Dancing with Bob, Breaking the Waves, a Set of Angels, a Breakout Hamlet, a Mountain and More!: The 2025 Season Wrap up

Nancy Wozny·
DanceMusicTheater
·

Another year, another epic ACTX wrap up (really more of a novella), where no attempt to be brief has been made. We showed up and now it’s time to rant, rave and revel in the bounty of performance in Texas! Please enjoy the musings of some of our trusted scribes, Tarra Gaines, Tara Munjee, Lindsey Wilson, Sherry Cheng and yours truly.

HOLIDAY CHEER

Tarra Gaines: I recently saw TUTS’s nostalgic White Christmas. I always love a good theatrical snowfall at the end of the show, and this one delivers, plus some great singing and tap numbers. I’m also planning on catching the third play in Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Christmas at Pemberley series. Main Street Theater always delights with these shows and Gunderson’s work in general.

Tara Munjee: I am looking forward to another one of Ballet Austin’s delightful Nutcracker performances. Tried-and-true audience pleasers such as this can seem stale, but Steven Mills and Ballet Austin keep their production feeling fresh. I also appreciate what seems like a longer show run, so there is no competition between finishing holiday preparations and enjoying the magical kingdom of sweets.

Sherry Cheng: I geeked out on German Lutheran composers for the Advent season this year. Both Harmonia Stellarum and Ars Lyrica showcased music by innovative composers of the 17th century in their holiday programs. These guys practically reinvented church music because they were not bound by the traditional confines of Catholic sacred music. All the new ideas of the day were on the table for them to play with, so there’s a wide spectrum of styles and lots of experimentation. This music puts me in a most contemplative and peaceful place, far from the noise and craziness of the season. I also took in Stanton Welch’s whimsical and magical Nutcracker at the Houston Ballet this year, my first time seeing this production. It was absolutely marvelous and so fun to see a packed house full of families with young ones in tow. I felt like a child seeing the Nutcracker for the first time. A big shout out to Tyler Donatelli, who danced Clara in this cast–she was just promoted to Principal following her performance in the annual Jubilee of Dance. Brilliant, clean technique combined with expressive artistry and grace, she’s a total delight on stage.

Lindsey Wilson: Some years I am all in for the tinsel and the holly-jolly of Christmas, not to mention the numerous Nutcrackers, Christmas Carols, and holiday concerts, but this year I’m more bah-humbug. However, I am counting on Stage West to lift me out of this festive funk with All Is Calm, the a capella musical about the magical moment when, on Christmas Eve 1914, British and German soldiers laid down their weapons to sing, feast, and play together. It draws on soldiers’ letters, poetry, and period songs, and feels like a very timely reminder that, at our core, we are all human.

Nancy Wozny: Same Lindsey! Last year, a walk through the Christmas section of Target and boom, I was good to go. This year, I went full on jingle. And Sherry, I did my fair share of musical geeking out starting with Harmonia Stellarum’s Fürchtet euch nicht!, where Artist Director Mario Aschauer gathered a wondrous group of singers and musicians including the young artists of Texas City Choir and Texas City High School. Next up was Bach Society Houston’s presentation of Bach’s gorgeous Christmas Oratorio & the Magnificat, which is particularly meaningful because it’s Artistic Director Rick Erickson’s final season at the Bach Society. This year the performance began with the chanting of the lesson of the day set to Martin Luther’s Gospel tone, which was quite haunting and authentic. What a joy to attend Cor Mundi, Houston’s newest choral group in “This Wondrous Child,” their first holiday program, and a terrific one at that! There was nothing quite like sitting under the snow cannon for TUTS’s super fun production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas with Mitchell Greco directing. I’m with you Tara M on the Nut tradition. I wrapped up my Holiday binge with Houston Ballet’s whimsical Nutcracker with Adelaide Clauss as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Gian Carlo Perez as the Prince, Emma Forrester as Clara and Harper Watters as Drosselmeyer!

TRENDS

NW: Togetherness. Arts as community building. Showing up. Full houses. Serious theater is back as evidenced by Stages season opening with The Lehman Trilogy, a three-plus hour epic, Catastrophic Theatre’s return to Beckett with Endgame, Angels in America at Rec Room Arts. After the pandemic, Tarra did a story called The Fun Factor. I am ready for the gravitas factor.

I also noticed a leaning into Houston connections and achievements: Tamara de Lempicka at MFAH, Audubon’s Birds of America at Houston Museum of Natural Science, Windsync’s Nadia Boulanger concert sourced her Houston Rice lecture and stayed tuned for their new album NADIA, TUTS presenting The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the show that TUTS artistic director  Dan Knechtges choreographed on Broadway,  HGO bringing back Porgy & Bess, the very opera that earned them a Grammy and a Tony award in a knockout season opening, and The Outsiders at Broadway at the Hobby was loaded with Texas connections!

SC: I love this trend. Here are some more examples of Houston connections: Camp Logan at The Ensemble Theatre, directed by Allie Woods Jr., is a powerful retelling of the true story of the racial injustice that happened to Black soldiers at Camp Logan more than 100 years ago. Also, HGO presented the world premiere of composer-in-residence Joel Thompson’s song cycle A Voice Within at the Emancipation Park Cultural Center in June. Thompson worked with Houston’s own librettist and poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. The songs were inspired by the lives of residents of Houston’s Third Ward, and it was both a deep dive into the history of the community and a wonderful celebration of the people who make it vibrant. As for serious theater, Angels in America was the most daring and powerful theater I saw this year. Rec Room Arts pulled off this 7-hour epic in two parts with an absolutely stellar cast. It is most definitely a political play, and even more potent and relevant today. It is also a very human story and every actor on that stage brought out all the pain, struggle, and vulnerability in their character. There was not a dry eye in the house at the end. The significance of what we all witnessed as an audience was palpable.

LW: Three Dallas-Fort Worth theater companies joined forces for “Black Broadway Summer,” a cross-promotion of their productions of a trio of important and recent Broadway plays by Black playwrights: Soul Rep Theatre Company’s Ain’t No Mo’ by Jordan E. Cooper, Circle Theatre’s A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson, and Stage West Theatre’s Fat Ham by James Ijames. It worked like this: Buy a ticket to one show, receive a 20 percent discount to each of the other two. I love to see support like this.

TG: Around early summer, I told Nancy that shows with actors playing multiple roles was the biggest Houston theater trend of the year, and six months later I still stand by that. From the zany, like Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at the Alley and 39 Steps at Main Street to dazzling drama like the independent production of Spill at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts, the four actor Hamlet at 4th Wall, and The Lehman Trilogy at Stages, actors juggling three, four, and sometimes even 20 roles in the same production showed off the nimbleness of Houston actors and directors.

2025 was also a good year for world premieres, so much so that I wrote a story about why Texas theaters of all sizes continue to take a risk on them. I thought a few in particular had legs to go beyond Texas, including the futuristic speculative Memoriam at Main Street, about a technology that could record human memories, and Stages’ speculative history play, Let. Her. Rip. about a group of Victorian women fighting for workers’ rights while Jack the Ripper hunts. During a theater trip to Austin, I also saw the very fun Anton Chekhov is a Tasty Snack at Penfold Theatre in Round Rock, which felt a little like watching Stupid Fucking Bird and Noises Off  having a very messy affair.

