By 7 p.m. on September 30, dozens of pro football scouts will already be in the Cotton Bowl to view the talents of GRAMBLING STATE AND PRAIRIE VIEW a&m. After all, these two schools have loaded NFL rosters in the past. But while the game highlights a special rivalry for fans, the best show will be when the marching bands of these two schools square off. For tickets call 787-2000.
For some years DEBORA HUNTER photographed the dying. Now, perhaps as a relief, she has turned her camera to those who are just beginning life-to babies and the very young. But the clarity of observation and the personal involvement remain. November 2-26. The Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University. 692-2516.
Video release: RAIN MAN (R) Drama, September. Dustin Hoffman is brilliant as the autistic savant plunged into the world outside his institution for the first time in years, and Tom Cruise holds his own with a fine performance.
One happy event of the autumn is the rerelease of Tony Richardson’s TOM JONES (Samuel Goldwyn Company, TBA). The adaptation of Fielding’s picaresque novel won four 1963 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Richardson. Albert Finney is a rousing Tom Jones, Susannah York a fetching Sophie.
There are few “arts and crafts” festivals in Dallas, but the SALE STREET/VINEYARD FAIR has to be one of the best. This autumn, outdoor festival has been around for more than twenty years and today incorporates 500 artisans and craftsmen from all over the country, lots of food, and plenty of live entertainment. October 14 & 15. 871-4988.
This season marks the return to THE DALLAS OPERA of one of opera’s grandest 20th-century stars, Dame Joan Sutherland. Her voice is finally showing its age a bit, so The Merry Widow is an ideal vehicle for her now. It’s not too demanding and it allows her to bask in the warmth of the adulation she has inspired in her many rabid fens. November 2, 5, 8, 11. Music Hall at Fair Park. 871-0090.
Each year the NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE tries to bring an exciting exhibition hockey game to D/FW, and this year the Detroit Redwings play the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Tarrant County Convention Center on September 27. In past years tickets sold quickly, so act fast. Call Rainbow-TicketMaster at 787-2000.
Ken Bryant, interim artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center, will begin his regime with a production of Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET. It’s his first Dallas try at directing the Bard, and its success or failure will help determine whether Bryant will have a realistic chance of being considered for the permanent job of artistic director. September 26-October 22. 526-8857.
ZANNE HOCHBERG’s kind of painting-raw and muscular and nervy-helped put American painting on the world map in the years after World War II. But times and styles change, and nobody gets famous anymore for painting abstractions. Nonetheless, Zanne Hochberg has kept the faith, finding fresh possibilities where there is fresh paint. September 15-October 22. The Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University. 692-2516.
THE DEATH OF FLOYD COLLINS by Dallas playwright Tim Hatcher has its world premiere at the Addison Centre Theatre. The play is based on the true story- and the unbelievable theatrics surrounding it-of the Floyd Collins cave disaster of 1925 in Kentucky. The play is a fictionalized version set within the framework of a vaudeville show. Through September 9. 934-3913.
If THE TEXAS RANGERS are in the pennant race in September, the biggest baseball games ever played here could happen the first week of the month. They face the Kansas City Royals on September 1, 2, and 3, and Minnesota at 2:05 on the 4th. Tip of the week: arrive at Sunday’s game about 12:30 and watch Bo Jackson crush ’em in batting practice. Metro (817) 273-5222.
ROSCOE WEST, a Fort Worth ceramic artist who is currently working in Taos, will create a special Day of the Dead installation in the Eugene Binder Gallery. West’s pottery is marked by its own graveyard humor, ensuring a lively show. November 2-25. 840 Exposition. 821-5864.
Based on the autobiography of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the musical GYPSY is about her backstage childhood and rise to fame, and the real starring part is for the all-time champion stage-door mother, Mama Rose. The thirtieth anniversary revival stars Cagney and Lacey six-time Emmy winner Tyne Daly. We’ll wager that this will be the most entertaining State Fair Musical in years. October 3-22. 787-2000.
The RICHARDSON SYMPHONY is devoting an entire season to showcasing women soloists, conductors, and composers. Violinist Ida Kavafian opens the season with the Dvorak Violin Concerto (October 21). Pianist Navah Perlman will be playing the blockbuster Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 on November 18. Pianist Patmela Mia Paul goes pops with the Gershwin Concerto in F on December 9. 234-4195.
