Just opened on the DTC stage is Moliere’s The Misanthrope, which Lawson Taitte reviewed for The Dallas Morning News and DTC board member Gail Sachson wrote about for this blog.
Last chances: Two provocative productions close Saturday — Undermain Theatre’s Neil Young musical Greendale and Kitchen Dog’s Richard III starring Rene Moreno, who’s usually directing instead of acting. Jerome Weeks was lukewarm on Greendale while Taitte found it “an overwhelming experience.” Here’s also Weeks and Taitte on Richard III. I’ll post my take after I see them tonight and tomorrow.
Spacing out at the Meyerson: Pulitzer-winning classical composer Henry Brant died last week, leaving a legacy of what is called “spatial” music. Instead of limiting the performers of his specially designed pieces to a stage, Brant would spread a large number of musicians around the concert hall. One such night occurred at the Meyerson in 1990 shortly after it opened. Robert Wilonsky wonders whether anyone recorded the event. Here’s an interview with Brant.
Because he’s so darned cute and dreadlocked: Rockwall’s Jason Castro apparently blew it again on Neil Diamond night on American Idol. Can he survive another vote-off tonight?
Etta James is at the House of Blues, Noel Coward’s comedy Blithe Spirit is at the Collin Theatre Center in Plano and the Bath House Cultural Center has “Naturally,” an exhibition of paintings by Melody Martin Ramirez and Bob Nunn. And Gini, of course, is here with more.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Reeder Children’s Theatre
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The University of Texas at Arlington’s Special Collections has put online The Reeder Children’s Theatre Presents: Memories of Fort Worth’s Reeder School, an extensive site (and current exhibition) dedicated to Dickson and Flora Reeder’s children’s theater school, which the artist-couple founded in 1945 and operated through 1958 (with a brief revival, 1980-1986). The Reeders were prominent members of the Fort Worth School, so their artwork also appears in the Amon Carter’s current exhibition, Intimate Modernism.
Because of its focus, the UTA site has a more extensive gallery of photos and drawings than the Carter, plus a lot of historical background on the school itself, the ideas behind it, the students. What’s striking about the school productions are the Reeders’ magical, elaborate sets and costumes. But in reading about the school, what’s impressive is that each year was dedicated to researching, designing, rehearsing and performing — a single play.
Bass Hall inaugurates its 10th anniversary celebrations tonight with Learning How to Fly, an evening of performances by Fort Worth-area students, including choirs and jazz bands. The Marty Walker Gallery hosts prints from fine-art publisher Durham Press and the Dallas Philosophers’ Forum screens Expelled at the Angelika Film Center. For more, here’s Gini.
Gail Sachson is Vice-Chair of the Dallas Cultural Affairs Commission and a member of the Dallas Theater Center’s board of trustees.
We’re invited to a party at the Dallas Theater Center! And what a party it is! There are baubles, balloons, champagne, friends-or are they foes?- frilly gowns and seriously fabulous shoes! And fans in constant motion to cool all the hot air (from the partygoers and from the balloons, which are refilled from the helium tank onstage).
Although set centuries ago, The Misanthrope, now at the Dallas Theater Center thru May 18th, is timeless and timely. Lesson in love and trust and truth and masks and morals know no boundaries in time or space. But just to make sure we realize the relevancy of Moliere’s rhymes, Director David Kennedy nudges us awake and makes us notice, with a smile, the party-colored very-now Lucite chairs, (which , by the way, are TRANSPARENT, which the characters are not!), the global, very-now music (help me name those tunes and bands!), all played on a contemporary stero system…with a little karaoke thrown in.
