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    Weekend Event Planner

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

    Alex Bentley
    Feb 1, 2024 | 6:00 am

    It's a busy and eclectic weekend in and around Dallas, with a quintet of theater productions leading the way, three of them from local companies. Other choices include a chance to see college football stars in action, a classical music concert, a big-name comedian, an opera production, a big rock band, a dance production, a new art exhibition, and a tennis tournament.

    Below are more best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

    Thursday, February 1

    East-West Shrine Bowl
    The college football season ended a few weeks ago, but more than 120 top college players and select juniors, coached by NFL coaches, will try to impress NFL scouts, agents, and media before the 2024 NFL Draft at the East-West Shrine Bowl. The game, which has long been held in California, is taking place at the Ford Center in Frisco for the first time.

    Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue
    Performed by an all-male cast, Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue brings Miami’s sassiest seniors to the stage for one more hurrah. Sophia is out on bail after being busted by the DEA for running a drug ring for retirees. Blanche and Rose have founded CreakN, a thriving sex app for seniors. And Dorothy is trying to hold it all together with help from a new (much) younger sex-crazed lover. The production runs through Sunday at Wyly Theatre.

    Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Sibelius Violin Concerto"
    "Sibelius Violin Concerto," featuring conductor Donald Runnicles and violinist Alexi Kenney, is an all-Sibelius program that includes the composer's En saga (A Legend), Violin Concerto, and Symphony No. 5. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present three performances through Saturday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

    Theatre Three presents God of Carnage
    In God of Carnage, two sets of Brooklyn parents meet to deal with a playground altercation between 11-year-old boys and a calm and rational debate between grown-ups transforms into a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums, and tears. Winning the Tony Award for Best Play in 2009, this hilarious, emotionally charged production asks the question, “How many parents standing up for their children become infantile themselves?” The production runs through March 3 at Theatre Three.

    Improv Addison presents Craig Robinson
    Craig Robinson is an actor, stand-up comedian, and singer who's arguably best known for his role as acerbic Dunder-Mifflin employee Darryl Philbin on NBC’s Emmy-winning The Office. He has also starred in films such as Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, the Hot Tub Time Machine series, and This Is the End. He'll perform eight times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

    Friday, February 2

    Opera Arlington presents Rusalka
    Dvořák's fairytale masterpiece, Rusalka, is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, a magical tale that transports the audience into a fantasy forest, where a water nymph yearns for the love of a human prince and an evil witch plots her downfall. But is it the witch's curse that will bring her demise, or the fickleness of the human heart? The opera, performed in Czech with English supertitles, will have performances on Friday and Saturday at Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington.

    Dallas Theater Center presents I Am Delivered't
    Good Friday. The New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church’s Seven Last Words service is in full swing. But outside – in the church parking lot – another resurrection story is taking shape. Sis, the Vice President of Usher Board Number One, and her protégé, Pickles, find themselves in a battle royale of romantic quagmires. Dallas Theater Center will present the new comedy by Jonathan Norton through February 18 at Kalita Humphreys Theater.

    Tool in concert
    Rock band Tool has maintained a solid place in their fans' hearts over the years despite only releasing five albums since their debut in 1993. It's clearly a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder as each of their last three albums - including Fear Inoculum in 2019, which came after a 13-year break - made it to No. 1 on the overall Billboard 200. Although they don't have any new music to play, their concert at American Airlines Center is sure to rock as hard as ever. They will be joined by Elder.

    Richardson Theatre Centre presents Murder on the Orient Express
    Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed eight times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, the passengers rely on detective Hercule Poirot to identify the murderer – in case he or she decides to strike again. The production runs through February 18 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

    TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Rennie Harris Puremovement: Rome & Jewels
    Puremovement – American Street Dance Theater, which has emerged as an international Hip-hop and Street dance ambassador, presents Rome & Jewels, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, reimagined in the streets of Philadelphia. They'll perform on both Friday and Saturday at Moody Performance Hall.

    Saturday, February 3

    Nasher Sculpture Center presents Sarah Sze opening day
    The Nasher Sculpture Center will present a solo exhibition by Sarah Sze, showing new works created specifically for the Nasher’s Renzo Piano-designed building by one of the most celebrated artists of recent years. Sze’s installations at the Nasher will integrate painting, sculpture, images, sound, and video engaging with the surrounding architecture to create intimate systems that reference the rapidly changing world. Stretching over three of the museum’s galleries, the exhibition will blur the boundaries between making and showing, process and product, digital and material ultimately to question how objects and Images acquire their meaning. The exhibition will remain on display through August 18.

