• Theater Jones' video interview

• KERA radio story:

• Expanded online story:

Teatro Dallas has been presenting its 14th annual International Theater Festival this month. Theater artists have come here from Mexico, Spain and Belgium. Teatro Dallas wraps up the festival this weekend at the Latino Cultural Center with a solo performance artist from an exotic, faraway land.

Miami, Florida.

Actually, Teo Castellanos’ one-man performance is about just one street in Miami – Northeast Second Avenue, which is the title of Castellano’s stage show.

CASTELLANOS: “Since it goes all the way from downtown to North Miami Beach, it’s a great, you know, thoroughfare. But it also has changed demographically over the past couple of decades.”

So Second Avenue cuts through Haitian neighborhoods, Cuban, Jamaican, Puerto Rican and African-American neighborhoods. Second Avenue is also where a private transit system runs. It’s a small Caribbean bus known as a jitney. The show follows the jitney, its driver and passengers as they interact with a wandering white tourist who’s lost.

Castellanos himself is Puerto Rican-born but Miami-raised. NE Second Avenue is partly drawn from his own life. But he also researched Latino history and sub-cultures — even dance moves. Castellanos never really trained as a dancer, he says. But the lean, muscular performer picked up steps from gay bars and Latin nightclubs. More than most performance artists, he delineates his different stage characters through the ways they move.

He also conducted interviews that went straight into his show.

CASTELLANOS: “This is an example of an interview. I walked into an African boutique. I think I went to buy a kufi [an African cap]. And I saw a bucket of flags – you know, there’s the Jamaican, the Haitian, the Ethopian – [interview fades out as Castellanos’ stage performance comes up] – black power flag, Cuban, Puerto Rican flag, Nazi flag, KKK flag – right next to the cowrie shells and the African mask!

[pause]

Now what’s wrong with that picture?

[Music kicks in.]

Obviously, NE Second Avenue is about more than just a street in Florida. Otherwise, who would care about it outside of Miami? But after developing the show in Florida in 2001, Castellanos took it all the way to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. It won the Fringe First Award. In the eight years since, the writer-actor-director has developed group shows with D-Projects, his hip-hop dance-theater collective. He also offers workshops to prisoners in detention centers and to students. While in Dallas, he did both — at Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet, for instance, he taught teacher Elly Lindsay's playwrighting class (below)

But he’s continued to tour NE Second Avenue throughout Europe and the United States – to places that may never have encountered a Rastafarian.

CASTELLANOS: “Well, I’ll quote Victor Hugo: ‘Speak of your village, and you speak universally.’ We all have immigrants in our neighborhoods and in our nations. You know, we all face the same issues. Really, what the piece is more about is our commonalities, at our deepest roots and our spiritual highest. I always say that because [laughs] that’s the truth.”

In the past 20 years, performance artists like Eric Bogosian, John Leguizamo, Anna Deavere Smith and North Texas' own Fred Curchack have perfected the solo show, stage performances in which a single actor plays all the roles. With their quicksilver changes of character, such pieces can be a chance for an actor to show off his chameleon talents. They also can be explorations of the different sides of a single psyche. But in NE Second Avenue, Castellanos wants to embody an entire city: gay, straight, male, female, Latino, black, Christian, Muslim, Jew.

Miami becomes our hybrid, mulatto American culture – even our human condition.

CASTELLANOS: “That cross-pollination exists throughout the U.S. Whether it be inter-racial marriage, whether it be Cuban Jews — they don’t only exist in Miami and in Cuba – Rastafarians and Jamaicans. You know, we Miamians are all over the world! [laughs]”

[Conga drum kicks in.]

In the Saturday Spotlight, we’re kicking up our heels. The Southwest Celtic Music Association will hold an Irish social dance called a ceili (pronounced KAY-lee) at the ArtCentre of Plano. Instruction is provided before most dances, and all are called, so don’t be shy if you’re a beginner. A live band will provide the tunes. For more information on what exactly a ceili is, click here.

