Open Air Performance in Texas
As a pandemic spring spun into summer, it seemed all the performing arts world became a virtual stage and all the men and women remote players.
Theater
Back From the Grave: Teatro Dallas partners with Deep Vellum Publishing for outdoor literary theatrical event
Many things were on the cusp of happening when the COVID-19 shutdown occurred, including Teatro Dallas’ landmark production of Cement City.
A Love Letter to the Audience: Tarra Gaines on her Digital Diet and Missing Live Performance
Tarra Gaines on her Digital Diet and Missing Live Performance
Explosions + Reverberations: CounterCurrent 2020
Since 2014, Houston has been host to a citywide takeover. For one week in April, the city itself is activated as a site for art, creativity, social consciousness, and dialogue as the CounterCurrent festival and its artists spread throughout the inner loop to hold a series of provocative performances.
From Faraway Lands to the Apocalypse, Soluna Festival Is All About Adventure
The Dallas Symphony’s 2020 Soluna festival will encompass all that and more. The annual music and arts showcase, opening April 3, will feature Dallas artists plus globe-trotting guests; traditional concerts and multimedia immersions; a live incarnation of an acclaimed rock ’n’ roll album as well as a documentary film whose subjects perform in person in front of it.
Expanding Histories at Austin’s Fusebox 2020
Artists grappling with the political has been the norm for thousands of years, but when art and social-political questioning merge at an interdisciplinary performance festival like Austin’s Fusebox Festival 2020 (April 15-19), the results can sometimes expand artistic boundaries.
Our Stories Onstage: How Dallas grew one of the nation’s biggest LGBTQ theater companies
Nearly 20 years ago, Craig Lynch and Jeff Rane took a look around Dallas and noticed a gap. Despite having the sixth-biggest population of LGBTQ people in the nation and a reputation as one of the country’s most gay-friendly cities, no theater company in Dallas was regularly producing theater that told this community’s stories.
From Comedy to Tragedy: Expect Variety at Fort Worth Opera’s 2020 Festival
Attention, opera-goers: If you’ve been looking for a chance to change the mind of “that one friend” who swears they don’t like opera, this could be the time.
The Not-So-Secret Life of Objects: Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s Devices Spread Throughout Texas
Houston-based artists Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen, known collectively as Hillerbrand+Magsamen, address topics of family, communication, and consumerism, most recently through their ongoing body of artworks called The Devices Project.
Reunited Lovers & Maritime Allies: Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin on Louisiana’s Queer History
For artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin, putting up plaques and statues or writing books are still absolutely necessary, but still they see many opportunities to let queer folk “be super queer in how they honor and preserve these histories.”
Life Is a Cabaret: The Legacy of Mama’s Party in Dallas-Fort Worth
Amy Stevenson, a performer and educator who founded and hosts a weekly cabaret called Mama’s Party, has been more than good to Dallas-Fort Worth for the last 14 years.