The Bacon Brother’s Band Plays Jergel’s; Hatch Arts Collective Staging ‘Driftless’ (Thurs., 8/11/16)

1) Michael plays guitar and cello and sings. Kevin—guitar, vocals, and percussion. So are the frontman for The Bacon Brothers. Younger brother Kevin Bacon is known for his acting roles in Footloose, Apollo 13, and, most recently, the Fox television drama “The Following.” Michael Bacon has had an equally successful career, albeit one behind the scenes. He composes scores for film and television. His music for “The Kennedys,” a documentary which aired on PBS, won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music. The music of the Bacon Brothers, however, is all Americana, as demonstrated by their single, “36 Cents,” from their latest album, 2014’s 36 ¢. Their band has been active since 1995, but the brothers have been playing music together since they were kids in Philadelphia. They also approve of eggs, “‘cause who knows eggs better than the Bacon Brothers?” Michael and Kevin are currently touring with a full band and are coming to Jergel’s Rhythm Grille. Derik Hultquist. 8 p.m. 285 Northgate Dr., Warrendale. (CM)

The glass is more than half full, but of what? Sierra (Siovhan Christensen) contemplates the effects of fracking in “Driftless.”

2) Fracking, the controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas, has been the subject of several documentaries and, recently, of fictional drama. The Gus Van Sant/Matt Damon movie Promised Land, filmed mostly in the Pittsburgh area, went into wide release in 2013, and this year we have a home-produced entry. Driftless is a stage play written by Paul Kruse of Hatch Arts Collective and based on research by the company over a period of three years. During that time, Hatch put together two experimental, short performance pieces about fracking, thus combining artistic R&D with subject-matter research. Driftless features a cast of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh-born actors—Ken Bolden, Trevor Butler, Siovhan Christensen, Alec Silberblatt, Tammy Tsai—with music by slowdanger. The story revolves around a family experiencing the effects of fracking, and Hatch Arts Collective promises “a nuanced look at a complicated issue.” 8 p.m. Performances through Sunday. At the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (MV)

3) Some plays are made for summertime theater, and South Park Theatre’s Weekend Comedy is one. A middle-aged couple rents a cabin in the woods, where the wife has designs of re-igniting her husband’s sexual passion. Then a younger couple shows up—somehow they’ve been booked into the same cabin—and when all decide to share the premises, well, a weekend of comedy breaks loose. The 1985 play is a staple of dinner theater and summer stock companies, maybe because it’s more than a mindless farce. The playwright, Sam Bobrick, has written for such TV shows as “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” which NBC booted off the air in 1969 after disputes over the show’s stinging social commentary. And Bobrick’s best-known play (co-written with Ron Clark) is Norman, Is That You?, a seriocomic story of a man learning that his son is gay. So you might expect Weekend Comedy to touch on some deeper aspects of sex, love, and gender roles … but mainly it’s meant to be risqué summer fun. 7:30 p.m. Continues through August 27. Brownsville Road at Wooded Gap Road, South Park Township. (MV)

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