An e-mail from the Mary Collins Agency about the fire that destroyed Liz's condo, plus the  efforts to help her:

We are reaching out to our Agency family, clients, friends and others in the acting community to help out one of our very own, Liz Mikel.

Liz and her daughter Vershea escaped from a fire that destroyed their Dallas condo in the early hours of Thursday morning in sub-freezing temperatures.

They got out safely, but lost everything.

We immediately began receiving offers of help and support from actors, theaters, producers and others in the community. We've even had several calls from fans who know Liz only through her stage, film or cabaret performances.

In order to easily coordinate assistance and manage volunteers, we have set up this website community with Lotsa Helping Hands.

Please to go to: www.lotsahelpinghands.com

Then fill out the right-hand side of the form which is a Request to Join the Community. Once you've done this, you will be automatically added to the community and sent instructions for setting a password and signing-in.

Tuckers' Blues is hosting fundraisers for Liz all weekend long, January 8-10. Each night, they're inviting local singers, musicians and spoken word artists to perform. There will be a $5 cover and they will be giving all proceeds to Liz. They will be also accepting other gifts for Liz throughout each evening, including cash, checks, and gift certificates (made payable to Liz Mikel). We hope you can join us one of these evenings. Show time is around 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday January 8 and 9, and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 10.

We will keep it updated first with Liz's immediate, then ongoing, needs as she begins to rebuild her life.

Thank you so much for your assistance in providing emotional and financial support to Liz and her family. If you have any specific questions, you can email us at lizmikel@marycollins.com. We are so proud to represent Liz, and we are so thankful for the love and support she is receiving. This is an amazing community!

The Mary Collins Agency

Also, from the Dallas Theater Center:

The Dallas Theater Center is collecting Target gift cards to give to Liz Mikel. Gift cards can be purchased online at www.target.com, and be mailed to: Liz Mikel c/o Dallas Theater Center 2400 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201.

In addition, the Theater Center will donate 100 percent of all ticket sales to Liz from the January 15 performance of the musical, Give It Up!, in which Liz appears. It's the very first performance of the world-premiere musical, and it's a Pay What You Can show. Pay What You Can tickets will be  on sale beginning Monday, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m., by calling the AT&T Performing Arts Center box office at 214.880.0202, or in person at the Wyly Theatre ticket counter beginning Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. Every seat is available at any price of the patron’s choosing.

Liz Mikel started performing at the age of 6. Since then, she has graced stages locally, nationally and internationally, as well as the small and big screen. Her tremendous love of her craft and amazing performances have endeared her to audiences far and wide.

She has received the Dallas Theatre League’s Leon Rabin Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Musical 1998; The Sankofa Award, for her dedication to the Arts in the Community; The Dallas Theater Critics Forum Award 2004 for Ain’t Misbehavin. Liz was named Best Actress 2004 by D Magazine in their annual Best of Big D issue. And recently, she was featured as Queen of the Arts-The Face of Black Theater in Dallas by The Dallas Weekly, March, 2006.

Liz will be performing in the world premiere musical Give It Up! with the Dallas Theater Center  beginning January, 15.

Recently Art&Seek caught up with Liz, via e-mail, which brings us to this week's Art&Seek Q&A:

Art&Seek: This is the second year that you've performed in a new play (In the Beginning last year, Give it Up! this month) with the Dallas Theater Center. What is it like to play a character that is unknown by theatergoing audiences? Is it more exciting and challenging to portray a character that isn't already established in the audiences mind?