TM: In Austin dance, outdoor performances in unconventional spaces continues to trend. Now, this dance practice has been rolling along for quite a while. What we used to call modern dance during its early years was relegated to the outdoors because theater productions were too costly. But beyond historical precedent, beyond the decades-old practice of site dance, and beyond pandemic guidelines for public events, outdoor dance performances are sticking in Austin.  I see two major reasons: welcoming and broadening the audience base for concert dance, and to appreciate and advocate for the gorgeous natural landscape of the Austin environs.  Begrudgingly, I admit a third reason – the Austin arts community is being squeezed out of their homes due to gargantuan rent increases. The arts community and the city are working together to address housing issues for people and the arts alike, but Austin’s creative minds are embracing the outdoors presenting challenges.

BIG NEWS

NW: DiverseWorks is a  recipient of a Frankenthaler Climate Initiative (FCI) Scoping Grant, which supports organizations that are conducting energy audits and system assessments to identify their clean energy needs and options. Dance Source Houston awarded Nancy Henderek the 2026 Giannelli Service Award, and Harrison Guy is the Artistic Honoree. Houston Grand Opera was Nominated for a well deserved 2026 GRAMMY Award for Jake Heggie’s Intelligence, the stunning 2024 HGO opening opera. And I am in total agreement with Sherry. I am not remotely surprised that Tyler Donatelli was promoted to Principal after Houston Ballet’s Jubilee of Dance, she’s been a joy to watch since she joined the company in 2014.

SC: Alecia Lawyer, founder and artistic director of ROCO, getting the much-deserved recognition of being named 2025 Texas State Classical Musician. She is the first musician to receive this specific designation from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas legislature, and she’s in great company with Houston-based international superstar soprano Ana Maria Martinez set to take on the title in 2026. Now a collaboration between those two innovators and powerhouse musicians is something I would like to see in the future.

TG: HGO’s new music director, James Gaffigan, is a Rice alumni with many ties to Houston.

LW: Lily Cabatu Weiss, who has led the Dallas Arts District as its executive director since 2016, announced in October she will retire in January 2026. Weiss was at the helm both times the district was voted the best in the nation by USA Today’s readers, in 2024 and 2025.

RETURNS

NW: Some welcome returns include DiverseWorks 12 minutes Max!, Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Underground Sounds in the Cistern ended the 2025 season with Kurt Stallmann’s fabulous Listening Bayou, and Houston Theater District came roaring back with Craig Hauschildt at the helm orchestrating an impressive, packed and super lively Open House.

ANNIVERSARIES

NW: Betty Moody and Main Street Theater celebrated their 50th Anniversary, It’s the 10th anniversary for the Dance Source Houston’s Barnstorm Fest and Open Dance Project.

LW: Teatro Dallas celebrated its 40th anniversary and is successfully experimenting with contributors picking its seasons, instead of an artistic director.

SC: KINETIC’s 10th anniversary concert celebrated the ensemble’s roots and achievements over the past decade. It included a world premiere of founding member Giancarlo Latta’s propulsive, high energy piece Orbital, which really encapsulates the virtuosic and dynamic spirit of the ensemble.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

TM: Peter Bay will leave his post as principal conductor and musical director next season after three decades with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In his role, Bay greatly expanded ASO’s repertoire, hired most of the orchestra’s eighty-three musicians, and catalyzed young audience development for the Symphony. The primary conductor for Ballet Austin, Bay ensured that dancers and audience alike would revel in the unparalleled  joy of live music and dance.  Peter, grazie mille–many, many thanks!

NW: Janie Carothers has passed the HSPVA dance program leadership over to Courtney D. Jones. Carothers inspired generations of dancers going out into the world and will be missed. Jones wrote about her friend and mentor, “For over 25 years, you’ve poured your heart, soul, and endless energy into this program—shaping dancers, guiding faculty, and building a space where creativity could thrive. It’s impossible to count the number of lives you’ve touched—or the number of late nights you spent making sure every detail of the concert was just right.”

After 30 years, this spring Brian Connelly will wrap up Context, a beloved chamber music program. Robert Simpson has handed the baton off to Betsy Cook Weber at Houston Chamber Choir, and Jim Nelson retired after a long career at Houston Ballet. Sonja Kostich, Houston Ballet’s new Executive Director seems to be loving the job and the city! Rick Erickson finishes his final season at Bach Society Houston while Ben Kirswell takes over next season. Dawson White is Musiqa’s new Executive Director, succeeding Anthony Barilla.

TG: After 31 years as a major influential force on Texas’ literary landscape, Inprint director Rich Levy is set to retire. We’re waiting to hear who will replace him.

LW: Literally at the end of 2024, Fort Worth’s Hip Pocket Theatre announced the appointment of its first-ever managing director, Gianina Lambert. Sadly, about two weeks later one of its co-founders, Diane Simons, passed away. Nichole Belford is the new manager of the new-ish Addison Performing Arts Centre. Emily Ernst began leading Dallas Children’s Theater as its new artistic director in early 2025, but just three months later had to cut the company’s 2025-26 season from five shows down to three due to the whole arts funding debacle that’s happening nation-wide. Richard A. Freeman, Jr., who had served as Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s interim artistic director since 2024, assumed the position permanently at the end of 2025. Jaime Castañeda is the new Enloe/Rose Artistic Director of Dallas Theater Center.

NEW AND NEWISH GROUPS

SC: Composer Daniel Knaggs’s new choral group Cor Mundi is focused on presenting sacred music “in the heart of the world.” The inaugural 2025-26 season is setting a really high standard in choral music, featuring some of the best voices in Houston. And I finally made it to a Houston Music Festival concert. Chelsea de Souza and friends were on fire in American Tapestry: Sound and Vision. I loved the whole vibe and the way each piece on the program was so vividly brought to life by dynamic performers. It was such a feast of colors and contrasts. The live visuals by Xuan Films worked really well with the music and made the experience even more compelling.

NW: Yes Sherry on Houston Music Festival! Barely a year old and it’s amazing what Chelsea de Souza, David Deitz and team HMF have accomplished. Texas dance legend Jennifer Mabus has launched Grackle Dance Collective in Dallas and I could not be more excited. A former member of Battleworks in NYC and a founding member of Bruce Wood Dance and Dark Circles, Mabus has already made a deep impact on our Texas dance scene. Stay tuned for Murmuration in January and our June story on all things Grackle! Houston Ballet principal and superstar Karina Gonzalez has founded Voices of Arts Central; a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering artists through innovative, cross-disciplinary collaborations. Artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin launched their new organization the Rendezvous Center for Art during their Art League Show. Musiqa founder and Rice Professor Anthony Brandt launched the Music, Mind and Body Lab at the Shepherd School of Music.

TG: While I don’t know that we had any brand new companies join the Houston theater community, two that began last year, Lionwoman Productions and Houston Broadway Theatre have continued to produce this year. HBT’s darkly hilarious American Psycho has my nod for one of the best musicals of the year.

