Arts Blog

Latino Cultural Center opens show with art from The Arc of Dallas

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:41:52 -0600

This week's opening of the "Art and Ability" show at the Latino Cultural Center was a huge succe$$.

All the pieces--sculptures to paintings to watercolors to collages--were sold out. The show was brought to the center by The Arc of Dallas, a non-profit that serves Dallas, Collin and Rockwall Counties with a focus on improving life for people with intellectual and related developmental disabilities.

Among the pieces was a Fourth of July favorite: the U.S. flag drawn in a heart shape, rather than the old faithful rectangle. The watercolor was by Jessica Joy Gradle, who wrote this for the exhibit's brochure:

"America offers freedom from discrimination for the handicapped and love for anyone who is different."

That's Broadway: 'Hair' on Conan and 'Rock of Ages' breaks a world record

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:35:19 -0600

It's only the second day of July and already there's tons of news on the Broadway front. I hadn't expected anything to much to happen until the end of the summer.

But you can't keep Broadway down - not even in the soggy weather soaking New York City.

Tony award winner Hair not only topped the Billboard Broadway chart with their cast recording, but it will be the first Broadway musical to perform on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on July 13.

Two grants from national peers to Kitchen Dog

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:15:34 -0600

At the National New Play Network's annual conference, which Kitchen Dog Theater hosted here in Dallas last month, the local pups got voted two awards. One was for a show already finished, in fact -- the rolling premiere of Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, which headlined KDT's new play festival in May.

The big news, for us at least, is that a writer nominated by Kitchen Dog, Elaine Romero, received the annual new play commission for her piece Ponzi.

The Fire and Rain test

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:39:25 -0600

There's a famous story about the singer/songwriter James Taylor. Once, in concert, a woman in the audience started screaming "I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU."

James Taylor screamed back "It helps not to know me."

Well, I just love Joel Ferrell. But I don't know Joel Ferrell, the latest hire at the Dallas Theater Center (artistic associate- casting). I just know of his reputation........ and it's great. Something just feels right about his being at the Dallas Theater Center. Don't know why, but it does.

I hope his work there is gratifying and draws on his reputed strengths. I hear he's seasoned, knows our talent pool, knows New York, knows this business. He directs musicals AND plays, so he reallllllllllllllly knows how to read a script and cast it. This feels good. Feels right.

I don't know Joel Ferrell and I really don't plan to put him to the fire and rain test. I just know that I love this move by the Dallas Theater Center. Joel Ferrell "People I know love you. People I know love you." Congratulations DTC.

Wilkerson to join Artisan Center Theater

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:18:25 -0600

It's a real mark of how serious that mid-cities community institution, Artisan Center Theater, is about upping the ante that it has hired John Davidson as artistic director, effective Aug. 1. Wilkerson just directed a successful My Fair Lady for the company -- and that was surprise enough, since Wilkerson is hardly a community theater sort of guy.

He had been appearing on Broadway and in major national tours for years when he did a couple of guest stints in the Dallas area -- most notably playing Emile de Beque in the Dallas Theater Center's fabulous South Pacific a decade ago. Then he and his wife, a Dallas native, moved here to found a very ambitious new company about five years ago. After a production of State Fair in Grapevine that didn't get the audience it deserved, the company folded. But Wilkerson and his wife, Margaret Shafer, have made occasional local appearances, and he has been touring as one of the Three Redneck Tenors (though he's actually a baritone).

Wilkerson will be running Artisan's educational program and directing four shows a year with the company, beginning with a Mikado that holds auditions July 13 and 14.

It's odd that this comes the week that Theatre Arlington announced that it will no longer have an artistic director, with the departure of B.J. Cleveland. Artisan's future will certainly need watching.

Great Depression Fun

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:17:57 -0600

Nobody longs for unemployment and poverty. But it's been proven that adversity and hardship can bring out creativity. The Post WWI and Great Depression era were periods of great creativity. Now we're in a new depression of sorts. Social pain of a sort we're having these days gives everyday folks something of real substance to write about, and sing about. And there's two shows going on in town that honor the hardships that create the kind of great art I'm talking about.

The Boxer: One night only before it goes to New York

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:00:45 -0600

Matt and Kim Lyle moved to Chicago nearly a year ago, but they've stayed active with two new shows from Matt's hand at area theaters. Now they are reprising their hit The Boxer for one night only, Aug. 22, before they take it to the New York Fringe Festival. The performance will be at 8 p.m. at the Dallas Children's Theater's Rosewood Center for Family Arts. Tickets are $20 through July 10, $30 thereafter -- the show is a benefit for the Fringe trip. Call 214-334-1659. or go to www.theboxer.org.

(Photo of Jeff Swearingen and Kim Lyle by Mark Oristano)

Nickel tickets at Theatre Three

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:53:04 -0600

Since the current show in Theatre Three's basement, Woody Guthrie's American Song, is set mostly in the Depression, it's appropriate that the organization is offering people who have been laid off in the current economic crisis an amazing deal. They can see the show for a nickel -- it they call and reserve a "nickel special" ticket and bring a pink slip or other proof of unemployment when they attend.

That's Broadway: where to eat around Broadway

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:40:45 -0600

It's finally summertime. Summer means vacations and vacations mean tourism.

