Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

If you like comedy or holiday festivities, this weekend in and around Dallas will have a lot to offer. Two big-name comedians will come to town, and they will be surrounded by a host of new holiday happenings, including four local theater productions, two dance productions, a classical music concert, a parade, two festival-type events next door to each other, and more.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Looking for the best places to view Christmas lights? That list is here.

Thursday, December 2

Taylor Tomlinson: Deal With It Tour
The perspective of comedian Taylor Tomlinson possesses a degree of wisdom that's typically earned with age. Named to Forbes' 2021 class of 30 Under 30, she gave fans a healthy dose of that wisdom when her first-ever, hour-long special, Quarter-Life Crisis, debuted on Netflix in March 2020, just as the world entered into a once-in-a-century pandemic. She'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

The Firehouse Theatre presents Elf the Musical
Based on the beloved holiday film, Elf the Musical is a hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy that follows Buddy the Elf in his quest to find his true identity. Faced with the harsh realities of the human world, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. The production will take place outdoors at The Sound at Cypress Waters in Coppell through December 12.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents Black Nativity
Bishop Arts Theatre Center will present their 17th annual production of Black Nativity. Directed by Zetra Goodlow and Albert Wash II, the production is a hand-clapping, toe-tapping, finger-snapping theatrical wonderment, inspired by Langston Hughes' retelling of the Nativity story. It will run through December 18. There are both in-person and virtual ticket options available.

Friday, December 3

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Black on Black
Black on Black delivers a holiday party-feel with original new works choreographed by the DBDT and DBDT: Encore! dancers as they take the reins and fully produce this fun-filled evening. The all-inclusive holiday affair, taking place on Friday and Saturday at Dallas Black Dance Theatre, includes a complimentary happy hour, followed by an eclectic performance in the intimate setting of DBDT’s studios and a festive after-party.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Christmas Pops
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will once again present the beloved tradition of Christmas Pops, featuring the Dallas Symphony Chorus performing transcendent anthems, classical holiday favorites, and sing-along carols. Vocalists Ava Pine and Reginald Smith, Jr. will join the concert to bring a bit of Christmas magic to Meyerson Symphony Center. The concert, which will have 10 performances through December 12, will also feature an appearance by Santa Claus and a bit of snow.

Richardson Theatre Centre presents Inspecting Carol
Inspecting Carol deals with a regional theatre company that is rehearsing its annual production of A Christmas Carol when it gets news of the impending arrival of an inspector from the National Endowment for the Arts to review their work. When they assume that the man who asks to audition is really an informer for the NEA, everyone caters to the bewildered wannabe actor and he is given a role. What will happen when the actual inspector shows up? The production runs through December 19 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

The Core Theatre presents The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge
A year after his miraculous transformation, Ebenezer Scrooge is back to his old ways and is suing Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future for a litany of supposed crimes. One by one, Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s nephew, solicitor and philanthropist Sara Anne Wainwright, and the ghosts themselves take the witness stand to give their account of the night in question. The production runs through December 31 at The Core Theatre in Richardson.

Saturday, December 4

Dallas Holiday Parade
The Dallas Holiday Parade is the city’s largest one-day, outdoor event and has become a holiday tradition for thousands of families throughout North Texas. The showstopping parade begins at the intersection of Commerce and Houston streets, proceeds down Commerce past the Adolphus Hotel and The Statler, turns right on Harwood and right on Young, and winds up in front of Dallas City Hall. Viewing is free, with reserved seating available for purchase.

Ballet Ensemble of Texas presents The Nutcracker
The Ballet Ensemble of Texas will present their annual production of The Nutcracker, featuring Emily Speed as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Simon Wexler as her Cavalier. The production, which will have two performances Saturday and two Sunday at Irving Arts Center, will also feature more than 200 children from Ballet Academy of Texas.

Klyde Warren Park presents Tree Lighting Celebration
Klyde Warren Park's Tree Lighting Celebration is a festive day of activities and entertainment, including photos with Santa, story time with Mrs. Claus, face painting, games, and crafts for children. The day will culminate with a live holiday show that includes visits from Frosty and Rudolph, the second act of The Nutcracker Suite performed by The Dallas Conservatory, and Klyde Warren Park’s annual tree lighting. Attendees can then walk across the street to...

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Reliant Lights Your Holidays
Reliant Lights Your Holidays features an evening of holiday magic and music, illuminating the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s campus with dazzling LED lights to celebrate the arrival of the holiday season. The festival includes a holiday concert featuring Vinyl Countdown: A Tribute to Arena Rock, Selena tribute band Bidi Bidi Banda, projections on the campus' venues, crafts for the kids, and, of course, Santa.

Bert Kreischer: The Berty Boy World Tour
Comedian Bert Kreischer has evolved from being named Rolling Stone’s 1997 "Number One Partier in the Nation" to one of the top names in comedy. Lauded as one of the best storytellers of his generation, Kreischer seamlessly and sincerely shares anecdotes about his family and fatherhood. He'll perform twice at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Sunday, December 5

Galleria Dallas presents Grand Holiday Ice Show
Galleria Dallas will partner with Bryan’s House to create a special event featuring Canadian ice dancing champions Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje, who competed in the 2014 and 2018 Olympics. Families attending will be assigned to a private pod, where they can enjoy the holiday magic without the crowds. In addition to the celebrity skaters, fans will enjoy a performance by Missile Toes, Galleria’s ice-skating Santa, and indoor fireworks.

The Dallas Holiday Parade will take place on December 4 in downtown Dallas.

Children's Medical Center Holiday Parade

Children's Medical Center/Facebook

The Dallas Holiday Parade will take place on December 4 in downtown Dallas.

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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