BEST SEASON

TG: I’m going to take a dive on this one because I just can’t pick one this year. In fact, I want to go back to Nancy’s “gravitas factor” idea when we discussed trends. I believe this might have been the best year for Houston theater since the pandemic. From our own productions of award winners like Primary Trust, The Lehman Trilogy, and Eureka Day to new, intimate visions on 20th century classics like Death of a Salesman and Our Town, It seemed like every company had at least one fantastic production, if not several. I’ve been trying to figure out why this theater this year was so electric, and I wonder if companies finally got their balance back. I’m generalizing, but it did seem like the first year or two back from the pandemic many companies had to make a point about the power of theater especially in turbulent times, and presented audiences with a lot of “issues” plays attempting to make meaningful statements. But the last thing audiences wanted when getting back in the room with live theater after so long away was scolding. Then there was a quick pivot to fun and audience pleasers. Now, I feel like there’s definitely more balance of fun, new work, especially from Texas voices, and new visions of classics and contemporary masterpieces.

SC: HGO hit it out of the ballpark with its production of Porgy and Bess, with incoming music director James Gaffigan conducting an ensemble cast that shined throughout. Like HGO’s history-making 1976 production, the first to revive the Gershwin classic on a grand opera scale, this one will be remembered for its thrilling voices, larger than life emotions, and compelling characters and storytelling all around. And in the same time frame, outgoing music director Patrick Summers realized his dream of performing Puccini’s Il Trittico, HGO’s first complete production of these three magnificent one-act operas. Triple Puccini, triple power, triple the drama and passion and wit of Italian opera. Luminous soprano Corinne Winters and glorious mezzo Jamie Barton headlined in all three operas and gave stupendous performances. HGO just can’t miss these days. Everyone is falling in love with opera in H-town!

NW: Yes on HGO Sherry! There’s so much buzz on the new music director James Gaffigan as well. Stages has renewed season energy under Derek Charles Livingston. DACAMERA’s season is always spectacular but this year is particularly interesting for the Gabriel Lena Frank’s world premiere for Brooklyn Rider and Morton Feldman at 100: Schubert Leaving Me at the Menil. We should be so grateful that Charles Santos at TITAS in Dallas brings new groups to our eyes every year with his terrific line up. And this year Ballet Preljocaj returned for the first time in 27 years!

LW: Second Thought Theatre’s season was composed entirely of premieres by North Texas playwrights (who all also happen to be excellent actors): Healed by Blake Hackler, Your Wife’s Dead Body by Jenny Ledel, and Incarnate by Parker Davis Gray. Performing Arts Fort Worth also announced its biggest touring season ever, with 14 shows coming to Bass Performance Hall in 2025-2026 — three more than last season.

NEW HOMES

NW: Rice Cinema moved into the Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall. Meow Wolf settled into the 5th Ward with Radio Tave. Aurora Picture Show has a gorgeous, chic, Brooklyn-ish new home on the East side! Inman Gallery has moved into the Station Museum space, and it’s light, airy and lets the art of the walls breathe.

SC: Aurora Picture Show’s grand opening at their fabulous new home in the East End was the arts party of the year for sure! So many artists from the community contributed and showed up to help launch this space. There was an incredible amount of good energy felt by all. It’s going to not only be a great home to showcase Aurora’s unique perspectives on media arts, but also a great place for artists to come together and collaborate. Kudos to the Aurora team!

LW: Pegasus Theatre, the company behind the eye-popping Living Black & White shows, is moving to Addison. The tales of fumbling detective Harry Hunsacker and his “good friend and paid-by-the-hour assistant Nigel Grouse” have been a staple at Richardson’s Eisemann Center—especially on New Year’s Eve—but will now live at the newly restructured Addison Performing Arts Center. And Avant Chamber Ballet opens their new home in January!

HIDDEN-ISH GEMS

NW: Lydia Hance’s Frame Dance may have a quiet footprint but I am always impressed by how she keeps refining and honing her mission while developing her mulit-gen Frame Dance Ensemble, along with several other education based programs. Frame Dance’s annual Mise en Scéne is always a summer highlight. The annual film fest, Frame X Frame, is still going strong and opened with Keith Glassman’s Lives Beyond Motion at Houston Ballet. Glassman’s poignant documentary offered an inside lens into the male dancing body and mind, featuring legendary dancers and choreographers discussing their careers, the AIDS era, and most importantly, why they dance. Through testimony, footage of seminal choreography, Glassman weaves a true to life film about the men in dance. Hance wraps up the spring season with a restaging of Merce Cunningham’s 50 Looks May 16-17 at Rienzi.

Group Acorde is another excellent Houston dance group that feels under the radar. Lindsey McGill and Roberta Paixao Cortes regularly present compelling shows and this past year included guest artists Jasmine Hearn and Dawn Dippel.

Nameless Sound’s They, Who Sound, held most Mondays at Lawndale Art Center, constantly draws a robust crowd for shows smartly curated by Nameless Sound founder Dave Dove.

LW: Avant Chamber Ballet in Dallas is such a standout boutique company. In 2026, it’ll premiere two original ballets and launch a new subscription series aimed at families. We have operas and theater for children, so why not ballet?

TG: Not sure if this is hidden, as much as “if you know, you know,” but all the live performance programming I’ve seen at Rice Moody Center this year has been exceptional. Much of that programming is done in thematic connection with exhibitions in the galleries, which makes the experiences even richer. Their production of Leigh Fondakowski’s docu-play Spill about the Deepwater Horizon disaster reminded me of the true depth and breadth of theater, how it can portray tragedy on epic and then deeply individual scales from one moment to the next. The cast were all local actors giving some of their best performances of the year, the director a professor at Rice’s Center for Environmental Studies, and the design crew were a mix of local veteran theater artists along with Rice students who definitely have a future in theater. Likewise when they bring in artists from out of town like Choreographer Gabrielle Lamb to create a site specific movement piece for their exhibition Bio Morphe, it made for some exciting immersive dance.

SC: These two hidden gems have actually been active for a very long time on the Houston classical chamber music scene. Axiom Quartet is doing some of its best playing these days and boldly programmed the complete Shostakovich string quartets this season. That’s all 15 deeply challenging works in one season! Houston Brass Quintet has been really creative with their programming. At their fall concert in collaboration with Houston Early Music, historical fencing was featured along with the music. I never thought I would be watching fencing at a concert. It was a really fun pairing and the audience loved it.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR NEW AND RETURNING FESTIVALS!

NW: Windsync’s onstage offstage festival is always engaging. Aimed Dance fest livened up the summer months at Lamar University Department of Theatre & Dance. Agora Artists’ inaugural Dallas Indie Dance Fest showcased 20 original works by independent dance choreographers across three rotating programs.

LW: Fade to Black in Houston, which spanned 60 performances and 15 venues across the city. Not only did it present 10 full-length play readings and masterclasses and workshops from a variety of big-name Black artists, it even had Phylicia Rashad as its official ambassador. Amphibian Stage’s SparkFest is also so important — it focuses each summer on a different underrepresented community, and 2025 was dedicated to AAPI voices. This coming year, it’s Latinx talent.

TG: Definitely looking forward to Austin’s Fusebox Festival coming back after moving to a biennial schedule. Fusebox did keep very busy this year with year-round programming, especially in partnership with Texas Performing Arts.

RARE TEXAS EVENTS

NW: Menil and the House Foundation presented a spectacular sold out concert with Meredith Monk and Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin at the Dan Flavin installation. Dancing with Bob at the Menil featured the first performance of Trisha Brown Dance Company in Houston in decades. With excerpts from Trisha Brown’s Glacial Decoy and Set and Reset, along with Merce Cunningham’s Travelogue, Cecily Campbell, Catherine Kirk, Patrick Needham and Jennifer Payán danced with a luminous generosity, imbued with an otherworldly lightness, weighted swings and attention to detail. I attended both performances and I can say that most of the dance community showed up! The Bach Society Houston brought the St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig for a hauntingly beautiful performance.

