Lisa Green’s Wild Spaces runs through Jan. 11 at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St. in Falls Church. The free exhibition features oil and ink-wash landscapes ranging from 8-by-10-inch pieces to 36-inch-square works.

Rik Freeman’s Wade in the Waters continues through Feb. 19 at Phillips@THEARC, 1801 Mississippi Ave. SE. The free exhibition draws on more than three decades of Freeman’s work exploring the African diaspora, history, community, resilience, faith and waterways.

The Rubell Museum DC, 65 I St. SW, is showing Material Witness through fall 2026. Spread across 23 galleries, the exhibition features 30 artists using unconventional materials including squid ink, Coca-Cola, ostrich eggs, lipstick, animal hides and discarded metal. The museum is also presenting Basil Kincaid’s Spirit in the Gift, four monumental quilts addressing ancestry, identity, place and community, through fall 2026.

At Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art in Reston, A Land and 河/River continues through Dec. 20. Kimberly M. Becoat examines urban displacement and the destruction of New York’s 19th-century free-Black Seneca Village, while Hong Hong uses a paper installation to connect water with birth, immigration, family and division.

Family programs and creative gatherings

Photographers can bring printed work to Coffee and Critique from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday, Nov. 9, at PhotoWorks in Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Blvd. The monthly discussion is free, though a $10 donation is suggested. Images will not be reviewed on digital devices.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court in Vienna, opens its Winter Walk of Lights on Friday, Nov. 7. From 5:30 to 10 p.m., visitors can stop at Critter Corner near the Visitor Center fireplace to meet live animals that may include an owl, turtle or snake. The light display continues through Jan. 4.

The gardens will also offer Raptors of the Potomac from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. Participants can learn about native birds of prey, meet raptors cared for at the park and watch a naturalist feed a live bird. Registration is required, and admission is $7 for each participant age 8 or older. Children must attend with an adult.

The urban circus 360 ALLSTARS makes its Center for the Arts debut at George Mason University, 4373 Mason Pond Drive in Fairfax, at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. The 65-minute show combines dance, beatboxing, acrobatics and BMX riding. Tickets cost $35 to $55, with half-price admission for students through grade 12 and free tickets for Mason students. The performance will be audio-described, with a discussion one hour before the show and an artist meet-and-greet afterward.

Finally, Pod Save America brings its political podcast tour to Arena Stage at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the live appearance by the program founded by former Obama administration staff members Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett and Dan Pfeiffer.