Ricardo Alarcon, executive director of the Mayan dance group Grupo Pakal, used to spend the night in the cemetery. While that might sound straight out of a horror movie, it is very common in Mexico during Dia de los Muertos. For many families, the loss of a loved one is…
Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, the names that make up the legendary comedy music duo Flight of the Conchords, have reached an unbelievable level of fame and creative freedom as actors, writers and musicians. Following the two-season run of the hilarious HBO sitcom that bore their band’s name, both became…
Thanks to Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions, which have turned into a flaming nuclear-powered train heading toward a brick wall, Texas could turn blue. A poll conducted by the University of Houston found that Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton are in a virtual dead heat among Texas voters. National…
Political comedy is such a lazy and misleading way to describe a comedian’s work. The two-word term implies comedy that pushes an agenda and mines jokes from meaningless horse races or whatever stupid thing Donald Trump tweets at 3 a.m. because his staff is too scared to take away his…
My cousin loves ceiling fans. He’s so fascinated by them that he makes his own fans out of Legos and plastic forks. He loves doing that so much that he calls himself “Forkfan.” Nearing 40 years old, Forkfan lives alone in an apartment. He keeps himself busy buying and selling…
Tim Heidecker — the Tim in the comedy team of Tim & Eric, the Adult Swim series Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie — will make another appearance at the Texas Theatre in November and it’s hard to know exactly what he’s going do…
The Kitchen Dogs are tired of the nomad life. Twenty-six years ago Kitchen Dog Theater held their first performance above a sweaty pawn shop in Deep Ellum. From there, they bunked with Undermain Theater, an Episcopal church, and finally landed at The MAC (McKinney Avenue Contemporary) in 1994. It was…
Few people can command the attention of a room more easily than comedian and talk show icon Arsenio Hall. He can make a room of complete strangers crank the lower part of their arm in the air and “Woof” simply by walking out on a stage. He makes it look…
The Drama Club is not going to tell you what The Incident is. You’re going to have to find out for yourselves, when the show opens at Bryant Hall on Oct. 10. Their teaser about the true story/one-man-show by Dallas native Terry Vandivort reads like the back of a true-crime…
Ask any small or mid-size theater in Dallas and they will tell you lack of media coverage is a real concern. With so many arts organizations vying for attention it is hard to give equal voice to each one. The recent discussions about arts equity in Dallas drew attention to…
Southern musicals seem to have found a home in Dallas. One year ago, The Dallas Theater Center presented the world premiere of Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical. The Dallas Opera produced its first ever musical, Show Boat — a collaboration with Dallas Black Dance Theater — in May. Now DTC will…
Byron Neal paced the floor of the Nasher Sculpture Center Monday night like a man possessed, dripping sweat and spitting rap lyrics into a microphone. Neal, known as Lord Byron, slithered and darted through the crowd and accidentally wrapped the microphone cord around people’s feet, but he didn’t seem to…
We’re almost a month out from the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, but if you’re still thinking about Britney Spears’ shadowy performance of her new song “Make Me,” a collaboration with Connecticut-based dance company Pilobolus, you’ll have an opportunity to see parts of it again at the Dallas City Performance…
Your Facebook feed is filled with acrimonious claims about the election. Even as we speak, your friends are sharing bite-sized videos and strongly worded stories with click-bait headlines from NowThis and RedState to your wall. They contain tons of unchecked assertions and opinions disguised as facts about how one of the…
Dallas’ theater landscape is becoming increasingly dominated by young companies. Post-grad artists are making a mark with original works and innovative performance pieces that often fuse dance, movement and clowning into the storytelling. Prism Co. is one such group. Founded by SMU theater graduates Katy Tye and Jeffrey Colangelo, Prism…
Most comedians tell funny stories about absurd moments in their lives. Comedian Kurt Braunohler creates absurd moments so he can tell stories about them. “I’ve never really thought about it like that before, but I like that,” says Braunohler when that description of his comedy and public performance projects is…
You risk losing a little respect from the alternative comedy community if you publicly admit that you like watching Seinfeld or the comedian for which the show is named. Jerry Seinfeld seems like a comedy relic in the modern annals of comedy where boundaries are tested and pushed and observations…
In 2010, 20-year-old Marisol Valles Garcia volunteered for a job no one else wanted, police chief of the tiny Mexican border town Práxedis Gilberto Guerrero. The job was open because the previous police chief had been beheaded by drug lords. Officials mistakenly thought putting women in police leadership would deter…
Warm light melts over comedian Matthew Solomon as he stands on stage at the Safe Place workshop at Mable Peabody’s Bar and Chainsaw Repair in Denton. Solomon regales the audience, a handful of other comedians, about one of his mother’s characteristic outbursts during a visit home. As the laughter subsides,…
“There’s just no point in fighting me over it, that’s all. Want some coffee?” “Your birthday’s coming up, Jessie. Don’t you want to know what we got you?” You wouldn’t guess from those lines that Jessie and Mama, the lone characters in Marsha Norman’s tragedy (or dark comedy, depending on…
London native John van der Put became a world-renowned magician despite suffering from an incurable and socially crippling malady. “Many of us are afflicted with resting grumpy face,” says van der Put, who’s better known as the gruff, fire-breathing illusionist Piff the Magic Dragon. Piff doesn’t seem to care whether his…
This month, North Texas lost a theater icon. Rose Pearson, founder of Fort Worth’s Circle Theatre, died on Aug. 19 after quietly battling cancer for several years. She was 69. Pearson and her husband, Bill Newberry, founded Circle in 1981. What was once a small room in the back of…