Liz Mikel: I am so grateful to be a member of the Dallas Theater Center's resident acting company. To portray well-known characters like the Ghost of Christmas Present, which I did for over a decade, is fun and familiar. But educating and entertaining audiences with a new play and new characters is both challenging and rewarding. I've had the pleasure of being involved with several new works and world premieres. The musical Blind Lemon Blues allowed me to reach audiences overseas. Parisians weren't familiar with Blind Lemon, but they were enthralled by the music and the story of his life in Deep Ellum. The characters in In the Beginning were Biblical and community based, so they were familiar to the audience even though it was a new play. The unique approach of that show allowed [audience members] to give their opinions during the performance, which was at times a little scary but seemed to give insight into age-old questions. One exciting aspect of workshopping a new work is that you get direct input from the playwright, the composer and the director. To have both Douglas Carter Beane (playwright) and Lewis Flinn (composer and lyricist) in the room while rehearsing Give It Up! is invaluable. The director, Dan Knechtges, is full of energy and new ideas for Aristophanes' 2421-year old classic comedy. I'm excited to see how Dallas audiences receive this world premiere.

Art&Seek: You started your career at the age of 6. How did that come about? Did you know at that young of an age that this is what you wanted to do with your life?

Liz Mikel: Well, I wouldn't say I started my career at six, but I sure started my journey as an artist. I was drawn to dance at that age and my mother's colleague, Ann Williams, had just started the Dallas Black Dance Theater. My mom got tired of my my daily rants about being a ballerina, and Ms. Williams happily enrolled me. I kept it up even into college but changed my major from dance to theater after the first semester at El Centro. In fact, I was crowned Miss El Centro that next year. I made all of my outfits for each category and performed an original poem, sang and danced for the talent portion. I didn't understand why I had to create, I just knew that I did! Thank God my mother never ceased to encourage me. I look back now and realize that I was always creating. As a child, I was always singing, dancing, sewing, painting and creating art. It was as essential to me as breathing. It still is. I pray to continue creating until my very last breath.

Art&Seek: You are an accomplished stage and screen actress, singer and dancer. You also take time to perform at local live music venues. How do you manage to find time to work in so many different genres, and where are you most comfortable?

L.M.: That's easy! I love what I do! I relish the experience that TV and film provide. It's different from the stage. I love the journey of a live performance. It is unique and instantly rewarding for both the artist and the audience. No two performances are the same. I love that. Singing is even more liberating, because there is no script. It's just raw emotions and the music. It's magic!

A&S: What was your most awkward or embarrassing moment on stage or while performing, and what was your most memorable?

My most awkward experience was a curtain call during A Christmas Carol at the Arts District Theater in 2000 (not really sure about the exact year). But my lovely costume included a wig that had twinkling lights woven through it. As I took the stage for the epilogue, I smelled something. I assumed it was a lighting gel burning off dust. To my horror, as I got into position to sing a rousing chorus of "Joy to the World" with my cast members, I noticed everyone on stage was looking at me. My mentor and close friend Akin Babatunnde whispered through clinched teeth, "leave the stage!" I did. The crew was standing in the wings with their eyes bulging as I hurled that wig with all my might, smoke billowing from it! I was terrified, but also embarrassed. However, I went right back onstage, sans wig, and the audience cheered when I took my bow. I will never forget that moment.

My most memorable moment was when I was cast as Caroline in Caroline Or Change at Theatre Three. I was cast very early on, then later ended up landing the role in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins before rehearsals were to begin. At first I didn't think it was going to be a problem, but my on-screen time increased in the movie and I was unable to start rehearsals with the rest of the cast. I listened to the original cast recording constantly and read my script daily, but I wasn't there for blocking, not to mention my cast members were without the title character for weeks. Six days before previews, I wrapped the movie and I had my first rehearsal for Caroline. My sister-friend Yolonda Williams kept me from breaking down. Exactly one week after I had my first rehearsal, we had an audience. To this day I don't know how I was able to go on and commit to every moment, line and song, but I was. The cast, the director and the music director were all so supportive, but they were as shocked as I was! I had just performed that whole show with only six days of rehearsal! Caroline was one of my favorite roles, to date.

A&S: Who are your main influences, and who would you love to perform with again, or for the first time?

