FULL CIRCLE: Circle Theatre is aiming for the funny bone with its current show, Miracle on South Division Street. In the play, a woman is growing weary of her three grown children, who don’t seem to be developing much as people. Meanwhile, she’s stuck tending to a 20-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary that her father erected years ago after having a vision. While the characters don’t seem to have it all figured out, the playwright does. “This comedy by Tom Dudzick is overflowing with crisp dialogue delivered by characters delineated with incredibly economic clarity,” Punch Shaw writes on dfw.com. “Their exchanges snap, crackle and pop, with often hysterical results.” Jan Farrington was also pleased. “Director Harry Parker has a sure hand with the material,” she writes on theaterjones.com. “The four-actor ensemble seems comfortably ‘family’ onstage, and while the pace the director has set is brisk, it never feels frenetic.” Catch it through July 13.

MAJOR MONEY: Here’s a sentence that everyone should enjoy reading: “In terms of donations, arts and culture was Americans’ fastest-growing charitable cause in 2012, rising an estimated 7.8% to $14.44 billion, according to a leading annual research report on charitable giving.” That’s from an latimes.com story, which goes on to note that arts giving took a big dive during the 2008-09 recession. “The $14.44 billion given in 2012 vaulted the sector back above the pre-recession peak of $13.7 billion in 2007,” the story says.

ON THE RISE: Congratulations to recent Booker T. Washington High School graduate Madeline Shiell. She’s the recipient of this year’s CADD scholarship, which nets her $2,500 towards college. She’ll use the money to attend Biola University in California. You can see a couple of her paintings on dallasnews.com.