A tribute to a Texas legend

A night of music will honor the brilliant but troubled Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at Vashon Theatre. The show, “Love Me Some Townes Van Zandt,” will feature a lineup of performers including Star Anna, Mike Dumovich, Jeff Kanzler, Kat Eggleston, John Browne, Danny Newcomb, Rebekah Kuzma, Roger Taylor, Gary Westlake, Mike Nichols, Dan Tyack and Gregg Curry. The night will mark the 75th birthday of the singer-songwriter, who died in 1997 at the age of 52. His music lives on in songs like“Pancho and Lefty,” “I’ll Be There in the Morning,” “If I Needed You,” and a catalog of other songs that have inspired countless musicians, poets and writers. Tickets, $15, are available at the theater box office or vashontheatre.com.

After snow delay, high schoolers act up a storm

Vashon High School theater students will perform two one-act plays at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, at the high school. The production, originally scheduled for February but delayed by bad weather, is a fundraiser for the high school’s upcoming spring production of the musical “Mamma Mia.” The plays — “Out to Sea,” by Slawomir Mrozek, and “Picnic on the Battlefield,” by Fernando Arrabal — are both dark, absurdest comedies, written in the 1950s and 1960s. Mzozek, from Poland, created work in response to communism, while Arrabal, from Spain, had a life and career impacted by fascism. Tickets to the show are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.

Epic exploration for families

The final performance of Vashon Center for the Arts’ family series will feature Book-It Repertory’s “The Odyssey: An Exploration of Myth, Magic and Monsters,” for grades three to eight, at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 9, at VCA. Adapted from Homer’s epic poem, the show celebrates Greek tradition and theatrical mask, the importance of teamwork and problem-solving, and the power of ingenuity and perseverance. Tickets, $6 for youth and $10 for adults, are on sale at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Art history talk explores Georgia O’Keeffe

Vashon Center for the Arts’ Art History Talk series with historian Rebecca Albiani will continue at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, with a the discussion about Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Cow’s Skull: Red, White and Blue,” painted in 1931, two years after the artist’s first extended trip to New Mexico. Albiani will place the famed work in the context of its time, when writers like Fitzgerald and Dos Passos were attempting to write the Great American Novel, and focus on how the painting has achieved iconic status. Tickets are on sale at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Dance for DOVE

DANCE Flash! will hold an all-ages, barefoot and alcohol-free dance from 8:45 to 9:45 p.m. Friday, March 15, at Spoke Vashon, at 9923 S.W. 178th Street, with all proceeds benefiting the Vashon DOVE Project. Admission is $5 to $12.

Singer brings rock, blues and arias to Havurah

Tacoma diva Stephanie Anne Johnson will grace the Vashon Havurah stage at 7 p.m. Friday, March 15, accompanied by Dan Tyack on pedal steel guitar. A classically trained singer, she has performed in settings ranging from national television to intimate house concerts, with a repertoire that extends from Americana and R&B to arias and rock and roll. Organizers say Johnson’s music can “rock your night, make you fall in love, bring you to tears, or inspire you to do good in the world.” Tickets are on sale at havurahmusicscene.com.

Local author wins Brighthorse Prize

Vashon writer Mary Rose O’Reilley’s debut novel, “Bright Morning Stars,” recently published, has won the Brighthorse Prize for fiction. With hints of the ghostly and gothic, the novel is set in 1923, within the confines of a state asylum for the criminally insane, following the story of three lives wounded by mental illness and trauma. Novelist Elizabeth Oness has called the book “beautiful and wrenching,” noting its compelling narrative is “brushed with the lyricism of the King James Bible.” O’Reilley is also the author of two poetry collections and four books of nonfiction.

Learn how to audition and act

Island theater artist Chris Boscia will teach two upcoming courses focusing on the art of auditioning (Saturdays, March 23 to April 6) and scene study (Tuesdays, beginning April 2) at Vashon Center for the Arts. For more information, visit vashoncenterforthearts.org.