Texas Lens: Art Pilgrims
Sometimes, I forget about how Texas learns about itself from these pages.
Theater
Stages delivers emotional blow with ‘We are Proud to Present a Presentation….’
On rare occasion as a theater critic do I see a production that calls less for a review and more for a doctorate dissertation, but Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 at Stages Repertory Theatre (now through April 1) feels like such a play.
Meta Story: ‘Bright Star’ at TUTS
Though it made its Broadway debut in 2016, the bluegrass music-filled Bright Star feels like an old fashioned musical born many decades ago.
Outstanding Performances: A Vibrant Memphis at TUTS
The Tony Award-winning musical Memphis tells a rollicking story of the dawn of rock ’n’ roll in the segregated south that rejects black and white simplicity.
The Big Surround: Nancy and Tarra talk Immersivity on Texas Stages
Since we (Nancy Wozny & Tarra Gaines) have an ongoing conversation on what defines an immersive performance, we decided to share some of our adventures and to make some of our endless road trip banter public.
The Front Edge of Theater Making: AT&T’s Off Broadway on Flora
Can any image fill a performing arts venue programmer or curator with more dread than the sight of an empty, darkened theater?
Re-gendering History: ‘Men on Boats’ at MST
History may be written by the victors, as the saying goes, but fundamentally history is written by the writers and the landscape of history etched into images by the cartographers, though they are perhaps paid by those victors.
Progressive Texan: The LBJ Legacy Continues at the Alley and DTC
War. Healthcare. Race. A divisive president in a tumultuous time. Self-destructive and unrestrained ego.
Stories to Tell: Oral Fixation Expands in Texas
Oral Fixation calls Dallas home, but has started taking their storytelling show on the road in recent years.
Dream Fest: Stages Repertory Theater Launches Sin Muros: A Latina/o Theatre Festival
If good playwrights tend to have discerning ears for the language and voices around them, then perhaps those wanting to produce a new kind of theater festival need to become the most sensitive of auditory aficionado as well. Kenn McLaughlin, artistic director of Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, seems to subscribe to this theory because when the company began organizing their new play-reading event that would become Sin Muros: A Latina/o Theatre Festival, he knew the first act of creation was to be quiet and listen.
Texas Studio: Elizabeth Keel
Elizabeth Keel, a born and bred Houstonian, is unlike most theater kids; she didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor.
Order in Chaos: ‘The Curious Incident’ lands on the ZACH Theatre Stage
ZACH Theatre presents the Austin premiere of Simon Stephens’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jan. 31-March 4 at Topher Theater.