Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information. Season announcements came in hot and heavy this week.
Stage Notes Calendar
Opening this week:
Theatre Arlington: Club Cabaret, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Kelz Productions: Beyond the Surface, Friday-Sunday at Art Centre Theatre.
Richardson Theatre Centre: One Slight Hitch, Friday-July-28.
Stolen Shakespeare Guild: Kiss Me Kate, Friday-July 28, pictured.
Uptown Players: The Prom, Friday-July 28.
Dallas Theater Center: Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Friday-Aug. 4.
The Classics Theatre Project: True West, Friday-Aug. 24 at the Stone Cottage.
Basically Beethoven Festival: Back to Basically with Lakeway Chamber Players and Jack Roueche, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.
Broadway at the Bass: Mamma Mia!, Tuesday-July 21.
WaterTower Theatre: Mary Poppins, Wednesday-July 28.
Onstage now:
Second Thought Theatre: Wink, through Saturday.
Allen Contemporary Theatre: Disaster! The Musical, through Sunday.
The Core: Poodles, Postmen and Pastrami, through Sunday.
Theatre Three: Pirates of Penzance, through Sunday, pictured.
Shakespeare Dallas:The Odyssey by Mary Zimmerman, through July 19 at Samuel-Grand Amphitheater.
Shakespeare Dallas: Twelfth Night, through July 21 at Samuel-Grand Amphitheater.
Pocket Sandwich Theatre: Herbbits, Wizards and Borks, through Aug. 24.
Four Day Weekend comedy troupe will move to Stage West
Stage West in Fort Worth announced on Thursday that Four Day Weekend has found a new home in the theater. The first performance is slated for Saturday, August 3. This new chapter for the acclaimed improv comedy group stems from Sundance Square Management’s decision not to renew 4DW’s lease, which concludes at the end of July.
“We are thrilled to keep the Southwest’s longest running show in Fort Worth by establishing a residency at Stage West Theatre,” David Wilk, a founding member of Four Day Weekend, said in the press release. “This is a great collaboration between two well-known brands in the Fort Worth community and ensures our performances continue uninterrupted for our fans. Exit Stage West!”
The move to the Near Southside neighborhood will give a chance for both companies to increase exposure across the two different audiences.
RELATED: Four Day Weekend to leave Sundance Square
“Stage West is just five minutes from Sundance Square and is an intimate venue in Fort Worth’s creative neighborhood of Near Southside,” Wilk added. “It feels a lot like Christmas and getting a shiny new toy! We can hardly wait to move into the theatre to make people laugh, while making new friends and seeing old acquaintances.”
Tickets are now on sale at Four Day Weekend.com for the inaugural performance.
“When we learned Four Day Weekend was losing its downtown space, the only response was “come over here,” Dana Schultes, Stage West Executive Producer mentioned. “Simply put: a thriving arts scene makes Fort Worth better. Plus, we have multiple performance spaces! Finally, the Near Southside Arts district is a perfect landing spot. It was a no-brainer on our part to extend ahelping hand to a fellow Fort Worth arts institution.”
Stage West has two stages and has used both for productions. The theater clarified how this co-habitation will play out.
From Stage West:
Stage West does have two stages, and FDW will use the Russell Theatre space. We will have all our shows in the Evie space now, and our Friday and Saturday night shows will move to 7:30 instead of 8:00 p.m. FDW audiences will enter through our patio space and have a separate bar. This should keep things from getting too congested. We’ll see how this all goes when we open The Importance of Being Earnest in September.
Local choreographers join Texas Ballet Theater for new dance works
Choreography by TBT principal Alexandra F. Light. (Photo by Samantha Zauscher)
Texas Ballet Theater (TBT) has commissioned three North Texas choreographers to create new pieces as a part of Lamentation Variations, a national choreography project inspired by Martha Graham’s 1930 solo Lamentation. TBT will be the first U.S. ballet company to participate in the project, and performances will coincide with the centennial celebration of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
The choreographers, selected for their innovative contributions to choreography and dance in North Texas, are Joy Bollinger, Artistic Director of Bruce Wood Dance; Alexandra F. Light, Principal Dancer at Texas Ballet Theater; and Nycole Ray, Artistic Director of Dallas Black Dance Theater: Encore!.
“My hope is that, by uniting with our peer dance companies, we will generate a new interest in the Metroplex for dance and elevate our Dallas choreographers to national prominence,” TBT Artistic Director Tim O’Keefe said in a press release.
Within the project parameters, choreographers will have creative freedom to interpret their prompts.
Ray mentioned in the release, “I envision a piece where dancers remain physically connected, symbolizing unity and interdependence. As a woman, I am deeply committed to elevating female voices in choreography, celebrating our unique perspectives and contributions to the art form.”
The new TBT variations will debut in International Woman, the company’s upcoming mixed-repertoire production that exclusively features choreography by women. The show will open in Dallas next February with final performances in Fort Worth. The show will also feature Maple Leaf Rag by Martha Graham, Shibuya Blues by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Jabula by Natalie Weir.
