I suppose it's true: No one but professors, grad students and Jeopardy! contestants appreciate the classics anymore. Looks like the depleted fan base has not only affected the self-esteem of high-school English teachers everywhere, but also a local theater company: The Classical Acting Company is officially shutting down following its current show, Shakespeare's Keeper, according to directors Matthew and Emily Gray. The couple says financial responsibilty for the organization had become too great and, of course, there are those ever-present personal reasons we're always reading about in the tabloi...I mean, Shakespeare.
Over the course of the company's life it had produced works such as The Gift of the Magi, The Hypochondriac, Death of a Salesman, A Flea In Her Ear and other, uh, well, classics. Which, thanks to our fair city's love of fast-action and TiVo, is prolly why you had no idea we had a Classical Acting Company. Hey, perhaps the Grays and the Gypsy Tea Room peeps can meet up for a drink and dish on Dallas' rising rents and cultural demise. --Merritt Martin
