All the characters in Miller, Mississippi at Dallas Theater Center die. And playwright Boo Killebrew traps the audience in the house with the family as the body count piles up. Miller, Mississippi paints a harrowing portrait of a politically active, white family as the civil rights movement shakes the foundations…
Matthew Paul Olmos sometimes gets a little embarrassed when he hears the words he’s written. In the soft-spoken playwright’s unconventional script, women play male characters. And not just any male characters: Mexican drug cartel members. The dialogue is a little rough. The play, so go the ghosts of méxico, part…
In the essay “Goodbye to All That,” Joan Didion wrote, “It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.” Justin Lemieux, looking back on a childhood friendship in his poignant solo play Warm Soda, has a similar problem. He doesn’t remember the last time…
“To be from Mississippi is to be aware that there’s blood in the soil,” playwright Boo Killebrew drawls. The Gulfport native’s play, Miller, Mississippi, is having its world premiere at The Dallas Theater Center. It’s a hard play, Killebrew says, but there’s a reckoning coming, and it’s a story she…
Fall in Texas means new seasons of theater have been announced. Dallas-Fort Worth audiences have tons of choices, from world premieres to classics by Edward Albee and Lynn Nottage, and the work of badass lady playwrights. Below are our top picks. A Lost Leonardo World PremiereBy David Davalos Oct. 13…
Emily Heller had her entire career to write her first comedy album, Good For Her. On that album, she’s single and, she says, immature. Now she has a boyfriend, and she wants her comedy to reflect life in a relationship and what she thinks about being in one — even…
Carla Parker is making history at Dallas’ scrappy Ochre House Theatre, which produces all original work. Her world-premiere musical, Kaptain Kockadoo, marks the first time the theater will feature a play by a female playwright. Parker, who became a company member in 2012, says the theater has become a home for…
If you’re a fan of Canada, sketch comedy or both, then you’ll be happy to learn who will receive the Ernie Kovacs Award at this year’s Dallas VideoFest. Comedians Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley, two of the five members of the renowned stage and TV comedy troupe The Kids in…
The AT&T Performing Arts Center is doubling down on its Elevator Project series, which began in 2014 and provides grants and performing space to local performing arts companies. There are eight companies on the lineup for the recently announced third installment — three more than last year — and they…
One Minute Play Festival is, amazingly, exactly what it sounds like. Thirty mini plays submitted by new and established Dallas-based writers will run back to back at Kitchen Dog Theater. This is the fourth year the theater has hosted it, and the goal to create a locally sourced community event and showcase…
Female comedian Ever Mainard caught some flak years ago for a joke about walking alone at night and feeling uncomfortable around a man who was acting strange. The joke became controversial because the man in question was black and Mainard is white. However, she touched on some thing that almost…
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. It was the offspring of Minos’ wife and a beautiful bull Minos was meant to sacrifice but kept instead. To punish Minos, Poseidon made Minos’ wife fall in love with…
Addison Holmes always knew she wanted to give back. As a teenager, the local dancer-choreographer worked alongside professionals in the Texas Ballet Theatre, with whom she performed at Bass Hall and Fair Park. These experiences among the best in Texas molded Holmes as an artist and, eventually, an educator. “I…
“Math was my Waterloo,” Dennis Maher says, explaining what attracts him to the role of Albert Einstein, whom he’ll play at Theatre Arlington beginning this month. The longtime University of Texas at Arlington theater arts professor has brought many historical figures to life on stage, but Einstein immediately stood out…
Joe Folsom is quick to defend one of the most influential and controversial performers of the 20th century, Lenny Bruce: “He’s wasn’t an asshole; he just didn’t suffer assholes,” he says. Bruce was famously misunderstood and was arrested numerous times for violating obscenity laws. Words and terms that are common…
A yearly showcase of small theater companies is making its return to the Bath House Cultural Center at the edge of White Rock Lake. Wingspan Theater Company founded the Festival of Independent Theatres in 1998 to aid local theater companies without permanent performance spaces. The festival begins this week and…
Be warned: Cry Havoc’s production of Shots Fired opens with gunfire. It’s a jarring beginning to 90 extraordinary minutes of documentary-style theater covering the July 7, 2016, Dallas police shootings by Cry Havoc Theater Company. Cry Havoc’s teen actors convey as much depth, empathy and emotion as any adult actors…
In its 18-year history, Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth has developed a reputation for championing new plays and playwrights that are fun and quirky. One play was such a crowd pleaser during its first run that Amphibian has received letters asking for it to be revived. Its subject matter…
In early June, Shakespeare Dallas began receiving death threats from passionate supporters of President Donald Trump. These callers confused the Dallas company with New York’s Public Theater, which was producing Julius Caesar with a title character who closely resembled the president. But Shakespeare Dallas wasn’t parodying Trump in its summer Shakespeare…
Since 2012, Dallas’ Ochre House Theater has collaborated with the Dallas Flamenco Festival ever year on a new, original production. Ochre House has resurrected many because of their popularity and acclaim. Their 2012 Perro y Sangre got a revamp in New York’s Teatro Latea, while 2015’s Buñuel Descending played to…
During the mid-1960s, films about beach parties were all the rage. If you’re of a certain generation, or you have an affinity for classic movies, you may have grown up watching these niche films, escaping with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon to the simple joy of partying like hell in…
When Shakespeare is trending, it’s usually for historical reasons. Perhaps the burial site of Richard III has been discovered, or there’s renewed conjecture over whether the Bard wrote all of his plays himself. What you don’t see are many debates over content. In 400 years, we’ve worked that out —…
