STORIES BEHIND STORIES: On Aug. 27, KERA (Ch. 13.2) will broadcast Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio. The documentary looks at a program founded by the architect in which college students design houses for the poor using salvaged and donated materials. Fort Worth native Jeff Fraley helped produce the film, and he tells dfw.com about how he got involved after its director showed up in his office with more than 100 hours of footage ready to be cut into a film.

MUSIC BITS: Bridges & Blinking Lights guitarist Mark Montoya explains how his band could break up just months after releasing a new album – one that Paul Slavens broke down on Tracy by Track no less! (DC 9 at Night) … Natalie Merchant talks about spending seven years making an album ahead of her stop at the Winspear Opera House tonight. (dfw.com) … NPR has asked every female musician it could find about what it’s like to be a woman in the music biz these days. (npr.org)

CLOSE TO HOME: On Friday, Contemporary Theatre of Dallas will open Blue Moon Dancing. The play centers on regulars at a West Texas dance hall and is written by Ed Graczyk, who also wrote Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, which is set in the same town. So you might be surprised to know that Gracyk only lived in the state a couple of years before returning to his native Ohio. “It’s fascinating that this man is so utterly enthused with the few years he lived in Midland,” CTD artistic director Sue Loncar tells dallasnews.com. “He gets these people and he really likes these people.”