Some temptations seem too hard to resist.
  One is the lure of money. Another is the urge to figure out mysteries and secrets. And a third gets added to the list tonight — the fun of finding out how current a 1905 play can feel through the eyes of a 20th-century theater legend.

Richmond Ballet will present a program of mixed contemporary repertory works at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the V. Earl Dickinson Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Fifty years ago this spring, William Faulkner served his second and last term as a writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. To mark the anniversary of his Charlottesville visit, there will be a symposium at the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library Auditorium at 2 p.m. today.

Maybe you’re already a Savion Glover fan and thus familiar with high-energy tap dancing. Perhaps you have a fondness for Irish step dancing and can’t resist “Riverdance’’ and the spirited footwork from the group Bowfire.

Play On!, the relatively new community theater in the old Ix building, has produced a nice variety of shows during its short life.
With Beth Henley’s “Impossible Marriage,” it moves toward the end of its second season with whimsy and heart.
Henley may be best known for “Crimes of the Heart,” which won a Pulitzer Prize in the early ’80s, and on film for “Miss Firecracker.”
Henley is a Southerner, and “Impossible Marriage,” like her other plays, is based around Savannah and features quirky characters not quite in touch with reality, which is what can make them lovable. Or at least interesting.

The Music Resource Center has planned “A Big Easy Evening’’ for Sunday that evokes the music and style of New Orleans.
Events begin with Crescent City cocktails at L’Etoile restaurant at 817 W. Main St., which will be filling in for the New Orleans fixture Antoine’s.
At 6 p.m., there will be a New Orleans-style jazz procession down West Main Street.

Piedmont Virginia Community College will present “UP (Ugly Prince) and UP (Ugly Princess): The Musical’’ at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the college’s V. Earl Dickinson Building.
Kay Bethea, professor of music and theater at PVCC, wrote the original book, lyrics and music for the show. Piedmont’s production is adapted from her satirical twist on “happily ever after’’ fairy tales.

Mira will present “Pilgrims, Knights and the Blessed Virgin Mary’’ at 8 p.m. Saturday at Holy Comforter Roman Catholic Church.
The Charlottesville early-music group will be singing 10th- and 11th-century chants from Ireland and England, as well as four centuries’ worth of polyphonic works by such composers as Dufay, Byrd and Crequillon.

Can’t decide whether you’d rather see high-energy tap dancing or spirited Celtic footwork? It’s time to step up — and choose both.
The StepCrew will bring a new mix of Celtic dance and modern tap to the Paramount Theater at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Montana Repertory Theatre is coming back to the Paramount Theater — this time with a sizzler of an American classic.
“Cat on a Hit Tin Roof’’ will be presented 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and after the performance, there will be a discussion with members of the company.
Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play follows the members of an affluent and dysfunctional Southern family who reunite at a Mississippi Delta mansion to celebrate the birthday of Big Daddy, their patriarch.

The story of a woman who pins her financial hopes on profiting from war might be called the mother of darkly comic dramas.
Tonight is opening night for Live Arts’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children,’’ and director Satch Huizenga said audience members will be struck by the timeliness of the piece.