• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

    Football Drama

    Dallas Theater Center's Colossal comes up short of the goal line

    Alex Bentley
    Apr 13, 2015 | 12:53 pm

    The different nature of Dallas Theater Center’s latest production, Colossal (running through May 3), starts the moment you step into the Wyly Theatre. The main space, Potter Rose Performance Hall, has proven to be infinitely flexible since the Wyly opened in 2009, but nothing that the company has done before prepares you for what they’ve done for this.

    The theater has essentially been flipped, with a portion of a football field laid down where the seats normally reside, and stadium grandstands erected where you’d normally find the stage. In addition, curtains that are normally down are wide open at the beginning of the play, allowing the audience to take in a view of the Dallas Arts District you rarely get to see.

    If you haven’t been to the Wyly in a while — or even if you have — it will take a minute or two to orient yourself to the new reality.

    If the story ultimately underwhelms, it’s buoyed by the choreography by Joshua L. Peugh.

    As a prologue, a University of Texas football team goes through a series of warm-ups, complete with runs and passes that sometimes invade on the audience filing into the stands. It’s an immersive experience that immediately prepares you for the play that follows, which centers on Mike (Zack Weinstein), a former football player who was paralyzed during a game.

    The bulk of the narrative has Mike thinking back on his past and conversing with his younger self (Alex Stoll), trying to understand how he got to where he is now. Two other men play important roles in his current life: his father, Damon (Joel Ferrell), leader of a modern dance company who envisioned Mike following in his footsteps, and Jerry (Steven Michael Walters), Mike’s physical therapist, who’s trying to get Mike to see beyond his current circumstances.

    Mike is a tortured soul for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest is one that can’t be revealed without giving too much away. Suffice it to say that, in addition to the threat of catastrophic injury, Colossal also tackles another controversial issue football is facing these days, a bold choice that may have been one bridge too far for the plot to travel.

    In fact, the biggest problem Colossal has is that it just doesn’t give its characters enough time to properly deal with everything the story introduces. The one-act play adheres to a rigid structure of four 15-minute quarters (with a little extra thrown in), a conceit that sounds clever in theory but feels unnecessarily restrictive in practice.

    Mike’s struggles all have to deal with relationships, and none of them is served fully with the relatively short length of the play. The one that comes through the most is the one he has with his younger self, as the two versions alternately praise or berate the other for the choices he makes. It’s a process to which almost anyone can relate and something that Weinstein and Stoll sell very well.

    Mike’s fraught relationship with his father and his decision to give up dance to play football — or, as the play refers to it, “a reverse Billy Elliott” — is one that could encompass its own complete story. The same could be said for Mike’s dealings with his co-captain Marcus (Khris Davis) and the rest of his team. But because each of them is merely a subplot, neither comes close to having the impact it could.

    If the story ultimately underwhelms, it’s buoyed by the choreography by Joshua L. Peugh and the acting of several individuals. Combining modern dance and football plays, Peugh, with the help of football consultant Noel Scarlett, pushes the actors in multiple directions, and the action is believable throughout.

    Weinstein, who’s actually wheelchair-bound, brings depth to the role of Mike, and Stoll complements him well, bringing extra meaning to various moments. The rest of the team, which includes a couple of actual players, all bring honesty to the text that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

    Colossal is a visually impressive undertaking by DTC, transforming the Wyly strikingly and offering visceral choreography throughout. But the story fails to live up to the visuals, leaving the production in the middle of the pack.

    Hassan El-Amin and Zack Weinstein in Dallas Theater Center's Colossal.

    Hassan El-Amin and Zack Weinstein in Dallas Theater Center's Colossal
      
    Photo by Karen Almond
    Hassan El-Amin and Zack Weinstein in Dallas Theater Center's Colossal.
    unspecified
    news/arts

    most read posts

    Chef and caterer opens Southern to-go cafe south of Dallas

    Barnes & Noble to open 2 new Dallas-area stores but will close Plano

    Celeb-owned L.A. pizza chain Pizzana to open in north Dallas

    Budget Cuts

    Funding cuts force Dallas Children's Theater to trim 2025-26 season

    Lindsey Wilson
    Jun 3, 2025 | 1:38 pm
    Dallas Children's Theater presents James and the Giant Peach
    Photo courtesy of Dallas Children's Theater
    undefined

    The upcoming 2025-26 season for Dallas Children's Theater is shrinking, according to a new communication from its leadership.

    A June 2 email signed by executive director Samantha Turner, board president Leah Mora, and recently appointed artistic director Emily Ernst informs supporters that due to "the significant financial challenges of the current environment," DCT will be reducing the upcoming season from five mainstage shows to three.

    The email doesn't specifically call out the government's cuts to arts funding, but it is heavily implied, especially since other theaters have recently experienced financial difficulties due to the federal cuts.

    "We remain deeply committed to artistic excellence and to the 90,000 young people and families we serve annually," reads the email. "Though we will have fewer performances, we will continue to provide meaningful theatrical experiences that inspire children, nurture their imagination, and encourage connection with the world around them."

    The 2025-26 will retain the previously announced world premiere of The Pigeon Gets a Big Time Holiday Extravaganza! (November 22-December 21, 2025), as well as The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show (January 24-February 22, 2026) and Moon Mouse: A Space Odyssey (March 27-29, 2026), and add a new developmental workshop envisioned by Ernst.

    The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley and Jungalbook will no longer be produced, and ticket-holders will be receiving instructions on ticket options.

    DCT Academy classes, a vital part of the theater’s work, will continue through the summer, concluding August 8. After that, Academy sessions will be temporarily paused. Families enrolled for the fall semester will receive a separate email with next steps.

    "Although our performances are well attended and our community support is strong, ticket sales cover only a small portion of the true cost of producing theater," the email explains. "At the same time, our operating costs have steadily increased while funding levels have remained flat. This financial pressure requires immediate action to keep DCT viable — not just for this season, but for the years ahead."

    Tickets for the 2025-26 season are on sale now.

    childrenfamiliesdallas childrens theaterchildrens theaterarts fundingtheater
    news/arts
    Loading...