Just as much of a revered holiday tradition as a Christmas tree, caroling and Chinese food, local productions of THE NUTCRACKER signal for many the spirit of the season. Starting this week, several local companies are staging their versions of this timeless classic. Jefferson Ballet Theatre's The Nutcracker (pictured) showcases its 15th annual presentation using dancers from Russia and Italy. Italian Sara Viale plays the Sugar Plum Fairy and Russian Erlends Zieminch plays her Cavalier, with both having previously performed in several Jefferson Ballet works. Under the direction of Myra Mier, performances will be held at Loyola's Roussel Hall (6363 St. Charles Ave.) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. The performance moves to the Pontchartrain Center (4545 Williams Blvd., Kenner) for a 3 p.m. Sunday show. Both the Saturday and Sunday matinees will feature a free Sugar Plum Party after the show for children to meet the dancers and enjoy treats. Tickets $12-$20, and are available by calling 468-1231. The 14th annual production of The Nutcracker by Ballet Apetrei will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in St. Joseph's Abbey near Covington. The troupe's artistic director, Constantin Apetrei, choreographs a cast of more than 150, including Russian dancers Andre Prikhoko (Cavalier) and Marina Goshko (Sugar Plum Fairy), as well as starring as Herr Drosselmeier. Tickets $10-$20. For more info on Ballet Apetrei's performances, call (985) 624-3622. The River Region Ballet's interpretation of The Nutcracker hits the boards at the Destrehan Auditorium (Destrehan High School) 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. This production marks talented 13-year-old Antoinette Ferrara's promotion to the lead of Clara after years in various other roles. Tickets $8-$15. For tickets or more info, call (985) 764-1969. Next weekend, look for The Jefferson Performing Arts Society (JPAS) as it distinguishes its Nutcracker with a reintroduction of two dancers that starred in JPAS' Giselle last season: Eleanor Bernard stars as the Snow Queen, and Ian Carney appears as her prince. Lawrence Golan makes his JPAS conducting debut, leading the JPAS Symphony Orchestra and Children's Chorus. JPAS' The Nutcracker will be held 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center (400 Phlox St., Metairie). Tickets $12-$27. For tickets or more info, call 885-2000 or visit www.jpas.org. -- Frank Etheridge

Dillinger Escape Plan 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 Shim Sham Club, 615 Toulouse St., 299-0666 It takes a Dillinger Escape Plan show to knock self-proclaimed hard-core metal heads down a few pegs. Sounding like loony-bin escapees/grindcore metal musicians who accidentally signed up for a jazz composition class, the quintet's avant-garde thrash-rock is musically challenging and technically astonishing. Perhaps to indicate the use of unconventional time signatures, many of their song titles are dorkily mathematical, like "43% Burnt," and "Calculating Infinity." "#..." drops with eerie effects that foment the sinking feeling that your insides are about to be scrambled by a triple-meter death spiral. Sharp dynamics rule the Dillinger sound, especially on their latest release, Irony Is a Dead Scene, a four-track EP fronted by avant-metal guru and Dillinger fan Mike Patton. Oh, and their live shows have been known to descend into strobe-lit orgies of random violence. Mastodon opens. Admission $10. -- Cristina Diettinger

Dillard Holiday Concert 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 Dillard University, Lawless Memorial Chapel, 2601 Gentilly Blvd., 816-4357 Distinguishing an event in the daunting face of 67 years of tradition and a holiday-season calendar already booked with scores of all-star concerts is a tall order. But Dillard University ups its own ante this Thursday, with its 67th annual holiday concert featuring a lineup that includes local jazz luminaries Germaine Bazzle and Ellis Marsalis. Vocalist Bazzle and jazz patriarch Marsalis (a Dillard alumnus) will be joined by seasoned keyboardist Albert Bemiss and the Rev. Cynthia Wilson-Holins (also a Dillard graduate). The event also features the Dillard choir and a full orchestra under the direction of S. Carver Davenport. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the music starting at 7:30 p.m., with guests encouraged to arrive early as space typically fills up quickly. For further information, call 816-4357. (Note: Marsalis will also celebrate the release of his new holiday CD, Jazz at Christmas in New Orleans, with Jason Marsalis on drums and bassist Bill Huntington on Friday at Snug Harbor.) -- Etheridge

