Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

While most big events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there are a few that have popped up to offer the masses some entertainment while still adhering to the necessary social distancing measures.

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

Thursday, September 24

Arts Mission Oak Cliff presents Parking Lot Series: Agora Artists' Tether
In Agora Artists' Tether, five local performers navigate the parking lot while tethered by rope, as the piece explores themes of relationship, communication, and allyship in a time when systemic racism is challenged and physical contact is restricted. Performers will wear protective gear, and music will be transmitted through the radio so audience members can enjoy the entire event from the comfort of their cars. The event takes place at Arts Mission Oak Cliff on select dates through October 3.

Friday, September 25

Austin Street Center presents Humble Beginnings Luncheon
Austin Street Center’s 20th Annual Humble Beginnings Luncheon will be a virtual event, featuring Tony and Grammy Award-Winning artist, Leslie Odom, Jr. who will perform live and participate in a moderated conversation. The luncheon celebrates Austin Street Center’s work to provide safe shelter and basic needs to help the most vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness.

Hometown Heroes Music Festival
Hometown Heroes Music Festival is a hybrid of a drive-in and a socially-distanced outdoor music festival. Taking place at Knotting Hill Place in Little Elm on both Friday and Saturday, performers will include Randy Rogers Band, Lee Brice, and Kody West on Friday, and Parker McCollum, Pat Green, and Flatland Cavalry on Saturday. There will be streamed performances by Wade Bowen and Nelly on Friday, and Stoney Larue and Snoop Dogg on Saturday, who will be performing live at the festival's two other locations in Austin and Lubbock.

Six Flags Over Texas presents HallowFest
Six Flags will present HallowFest, featuring haunted experiences every weekend between September 25 and November 1. Thrills by Day will include activities like photo opportunities, a Trick-or-Treat Trail, and delicious treats. For Chills by Night, all Halloween attractions will be transported outdoors to the wide-open midways, featuring creepy fog, eerie lighting, larger-than-life Halloween props, and sinister music in four hair-raising Halloween zones. Roller coasters will ramp up the fear factor as guests fly through the air at high speeds in total darkness. The park will be operating at a limited capacity to avoid overcrowding and guests will be required to make a reservation.

Dallas Children's Theater presents Social Justice Play Series
Dallas Children’s Theater continues its commitment to using the power of theater to spark important conversation about race by producing a series of short plays by award-winning playwright, poet, and changemaker Idris Goodwin. The three short shows, dubbed the ‘Social Justice Play Series,’ will be available completely free of charge, starting with The Water Gun Song, streaming September 25-October 4. In the play, a parent tries to find the words to explain why a water gun isn't simply a toy.

Uptown Players presents Pageant
Uptown Players will present a virtual production of the 2014 audience favorite, the farcical Off‐Broadway hit Pageant. The show takes its shots not by mocking the pageant from the outside, but by being one. The six contestants, Miss Deep South, Miss West Coast, Miss Great Plains, Miss Bible Belt, Miss Industrial Northeast, and Miss Texas (all played by men) compete in evening gown, talent, swim-wear, and spokesmodel, plus each finalist answers calls from the Beauty Crisis Hotline. The production is available to stream anytime between September 25 and October 4.

The Firehouse Theatre presents Daddy Long Legs
A heartwarming Cinderella story about a witty and winsome young woman and her mysterious benefactor, Daddy Long Legs is a beloved tale in the spirit of Jane Austen. Jerusha Abbott is the “Oldest Orphan in the John Grier Home” until a mysterious benefactor decides to send her to college to be educated as a writer. Required to write him a letter once a month, she is never to know the benefactor’s identity – so she invents one for him: Daddy Long Legs. This two-person musical starring real-life couple Caitlin Martelle Jones and Preston Lee Isham will be streamed live on select dates through October 11.

B. Moore Dance presents ROOTED: Envisage Dance Installations
As part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project, B. Moore Dance will present world premiere of ROOTED: Envisage Dance Installations, which draws inspiration from the repertoire created and curated by Founder/Artistic Director, Bridget L. Moore. These works challenge artistic practices by reimagining, rebuilding, and reinstalling works that were made in the past to reflect the present, and the Global World as it reopens for the future. ROOTED is specifically set for the Annette Strauss Square stage and replaces the previously scheduled production of The Neglected Heart of Soul: An Ode to Donny Hathaway in Hamon Hall.

