Arts and Culture Texas magazine

This Page Left Intentionally Blank or Not: Big Dance Theater at CounterCurrent

Tarra Gaines·April 27, 2016

“Don’t look at that. That’s not part of the tour,” is a phrase used by absolutely no museum docent ever, until Tymberly, the new Menil Collection docent, had me in her guiding clutches.

Dance Houston Visual Art

Caught up in the Action: The Audience Gets To Work on Texas Stages

Tarra Gaines·April 10, 2016

As adults, we understand the classic theater relationship between play and audience.

Theater

Rude Mechs Take Texas (for a Change)

Tarra Gaines·March 21, 2016

Whether they’re airily dodging swinging theatrical lights or brawling in the melted cheese of an overflowing gold-plated queso fountain, Austin’s Rude Mechs have some serious (and seriously funny) moves.

Albee on Edge: A Visceral Virginia Woolf at Stark Naked

Tarra Gaines·March 7, 2016

The morning after seeing Stark Naked Theatre’s new production of Edward Albee’s classic marriage horror story Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (through March 26), I woke up exhausted, with a mild headache, dry mouth and a stomach churning with anxiety (a.k.a a hangover).

Theater

Virginia Grise’s Poetic Manifesto at Meca Performing Arts

Tarra Gaines·March 6, 2016

Your Healing Is Killing Me, written and performed by award-winning New York and San Antonio playwright Virginia Grise and making its world premiere as part of the MECA Performing Arts 2016 season on March 4-5, seems less like the performance manifesto of its subtitle and more like a poetry manifesto, maybe even an epic poetry manifesto.

Theater

Privilege & Unnamed Anxiety at Work in Straight White Men at Stages

Tarra Gaines·February 19, 2016

Four straight, white men walk into a rumpus room somewhere in suburban America. This isn’t the beginning of a dumb joke but the setting and most of the plot of Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, through March 6, making its regional debut at Stages Repertory Theatre.

Theater

Merging Music & Literature: A Proust Sonata at Da Camera

Tarra Gaines·February 2, 2016

Sarah Rothenberg, artistic director of Da Camera and Houston’s great maestro of performances that blend music, literature and art, believes that to encounter the works of the great French author Marcel Proust is to begin a life long relationship.

Film Music

Love and Loss: The Bridges of Madison County at TUTS

Tarra Gaines·January 22, 2016

I might very well be the last American woman over the age of 25 who has neither seen the Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood movie The Bridges of Madison County nor read the 90s zeitgeist novel by Robert James Waller that it’s based on.

Houston Reviews Theater

Becoming Nannerl: The Other Mozart

Tarra Gaines·December 18, 2015

The story begins with a portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce of a family: father, son and a daughter with spectacularly big hair.

Houston Theater

The Rat King has Spoken: Holiday Foes Pick Faves

Tarra Gaines·November 20, 2015

I was blindfolded, thrown into a car and driven for hours before we reached their secret lair, which I now believe might be a sub, sub basement floor underneath Houston Galleria Macy’s or inside a volcano, whichever.

Dance Theater

Tumbling Through Time and Memory: Sharr White’s The Other Place at the Alley Theatre

Tarra Gaines·November 2, 2015

Somewhat lost amid all the hullabaloo and celebrations surrounding the Alley Theatre’s grand reopening and the major renovation of the Hubbard Stage was the little-fanfared return of performances to the smaller Neuhaus Stage, where many of the Alley’s more quirky and contemporary play picks are placed each season.

Theater

Ringside Emotional Head Butt: Stages Repertory Theatre’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

Tarra Gaines·October 20, 2015

I have a (admittedly unoriginal) theory that sooner or later, no matter what the perceived subject matter, every writer ends up writing about the act of storytelling, and every playwright ends up writing about acting during the act of storytelling.

Theater

Visual Art

Vision & Experience: Bart Keijsers Koning Takes the Helm of Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas

Imagination and Experience: Nathaniel Donnett Teases Out the Threads

Gallery Row: A Seasonal Spotlight on Six Texas Galleries

Gallery Row

Gallery Row: A Seasonal Spotlight on Six Texas Galleries

Gallery Row: A Seasonal Spotlight on Six Texas Galleries

Gallery Row: A Seasonal Spotlight on Six Texas Galleries

Dance

Performania: A Spotlight on Texas Stages

Stories From The Room: The Case for Live Performance

Immersive Worlds: Annie Arnoult’s Open Dance Project Celebrates 10 Years

Music

Performania: A Spotlight on Texas Stages

Texas Studio: Listening Intently with Yvonne Chen

Stories From The Room: The Case for Live Performance

Theater

Performania: A Spotlight on Texas Stages

Stories From The Room: The Case for Live Performance

Next Chapter: The New Stewards of Fort Worth’s Amphibian Stage to Continue Commitment to New and Underrepresented Works

Tarra Gaines

This Page Left Intentionally Blank or Not: Big Dance Theater at CounterCurrent

Caught up in the Action: The Audience Gets To Work on Texas Stages

Rude Mechs Take Texas (for a Change)

Albee on Edge: A Visceral Virginia Woolf at Stark Naked

Virginia Grise’s Poetic Manifesto at Meca Performing Arts

Privilege & Unnamed Anxiety at Work in Straight White Men at Stages

Merging Music & Literature: A Proust Sonata at Da Camera

Love and Loss: The Bridges of Madison County at TUTS

Becoming Nannerl: The Other Mozart

The Rat King has Spoken: Holiday Foes Pick Faves

Tumbling Through Time and Memory: Sharr White’s The Other Place at the Alley Theatre

Ringside Emotional Head Butt: Stages Repertory Theatre’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity