Quake lore
Many areas of Anchorage flattened during the 1964 earthquake have been built on in the past 50 years, and there are six times as many people living here now as there were then. What happens when the next 9.2 magnitude quake hits? UAA professor Kristine J. Crossen will discuss seismic science and what might happen in various parts of town in the event of a similar shake. It's part of the Cook Inlet Historical Society's marvelous monthly lecture series, which is always free, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, in the auditorium of the Anchorage Museum. Enter on the Seventh Avenue side of the building.
Abstract angles
Andrew Bailey Arend's exhibition "Angularity" uses ceramic work and drawing to explore the fascinating patterns that are found in nature. Arend will soon leave for New York, where he's been accepted to the ceramics MFA program at Alfred University, "so this will likely be my last show in Anchorage for a few years," he says. Catch it through March 29 at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D Street, along with shows by Kendall Nordin, Z. Denise Gallup and Andrea Bruce.
Jobless but jolly
Anchorage Community Theatre is staging the classic 1962 comedy "A Thousand Clowns." Our hero, Murray, disgusted with his job writing gags for the "Chuckles the Chipmunk" show, quits. His nephew Nick, with whom he shares a studio apartment in New York, attracts the attention of the Child Welfare Board, whose investigators tell Murray to get a job or they'll take the kid. Finding work is a kind of joke for Murray, but sooner or later he has to swallow his pride if he doesn't want to loose the boy. Hilarious, yet poignant, the play will be staged at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through March 30 (no show on March 27) at 1133 E. 70th Ave. Tickets, $11-$15, are available at actalaska.org or by calling 344-4713.
Crumbling fortress
The Buckner Building in Whittier, built to house 1,000 troops during the Cold War, is now a deserted derelict, very slowly giving way to the elements. Ward Hulbert, who was assigned to the building as an Army draftee, returned in recent years to capture some of the decay in a series of photographs. Catch his show, "The Beauty and Mystery of Age," through March 30 in the Carr Gottstein Building at Alaska Pacific University.
Compiled by arts reporter
Mike Dunham