The Vagina Monologues cast, New Orleans

L.M.:My mother totally influenced my love of the arts. My mentor, Akin Babatunde, influenced my love of the craft. I have too many other influences to name, but a few key people that encouraged me as a budding artist are: Ann Williams, Curtis King, diannetucker, Tyress Allen and Randy Moore. Those are just a few, but each of them met me during my formative years and were guiding lights in helping me find my own voice as an artist. I would love to perform with Jane Fonda again. I did The 10th anniversary of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues in 2008 with her. There were a lot Hollywood’s finest actresses there, but Eve herself asked me to step in and perform an original poem written especially for Oprah Winfrey (in Ms. Winfrey’s absence), in addition to performing the Angry Vagina monolgue that I was already doing. After the show, Jane Fonda burst into the greenroom and asked, “Honey, Who ARE you? And where did Eve find you?” I was blown away! I would love to do a full play with her.

A&S: If you weren't acting and performing, what do you think you would be doing as a career?

L.M.: I would probably be designing clothes or doing hair and makeup, or both. There I go being creative again! I just can't help it!

The Art&Seek Q&A is a weekly discussion with a person involved in the arts in North Texas. Check back next Thursday for another installment.

The Falling Soldiers is one of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular's show stoppers.

The touring version of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is in the middle of a monthlong run at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie. KERA’s Stephen Becker talks with a pair of local dancers in the show about what it takes to be a Rockette:

• KERA radio story:

• Online version

If there’s one thing the Rockettes are known for, it’s locking arms in a straight line, smiling wide and knocking out those perfectly precise, eye-high kicks.

Addie Hoobler, who’s performed thousands of those kicks as part of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, says the key is putting all the pieces together.

Addie Hoobler

ADDIE: “The hardest part of them is that our jump kicks are really fast, and they do have to be eye-high, so we’re all on the same level and all on the same count. The main thing is you have to hold your core, and you use that the whole time. You kind of rebound through your feet and go through them. Jump kick your left, jump kick your right. You really have to use your hamstring to pull it down. … So for all of us to stand in line and do that at the same time is really challenging…”

Addie learned the technique behind those kicks taking dance classes while growing up in Richardson. She joins second year Rockette Emily Sears on stage. Emily grew up in Denton and attended SMU.

And like Addie, Emily’s foundation in dance began at an early age.

Emily Sears

EMILY: “My mom put me in ballet and tap and tumbling when I was 3. But as I grew up, once I was in middle school and high school, I focused primarily on ballet and did a lot of ballet all the way through college.”

The competition to become a Rockette is fierce, with more than a thousand dancers auditioning for the 200 or so spots among the touring versions of the show.

To make the cut, you’ve got to be well-versed in ballet, tap and jazz.

And you’ve got to have the stamina to fire off 300 of those signature high kicks per show.

When you consider that the Rockettes perform as many as four shows on some Saturdays, the kick count can reach into the thousands.

EMILY: “I always sleep really well on Saturday nights.”

ADDIE: “Don’t want to wake up on Sunday mornings, that’s for sure…”

But wake up on Sunday mornings they must – there are shows at 1, 4:30 and 7:30.

In all, the Rockettes will perform 30 times during their stop in North Texas. And when you consider the show has been in rehearsals since October, it’s easy for the dancers to feel like they’ve permanently moved to the North Pole.

ADDIE: “It’s not like the build up to that one Christmas Day, because every day’s Christmas here!”

That’s where Addie and Emily’s hometown advantage kicks in.

They live in a hotel near the theater, but they are able to hang out with loved ones on their precious few off days. And with the show dark on Christmas Day, they can have a real family Christmas at home.

Until then, they have several chances to perform for friends and family.

Addie says she enjoys picking out people she knows in the crowd; Emily prefers not to know where they are sitting. But they agree that just knowing that they are performing for familiar faces provides a boost.

EMILY: “You want to do well for the family members or the friends. And obviously you always want to do well, but it really does give an extra little…

ADDIE: “Kick?”

