Performing Arts

The Sugar Plum Fairy Is on Zoom: Texas Ballet Companies Take ‘The Nutcracker’ Virtual

The Christmas classic is the ballet world’s biggest annual event (and a major moneymaker), so dancers and administrators have gotten creative.

By Alexandra Villarreal

A Bold, Experimental Dallas Play Explores How Shakespeare Inspired the Suffragists

Activists have always used the Bard’s work to make social statements. Jenni Stewart's new play explores that history through a feminist lens.

By Sarah Rutledge

Why Quinn Mason, a 24-Year-Old Composer From Dallas, May Be Classical Music’s Next Superstar

Mason, one of the most sought-after young composers in the country, has a new work set to premiere in November.

By Katy Vine

How One Texas Ballet Company Is Surviving the Pandemic

While dancers at Fort Worth’s Texas Ballet Theater do pliés at home barres improvised from pipes and shower handles, administrators are making do with a $2 million budget shortfall.

By Alexandra Villarreal

How Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’ Has Helped Me Find My Way Back to Texas

While quarantined and away from home, I keep coming back to the late Texan choreographer’s works—which are newly available to watch online.

By Kayla Stewart

In a New Virtual Series, the Dallas Opera Tackles Race and Inequality

The performing arts institution is facilitating forward-thinking conversations with artists and educators online.

By Kennedy Williams

A Broadway Veteran Channels Ann Richards

Holland Taylor’s renowned one-woman play about the late Texas governor is now airing as a part of PBS’s ‘Great Performances.’

By Trey Gutierrez

After Their Semester Was Cut Short, a University of Texas Class Worked to Stage a Shakespeare Production Over Zoom

Students in the beloved Shakespeare at Winedale course got creative with online theater, overcoming grainy visuals and bad Wi-Fi.

By Trey Gutierrez

Boxed in by Social Distancing, an Endlessly Inventive Theater Festival Powers on Online

Some of Fusebox Festival’s most poignant moments came when performers stopped trying to put on a show, and instead simply bared their souls about the present predicament.

By Michael Agresta

Remembering Terrence McNally, a Theater Heavyweight in Texas and Beyond

The visionary playwright, who grew up in South Texas, passed away this week from coronavirus-related complications.

By Katy Lemieux

A New Quixote Adaptation Reimagines the Borderlands

El Paso-born playwright Octavio Solis’s 'Quixote Nuevo' rides into Houston’s Alley Theatre this month.

By Michael Agresta

How Concheros Use Dance to Connect With Their Indigenous Roots

Dozens of Azteca dancers, clad in regalia, came together during Austin’s largest Día de los Muertos celebration.

By Cat Cardenas

Austin’s FuturX Festival Is Carving Out a Space Where Latinx Performing Arts Thrive

The second annual celebration of theater, comedy, and dance displayed the many dimensions of Latinidad.

By Trey Gutierrez

Blake Hackler and Alex Organ’s Final Act

For their last play together at Dallas’s Second Thought Theatre, the actor-director duo took on a ‘Texas Monthly’–inspired story.

By Katy Lemieux

When ‘Angels in America’ Came to East Texas

Twenty years ago my hometown made national headlines when the local college staged an internationally acclaimed play about gay men and the AIDS crisis. The people I grew up with are still feeling the aftershocks.

By Wes Ferguson

On Texas Time: Harper Watters, Houston Ballet Soloist and Internet Sensation

The ballet standout dishes on viral stardom, modeling for Ralph Lauren, and becoming a queer icon.

By Dan Q. Dao

At Houston’s Embattled Alley Theatre, a Breath of Fresh Air

Artistic director Rob Melrose ushers in a new era for the storied institution with the upcoming fall season, from Shakespeare to Octavio Solis.

By Michael Agresta

How Katherine Owens Transformed Dallas Theater

The prolific avant-garde director, who died earlier this week, was an unparalleled innovator on North Texas stages.

By Katy Lemieux

Texas Primer: The Drill Team

Good, clean sex, brought to you by high-kicking, rosy-cheeked Texas gals.

By Terry Toler

Tuna Salad Days

By Anne Dingus

The Empress of Fort Worth

Anne Bass married one of the richest men in America. With his money and her ambition she became an important cultural force in Fort Worth and New York. Life was perfect. Then her husband left her.

By John Davidson

Uncommon Market

“Buy now, play later,” says the Dallas Theater Center.

By James Rosenfield

Touts

PEYTON PLACE COMES TO DALLAS Bill Peyton’s antiques, ranging from the most elaborate Louis XIV or Napoleonic pieces to funky wine presses, Coca-Cola mirrors, church pulpits, and pump organs, come from all over Europe in 40-foot containers, or from estates in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. For 15 years he

By Texas Monthly

Up Against the Barre

After an aggressive ad campaign, attendance was up at the Houston Ballet; the performances were also up... and down.

By Suzanne Shelton

Classics Illustrated

Neither fish nor fowl, filmed theater is a whole new art form.

By Judith Crist

Out on a Limb with Roger Glade

A single-minded Houston director puts on new plays.

By Beverly Lowry

Opera Options

Getting the most from the Met for less.

By Kenneth Lloyd

Are You Running with Me Zeus?

Dionysus in 69 brings nude, bloody experimental theater to Houston.

By Beverly Lowry

Dallas Theater Center: Edifice Complex

“The theater center will mark the spot where Dallas once stood.”

By Margo Zelie