Priority list includes an evil sock puppet, crimes of passion, more

What's up this week?

Well, a sock puppet, a second look at Heartland Films, the season opener for Symphony on the Prairie, and a reason for those who like bold new musical theater to visit Bloomington. And that's just for starters.

“Hand to God”

If you caught “Avenue Q” at the Phoenix Theatre a few seasons back, you know that just because a show here involves puppetry doesn’t mean you should bring the kids. Better get a babysitter for them and witness for yourself this tale of a church ministry disrupted (to put it mildly) by a  rude (also to put it mildly) sock puppet.

June 16-July 17 Phoenix Theatre Details

Heartland Film Festival Summer Rewind

Both stand-up comic Drew Lynch and the 2016 Academy Award-winning short film about him, “The Stutterer,” will be featured at the opening event for this mini-festival. Other screenings include past Heartland offerings “Keep in Touch,” a favorite of mine from 2015; “The Champions,” about rescued pit bulls; and “Band of Robbers,” including promised appearance by Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer—or reasonable facsimiles.

June 15-17 Fountain Square and the Athenaeum  Details

Symphony on the Prairie Season Opener

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra migrates to the north for a season opening concert at Conner Prairie featuring music by Bernstein, Gershwin and Dvorak. Jon Kimura Parker is the guest pianist. Rather stay indoors? The ISO is offering a lunch break edition at Hilbert Circle Theatre on Thursday.

June 17-18  Conner Prairie  Details

Cardinal Stage’s “Murder Ballad”

 “Someone’s gonna die,” belts the narrator in this immersive musical about a passionate triangle consisting of a bartender, a poetry professor, and an Upper West Side Manhattan woman. Finding out who the victim will be means taking a journey through this sung-through musical with a score by Juliana Nash that blurs the line between audience, stage, and bar.

June 17-July 3 Ivy Tech Waldron Auditorium, Bloomington  Details

Also this week

EclecticPond Theatre Company’s beach party version of  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” June 17-26 at IndyFringe.

Joe Walsh and Bad Company hit Klipsch Music Center June 16 followed by Florida Georgia Line June 18.

The Eiteljorg Museum celebrates Juneteenth on June 18 with free admission and special programming. Meanwhile AsianFest occupies the Indiana State Museum.

Ten artists take over a vacant liquor store for Imoca's "Art Shack: A Pop-Up Celebration" June 18 at 3002 E Washington St.

Rhett Miller plays the Warehouse June 18.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art screens "Rebel Without a Cause" June 17.