EMILY: “Yeah…extra kick [laughs]”

In the Saturday Spotlight, we’re getting into the holiday spirit. Few things say Christmas more than The Nutcracker. And on Saturday, you’ve got six chances to see it. Metropolitan Classical Ballet performs the piece at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at UTA. The Tuzer Ballet performs at the Eisemann Center at 2 and 6 p.m. And Texas Ballet Theater rounds out your options with performances at Bass Hall at 2 and 8 p.m.

How do today's arts education programs prepare students to make a decent living in the arts? Jose Antonio Bowen, Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts and Algur H. Meadows Chair and Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University, discusses the topic on a recent episode of Think.

Think airs Monday through Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. on KERA (90.1 FM)

Dean Bowen's comments are well worth listening to for their admirably sensible but still inspiring nature. The great majority of artists are local, regional artists. Only a tiny, tiny percentage of toilers in any art form gain (or have ever gained) national name recognition — for all of the good and bad reasons that fickle pop celebrity accrues to individuals. Yet our culture peddles such fame as the great and only prize. it offers us the famous as role models, and many art schools line up to sell themselves as gateways to such stardom, despite the fact that they are essentially shortchanging the majority of applicants.

This doesn't mean Meadows students are discouraged from pursuing their dreams of the spotlight and the pot o' gold. Rather, arts schools are presented with an ethical challenge to tell the truth, Bowen argues. The truth is that incoming students should be more concerned with the percentage of alums who are currently working in the arts. This is the true mark of success for an artist because simply making a living in the arts is so impossibly hard in America. This isn't necessarily because of people's lack of talent but because of a lack of jobs that pay a living wage. I know major novelists — writers whose work regularly appears in The New Yorker and Granta — and their real income stems from teaching creative writing. They couldn't write a word without that. Even on the level of the 'big time,' this is the career artist in America.

But all is not so bleak — once we appreciate and define the realm of real employment in the arts. As Bowen notes, some 80 percent of those SMU grads who were polled and who are working for corporations (hello, singing waiter!), these grads claimed their job was only temporary, something they were doing to get by, to get to the next audition. Meanwhile, the reverse was true for those who were working for themselves in their chosen fields. Some 80 percent said this was what they wanted to be doing — this dance studio, this gig as a ceramic artist. That is the successful career artist in America. They felt fulfilled, they were happy doing what they'd trained for years to do.

Yet even Juilliard — perhaps the most prestigious performing arts school in the country, the school known for its 'connections' in getting students up the stairway to Hollywood — even Juilliard can claim only 48 percent of their grads are working in fields even remotely connected to the arts (hello, singing waiter!).

So the idea at SMU is to get that figure to 100 percent — and to train its students  to work as artists, to find relevance in their community, to be creative, self-employed business people, and not simply to wait for auditions. The business end of an arts career is not selling out because it means, Bowen says, that "you not only eat, but you make better art, you make art that people want, that changes peoples' lives."

As I said — well worth listening to.

I take one exception to Bowen's comments — in an answer to a caller late in the show. She wonders why there aren't more buskers in Dallas like the ones she sees all over Europe.  Bowen feels, yes, absolutely, more students should be trying street performances.

But the lack of street buskers (and street vendors) in Dallas has much, much more to do with the city's dearth of pedestrian-friendly areas: It's mighty hard to sell food or music on a freeway entrance ramp. And then there's the punishing heat, our city's tremendous lack of shade. DART could have made a substantial difference here. Mass transit is a natural congregating area for pedestrians (and for shade). But terrified that the homeless might actually enjoy its stations, DART deliberately banned water fountains and restrooms (we don't want to encourage the homeless — anywhere in North Texas).

So try playing the sax in the Texas sun in August without water, with a bare trickle of listeners walking by (and mostly only at lunch), with restaurants and office buildings banning access to their restrooms — and you'll understand why we see so few musicians on the streets.  I'm not saying the students shouldn't try to find those few places here where it might actually work, only that systemic changes — in areas like downtown urban planning — will have to happen before anything like a vibrant, artistic street life will spring up in Dallas. I suspect, for instance, that with the new Woodall Rogers Park that's going up next to the Arts District, the city will eventually try to find ways to discourage street performers.  As Jim Schutze has already noted in the Observer, the current landscape design doesn't even provide much in the way of shade.

