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The Friday Roundup


by Jerome Weeks 27 Apr 2012 7:30 AM

Heading into the weekend with the Friday Roundup, we get some pronunciation help on the 19th century’s master of the melodrama, jazzy stuff at the DMA, sharing sisters between Fort Worth and Dallas — and more!

CTA TBD

HELP WITH PRONUNCIATION. Quick quiz! 1. Ever hear of Dion Boucioult? Of course not. But he once was perhaps the most important playwright-producer in America (though originally born in Ireland). His specialty was the weepy-19th-century melodrama, utterly conventional except for his highly realistic productions (actual trees, working stoves on stage) 2. Know how to pronounce Boucicoult? Of course not, which is, I suspect, one reason no one sees his plays much anymore. It’s Boo-see-coh. But Fort Worth’s Pantagleize Theatre has revived D. B.’s The Colleen Brawn from 1860, and the Star-Telegram says it’s not bad.

IT IS STILL APRIL, ISN’T IT? April is the month for jazz, in case you hadn’t heard of D’Jam (Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month). The DMA’s Uncrated gets in the swing, noting the museum’s Jazz in the Atrium series, but also pointing to the many Jazz-Age influences in the museum’s current exhibition, Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties.

SISTER TOWNS WITH A SISTER ACT. Over on TheaterJones, Mark Lowry recounts the next season for Performing Arts Fort Worth, which brings touring acts to Bass Hall and McDavid Studio. Most of the familiar shows, he notes — Memphis, Million-Dollar Quartet, Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby — will have already played Dallas. But then he adds this extra little scoop:

The new title is the tour of the 2011 Broadway musical Sister Act, based on the popular movie that starred Whoppi Goldberg. However, although this hasn’t been officially announced yet, Dallas Summer Musicals will have it for two weeks before it hops over to Fort Worth in June 2013.

ROUNDING UPWARDS. Bridge the Gap Chamber Players continue to make contemporary classical music accessible (free cookies!, free admission thanks to Kickstarter!), tonight they’re at SMU . . . SMU art professor Noah Simblist will lead a May 1 panel on ‘queers of color’ in art, in connection with the Fort Worth Modern’s current Glenn Ligon show, America. Panelists include Jose Esteban Munoz, who wrote the book, Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics.

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