Friday Morning Roundup

CHILD’S PLAY: The 26th Annual KidFilm Festival takes over the Angelika Film Center in Dallas this weekend for two days of programming for the youngsters. Among those being fetted with a tribute this year is author Mo Willems, who will introduce films of his books at 3 p.m. on Saturday. He talks to dallasnews.com about some of his upcoming projects. On Sunday, I say lineup early for the Tribute to Aardman Animations. Those are the folks behind Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.

AT HOME IN FORT WORTH: You may remember Christina Rees from her days as owner of the Road Agent gallery. Or you may remember her from her scathing two-part essay on the North Texas gallery scene that ran on Glasstire. These days, she’s known as the director of Fort Worth Contemporary Arts and the Moudy Gallery on the TCU campus. She tells dfw.com that her new position offers her the joy of curating without the headache of having to sell the art. Of a recent show she put together, she says, “The work was not for sale, and I could enjoy it and watch other people enjoying it. I loved that.”

RECENT THEATER REVIEWS: Elaine Liner says WaterTower Theatre’s staging of Laughter on the 23rd Floor couldn’t be more relevant, what with the current dust-up going on with the late night talk shows on NBC. (theaterjones.com) … Lawson Taitte says Project X’s Ban the Tal is both an interesting lesson on the history of violence in Afghanistan and a cohesive multimedia presentation. (dallasnews.com) … This is the last weekend to catch Audacity Theatre Lab’s Hello, Human Female at Teatro Dallas. Alexandra Bonifield says all the weirdness is worth the trip. (Critical Rant and Rave)

James Michael Starr

Regarding AT HOME IN FORT WORTH:

It’s obvious I don’t need to come to her defense, even if I do think yet another article has severely mischaracterized the words of Christina Rees, one of the most measured and thoughtful voices in the regional art scene.

But I do think that Gaile Robinson’s otherwise balanced piece reflects a stifling attitude that is pervasive in Dallas whenever we try to discuss arts and culture like grown-ups instead of cheerleaders.

I won’t go into my own opinions here about why we’ve adopted that attitude, but I will say it’s one that seems to render us unable to digest any long, considered piece of critical writing like Rees’ without describing it, as Ms. Robinson has, as “ranting.”

Help me with this, please. Read the Glasstire articles and show me where Rees “spewed her ire” or how she has proven to be “too shrill for her own good.”

Instead, isn’t Rees’ general tone reflected more accurately in words like this: “I cannot, will not, tell people how to spend their money. But as a dealer I owe it to my artists and to my community to (gently, gently) push”?

I’m not attacking Ms. Robinson here, as I think she has simply chosen to produce the sort of analysis her audience demands. That lack of interest in critical thought on the part of her readers is my issue.