SC: One night only with Cynthia Erivo and the Houston Symphony turned into two sold-out nights. Erivo is an absolutely captivating performer and her fans (including me and my teenage daughter) were wild about her. She was equally gracious with the audience during and after the performance. It’s great to have a super star at the symphony, and smashing for the Houston Symphony box office!

LW: Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and Corbin Drew Ross, both recent Jimmy Award winners from Dallas, are currently leading two national tours: The Outsiders (Ross is Sodapop) and & Juliet (Quijada is Juliet). Both shows recently stopped in DFW, and my social media was flooded with the proud teachers and colleagues of these super talented youngsters.

The DMA also hosted the largest and most comprehensive retrospective of artist and 1960s It Girl Marisol, whose large-scale wooden figures and drawings are overwhelming (in a good way), insightful, and creepy all at once.

And we can’t forget about the Torlonia Collection at the Kimbell in Fort Worth! These 58 ancient marble sculptures are so rare, and I love what curator Jennifer Casler Price said about it: “Even if you traveled to Rome, you would not see this collection. It has been largely inaccessible for decades. To have it here in Texas … it’s historic.”

MOST CONNECTED TO CURRENT POLITICS

NW: Asia Society and Musiqa premiered The Prisoner by Karim Al-Zand based on the letters of Adnan Latif, one of the first men imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay who died in prison in 2012 after never being charged with a crime. Apollo Chamber Players has found a way to connect to the times we are living in to music in the most powerful way, and they continue to garner national attention for the work they are doing. Could Eureka Day at 4th Wall Theatre with its vaccination focus be more timely? And it included fabulous performances by the entire cast.

SC: Tamarie’s summer show at Catastrophic Theatre really reflected our collective angst at this moment in time. If we can still laugh together, we will help each other through these crazy times somehow.

LW: The Trade by Matt Lyle at Theatre Three. Talk about timely! Losing Luka from the Mavs was a big deal (and a stupid move, in my and many others’ opinion), and Lyle jumped on that to create a rip-roaring satire that resonated so deeply with its Dallas audience. And then GM Nico Harrison was fired from the franchise only a month later….

TG: This year, I almost want to say it would be easier to list shows that weren’t political in one way or another. But for some of the biggest reminders of our interesting times. . .

Donald Trump showed up as a character in Houston Broadway Theatre’s American Psycho and something like the ghost of Christmas future lingering in the monologues on loyalty and political ruthlessness from Roy Cohen in Angel in America at Rec Room. And the Mildred’s Umbrella production at the JCC of The Last Yiddish Speaker gave a very scary depiction of an alternate U.S.

Both Open Dance Project’s immersive works that they remounted for their 20th anniversary, Panopticon and Dada Gert portray the rise of authoritarian regimes. Dirt Dogs’ production of Tracy Letts’s late 90s play, Bug, and its depiction of a couple’s falling into a bottomless psychological well of conspiracy theories and paranoia, seemed like it could have been written about those dark social media virtual back alleys of today.

There also seemed to be many immigrant stories being told, like The Lehman Trilogy at Stages, Kim’s Convenience at Main Street, and several companies across TX producing Heart Sellers including Stages and Austin Playhouse. Any place in North Texas, Lindsey?

TM: Tarra, you read my mind! I saw Austin Playhouse’s production of The Heart Sellers this past October. Lloyd Suh’s play portrays two Asian immigrants’ sense of cultural belonging and exclusion in the US. But before and after the show at Austin Playhouse’s adopted home, University Baptist Church, audience members could not miss instructional signs posted on what to do in the event of an ICE raid at the church. US immigration policy was definitely front and center that day, on and off the stage.

KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR

NW: Houston Ballet soloist Jacquelyn Long received the Ucross residency this year and shows great promise as a rising choreographer. I particularly appreciated her sensitivity to space and scale in Illuminate, which was created for the 2023 Jubilee of Dance and reprised earlier this season. Long’s keen eye for the degrees of space between dancers creates maximum impact. The golden feeling tone of the ballet also felt joyous and uplifting.

TG: The Alley Theatre just received a Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for their upcoming world premiere production of Liz Duffy Adams’s Dear Alien. Adams’s Born With Teeth, which also debuted at the Alley, has become one of the most successful Houston theatrical exports in a long time, even making its West End debut in London this year. So definitely keeping an eye out for Alien.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS

TG: Seeing as much theater as I do I’m cognizant of how many Houston theater actors and designers create at multiple companies, but when I interviewed Stages artistic director Derek Livingston, who has an extensive theater resume across the U.S., he made the point that those theater community connections in Houston that allows artists to jump between companies is actually somewhat rare.

So this year, I want to highlight some of those performers who made some dazzling leaps between roles, like Brandon Morgan moving from Booth in Topdog/Underdog at 4th Wall to multiple roles based on real people in Spill to the sweet and occasionally hilarious, Tyriek in Mud Row at Stages. Skyler Sinclair also played multiple characters in Spill then jumped to Stages for a gripping performance in Let. Her. Rip. and finished the year in Our Town. One of the weirder role leaps had to be stage veteran Greg Dean who played a dying female dog, sans canine costume, in Rec Room’s Toros, seethed in human misery as Hamm in Catastrophic’s revival of Beckett’s Endgame, and then less than a month later spewed political poison as Roy Cohen in Rec Room’s Angels in America. Dean shared the stage with another veteran company and role leaper, Susan Koozin, taking on all the resolutely curmudgeon roles in Angels, while in the summer bringing depth and complexity to her Miss Marple at the Alley.

But this year’s most dynamic leaper must go to Wesley Whitson for his performance as Hamlet in that 4th Wall pared down Hamlet originated by New York’s Bedlam Company. Then he played probably at least 20 characters in 39 Steps at Main Street and ended the year as Prior, in Angels in America. His multiple performances made me realize though four hundred years between them, Hamlet and Prior are vulnerable young men facing the much the same existential dilemma of whether or not to listen to supernatural beings urging them on to their deaths. Just say no guys.

 TM: Colin Canavan and Isabella Phillips Lynch were an arresting duo in Stephen Mills’s Love’s Gentle Spring (performed by Ballet Austin at Austin’s Long Center, March 28-30). Canavan was assured, confident and both as soft and strong as he needed to be. For her part, Lynch displayed her gorgeous extensions and flexibility with ease, and her warm stage presence was delightful. This is a partnership to watch! These dancers were so in sync that it seemed they had performed together forever (even though they’ve only been together at BA for three years).

NW: Houston Grand Opera offered us two incredible Besses! Lauren Snouffer delivered a riveting performance as Bess in the Houston Grand Opera’s outstanding production of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves. She manages to be vulnerable, sensual and innocent while on stage nearly the whole two plus hours of the opera. Angel Blue is a wonder whenever she is on stage, but watching her in Porgy and Bess was transformative.