The 20-year-old femme fatale who plays the field…well…it’s inferred the entire land, is “…terrified of solitude”. She could be of then, of now and of tomorrow too. Her devoted lover, who disdains the courtly world of feigned niceties, understands that “love is madness”, but he cries, “I’ll love you to the bitter end.” The end comes, and it’s bitter. He begs for truth. Who do you love? Then, no- he begs for pretense. Then, no- he reverts to truth. In the end, the soft light of the chandelier that once beautified and lied, flashes to the harsh glare of white flouresence…like a surgical operating room, as the characters have their hearts exposed and torn apart by the truth. Our hero exits, throws off his only vestige of pretense, his courtly wig, and leaves to escape, he hopes, the false faces and costumes of a world “where vice is King”. (all too similar to the world we will hear about on the KERA news report tomorrow.)
This is David Kennedy’s farewell directing effort, and he has left us with a smile and some learned advice from Moliere: Never put anything in writing. (You had to be there!)
Two guys from a magazine called Reason write in yesterday’s Washington Post — their tongues only partially in their cheeks –how the 1980s prime-time soap opera Dallaswon the Cold War. Sound reasonable to you? The article arrives as the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin prepares for the opening of an exhibit on the series.
The other white meat: The Dallas Wine and Food Festival concluded Sunday with “Taste of the World,” a walk-around eat-and-drink extravaganza on the outdoor patio of the Crescent Court. From Cuban to Asian cuisine, pork was prevalent. But my buds responded most favorably to Newport’s parmesan-crusted red grouper with sundried-tomato dill butter and the Thai waffle topped with Japanese green tea white chocolate mousse from Flavor Asian Fusion and Dessert Bar. Being a wine snob, I have tended to ignore Texas juice but found the Llano Cabernet a tasty bargain at less than $15.
Maybe she can end terrorism: Lisa Garza, chef, designer and co-owner of Suze has been cast as one of the 10 finalists on Season Four of The Next Food Network Star. She’s a lookerand she can cook. Let’s just crown her now.
The Houston Grand Opera’s six-year tribute to the composer Benjamin Britten is off to a gripping start. Billy Budd, which opened this past weekend at the Wortham Theater Center, sustained a dramatic impact that was reflected in the audience’s hushed intensity on Sunday afternoon. Prolonged applause at the end confirmed that reading of the hall’s atmosphere.
The opera focuses on three characters: Billy Budd, a naive young seaman who tries his best to do his duty; John Claggart, a malignant master-at-arms who sets about to destroy him with false charges; and Edward Fairfax Vere, the ship’s captain who lets rigid adherence to regulations trump justice in Billy’s trial for the accidental killing of Claggart. The events occur on a British man o’ war in 1797, though there’s a prologue and epilogue set many years later.
Daniel Belcher as Billy, Phillips Ens as Claggart and Andrew Kennedy as Vere gave performances that strongly enhanced the sense of varied personalities and motivations of the principal characters. Though somewhat uneven vocally, Belcher was superb in all respects in Billy’s soliloquy before his hanging. Ens was menacing both vocally and theatrically throughout, and Kennedy consistently transmitted a sense of Vere’s indecisiveness and lingering guilt. [Read more →]
Sarah Jane Semrad is Executive Director of La Reunion TX.
The mission ofLa Reunion TX is, of course, to create an arts residency in Dallas on a lovely 35-acre tract that inspires, sustains, and renews artists and community through education and outreach. So why are we putting on a workshop about energy efficient homes on May 3? Well, I don’t know anything about zero-energy construction, do you? Part of educating ourselves and others about what we’re all about is through the work of talented folks who are national resources in all areas we touch through our mission. Jim Sargent is one such local resource and is an advisor to our project.
Jim has been honored by the US Department of Energy with the prestigious Gold Award and colleagues in the National Homebuilders Association have named him builder of the year. He is the definitive resource on retrofitting or building a home to be energy efficient. He is generously donating his time to our organization and will share his wealth of knowledge on a May 3 workshop at Medical City Hospital. Go to www.LaReunionTX.org to register.
Ok, Sarah Jane, this is really sweet, but make this relevant to the KERA Arts + Culture blog. Ok, I’ll argue my case:
Funk master George Clinton is at the House of Blues and the Texas & Neighbors Regional Art Exhibition is at the Irving Arts Center, while Gini is here with more in the way of Monday arts events.
