Theater District Cheat Sheet

Art discounts: How to take advantage of Theater District Open House and save big bucks

For two decades, the Theater District Open House has created an alliance between the many moving parts that make Downtown Houston a destination for world-class productions.

The family-friendly, day-long, free extravaganza set for Sunday offers a sampling of the year ahead in the seasons of Houston's big four — Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet and the Alley Theater — in addition to Da Camera of Houston, Society for the Performing Arts, Theatre Under the Stars, Gexa Energy Broadway at the Hobby Center and Uniquely Houston.

Part of the allure of attending the Theater District Open House is being able to take advantage of savings offered only during the event. Guests have the opportunity to purchase season subscriptions and single tickets at attractive discounts.

Below is your guide to getting the most for your buck.

Da Camera of Houston
Da Camera, which has earned a reputation for insightful concert programs that tickle the imagination, offers a 10-percent discount on any series of six concerts or more. That means ticket holders can save anywhere between $17.50 to $49 on subscriptions regularly priced from $175 to $495. A three-concert chamber and jazz series are also available starting at $70 and $90, respectively.

Houston Ballet
Receive a 50 percent off Houston Ballet's season opening show, Four Premieres, running Sept. 5 to 15. The offer is valid only for tickets priced $60 and up The mixed rep program includes choreography by Christopher Bruce, James Kudelka Garrett Smith and Melissa Hough.

Houston Grand Opera
Shoppers can enjoy 20 percent off single tickets to any performanc. Those tickets start at $15 under the regular pricing. For those interested in opera subscriptions, a 10-percent off deal will be offered on two packages that include all seven opera productions. Series E (Mostly Fridays), which regularly starts at $146, will be available from $131.40, and Series F (Four Sundays plus three flexible dates), which regularly starts at $152, will available from $136.80.

Houston Symphony
Houston Symphony goers receive $20 off single tickets to select performances. A four-concert Family Series package is available at a $5 discount, reducing the price to $67 for adults and $43 for children, respectively.

Guests can also choose from a six-concert "pick your own package" for the price of three — a 50 percent off deal. The offer allows guests to select from regular POPS or Classical Series concerts, which start at $153 when the discount is applied. The markdown also includes three parking passes. The 50 percent off sale will also be available on nine or 18 concert packages.

Becoming a subscription member lets concert goers to secure tickets to the John Williams plus Yo-Yo Ma show, scheduled for Dec. 5, before they are offered to the public. All Houston Symphony deals will be available online, via phone and by walk ups during Theater District Open House.

Society for the Performing Arts
Buy three, get one free and create your own package. Also, advance ticket sales to Harry Connick Jr.'s performance on Nov. 9 will be available in person during Theater District Open House only.

Theatre Under the Stars
Guests can take $60 off six-show subscriptions that regularly start at $264. Individual tickets can be purchased with discounts up to 50 percent for select performances. The single ticket sale is also extended to TUTS newest lineup of more risque musicals, TUTS Underground, which includes productions such as Lizzie and 50 Shades! the Musical.

Uniquely Houston
This one is simple. Theater goers will enjoy a 10-percent discount on all Uniquely Houston events.

Alley Theatre
Officials behind this Houston institution guarantee that Theater District Open House offers are the best pricing one can get at the Alley Theatre. Single tickets to select Hubbard Stage shows will be available for $29 and $21, which amounts to between $5 to $18 off or up to 46 percent in savings. Tickets to select Neuhaus productions will be offered at $21, which means up to $29 in savings, a 58 percent discount.

Five-play season packages start at $135, a $5 markdown from the regular subscription price. Eight-play packages start at $260. The deepest discount on season tickets is on an eight-play package, B seats to Sunday matinee, which runs $300, a price cut of $75 or 20 percent off.

Gexa Energy Broadway at the Hobby Center
Although there are no money saving offers from this art presenter, the first 50 customers who purchase tickets to Peter and the Starcatcher will receive one show T-shirt and an iTunes Broadway Music Collection download.

Advance ticket sales to Harry Connick Jr.'s performance on Nov. 9, presented by Society for the Performing Arts, will be available in person during Theater District Open House only.

Photo courtesy of Harry Connick, Jr.

Advance ticket sales to Harry Connick Jr.'s performance on Nov. 9, presented by Society for the Performing Arts, will be available in person during Theater District Open House only.

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challenge your bias

Holocaust Museum Houston examines bias in Smithsonian-backed exhibit

New exhibit looks at how humans form hurtful biases.

Photo by Jef Rouner

"Bias Inside Us" at Holocaust Museum Houston.

Asked to explain bias, Robin Cavenaugh, the CMO for the Holocaust Museum Houston, pauses for a moment then cites the opening scene of HBO’s limited series Watchmen.

“I didn’t know about the Tulsa Race Massacre until I saw that show,” she says. “I work in Holocaust museum. We do exhibits on Black American history all the time. It had still somehow never come up in conversation before. That’s what bias does. It’s a system of missing information.”

That unconscious ignorance is a key component of “Bias Inside Us,” a new exhibit at the museum. A production of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the exhibit examines the subtle ways that bias frames the world.

One wall is dedicated to a photography project by Spanish photographer Angélica Dass. Humanae is a series of portraits of people of various skin hues, usually framed against nondescript backgrounds. The subjects all wear the same expressions, but their faces form a rich, random tapestry of humanity that dares the viewer to see them as different.

The exhibit is divided into six sections: Introduction, The Science of Bias, Bias in Real Life, Serious Consequences—Bias is All Around Us, #RetrainYourBrain, and Personal Reflection. The science looks at how our initial biases are formed. Babies instinctively gravitate to familiar faces. If that child grows up in a homogenous environment, they will begin to distrust people who look different.

That distrust manifests in hundreds of different ways that shape the world. As one quote on the wall from Stanford social psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt puts is, “When people think about racism they’re thinking about bigots, but you don’t have to have a moral failing to act on an implicit bias.”

Dotted throughout the exhibit are personal stories of bias. Students seen as troublemakers by teachers of a different race, police who arrest one ethnicity at higher rates than others, even two stepsisters (one Black, one mixed race Black and white) who received different treatment in a restaurant.

Collectively these all add up to greater sociological actions.

“Here at the museum, we obviously try to tie everything back to the Holocaust,” says Cavenaugh. “Those biases, built up over hundreds or thousands of years, lead to atrocities. It’s regular people feeling an inherent distrust or fear.”

“Bias Inside Us” is a gentle exhibit. It frames the fight against bias as one of correction, not condemnation. An ad from the Love Has No Labels ad council from 2015 shows crowds reacting to X-ray portrayals of couples and families that show only their skeletons. It’s impossible to tell race or gender until the subjects come around the front to reveal who they are.

The last part is a small wall space with sticky notes and pencils. Visitors are encouraged to write the ways they will combat bias in the future and stick it to the wall. It’s a final sign that the quest to end bias starts with us making conscious change despite early ideas of trust and safety.

“Bias Inside Us” runs at the Holocaust Museum Houston until October 6.

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