Texas in the Big Apple

Gov. Ann Richards comes alive on Broadway: Holland Taylor's Ann opens nextspring

Holland Taylor is the writer and sole actress in Ann, a play based upon the lifeof Ann Richards.
Photo by Ave Bonar
The play will open on Broadway in March 2013.

Emmy Award-winning actress and first-time playwright Holland Taylor has brought audiences in the Lone Star State and beyond to tears with Ann, a play based on the life of former Texas governor Ann Richards. Now she is taking the one-woman act to Broadway.

Ann, which is structured around an imaginary commencement speech by Richards at an unnamed Texas college, will open at the Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater on March 7, 2013.

The play has undergone a title change since its sold-out debut at Galveston's Grand 1894 Opera House as Money, Marbles and Chalk in May 2010. It has also seen rewrites, evolving as Taylor learns more from Richards' friends about the life of Richards, who passed away in 2006.

"My artistic journey with Ann has been the soulful ride of a lifetime," said Taylor.

"My artistic journey with Ann has been the soulful ride of a lifetime," said Taylor in a press release. "Ann's friends felt she was 'born under a special star,' and how can I not feel that light has shone on our path all the way here."

Ann has received rave reviews during limited runs in San Antonio in December 2010, Austin in May 2011, Chicago in November 2011 and, most recently, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center during the winter of 2011/2012.

Kevin Bailey, the show's executive producer, told the New York Times that the play will open in the spring to avoid election season drama. "We knew it could be construed as a partisan play, and that's not what we wanted," Bailey said.

A schedule and ticket information for the Broadway show will be announced at a later date.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”