WEEKEND FORECAST

TODAY

POP MUSIC

American institutions

Of all the venues where you can see the perpetually touring Bob Dylan, a county fair is one of the best. The surrounding environment of canning contests and Ferris wheels forms a harmonious setting for his music, which is deeply rooted in the tissue of the American tradition. And when he played here a few years ago, the spirit seemed to move him to tap the mischievous carny lurking in his persona.

Bob Dylan, with Deana Carter, Pacific Amphitheatre, 100 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, 7 p.m. today. $45 to $85. (714) 708-1500.

DANCE

Beautiful strokes

The Watercourt in California Plaza becomes a backdrop this weekend for the Guangdong Modern Dance Company of China, that country’s first professional contemporary ensemble. Artistic director Willy Tsao (who has also brought brilliantly trained companies from Hong Kong and Beijing to Los Angeles) promises a varied program that features Liu Qi’s “Upon Calligraphy,” a five-part work with music by Li Chin Sung that reflects the different styles of traditional Chinese script in the dynamics of the dancing.

Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Grand Performances, the Watercourt at California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. 8 p.m. today. Free. (213) 687-2190 or grandperformances.org

* Also 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

JAZZ

Opening new doors

Don’t expect TribalJazz to play “Light My Fire,” despite the leadership of former Doors drummer John Densmore. To the contrary, Densmore views the group as his pathway back to the world of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, etc. But with the presence of a slew of ethnic percussion, a fascination with global timbres and a dedication to rhythmic grooves, the music of TribalJazz ranges much closer to the genre linkage implied by its aptly chosen name.

Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. 8 p.m. today. Free. (310) 440-4500, www.skirball.org

FAMILY

Putting fun in classical

Richard Perlmutter, a.k.a. Beethoven’s Wig, a three-time Grammy Award nominee for best children’s music album, will perform his zany “Sing-Along Symphonies” stage romp today at Kidspace Children’s Museum and Saturday at the Ford Amphitheatre. Perlmutter shares his love of classical music with a funny bone approach, adding comical but surprisingly apt lyrics to the works of famous composers.

Kidspace Children’s Museum, Stone Hollow Amphitheater, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Brookside Park, Pasadena. 6:30 p.m. today. $15. (626) 449-9144, www.kidspacemuseum.org

* Also Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood. 10 a.m. Saturday. Children free; adults $5. (323) 461-3673, www.fordamphitheater.org

MUSEUMS

Focus on the unusual

Eureka, Calif.-born Matthew Monahan fuses drawing with sculpture by building unconventional structures from the drawings he creates, as well as forming free-standing works hand-crafted to resemble figures as varied as saints and warriors bearing tortured and joyful expressions. He uses such found bits and pieces as glitter, pins, Styrofoam, glass, drywall and beeswax. The Museum of Contemporary Art holds the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in “MOCA Focus: Matthew Monahan,” a display of a decade’s worth of Monahan’s work never before shown in Los Angeles.

“MOCA Focus: Matthew Monahan,” Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Opens today. $5 to $8; 11 and younger, free. (213) 626-6222.

* Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Fridays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Ends Oct. 28.

MUSIC

Young and gifted

The 10th annual summer International Laureates Festival culminates in a concert by iPalpiti Orchestra, an ensemble of youthful, gifted musicians from around the world, led by music director Eduard Schmieder. The program will include Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with Japanese violinist Sayako Kusaka and narrator Theodore Bikel. The program also includes works by Mendelssohn, Golijov and Piazzolla.

iPalpiti Orchestra, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. today. $20 to $90. (310) 205-0511, www.youngartists.org

FRIDAY

MOVIES

Studio cover-up

Hollywood lore is full of lurid tales of buried scandals, but there’s always room for one more. “Girl 27,” David Stenn’s documentary that had its premiere at Sundance earlier this year, chronicles the 1937 rape of a young dancer at a party for MGM’s out-of-town sales reps and the subsequent cover-up by the studio.

“Girl 27,” not rated, opens Friday at Laemmle’s Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.

SATURDAY

THEATER

Accused traitor

The place: a courtroom in purgatory. Judas is on trial in “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” Stephen Adly Guirgis’ seriocomic look at the consequence of choice and the limits of forgiveness. Among those called to testify: Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud -- and Satan. Emmy-winning stage and film veteran David Clennon (“Dream On”) heads the Black Dahlia Theatre cast, directed by Matt Shakman.

Lutheran Church of the Master, 10931 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. Opens 8 p.m. Saturday.

* Runs 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays; ends Aug. 26. $20. (866) 468-3399.

ART

Making bold strokes

Self-taught Richard Allen Morris creates small, larger-than-life paintings. With a style rooted in Abstract Expressionism, Morris spreads truckloads of acrylic onto narrow canvases using a palette knife, brush -- even squeezed straight from the tube. For his show at Mandarin, Morris has taken the smaller of the gallery’s two exhibition spaces; Tom Driscoll has the larger for his first L.A. area solo exhibition, a series of sculptural “line drawings” that appear to sprout out of the wall.

“Richard Allen Morris: In the Thick of It,” Mandarin, 970 N. Broadway, Suite 212, L.A. Opens Saturday. (213) 687-4107.

* Hours: 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Ends Aug. 25.

SUNDAY

THEATER

First came the shaking

In Steppenwolf Theatre’s “after the quake,” presented by La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, director Frank Galati interweaves two short stories by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami written in the aftermath of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan.

“after the quake,” La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. Opens 7 p.m. Sunday. $28 to $60. (858) 550-1010. www.lajollaplayhouse.org

* Runs 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; ends Aug. 26.

WORLD MUSIC

Armenian richness

Given the programming, this summer’s KCRW World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl could be titled World Pop Festival. But Spirit of Armenia, should finally offer a true festival of world music and dance. A panoply of the rich Armenian musical heritage will include the plaintive duduk playing of Djivan Gasparyan and the Winds of Passion, and the traditional folk and troubadour music of tenor Hovhannes Shahbazyan. Add to that the intricate choreography of the Zvartnots and the Vartan and Siranoush Gevorkian Dance Ensembles and appearances by Armenian pop artists Andy, Adiss, Sako and Silva Hakobyan.

Spirit of Armenia, Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. 7 p.m. Sunday. $7 to $45. (323) 850-2000.

COMEDY

Raunchy good fun

Doug Stanhope has hosted “The Man Show” and a “Girls Gone Wild” video, written the book “Fun With Pedophiles” (in which he pranks unsuspecting online predators) and, earlier this year, aborted his would-be presidential campaign. Plus, he’s got a Showtime special coming out Aug. 3. So it all stands to reason that, after opening for Artie Lange at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, the raunchy Stanhope has a gig the next night at Spaceland, just before local bands take the stage.

Doug Stanhope, Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A. Doors at 8 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Free; 21 and older. (323) 661-4380.