Pencil This In

THEATER: Last time we saw the National Asian-American Theatre Co. http://www.naatco.org/ was in the charmingly quirky Cowboy vs. Samurai. Now, for something completely different: their next show, which opens tonight, is The Dispute by Pierre Marivaux, an 18th century French dramatist. In it, a prince confines two male and two female orphans to an artificial "Eden" until they come of age, then he sets them loose to see what happens -- who will succumb first to temptation? Not only is it sure to be good theatre, there's virtually a guarantee of interesting after-theatre conversation. - Mallory Jensen

Through Aug. 26, Tues.-Sat. 7:30, Sat. & Sun. 3pm // Abingdon Theatre [312 W. 36th St] // Tickets via Smarttix

READING: Head down to McNally Robinson tonight for a little dose of schadenfraude - Roger Rappaport will be hosting a reading by New York contributors to the I Should Have Stayed Home series of travel essays. The contributors will present their travel stories and offer advice on how to write personal experience travel stories. And everyone is welcome to bring their own true travel disaster stories and read them, too! - Krissa Corbett Cavouras

7pm // McNally Robinson NYC [ 50 Prince St. between Lafayette and Mulberry] // Free

EVENT: And old New Yorker helps out some young New Yorkers. Poetess Marie Ponsot, now over 80, will help out in a benefit for 826NYC, by reading. The non-profit organization offers free writing programs for New Yorkers aged 6-18. This sounds very quaint, compared to the (sure to be amazing) Revenge of the Book Eaters Tour 826 has coming up.

6pm // Perch Café & Bar [365 Fifth Ave, Park Slope] // $10

MUSIC: You aren't going to the Cinderella/Poison show at Jones Beach tonight? Laaaaame. 20 years of rock is nothing to shrug at, you know. And just look at them in their glory. My gosh. If only people dressed like that today.

Well then, why don't you get yourself over to the Spiegeltent for The Hysterics, we've mentioned those boys here before. Before that head to The Annex for the last Die!Die!Die! residency show (free Red Stripe from 8 to 9!)

8pm on // Various Locations // Various Venues (you know where to find the details)