Every Thursday, WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen sums up the exhibitions, theater, movies and music you should check out in and around Boston and delivers news from the city's arts scene.
THE GAME WORLDS OF JASON ROHRER, on view at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College through June 26
Synopsis: The Davis Museum at Wellesley College looks at the layered levels of video gaming in the first-ever retrospective of a designer. Jason Rohrer’s 2D mazes and puzzles, which visitors can play, are less escapist and more existential.
Jared says: "This is a very interesting interactive exhibit…It really forces some introspection on you."
KILLER HEELS: THE ART OF THE HIGH-HEELED SHOE, on view at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, through May 15
Synopsis: A showcase of some 160 heels designed from the early 1700s to 2014 traces their historic, cultural and technological transformations – from East to West, men to women and stacked wood to thin rods of steel.
Jared says: "This…really gets at the artistry of the shoes for all the major designers that we know: Christian Louboutin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, but also pieces as objects, right down to glass slippers that evoke Cinderella."
THE CONVERT, playing at Central Square Theater through Feb. 28
Synopsis: It’s 1895 Rhodesia – what is now Zimbabwe – and an African evangelical Christian is determined to convert the native population, including a Shona girl looking for a way out of an arranged marriage, to his faith and European traditions.
Jared says: "I found this to an absolutely riveting, transportive piece. It’s very naturalistic; great chemistry among the cast here."
Looking for more arts coverage? This weekend on Open Studio, enter more of “The Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer” as Jared sits down with the artist. Then get to know ArtLifting, a life-altering business that sells the work of homeless and disabled artists.