Caitlyn Cork’s chameleon-esque virtuosity was in full form in Adele Nickel’s Star Power as part of DSH’s Barnstorm Festival. Madelyn Manlove hopped on and off a six-foot table with the greatest of ease and grit while reading from Milton’s Paradise Lost in Annie Arnoult/Open Dance Project’s Panopticon. Arnoult delivered a fierce performance as the OG punk priestess Veleska Gert in ODP’s immersive DADA GERT. Houston Ballet’s Simone Acri gave an explosive performance in Lila York’s Celts. The flame-haired Aidan Wolf was on fire in Garrett Smith’s Hypnotic Forces. I will watch Suzan Koozin crawl across the stage any day. She was a marvel of a Marple in the Alley Theatre production of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d.

SC: I second Lauren Snouffer’s incredible performance as Bess, and I’m really looking forward to seeing her in something completely different at Ars Lyrica next season. She’s playing/singing a boy role, the Greek river god Acis, who falls in love with Galatea in Handel’s serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. And how about soprano Corinne Winters’s HGO debut, singing three leading roles in each piece of Puccini’s Il Trittico. She was absolutely sublime! Also, I was super impressed by Timothy Eric and Brandon J. Morgan’s portrayal of Lincoln and Booth in 4th Wall’s Topdog/Underdog, one of the most powerful performances of the year in my book.

STILL THINKING ABOUT

NW: I am pondering Paty Lorena Solórzano standing still with sprigs of unruly weeds attached to most of her body. The slight sway of plant matter caught my attention before she made a single movement in La Maleza, performed as part of the culmination of her Dance Source Houston Artist in Residence project. Solórzano draws a parallel between being an immigrant and an invasive species, leaning into the lessons of weeds in survival, resistance and adaptability. She is dancing fully in this moment where both citizenship and the natural world are both in peril.

I am also  still processing Anni Hochhalter’s haunting Sonata for Horn and Electronics as part of WindSync’s Onstage/Offstage Chamber Music Festival at the MATCH Gallery. Brian Buck’s powerful rolling solo What Dreams May Die? set in front of a disintegrating American Flag at Dance Source Houston’s Mind the Gap 36 offered a lesson in resilience, protection and keeping it together as things fall apart. Buck’s piece is cleverly disguised as a dance, but I read it as operating instructions for the future: Tuck, roll, survive. Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s poignant collaboration with Kirk Lynn, Mountain, presented by FOTOFEST and MFAH, seduced us with its DIY charm, while depth slipped in bringing with it the existential questions of life itself. I could go on and on about Mountain, but instead read Michael McFadden’s review in Flak, the most moving, elegant, and poetic piece of arts writing of the year.

SC: HGO’s production of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves was an unforgettable tour-de-force. I think when an opera company boldly embraces artistically challenging work with total commitment as HGO has done here, the audience comes along for the journey and is well rewarded with transformative experiences. And I too was moved by Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s Mountains. They really live their art every day and are so generous in sharing their art/life so openly and so honestly with all of us.

TG: I also loved Mountains, and it was lovely to learn of the friendship between Austin’s Kirk Lynn and Hillerbrand+Magsamen. This one is under the wire because it was Catastrophic Theatre’s last show of the year, but I’m still thinking about Kyle Sturdivant’s performance in Beautiful Princess Disorder. While the world premiere production seemed to be roughly three different plays fighting for attention, Sturdivant’s remarkable monologue as the man-killer whale, Tilikum, trying to win entrance into heaven was absurd, heart-breaking, and, well, divine.

TM: The trio section of Stephen Mills’s Racing Beauty (performed by Ballet Austin at Austin’s Long Center, March 28-30). Choreographer Stephen Mills and composer Bryce Dessner consistently bring out the best in each other in their artistic collaborations, and the exquisite Racing Beauty is a prime example of this.  Aptly named, the dance is a whirlwind of kinetic lusciousness. Yet, the trio section was an absorbing meditation on intimacy and physical possibility through the fluid and seamless partnering of dancers Katherine Deuitch, Colin Heino, and Morgan Stillman.

LW: Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Circle Theatre’s Velvet Lounge lobby. I love that artistic director Ashley H. White has turned this into an immersive second performance space, and it was so well suited for this musical revue—not to mention the cast (and music direction from Cherish Love) was phenomenal.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

TM: Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández’s show was an engrossing theatrical event. Dozens of dancers and musicians presented contemporary as well as historic dances that were enhanced by sumptuous costumes, extravagant sets, and sophisticated lighting design. So much expert skill and heart-felt commitment were on display that the audience was literally dancing in the aisles and shouting “Viva Mexico!” along with the performers at the end of the evening.

NW: The Outsiders at Broadway at the Hobby deserved every award and then some! Houston Ballet’s production of Sleeping Beauty was a sumptuous feast for the heart and eye. I was sadly out of town for Raymonda, but the news on the street was overwhelmingly positive.

TG: I have to stop mentioning Angels in America at Rec Room and Spill at Rice Moody, but there you go. The Lehman Trilogy also made an excellent beginning to Derek Livingston’s first programmed season at Stages.

Sherry, you already mentioned Camp Logan, and I need to add my kudos as I thought it one of the best ensemble pieces of theater this year. Along with a remarkable exploration of family, faith, and tradition, Mildred’s Umbrella’s production of The Wanderers early this year, had an emotional plot twist that was thoroughly earned, but one that took me completely by surprise, and very few plots surprise me anymore.

LW: Ride the Cyclone at Stage West was as unsettling, insightful, and impressive as I hoped it would be. Director Garret Storms made some inspired choices—I’m still very creeped out by those rats—and bravo to the TCU theater students who gave pro performances in a challenging show.

SC: I second Angels in America at Rec Room. Also HGO’s Porgy and Bess

BEST DESIGN

SC: I loved Houston Ballet’s Raymonda. I relished every ball scene with the lavish costumes and splendid sets by Roberta Guidi di Bagno. How perfectly clever that each princess and duke’s name evokes a different color and/or flower so that the stage was a colorful feast for the eyes throughout. It really took me out of the ordinary everyday into a gorgeous fairytale setting.

LW: Incarnate at Second Thought Theatre. It’s not easy to build a cage around a woman and make it dynamic, but Leah Mazur (pulling double duty as the artist behind Rosamund’s paintings) worked seamlessly with lighting designers Aaron Johansen and Jamie Milligan to fashion an environment that was claustrophobic, and versatile, and had plenty of jump scares.

 TG: American Psycho, design seeped, like a bloody crime scene, all the way out the Zilka Theatre house, turning the Hobby Center Lobby into an 80s video store. Even the programs looked like a slick 80s magazine. Rec Room always does amazing work in their very small space, and this year their ultra realistic garage turned DJ studio in Toros was another marvel. I highlighted both Rec Room’s Stefan Azizi and Leah Mazur in my story about small stage design.

BEST DANCE

LW: Bruce Wood Dance Dallas had such a strong season, including a Robert Battle premiere, and Charles Santos always goes above and beyond with the TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND series.

TM: Lindsey, I second the shout-out for Charles Santos and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND. This performance series excels on so many fronts: diversity of styles, great mix of US and international artists, superb production values and, of course, stunning choreography and performance. But I give it kudos for another element– lengthening the season. Instead of closing with the “Command Performance” gala in April or May, for the past couple of  years there have been additional performances in May and June after the Gala. I’m all for this ten-month season!

