Shakespeare, Fairy Tales & festivals: Calgary entertainment this weekend

It's another busy weekend on the Calgary arts and entertainment scene, so here are some picks we've rounded up for you.

Much Ado

Let's start with one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, Much Ado About Nothing.

It's been staged around the world. It's also been adapted for the big screen you may remember the version in the 1990s directed by Kenneth Branagh featuring Emma Thompson and Denzel Washington, and then more recently Joss Whedon pulled together a cast of his regulars including Nathan Fillion and Clark Gregg. They even filmed the movie in Whedon's home.

The Shakespeare Company with the support of Hit & Myth Productions present the much-loved play until June 2 at the Vertigo Theatre.

Here's what you need to know.

Kid-friendly

The Calgary International Children's Festival is underway. This is the 32nd year for the festival and it includes puppetry, theatre, dance and music.

But it only runs until Saturday at venues in and around Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza.

Here are the details.

Fairy Tales

The Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival launches Friday and it's one of the largest queer film festivals in Canada. It features local, national and international films.

One of the films is a new local documentary called Outliers: Calgary's Queer History. It runs at the Plaza Theatre in Kensington Friday at 7 p.m.

For the complete lineup check this out.

And more festivals

Calgarians have two other film festivals on this weekend.

The Calgary Underground Film Festival presents 3 Deadly Days of Kung Fu, it features eight of the most action-packed films from the Shaw brothers.

The Shaw brothers founded their production company in 1958, so to celebrate the 60th anniversary, CUFF has put together this festival.

3 Deadly Days of Kung Fu kicks off Thursday and runs at the Globe Cinema until Saturday.

Here's some more information.

The Hidden Gems Film Festival showcases independent films from India. It's in its 10th year and runs May 25 to 27 and June 1 to 3 at Alberta College of Art and Design.

Here's more detail on that festival.

Comic creators rejoice

Comics have become a huge part of our popular culture and a local organization is celebrating some of Calgary's independent creators this Saturday.

Panel One Comic Creator Festival includes over 50 local comic illustrators, writers and creators and if you're an aspiring artist, you can learn how to create your own comic.

Special guests include Fiona Staples, an award-winning local illustrator known for her work on Archie and Saga. Author and illustrator Ben Rankel will be holding a workshop on methods of research for historical and real life comics. He is the creator behind Frank, a historical mystery graphic novel just released this week.

The festival is on Saturday from 11 a.m to 7 p.m. at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association.

Here's all the details.

With files from the Homestretch