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You could catch a local singer in his first show at Rams Head, participate in Holy Week or hear a clinical psychologist talk about serial killers. Those are just some of the things you can do in Annapolis through April 3.
Homegrown opener
7:30 p.m. Thursday
If you’re a fan of Charlotte-based Of Good Nature, the soulful alt-rock group will be at Rams Head on Stage as part of their current tour.
But if you like following homegrown musicians as they find a place on area stages, the show is worth catching for another reason — opening act Brendan Lane of Crofton.
Lane honed his guitar, harmonica and vocal skills while playing a lot of covers six days a week during his years as a solo performer aboard cruise ships. He’s quick to admit he only worked four hours each of those days, but still.
“You try singing for four hours straight,” he told a private club audience on Saturday.
His opening for Of Good Nature is a Rams Head debut featuring his original songs and ability to hold a room’s attention, even if it’s for less than four hours. Listen for his frothy breakup take on a bitter ex’s confession involving a close friend, “Shane (Does It Better).” $20, plus fees.
The Way
11:30 a.m Friday
While worship is at the center of Holy Week, it also features music and spectacle.
The Manresa Way of the Cross returns Friday morning for another year, featuring liturgy and a procession along the banks of the Severn River. Annapolis-area churches will host stations representing the New Testament story of Christ’s condemnation, journey to Golgotha, execution and burial in a tomb. Easter services on Sunday focus on the meaning of resurrection.
The men’s choir from Calvary United Methodist Church will perform at 11:30 a.m., and the procession begins at noon. Free.
Toys on show
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday
The Annapolis Toy Show presents 40 small companies and individual vendors selling vintage, modern, and collectible toys plus comics in a convention setting.
It’s the first time that regional promoter Maryland Toy Expo is bringing its show to Annapolis, setting up in the Mainsail Ballroom at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Annapolis. General admission is $5 at the door, with up to three accompanied children admitted free with each paid admission.
The Passion
7 p.m. Friday
St. Anne’s Episcopal Church and Live Arts Maryland will collaborate on a performance of “St. John Passion,” a work that features choruses, chorales, arias and recitatives, a form of speech performed as song. The work by Johann Sebastian Bach was first performed for Good Friday 300 years ago.
Performers include six soloists: baritones Spencer Adamson and Jeffrey Grayson Gates, soprano Emily Casey, tenors Oliver Mercer and Joseph Regan, and mezzo-soprano Melanie Regan. Free.
The eggs
10 a.m. Saturday
How did colored eggs and a bunny become part of Easter? Maybe they reflect pre-Christian fertility traditions or the egg’s place on Lenten menus. Or you could just go with it and appreciate that they’re pretty and fun to decorate, hide and then seek.
There are plenty of egg hunts on Saturday at area churches and nonprofits. Annapolis will host a free public egg hunt for kids at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center starting with music, food, and hunts organized by age. In-person registration required between 10 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.
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Lurid fascination
7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Between the art, music and dance, Maryland Hall has made room on its main stage for “The Psychology of Serial Killers and Why They Captivate Us.”
The Rams Head Presents show is part of a national tour by Rachel Toles, a licensed clinical psychologist from California. Not sure whether it’s meant to caution or attract you, but a graphic image warning comes along with this lecture. $39.50-$50, plus fees.
War and diplomacy
7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Ambassador Roger D. Carstens, the U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, will deliver a far different lecture, the Erik S. Kristensen Memorial Lecture at St. John’s College, held in partnership with the Naval Academy.
Carstens is a West Point graduate who served in U.S. Special Forces before attending the St. John’s College Graduate Institute. His lecture is titled “Reclaiming Our Intuition: The Poetic Conduct of War and Diplomacy in the Age of AI” and was described by the college as a mix of the philosophers, poets and strategic thinkers Heraclitus, Homer, Thucydides, Pascal and Clausewitz as well as director James Cameron, whose first big movie was “The Terminator.”
The lecture is named for a Navy lieutenant commander and academy graduate who was killed during a 2005 SEAL team search and rescue mission in Afghanistan. Free.
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Rick Hutzell is the Annapolis columnist for The Baltimore Banner. He writes about what's happening today, how we got here and where we're going next. The former editor of Capital Gazette, he led the newspaper to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2018 mass shooting in its newsroom.
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