NW: Performing Arts Houston’s presentation of Hung Dance’s Birdy featured gorgeous choreography by rising choreographer Lai Hung-Chung, outstanding lead dancer Cheng I-Han, and the entire ensemble. Big thanks to Performing Arts Houston’s Meg Booth for helping to organize this historic tour for this young troupe. Dance Source Houston AIR 2025 residents Adele Nickel, Ashley Clos and Paty Lorena Solórzano each created outstanding researched-based works for the Barnstorm Fest. Everything about Houston Contemporary Dance Company’s Resolve concert in April shined with polish from the choice of choreographers: Andrea Dawn Shelley, Kacie Boblitt, Taryn Vander Hoop, and Natasha Adorlee, to the fabulous dancers. Gabrielle Lamb’s quartet of dancers Allegra Herman, Tiffany Mangulabhan, Victoria Sames, and Amy Saunder stretched our ideas of what it means to be a moving human as they explored the Bio Morphe exhibit at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts as part of Dimensions Variable.

SC: I was very impressed with Houston Contemporary Dance Company’s Fall Collections show. Yue Yin’s Citizen was a standout: expressive, dynamic, and intense. The dancers were superb in this physically demanding work. The other works on the program showed wonderful variety and the ensemble really made each their own.

TM: It is tough to choose – I saw so many great shows in 2025. But Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE’s performance at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas was absolutely electric! TITAS’s jubilant season opener featured African and contemporary dance performed with both complete commitment and total abandon by the company’s wonderful dancers. Company directors Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Cabuag joined the company for a danced curtain call at the close of a performance that felt more like a celebration.

 TG: Maybe this belongs back in trends or maybe this is too much information about me, but I was intrigued by several amazing performances of dance depicting violence. I’m thinking about the rumble scenes in Houston Grand Opera’s West Side Story (who knew HGO could feature such stellar dance) and the touring The Outsiders. And I also loved Hung Dance’s Birdy, which also contained moments of exquisitely danced simulated violence that was very bird-like but also very human.

IMMERSIVE

TM: Our Boat Drum Earth at Grand Palais in Paris, France. Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s immersive installation in Paris’s Grand Palais (one of the 2024’s Olympics sites) married woven textures and sound scapes to create a primal womb within the Neoclassical opulence and grandeur of the Palais. Viewers/participants were granted fifteen-minute slots to explore the interiority of the fabric sculpture and to play percussion within the installation. As a result, spectators and tourists from around the world formed a tribal orchestra, communing through sound and tactile appreciation for this unique kinetic structure.

NW: In its second iteration, Open Dance Project’s Panopticon was even more unsettling against the backdrop of our present dystopia. ODP founder and choreographer Annie Arnoult continues to hone her vision of how to place an audience in the middle of an experience.

LW: Darkfield at ATTPAC. It was so hard to describe, but basically you entered three separate shipping containers and put on headphones. From there, three very different stories played out—and you were right in the middle of them. One was a seance, one was a hospital, and one was an airplane, and each was a little too real. And no, I did not swallow the pill in Coma.

TG: I saw Darkfield’s very intense Flight at Edinburgh Fringe last year. I hadn’t realized they had made it to Texas. I would love to see this company in Houston. Send them our way, Lindsey.

This is the second year in a row where I think there might be a little more energy in immersive visual arts than performance art in Houston, though ODP certainly keeps immersive dance alive and Strange Bird Immersive continues their long running Man From Beyond and had a limited run of a new show, The Endings. But ever since Meow Wolf, Artechouse, and Art Club at POST all opened their doors in 2024 with so many large scale installations we can explore, as well as several big immersive art exhibitions at the MFAH this year, it feels like visual arts have taken the immersive lead in Houston. Meow Wolf has also been partnering with local performing artists to create work inside Radio Tave.

MOST FUN

TM: SWAY as the featured performers at the Dallas Arts District Changing Perspectives Block Party (April 11, Sammons Park in front of the Winspear Opera House). These Australian performing artists combine theater, dance, and circus elements in their vertical choreography atop of sway poles. The results were both fanciful and astounding. Spinning, extending, and reaching while arcing side-to-side through the air, SWAY indeed offered changing perspectives not only on performance, but also on the outdoors space of Dallas’s Arts District.

SC: Everything Hopera! I went to Hopera’s season opening Opera Karaoke at Eureka Heights brewery and had a blast watching people let it go and sing their hearts out. Some of the singers were professional, many from the HGO Chorus, but others were just fans of opera, a stagehand, a teenager, everyone was welcome. Then I went to their fall production of a fully staged opera at Equal Parts Brewing. Artistic Director Megan Berti translated/rewrote the libretto in English and directed a fantastic cast in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. I mean it’s a tragedy about a sad clown, but there was plenty of laughter to be had between the messiness of love, jealousy, heartbreak, and death. The performance also felt very immersive as the singers were in the aisles interacting with the audience. And it’s always fun to have a beer with your opera!

LW: I had the joy of experiencing my first concert led by conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and that man is a treasure. We saw The Music of Star Wars and you could tell he was such a fan. He had a blast, so we as the audience had a blast. I really must see more of his concerts in 2026!

TG: Eureka Day at 4th Wall was definitely one of the funniest shows I saw this year. I appreciated the balance of cutting satire with compassion for those being satirized. The very flawed, very funny characters never became caricatures. And I tend to love macabre humor, so I found American Psycho to be great, dark fun. And for silly fun, the not-dead Romeo’s Bon Jovi entrance in the touring & Juliet had me giggling.

NW: You are right Tarra, Eureka Day was a hoot and 4th Wall founders Kim Tobin and Philip Lehl were so hilarious. Catastrophic’s Another Ding Dang Tamarie Show was bucket loads of jolly. Mamma Mia at the Hobby Center was Texas sized fun from start to finish and apologies to all those in earshot for my rendition of “Dancing Queen.”

TG: I will also always be there and singing along (quietly) at Mamma Mia, Nancy.

LW: Oh, I’m dancing in the aisles anytime Donna, Rosie, and Tanya show up in sparkles.

FAVE ACTX STORY

SC: Harmonia Stellarum Houston’s season preview. There are certain people I really love to interview for stories, Mario Aschauer of Harmonia Stellarum is one of them. Every conversation on every subject goes down deep rabbit holes and although there’s the messiness of transcribing hours of interviews to deal with, I always learn so much. He makes the music and the history come alive and that comes through in the ensemble’s concerts every time.

TM: I am so inspired by artists who venture into new styles and creative expressions. To this end, I had the pleasure of conversing with two Austin-based choreographers/explorers. For Performa/Dance’s story artistic director Jennifer Hart traced her artistic evolution from ballet to dance/theater projects, and Alexa Capareda shared her interests and ambitions in not only dance, but in theater and visual art too in my Texas Studio feature.

NW: Tara M thanks for bringing Alexa’s story to us. She’s been a beacon of creativity for a while now! For me, Stories from the Room is the gift that keeps on giving. We have Charles Santos of TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND to thank for the idea. I loved working with Tarra G on collecting these stories and for months afterwards people would tell me their performance stories, good, bad and ridiculous!

 TG: And thanks for the opportunity, Nancy. It was such a treat and a privilege to weave those stories together so we could share them with readers. I do love working on stories when I can connect with artists around Texas.

LW: Silas Farley. Talk about someone who loves what he does! Interviewing him was just pure joy, and it made me so happy that Dallas has someone so devoted not just to ballet, but to being a good person.

