At a gala luncheon today, arts patrons and performers celebrated Theatre 3’s 50th anniversary — and honored its long-time leader, Jac Alder.

The Jubilee Theatre has one of its best productions in years currently onstage – ‘The African Company Presents Richard III’ -which happens to be about American’s first black acting company. At the same time, North Texas’ longest-established black theater has a new artistic director. Jerome Weeks writes about both.

‘The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz’ was a landmark box set when it came out – 38 years ago. Now, Meadows Dean Jose Bowen has helped craft a major new CD collection called ‘The Smithsonian Anthology of Jazz.’ It presents a different take on the history of an American art form.

Beginning this week, seventeen arts organization from Dallas to Flower Mound, Fort Worth to Addison, will be presenting the plays and films of a single writer, Texas native Horton Foote. Other festivals have celebrated Foote’s work before. So why this one?

The 100th birthday of Dallas real estate legend Ebby Halliday will be marked with a gala this Wednesday at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Headlining it will be international tenor Mario Frangoulis. Halliday and the singer share a connection.

The West Dallas Urban Structure is coming up before the Dallas City Council. It’s a set of development guidelines created by the new office, the CityDesign Studio — guidelines for preserving neighborhoods, encouraging high-rises, improving streets. They may become a model for future development in the rest of Dallas.

He’s won a Tony Award and two Obies. He’s designed stage shows in London, Berlin and Japan. And for the past three years, John Arnone has been coming back home to North Texas — to teach and design some of the best sets in town for SMU, the Dallas Theater Center and the Undermain. Audio bonus: Listen to Arnone’s backstage stories of using playwright Edward Albee’s art collection for decoration and how to fake realism with Saran Wrap.

The triumph of ‘Moby-Dick’ was almost a year ago. But actually for the past three years, it seems as if composer Jake Heggie has barely had time to leave Texas — what with all the premieres, commissions and now, a residency at UNT.

Replacing the departing Mark Hadley is Heather Kitchen from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. Her big credential (other than a willingness to leave the Bay Area)? Over 14 years, she grew the ACT’s budget from $11 million to $19 million. The DTC’s budget? $8 million.

Car culture and the American landscape have been Ed Ruscha’s twin topics since he took Route 66 west from Oklahoma in 1956. Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum has a major retrospective of 50 years of his art: maps, photos, parking lots, gas stations, the works.