Show off your chef or mixologist skills, see movies and art or hear music this weekend

What's there to do this weekend in Bloomington? What about inventing a dish or cocktail with the Bloomington Playwrights Project? Or you can catch a film at the Buskirk-Chumley or IU Cinema theaters. Or you can take in some world music.

Make-a-recipe contest to aid local live theater

Bloomington Playwrights Project invites us to make up a recipe for a dish or a cocktail. Whoever wins gets their creation served up for an entire weekend at Truffles Restaurant.

On Sunday, participants in the Chopped: Play Gourmet event will receive a list of three surprise ingredients (two for cocktails) that must be used in the dish. You can add any other ingredients. Then, you choose one day, between Monday and April 3; that's the day you will prepare your dish or drink. Send BPP a photo of your work along with the recipe.

People will rate your dish on BPP's website by donating money. Judges, including the H-T's own Carol Kugler, will taste the three highest-rated dishes at a live gala April 23. The winning three cocktails will be served that evening.

This fundraiser is particularly interesting this year, since it pits BPP, Cardinal and Pigasus against one another, in a friendly competition. (The three companies are soon to unite.)

To cook or mix, there's a minimum donation of $25 per competitor, who may then encourage others to support their creation by voting and donating. Donations are accepted in any amount.

For more information: https://www.newplays.org/chopped.

Early Music Spring Soiree will announce upcoming performers

Be among the first to find out who will be performing in May's 2022 Early Music Festival and workshops in Bloomington, all "Celebrating Women in Early Music," by attending the Early Music Spring Soiree this Saturday.

Live early music performers will entertain starting at 7 p.m. at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 505 W. Fourth St. Enjoy, also, a champagne-and-dessert reception for $35 per person.

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IU Cinema offers melodrama and adventure

Two films at the Indiana University Cinema this week focus on the consequences of reckless actions.

"Magnificent Obsession": Rock Hudson is an irresponsible playboy with a speedboat in "Magnificent Obsession" (1954). So much so that his misdeeds cause a socialite (Jane Wyman) to lose both her husband and her sight. Hudson, as Bob Merrick, commits to adopting, and spreading, good behavior. One of Douglas Sirk’s showiest melodramas has the widow and the reforming sybarite twirling through life. They are now forever connected.

See it at 7 p.m. Thursday for $4. Seating is limited at the 1213 E. Seventh St. venue. Patrons are urged to buy tickets online in advance, at https://am.ticketmaster.com/iucinema/buy, to avoid sell-outs. No standby or late seating.

"Speed Racer": Staff have selected "Speed Racer" (2008), which tells of family pride; it's programmed by IU Cinema podcast producer and host/blog contributor David Carter. This action/adventure film soared in popularity after being initially dissed by critics and viewers. It's the story of a teenaged race car driver and has evolved into a cult favorite. Lilly and Lana Wachowski created this tale about the "Racer" family, where one brother tries to undo the damage done by the other.

See it at 7 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $4. Other details same as above.

Independent film festival at Buskirk-Chumley

If Indiana-based independent movies are more up your alley, check out the Hoosier Films Annual Festival this Thursday through Saturday in Bloomington, with dozens of screenings, including a feature film each evening at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event features award-winning films from a variety of genres and interactive Q&A sessions. Learn more at festival.hoosierfilms.com.

In the alley: Blockhouse bar's entertainment runs gamut from karaoke to jazz to touring bands

Comic to take Comedy Attic by (Moses) Storm

Homeschooled and forbidden as a child to watch TV, Moses Storm convinced his church-adhering mom to enroll him in a Christian VHS video program. He then figured out how to reuse the program's tapes to record Conan O'Brien's "Late Night Show."

Storm, a comedian and actor, can be seen in the NBC/Hulu comedy "Sunnyside" and in Showtimes' "I'm Dying up Here" and Netflix' "Arrested Development." His debut standup special, "Trash White," was released this winter on HBOMax, to raves. He has been a guest and a performer many times on "Conan."

Laugh with him at 7 and 9:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Comedy Attic, 123 S Walnut St., 812-336-5233, comedyattic.com/events.

Pianist's concert a fundraiser for Ukraine

A Ukrainian pianist, Yevanhelina But, will give a program downtown at 7 p.m. Saturday to raise money for Ukraine. She will play compositions by Ukrainian composers Myroslav Skoryk, Oleksandr Saratskiy and Bohdana Filz. Ukraine's anthem will open the event.

The pianist was invited by Ukrainian Studies Organization at Indiana University to perform at the Holodomor Commemoration Lecture on campus last November.

The concert — at First Christian Church, 205 E. Kirkwood Ave.— is free, but donations are encouraged. Audience members will receive handmade Ukrainian flag pins.

Graduating MFA students display their unusual talents

Step outside the paint box and visit the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University's Spring 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibitions for some unconventional and perhaps unexpected works by graduating master of fine arts students in IU's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. Check website for hours and free talks at eskenazi.indiana.edu.

Visits to this offbeat gallery are always evocative. It's free and located across from the fountain, near the Eskenazi Museum of Art.

Free concert of Central Eurasian and Middle Eastern music

The Bloomington-based Silk Road Ensemble, founded by Indiana University senior lecturer Shahyar Daneshgar in 2000, invites you to a free concert.

Organized by the Novruz Students Association at Indiana University and supported by the Center for the Study of the Middle East and various IU programs, the music will celebrate spring. The music will come from several genres of the Central Eurasian and the Middle Eastern cultures. The public concert is 5:30-6:30 p.m. Friday in IU's Global and International Studies building, 355 N. Eagleson Ave. (south of the Wells library and north of the IU Auditorium), 812-856-7900. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Find Silk Road at silkroadensemble.com.

Note: Daneshgar's Silk Road Ensemble is not to be confused with a separate group, American cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington events this weekend include live music, 'Chopped' contest