Theater Critic Picks

These are the 8 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for March

March is a bit of a shuffle, with one show finally debuting after being canceled for weather in February and another making a grand return after selling out in January. There are also two world premieres, some puppets, and a walking true crime show that lets you be the sleuth.

Here are eight local shows to watch this month:

The Cube: An Interactive Experience For The Socially Distanced Era
Latino Cultural Center, March 3-20
After selling out its January run, The Cube is back. Through projections, audio, and lights, this immersive experience asks audiences to redefine what community and loneliness mean to them. Masked audience members reserve a 30-minute time slot, then experience the show alone or with up to two guests — meaning you're never around anyone but your own party. It's a collaboration among artists Emily Bernet, Ruben Carrazana, Aaron Johansen, Jeffery Bryant Moffitt, and Nigel Newton, based on a concept by Carrazana and Moffitt. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online (in advance only) here.

Last Ship to Proxima Centauri
Kitchen Dog Theater, streaming March 5-21
This production was postponed due to weather from its original premiere in February. In Greg Lam's dark science-fiction comedy (a world premiere!), the earth has become uninhabitable. The last escape ship arrives at its new home centuries after all the others. The passengers are not prepared for what they find there: A planet full of unimpressed people of color who are not happy to see them. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here or by calling 214-953-1055.

Dixie's Happy Hour
Performing Arts Fort Worth, streaming March 9-28
Everyone's favorite Alabama redhead, Dixie Longate, has returned with an all-new streaming show for these unpredictable times. She'll be mixing drinks with the four basic food groups: rum, gin, vodka, and tequila while sharing new stories that prove happiness is not only found at the bottom of a margarita glass. Tickets start at $35, with a limited number of VIP tickets for $75, and can be purchased here.

Ghosts in the Kitchen: The Key to a Dark Lonely Night
Ochre House Theatre, streaming March 11-21
The avant garde Deep Ellum troupe has created a new series of storytelling through virtual theater, as written and told by core company members Carla Parker, Justin Locklear, Kevin Grammer, and Matthew Posey, filmed and directed by Josh Jordan, and with music by Locklear and Sarah Rubio-Rogerson. Next up is The Key to the Dark Lonely Night, written and performed by Grammer. During a storm, a scared, desperate man barricades himself in his kitchen, reminiscing about his past while unnerved by the current state of the world. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here or by calling 214-826-6273.

Packrat
Amphibian Stage, streaming March 12-13
Set deep in the Sagebrush Desert, this visually stunning play from Concrete Temple Theatre contemplates humanity's relationship with the natural world through puppetry, projections, and an original score. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.

Lives of the Saints: A Collection of Six Short Plays
MainStage Irving-Las Colinas, streaming March 19-27
A collection of six short plays by David Ives explores everything from a woman who returns from the dead to a man who falls in love with a washing machine. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased here or by calling 817-923-3012.

Animal Crackers
Vena Cava Productions, livestreaming March 20
This new play takes place one month after the 2016 presidential election as De'Von Roberts, a Black teenager, returns home from school for winter break ready to relax with his white adoptive family. After a racial slur is spray-painted on the front of De'Von's family's home, tensions rise within the family and De'Von comes to realize that his mother and siblings will do anything to show him that they are "woke." The 7 pm livestream is free and can be accessed here.

Art Heist
AT&T Performing Arts Center, March 30-April 18
This true crime walking show has socially distanced groups gather clues while interacting with a wild group of wily career criminals, slimy con men, rumpled art recovery specialists, a possible inside man, a gentle psychopath, and the larger-than-life but definitely real self-proclaimed Greatest Art Thief of All Time. The story is based on the biggest art heist in history at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where robbers stole half a billion dollars worth of art. Tickets can be purchased here.

The Cube returns to the Latino Cultural Center after selling out in January.

Courtesy photo

The Cube returns to the Latino Cultural Center after selling out in January.

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RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70

Courtesy

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth, known for his jubilant creativity which he displayed in a wide range of media, died on February 18; he was 70 years old. According to friends, he suffered a heart attack.

Scherbarth's myriad "canvases" ranged from printmaking to furniture to steel and metal working. He was a colorful presence in the Dallas art scene with a shock of thick hair that stood tall, definitive horn-rimmed glasses, and an unfiltered, no-nonsense personal style.

He was also a key figure in The Cedars district: an urban pioneer who settled in the area directly south of downtown Dallas in the early '80s when the neighborhood was a mostly-deserted collection of abandoned warehouses, before it became a major art nexus.

A post by Lee Harvey's, the Cedars District bar, said that "Some people don’t just live in a neighborhood — they leave their mark on it. Albert did exactly that. Through his art, his presence, and his time at our bar, he became part of the story here. We’ll miss him more than we can say. Rest easy Bert."

He was a real character, as well — a stocky physical presence (he played football in high school) who'd fix his stare upon you as if you were a critter to be studied.

One friend said, "I always feel that Albert is going to spring some meta shit on me every time i see him and he rarely disappoints. What a cool cat."

A native of Nebraska, Scherbarth moved to Dallas in 1979 to earn a master's in fine arts at the University of Dallas, Irving. After graduating in 1981, he began teaching in the community college district, including Brookhaven College, Northlake College, University of Texas at Dallas, and the Creative Art Center, as well as at Dallas' Arts Magnet.

Sculpture by Albert Scherbarth which appeared at the State Fair of Texas in 2018.Laura Walters/Facebook

After graduating from art school, he felt the need to do "real" work like his father, and took jobs in construction and woodwork, which helped shape the very physical nature of his art.

He was one of the early and many artists who resided in the Continental Gin Building, where he worked on his designs and commissions, fabricated other artists’ ideas, and helped galleries with installations, crating, and shipping.

Through the years he made furniture, got into fused and cast glass, poured concrete countertops, and painted, including a successful era of doing giant flower paintings. In his latter years, he acquired a welding machine and worked with builders, designers, and architects constructing screens, fences, furniture, and sculptures.

His works around town include a giant wine tree for Fleming Steakhouse in Frisco, and a sculpture named, "Cecil, age 12" up on Henderson Avenue at Capital Street which was was a finalists for the Henderson Art Prize. He also worked on the famed Bowler Hat sculpture in the Cedars.

In an interview with Voyage Dallas, he said, "I’m constantly looking for more meaning and more permanence in the work that I’m doing," and acknowledged that "I’ve been very, very fortunate to get a lot of really great commissions over the years. I’ve sold a lot of work and fallen into great studio situations – large spaces, cheap rent and wonderful landlords. Today, I think my ignorance of all the pitfalls ahead allowed me to storm through life and I have a certain stubbornness, a dogged determination to succeed."

"My grandfathers died before I came of age, my father died, my favorite uncle died so there was not much in the way of male guidance or perspective on how to be a man, so I’ve just kind of made it up on my own, stumbling through, winging it and I’m still alive, amazingly enough."

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RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70