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Northern Virginia and the wider Washington region are heading into a crowded stretch of dining deals, art shows, concerts, plays, dance performances, films and community events. The lineup for Nov. 13-16 includes open studios, a holiday market, playoff soccer and opportunities to build bus-stop benches, clear household clutter and catch live music.

Food and community events

Ireland’s Four Provinces in Falls Church is offering free meals to children younger than 10 who order from the kids menu. The restaurant is also continuing its community Giving Board program.

Falls Church City has released a new online dining guide highlighting local options.

Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School’s GIVE Day Club will hold a spaghetti dinner from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, in the Meridian High School cafeteria. The meal will include spaghetti, garlic knots and a salad bar, along with a bake sale. Proceeds will support the club’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day food-packing event addressing food insecurity.

Falls Church Forward is inviting volunteers to help construct benches for bus stops that currently lack seating. The build is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16. No carpentry experience is required, and organizers will provide tools, supplies and guidance. Participants should register to receive the location and wear clothing suitable for painting.

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens will host author Meryl Gordon for a lecture about diplomat, feminist and prominent Washington hostess Perle Mesta. The hybrid program runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 4155 Linnean Ave. NW.

Visitors may explore Hillwood beginning at 5:30 p.m., attend a reception at 6 p.m. and hear the lecture from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. A signing of Gordon’s biography, “The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess,” will follow.

The event is the 13th annual lecture honoring former Hillwood executive director Frederick J. Fisher. Gordon, a tenured New York University journalism professor and author of four biographies, will discuss Mesta’s political legacy, relationships with four presidents and friendship with Hillwood founder Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Visual arts

Studios at 307 will launch the holiday season with an open house from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at 307 E. Annandale Road in Falls Church. More than 17 studios will open to visitors, while a winter market offers paintings, collage, illustration, sculpture, glasswork, jewelry and other pieces from local artists. Live music and snacks are also planned.

Columbia Pike Artist Studios will open its doors Nov. 15 and 16 at 932 S. Walter Reed Drive in Arlington. Twenty-two cooperative members working in painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing and mixed media will discuss their work, and a group exhibition will be displayed in the common gallery.

“Material Acts of Resistance: Michèle Colburn” is open daily through Feb. 6 in the Founders Gallery at George Mason University’s Mason Square campus, 3351 N. Fairfax Drive in Arlington. Colburn uses materials including gunpowder, wire, thread and burned paper to transform objects associated with conflict into reflections on endurance, vulnerability and dissent.

The Phillips Collection’s “Out of Many: Reframing an American Art Collection” continues through Feb. 15 at 1600 21st St. NW. Created in connection with the United States’ 250th anniversary, the exhibition examines how artists have portrayed the nation’s people, cultures, landscapes and history from the early 20th century onward. It incorporates work from Howard University Gallery of Art, the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland and other institutions.

“Before the Americas” closes Saturday, Nov. 15, in George Mason University’s Gillespie Gallery in Fairfax. Its 45 works by Afro-Latino, Caribbean and African American artists address colonial and racial constructs through painting, sculpture, printmaking, books, performance and video. Curator Cheryl Edwards organized the exhibition around genetic memory, migration, invisibility and interconnectivity. A recently donated Sam Gilliam painting is included.

Hiromi Isobe’s solo exhibition “Can I See?” remains at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington through Nov. 30. Using painting, fiber, mixed media and sculpture, Isobe explores scientific, spiritual and existential questions. A central installation, “My World,” populates an imagined realm with handmade figures examining individuality, memory and belonging.

A retrospective of photojournalist Bernard “Bernie” Boston is on display through Feb. 24, 2026, at McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave. Boston became the first African American member of the White House press corps and photographed presidents from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton. The longtime McLean resident also chaired the McLean Community Center Governing Board from 1977 to 1979.

Phoebe Mills Farris curated the exhibition, which is presented with the Friends of Historic Pleasant Grove Church. Additional viewing hours at the church are scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 23; Dec. 7 and 21; Jan. 11 and 25; and Feb. 8 and 22.

“Imagining Together: Share Your Memories and Dreams” brings work by artists of multiple generations to The PARC Gallery at Tysons, 8508 Leesburg Pike. Presented by MosaicARTs Gallery and Celebrate Fairfax, the community exhibition features paintings, drawings and mixed-media pieces by artists ages 7 to 17 and adults 18 and older.

Falls Church Arts’ “Paper” exhibition closes Sunday, Nov. 16, at 700-B W. Broad St. The show contains 50 works by 31 artists from Virginia, Washington and Maryland, all created on or incorporating paper. Juror Jennifer Wilkin Penick selected photography, drawing, painting, collage and mixed-media pieces. Admission is free, and the gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Herndon artist Lisa Green’s “Wild Spaces” continues through Jan. 11 at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St. in Falls Church. The free exhibition combines colorful oil paintings with black-and-white ink washes depicting meadows, mountains and coastlines. Works range from 8-by-10 inches to 36-by-36 inches and are available for purchase.

