Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music, dance, comedy and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.
Opening this week:
Stage West: The Cottage, opened Wednesday-Aug. 30, pictured.
Allen Contemporary Theatre: Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Friday-Aug. 30.
Theatre Arlington: 33 Variations, Friday-Aug. 30.
Upright Theatre Co.: In the Heights, Friday-Sept. 13.
Plano Symphony Orchestra: Get Up, Stand Up! with Joshua Henry, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Meyerson.
Onstage now:
Rover Dramawerks: 10-Minute Comedies, through Saturday.
Amphibian Stage: The Shark is Broken, through Sunday.
NTPA Rep: Disney’s Frozen, through Sunday at the Willow Bend Center of the Arts.
Pocket Sandwich Theatre: King Arthur & Merlin: A Tale of Sword & Sorcery, through Aug. 22.
The Firehouse Theatre: Grease, through Aug. 23.
Lakeside Community Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, through Aug. 29.
The Core Theatre: Tennessee Wet Rub, through Aug. 30.
Hip Pocket Theatre: Raggedy Farm, through Aug. 30.
Jubilee Theatre: Klook and Vinette, through Aug. 30.
Richardson Theatre Centre: See How They Run, through Aug. 30.
Drunk Shakespeare Society: Romeo and Juliet, through Sept. 20 at Deep Ellum Art Co.
Fiesta de la Ópera is a new free concert presented by The Dallas Opera next month
On Thursday, The Dallas Opera (TDO) announced Fiesta de la Ópera, a concert celebrating Latin heritage. The event will feature the greatest hits of opera, Latin and salsa music with supertitles in English and Spanish. The concert will star tenor Anthony León with special guest artists.
“It’s going to be an incredible time celebrating our culture in opera and on the classical stage,” León stated in today’s press release.The Cuban-Colombian singer is creating the concert’s musical program.
The free concert will be at 2 p.m., Sept. 27 at the Winspear Opera House.
León, who also stars in TDO’s upcoming production of The Elixir of Love, continued. “What’s beautiful about Latinos and opera is that we’ve always been there in the story.There are so many amazing Latino singers and artists who have contributed to this art form and changed it forever. We have a rich history we should be proud of.”
León and other guests will be accompanied by The Dallas Opera Orchestra and a six-piece Latin band, featuring piano, bass, conga, timbale, trumpet and trombone. TDO Head of Music and Chorus Director Paolo Bressan conducts.
“In my culture, music is essential to life. I want this concert to feel like a welcome celebration to our artistic home for the Latin community,” David Lomelí, TDO’s Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO mentioned in the release. Lomelí became the first Latino in US history to occupy a top artistic position at a Level 1 opera company.
The event is free, but reservations are required. Registration opens Monday, Aug. 17. At that time attendees may also opt to purchase a ticket to a pre-concert brunch in the Winspear Opera House’s Skyline Terrace. Brunch tickets are $75 each, and the menu has a Spanish flair with items like Tortilla Española, Pan con Tomate, and Cajeta Churros, along with typical breakfast fare, assorted juices, coffee and tea.
Artstillery and Spain’s Manifesto Poetico partner for a theatrical three-day festival
Earlier this week, the experimental performance organization announced Los Tres Cabezones: A Three-Part Festival. The festival is presented in partnership with Manifesto Poetico, a theatrical research and production company based in Spain. Perfomances will be held in Artstillery’s 723 Open Space in Oak Cliff.
Each solo performance will incorporate Manifesto Poetico’s 30 years of research and approach to physical theatrical staging. Acording to the press release, each piece makes use of “spatial dramaturgy” — how the architecture of the theatrical space and the human body work together as one to deliver to the audience.
Directed by Carlos García Estévez, the festival brings together three solo performers — Armando Monsivais, Bismark Quintanilla Jr. and Meagan Harris — each presenting an original solo work shaped through Manifesto Poetico’s methodology.
Los Tres Cabezones: A Three-Part Festival will be happen Aug. 21-30 at 723 Open Space. For tickets, visit Artstillery.org.
Undermain, Kitchen Dog reveal the details of their new seasons
OK, Undermain actually announced its new seasons in late July and it slipped past me. Sorry guys!
Undermain’s upcoming 2026-27 season features a mix of new works and underperformed classics from a variety of playwrights both new and old. The new slate of shows kicks off next month. The season includes four productions that run through June 2027.
