Saturday, the University of Dallas threw a retirement party for theater department chair Patrick Kelly and his wife — theater teacher, critic and former KERA producer — Judy Kelly. At the request of the late UD president Don Cowan, the two Kellys more or less created the UD drama program 41 years ago.

Their careers in Dallas have been a testament to what talent and imagination can do in a small patch. With $50,000 in 1972 from then Mayor J. Erik Jonsson, they transformed a former cafeteria into the Margaret Jonsson Theater — a tiny space that has produced some memorable results. Patrick directed 60 productions there (with an eye for what dramatic lighting and costuming can do when you have almost no room for sets). The Kellys’ former drama students include Emmy Award-winner Peter MacNichol (Sophie’s Choice, Ally McBeal, 24) and Drama Desk nominee Christopher Evan Welch (Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona).

Patrick has been among the finest directors of classic theater in North Texas — and probably in Colorado, too, where he frequently has worked at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. But his devotion to the classics has not been a matter of dusty traditionalism. He has been a remarkable director of contemporary plays as well — from his days running Stage #1 to his award-winning production of Howard Barker’s The Possibilities at the Undermain, his world premiere of Octavio Solis’ Man of the Flesh at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre and a still-memorable film-noir version of David Mamet’s The Water Engine at UD (where I first saw Chris Welch).

As for Judy Kelly, she, in effect, was my predecessor here at KERA, having been the station’s theater critic, a producer of arts reports for the old Arts Eye program, (see below) — then graduating to full-length documentaries, including her award-winning Frozen Music: The Making of the Meyerson Symphony Center. They have been a source of wisdom: The Kellys were the first people I turned to for advice when considering establishing the Dallas Theater Critics Forum Awards in the mid-’80s. And over drinks or in pre-show chats with them, I’ve acquired much of what little knowledge I have about theater history and Dallas history.

For its 33rd season, Fort Worth’s Hip Pocket Theatre has announced a collection of shows that reflect founder Johnny Simons’ long-held interests, including Beat poetry, pulp fiction and pop prophecy. Notable this season will be a bigger theater venue and a new five-year lease on the city-owned property on Silver Creek Road.

Notable among the offerings, on the other hand, is something quite small and delicate: White Elephant (above), a puppetry-music-and-Super 8 film project by Simons’ daughter Lake and musician John Dyer. A poetic tale of a wicker elephant that is tossed into a bonfire and is transformed, White Elephant opened at La MAMA Experimental Theater Company this weekend in New York (Sept. 10-20).

• Allen Ginsberg’s classic Beat poem, Howl, gets adapted by Johnny Simons (June 5-28).

• Kahlil Gibran’s classic of new age philosophy (and eternal counter-cultural bestseller), The Prophet, gets adapted by Simons (July 10-26).

• Then comes a new work by Simons: The Ugly Brothers Present a Perfectly Lovely Play Featuring the Quiver Sisters and Their Pretty Little Ways (Aug. 7-30).

• The return of the Cowtown Puppetry Festival (Sept. 4-6).

• And A Princess of Mars (Oct. 2-24), one of Edgar Rice Burroughs series of “Martian tales,” his most popular works after his Tarzan novels (which Simons has staged).

Season tickets are on sale. Call 817-246-9775.

Art&Seek is launching a new podcast! “Track By Track” appears every other week on Art&Seek. Texas musicians play their new albums and discuss what went into making them with KERA “90.1 at Night” host Paul Slavens.

Last week’s podcast featured Robert Gomez. This week, Paul talks with Salim Nourallah about his latest album, Constellation.

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L’amour, l’amour: We all love Carmen. The Fort Worth Opera’s production of the Bizet classic got excited reviews from Scott Cantrell and Wayne Lee Gay, especially for SMU grad Beth Clayton in the title role. Cantrell goes out of his way to make this point, however:

The Carmen that Fort Worth Opera opened Saturday night would have been unimaginable from this company even six years ago. The singing ranged from thoroughly capable to thrilling, with orchestra and chorus in fine form and a lively staging.General director Darren K. Woods has turned a company that used to be provincial in all the bad senses into one that looks and sounds entirely professional.

It’s now official. Composer Jake Heggie is everywhere. At least in North Texas. The composer of the (whale ho!) coming-next-year Moby-Dick has been in these parts for the Fort Worth Opera’s production of his opera, Dead Man Walking (May 2 and 10). But so far, his visit has also included a public panel on arts and social change at SMU with author Sister Helen Prejean. And Saturday at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, he played  a Cliburn at the Modern concert, featuring six singers performing Heggie’s songs.

We were just talking about odious online comments, weren’t we? Yes, we were, he added, hastily linking to evidence that might back up his claim before the inevitable onslaught of readers’ attacks. In the New York Times Sunday Magazine, columnist Virginia Heffernan examines why and how comments affect Web journalism:

Online commentary is a bête noire for journalists and readers alike. Most journalists hate to read it, because it’s stinging and distracting, and readers rarely plow through long comments sections unless they intend to post something themselves. But perhaps the comments have become so reader-unfriendly, in part, because of the conventions of the Web-comment form.

One of the more interesting observations Heffernan makes: Online comments often follow a pattern, depending on the time of day. She also gets around to a personal objection of my own: readers who respond with their pet causes, regardless of what the post is about, revealing they haven’t actually read it. It’s not simply distracting; it destroys even the illusion of conversation or exchange, which, after all, is the Web’s highly vaunted, interactive advantage over traditional media

This echo-chamber effect is unpleasant, and it makes it hard to keep listening for the clearer, brighter, rarer voices nearly drowned out in the online din. Which is too bad: newspaper journalism benefits from reader comments. Creating registration standards, inventive means of moderating and displaying comments, membership benefits for regular posters and ratings systems for useful comments are just some of the ways that other news outlets like Slate have improved the quality of reader responses.

