BOSTON FOLK: The fourth annual Boston Folk Festival hits the UMass–Boston campus on September 22 and 23, with more than 100 performers from here at home and around the world. Among them: Bill Morrissey, Claudia Russell, Chris Smither, Freddie White, Livingston Taylor, Brooks Williams, Chris and Meredith Thompson, Laura Love, Shirley Lewis, Vance Gilbert, Rosie Flores, Marcia Ball, and Altan. Tickets are $50 for a weekend pass, or $40 for Saturday and $35 for Sunday. The campus is located at 100 Morrissey Boulevard; call (617) 287-9600.

When it debuted last season, the big question for Harvard Square’s Market Theater was whether there was, well, a market for what it was offering: a nontraditional theater company that had no resident performance troupe and no board of directors but simply cobbled together a season out of edgy works, new talents, and avant-garde fun. Overseen by contortionist, playwright, and performance artist Tom Cole, and bankrolled by philanthropist Greg Carr, the Market’s debut line-up included a cabaret of Kurt Weill songs, a Comédie-Française production with Catherine Samie performing a work adapted by filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and an energetic evening of avant-rock and avant-theater where plays by Robert Auletta and Charles L. Mee were set alongside music by locals Neptune and Jessica Rylan.

The inaugural season, says Cole, went "better than we could’ve ever expected. People figured out where we were, and they seemed to respond to interesting things. We felt immediately embraced by the Boston community, in terms of the cultural community as well as the public at large. It scares me a little, because we now suddenly have a lot to live up to."

The Market’s fall schedule is, if anything, more daring than its opening line-up. The offerings include stand-up comedy, card tricks, a world-premiere play, and an evening of literary sensation. The season kicks off next weekend with "Been Here and Gone," a two-night stand by former Come frontwoman Thalia Zedek, who’s just released an astounding solo album by that name. She’ll be performing with the visual artist Suara Welitoff, the cult poet Eileen Myles; the opening bands include Montreal’s stultifying Molasses, a death-obsessed avant-country offshoot of Godspeed You Black Emperor.

"I think what happened was with our first show [last season], we were so proud of Neptune and Jessica Rylan, we loved them, and we loved the audience that came to see them, and that’s part of the reason for having Thalia," Cole explains. "I’m crazy about her and her work and I think she’s an incredible artist, but also the thought behind bringing her in is to keep that audience engaged. We want those people to come see our shows in addition to people who perhaps go to the theater more readily."

On September 5, the Market will present an evening of literary spectacle, the highlight of which will be celebrity readings from the works of 21-year-old J.T. Leory, whose debut novel — Sarah, a semi-autobiographical tale of a mother-son prostitution team — has kicked up a Jim Carroll–like bit of frenzy. The Market is teasing the possibility that the author will show, though he won’t be billed. "But I spoke to him this week," says Cole, "and he’s helping us line up all these interesting celebrity guests." Confirmed thus far are Kay Hanley and Michael Bronski, but more are expected soon. The evening will also offer up readings by the award-winning novelist Henry Flesh, as well as a rock/performance art piece by New York’s Rafael Sanchez.

The rest of the season includes a four-night stand by The Daily Show’s Lewis Black (September 6 through 9); the world premiere of Peter Morris’s The Square Root of Minus One, about sexual hazing at a boy’s school in the 1950s (September 15 through October 7); the local premiere of the David Mamet–directed Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, a performance by the title fabulist and card-trick maestro (October 27 through November 24); and a December run of Shel’s Shorts, an evening of offbeat "micro-plays" of an adult nature — including many that’ve never seen the light of day — by the late children’s author Shel Silverstein.

BY CARLY CARIOLI