Neverland No More: Sender at the Rec Room
As a critic, I try to stay open to every theatrical form, genre and story to lay aside my personal preferences and tastes so that they don’t prejudice my views of any specific play and production.
Tarra Gaines
Jane Austen, Trailer Park Boys & a Rhinoceros: Holiday Stages in Texas
As a curmudgeonly connoisseur of holiday performing arts, I’m always on the lookout for the innovative, quirky or simply new shows to devour like Christmas candy each most-wonderful-time-of-the-year
Dinner of Doom: 4th Wall opens its final season with Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced
Great drama is seldom blatantly didactic, but on occasion theater does gift us with certain life-tips to aid us along our journey.
Glam Makeover: The Hidden Room’s Henry IV in Austin
Shakespeare, politics, glam rock: these are not terms we often put together, if ever, yet this month, Austin’s Hidden Room theater company plans to merge the three into a rocking trio for a production of the Bard’s glorious history play Henry IV, through Oct. 1 at York Rite Masonic Hall.
Creating Literary Sparks: Inprint’s Authors Reflect Houston’s Diversity
Inprint, Houston’s literary arts organization, flies like a rare book bird among other Texas arts institutions.
Sister Tarra Goes to Horse Head’s Church
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, I bid you welcome to this Church review, and I ask that you receive it with the openness of heart that I offer it.
Rec Room’s Punk New Season
“What the heck is a Rec Room?” was the question I set out to answer almost a year ago when I interviewed the performance art space co-owners and founders, Matt Hune and Stephanie Wittels Wachs
Full Season Ahead for Houston’s Horse Head Theatre
Houston’s Horse Head Theatre company has a reputation for staging intriguing and occasional avant-garde contemporary plays in nontraditional and even bizarre venues, from the back porch of a bar to a geodesic event dome on the banks of Buffalo Bayou.
Unwiring from War: Cry Havoc at Houston’s 4th Wall Theatre
Can performing Shakespeare become a form of therapy that allows actor and audience to find and help heal psychological injuries?
Tragic Puzzles: Luna Gale at Stages Repertory Theatre
With a quick glance at the synopsis, playwright Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale, now at Stages Repertory Theatre through May 28, would seem to possess all the serious markings of an issues play.
A New Beginning: The Ensemble premieres Melda Beaty’s Front Porch Society
Long before Facebook and Twitter, neighbors exchanged information about the real lives of people making up their communities by gossiping and conversing in front yards and stoops.
Big Dreams: Discovering Latina/o Theater in Texas
What do we mean when we talk about Latina/o theater in Texas? This was the question I kept pondering at the beginning of yet another one of the wandering/mapping jaunts I occasionally take when I find myself yearning to exploring more Texas theater.