FOR CHILDREN

Sitting (and Diving and Barking) for Their Portraits, All in the Name of Science: ‘DrawNow!’ at the Central Park Zoo

Most children probably think of a scientist’s tools as instruments like microscopes and telescopes. It wasn’t so long ago, however, that pencils, brushes, paint and paper were just as important. The Drawing Center is revisiting that era every Saturday in May at the zoo, where it’s recreated the Department of Tropical Research, a field station for the trailblazing naturalist William Beebe (1877-1962), who visited South America and the Caribbean, taking along artists who produced colorful records. Open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and presented in conjunction with the Drawing Center’s exhibition “Exploratory Works: Drawings From the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions,” the zoo’s station welcomes young visitors to the adventure with art materials, activity cards and marine specimens. Every hour, from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m., Beebe and one of his artists, Else Bostelmann, will join them in the form of actors from the Wildlife Theater Troupe, who will conduct a 30-minute science and drawing program. It culminates with sketching some wonderful live models: the zoo’s sea lions.

THEATER

Not Yet Memory, but Soon: ‘The Glass Menagerie’ at the Belasco Theater

Sam Gold’s tradition-shattering staging of this Tennessee Williams play, starring Sally Field and Joe Mantello, will entertain its final gentleman caller on May 21. Ben Brantley wrote that the director and his cast “have dismantled a venerable classic, but darned if they can figure out how to put it back together again.

MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

Compact Creations, Radiant and Alive: Daniel Rios Rodriguez: ‘Controlled Burn’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

This San Antonio-based artist’s toothsome little panel paintings, on view through May 21, are like present-day icons devoted to nature and abstraction that also take tips from the early modernists who merged them. Rotating among plant forms, glimpses of outer space and schematic self-portraits, they are indebted to Marsden Hartley’s robust brushwork and rich palette, Forrest Bess’s visionary quirkiness and Arthur Dove’s collage-assemblages. Built as much as painted, they are supplemented with marbles; dried weeds; ribbon; small stones; and scraps of wood, shingle and jewelry — all of which enhance the votive quality. There’s also rope, sometimes burned and sometimes used for framing, echoing Picasso’s famous 1912 “Still Life With Chair Caning.” Occasionally the edges break out in jagged zigzags. In the radiant “Jumbo,” they might be sunbeams, or signs of the discovery of the Higgs boson.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

‘Canticles’ in a Church, ‘Birds’ in a Park: The Crossing at St. Michael’s Church

“Canticles of the Holy Wind” is one of two major works that this committed contemporary-music choir from Philadelphia has commissioned from John Luther Adams, a composer uncommonly concerned with the relationships between music, nature and humanity. This Friday night performance, celebrating a worthy new recording to be released on Cantaloupe Music in June, is part of an Adams series sponsored by Symphony Space. Another notable attraction will be Alarm Will Sound giving the New York premiere of “Ten Thousand Birds,” in Morningside Park at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

DANCE

Extracting ‘Power and Mystery’ From the Female Form: Michelle Boulé at the Chocolate Factory Theater

In her new evening-length solo, “The Monomyth,” the captivating Michelle Boulé explores ideas about mythmaking, using her deep knowledge of somatic practices to unearth stories buried in the body. Best known for her many years as a dancer in the work of Miguel Gutierrez, Ms. Boulé has been charting her own choreographic path in recent years. To a score of disco music and ambient sound, designed by Curtis Tamm, she continues harnessing what she calls “the power and mystery of the feminine” in performances Wednesday through May 27.