Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this Valentine's 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 Valentine's Day weekend. While not every event is out of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life. And if you're still looking for a way to treat your beloved, here's a list of Dallas restaurants with special Valentine's meals, and here's a roundup of decadent desserts.

Thursday, February 11

Ochre House Theater presents Ghosts in the Kitchen: The Romantic Night
Ochre House Theater will present Ghosts in the Kitchen, a series of storytelling through virtual theater featuring stories of hauntings found in the realm of wandering souls who attempt to understand the complexities of life and to remember what it is like to be human. First up is The Romantic Night, in which Athalgarde Christhelmet (Matthew Posey) walks home from his favorite bar, The Rustic Inn, and loses his way and himself in a baffling boozy world. The production will be streamed on Ochre House Theater’s YouTube Channel Thursdays-Sundays through February 21.

Tab Benoit in concert
Tab Benoit is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has built a remarkable 30+ year career on the foundation of his gritty and soulful Delta swamp blues and acquiring a devoted legion of fans along the way. He has released 18 albums in his career, including 2012's Legacy: The Best Of. He'll play four shows over two days, Thursday and Friday, at The Kessler.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents Before You Get Married
Bishop Arts Theatre Center will present the virtual production Before You Get Married, an audio play that explores the relationship between siblings on the night before the sister's wedding with the knowledge they may not be related. With the passing night and flowing wine, both siblings struggle to understand what they mean to each other as they reveal secrets of the past and explore the desires of two people at once impossibly connected and separated. The production will be available to stream at any time through March 12.

Friday, February 12

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Still Growing + 19th Amendment
Avant Chamber Ballet will present Madison Hicks’ Still Growing and Katie Puder’s 19th Amendment as their next performance for the 2020-21 virtual season. Still Growing is a response to our experiences in 2020 and features music by Max Richter. 19th Amendment commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of a woman’s right to vote. The production will be available to stream at any time through June 30.

Pocket Sandwich Theatre presents Walkin' The Line: A Tribute to Johnny Cash
Keeping alive the memory of one of the greatest entertainers of all time, Bennie Wheels delivers his Walkin' the Line show. A natural born entertainer and trained vocalist, Bennie presents his authentic representation of The Man In Black in his Folsom Prison-era prime. Johnny Cash comes back to life with all the greatest hits, and many forgotten treasures, in this show, playing on both Friday and Saturday at Pocket Sandwich Theatre.

Saturday, February 13

Downtown Plano Mardi Gras Crawl
Guests at Downtown Plano's Mardi Gras Crawl can have fun sippin' and strollin' while supporting local small businesses. Beverages include frozen daiquiris, wine, beer, bloody marys, hard seltzer, and more. Beverage stations will be set up inside the local shops and boutiques in Downtown Plano. Participants will receive a Mardi Gras signature mason jar taster and a map directing them on their journey.

Men Are From Mars – Women Are From Venus Live
The Off-Broadway hit comedy Men Are From Mars – Women Are From Venus Live is a one-man fusion of theatre and stand-up, a light-hearted theatrical comedy based on the New York Times No. 1 best-selling book by John Gray. Moving swiftly through a series of vignettes, the show covers everything from dating and marriage to the bedroom. There will be three performances through Sunday at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

Backdoor Comedy presents Champagne, Chocolates & Comedy: Valentine’s Day Celebration with Paul Varghese
Backdoor Comedy Club in Richardson will present special Valentine's Day shows featuring headliner Paul Varghese, along with Linda Stogner and other Backdoor favorites. Tickets include a glass of champagne, a box of chocolates, and a ticket to a future show. There will be four performances through Sunday.

Texas Live presents An Evening with Jason Boland & The Stragglers
Members of the Red Dirt/Texas Country genre, Jason Boland & The Stragglers are actually a product of Oklahoma, having gotten their start when Boland and drummer Brad Rice met at Oklahoma State University. But they've proved their Texas bona fides since then, with one of their albums named Live and Lit at Billy Bob's Texas. They'll play a special limited capacity show at Texas Live in Arlington.

Dale Watson in concert
Dale Watson is a singer who champions "Ameripolitan" as a new genre of original music, one that he says is "authentic country music." Since releasing his debut album at the relatively old age of 33, he has been a workhorse, releasing new music in one form or another every year for the past 25 years. He'll play at the Granada Theater in support of his last full-length album, 2019's Call Me Lucky.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center will presents Before You Get Married, which will be available to stream at any time through March 12.

Photo courtesy of Bishop Arts Theatre Center

Bishop Arts Theatre Center will presents Before You Get Married, which will be available to stream at any time through March 12.

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Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

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