German sausage, sauerkraut, polka dancing, and lots of beer are the stuff that OKTOBERFEST is made of-and Fort Worth is the place to find it. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, the Fort Worth Oktoberfest will offer more than a hundred food and game booths, five entertainment stages, and more. October 7 & 8 at the Tarrani County Convention Center. (817) 737-5356.
The art world has been only gradual and grudging in its recognition of black American artists. That is why BLACK ART-ANCESTRAL LEGACY: THE AFRICAN IMPULSE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART is so long overdue. This exhibit sets out to answer a serious question: just what is specifically African about African-American art? December 3-February 25. Dallas Museum of Art. 1717 N. Har-wood. 922-1200.
Why is the lunar module like the American eagle? What do a microwave antenna and a baseball glove have in common? RANDY TWADDLE’S big, handsome works, in which objects in black are silhouetted against stark white, pose just such riddles. September 16-October 21. Barry Whistler Gallery. 2909-A Canton. 939-0242.
Alan Ayckbourn is one of the grimmest-and one of the funniest-playwrights on the planet. His new play WOMAN IN MIND at Theatre Three gives us (wo different realities at the same time: the fantasies that go on in his heroine’s head, and the much-less-pleasant realities she is constantly bumping into. Through September 30. 871-3300.
THE DALLAS COWBOYS will face some of the best at Texas Stadium this season. Miami comes to Irving on November 19, while the rest of the guests include Eastern Division rivals Washington. New York, and Philadelphia. 556-2500.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA is universally regarded as one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, but it probably doesn’t receive one-hundredth as many productions as Hamlet, King Lear, or many of the Bard’s more inferior works. Fort Worth’s Caravan of Dreams is remedying this situation by producing the tragedy as part of its continuing series of great (and seldom seen) world dramas. November 3-De-cember 2. Metro (817) 429-4000.
September 24 is the SUPER DERBY AT LOUISIANA DOWNS. The two most gifted horses of the decade may meet today: the handsome colt, Easy Goer, and the rival who upstaged him at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, Sunday Silence. If the pairing comes off. look for a two-horse race and a tight win by Sunday Silence. (800) 551-7223.
Video release: THE WIZARD OF OZ (G) Fantasy adventure, late August. This movie great celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a special collector’s edition release. Added to this Judy Garland classic are more than fifteen minutes of rarely seen footage, including a song by Buddy Ebsen-the original Tin Man. This special edition will only be available through February 1990.
Big Tex. Corny Dogs. THE STATE FAIR. What more do we need to say? No fall is complete without the automobile expo, livestock show, death-defying rides, try-your-luck game booths, and the pig races. September 29-October 22 at Fair Park. 565-9931.
DON WORTH, a West Coast photographer renowned for his soft-focus black-and-white landscapes, has only recently begun making color still lifes incorporating flowers, patterned fabric, and ceramic vases. And yet his prints are among the most dazzling in the history of the medium. October 24-December 9. The Afterimage, #250 in the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh. 871-9140.
The Dallas Theater Center’s tradition of presenting Charles Dickens’s classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL has spanned both previous artistic regimes here. Former artistic director Adrian Hall’s adaptation is more serious than the others-and thus more true to the spirit of Dickens’s original. The DTC is reviving his version this season. Presumably it will follow his precedent in providing a newly cast, freshly directed production that helps to keep the spirit of Christmas alive. November 25-December 23. 526-8857.
THE WESTERN WIND is a group of six classically trained singers who for many years have been making distinguished recordings of everything from Renaissance madrigals to American colonial hymns. At this point its programs consist of just about everything-from the obscurest classical composers to “doo-wop” boppers. Whatever these six singers sing, they sing magnificently, and TITAS (The International Theatrical Arts Society) is presenting their Dallas debut on November 10. 528-5576.
There’s still time to buy SMU MUSTANGS tickets before the season kickoff versus Rice on September 2 at Ownby Stadium. Finally Forrest Gregg’s charges can hit somebody besides each other. The University of Texas travels to the campus on September 23 and the Mustangs may be healthy enough to put up a decent fight. However, back-to-back road games against the Aggies on November 4 and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on November 11 should return a battered football team for a final home game against Texas Tech on November 18. 692-3667.
