7/14
When he wasn't busy musing on neurotic anxiety, ego suppression and repressed traumas, Sigmund Freud was a theater buff. He wasn't so much a red carpet kind of fan as much as a red editing pen kind. He loved to pick characters apart and look for the kinks. Lady Macbeth? A splintered part of one psychic identity. Oedipus Rex? He named a whole complex after that guy. And, really, which would be more fun: listening to patients on a couch talk about rejection, suppression and projection or seeing 10 people act it out? For four weeks, the Bath House Cultural Center will be celebrating the psychological drama of, well, drama with the seventh annual Festival of Independent Theatres. Given that FIT exists to allow smaller companies without physical space to perform experimental and new productions, the nine plays have enough going on to keep the father of modern psychoanalysis busy for a fortnight. What would his take be on the skewed world of Theatre Quorum's Far Away where cats have sided with dentists and the French while mallards have joined forces with the Koreans? And how many pages could he scribble about Audacity Productions' world premiere of Gospel of the Junkyard with brothers Dog and Can living in a dilapidated junkyard, obsessed with the past until finding a bottle of spirits? Perhaps he would prefer Dwarf Tossing, a dark satire presented by Bootstraps Comedy Theater. Whatever the analyses, a month of drama is enough to satisfy anyone's id, ego and superego. FIT runs July 14 through August 6 at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive. Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $5 to $15, and an all-event pass is $45. Call 214-528-5576 or visit www.bathhousecultural.com. --Leah Shafer
Scoop on Coop
7/14
After 10 years of celebrity matrimony, Holly Robinson recently snagged a prime-time slot to renew her vows with NFL quarterback Rodney Peete on ET's Celebrity Weddings Unveiled. Our little Raven-Symoné pulled off a miraculous child-star comeback and has joined the ranks of the elite few who are known by but one name: Oprah, Madonna, Prince...and now Raven. But it seems nobody's hangin' with Mr. Cooper these days. Unless, that is, you're at the Addison Improv. Mark Curry, the baby-faced comedian-turned-'90s sitcom star-turned-comedian again, brings his fresh, fun, upbeat stand-up comedy show to the Addison Improv, 4980 Belt Line Road, at 8:30 p.m. Thursday; 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $17 to $20. Call 972-404-8501. --Stephanie Morris
Chain Gang
7/14
The play is a grim but redemptive work, taken from interviews with women incarcerated in Texas, interviews that were later shaped into a narrative by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, a narrative that is now overseen by an acclaimed director and will soon be filmed by a two-time Emmy winner who hopes to turn it all into a documentary. So, yeah, Truth Be Told should be good. It opens Thursday at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney Ave., and runs through Saturday. Show time is 8 p.m. in Heldt Hall at The MAC. Tickets are $20. Call 214-681-2440. --Paul Kix
Hog Heaven
7/15
You watch all the motorcycle reality shows on TV. The super-customized hogs built on American Chopper and Monster Garage get your blood pumping, as do the wild guitar-rock soundtracks, and you'd die happy if you were knee deep in that life. Conveniently for you, Friday through Sunday's North Texas Rock Rally at Coyote Ranch, 7773 Mulkey Lane in Justin, is right up your exhaust pipe. More than 1,000 bikes from various nationwide builders will be on display between concerts by Ted Nugent, Warrant, Jackyl and local AC/DC cover band Back in Black. And with barbecue contests and Hooters girls, what more can a Jackyl fan ask for? Tickets for this weekend's three-day fest are $45 at www.ntrr.com. --Sam Machkovech