Six months after Agustín Arteaga joined the Dallas Museum of Art as its new director, visitors to the DMA will benefit from one of his last initiatives at his previous post running the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City.
What is theater that doesn’t reflect contemporary realities? What kind of life can theatrical storytelling have if it doesn’t exist within the world it’s born into?
Experimental plays and intimate dramas set in homes typically belong in black box theaters. The nuance and detail of these productions cannot be captured in larger theaters.
In the spring of 1921, the recently established Dallas chapter of the Ku Klux Klan kidnapped Alex Johnson, a black Adolphus Hotel elevator operator. He was driven to an isolated location, whipped, had the initials KKK burned into his forehead with acid, and then forced to walk naked and bleeding into the Adolphus lobby.
Playing in the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera Orchestra and other ensembles offers plenty of fulfillment. Yet on top of their duties with those groups, nine musicians make time for Voices of Change, Dallas’ 42-year-old new music ensemble.
Sure, J.S. Bach is the most revered composer of his time. But the society goes beyond him to take in the entire Baroque spectrum: more than 150 years of music ranging from pieces for solo instrument to choral works to opera.