Tourists keep my adopted city running. Restaurants, shopping, museums and theatre all benefit from the influx of new, excited people visiting New York City. But those tourists need directions and recommendations to really enjoy all NYC has to offer without spending too much money. Most importantly, where to eat!

Since I spend most of my time hovering around the 10 block radius surrounding the Broadway theatre district, I have compiled a list of fantastic and inexpensive places to eat based on my own needs to eat and save money.

A little strip center with heart.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:25:50 -0600

My pal, Joy Tipping, always uses the phrase "if the F5 ever hits" as if it is her own ten point scale. I know one place that better survive the F5 if it ever hits! My special strip center, my familiar, is that section on Mockingbird Lane near the Palomar Hotel.......the strip center occupied by Premiere Video and Pocket Sandwich Theater.

Nothing against Netflix or Blockbuster. I just prefer Premiere Video. Sam and Heather run the place. They've made it a kind of a haven for the arts community.

Pocket Sandwich Theater is special, too- where other theaters have companies- Pocket Sandwich Theater has a family. It's a theater with a great big heart. I was reminded of that heart on Saturday when Pocket hosted the memorial service for friend and fellow playwright, Steve Lovett.

Dallasite Russ Jolly was in "Woody Guthrie's American Song" -- 20-odd years ago!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:24:54 -0600

Russ Jolly, the former Broadway actor now in business in Richardson, frequently has good stories about his days and connections in New York. (He was a prime source about Rent creator Jonathan Larson when I did a feature biography on the late composer some years ago.)

Russ worte this morning about his connection to the Woody Guthrie review now in the basement of Theatre Three, which was created by Peter Glazer:

Peter Glazer was first assistant stage manager during the original run of Big River and to my recollection called the cues during the majority of the performances. He's teaching at UC Berkeley now and has a great old Berkeley vibe. Anyway, he had me and another cast member from Big River along with two other actors do the first staged/sung-thru reading of American Song way back in 85 or 86 while we were stilling running Big River. We performed it at The Writer's Theatre which was a small company founded by Tom Fontana who was the creator of St. Elsewhere. I recently reconnected with Peter and have kept in touch with the others in the first cast Linda Kerns, Nicole Orth and Scott Wakefield, who appears on Texas stages on occasion. It's always funny for me to read about shows like this 25 years later and recall the humble origins.

Russ also reports that Lyric Stage had worked all the kinks out of its The King and I by Saturday's performance and that it is "the best, most complete production" he's every seen at Lyric.

(File photo of Russ Jolly from 2003, Willy Welch and Alexander Ross in Woody Guthrie's American Song by Ken Birdsell courtesy of Theatre Three)

Billy Crystal first theatrical show at Winspear Opera House

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:07:52 -0600

The Lexus Broadway Series, the tour presenter for the new Winspear Opera House about to open at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in October, is scooping its own first show. The Lincoln Center South Pacific is the first subscription item in December. But today the organization announced that it is bringing Billy Crystal's Tony Award-winning one-man show, 700 Sundays, from Nov. 17 through Nov. 22.

Crystal's tribute to his late father set the record for one-week sales for any non-musical show on Broadway back in 2005. A short tour hit some American cities and Australia. AFter a two-year hiatus, the actor-comedian is reviving the piece for a six-city tour.

It's a coup for the series and the DCPA to get a star as big as Crystal duriing its first month of regular operation. Tickets go on sale in July and will be available only to subscribers of the main Lexus Broadway Series.

(Photo by Carol Rosegg)

We were there: Dame Edna at Bass Hall

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:08:25 -0600

She knows how to make an entrance: Dame Edna hit the Bass Hall stage on Tuesday night swathed in what seemed an acre of cascading hot pink and silver ruffles, all topped by that magnificent coif of Easter-egg purple. The regular Bass Hall drapes had been replaced by purple ones, of course -- and really, you can't help but admire a woman who apparently considers purple a neutral (as do I).

3rd Annual Kids Art Celebration in Arlington

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:16:11 -0600

The kids can do art for free and anything you buy (books for dad, hint, hint?) will benefit the Arlington Museum of Art at the 3rd Annual Kids Art Celebration at Barnes and Noble at Arlington at the Parks Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m.

Just let a cashier know that you want your purchase to benefit the Arlington Museum of Art and Barnes and Noble will make it happen.

Kids activities include:
An edible art station presented by the Children's Art Cafe where kids can create art with messy and yummy supplies

Learning how to draw caricatures from caricature artist Ty Walls

Face painting techniques from Rebecca Williams

Projects to complete and take home from UpStairs Gallery of Arlington along with information on instructional classes for kids to adults.

That tacky Convention Center hotel design

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:47:20 -0600

Bravo to real estate reporter Steve Brown for his column today on the dreary design for the Dallas Convention Center Hotel. I've been meaning to write much the same thing. This is one of the highest-visibility sites Downtown, and it will be a big building that everyone who comes to the Convention Center will see. But the initial design looks cheap and tacky.

Dallas missed another great chance to welcome visitors with good architecture in the international terminal at D/FW. What we got there is generic, colorless, utterly uninteresting. We've GOT to do better this time with the hotel.

Back to the drawing board!