Saturday, September 26

Oktoberfest celebrations
Two local venues will push ahead with Oktoberfest celebrations in safe and socially-distanced ways. Legacy Hall's Oktoberfeast in Plano will offer two time slots by reservation only, featuring a traditional live German band performance, stein-holding competitions, German fare, and beer-a-plenty. McKinney Main Street's Parktoberfest will feature live music from Brave Combo, a keg tapping, and stein holding competition. Traditional German fare will be offered as well as a variety of beers from the venue, TUPPS Brewery.

Ballet North Texas present Night on the Trinity
Ballet North Texas opens its 2020/21 season with Night on the Trinity, a celebration of diverse choreography and original music composition from local and national artists, including Kiyon Gaines Ross, guest performers by Bruce Wood Dance and Ballet Frontier of Texas, and live musical accompaniment from composer Quinn Mason and the musicians of MAKE Trio. The event will take place at Annette Strauss Square.

Sunday, September 27

Dallas Museum of Art presents "To Be Determined" opening day
The Dallas Museum of Art will present "To Be Determined," a new exhibition that explores individual and collective meanings through works of art, sacred objects, and design. Drawing from the museum’s encyclopedic collection, including 13 new acquisitions and three major paintings by Dallas-based artists, the exhibition juxtaposes works from across time, geography, and cultures, from the 13th century to the present day, to trace how the resonance of art can shift when presented in new contexts and as viewers imbue them with their own personal meanings. The exhibition will remain on display through December 27.

Agora Artists will present Tether at Arts Mission Oak Cliff through October 3.

Photo by Corey Haynes

Agora Artists will present Tether at Arts Mission Oak Cliff through October 3.

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Movie Review

Tom Cruise mines for Oscar gold in dark satire Digger

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Tom Cruise in Digger.

For most of the 21st century, and especially the last 15 years, Tom Cruise has been a “movie star” rather than an “actor.” That’s not to say he’s a bad actor, but rather that his focus has been on making blockbuster movies where his unique ability to go all-in on action supersedes any need for introspection. Now perhaps past his action movie days, he’s giving full-on acting another try in Digger.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil baron whose current project is drilling for oil in Greenland. Turns out that’s a bad idea in multiple ways, most significantly when an explosion at the site manages to calve an ice shelf five times the size of Boston. That humongous piece of ice then starts on an inevitable collision course with mainland Europe, where it is predicted that there will be hundreds of thousands of deaths and uncountable property damage from the ensuing tsunami.

That sounds bleak, and it is, but the film plays the scenario for laughs thanks to over-the-top characters like Digger, his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), U.S. President Compson (John Goodman), and the unnamed Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg). As those people and others try to spin the disaster of epic proportions, others like the scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) try to get the leaders to see reason or to take responsibility for their actions.

Written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu and co-written by three others, the film has more than a few surprises in store, including one big one that will go unspoiled here. Suffice it to say that for anyone who might be put off by how Cruise (who seems to be channeling his Les Grossman character from Tropic Thunder) and others are acting in the trailers for the film may change their minds about the performances after actually having seen the complete product.

What can be said is that the film is a wild, wacky, and occasionally disorienting experience that also doubles as a cogent critique of the governments and corporations responsible for climate change and unchecked capitalism. Digger is a motormouth who often cuts off people with relevant information to impart, having already determined that he knows all he needs to know about a certain topic. He’s stuck in his ways in many respects, including trying to keep alive a 20-year-old cat that clearly wants to die.

Once the full scope of the story is revealed, it becomes easier to understand what Iñárritu and Cruise are trying to accomplish with the film. It has some similarities to Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire Dr. Strangelove, but it also tries to stay grounded in certain ways. The push-and-pull between those who only seem to be out for themselves and those who want to get to the truth of the matter is played out on different fronts throughout the film. Not all of it lands, but enough does to not make the film seem completely unhinged.

Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars, and it’s clear he’s aiming for a fourth nod with this performance. He does his best to sell every quirk and aspect of the character, epitomized by a gonzo speech that utilizes every mental and physical skill he can muster. The supporting actors are hit-and-miss, but Ahmed comes off the best as a person serving as Digger’s moral conscience. He’s an antidote to Cruise’s mania, but then turns it up to 11 when needed.

Not everything is as it seems in Digger, and the out-there approach by Iñárritu and his team falls into the love-it-or-hate-it dichotomy that applies to many of his films. The very fact that everyone involved was willing to dedicate their whole selves to such an off-the-wall concept makes it deserving of attention, even if not everything is a success.

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Digger opens in theaters on October 2.

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