Weekend Top Picks for April 6-8: "We Were Here," As-Is Ensemble, and More

 This weekend's top picks allow you the opportunity to get your groove on, get your laugh on, and/or get your cry on.

Michael Bellar and the As-Is Ensemble. I started feeling hip just listening to the music of this experimental jazz group on their website. The group has recorded three studio CDs – “Turned On Turned Up” (2009), “Like It Is,” and “REACT!” On their Facebook page, their genre is described as "joy." It's an apt description. Michael Bellar does his thing on the keyboards, while Brad Wentworth plays drums, Rob Jost plays "bass and such," and Brook Martinez is on percussion and jingles. Friday at The Evening Muse at 8 p.m.

Have it your way at The Bechtler this Friday. It's Jazz at the Bechtler Fan Favorites. Concertgoers provided the museum with a selection of their favorite tunes. The Ziad Jazz Quartet is obliging. The hits include "Around Midnight," "April in Paris," "Blue in Green," "What a Difference a Day Makes," and more. Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.; free with museum admission. Details.

Don't Cry for me, Margaret Mitchell. It's 1939, and David O. Selznick has stopped production on the movie Gone With the Wind because he hates the script. He turns to legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht. Selznick, Hecht, and director Victor Fleming decamp to Selznick’s office to write, but it’s soon revealed that Hecht had never read the book. The play was written by locals Duke Ernsberger and Virginia Cate. Starving Artists' latest productions is one of our top picks for the month. It's a top pick for the weekend, too. Friday, Saturday, and a Sunday matinee.

The Charlotte Film Society presents We Were Here for two showings on Saturday — a matinee at 3 p.m. and another showing at 7:30 p.m. This important documentary takes a look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this misunderstood crisis which was at first referred to as "the gay cancer." See the trailer. Get to Theatre Charlotte early; these flicks often sell out.