{"id":1016610,"date":"2026-08-22T07:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1016610\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:27:27","slug":"stage-notes-cara-mia-reveals-latinidades-theater-festival-details-review-of-acts-laughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1016610\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage Notes: Cara Mia reveals Latinidades theater festival details; review of ACT’s ‘Laughter’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage Notes<\/a>\u00a0is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music, dance, comedy and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opening this week:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uptown Players: Application Pending, opened Thursday-Aug. 30 at Theatre Too<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Theatre Denton: The Diary of Anne Frank, Friday-Aug. 30 at Point Bank Auditorium<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uptown Players: Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions, Friday-Aug. 30 at Theatre Three<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Repertory Company Theatre: The Case of the Missing Ruby, 7:30 p.m. Saturday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Onstage now:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018Klook and Vinette\u2019 by Jubilee Theatre. (Photo by Julian Duckery)<\/p>\n

Pocket Sandwich Theatre:\u00a0King Arthur & Merlin: A Tale of Sword & Sorcery, through Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Firehouse Theatre:\u00a0Grease, through Sunday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lakeside Community Theatre:\u00a0Little Shop of Horrors, through Aug. 29<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Allen Contemporary Theatre:\u00a0Neil Simon\u2019s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, through Aug. 30<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Core Theatre:\u00a0Tennessee Wet Rub, through Aug. 30<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hip Pocket Theatre:\u00a0Raggedy Farm, through Aug. 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jubilee Theatre:\u00a0Klook and Vinette, through Aug. 30<\/a>, pictured. <\/p>\n

Richardson Theatre Centre:\u00a0See How They Run, through Aug. 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stage West:\u00a0The Cottage, through Aug. 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Theatre Arlington:\u00a033 Variations, through Aug. 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Upright Theatre Co.:\u00a0In the Heights, through Sept. 13<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On newsstands now and online<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

See our annual Applause issue that focuses on North Texas stages. <\/p>\n

Features include Uptown Players two new releases, New York actor Will Kelley who started here in Dallas and now headlines his own cabaret, how to get a Broadway fix away from the theater and a select calendar of upcoming shows with a bit of a rainbow touch. <\/p>\n

A bonus feature in this week\u2019s issue on Visions for Change which celebrates its 10th anniversary with a gala this evening (Friday, Aug. 21) at Cathedral of Hope and founded by local theater icon Denise Lee. <\/p>\n

Cara M\u00eda Theatre launches its 30th season with Latinidades Theatre Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month, Cara M\u00eda Theatre will kick off its 30th anniversary season, A Legacy of Community and Creation with the 7th annual Latinidades Theatre Festival: Creating New Worlds in September. Bringing together artists from Dallas and across the United States, Latin America and Spain, Latinidades offers three weeks of theatre, dance, music, artistic exchange, residencies, and new work.<\/p>\n

\u201cCara M\u00eda brings artists from around the world to collaborate with Dallas artists and communities, making Latinidades a place where Dallas and the world create together,\u201d Cara M\u00eda Theatre Executive Artistic Director David Lozano said in Friday\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n

The festival will run Sept. 26 \u2013 Oct. 11 at the Latino Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

The schedule includes:<\/p>\n

Sept. 26: 2026 Latinidades Festival Kickoff with a community procession featuring puppets and music, followed by movement theatre, dance, live music, and poetry. 5 p.m. <\/p>\n

Oct. 1 and 2: Third Annual Latinidades Arts Symposium: Sustaining the Arts through Alternative Models. A two-day collaborative laboratory for artists, cultural leaders, educators, and arts organizations. Participants will explore new approaches to artistic creation, operations, funding, AI, peer mentorship, collaboration and community development.<\/p>\n

Oct. 1-4: Bruma (pictured above) by Teatro del Cielo (Ecuador). Two virtuosos of physical theatre reveal humanity\u2019s eternal conflict with bureaucracy\u2014even in the afterlife. When Anastasia dies, she encounters an office where she must complete mandatory procedures before continuing her journey and determining the fate of her soul.<\/p>\n

Oct. 2 and 3: Leave a Message After the Beep by Pregones\/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, (New York). A bilingual musical theatre experience weaving Puerto Rican poetry, memoir, music, and memory. Foundational Nuyorican voices and contemporary poets from Puerto Rico create a living dialogue between the island and its diaspora.<\/p>\n

Oct. 4: Alien Number (pictured up top) by Las de All\u00e1 Dance Collective (Austin). Through dance, visual art, and spoken-word poetry, Alien Number explores Latine identity, immigrant stories, and collective resilience. This work-in-progress is being developed through a Latinidades residency with Mai Rojas and Escultores del Aire.<\/p>\n

