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Thursday Morning Roundup


by Stephen Becker 8 Nov 2012 8:00 AM

Today in the roundup: How the Dallas Opera picks new works, ancient history in Fort Worth and Dallas’ “robo-painter.”

CTA TBD

THE A’s OF OPERA: Did you know there are three “A’s” used to evaluate contemporary opera? They’re the categories that Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny uses anyway. Those A’s are accessible, approachable and avant-garde. Kind of a sliding scale of how challenging the work will be for the audience. He explains how this system works in the latest edition of his Off the Cuff column on theaterjones.com.

ANCIENT HISTORY: The Dead Sea Scrolls are alive and well and currently living in Fort Worth. Actually 16 fragments of the scrolls – the most comprehensive collection ever shown in Texas – are on display at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as part of “Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures.” Curious about whether or not these little bits of history will hold your attention? Anthony Mariani walks you through the exhibition on fwweekly.com. And for the record, he writes, “Though Southwestern owns some original fragments, there’s no telling when or if they’ll ever be displayed as sumptuously as they are now. Be not afraid, ancient-history buffs, no matter your religious preferences.”

OF CHARACTERS AND CANVASES: If you’ve been watching the Dallas reboot on TNT, you know Kevin Page. He’s J.R.’s right-hand man – the guy the Ewing patriarch calls whenever he needs his dirty business done. But you’d be wrong if you pigeon-holed Page as a tough-guy character actor. In fact, you’d be wrong to even pigeon-hole him as just an actor. That’s because he’s got a rising second career as a painter. But where other painters put brush to canvas, Page has developed a method of painting through robotics. “Essentially, my paintbrush is a 14 by 12 feet industrial aluminum table with a giant arm that weighs about as much as a pickup truck,” he tells dallasnews.com. He goes on to explain how this system of robot pointillism works in the story.

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