“Rik Freeman: Wade in the Waters” is open through Feb. 19 at Phillips@THEARC, 1801 Mississippi Ave. SE. Freeman’s paintings trace connections between waterways and the African diaspora, moving from Bahia’s beaches to the Anacostia River while exploring history, resilience, faith, joy and community. Admission is free.

Two exhibitions continue through fall 2026 at the Rubell Museum DC, 65 I St. SW. “Material Witness” presents 30 artists using unconventional substances such as squid ink, Coca-Cola, ostrich eggs, lipstick, discarded metal and animal hides. The works fill 23 galleries and examine consumption, environmental concerns, politics, decay and renewal.

“Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift,” Kincaid’s first solo museum exhibition in Washington, features four monumental quilts created during a 2023 residency at the Rubell Museum in Miami. The pieces connect quilt-making traditions with questions of identity, ancestry, place and community.

“A Land and 河/River” remains at the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art in Reston through Dec. 20. Kimberly M. Becoat’s work examines urban displacement and the destruction of Seneca Village, a 19th-century community of free Black landowners removed for the construction of Central Park. Hong Hong’s paper installation considers water through weather, birth, immigration, family texts and its capacity to nurture, divide and destroy.

The Fairfax Art League is also presenting its new fall show.

Live music

The Arlington Philharmonic will perform Beethoven, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Milhaud during its free “Harvest Harmony” concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16. The performance takes place in Theater One at Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St. Encore Learning will host a preconcert reception featuring cookies from Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe.

Grammy-winning, Latin Grammy-nominated La Santa Cecilia arrives at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15. The group mixes cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero, tango, jazz, klezmer, rock and other influences. The approximately 90-minute, all-ages performance has no intermission. Tickets cost $35 to $55, with half-price seats for students through 12th grade.

Contemporary fado singer Mariza performs at the same Fairfax venue at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16. Born in Mozambique and raised in Portugal, Mariza has released 30 platinum albums during a career spanning more than two decades. The 90-minute concert is recommended for ages 12 and older. Tickets range from $45 to $71, with half-price seats for young people through 12th grade.

The Silkroad Ensemble, led by pipa master Wu Man, will present “American Railroad” at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The eight-musician program recognizes the Indigenous, African American, Chinese, Irish, Japanese and other immigrant communities that built the nation’s railroads, as well as those displaced by their construction. Tickets range from $28 to $68, with $10 seats available to federal workers using the code FEDERAL.

Theater

Creative Cauldron’s “Peter Pan and Wendy” runs through Nov. 23 at 127 E. Broad St. in Falls Church. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $20 for adults and $18 for students, while a limited four-ticket family package is available for $65 using the code 4PK.

Signature Theatre’s in-the-round production of “Fiddler on the Roof” continues through Jan. 26 at 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington. Directed by Joe Calarco, the musical follows Tevye, his family and their Jewish community as they confront social change and rising antisemitism in czarist Russia. The production runs about two hours and 50 minutes and is recommended for ages 13 and older.

The touring musical “Hadestown” plays the National Theatre from Nov. 18 through 23. Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin’s show intertwines the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice with Hades and Persephone. An American Sign Language-interpreted performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20.

Estonian clown Julia Masli returns to Woolly Mammoth with “ho ho ho ha ha ha ha,” an improvised holiday version of her international show, running through Dec. 21. The production has no script and uses audience problems as its raw material. Accessibility offerings include open captions Nov. 23, a mask-required performance Nov. 25, audio description Dec. 6, a childcare matinee Dec. 7 and ASL interpretation Dec. 12.

Samuel D. Hunter’s “A Case for the Existence of God” runs through Dec. 7 at Mosaic Theater Company, 1333 H St. NE. Directed by Danilo Gambini, the play brings together two fathers in a small Idaho office as they navigate a mortgage loan, heartbreak and an unexpected friendship.

NextStop Theatre’s “The Last Five Years” continues through Nov. 23 at 269 Sunset Park Drive in Herndon. Jason Robert Brown’s musical traces the marriage of writer Jamie and actress Cathy from opposing timelines, examining how love, ambition and diverging careers pull them apart.

Synetic Theater’s “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus” runs through Nov. 23 at Thomas Jefferson Theatre in Arlington. Paata Tsikurishvili’s reimagining moves Mary Shelley’s story into a storm-ravaged wasteland at humanity’s end. The developing work has an estimated runtime of 95 minutes, with tickets priced from $35 to $65.

