NORTH TEXAS’ THEATER GURU: What do local theater fixtures Josh Glover, Shannon Kearns-Simmons, Jenni Stewart, Austin Tindle, Jeff Farrell, Cathey Ann Fears and Natalie Gaupp have in common? They all studied at one time or another under Fred Curchack. “I think of him as a cultural treasure for the city of Dallas and the country,” Undermain Theatre producer Bruce DuBose tells dallasnews.com for a feature about Curchack, a prolific writer, actor and professor. Curchack’s latest show, Milarepa, hits the Bath House Cultural Center stage on Thursday.

QUOTABLE: “If you called up and asked where we were, I’d hang up. I figured, we’ve been Fort Worth for more than 20 years and if you don’t know where we are, I don’t want you.”

– J&J Blues Bar owner Jim Schusler, in an interview with dfw.com. The Fort Worth music venue will close its doors on Jan. 30 after 24 years.

COULD YOU SPARE A FEW MILLION?: Leading up to the opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, we heard time and time again about all of those gifts to the center of $1 million or more – 130 in all. Securing all of those pledges is quite an accomplishment, but it only counts if you are able to collect. The Dallas Morning News reports that $90 million has yet to be collected, but many of the pledges are scheduled to come in over the next 10 years. And of those 130 gifts, only a handful of them look like they may not actually come through. “I am very pleased and as comfortable as any conservative CFO could be about where we’re at,” the center’s Chief Financial Officer Randy Kurtz tells the paper.