Acting in Texas: Martin Burke on This Wonderful Life at the ZACH
Austin’s ZACH Theatre presents This Wonderful Life - a lively adaptation of the classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life, through Dec. 29.
Theater
A+C’s Guide to Holiday Performances
The holidays are no excuse to slow down your art-going, especially since this season seems to have a bounty of new productions, along with the old standards.
Review: Fixing King John
Before they head to Lincoln Center in New York in January, the Rude Mechs delivered the drunken punch to the face that is Fixing King John, at the Off Center.
Review: Bull Game
DALLAS—Site-specific theater can seem better, more “alternative,” edgier than sitting in those uncomfortable green seats at the Wyly...
Review: Carnival Round the Central Figure
Sometimes when a piece of theater challenges me, I look for answers in the play’s title. So soon after seeing the Mildred’s Umbrella regional premiere of Carnival Round the Central Figure, I sought meaning from carnivals.
Upgrading the Bard
Leave it to Austin’s maverick troupe, the Rude Mechs, to tackle Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” Even the Bard’s esteemed canon contains a few duds, and in the new bi-annual series, Fixing Shakespeare, the Rude Mechs attempt to slice and dice these plays into more contemporary, and perhaps more palatable, shows.
Dark Comedies & Deranged Elves
How many dance devotées first became entranced with ballet as children, watching a swirl of human snowflakes float across the stage? How many regional theater season subscription holders had their first taste of an onstage happy ending when a gleeful Ebenezer Scrooge saves the Cratchit family through the magic of a giant turkey for Tiny Tim?
Venus in Fur
Taking my seat at the Alley Theatre’s production of David Ives’ Venus in Fur, I didn’t imagine that the play might be appropriate for Halloween.
The Head
While the audience found their seats and engaged in casual pre-show conversation, an enormous decaying head with luminous eyes gazed at them from the stage like a contemporary Olmec.
All Girls
It’s always a pleasure to see a company present a regional premiere. It’s the sort of thing that makes you feel the people you’re watching take seriously their commitment as artists, that they’re paying attention to what’s happening on the scene.
Double Feature
Dallas Theater Center Pairs Raisin in the Sun with Clybourne Park IMAGE ABOVE: Dallas Theater Center’s production of...
Prone to Roam
Artists are leaving Texas, and for good reason. Touring equals two important things for the state's performing artists: unprecedented exposure and a chance to get off the island. An invitation to perform on the road carries with it a certain cachet, elevating an artist’s hometown reputation and expectations.