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    best of houston theater '19

    The 8 most memorable onstage moments in Houston theater in 2019

    Tarra Gaines
    Dec 23, 2019 | 11:25 am

    The last year of the decade proved a transitional year for Houston theater, with lots of happy hellos, dramatic moves, and a few sad goodbyes. Stages Repertory Theatre began a long farewell to its Allen Parkway building as they prepared to move to the new Gordy Campus, across the street.

     

     Rob Melrose settled into his new artistic directorship at the Alley Theatre. Theatre Under the Stars closed out its stellar 50th season to dance headlong into the next half century. The closing of two theater spaces, Chelsea Market and Obsidian’s Heights stage, set more than two companies on the road looking for a new spot to call home. But even offstage stumbles and setbacks led to some amazing productions and performances.

     

    So with this year of change in mind, once again instead of compiling a standard best-of, year-end list, let’s look back at some of those strange and special moments that made 2019 an extraordinary year of Houston theater.

     

     Most-fun Production (Rated E for Everyone): The Three Musketeers at the Alley Theatre
    The last show of interim artistic director James Black’s caretaker 2018-2019 season could have been a quiet transitional affair before new AD Rob Melrose’s inaugural lineup began. But, instead, Musketeers proved an “en garde” proclamation the Alley was ready for something truly radical, having fun again.

     

    The show boasted gallant sword fighting heroes (male and female), dastardly villains (again male and female) silly wigs and facial hair, even more ludicrous hats, lots of buckles swashed, and one of the funniest death scenes to grace the Hubbard stage in years. Those many musketeers proved an all for one and one for all delight.

     

     Funniest Production (Rated CH for Choking Hazard): Catastrophic Theatre’s Bootycandy
    Having interviewed Bootycandy playwright Robert O’Hara when he was in town to direct TUTS’s The Wiz in 2018, I thought I was prepared for his comedy philosophy to get the audience to “choke” on the humor. But even bracing myself — after witnessing this different kind of adolescent to adulthood journey that is part sketch show part memory play, part meta commentary where characters talk back to their author/creator, and all hilarious, even at its darkest — I, and the rest of the audience, definitely needed the Heimlich before heading home.
     
     Most Intimidating Interrogator: Siobhan O'Loughlin in Broken Bone Bathtub
    The source of many of the full on immersive theater works these last few years, Dinolion Production Company got into the presenting business as they brought to Houston this one woman show starring and devised by O’Loughlin, who tours the work internationally and performs the piece in the bathtub of a real home in whatever city she lands in.

     

    Costumed in only real bath bubbles and an arm cast, Loughlin tells her story of a bicycle accident and the need to rely on friends for the small essentials of life, including bathing. Yet somehow the audience, crouched together on stools and pillows around the bathtub, are the ones who end up baring their emotional baggage to her. Armed with only some bath toys and shampoo, she persuades her new bathroom-bonded stranger-friends to reveal the saddest, happiest, and limb-breaking moments of their life. You will tell the naked lady all.

     

     Best smiling through tears moment: Horse Head Theatre’s We’re Gonna to Die
    One of Houston’s most innovative company this last decade, Horse Head, went through many mutations helmed by several different creative director hands over the years. Yet it always kept its roaming spirit, performing plays wherever the setting called for — including in and behind bars, in a historical church, and once, in a geodome they built themselves.

     

    For a last hurrah performance before closing the company, they chose to revisit one of their most emotional yet philosophical productions: Young Jean Lee’s play meditation on grief, joy, and love disguised as a cabaret performance. The evening ended with an audience participatory rendition of the title song performed on kazoo, ukulele, and human voice. With a room full of Horse Head supporters and what seemed to be half the Houston theater community, as those last notes faded, few dry eyes remained but there sure were many saltwater flavored smiles in the house.

     

     Best Destruction of a Set (Comedy Division): The Play That Goes Wrong
     Best Destruction of a Set (Absurdist Tragedy Division): Baby Screams Miracle
    Though not quite a trend, the intentional collapse of scenery started to become a theme this year. Whether an ecological-political or just meta theme is best left up to audiences. The Play That Goes Wrong, presented by Broadway at the Hobby Center, brought to Houston its Tony-winning scenic design, that’s designed to collapse under the weight of amateur theatrics. The play takes every actor’s nightmare and turns it into a comedy about the chaos of theater.

     

    Meanwhile, Catastrophic scenic designer Ryan McGettigan became the unsung saint — or perhaps Satan — in Clare Barron’s tale of a family’s faith as they go through Job-like tribulations, including a catastrophic storm that seems to follow them wherever they seek shelter only to have that shelter shutter and fall around them.

     

     Liveliest and Loveliest stage-guests: Mildred’s Umbrella’s The Hunchback of Seville at the Alley and Classical Theatre’s The Fair Maid of the West at Queensbury
    The loss of the Chelsea Market space this year affected more than just the home company Classical, but also many smaller companies that occasionally used the stage, including Mildred’s. Yet both reminded audience they were still alive and kicking, sometimes literally with the stellar shows that took history for a spin.

     

    Fourth Wall Theatre’s Philip Lehl helmed the Classical production, raiding a toy box to assemble this English Renaissance play about a plucky pirate queen. Fair Maid illustrated that a little imagination can create a whole world of wonders on stage.

     

    Likewise, thanks to an assist from the Alley, Mildred’s Seville became one of the sharpest historical what-ifs productions of the year, (like what if Columbus backer Queen Isabella of Spain had a smarter, wiser “adoptive” sister who might have tempered the whole conquest of the new world thing).

     

     Most Glorious WTF Moment: “On a Sunday By the Sea,” dance sequence from Theatre Under the Stars’ Jerome Robbins’ Broadway
    This anthology musical celebration of some of the great Jeromy Robbins’s most beloved numbers included iconic scenes and dances from West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof. But in the second act, out of nowhere, and with little context, this strange and wondrous vaudeville-reminisce dance from the seldom revived High Button Shoes exploded on the stage. Featuring dancing keystone cops, crooks, bloomer-clad bathers of both sexes, and a gorilla — all after a cartoony bag of stolen money as they jump into and out of a row of early 20th-century beach changing huts — the number seemed to go on and on into a bizarre infinity.

     

    Both profound and inexplicable in its zaniness, I truly believe all 21st-century musicals, from Dear Evan Hanson to Love Never Dies, should just shove this sequence into their own stories. No it wouldn’t make a proton of sense, but I doubt it made any sense in High Bottom Shoes either. In years of great change, we can all use a bit of such beautiful nonsense in our lives.

    The Alley Theatre closed its 2018-2019 season with some good old, new fashion fun from The Three Musketeers.

    Alley Theatre: Three Musketeers cast
      
    Photo by Lynn Lane
    The Alley Theatre closed its 2018-2019 season with some good old, new fashion fun from The Three Musketeers.
    theater
    news/arts

    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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