“Lamentation Variations is very unique in its living history, and I am so excited to make my mark on its timeline. To be a thread in its rich tapestry of iterations is an honor,” Light stated.
Bollinger added, “To be a part of this extravagant piece of art history is a privilege—and a direct echo of the impact that bold female choreographers forged in years past.”
The first Lamentation Variations event premied with the Martha Graham Dance Company on September 11, 2007. It drew inspiration from both the events of 9/11 and Martha Graham’s visualization of grief in her original. All variations in the project must adhere to the same limitations: no more than 10 hours of rehearsal, set to public domain music or silence, with basic costumes and lighting design. A short video of Martha Graham herself performing Lamentation also opens the act.
Oops! Stage Notes missed MainStage’s ILC season announcement
This one snuck by us for quite some time. MainStage Irving-Las Colinas announced its 2024-2025 season way back in April. Yikes. This season’s selections center on the theme of Art Isn’t Easy. The five productions certainly speak to that. The season opens in November with all productions running for three weekends at Irving Arts Center’s Dupree Theater. Directors and creative teams will be announced in the coming months.
More about the shows in the upcoming season:
Nov. 1-16: A Little Night Music with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Set in 1900 Sweden, Sondheim’s iconic musical explores the tangled web of affairs around actress, Desirée Armfeldt, and the men who love her: a lawyer by the name of Fredrik Egerman and the Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. With all the parties invited to a weekend house and all in one place, possibilities of new romances and second chances bring surprises.
Jan. 17-Feb. 1: Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Sidney Bruhl, a successful writer of Broadway thrillers, struggles to overcome a dry spell until a possible break in his fortunes occurs when he receives a script from a student in the seminar he has been conducting at a nearby college. Could that be his next hit? Two-thirds gripping thriller and one-third clever comedy of deceit and betrayal.
March 7-22: Into the Breeches! by George Brant. It’s 1942 and Oberon Playhouse’s director and leading men are all off at war. But the women of the company see their chance to move to center stage and mount the first all-female production of Shakespeare’s Henry V.
May 2-17: Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. Antonio Salieri is the established composer. Mozart is a foul-mouthed, graceless oaf who has taelnt beyond Salieri’s envious grasp: Genius. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards?
July 18-Aug. 2: Noises Off by Michael Frayn. This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance, and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Take a peek into the inner workings of theatre behind-the-scenes, progressing from flubbed lines and missed cues in the dress rehearsal to mounting friction between cast members in the final performance.
Season tickets and flex passes range are available for purchase now. Single tickets will go on sale at the Irving Arts Center Box Office on Sept. 17.
Coppell Arts Center has revealed its new season of performances
‘Disenchanted! A New Musical Comedy’
The center announced Experience IT!, the title of its new 2024/25 season of shows that features seven shows kicking off this fall. This will mark the center’s fourth season of entertainment. Ticket package sales are ongoing and feature two options: Season tickets to all performances or a build-your-own package of four or more performances. Click here to purchase.
CAC’s new season overview:
Oct. 18: Uptown! This vocal group will deliver the smooth stylings of R&B and fresh takes on some of today’s chart-topping hits.
Nov. 2: Reflex: Unraveling 4,000 Years of Juggling. From the mind of master juggler and visual artist Jay Gilligan, this Off-Broadway sensation is for audiences of all ages. Gilligan unravels 4,000 years of juggling through a series of stories about gravity and a showcase of juggling sequences.
Dec. 8: Christmas in Killarney. This trip to The Emerald Isle will show what it means to celebrate Christmas the “Irish” way – where some of the most iconic Christmas traditions originated.
Feb. 8: Broadway in Love. Real-life married Broadway couple, Libby Servais (Glinda from Broadway’s Wicked) and Stephan Stubbins (Broadway’s Mary Poppins), weave together an experience of laughter, tears, and magic. Featuring songs from Moulin Rouge, Jersey Boys, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, and more, this concert is a celebration of love and the music of Broadway.
March 28 and 29: Disenchanted! A New Musical Comedy. None-too-happy with the way they’ve been portrayed in today’s pop culture, your favorite storybook heroines are tossing out their tiaras and coming back to life to set the record straight. Contains adult language and content.
April 25: Children of Dharma by Ragamala Dance Company. Told through a series of vignettes, visual imagery, physical mastery, and emotion, this multidisciplinary experience delves into India’s legacy of ancient wisdom and cultural treasures.
June 21: Magic and Illusion 2.OH with Mike Super. As the winner of NBC’s Phenomenon, a top finalist on America’s Got Talent, and a featured act on the season premiere episode of Penn & Teller’s Fool Us, Mike Super is the only magician in history to win a LIVE magic competition on primetime U.S. network television. Now see him in person.
ICYMI
Kelsey Milbourn and the cast of ‘La Maupin: The French Abomination’ (Courtesy photos)
Playwright brings sword fights and queer love front and center in Prism Movement Theater’s La Maupin
–Rich Lopez