When the early history of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is written, Mo Rocca’s name will appear alongside that of Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. Rocca was one of the correspondents who helped launch the political comedy show’s satiric style. But before he went national, Rocca got his start in Dallas as a writer [...]

The plays of UTD performance studies professor Thomas Riccio aren’t easy to follow. They’re not supposed to be. Riccio comes from a long line of contemporary writers — Harold Pinter to Erik Ehn, Richard Foreman to John O’Keefe — whose surreal approach avoids, or at least subverts, the conventions of linear storytelling.
Some People, the latest [...]

When 1954’s The Pajama Game was revived on Broadway three years ago, the presence of Harry Connick Jr. in the lead male role set theatergoers atwitter. I could hear some of the women around me quietly gasping to themselves when the jazz-pop singer first walked on stage. By the time he removed his shirt, they [...]

Most modern-dance companies are named for their artistic director and sole choreographer: Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Bill T. Jones. This typically leads to a house style that gives the company its identity. Dallas Black Dance Theatre takes a different tack, either commissioning new work from independent choreographers or buying vintage pieces to perform.
If [...]

Film professionals from across Texas will descend on Austin next week to ask for more incentives to draw movie and television productions to the state. The effort is being led by the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA), which is busing in the citizen-lobbyists and setting up meetings with members of the state legislature. Texas [...]

Photo: PBS
Another sign of the economic times: Master paintings and photographs are showing up in the art world’s equivalent of pawn shops. The New York Times reports this week that photographer Annie Leibovitz (above) is the latest name-brand artist to use one of these firms to raise money, to the tune of $15.5 million. While [...]

Michael Miller’s paintings behind the desk at Barry Whistler
Of the dozen artists in the current Barry Whistler Gallery show, Inaugural ‘09, Michael Miller is the one that jumped out at me. His acrylic and collage paintings read like the fever-dream posters for a psychedelic pulp novel or B-movie. Miller is an associate professor and director [...]

Tom Sime has a theory: People can see right through him and smell his fear no matter how much he tries to hide it. And he has the evidence to back it up in a funny and touching anecdote on his new blog site, SmellMyFear.com.
The painter-playwright relocated from Dallas to New York last fall to [...]

Undermain performed Greendale last year at the Ohio Theatre.
Deep Ellum’s Undermain Theatre is asking its patrons to help out a sister venue in New York, the Ohio Theatre, where Undermain has been putting on shows since 2000. The Ohio is asking for $1 from each contributor “as a symbolic gesture of your love.” It’s “not [...]

Lawyer Gus Garcia (left) and his client Pete Hernandez (center)
After the U.S.-Mexican War, Mexican citizens living on conquered lands were offered U.S. citizenship. Full legal rights were another story. They would not come for 100 years with the landmark Supreme Court decision, Hernandez v. Texas. Last night, a new documentary about the 1950s court battle [...]