Oct. 8-11: F.Punk Junkies. Cara M\u00eda Theatre & Soul Rep Theatre present Teo Castellanos D-PROJECTS (Miami). Punk music and ecstatic movement ignite Orisha narratives and Caribbean folktales, transforming into femme power, anti-colonial rebellion, and mosh-pit liberation. Six archetypes gather to share stories of an anti-colonial femme fatale, a secret society of beautiful femmes, and reunification in the mosh pit. F.Punk Junkies is the eighth Caf\u00e9\/Negro Series collaboration between Cara M\u00eda Theatre and Soul Rep Theatre.<\/p>\n

Tickets and festival passes are available now at CaraMiaTheatre.org.<\/p>\n

Review: Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a slow rise to the top at ACT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Allen Contemporary Theatre\u2019s Laughter on the 23rd Floor. (Photos by Andie Pace)<\/p>\n

Neil Simon is undoubtedly a master of comedy for the stage. With his shows, there\u2019s a nostalgia for a different time that comes through. He\u2019s theater comfort food but sometimes that food doesn\u2019t always age well. The Sunshine Boys is one example \u2013 Laughter on the 23rd Floor could be another one. Allen Contemporary Theatre opened the comedy last weekend.<\/p>\n

The premise is inspired by the playwright\u2019s early career experience as a young writer for a variety show. Lucas (Simon\u2019s alter ego) narrates the show as he joins the staff of veteran comic writers. Laughter offers a comedic behind the scenes look at 1950s television while also making political and social statements throughout the story. The team battles network executives, tiptoes around the star Max Prince\u2019s erratic behavior and acclimate to each other\u2019s varying nuances of humor, neurosis and frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frustration was the ultimate feeling from this show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More a slice of life than an actual narrative, Simon\u2019s story doesn\u2019t really go anywhere \u2013 it just always pretends to. The high stakes of job loss or crafting a show to impress audiences and executives were never the dramatic arcs they should have been. In some ways, this felt more like an episode of Seinfeld where nothing really happens \u2013 just a lot of talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also dated language that some people may have mixed feelings about. I\u2019m not too sensitive to these but worth bringing up. Here, Simon\u2019s use of race humor and fag slurs stuck out as easy tricks for a laugh rather than anything deeper. So there\u2019s that. <\/p>\n

Saving the show was its cast that played these characters with colorful flair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alex Eding was ideal as the eccentric Max Prince whirling in with a hurricane of a performance. His caustic delivery was every bit the tv star diva with just enough humanity to show off Max\u2019s tender side. In stark contrast, Owen Wildoner\u2019s understated and amiable Lucas was a solid performance. Lucas was a relatable bridge between the madcap onstage and the audience and Wildoner\u2019s performance helped to balance out the hectic goings-on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The writing veterans was its own cast of colorful characters: Val, a Russian emigre with a heavy chip on his shoulder; Carol, the pregnant writer who just doesn\u2019t seem to give a damn; Kenny, the most sensible of the bunch; Milt, the perpetual jokester; Brian, the perpetual smoker who always had a bigger deal in the works if not in his head and Ira the neurotic hypochondriac.<\/p>\n

Each actor delivered fully realized characters with no weak links.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eddy Herring was impressive as the powder keg Val playing with an erratic energy and an unflustered Russian dialect. As Milt, Brian Hoffman dialed up the smarm while Joe Barr played Brian with a wily bent both as the coworkers everyone dreads but who still bring excitement \u2013 or something \u2013 to the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Molly Bower\u2019s portrayal was a stellar example of the lone woman in the boys club. Carol was nurturing with a mix of nerves that Bower juggled with ease. As the sanest of the bunch was Kenny which Christian Black played with a straightforward approach. Like Lucas, Kenny helps to balance the motley crew\u2019s personalities, but that didn\u2019t refrain Black from delivering a warm performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kenneth Fulenwider dove all the way into Ira with a manic performance. His performance even recalled Sid Caesar who was the star of the show Neil Simon wrote for. Ira was a living cartoon and Fulenwider pulled it off with great physicality and comedy. Tucked away most of the show was Hanna Mancuso as the secretary Helen but her final scenes were a charming mix of ditzy ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director Leigh Wyatt Moore juggled these characters with a skilled hand, particularly blocking them effectively to convey hierarchy and pertinence to each scene. Moore\u2019s and Herring\u2019s set felt like a vintage throwback to highrise office culture and writers\u2019 spaces. The busy set echoed the characters\u2019 frazzled high energy.<\/p>\n

The marriage of a strong cast and an aimless story was tough, making the ride up to the 23rd floor slow.<\/p>\n

Laughter on the 23rd Floor runs through Aug. 30.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2013Rich Lopez<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stage Notes\u00a0is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music, dance, comedy and stage news, events, reviews and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1016611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[406825,5229,144379,129211,1596,406826,5603,124887,15408,9221,40651,15409,358,1148,15410,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1016610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-allen-contemporary-theatre","tag-america","tag-applause","tag-cara-mia-theatre","tag-dallas","tag-laughter-on-the-23rd-floor","tag-lgbtq","tag-neil-simon","tag-rich-lopez","tag-stage","tag-stage-calendar","tag-stage-notes","tag-texas","tag-theater","tag-theater-review","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1016611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}