Coming of age while attending a new school and making new friends has served as a plot point for young adult stories in film, theater, and literature many times over. Theater J adds to the canon with its world-premiere production of Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ Queens Girl in the World, but this is no Mean Girls, wherein a young woman seeks to define herself based on the expectations of others. Instead, Jacqueline, the play’s 12-year-old protagonist, is shaped by the cultural and geographic differences she experiences when her parents transfer her from comfortable surroundings in Queens to a progressive school in Greenwich Village, where she is one of only four black students.  Read more >>> The play runs Sept. 16 to Oct. 11 at Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. $17–$67. (202) 518-9400. theaterj.org. (Caroline Jones)

EAT THIS

What heats up lives and tempts people to abandon their healthy lifestyles? Ashley Madison? No. It’s Tennessee hot chicken. Maison-Dixon, a pop-up started by chefs Adam Cox and Teddy Folkman, will bring the spicy Southern dish to Vendetta tonight. The fried chicken made with an allegedly “very spicy” sauce will be available from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., or until the chefs run out of food. Visitors who are hesitant to burn their tongues can order other comfort foods such as chicken and waffles and mac and cheese. Vendetta, 1212 H St. NE. (202) 309-3201. maisondixondc.com. (Freddy Rodriguez)

OH AND ALSO

Comedian Kate Berlant, who’s appeared at clubs around the world and on Comedy Central’s The Meltdown, performs a free show at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. 6 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. Free.

To hear some music created by the weather, heard to Union Arts, where New Orleans based artist Quintron demonstrates his Weather Warlock, a synthesizer controlled by sensors that detect changes in the weather. Quintron is joined by local musicians Mark Cisneros, Aaron Martin, and Luke Stewart, plus Ian Svenonius and Olivia Neutron-John. 7 p.m. at 411 New York Ave. NE. $10.

MetroStage opens its fall season with Uprising, a new musical by Gabrielle Fulton set in the aftermath of John Brown‘s raid on Harpers Ferry. 8 p.m. at 1201 North Royal St., Alexandria. $55.

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