It's an arts-heavy weekend in and around Dallas, with three different theater productions, another theater company moving into music, a great dance troupe, and the closing of a notable art exhibition. Juneteenth on Saturday has inspired at least five different area events, and Pride Month will be celebrated in the Dallas Arts District.
Below are the best to spend your precious free time this weekend.
Thursday, June 17
Rover Dramawerks presents Cry It Out
Rover Dramawerks returns to the stage with the dramatic comedy Cry It Out. Jessie and Lina are new moms who meet for coffee during nap time in the sweet spot behind their adjoining yards where both their baby monitors get reception. Then a stranger who lives in the mansion up on the cliff asks if they would also include his wife, a new mom who is having “a hard time.” Reluctantly, the duo tries to become a trio, but with very mixed, and surprising, results. The play will run through June 26 at The Core Theatre in Richardson.
Juneteenth celebrations
The soon-to-be federal holiday of Juneteenth takes place on June 19, and area groups will celebrate with a variety of events. Undermain Theatre's Juneteenth Documentary Festival, streaming through July 3, focuses on African-American artists from Texas and around the country; the African American Museum's Juneteenth Festival will take place on Friday and Saturday; the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom and Diversity, featuring music by some of the greatest African-American composers in the classical repertoire, will be at Meyerson Symphony Center through Sunday; Dallas Heritage Village's Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday will feature education-based programming, including a screening of a film made by Soul Rep Theatre; and The Blair Foundation's Juneteenth Celebration, March, and Festival on Saturday at Fair Park will feature a a three-and-a-half-mile march and a festival featuring a Negro League baseball exhibit, a hair show, a concert, and other various activities.
Friday, June 18
Jurassic World: The Exhibition
Jurassic World: The Exhibition immerses audiences in settings inspired by the Jurassic World film franchise. It is a 20,000-square-foot experience where visitors will get to walk through the "Jurassic World” gates, encounter life-sized dinosaurs, and explore themed environments. Among others, guests will get an up-close look at a Velociraptor, a Brachiosaurus, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and be able to interact with new baby dinosaurs. The exhibition, taking place through September 5, will be located in a temporary structure next to the Galaxy Theatres at Grandscape in The Colony.
Dallas Arts District presents Pride Party+
The Dallas Arts District will celebrate Pride Month with its three museums — the Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, and Nasher Sculpture Center — and the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The museums will host programming in their spaces, both in-person and virtual, and in-person programs will include concerts, health screenings, art kits, and a part of the AIDS quilt making its debut in the Arts District. The event will take place both in-person and virtually through Sunday.
The Classics Theatre Project presents Much Ado About Nothing
This rad, new, 1990s nostalgia-filled adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing brings the quintessential summer experience of Shakespeare under the stars at Addison Conference and Theatre Centre. When the AA baseball team, the Aragon Soldiers, arrive in town, its aces, the dashing Claudio and fast-talking Benedick, take their at bats with the lovely Hero and fierce Beatrice. Claudio and Hero quickly fall in love but Benedick and Beatrice match only wits and trade jabs. The dastardly Don John threatens to destroy both couples in this fresh take on Shakespeare's crowd-pleasing tale of outrageous characters, pranks, mistaken identities, and new love. The play will run through June 27.
North Texas Performing Arts Repertory Theatre presents In the Heights
Hot on the heels of the release of the movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning musical, North Texas Performing Arts Repertory Theatre in Plano will bring the show back to its roots. The play, running through June 27, explores three days in the characters' lives in New York’s vibrant Washington Heights. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams, and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions people take with them and which they leave behind.
Shakespeare Dallas presents Music in the Park
Shakespeare Dallas will present its inaugural Music in the Park series, in partnership with Front Yard Concerts. On both Friday and Saturday, guests will enjoy the sounds of jazz, soul, hip-hop, neoclassical, and more on the lawn at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre. Attendees are encouraged to pack a picnic, including beer or wine for those 21 and up, and bring a lawn chair or blanket to sit on.
Saturday, June 19
TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Led by dance icons Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, Complexions has awakened audiences to a new, exciting genre with their singular approach of reinventing dance and contemporary ballet. This performance, taking place at Winspear Opera House will feature Woke, which examines our humanity and today’s political climate, and Love Rocks, rock meets ballet set to the music of Lenny Kravitz.
Sunday, June 20
Dallas Museum of Art presents "Frida Kahlo: Five Works"
Sunday is the final day to view the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Five Works" at the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition gives visitors the rare opportunity to see five works by the acclaimed Mexican painter. The exhibition includes four paintings and a drawing on loan from a private collection, with each work acting as a vehicle for understanding larger aspects of Kahlo’s artistic practice.
Multiple Juneteenth-related events will take place around Dallas this weekend.
Donde Los Tacos is now open in Oak Cliff. Photo courtesy of Donde Los Tacos