Last season the Dallas Civic Music Association updated its name and acquired a new logo as ALLEGRO DALLAS. This year it is offering two distinct series-one with better-known artists and the other dedicated supposedly to younger, less famous artists. The single biggest star in either group is America’s favorite clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. (November 29). And the most adventuresome single event Allegro Dallas is presenting may be an all-Beethoven evening with The Hanover Band, London’s period instrument orchestra (November 15). 520-6215.
Randy Quaids “THE BIGGEST PARTY IN THE HISTORY OF TEXAS” should prove to be boisterous (loud), popular (crowded), and just plain fun. If nothing else, the musical entertainment lineup is not to be missed. At the Cotton Bowl. The Who will close out their twenty-fifth anniversary tour of America along with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The pre-party will take place at the Dallas Convention Center beginning at 11 a.m. with even more great musicians and entertainment. September 3. 770-7775.
Last year Theatre Three inaugurated a new holiday tradition for the December slot in its season-and one that has nothing to do with Hanukkah, Christmas, or the New Year. Again this year it is reviving Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s THE FANTASTICKS. It should be a tonic antidote for those who have endured too many Christmas carols, whether musical or theatrical. December 6-31. 871-3300.
Joshua Rifkin has had one of the most interesting careers in classic music of his generation. While still a student he came to national attention as the arranger and conductor of the Baroque Beatles Book, and later he was the major popularizer of the rags of Scott Joplin. The DALLAS BACH SOCIETY has scored a coup by bringing Rifkin and his Bach Ensemble to Dallas to perform an all-Bach concert on historical instruments. October 26. St. Thomas Aquinas Church. 827-2224.
It seems as if the summer was dominated by comic books. Can anybody bear to think of looking at another Batman T-shirt? If you think it’s high time somebody started making fun of this national obsession, Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth presents EVEN IF YOU CAN STOP THE YELLOW CLAW, MY DEADLY TIDAL WAVE WILL STILL DESTROY NEW YORK! and it’s even a sequel-Part III, in fact. Yellow Claw will bring back Hip Pocket’s own whimsical kind of satire and apply it to the whole world of adventure comic books. September 15-October 22.(817)927-2833.
One of the highlights of ClTYFEST ’89, a month-long city festival, will be a Creole/Cajun Festival, October 7 & 8 at the West End (Woodall Rodgers and Field). There will be nonstop music with ten bands including Buckwheat Zydeco and Justin Wilson. Blackened chicken and alligator, shrimp and crab boils, and every other Creole/ Cajun taste treat will be there for the asking, alongside lots of vendors and exhibit booths. It’s part of this year’s focus on France, and the fun’s just beginning-Cityfest ’89 runs from September 28-October 31. 520-0409.
So you love Wagner’s technicolor orchestral scores-but hate busty sopranos and interminable monologues. The FORT WORTH SYMPHONY has constructed a program of the music-no dialogue, no singers-from six of Wagner’s greatest operas, including such hits as the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde and the Magic Fire Music from Die Walkure. John Giordano conducts the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at the Tarrant County Convention Center on Septem-ber 16 and 17. (817)926-8831.
At the movies: BLACK RAIN (R) Thriller, September. Michael Douglas and the makers of Fatal Attraction team up with director Ridley Scott (of Blade Runner fame) for a fight with the Japanese mob.
Related Articles
Media
5 Things to Know About ‘Why It Matters’ That Our Mayor Lies
Or: why does the Dallas Morning News treat readers like children?
Home & Garden
This Must Be the Place—One Family’s Post-Pandemic Hyde Park–Inspired Home
After world events forced a Park Cities family to take shelter, they responded by putting together a team to create the ultimate post-pandemic Hyde Park-inspired gathering spot.
Golf
Byron Nelson Leadership Provides Details on New Sponsorship, Charitable Giving, More
With a new, 10-year title sponsorship deal in place with global holding firm CJ Group, Byron Nelson leaders are looking to build on charitable giving and continue to increase economic impact.