A WORLD PREMIERE: Undermain Theatre is currently staging the world premiere of Profanity by Sylvan Oswald. It’s set in the 1950s and centers on three brothers trying to get a real estate company off the ground. In the process, some family secrets are uncovered that pit the trio against one another. Lawson Taitte says the play feels right at home at the Undermain. “The playwrights that newcomer Oswald admires most deeply are those Undermain has specialized in over its three decades, such as Mac Wellman, Len Jenkin and Erik Ehn,” he writes on dallasnews.com. “Profanity’s elliptical nature and evocative language clearly owes much to them.” Lindsey Wilson, meanwhile, thinks the script still needs a little work. “Director Katherine Owens delivers a taut production that’s propped up by stellar acting, but Oswald’s spotty script doesn’t seem ready to support the weight,” she writes on Front Row. Check it out through Oct. 12.

THE BIG BUY: 12 Years a Slave was the film that dominated the talk out of this month’s Toronto International Film Festival. But a film with strong local ties quietly headed north of the boarder and came home with a distribution deal. In Words and Pictures, Clive Owen plays a writer battling it out with an artist and fellow school teacher (Juliette Binoche) over the relative importance of language vs. visuals. The film was produced by a California company with an assist from Dallas-based Lascaux Films. That’s the company Gary Cogill joined when he decided he was through reviewing movies for WFAA and ready to start making them.

ALMOST FAMOUS: Last week, Dallas Contemporary director Peter Doroshenko gave a talk called, “5 Easy Steps to Becoming Almost Famous,” aimed at artists. Step No. 1: Creating worthwhile art (obviously) and being able to concisely explain to others what you’re trying to accomplish through your art. Darryl Ratcliff of glasstire.com was at the talk, and he rounds up the other steps that will have you almost famous in no time.