Thursday, Jan. 22: For five Oak Parkers, thinking on your feet is an art form. We get the chance Thursday night – at no charge – to see the playful art of Daniel Hoppe, Dan Rocha, Bruce DeViller, Antoinette Rabinowitz and Brian Rabinowitz. Better known as Swift Kick, this quick-witted collaboration is the village’s only improvisational comedy troupe. Yes, in its five years, this is the troupe can take credit for a dating game skit that channeled Truman Capote, George W. Bush and Attila the Hun. They’ll take the stage, and your prompts, at 8 p.m. as the headliners for the Oak Park Art League’s Performing Arts Festival. The league’s nest is at 720 Chicago Ave. For details about the art league, go to www.opal-art.com or call 386-9853.
Friday, Jan. 23: Teens in bands getting together for a Friday night jam – this is news? Absolutely – when the organizer of the show is captain of the debate team at Oak Park and River Forest High School and when the show is a travel fundraiser for the team’s trip to Harvard next month. OPRF senior Brendan Burke, a drummer for Dove Tale and Cox Force, is pulling together bands that his fellow debaters are in, too: Crosstown, Panic at the Alamo, and Sir Realism and the Royal Fuzz. The bands strike up at 6:30 p.m. and play until 10 p.m. The jam is at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake in Oak Park. Admission is $5.
Sunday, Jan. 25: Two-time Grammy winners for best classical crossover album – the Turtle Island Quartet – will be at Dominican University on Sunday afternoon with their signature show on John Coltrane. Mads Tolling, David Balakrishnan, Mark Summer and Jeremy Kittel have the talent to translate jazz compositions for a sax, piano, bass and drums into music for two violins, a cell and a viola. Catch the fusion and the originality at 3 p.m. Sunday in Lund Auditorium at Dominican University’s Performing Arts Center, 7900 W. Division, River Forest. Tickets are $33. Call the box office at 488-5000 or go to www.dom.edu/pac.