Last week, at opening night of Kitchen Dog Theater‘s current campy, bloody Mayan version of Titus Andronicus, artistic director Tina Parker had fun telling the audience that the company’s new season would be announced soon. Actually, it seemed almost as if she were taunting us to get on their e-mail list. If you didn’t take the bait, shame on you, but here’s the new schedule anyway, only a week late.

• The Southwest premiere of Noah Haidle’s Vigils (Sept. 11-Oct. 10), which premiered at the Goodman in Chicago in 2006. Haidle likes time-shifting, character-splitting techniques (Saturn Returns in New York last year, Mr. Marmalade, which Kitchen Dog has presented) and Vigils has a widow who keeps the soul of her dead fireman-husband in a box, while his body still wanders around.

Playwright Allison Moore

• With Slasher (Nov. 13-Dec. 12), the Kitchen Doggers return to the work of Allison Moore for the fourth time (after Hazard County, Eighteen and End Times, a Kitchen Dog world premiere). An SMU grad, Moore seems to have taken several pages from Saw. An Austin, Texas feminist mom in a wheelchair chains her daughter to a radiator — rather than let her star in a slasher flick. It’s Moore’s second play to be featured at the Humana Festival.

• Not to be confused with the Tennessee Williams’ play (and film), Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s boom (Feb. 12-March 13) finds a journalism student and marine biologist having a bit of fun in an underground lab — the fun happens to include the possible end of the world. Texas premiere.

• Funny how the Undermain’s current production of Anton Chekhov’s The Black Monk recalls the playwright’s The Seagull (and his Cherry Orchard as well). Next year, the Dogs will offer a handy comparison with a revival of The Seagull directed by Cameron Cobb (April 9-May 10)

• Among the different staged readings and whatnot, the New Works Festival (May 28-June 29) will feature Zayd Dohrn’s Long Way Go Down about a Mexican couple who are abandoned by the “coyotes” who smuggled them across the border.

Season subscriptions (for five plays) are $100. A Flex Pass — for five single-use admission however you want throughout the season — is $125. Subscriptions go on sale May 1. Call 214-953-1055.

We already knew that next year,  Fort Worth Opera would present the world premiere adaptation of Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas’ memoir of growing up poor, gay and artistic in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.  The book, previously made into the 2000 film directed by Julian Schnabel with Javier Bardem as Arenas, will be adapted by composer Jorge Martin. (Hmmm, it’s the second area premiere by FWOpera of a movie-based opera — after the current offering, Dead Man Walking.)

Now comes the announcement of the festival’s other two shows: Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. The festival will run May 22-June 6, 2010 at Bass Performance Hall.

Other than the festival, FWOpera will present an English-language, scaled-back production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Dec. 10-13 at the Rose Marine Theater. And it will host public performances at the Scott Theatre, productions of Children’s Opera Theatre shows that are normally performed in schools: The Three Little Pigs (March 15) and The Billy Goats Gruff (March 19).

Current 2009 ticket holders will get priority seating along with a special discount and can order their tickets now. The general public will not get their seats until after Aug. 1. Season tickets range from $33-$394. Individual tickets go on sale Sept. 1 and range from $17-$154.  Go to the opera’s website or call 1-877-FWOPERA.

This week’s Saturday Spotlight focuses on the first Oak Cliff Art Crawl. For more information on the event:

FIND: For a list of participating galleries, visit the event’s listing on the Art&Seek calendar.

REACT: The Oak Cliff Art Crawl is just one of a slew of visual arts events this weekend. Others include Cedar Springs Art Festival, the 10th Annual Art is Ageless event and the Funky Finds Spring Fling. Does holding all of these events on the same day make it easier to just hop from the one to the next? Or would you prefer that they were spaced out a little better?

DISCUSS: One of the crawl’s participating shops is the Soda Gallery. The Gallery’s Web site has collected some of its favorite soda commercials from the past, including a Coke commercial from 1959.  Do any of these top perhaps the most famous soda commercial of all time – Mean Joe Green accepting a Coke from that adoring little fan?

CREATE: Another stop on the tour is the Ice House Cultural Center. Earlier in the day, the Center will also teach a class on collage making. If you’ve got a spare $20 and really want to make it an all-day arts affair, be there at 11 a.m.

The Orbans “Were Her” music video from Jon Todd Collins on Vimeo.

Fort Worth folk rockers The Orbans had the acumen to get Jon Collins to shoot their new video. Art&Seek last found Jon hanging at The Belmont with one Doug Burr, so Art&Seek asked him for some details of the new stuff (Art&Seek likes to speak of itself in the third person). Says Jon:

“New video produced by Redrock Micro. Directed, shot, and edited by The Apparat Film Collective. Lens adapters were provided by Redrock Micro. Camera (Sony EX-1) was provided by Sony.

“We shot the video over a period of three days – one day on stage (the room with the light chandelier) and two days following the band around a couple places in Dallas (City Tavern, House of Blues).”

More, please.

Jerome spent the morning conducting grueling interviews  at the Dallas Theater Center.

Or so he said….

Fortunately, my spies are everywhere.

Our last pair of tickets to the Brinker International Forum with Diana Ross will be yours if you answer today’s trivia question:

Ross starred in The Wiz, but the cast was full of  famous faces. Which Wiz co-star also had a role in Ross’ previous success, Lady Sings the Blues. Email me at abothwell@kera.org with Diana Ross in the subject line. Good luck!