Danielle Georgiou could be persuaded to join a cult. There is something very appealing to the director of the theater/dance mashup Danielle Georgiou Dance Group about choosing your own truth. There’s something even more intriguing, almost beautiful, about cultish repetitive movement and actions. It’s very closely related to the animalistic…
Most of the notable mid-size theaters in DFW will produce at least one new play in 2017. This is an exciting trend. A commitment to producing and developing new works gives artists a reason to consider our city a a viable arts community. While some theaters will produce new works by…
Second Thought Theater is preparing to present the regional premiere of George Brandt’s Grounded, a one-woman show about a fighter pilot who’s also a wife and mother. The show will mark two firsts for its seasoned Dallas actor, Jenny Ledel: She will command the stage all by herself for the…
July 7, 2016, is a day North Texans will always remember. During a peaceful protest against recent police shootings that left black men dead in Louisiana and Minnesota, a heavily armed man opened fired on police officers working the protest in downtown Dallas. Five officers were killed. Nine were injured…
Big changes are in the works for two Dallas-area theater companies. Both Theatre Three and WaterTower Theatre announced new artistic leadership this month. Jeffrey Schmidt will fill the shoes of the late Jac Alder, founder and artistic director for the company. Alder died in 2015. WaterTower has hired Joanie Schultz…
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter-day Saints movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets and was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical that pokes fun at the beliefs of The Church of…
Did you ever wonder what happened to Frosty the Snowman after his 15 minutes of fame in the movie? Well, he took a turn for the worse. Now a depressive drug addict, Frosty has a new life in House Party Theatre’s musical Frosty: Songs of Redemption, The Musical!. House Party…
Post-election doom and gloom are in full effect. Before you hit publish on another depressing Facebook post, think about getting out of the house and getting into the holiday spirit. There’s tons to see in Dallas and Fort Worth right now, from comedy shows to Amy Grant. You can’t throw…
If you were fortunate enough to see Sally Nystuen Vahle in 2015’s harrowing Medea, you saw one of the strongest performance on a Dallas Theater Center stage in a long time. The company cleverly used the “Down Center Stage” space (aka basement) for the production, and no other space could…
In a time when our country seems particularly divided, conversations about our differences can become tense quickly. Ignorance leads to fear in many cases, but it’s often especially true when that ignorance is over cultural differences. With the holidays rapidly approaching, many cultures begin to celebrate traditions that are different…
Ask any actor and they’ll tell you technical rehearsals are hell. The process of syncing every moment of a play to lighting and sound is exhausting for everyone involved. It usually means hours of starting and stopping and lots of sitting around. But often those long stretches of boredom can…
“Seven minutes ’til the sale starts!” Shakespeare in the Bar tickets are about to go on sale and my coworkers are coordinating the purchase over the tops of their cubicles. “How many am I buying?” one asks. “Are you going?” These are normal people counting down seven minutes until theater…
Ricardo Alarcon, executive director of the Mayan dance group Grupo Pakal, used to spend the night in the cemetery. While that might sound straight out of a horror movie, it is very common in Mexico during Dia de los Muertos. For many families, the loss of a loved one is…
My cousin loves ceiling fans. He’s so fascinated by them that he makes his own fans out of Legos and plastic forks. He loves doing that so much that he calls himself “Forkfan.” Nearing 40 years old, Forkfan lives alone in an apartment. He keeps himself busy buying and selling…
The Kitchen Dogs are tired of the nomad life. Twenty-six years ago Kitchen Dog Theater held their first performance above a sweaty pawn shop in Deep Ellum. From there, they bunked with Undermain Theater, an Episcopal church, and finally landed at The MAC (McKinney Avenue Contemporary) in 1994. It was…
The Drama Club is not going to tell you what The Incident is. You’re going to have to find out for yourselves, when the show opens at Bryant Hall on Oct. 10. Their teaser about the true story/one-man-show by Dallas native Terry Vandivort reads like the back of a true-crime…
Ask any small or mid-size theater in Dallas and they will tell you lack of media coverage is a real concern. With so many arts organizations vying for attention it is hard to give equal voice to each one. The recent discussions about arts equity in Dallas drew attention to…
Southern musicals seem to have found a home in Dallas. One year ago, The Dallas Theater Center presented the world premiere of Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical. The Dallas Opera produced its first ever musical, Show Boat — a collaboration with Dallas Black Dance Theater — in May. Now DTC will…
Dallas’ theater landscape is becoming increasingly dominated by young companies. Post-grad artists are making a mark with original works and innovative performance pieces that often fuse dance, movement and clowning into the storytelling. Prism Co. is one such group. Founded by SMU theater graduates Katy Tye and Jeffrey Colangelo, Prism…
In 2010, 20-year-old Marisol Valles Garcia volunteered for a job no one else wanted, police chief of the tiny Mexican border town Práxedis Gilberto Guerrero. The job was open because the previous police chief had been beheaded by drug lords. Officials mistakenly thought putting women in police leadership would deter…
“There’s just no point in fighting me over it, that’s all. Want some coffee?” “Your birthday’s coming up, Jessie. Don’t you want to know what we got you?” You wouldn’t guess from those lines that Jessie and Mama, the lone characters in Marsha Norman’s tragedy (or dark comedy, depending on…
This month, North Texas lost a theater icon. Rose Pearson, founder of Fort Worth’s Circle Theatre, died on Aug. 19 after quietly battling cancer for several years. She was 69. Pearson and her husband, Bill Newberry, founded Circle in 1981. What was once a small room in the back of…
