Season Announcement

Addison's WaterTower Theatre returns to live, indoor shows for 2021-22

The Taming at Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta.

Photo by Jerry Siegal

The COVID-19 pandemic put the kibosh on WaterTower Theatre's 25th anniversary season, but the Addison company is ready to come back big for its 26th.

Although WaterTower is officially returning to indoor, live performance with the regional premiere of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in July — one of only two shows to be produced from the 2020-21 season, the other being Raisin in the Sun in September — this new season kicks off in October.

"October will mark the start of our 26th season, and with the return of live theater we look toward a rebirth of what it means to be a community," says producing artistic director Shane Peterman, who with associate producer Elizabeth Kensek programmed their third season together.

It all starts with The Taming by Lauren Gunderson, a raucous, all-female "power-play" inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. In it, a patriotism obsessed Miss Georgia has kidnapped a Republican Senator’s campaign manager and a liberal activist who is fighting to save the endangered pandashrew, and is holding them hostage in her hotel room the night before the big Miss America Pageant. It runs October 13-24, 2021.

Ella’s Swinging Christmas returns for the holidays, conceived by Kensek and featuring Felecia Wilson, with music supervision by Vonda K. Bowling. This all-ages musical treat was recorded and broadcast in 2020, but this year subscribers will get to gather for an exclusive holiday party at the theater and watch the film together. It "runs" December 9-12, 2021.

Early 2022 brings a mystery show to WaterTower, teased as "a thrilling new project in partnership with one of the largest arts organizations in Dallas, bringing a world premiere experience to both of our audiences. While the title must remain a mystery for now, the show centers around the story of a famous female character whose story has been only written by men until this moment."

Neil Simon's The Odd Couple is next, a Tony Award-winning classic comedy that centers around two unlikely roommates: uptight, neat Felix Ungar and easygoing, disheveled Oscar Madison. It runs March 30-April 10, 2022.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder closes out the season, written by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak. Set in 1907 London, the musical centers on Monty Navarro, a penniless clerk who is informed after the death of his mother that he is ninth in line to inherit the earldom of Highhurst, controlled by the wealthy D’Ysquith banking family. After the imperious ruling Lord dismisses Monty’s claim of being a relative, the eight D’Ysquiths ahead of young Mr. Navarro begin dying in natural and unnatural ways. It runs July 20-31, 2022.

Season tickets will be available beginning May 17, 2021, and subscription prices increase from $129 to $149 if purchased after September 1, 2021. New subscriptions are available by calling the box office at 972-450-6232, and renewals can be made by phone or in person. Individual tickets go on sale in summer 2020.

theater

All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

music music video npr radio live music concerts

Season Announcement

Addison's WaterTower Theatre returns to live, indoor shows for 2021-22

All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Dallas' buzzy Kitchen + Kocktails by Kevin Kelley heads to Times Square

Dallas takes steps to protect White Rock Lake eaglets as they learn to fly

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