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Stage Fright

See some truly interesting theater in Addison

A A A Comments By Jennifer Elaine Davis Thursday, Mar 5 2009

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The next few months are ripe with possibilities for mustached, Converse-clad, Brit-pop loving men in the Dallas area. Zooey Deschanel is rumored to be making an appearance at AFI. South by Southwest is creeping up, promising potential hook-ups with Zooey Deschanel wannabes. Morrissey is coming to town. How much better can it get for our Stella-chugging friends? Actually, the answer to that lies in a place you wouldn't think to look--;a place mostly undiscovered, even for the most ironic of sad bastards. That place? The theater. While the mere suggestion of such a thing may evoke images of hapless productions of Steel Magnoliasstarring ex-girlfriends, the Out of the Loop Festival promises to change the image of theater among the Lakewood Landing crowd by appealing to their love of all things Star Wars. And Showgirls. The 10-day festival, a sort of SXSW for the theater crowd, includes a one-man re-enactment of the Star Wars trilogy (complete with a soundtrack sung live) starring Charlie Ross, and Showgirls 2.0, a presentation of the Paul Verhoven masterpiece of misogyny with commentary by David Schmader. Those two pieces alone should be enough to draw in a sizable crowd of facial hair aficionados, but the festival also features plays about a coach in the NCAA basketball tournament, a struggling screenwriter wrestling with a family tragedy, and war veterans trying to cope with the aftermath of battle. Plenty of ladies should abound at these shows and the many others presented during the festival, including dance productions, comedies and intense dramas. The Out of the Loop Festival is presented by WaterTower Theatre Thursday through March 15 at the Addision Theatre Centre, 15650 Addison Road. Festival passes are $60 for the entire 10-day event, and passes to individual shows are available online. For tickets and a complete schedule, visit watertowertheatre.org/outoftheloop.
March 5-15, 2009