Plus a photo walk-through of what the still-under-construction Museum of Nature & Science looks like now — about a year before it opens.

Two years were added to the ebullient Woods’ current contract as general director of FWO — the third consecutive time the board has extended it. Someone must like him and/or he must be doing something right. You think?

‘Giant’ means big, of course – as in the biggest world-premiere the Dallas Theater Center has ever attempted. And composer Michael John LaChiusa’s musical adaption of Gient certainly looks and sounds splendid. It’s the story that’s the trouble – always has been.

… which doesn’t really lead to a punchline because Thursday’s roundtable, sponsored by Art & Seek and the Dallas Museum of Art, actually led to a wide-ranging, intelligent conversation about the local contemporary arts scene.

There’s sixty years of history behind Giant,, the big-budget musical opening at the Dallas Theater Center. When it came out, Edna Ferber’s novel angered many Texans. Four years later, the movie version became Warner Brothers’ biggest hit. It always helps if you make us look like Elizabeth Taylor or James Dean.

Cowboys Stadium is already known for the contemporary art on its walls. Now it’ll have an opera on its massive video screen – Mozart’s The Magic Flute, live from the Dallas Opera’s production at the Winspear Opera House.

Take the typical but bouncy rock-band performance shoot, cut it up, paint all over it, tape it back together. It’s Django Django’s “Default.”

Conductor Jaap van Zweden is getting a proclamation from Mayor Rawlings this week — while financially, the DSO has shifted from staving off insolvency to trying to retire its multi-million dollar deficit.

Conservative Christians are forcing the interrogation of a freethinker. It’s 1656 in Amsterdam. And the fate of the city’s entire Jewish population is at stake. Did we mention that David Ives’ New Jerusalem can be pretty funny?

The devoted fans of Lonesome Dove and Last Picture Show may not know it, but author Larry McMurtry has been a terrific essay-writer and reviewer. They certainly wouldn’t know it from his latest gig.