Theater Jonesing

Kitchen Dog Theater's new season includes David Mamet and The Motherf**ker With the Hat

There are some theater companies that aim solely for entertainment. Then there are those like Kitchen Dog Theater, whose stated goal is to "choose plays that challenge our moral and social consciences [and] invite our audiences to be provoked, challenged and amazed."

That mission is certainly evident in the 2013-2014 season, which features plays that tackle themes of social niceties, racial conflict, addiction and bullying. The season is split evenly between dramas and comedies, all of which are making regional premieres.

Kitchen Dog opens its season September 27 with Detroit, a play by Lisa D'Amour that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and won the 2013 Obie Award for Best New American Play. The comedy follows a couple whose attempts at establishing a friendship with their new neighbors backfires, which has them reevaluating their lives in unintended ways. It runs through October 26.

KDT's second production is Race, written by the esteemed David Mamet. As implied by the title, it examines racial conflict through a court case in which a wealthy white businessman is accused of raping a black woman. At the heart of the drama is how his lawyers defend him and how a new legal assistant brings ups things that often go unsaid. It runs November 15-December 14.

The third play is one with a familiar — and profane — name known to even casual theater fans: The Motherfucker With the Hat. It premiered on Broadway in 2011 and scored Tony nominations for Best Play and three of its five actors. In this comedy, a recovering alcoholic discovers another man's hat in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, which leads to an ill-conceived quest for vengeance. It runs February 14-March 15, 2014.

The final regular production is Gidion's Knot, a drama about one of the most pressing issues in schools today: bullying. Set during a single parent-teacher conference, a mother and her son's teacher attempt to decipher fifth-grader Gidion's recent behavior. Trying to figure out whether he was the victim or the perpetrator is not as easy as it seems. It runs March 28-April 26, 2014.

Kitchen Dog also presents its annual New Works Festival in May and June 2014, featuring a yet-to-be-determined Main Stage Production, six staged readings, and PUP Fest highlighting work from up-and-coming playwrights.

All of Kitchen Dog Theater's 2013-2014 productions take place, as always, at McKinney Avenue Contemporary.

David Mamet's play Race is the second of four productions for Kitchen Dog Theater in 2013-2014.

Photo courtesy of David Mamet official site

David Mamet's play Race is the second of four productions for Kitchen Dog Theater in 2013-2014.

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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.

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