THEATER BITS: Yesterday morning, we directed you to the raves that Lyric Stage’s My Fair Lady is earning. If that’s not enough to get you to go, take a look at the above video from the show. If you’ve never seen Kimberly Whalen perform, you might want to check her out in MFL before Broadway snaps her up … The SMU theater program has a full slate of shows ready for the fall semester. Take a behind-the-scenes look in this video.

EPIC BEGINNING: Fort Worth has a new buzz band in town. Epic Ruins is made up of members of Calhoun, Chatterton, the Orbans and other groups. The band is set to release its first album, the wordy Void Mariner and the Sacred Boogie of the Mystic Line. And it is an album in the traditional sense – it will only be available on vinyl or via iTunes. But Anthony Mariani says it’s safe to call it an album because it’s also a cohesive collection of songs. “At nearly 40 minutes in length, it encourages unplugging from the world …  and just listening,” he writes on fwweekly.com. Preston Jones of dfw.com is also into the band and sat down for a lengthy interview with some of its members. Among the topics discussed are the band’s upcoming live shows, how best to listen to the album and how the group came together.

SETTING UP SHOP: In February, the Dallas Museum of Art will host “Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement,” a retrospective of the designer’s work. The show is organized by the DMA, but its first stop is actually at the Newark Museum of Art. So that meant DMA registrar Brent Mitchell has to head to New Jersey to oversee the unpacking and piecing together of the show. He writes about his experiences on the museum’s new Uncrated blog.