Bingo! 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 Fiorella's, 1136 Decatur St., 528-9566 "Does anybody wanna be a winner?" That's the mantra of bandleader Clint Maedgen, who hosts the much buzzed-about Thursday night Bingo games at Fiorella's on lower Decatur Street. Best known for fronting Ninth Ward-based art rock band Liquidrone, Maedgen started the downtown bingo craze when he happened upon a lot of 800 vintage bingo cards at a neighborhood antique store. Now, swingers in second-hand clothes and funky accessories play their grandma's game late into the night while a four-piece band plays whimsical songs that draw equally from carnival music and country folk, a mix that Maedgen calls "carn-try." Pump organs and toy ray guns enhance the sonic texture of Maedgen's Tom Waitsian melodies, while patrons dance and sing along. When the game starts, it's time to hunker down on your bingo card. And if you win, you'll walk away with coveted prizes like booze and bicycle reflectors. Admission $3. -- Diettinger

A Salute to Alexander Pushkin Various events Friday-Sunday, Dec. 6-8 UNO Downtown Theatre, Scottish Rite Temple, 619 Carondelet St., 861-7787 The work of Russian playwright Alexander Pushkin is so prolific and his art so impacting that organizers of A Salute to Alexander Pushkin needed three days to create a festival in his honor. The weekend's opening night features the American debut of The Water Nymphs, a slice of fantasia that is steeped in Russian folklore and touches on themes of love, life and death, and the human spirit. Natasha Ramer directs the work that comes translated by James F. Falen. A reception starts at 7 p.m., followed by a discussion of Pushkin's work and life with readings at 7:30 p.m., and The Water Nymphs beginning at 8 p.m. On Saturday, Dr. Boris Gasparov of Columbia University delivers a free lecture entitled "Pushkin's Literary Legacy in Russia" at 6:30 p.m., with the play following at 8 p.m. On Sunday, the doors to the theater will open at 2 p.m. to present art exhibits, a book sale of Pushkin's work, children's entertainment, Russian food, music and costumes. A prelude to the play begins at 5:30 p.m. with songs and poetry readings, with the play starting at 6 p.m. Play tickets are $15 adults and $8 children; other admissions free. -- Etheridge

16th Annual Art Against AIDS 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 821-2601, ext. 250 The specter of AIDS still hovers mightily over the state of Louisiana; New Orleans and Baton Rouge remain among the top 20 cities in the nation for rates of infection per capita. So the annual Art Against AIDS benefit, featuring an auction and gala, remains an integral fundraiser in this ongoing battle against one of the nation's most destructive diseases. The Contemporary Arts Center's newly renovated warehouse will serve as the host site for the event, with restaurants and clubs swooping down and converting the space into a celebration of New Orleans nightlife -- the theme is appropriately dubbed "New Orleans After Dark." The silent auction will offer guests a crack at artwork and other items donated from artists, retail stores, restaurants and more. Tickets are $50 and available at the door and all Earthsavers locations. -- David Lee Simmons

Hinckley on Foster: The Hearing 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8; through Dec. 22 The Refuge, 2238 St. Claude Ave., 606-7124 Midwesterner cum New Orleanian Michael Martin looks to make an introductory splash in the local theater scene with an established work in which he writes, directs and stars, Hinckley on Foster: The Hearing. The work enjoyed a successful run last spring in Chicago (the Chicago Reader dubbed Martin's turn in the work as "unassuming genius"). Martin presents a play that creates a dream-like reality with a nightmarish underbelly that parallels our national consciousness. The historically based plot follows Martin as John W. Hinckley Jr., the young man who attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981 to prove his love of actress Jodie Foster. (And you thought your guy was psycho!) We see Hinckley 20 years removed from the incident, trying desperately to achieve sanity and a return to society. For his local debut, Martin brings Hinckley on Foster: The Hearing with his recently formed company, The Four Humours Playhouse. Tickets $10 or pay-what-you-can. -- Etheridge

Enrique Alferez: Art & Life Through Dec. 7 Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 603 Julia St., 539-9600 He was an artist who fought with Pancho Villa as a teenager and was left for dead after a pitched battle. In America, he scaled a Chicago skyscraper twice a day to raise and lower the flag, but eventually got a better job with the Federal Arts Project in New Orleans producing most of the sculpture in City Park and beyond. His name was Enrique Alferez, and by the time he died at the age of 98 in 1999, he was a local institution. Influenced by public-arts visionaries such as Diego Rivera in his native Mexico, his work was modern yet grounded in the figure. A larger-than-life personality himself, Alferez felt that art should be accessible to all, as is evident in this diverse Ogden exhibit. From a time and place in which art was not separate from life, his work would ultimately become inseparable from the landscape of this, his adopted hometown. -- D. Eric Bookhardt