Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 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, some 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 they're not all outside of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, October 22

Cry Havoc Theater Company presents Endlings
Endlings is being presented as an audio play recorded in true three-dimensional sound with a binaural microphone. The play weaves together first-person interviews with experts, activists, and individuals living on the front lines of climate change, along with conversations between the teens of Cry Havoc and the director on the topics of COVID-19, grief, art, and climate change. The production is available to stream at any time through November 1.

Theatre Three presents It Came from Theatre Three
Theatre Three has commissioned four local playwrights — Jonathan Norton, Blake Hackler, Nicole Neely, and The Drama Club — to contribute short, frightening pieces: The Loss of Jane, Bloody Mary, The Old Woman in the Wood, and Dr. Diablo. The pieces will be produced virtually in one jam-packed program with two distinguished hosts to keep things moving along. The production will stream on various dates through November 1.

Friday, October 23

Charley Crockett in concert
Live concerts are few and far between these days, but The Kessler is giving it a go with a four-concert stint by Charley Crockett. The blues, country, and Americana singer, a native of San Benito, Texas, has been very busy in his short five-year career, releasing seven studio albums, including 2020's Welcome to Hard Times. He'll play twice on Friday and twice on Saturday.

Dallas Children's Theater presents The Raven Society
The DCT Teen Scene Players will present a virtual production inspired by one of literature’s most mind-bending, legendarily haunting pieces of work. A group of nine teens who usually convene at midnight in the graveyard to recite and discuss “The Raven” have to relocate their spooky gathering to Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As they recite each stanza, an unknown presence keeps causing spooky interruptions. Could it be that another (supernatural) “Participant” is sneaking around in their breakout room? The production will be available to stream at any time through October 31.

East Dallas Arts presents KEDA's Night of the Living Dead
In East Dallas Arts' second on-demand production, KEDA's Night of the Living Dead, a global pandemic has caused all theaters to close, but the Drama Club at J. Edgar Hoover High School in Evansville found a way to perform its fall production of Night of the Living Dead. The local community radio station, KEDA, agreed to broadcast the production as a live radio show, but the production takes a deadly turn. The production will be available to stream at any time through December 3.

Theatre Three presents The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-in Special
Commemorating the scariest year ever, the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group’s The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-in Special will be full of glitz, gags, and glamorous ghosts. After spending a glorious run with live audiences, the ghosts have become stir-crazy in the theatre without a show going on. Instead of waiting for audiences to return in person, the ghosts will be haunting the internet with this livestreamed interactive event. There will be six performances on various dates through November 3.

Saturday, October 24

Monster Jam
No, this isn't a Halloween-themed event — at least not directly — but rather the return of the monster truck event to AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Monster Jam, which will have events on both Saturday and Sunday, features a mix of high-flying action and four-wheel excitement. Fans will witness a battle for the event championship, with each skilled Monster Jam athlete tearing up the dirt in 12,000-pound trucks going head-to-head for points in Freestyle, the Skills Challenge, and Racing competitions.

"Live from the West Side: Women of Broadway"
"Live from the West Side: Women of Broadway" will be a three-part virtual concert series featuring three legendary performers. Two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone will kick off the series on Saturday, followed by Laura Benanti on November 14 and Vanessa Williams on December 5. Streamed live from New York’s Shubert Virtual Studios, each show will feature a mix of Broadway showtunes, pop songs, and personal stories from the life of each headliner. Viewers can also submit questions in advance for each artist to answer during the show.

Turtle Creek Chorale presents "Turtles in the Park(-ing Lot)"
The Turtle Creek Chorale will return to the stage for its first live performance since the start of the pandemic. Safe from the elements and with enough space to distance and enjoy without fear of personal health, TCC will transform the Jackson Street Parking Garage into a unique and effective choral concert venue. The concert, taking place on Saturday and Sunday, will feature TCC classics from their first 40 years.

TITAS Does Drag: The Rose Room on Tour
TITAS Does Drag: The Rose Room on Tour brings some of most glamorous stars in Dallas to Annette Strauss Square. In collaboration with The Rose Room’s emcee and entertainer Cassie Nova, this unfiltered performance will include nine performers who specialize in comedy, dance, and gender illusion. The venue will allow for a socially-distanced audience to safely enjoy the special show.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Legacy Performance Series and Dancemaker's Discussion: Tribute
DBDT dancers will take viewers back in time through 100 years of African American dance masters like Pearl Primus and Alvin Ailey in Tribute, a multimedia dance theater set to jazz and Negro spirituals choreographed by Matthew Rushing, Associate Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. This will be a one-time-only virtual event.

The Danielle Georgiou Dance Group's The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-in Special, has the first of six performances on October 23.

Photo by Danielle Georgiou

The Danielle Georgiou Dance Group's The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-in Special, has the first of six performances on October 23.

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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