Events for the week

thursday
december 4
Cara Mia Theatre Company: A general perception is that immigrant and first-generation Mexican-American women are acculturated to keep silent and endure whatever life hands them. Director Marisela Barrera and Cara Mia Theatre Company, a troupe of Latina artists, have put together a show that posits a cultural theory: Our Lady of Guadalupe, ubiquitous in Mexico but especially among women, is a sort of feminist stoic whose silent strength provides Mexican women with a shelter from their subservient upbringing. Earnest multicultural revisionism or astute social observation? You decide when Novena Narrativas happens at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through December 13 at the Ice House Cultural Center, 1000 W. Page. Tickets are $6-$8. Call (214) 827-8495.

friday
december 5
Nao Bustamante and Coco Fusco: While dining at an Ethiopian restaurant, a friend, noting the large selection of Italian dishes there, mused how a few decades of history make the difference between imperialist cultural tyranny and a really diverse buffet. The relationship between food and ethnic identity, both for immigrants to a new country and for the natives who absorb styles of cuisine from those immigrants, is one of attraction and repulsion. In the U.S. it's especially bad, where the media tendency to homogenize American culture chafes against our collective hunger for spicy "foreign" foods. These are among the claims of three performance artists, Nao Bustamante from San Francisco and the twosome Coco Fusco from New York, who collaborate on a performance piece called Stuff as part of the McKinney Avenue Contemporary's "New Left Coast Performance" series. Stuff purports to chronicle the collision of eating disorders and nationalistic paranoia. Performances happen at 8 p.m. December 5 and 6 at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney. Tickets are $10. Call (214) 953-1212.

Jean Marie Binoche: From Japanese kabuki to bawdy Italian renaissance comedies, the concept of using masks in theatrical performance has been shared for centuries now by both East and West. European and Anglo theatrical traditions have by and large forsaken the art of mask-making for the figurative "masks" that Stanislavski-influenced actors put on, but in the corners of various countries where satellite images aren't ubiquitous, the practice lives on. For the final performances in its 5th International Theatre Festival, Teatro Dallas has imported an internationally renowned French actor-mime-maskmaker to interpret a Mexican legend about a man who ascends to heaven. Jean Marie Binoche, currently professor of the National Superior School of Arts and Letters in Paris, directs Juan Volado: A Celestial Comedy in his own distinct "masktheater" style. Performances happen at 8:15 p.m. December 5 and 6 at Teatro Dallas, 2204 Commerce. For ticket info call (214) 741-1135.

The Christmas Witch: Dallas Children's Theater continues its annual tradition of cross-pollinated holiday spectacles with The Christmas Witch, Linda Daugherty's stage adaptation of author/illustrator Steven Kellogg's huge bestseller of the same name. The story of a good witch who yearns to escape her academy and become a yuletide hag features a new song by Amanda McBroom, the cabaret sensation who wrote the original music for this play. Performances happen Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 1:30 p.m.; and Sunday, 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. through December 21 at the El Centro College Theater, Main and Market near the West End. Tickets are $12-$14. Call (214) 978-0110.

saturday
december 6
James W. Johnson, New Work: Perusing the small selection of images offered in the press packet for James W. Johnson's latest one-man exhibition New Work, we're compelled to ask: shlock or art? The fact that the slightly sick but beautifully detailed and almost three-dimensional paintings of this Lubbock resident raises this question compels us to buy the guy a new paintbrush, or a case of beer, or, perhaps more appropriately, a few tabs of hallucinogens. Johnson applies the illustrative prowess of one of those classic heavy metal artists (yes, that's a compliment) with the internal drama of a Nic Nicosia photo. His tendency to use his own likeness, especially evocative on the bodies of plucked chickens, adds that extra level of intriguing narcissism. The show opens with a reception from 7-10 p.m. December 6 and runs through January 11 at gallery:untitled, 3603 Parry Ave. Call (214) 821-1685.

A Por Quinly Christmas: "Calendar" wishes to thank Undermain Theatre, as it thanked Fort Worth's Stage West, for giving the poor stage critic a chance to review something besides A Christmas Carol or some variation thereof. One of these holiday seasons, the stage critic will be forced to write a column singing the praises of all that is Scroogian: a life lived in the ruthless pursuit of money, using your social inferiors as though they were just another roll of toilet paper, killing all your empathetic impulses because they just get in the way of a good time, etc. In the meantime, "Calendar" can look into the true spirit of the season by introducing the Undermain's production of Quincy Long's A Por Quinly Christmas, which features two of Dallas' best character actors, Rhonda Bhoutte and Lynn Mathis, in a story about a boy who's rescued from the commercialism of premillennial Christmas by a talking Christmas tree. The Undermain presents the world premiere of A Por Quinly Christmas at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday through December 20 at the Undermain Theatre, 3200 Main St. Tickets are $10. Call (214) 747-5515.