Weekend Event Planner

These are the 6 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

While many events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, organizations have pivoted to virtual or socially-distanced events to continue offering the masses some entertainment while we need it the most.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. While not every event is out of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, January 7

Improv Addison presents Eddie Griffin
A popular comedian-turned-actor who started his career on-stage as a dare, funnyman Eddie Griffin has built an ever-growing fan base since jumping onto the comedy scene in 1990. He has a long filmography, including appearances in The Meteor Man, Undercover Brother, and A Star is Born. He'll perform five stand-up shows through Saturday at Improv Addison.

Pegasus Theatre presents A Trifle Dead! The Movie
While Pegasus Theatre and their patented black-and-white theater productions are on hold, they've found a way to bring the feel of their plays straight into homes. In A Trifle Dead!, Harry Hunsacker, would be-actor turned would-be detective, is hired by millionaire industrialist Edward Stone to be his bodyguard, which turns out to be a fatal mistake. Soon Harry and assistant Nigel Grouse are investigating Stone’s murder, which all but guarantees the killer will go free. The production will be available to stream through January 24.

Friday, January 8

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Mozart and Shostakovich
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra opens 2021 with this concert, conducted by Alexander Kerr. The concert, taking place at Meyerson Symphony Center through Sunday, includes Saint-Georges' Overture to The Anonymous Lover, Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony for Strings in A-flat major, Op. 118a, and Mozart's Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201.

Saturday, January 9

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents DBDT: Encore! | The Choreographer Experience: Established & Emerging
This virtual production features Unsettled Thoughts by Richard A. Freeman, Jr.; Some Moan for Love by the late Darryl B. Sneed, a solo that expresses the sentiment of love in hopes of reciprocation; COLD, a duet choreographed by Floyd McLean, Jr. that is filled with searing strength and colossal control; and Weighted by Shauna Davis, a thought-provoking work that explores pushing past physical boundaries.

Sunday, January 10

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art" closing day
Due to the pandemic, it's been almost a year since "Flores Mexicanas" debuted at the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition, which was originally scheduled to close in September, surveys representations of women in Mexican Modernism, featuring works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Frida Kahlo, María Izquierdo, Diego Rivera, and Francisco Dosamantes, among others.

Orchestra of New Spain presents Epiphany Community Concert
The Orchestra of New Spain will present a community Epiphany Concert incorporating villancicos (carols) that are commonly heard in cathedrals and village churches throughout Spain and Hispanic America. Taking place at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church, social distancing and masks will be required, with the audience seated by pods in alternate rows.

Eddie Griffin will perform at Improv Addison through January 9.

Eddie Griffin/Facebook

Eddie Griffin will perform at Improv Addison through January 9.

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Movie Memorabilia

Dallas auction house hawks stolen ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz

Heritage Auctions

Wizard of Oz ruby slippers.

DALLAS (AP) — A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz is on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, convinced they were adorned with real jewels.

Online bidding has started and will continue through December 7, Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release Monday.

The shoes are part of a bigger auction of Hollywood memorabilia which also includes items from films such as Cast Away, Easy Rider, and Back to the Future Part II.

Other items from The Wizard of Oz include a witch hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West, the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home, the gloves Bert Lahr wore as the Cowardly Lion, and producer Mervyn LeRoy’s copy of the Wizard of Oz script from the MGM art department.

The auction company received the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who originally owned the footwear at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical. Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

That summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. The man who stole the ruby slippers, Terry Jon Martin, was 76 when he was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health.

Now the museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four remain. This particular pair are considered to be the most valuable of the four, in that they were the ones used in close-ups of Dorothy clicking her heels.

Other items include a "Wilson" basketball from Tom Hanks film Cast Away; a stars-and-stripes motorcycle helmet worn by Peter Fonda in Easy Rider; and the “BAT-1/GOTHAM CITY” license plate from Adam West’s Batmobile; and a wooden hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II, signed by Michael J. Fox and writer-producer Bob Gale. According to Heritage Auctions, this Mattel hhoverboard has "impeccable provenance," as it comes from Fox’s stunt double Charlie Croughwell, who writes in his letter of authenticity that “this Hoverboard has been in my possession beginning with our first day of Flying Rehearsals up until present day.”