What to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: 'EGO' play at the New Hazlett, Pittsburgh Fringe Festival

The New Hazlett Theater presents the play "EGO" about the nature of self, the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival returns and an art exhibit "Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden" — here's what to do in Pittsburgh this weekend.

Theater
The New Hazlett Theater describes Ramin Akhavijou’s stage work “EGO” as less a play than an interactive experience blending music, technology and art, and exploring the nature of self in a world suffused with 1s and 0s. Pittsburgh favorite Hazel Carr Leroy stars as Ego, facing foils Id and Superego against a backdrop of avant-garde soundscapes and artificial intelligence. There are three performances as part of the theater’s Community Supported Art series, Thu., March 20, and Fri., March 21, including Friday’s matinee.

Festival
Fans of the offbeat and the experimental celebrate the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival. This year’s 10-day showcase features some 40 attractions, from monologues and plays to music, dance, comedy and visual art, mostly at venues along Penn Avenue in Bloomfield, Garfield and Friendship. Highlights include “Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play,” an internationally touring one-woman musical about groundbreaking Black superstar (and World War II spy) Josephine Baker; the U.S. debut of Crumb to a Bird Ensemble’s immersive play “Kiln”; and award-winning British actor Daniel Gerroll’s solo performance of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s psychological thriller “Dr. Glas.” The Fringe runs Thu., March 20, to March 29.

Words
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures joins the Latin American Cultural Center to complement the Center’s exhibit “Haiti: Culture, Religion, and Revolution” with a talk by author and scholar Myriam J.A. Chancy. “Haiti in Time: Resistance and Survival Through Art” is Chancy’s talk about her novel “Village Weavers.” It’s Fri., March 21, at the Center, in Oakland.

Visual Art
Raymond Saunders, born in 1934 in the Hill District, graduated from Schenley High School, and became an award-winning artist. His work blending abstraction, found objects and images with social commentary has been exhibited nationally. He’s lived in California for decades, but it’s his hometown Carnegie Museum of Art that will host his first solo museum show since 1996. The retrospective “Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden” opens March 22 and runs through July 13.

Festival
In the early days of the pandemic, the Dormont CoronaChoir drew national media attention for bringing neighbors together to sing in a socially distanced fashion. The choir has evolved into Dormont Arts, which on Sat., March 22, marks the choir’s fifth anniversary with a reunion and sing-along in the Dormont Pool parking lot. An indoor adult karaoke night at the Dormont Recreation Center follows, along with a food truck, DJ music, costume and dance contests and more.

Opera
With a modern tech twist, an all-Japanese and Japanese-American creative team brings “Madama Butterfly” to Pittsburgh Opera. In this version of Puccini’s classic, Navy Lt. Pinkerton uses a VR headset to enter a fantasy world. But Cio-Cio San, the woman he intends to seduce, proves more real than virtual. This co-production with Cincinnati Opera, Detroit Opera and Utah Opera, is sung in Italian with lyrics projected in English above the Benedum Center stage. The performances are Sat., March 22, Tue., March 25, and March 28 and 30.