Demaskus Theater’s ‘You Wouldn’t Expect’ At August Wilson; City Running ‘Sex With Strangers’ (Sat., 3/26/16)

1) Over the course of four decades, from the 1930s into the ‘70s, public health programs operating under the Eugenics Board of North Carolina sterilized an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 women and men. They had been judged unfit to procreate, as it was deemed that their offspring would be in some way defective and thus a burden to society. Many of those sterilized were African American women.

Playwright Marilynn Anselmi’s You Wouldn’t Expect brings out the nature and consequences of the eugenics programs by focusing on a group of characters that includes both women who were subject to the procedures, and program officers placed in charge. The play has been given a staged reading in North Carolina; now Pittsburgh’s demaskus theatre collective is presenting the first full production of You Wouldn’t Expect. This premiere event will have two performances only, a Saturday matinee and evening show. 2 and 8 p.m. Today only. At the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave., Cultural District.

2) Try this instant personality test. Read the title of the upcoming play at City Theatre—Sex with Strangers—then ask yourself: Does the notion strike you as (a) arousing, or (b) creepy? For the woman in Laura Eason’s play, the answer is (c) both. The woman is a struggling middle-aged novelist whose first book laid an egg. Into her life comes a stranger: a younger man, also an author, whose first opus went viral on the Internet. It happened to be the imaginary (or maybe not so imaginary) digital diary of a young man who sets out to have sex with lots of women and succeeds. Do the two writers engage in writerly intercourse? Of course, and the seriocomic results are not for children, regardless of how cyber-savvy they may be. 5:30 and 9 p.m. Performances through April 3. 1300 Bingham St., South Side.

3) Dancing Queen will put people on the dance floor at Baja Bar & Grill. The disco/funk band takes the stage at 9 p.m. 1366 Old Freeport Rd., O’Hara Township.

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