FAVORITE STORY/STORIES THAT YOU WROTE ELSEWHERE

NW: Jack Woolf’s On the Rise in Dance Magazine. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a young artist bloom in our own city. Watch out for Woolf at Houston Ballet and elsewhere, he’s a fabulous dancer and choreographer. My pandemic project on Feldenkrais and Dance came out in Contact Quarterly and my podcast episode on Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is on Pillow Voices. Also stay tuned for my Dance Magazine “25 to Watch” selections!

SC: I rarely get to write reviews so it was really fun to write about HGO’s Breaking the Waves for EarRelevant

LW: Listen, I did not think sports would be such a recurring theme for me this year, but here we are. During summer 2025, incoming Dallas Cowboys player Soloman Thomas bid farewell to New York onstage as well as on the field. He’s apparently a huge fan of musical theater, MJ the Musical in particular, and he scored a one-night cameo role in the Broadway production. Did y’all know he apparently does Tony Award coverage too?!

RECENT STORIES OR WORKING ON NOW

SC: I just wrapped up a H-town opera story about grassroots groups outside of the major opera companies and their unique takes on the art form. I covered a lot of ground on this one, featuring five different local groups, Hopera, Lone Star Lyric, Operativo, I Colori dell’opera, and Opera Leggera. We have so many creative and entrepreneurial artists in this city. I really wanted to celebrate that.

NW: I am cooking up a sequel to my dance DNA story that will address the body as a museum of embodied knowledge. I am also enjoying helping with the background research for our Theater Kids story, which investigates those who ignored the typical doomsday advice and went on to become theater professionals. Stay tuned for Tarra Gaines’s story in the March/April issue.

TG: Yes, I’m having fun learning these theater kid stories. I also have plans for a further dive into those one actor/many roles shows.

LW: I just wrapped up a preview of New Horizons: The Western Landscape at the Amon Carter and I can’t wait to see it beginning Jan. 17. It says a lot that the Carter is examining its place not just in the art world, but in the world at large, and making sure that all voices get to speak.

INSPIRED FASHION

NW: Chelsea de Souza, Yvonne Chen, Marlana Walsh Doyle, and Catherine Lu all have fabulous personal styles. Harmonia Stellarum’s musicians all wear gold pocket handkerchiefs that echo the golden rays of light streaming through the amber stained glass windows. Nice touch!

SC: I always enjoy seeing what the audience is wearing, whether it’s the guy who wears a swan headdress for Wagner at the opera, or the fans that geek out for symphony concerts featuring Harry Potter movies. I mean people have entire makeovers and bespoke outfits for Beyonce and Taylor Swift concerts. We could all use some of that. Make it a total experience, what fun!

LW: TACA debuted its new Masquerade gala event, where part of the evening included an auction for creative masks made by arts groups. There were lots of performances throughout the fundraiser as well, and people came dressed to impress.

BEYOND TEXAS

NW: I livestreamed the opening program of the new Doris Duke Theater at Jacob’s Pillow, the most technically advanced theater for dance in the country. I can’t wait to see it for myself in person. Impressive!

TM: Our Boat Drum Earth at Grand Palais in Paris, France. Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s immersive installation in Paris’s Grand Palais (one of the 2024’s Olympics sites) married woven textures and sound scapes to create a primal womb within the Neoclassical opulence and grandeur of the Palais.  Viewers/participants were granted fifteen-minute slots to explore the interiority of the fabric sculpture and to play percussion within the installation. As a result, spectators and tourists from around the world formed a tribal orchestra, communing through sound and tactile appreciation for this unique kinetic structure.

TM: New York City Ballet’s Spring Season performance of Modern Masters at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center.  The program featured a sixty-year span of innovative ballets by choreographers George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Justin Peck.  The night’s show-stopper was Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces. The eponymous work performed to Philip Glass’s minimalist score was anything but minimalist in scope. A cast of over forty dancers enacted a dynamic Tetris grid that featured precarious stop and starts. Robbins’ genius for staging and choreographic layering was on full display.

TG: I must have just missed you, Tara. I also did a few days in NYC in early summer and saw part of their spring season, including Justin Peck’s Mystic Familiar, Caili Quan’s Beneath the Tides, and Alexei Ratmansky’s Solitude, just an incredible night of dance. And even though I saw it in London in 2024, I also had to see Operation Mincemeat, with the original cast, while in New York. Yes, I love the show that much.

SC: I was able to attend two symphony concerts and see two very different but brilliant plays while on vacation in Chicago this summer. The CSO sounded fantastic under the baton of Marin Alsop at Ravinia, and the Grant Park Festival Orchestra featured conductor Anthony Parnther, who will be making his Houston debut with ROCO next season. The two plays I saw were You Will Get Sick at the legendary Steppenwolf Theater and Iraq, but Funny at Lookingglass Theater. It’s really interesting to step out of my hometown of Houston and see what’s happening somewhere else. Artists are creating powerful, funny, thoughtful, important works everywhere. Sometimes a city’s particular character really comes through, in this case it was the great tradition of improv in Chicago theaters. It’s so fully a part of their DNA, and so spontaneous and brilliant.

LW: My friend Diep Tran, who’s the editor-in-chief of Playbill, told me I had to see Maybe Happy Ending when I was in New York City in April, and she never steers me wrong. What a lovely little show. I also happened to be in Bentonville, AR, to catch KAWS at Crystal Bridges and that was a treat.

RANDOM SHOUT OUTS AND INSPIRED CHOICES

NW: Joel Sandal and Deborah Hope’s Youtube channel Car Takes with Deborah and Joel is a gift to the Houston theater community. HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor’s choice to commission Nester Trophy’s art for the season brochure proved a winner. We are so lucky to have Miller Outdoor Theatre here in Houston. And a special shoutout to Asia Society Texas Center for bringing Broadway/Disney icon Lea Salonga to Miller where over 6,000 fans showed up.

TM: Austin-based Jennifer Hart, Kelsey Oliver, and Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw.  These directors along with a stellar cast presented ANTHROPOCENE at AustinVentures StudioTheater in August. Riffing on planetary as well as personal extinction through dance and spoken text, these collaborators invited the audience into a performance world that was alternately witty, surreal and tender, and not too distant from where we all live now.

LW: Broadway tie-ins with museums is something I am definitely here for. Arlington Museum of Art had a stellar exhibition of costumes from the first Wicked film, and the African American Museum followed suit with an exhibit spotlighting masks from the stage production of The Lion King. The AAM is literally across the parking lot from Broadway Dallas’ main home at the Music Hall, and the free display coincided with The Lion King’s summer touring stop in Dallas, so audience members were encouraged to amble over before or after the show to check it out.

A personal favorite performer of mine is Hugh Panaro (he’s the longest-running Broadway Phantom), so I drop everything whenever he comes to Texas. In November, he paired up with the West End’s Scarlett Strallen and American Idol finalist LaKisha Jones — the trio often tours together — to sing with Dallas Winds. I had last heard Jones sing in 2022 but she completely blew me away this year. She brought the Meyerson down with her renditions of “I Will Always Love You” and “Defying Gravity,” the latter of which she confided to me post-show that she’d only been given two days’ notice to practice.