Undermain’s new season includes:
Sept. 17-Oct. 4: Evening at the Talk House by Wallace Shawn. Shawn’s post-authoritarian vision of an America where criticism and dissonance is suppressed, the murder of those perceived as potential threats has become popular entertainment and theatre has all but ceased to exist. With his trademark dry humor, poignant language and subtle characterization, Shawn eases the audience into an awkward casualness only to drop them in a world complacent to the horrors executed by its inhabitants. Directed by Undermain Producing Artistic Director Bruce DuBose.
Oct. 29-Nov. 22: for the rest of our lives by Erin Malone Turner. Does love last longer than a lifetime? Turner’s poetic exploration of love and relationship follows a young couple through multiple incarnations, from ancient times to present day. Their love is reborn as they continue to encounter one another through time and space. We may meet our soulmate in this lifetime, but happily ever after is never guaranteed. If love can endure beyond a single life, however, perhaps the happiness it creates can endure as well—a love story that stretches across millennia. Directed by vickie washington.
Feb. 25-March 21: VEAL by Jojo Jones. What if absolute, reigning power fell into the hands of someone with a taste for nostalgia, lunchables, and holds a middle school grudge? Chelsea, Queen of North America, relishes her power over those who can’t quite remember history—or was it history class? In her queendom, governing is far less interesting than revenge. What begins as a class reunion quickly curdles into something far more sinister. Wickedly funny, unsettling, and relentlessly satirical, VEAL peels back the comforting myths of justice to reveal something far more dangerous: the intoxicating pleasure of making someone else suffer. Directed by Undermain Artistic Associate Christina Cranshaw.
May 20-June 6: The Two Character Play (Out Cry) by Tennessee Williams. Brother and sister, Felice and Clare find themselves alone in a theater during a tour of their play titled The Two-Character Play. The rest of the company has deserted them, leaving the siblings to perform alone. In this play within a play, the siblings erase the separation between their own lives with the lives of the characters they portray. Tennessee Williams explores the precarious relationship between the artist and the art, drawing from his own autobiographical details including his real life, institutionalized sister and his own issues with substance abuse. Directed by Stefan Novinski.
Ticket sales will be announced at a later date but subscriptions are available now.
Earlier this week, KDT revealed its new slate of shows for its 36th season that the company described as maybe its most powerful season yet. KDT’s “Power Plays” features three stories of kings, prime ministers, space force commanders and would-be presidents. Political power is clearly a major theme across the new season.
The season also launches in September. Along with its three mainstage shows, KDT will feature its four-play New Works Festival Staged Readings Series and the 26th annual D-PAC PUP Fest, nurturing high school talent from all over DFW, co-produced with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.
KDT’s 2026/27 season includes:
Sept. 10-Oct. 4: The Absentee by Julia Doolittle. Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Forces ship explodes near Beacon 44.AR.90, its Operator finds herself alone in deep space with only her ship’s A.I. for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election. As the Operator finds herself waiting over days and weeks and months for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice. Winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award. Directed by KDT Co-Artistic Director Tina Parker.
Feb. 4-28: Equivocation by Bill Cain. England, 1605: a terrorist plot to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come with 36 barrels of devilish gunpowder! Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard’s name) is commissioned by Robert Cecil, the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches — the King wants witches! But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe, under the direction of the great Richard Burbage, investigate the plot, they discover that the King’s version of the story might, in fact, be a cover-up. Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power — and perhaps lose their heads — or take the money and lie? A high-stakes political thriller with contemporary resonances that gallops from the great Globe to the Tower of London to the halls of Parliament to the heart of Judith, Shag’s younger daughter, who finds herself unexpectedly at the very heart of the political, dramatic and—ultimately—human mystery. Directed by KDT Co-Artistic Director Christopher Carlos.
June 3-27: 2027 New Works Festival: Black Republican by KDT Artistic Company Member Jamal Gibran Sterling. The story centers on a Black Republican candidate on the national stage who finds his campaign threatened by an activist who challenges everything he claims to stand for. Their battle exposes uncomfortable truths about race, politics and the stories we tell ourselves. Recipient of a Venturous Theatre Fund grant. Directed by Sasha Maya Ada.
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–Rich Lopez
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