Arts Booster

Elevator Project helps small Dallas arts groups move on up to Wyly Theatre

Performance space is always at a premium for smaller arts groups in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the AT&T Performing Arts Center is about to make life a little easier for some of them with a new program called the Elevator Project.

The Elevator Project gives six groups — African American Repertory Theater, Cara Mia Theatre Co., Dallas Actor's Lab, DGDG: The Danielle Georgiou Dance Group, Second Thought Theatre and Upstart Productions — the chance to stage one show each at the Wyly Theatre over the next year.

The name of the project is a double entendre. Not only does it give the groups a chance to put on a production at a higher profile venue, but those productions take place in the performance spaces on the Wyly's sixth and ninth floors.

ATTPAC also announced that both the Complete Works of Shakespeare and Oral Fixation are moving their monthly programs to the Wyly starting this season. Both have proved so popular that they outgrew their previous venue, Hamon Hall inside Winspear Opera House.

The inaugural event of the Elevator Project is Upstart Productions' Year of the Rooster, the story of a perpetually put-upon man who uses a pet rooster to help him exact revenge on those who wronged him. Year of the Rooster runs August 22-September 6.

Rooster is followed by DGDG's Nice in November, a yet-to-be-titled production from Dallas Actor's Lab in February 2015, Second Thought Theatre's Bull in February/March 2015, Cara Mia Theatre Co.'s Lydia in April 2015, and AART's Radio Golf in May/June 2015.

Single general admission tickets for each show, priced at $20, go on sale on August 1 through TicketDFW.com. You can also purchase a six-show sampler package for $100, giving you all six productions for the price of five. Package subscribers can purchase discount parking.

Upstart Productions, which put on The Aliens at Magnolia Lounge in 2013, is one of six groups elevated to a higher-profile venue as part of ATTPAC's Elevator Project.

The Aliens at Upstart Productions in Dallas

Photo courtesy of Upstart Productions

Upstart Productions, which put on The Aliens at Magnolia Lounge in 2013, is one of six groups elevated to a higher-profile venue as part of ATTPAC's Elevator Project.

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politics in paint

George W. Bush unveils new book and exhibit of political prisoner portraits

Photo courtesy of Crown Publishing

A signed, deluxe edition of George W. Bush's new book of portraits, "The Call of Freedom," will be available.

Former President George W. Bush has a new book of oil paintings coming out in March 2027 that features portraits of political prisoners and dissidents.

The Penguin Random House imprint Crown announced Wednesday, September 16 that The Call of Freedom: Portraits of Political Prisoners and Dissidents will be released March 9 and coincide with an exhibition of Bush's art at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.

The new book will include Bush's portraits of such symbols of oppression as the late Mahsa Amini, whose death in 2022 while in the custody of Iranian authorities led to nationwide protests, and the imprisoned Nicaraguan bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos.

The Call of Freedom, the third collection of Bush's art, will include 44 paintings and biographical sketches of each subject. Former Soviet Union dissident Natan Sharansky is contributing a foreword.

Former President George W. Bush painting in his Dallas studio.Photo courtesy of Crown Publishing

“This book, coupled with our work at the Bush Institute, is a chance for me to send a message that the United States cares deeply about people seeking freedom,” Bush writes in the book. “And hopefully these stories will remind us that we who live in liberty have a duty to stand with those who do not.”

The book champions human rights even as Bush's own record as president has led to frequent criticism, whether the CIA’s use of waterboarding or the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Bush took up painting after leaving office in 2009. His previous books include Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors and Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants.

The Call of Freedom ($42, hardcover) is available for pre-order now through Amazon.com, Penguin Random House, and the Bush Presidential Museum ($37 for museum members). A deluxe, signed edition is also available.

The accompanying exhibition, "The Call of Freedom: Portraits of Political Prisoners and Dissidents," will open on March 9, 2027, at the George W. Bush Presidential Museum on the SMU Campus in Dallas.

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Stephanie Allmon Merry contributed to this story.

george w bush paintings book art george w. bush presidential center George W. Bush Presidential Center