    TheatreWorks USA presents Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical
    A few weeks after the Dog Man musical came to town, a musical based on author Dav Pilkey's spin-off series will have a one-day-only performance at Majestic Theatre. Cat Kid and Molly Pollywog have started an epic club to teach 21 rambunctious baby frogs how to make their own comics. Their fishy father Flippy is overjoyed that his kids will learn to unleash their creativity, but when the frogs’ constant bickering and outrageous imaginations send their comics comically off the rails, Flippy flips out. Will the club survive? Will the frogs ever get along? And will creativity finally save the day?

    ATP Tour presents Dallas Open
    The ATP Tour's Dallas Open will be a weeklong tournament featuring some of the top men's tennis players in the world, as well as a special Women's Tennis Classic between Genie Bouchard and Caroline Wozniacki. The tournament will feature three of the top four Americans in the world among its player field, including No. 14 Frances Tiafoe, No. 15 Tommy Paul, and No. 16 Ben Shelton. The tournament will take place through February 11 at the Styslinger / Altec Tennis Complex at SMU.

    Dallas Theater Center presents I Am Delivered't
    Photo courtesy of Dallas Theater Center

    Dallas Theater Center presents I Am Delivered't at Kalita Humphreys Theater, February 2-18.

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    Movie Review

    New film The Plague turns tween bullying into chilling drama

    Alex Bentley
    Jan 2, 2026 | 1:14 pm
    Everett Blunck in The Plague
    Photo courtesy of IFC
    Everett Blunck in The Plague.

    Anybody who’s attended elementary school in the last 100 years knows the concept of “cooties,” a fictional affliction that is typically caught when touched by a member of the opposite sex. A more updated version of the same idea is featured in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, this time called the “Cheese Touch,” making anyone who touches a moldy piece of cheese on the school’s basketball court an outcast.

    A much more menacing version of this “disease” is on display in The Plague, which takes place at a summer water polo camp for tweens. The film focuses on Ben (Everett Blunck), a slightly awkward boy who struggles to fit in with the “cool” crowd led by Jake (Kayo Martin). That group has no problems making fun of others that they deem to be different, especially Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who has been ostracized because of a rash he has that the kids call “the plague.”

    Ben wants to be part of the main group, but his natural empathy leads him to reach out to Eli on more than one occasion despite Eli engaging in some uncomfortable behavior. With the camp’s coach (Joel Edgerton) not much help when it comes to the bullying tactics by Jake and others, especially those that take place at night, Ben is left to fend for himself. His vacillations between wanting to be accepted and wanting to do what’s right continue until his hand is forced.

    Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Charlie Polinger, the film has all the feel of a horror movie without actually being a horror. The staging used by Polinger gives the film a claustrophobic feel as Ben can’t seem to escape the psychological torture inflicted by Jake and others no matter where he goes. He also employs a jarring score by Johan Lenox to great effect, one that’s designed to keep viewers on edge even when nothing bad is happening.

    No matter how far removed you are from middle school, the film will likely bring up feelings you thought you had left behind. Much like with Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Polinger finds a way to tap into something universal in his depiction of tweens, an age when everyone is still discovering who they really are. Some go along to get along, others don’t even attempt to fit in, but no one truly feels settled.

    Whether the plague is real or not in the world of the film is up for debate. While most of the time it comes off as something made up to underscore the feeling of otherness felt by Ben, Polinger does literalize it to a degree. He even tiptoes up to the line of body horror before wisely retreating, although what he does show will still make some viewers squeamish. However, because he seems to be leaning one way before pulling back, there’s the possibility that some will be disappointed by the tease of something more intense.

    The film’s biggest success is in its casting. Finding good child actors is notoriously tough, and yet Polinger and casting director Rebecca Dealy found a bunch who sell the story for all it’s worth. Blunck, Martin, and Rasmussen get the most play, but everyone else complements them well. Edgerton is the only well-known actor in the film, but he’s used sparingly and isn’t asked to do much, leaving the kids to carry the story on their shoulders.

    Fitting in as a tween is hard enough without others actively trying to find ways to cast someone out. The Plague is an effective demonstration of the dynamics that can play out in a competitive environment that also includes a group that has yet to develop into fully-rounded people. It features discomfort on multiple levels, marking an auspicious debut for Polinger.

    ---

    The Plague is now playing in theaters.

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