Pencil This In

FILM: BAM features the work of Al Santana tonight. The Brooklyn filmmaker "has been a fixture on the independent film and video scene for years and his work ranges from documentaries about the transatlantic slave trade to coping with 9/11." Santana will be on hand for a Q&A tonight as well.

7pm // BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn] // $11

THEATER: The New York Press deems “pastiche” performance artist Taylor Mac “one the best performers (and freaks) the city has to offer.” Catch him getting freaky (and personal) with The Young Ladies of…, which tells us how Mac’s father, while stationed in Vietnam in ’68, placed an advertisement asking women ages 19-26 to write him and was deluged with hundreds of letters. “Juxtaposing images of Lt. Bowyer in Vietnam with Mac’s own unique gender-bending aesthetic, Mac uses the letters, original text and songs to bridge the gap between perceptions of masculinity and femininity, past and present, and red and blue states.” The Village Voice notes that “rarely has someone wearing so much make-up appeared so naked." – John Del Signore

8:30pm // HERE Arts Center [145 Sixth Ave] // Tickets cost $20.

Pretty much any event can get us to go to the Angel Orensanz Foundation, NYC's very first synagogue. Tonight the beautiful venue will feature Tempest Tossed. "The remarkable production of The Tempest which forms the occasion for this pair of evenings grew out of an intensive three-week workshop this past summer, when three professional actors (all veterans of the NYU Tisch School's graduate program), a director and other members of the creative team (also all Tisch veterans) all convened at NYU's Italian campus in Florence, the Villa La Pietra. Settling on Shakespeare's magisterial late play, the collaborators decided to revision it in the manner of a sort of primordial Commedia dell'arte travelling troupe, with the three actors taking on all eleven of the parts."

7:30pm // Angel Orensanz Foundation [172 Norfolk St] // Free

MUSIC: Want to listen to PJ Harvey's new album, White Chalk? There's a listening party tonight at the Beauty Bar, where honestly you'll probably be too busy drinking and talking to even listen -- but it'll be in the air if you should choose to pay attention!

9pm // Beauty Bar [231 E 14th St] // Free

COMEDY: Make a night out of it at UCB Theater. First up at 8pm is Comedy by the Numbers, which is a "One-time only seminar on what is funny." Who better to school you in laughs than the authors of Comedy By Numbers (Eric Hoffman and Gary Rudoren) and Brian Stack (from Late Night with Conan O’Brien) and David Cross (um, from being David Cross).

8pm // Upright Citizens Brigade Theater [307 W 26th St] // $5

Later on catch the Human Giant crew, John Mulaney, Jonah Ray and more at Crash Test. And in between, why not check out the 9:30 show, 3 Square, starring Dan Bakkedahl (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Peter Grosz (The Colbert Report) and John Lutz (SNL).

11pm // Upright Citizens Brigade Theater [307 W 26th St] // Free, reserve tickets here