PROPS FOR THE DTC: Is the Dallas Theater Center the most important theater in Texas? That question is asked and pondered by Texas Monthly in light of Giant‘s recent opening in New York. “As with any ambitious, rising organization, there are inevitable gripes and criticisms,” Christopher Kelly write. “But most observers – even those who didn’t especially cotton to Giant — seem to agree that DTC is on the right track to further raise its profile and possibly even win the prestigious Regional Theatre Tony Award, handed out to just one company each year. (The Alley was the last Texas company to nab the prize, in 1996.)”

UPDATING A CLASSIC: Can you imagine performing the same show every year? That’s the situation that countless theater and dance companies find themselves in around the holidays. And to stave off boredom, many of them make slight changes to those holiday chestnuts each year. That’s the tact that Texas Ballet Theater has taken with its Nutcracker, which has been heavily reworked this year. TBT artistic director Ben Stevenson details the changes on dfw.com.

BY THE LETTER: The Nasher Sculpture Center is currently hosting an exhibition of text-based art called “Sculpture in So Many Words: Text Pieces 1960–80.” One of the participating artists is Lawrence Weiner, who sat down with Front Row for a wide-ranging interview about virtually ever element of the art world. Even the artist’s role in the world. “Questioning the relationships of human beings to objects, and objects to objects in relation to human beings. That’s their role,” Weiner says. “That’s their job, and artists do this openly. I think there should be a reworking of the value structure of art. The value is when the artist makes a first engagement with society. That work has the most value. That is the function of the artist. That result. The object that results.”