TG: Second shout out to Joel and Deborah for the constant enthusiasm for Houston theater. I’m jumping ahead to our next subject, but also kudos to my friends at Houston Press for continuing their annual theater awards and its celebration of the whole theater community.

Earlier in the year when I interviewed Stefan Azizi about designing for small spaces, he told me how for one show they built a rotating stage that was powered by a backstage stationary bicycle, and it was the job of their theater bartender to pedal it every night. It got me thinking of all the weird jobs backstage crew–and bartenders–likely have. And so a most random and obscure special shoutout to all those anonymous backstage crew who do the bizarrest jobs, like help Elizabeth Bunch change in and out of an array of continuously heightening and chaotic wigs backstage for the Alley’s Baskerville or clean the working onstage kitchen after every performance of Seared or fill what was probably 20 snow machines every night for TUTS’s White Christmas.

SC: Hearing Balourdet Quartet perform live for the first time as part of Chamber Music Houston’s season. It was an all Beethoven concert. They definitely bring their own flair and passion to everything they play.

I went to period instrument ensemble La Speranza’s chamber music concert Creative Combinations and thoroughly enjoyed hearing a natural horn (first time for me) playing in Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings. Wow, the color palette was amazing. They also played a string quartet by Antonio Rosetti. I had never heard of him, but the piece was stunning, a total gem!

CALENDAR CRUSHES and FAVE MEDIA OUTLETS

LW: I mean, I have to say CultureMap (where I am the director of promoted content), don’t I? I try to keep Dallas-Fort Worth updated on important arts news and do a monthly roundup of show openings there in addition to advertorial.

NW: Yes you do Lindsey! I love that three out of five us have CM connections! Where do you think I scooped up Tarra!

Melissa Richardson’s weekly e-blast MUSED is my go to calendar for everything! It’s my Wednesday inbox treat! Also I could not function without the Music Card. Thanks to DACAMERA for organizing! And Valerie Sweeten’s Hot in Houston Now is great when you are having guests and need something fun to do. Our own Michael McFadden also co-runs Flak magazine, which houses some of his fantastic writings along with The Hidden Agenda, their fabulous off beat calendar. I am grateful that we live in a state where Glasstire thrives and I always enjoy having them as colleagues in the art writing biz!

TG: My monthly theater column at CM definitely makes me stay on top of the theater scene.

LOOKING FORWARD

NW: Oh my, too many to mention but here’s a few, OK OK, more than a few: Kinetic Ensemble and Aperio, Music of the Americas are presenting Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón in a premiere of a new version of Yo Soy La Tradición, Jan. 10 at  Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center, Karen Stokes’s new work 4 Corners, Jan. 30-Feb. 8 at the MATCH, Emily Johnson’s February residency to develop  Overflow Radio, which is the project that DiverseWorks is presenting in 2026-27, Bach Society Houston celebrates Bach’s birthday with the monumental B minor Mass, performed with period instruments by the Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra on March 21, Dimensions Variable: Mitchell + Riener, Open Machine, April 10-11 at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts, Robert Wilson’s Messiah at HGO April 10-May 3, Houston Ballet and Asia Society Texas Center present a restaging of Stanton Welch’s gorgeous ballet, Sons de L’âme, with acclaimed concert pianist George Li, April 11-12 at Asia Society, Frame Dance presents Merce Cunningham’s 50 Looks at Rienzi May 16-17, Emily Hynds’s newest play, No Kissing, in the Spring, Performing Arts Houston presents Ballets Jazz Montréal, Dance Me: The Music of Leonard Cohen, June 12-13 at Jones Hall, and B. Moore Dance’s Super Sonic, a collaborative project with Juel D. Lane which explores themes of Afro-Futurism in August.

LW: I have several! I’m hoping it’ll be a very musical 2026 for me, beginning with Dallas Theater Center’s collaboration with SMU’s Sexton Institute for Musical Theatre to produce Ragtime in March/April. That’s bringing Joel Ferrell back to the Wyly to direct what will surely be an epic production. On an even bigger scale, I’m pretty pumped that Stereophonic is coming to the Winspear Opera House in May. In the summer, the always irreverent Uptown Players will take a satirical stab at Urinetown, a very fitting show for our current times, and Circle Theatre is appealing to my high-school super-fandom with Rent. As for non-musicals, I’m so curious about The Shark is Broken at Amphibian Stage (big Jaws fan over here), and we are blessed to be getting Marianne Galloway, directed by Ashley Puckett Gonzales, in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at Undermain Theatre in June.

TG: I’m so looking forward to Dance Me, as well Nancy, and I just saw and loved a short piece from Sons de L’ame at HB’s Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance, so putting that on my list.

I caught Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt in New York a few years ago, so I was already anticipating one of Houston’s leading companies for Stoppard works, Main Street Theater, producing it in the spring. With his recent death, it has definitely become a show I won’t miss, though emotionally I might not make it through the play’s devastating ending. Also after seeing Fat Ham on Broadway and an excellent more intimate production from Austin Playhouse this summer, I seem to be collecting Fat Hams, so looking forward to Stages’ Derek Livingston making a leap to 4th Wall to direct. I also already have plans to get into Austin in the spring for the return of the Fusebox Festival.

TM: The return of BODYTRAFFIC to Dallas performance series TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND, March 20 – 21 performances at Moody Performance Hall. Virtuosic, theatrical, and slightly irreverent, this LA-based chamber company explodes onstage.

SC: Da Camera’s Morton Feldman at 100 featuring the composer’s poignant last work which is simply titled Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. Da Camera is also making this pianist very, very happy by bringing to Houston pianist Yulianna Avdeeva in a program featuring Chopin’s captivating 24 Preludes and Shostakovich’s revelatory Preludes and Fugues. Every Harmonia Stellarum concert, every Aurora Picture Show event, and all that my favorite local chamber music groups are offering in 2026.

REASONS TO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ARTS

SC: With many arts organizations losing federal funding, some for projects already in progress, patrons are stepping up to fill the gap. It is a precarious time, especially for smaller groups. But based on the full houses I see and the enthusiasm I feel at each performance, I think it’s going to be more than ok. There’s a lot of creativity going on out there.

TG: This whole stellar theater year gives me hope for great things to come, but to touch on Sherry’s point, I’m also heartened when arts organizations and institutions step up to support emerging artists. I’m thinking of programs like the Performing Art Houston’s New/Now: The Houston Artist Commissioning Project and the Hobby Center’s Houston is Inspired initiative.

TM: Speaking of dance, I marvel at the range of style and messaging in today’s performances. In 2025 I saw extraordinary African, ballet, Ballet Folklorico, contemporary, dance-theater and immersive performances that were all deeply moving. Some of the company directors aimed to entertain and impress, others strove to enlighten and provoke, but all of the works were wonderfully crafted. From this, I predict dance performance will continue to attract audiences because, truly, the medium features something for everyone.

LW: Agora Artists dance collective! Avery-Jai Johnson wants to grow a more supportive dance environment in Dallas, and the city would be wise to just give her a bunch of money and then get out of her way. She’s such a force.

NW: Yes, on Agora Lindsey! Avery-Jai Andrews is such a leader for this moment. As for hope, I feel it every time I walk into a room with some art going on!

Nancy Wozny

Nancy Wozny is editor in chief at Arts and Culture Texas, a contributing editor at Dance Magazine and a frequent contributor to Pointe Magazine and Dance Teacher.