“Grease” closes Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Little Theatre of Alexandria. The musical follows Danny Zuko, Sandy Dumbrowski and the students of Rydell High amid romance, cliques and rebellion in 1959. Performances run about two hours and 15 minutes, and reserved tickets cost $36.

Amy Herzog’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” continues through Nov. 23 at Theater J. The drama follows a doctor who discovers a threat to his town’s health and faces retaliation from civic leaders, including his brother, when he sounds the alarm. The production runs two hours and 45 minutes and includes strobe lights, haze, loud sounds, simulated violence and herbal cigarettes or water-based e-cigarettes.

“Lizzie the Musical” rocks the Keegan Theatre through Nov. 30. Written by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt, the punk-inflected show reimagines the 1892 Lizzie Borden murder case through an all-female rock score.

Nova Y. Payton takes the title role in Olney Theatre Center’s “Hello, Dolly!,” running through Jan. 4. The classic musical follows matchmaker and fixer Dolly Gallagher Levi through a comic story of love and second chances. Tickets range from $42 to $133, and the production carries PG-style age guidance.

Arena Stage has extended Reggie D. White’s “Fremont Ave.” through Dec. 7. The dramatic comedy follows three generations of Black men confronting love, identity, resentment and inherited silence during a game of Spades. The production runs about two hours and 25 minutes and contains mature language and sexually suggestive material.

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “The Wild Duck” closes Sunday, Nov. 16. Adapted by David Eldridge and directed by Simon Godwin, Ibsen’s drama follows a wealthy businessman’s son whose campaign to expose the lies underlying a friend’s life brings devastating consequences. The runtime is approximately two hours and 30 minutes.

Dance and comedy

The 21st Fuego Flamenco Festival continues at GALA Hispanic Theatre through Nov. 22. Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company presents “Enredo” from Nov. 14 through 16, with performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Co-directed by Edwin Aparicio and Aleksey Kulikov, the work examines solitude, relationships and the shifting balance between individuality and unity.

Capital City Shuffle’s Stardust Weekend brings swing dancing to Glen Echo’s Spanish Ballroom on Friday, Nov. 14. A free beginner slow-dance lesson runs from 8 to 9 p.m., followed by dancing with the Craig Gildner All-Stars and the Midiri Brothers until midnight. A DJ-led late-night session continues until 2:30 a.m. Advance admission is $25, door admission is $30 and the late-night dance costs $10.

Winston Hodges headlines Rt. 123 Comedy at The Vault in Tysons on Saturday, Nov. 15, with doors opening at 7 p.m. The lineup also features Dom Grayer and Stacey Axler. Hodges has opened for performers including Brian Regan, Demetri Martin, Mark Normand and Michael Che, while his online videos have accumulated more than 30 million views.

Film, learning and outdoor activities

The sixth Romanian Film Festival in Washington runs Nov. 13 through 16 at AMC Georgetown 14. Curated by critic Mihai Fulger, the program includes six feature films and documentaries, with introductions, discussions and question-and-answer sessions. Guests include actress Daniela Nane and director Tudor D. Popescu.

Kitty Janney of Ararity Services will lead “Simplify Your Space: A Practical Guide to Decluttering and Downsizing” from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at Mary Riley Styles Public Library in Falls Church. The session will cover deciding what to discard, organizing retained belongings, preparing for a move and developing habits that support lasting change.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens’ Nighttime Nature Therapy program pairs mindfulness exercises with the Winter Walk of Lights. The adults-only event was scheduled for 6:30 to 9 p.m. Nov. 12, with Nov. 13 reserved as the severe-weather date. Participants receive a hot beverage before a guided experience around Lake Gardiner and a half-mile walk through the illuminated garden. Registration costs $60.

Potomac Overlook Regional Park will invite visitors to help feed turtles, snakes and birds from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Nov. 26. A naturalist will introduce the Nature Center’s animals and allow participants to feed some of them mealworms, mice and other food. Advance registration costs $10 for each attendee age 5 or older, and children must be accompanied by an adult.

Shopping, relaxation and playoff soccer

The Museums & Makers Holiday Market fills Strathmore Mansion from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 13 through 15. Museum shops and local artists will sell jewelry, toys and one-of-a-kind gifts, with purchases supporting nonprofit cultural organizations and independent makers. Admission is free, with a suggested $10 donation. Strollers are not permitted.

Blossom Daily in Georgetown will offer “Coffee Flights and Coloring” from 6 to 7 p.m. Nov. 13. The $10 coffee flight accompanies a casual evening of coloring activities at 3207 M St. NW.

The Washington Spirit face the Portland Thorns in a 2025 National Women’s Soccer League playoff semifinal at noon Saturday, Nov. 15, at Audi Field.