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Your weekly guide to Houston: Five (plus) don't-miss events — craft beer fest included

Back to school it is for young Houstonians in their formative years, which means slightly more congested streets and more convoluted parking. So plan accordingly when gallivanting around town because arriving late to a function is never in fashion.

On the schedule this week is an event that uncovers one of Houston's secrets, performances that hail the end of summer, a beer festival, symphonic feats and a play about love and romance.

Be sure to click on the links below each event suggestion. You'll find helpful intel, like where to shop, eat and drink near your final destination, as well as the ability to download the details to your electronic calendar. Now, read on.

Presentation: "Buffalo Bayou Park Discovery of the Cistern"

It's said that Houston is chock-full of hidden surprises, every neighborhood within this mega sprawl coddling a secret that unravels a piece of the city's history. One particular secret, what has been dubbed the "Cistern," dates back to 1927.

Longer than a football field and taller than two-and-a-half stories in height, the chamber, located adjacent to the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark, is a 87,500 square foot cavern that served as the city's first underground drinking water reservoir. The facility was abandoned when a leak couldn't be contained.

With improvements to the Buffalo Bayou Park come discussions about how to breathe life into it. Art installations? Entertainment venue? Event space? Can you just imagine the wicked parties?

The Cistern is not yet open to the public, but 3-D imaging courtesy of SmartGeoMetrics will be on display at this event, which includes chats with officials in charge of the project.

The skinny: Thursday, 6 p.m.; Architecture Center Houston; free event.

FrenetiCore presents The Rite of Summer

It's been a popular year for one groundbreaking ballet that shifted the path of dance and classical music. Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring for the francophonically disadvantaged), pissed off audiences such that an infamous riot erupted at the 1913 premiere in Paris.

Although I am certain that FrenetiCore's The Rite of Summer will be received amicably, you can expect trailblazing work from the creative team that includes choreographer Rebecca French, laptop tunesmith Chris Becker, visual and media artist Varina Rush and costume designer Ashley Horn. In addition to The Rite of Summer, Psophonia Dance Company and Urban Souls Dance Company will present their own oeuvres.

The skinny: Thursday through Sunday; Frenetic Theater; tickets range from $10 to $25.

Fourth Annual BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival

Beer aficionados are happy people. If the back-to-school traffic has turned you into a indignant donkey, one day (or three) sipping a collection of 400 regional suds is your recipe for tapping back into your smiley self.

The Fourth Annual BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival hosts several events throughout the long weekend. New this year is "Beach, Brews & Bands," a two-day concert series that concludes with a fireworks display.

The skinny: Friday through Sunday; Moody Gardens; entry varies by event.

Houston Symphony presents Cirque de la Symphonie

With this performance, the Houston Symphony launches the POPS series of its centennial season — with a bang. You may find yourself looking up as Cirque de la Symphonie performers soar through the air, jugglers do the impossible and strongmen impress with their physical power. Think Cirque du Soleil but with live music.

The skinny: Friday through Sunday; Jones Hall; tickets start at $29.

Main Street Theater presents The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard

Oh, to decipher the puzzle that's love. That's what Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning play tries to do. The Real Thing, set up as a play within another play (think Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream), follows the courtship of two couples, playwrights and actors, as they find themselves in the all too familiar push-and-pull game of romance.

Main Street Theater has championed many of Stoppard's works in the past. Artistic director Rebecca Greene Udden reimagines the Houston premiere production this company staged in 1986. But as the story is set in the 1980s, it will feel more nostalgic, especially to those of us who grew up in the big-haired era.

If you enjoy the production, why not contribute to MST's capital campaign? These talented thespians surely deserve updated digs.

The skinny: Saturday through Sept. 9; Main Street Theater; tickets start at $20, previews (Aug. 31 to Sept. 4) are $10.

One of the city's secrets, what has been dubbed the "Cistern," dates back to 1927.

Romanesque cistern under Buffalo Bayou Park

Photo courtesy of SWA Group

One of the city's secrets, what has been dubbed the "Cistern," dates back to 1927.

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A Roman Holiday (Season)

All roads lead to Houston museum's blockbuster exhibit of Imperial Rome

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

Houston's holiday season will have a distinctly Roman feeling this year, as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is bringing the glory of the Gladiator era to Texas. On November 2, 2025 through January 25, 2026 the MFAH presents the monumental new exhibition “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times.”

Featuring 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and exquisite bronze artifacts, the exhibition will transport visitors back in time to the Roman Empire during a flowering of art and architecture. The MFAH partnered with the Saint Louis Art Museum to organize the exhibition, which will showcase many pieces that have never been on view in the U.S.

While Emperor Trajan might not be the most famous — or in some cases, most infamous — of the Roman emperors, he ruled between 98 and 117 C.E. during the empire’s height and was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. He was also the first emperor born outside of present-day Italy, in what is now Andalusia, Spain. During his reign, he granted citizenship and rights to some peoples from conquered lands. The exhibition will explore how this time period expanded what it meant to be a Roman and how art reflected Rome’s power and promoted the empire’s values and ideals.

$\u200bThe Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times"$

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

From statues of prominent men and women of the era, including Trajan, to vivid frescoes and furnishing from the villas of Pompeii, the objects in the exhibition will tell fascinating cultural and political stories of life in imperial Rome. To add context to the artworks and objects of antiquity, the MFAH will recreate a section of Trajan’s Column, which was a towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze, one of the few monumental sculptures to have survived the fall of Rome.

“Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” brings such a wealth of objects to Houston thanks to unprecedented loans from the renowned antiquities collections of Italian museums including Museo Nazionale Romano, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Ostia, and the Musei Vaticani. It would would likely take months of travel across Italy to see this much art.

“This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, in a statement. “We are enormously grateful to our colleagues in Rome, Naples, and Vatican City for lending these treasures to us and broadening the appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage.”

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