– Jerome Weeks

Dallas Black Dance Theatre performs for the first time in its new home in the Wyly Theatre on Wednesday night. For the company’s only Dallas native, that distinction holds special meaning. KERA’s Stephen Becker reports:

• Listen to the KERA radio story by clicking the audio player below:

• Online version:

After a small performance last week, the12 members of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre company stood in a line and stepped forward one by one to introduce themselves.

Most of them grew up in places like New York and D.C. And they trained with a who’s who of dance programs: The Alvin Ailey School, the Joffrey Ballet School, the Martha Graham School, and so on.

Then there’s Katricia Eaglin’s resume: Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and a degree in dance from the University of North Texas.

EAGLIN: “The institutions that these other people came from are very reputable. They’re well-known. And we’re all dancing in the same company. Which is saying that I was trained to basically be on the same level as them. Which is saying that Dallas can produce great artists.”

Eaglin is the only Dallas native in the company. And her training is as home grown as she is. In addition to her formal education, she’s danced in Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s second company and attended its academy.

And she says she didn’t miss a thing by staying home.

EAGLIN: “The teachers that they had, I had them, too. The choreographers that they had, I had them, too. Because Milton Myers, Christopher Huggins, Bella Lewitzki, all those people stopped by Arts Magnet. And they’d come by Dallas Black. And I made myself available.”

Which is not to say securing a spot in her home-town company was easy.

Eaglin, who is 28 years old, says she first saw the company when she was 11 or 12. They performed the Marvin Gaye Suite, and Eaglin knew right then she wanted to be on stage with them. She couldn’t believe those performers practiced just up the street.

In high school, she got her foot in the door by taking classes with the company. Later, she taught children at the troupe’s academy. Then, more classes and a place with the second company. Eaglin auditioned four times before landing a spot with the main company.

She remembers that moment vividly.

EAGLIN: “I felt like how the first astronauts felt when they were like, ‘You’re going to go to the moon.’ And it’s like ‘Really? Are you sure? I passed all the tests? I’m really going to the moon?’ I don’t think it really sunk in until we auditioned and Ms. Williams said, ‘Katricia, will you accept a contract?’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Are you kidding? Yeah, girl!’ And I was like, keeping my composure: ‘Yes, ma’am, I would love to have a contract with Dallas Black, thank you very much.’”

Ann Williams offered Eaglin that contract.  She is the artistic director and founder of Dallas Black Dance Theatre:

WILLIAMS: “In Katricia’s case, it’s an earned opportunity that she got. To have someone from the arts magnet, and to have some one that has been a member of Dallas Black Ddance Theatre for a number of years – from the academy, to come up through there, is really a great plus.”

Now, Eaglin and her fellow performers are ready to leave their old home at the Majestic Theatre. Their new home is the Wyly Theatre in the Arts District. With fewer seats, the Wyly is more intimate, and it was constructed with dance in mind.

EAGLIN: “I went into the Majestic knowing the history of the Majestic. And it’s exciting to go into the Wyly, because we’re going to be the history of the Wyly.”

• KERA radio story:

• Expanded story online:

MANON: “Unto you a child is born.”
SCHAEFFER: “And we have hold – hold – hold. Blackout. Go Peggy.
[piano starts]
SCHAEFFER: “Quit shoving … Think big!”
CHORUS [sings]: “Joy to the World.”

When it comes to small children on a North Texas stage, Nancy Schaeffer commands the biggest army. Schaeffer directs the Dallas Children’s Theater production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. With two casts, that’s 92 children. Schaeffer says, with all those children, her primary concern is safety. But that many kids also offer her an advantage. When the inevitable colds and flus infect a cast, there are backups and understudies Schaeffer can put into other roles — like Gladys Herdman, a major comic character in the play, a bullying, bad-tempered young girl.

