Elaine Liner in Unfair Park reports that the Dallas Theater Center has laid off seven staff members. No word on which ones — and no word on what effect, if any, this may have on the proposed 9-member acting company.

And in other local news about financial downturns affecting the arts: The Texas Ballet Theater takes the stage tonight for its annual Nutcracker — the first time in more than 20 years that the company will be doing it without the Fort Worth Symphony providing live music. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Ever since the financially beleaguered ballet decided in August to replace the symphony with recorded music this season — suspending a five-year agreement worth $360,000 to the orchestra — the orchestra has scrambled to replace the revenue that was anticipated from seven weeks of ballet engagements, especially the 15 performances of The Nutcracker at Bass Hall.

So far, the symphony has made up $55,000 of the $360,000. But, according to Ann Koonsman, the symphony’s president, $47,000 of that $55,000 came in a single grant from the Fort Worth-based Garvey Texas Foundation. That grant allowed the symphony, which has a total budget of $12.7 million, to play for the ballet’s October Bass Hall season-opening performance of Mozart’s Requiem.