LOCAL OSCAR NOTES: Of the story lines that touched North Texas last night at the Oscars, the most direct comes via “The Weary Kind” winning best original song. It was featured in Crazy Heart and was written by Ryan Bingham of Austin and T Bone Burnett of Fort Worth. Once onstage, Bingham was quick to thank Fort Worth guitarist Stephen Bruton, who also wrote music for the movie and who died last May. T Bone left the stage without saying a word. … The Hurt Locker was the night’s big winner, taking home best picture, best director and four other awards. So congratulations also should go to the Dallas Film Society for programming the film at last year’s AFI Dallas International Film Festival and bringing in Kathryn Bigelow to introduce the film. Wonder which film at the newly named Dallas International Film Festival will win best picture at next year’s Oscars? … Speaking of the DIIF, congratulations also to Pete Docter, who as predicted accepted the best animated film Oscar for Up. He’ll be in town to accept DIFF’s Tex Avery Animation Award in April. If you somehow missed the show, the complete winners list is here.

WEEKEND THEATER: The Dallas Theater Center opened Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, the first of the three “Beauty Plays” that will run in repertory in the Wyly’s studio theater. And when a reviewer writes, “It’s hard to imagine a stronger production,” as Lawson Taitte did, you can go ahead and consider that a rave. … The folks over at Theater Jones blanketed WaterTower Theatre‘s Outside the Loop festival over the weekend. You can read all of the reviews here. … Punch Shaw gives a thumbs up to the acting and a thumbs down to the script of Amphibian Stage Production’s cross-cultural La Llorona.

A TRIP TO SPAIN: Do you have Spring Break coming up? Can’t afford a trip to The Continent? Then consider a stop by the Meadows Museum. It’s the closest you’ll get to visiting Spain without getting on a plane. Over the weekend, the museum unveiled “Royal Splendor in the Enlightenment: Charles IV of Spain, Patron and Collector.” About 80 pieces in the show are on loan from the Spanish government. Gaile Robinson runs down the show in this dallasnews.com review.