SCHAEFFER: “We’ve had Act 1 Gladys a red-head and Act 2, she’s a blond. You know, I literally grab one of the kids and throw them in there [giggles].”

It makes sense to put kids onstage. Children and gifts: Obviously, they’re major parts of the holiday season. But those cute scene-stealers also make financial sense. All the families will want to see their little darlings actually be quiet, stand in line and sing on cue.

They also make long-term financial sense – for the continuation of the art forms and organizations.

Tim O’Keefe is associate artistic director of the Texas Ballet Theater. The company is currently making its Winspear Opera House debut with The Nutcracker.

O’KEEFE: “It’s wonderful to have children on the stage – because it looks real. And then, a lot of kids in the audience go, ‘Well, look at them on the stage. I want to do that. Oh, they take dance classes. I'd like to do that.’ Once they see the kids up there, it kind of piques their interest, which is very good for us.”

Despite the popular image of stage parents forcing reluctant kids to perform, most of these children actually like acting or dancing. This year, Manon McCollum plays the brawling Gladys in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. The 8-year-old student from Stonewall Jackson Elementary even enjoys the typecasting.

McCOLLUM: “At school, I have this group of boys who I always scare. So I think I have a bit of practice doing this. [giggles]”

What children don’t usually enjoy is rehearsing over and over again. Or performing a show for opening night – and then repeating it 20 times. That's something they have to be prepared for, says O'Keefe.

O'KEEFE: "Well, I think through the rehearsal process in the studio — you know [laughs], you do the best you can."

So handling young performers onstage is a constant effort to keep them organized. Focused. And energized. Those are Alett Grey’s duties with the Dallas Theater Center’s A Christmas Carol.

GREY: “Sometimes, by the time you get to Sunday, they’re like, ‘I don’t really care.’ So you know, you have to be, like, ‘No, no, you’re excited! You want to do this! It’s Christmas!’ And then they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, I guess I do.’”

O’Keefe and Schaeffer are directors or associate directors of their shows. Grey officially is a “child wrangler.” The title comes from movie sets where animal wranglers control the horses or dogs. Grey attends every performance of A Christmas Carol because the children are in her personal care whenever they’re not onstage. So her worst nightmare came — when she lost Tiny Tim.

GREY: “An adult is supposed to bring Tiny Tim off stage to me. Somewhere along the line, they put him somewhere else. And then he just went to the bathroom. And I was like, ‘I lost a child!’ And then he comes out of the bathroom – and unfortunately, couldn’t get his pants back on. But I found the child, put his pants back on and rushed him back onstage.”

The big pageant finale in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

That Tiny Tim was perhaps a little young to understand how a true actor prepares. At the Dallas Children’s Theater, Nancy Schaeffer instills this classic lesson in all her child performers. She calls it The First Rule of the Theater.

Before actors go onstage, everyone goes to the bathroom.

CHORUS: "Merry Christmas!"

SCHAEFFER: "Very, very good."

Congratulations to Lily Sloan of Denton, the winner of the Flickr Photo of the Week contest!   She follows last week's winner, Leigh Ann Field.

If you would like to participate in the Flickr Photo of the Week contest, all you need to do is upload your photo to to our Flickr group page. It's fine to submit a photo you took previous to the current week, but we are hoping that the contest will inspire you to go out and shoot something fantastic this week to share with Art&Seek users. If the picture you take involves another facet of the arts, even better. The contest week will run from Monday to Sunday, and the Art&Seek staff will pick a winner on Monday afternoon. We'll notify the winner through FlickrMail (so be sure to check those inboxes) and ask you to fill out a short survey to tell us a little more about yourself and the photo you took. We'll post the winners' photo on Wednesday.

Now, here's more from Lily:

Lily Sloan
Title: enter.move
Equipment: Canon EOS 40 D
Tell us more about your photo: This was taken at the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival at Texas Woman's University during a late-night improvisation jam.