Vibrancy Kicks Off the Fall Arts Season

Arts and culture activity flourishes this fall, with creativity and innovation in abundance! From the walls to the stage to your homes, Dallas arts groups produced a spectacular array of experiences that had us all talking. These six programs stood out from the many unique arts projects across the city to become TACA’s September and October Pop-Up Grant recipients.

Cara Mia Theatre’s “Latinidades, a festival of Latinx Theatre” – Photos by Ben Torres

Cara Mía Theatre

Latinidades: A Festival of Latinx Theatre

Learn more about Cara Mia Theatre

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $4,000 Artist Bonus Funding to 3 Key Artists and 7 Supporting Artists

Founded in 1996, the mission of Cara Mía Theatre is to inspire and engage people to uplift their communities through transformative Latinx theatre, multicultural youth arts experiences and community action. Keep in touch with Cara Mía Theatre on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Cara Mía Theatre’s annual Latinidades Festival of Latinx Theatre returned in 2022 with some of the most cutting-edge Latinx theatre in the United States featuring Pachuquísmo by Vanessa Sanchez and La Mezcla from San Francisco, California, On the Eve of Abolition by Papel Machete from San Juan, Puerto Rico, ¡Estar Guars! by the Latino Comedy Project from Austin, Texas and a free festival kickoff with performances by Cara Mía Theatre, Dallas artists, and La Mezcla. 

The festival offered a range of theatrical experiences, making audiences laugh and cry, and leaving them with something to talk about from every individual event. These dynamic productions showcased the interplay of the traditional and the contemporary through dance and live music, theatre and comedy, featuring local, national, and international artists. Artists on stilts and roller skates, in masks and zoot suits brought this unique mix of Latinx artistic experiences to life for Dallas audiences. 

The Classics Theatre Project’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – Photo by Kate Voskova

The Classics Theatre Project

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Learn more about The Classics Theatre Project

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $4,000 Artist Bonus Funding to 4 Key Artists and 21 Supporting Artists

The Classics Theatre Project produces socially relevant classic works to enrich the culture of the North Texas community. Keep in touch with The Classics Theatre Project on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

A benchmark of the modern American canon, the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama in 1955, and the play the legendary Tennessee Williams considered his favorite of his works, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is a study in mendacity. This Southern telling of a family in crisis is rich in symbolism, examining the themes of truth, lies, sexual desire, repression, and decay against the backdrop of familial relationships, social mores and morality.  

The Classics Theatre Project’s (TCTP) production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Susan Sargeant, starred a patriarch of Dallas theatre, Terry Martin, as one of drama’s most iconic patriarchs, Big Daddy, Olivia Cinqueplami as Maggie, and Joey Folsom as Brick. This production gave Dallas audiences a fresh look at a classic play, and their creative engagement of this work gave our nominators new meaning for a beloved show. TCTP also made a recording of the production available, making it possible for more people to view this impressive version of the show. 

The Dallas Opera’s “Rigoletto” – Photo by Kyle Flubacker

The Dallas Opera

Rigoletto (Livestream)

Learn more about theDALLASOPERA.tv

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant

The Dallas Opera (TDO) is a world-class performing arts organization producing outstanding mainstage and chamber opera repertoire; attracting national and international attention; committed to extensive community outreach and education; and managed to the highest possible standards of artistic excellence, accountability, efficiency and financial sustainability. In Spring 2021, TDO announced the launch of its new streaming platform, thedallasopera.tv which represents a new avenue of presentation and production for an opera company, beyond the physical space of an opera house. Keep in touch with The Dallas Opera on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Verdi’s Rigoletto marked the opening of the The Dallas Opera’s landmark 65th Anniversary Season and the first-ever worldwide livestream performance of a mainstage production. Music Director Emmanuel Villaume conducted this “musically superb” (Dallas Morning News) production, which brought to stage one of the world’s great Rigolettos, George Gagnidze, “a force of destructive nature” (Los Angeles Times), along with tenor René Barbera as the Duke’s iconic “La donna è mobile,” and Madison Leonard as the perfect Gilda with her “silvery ethereal sound” (Opera Magazine).

The livestream, produced using seven cameras to capture the full operatic experience, also featured behind-the-scenes interviews with artistic leadership General Director and CEO Ian Derrer, Conductor Emmanuel Villaume, Assistant Conductor Paolo Bressan, Technical Director Erik McCullough, and Associate Concertmaster Ami Campbell. Pop-Up nominators said they were brought them to tears watching the livestream because its impressive videography made the performances so immediate and visceral. The Dallas Opera used the quality of the camerawork in the livestream to uplift the artistry of this production of Rigoletto, showcasing these incredible talents in an accessible way. 

Photo courtesy of Echo Theatre

Echo Theatre

Echo Offstage: Theatre Women Speak

Learn more about Cara Mia Theatre

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $4,000 Artist Bonus Funding to 3 Key Artists and 2 Supporting Artists

Echo Theatre champions the diverse voices of women+. Keep in touch with Echo Theatre on Facebook and Twitter.

Echo Theatre’s original podcast, Echo Offstage: Theatre Women Speak, features intimate conversations with host Catherine Whiteman and some of today’s most innovative women+ theatre creatives about their work, artistic processes, and the future of women+ in theatre. Previous guests include Madeleine George (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Caridad Svich (2012 Obie Lifetime Achievement), Regina Taylor (Golden Globe winner), and Lynn Nottage (2-time Pulitzer Prize winner,) among many distinguished others. Echo Offstage is produced by Eric Berg and Kateri Cale. 

These conversations have helped audiences learn more about the theatre-making process through discussions among peers. The women+ that Echo features run the range of roles, from playwrights to administrators, actors to lighting designers, illuminating the breadth of what goes into making a production come alive. Echo Offstage has been a labor of love by Echo Theatre, creating a unique opportunity to bring audiences into the behind the scenes world of theatre.  

Photo courtesy of Latino Arts Project

Latino Arts Project

Yanga and the AfroMexican Experience

Learn more about Latino Arts Project

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $4,000 Artist Bonus Funding to 2 Key Artists and 2 Supporting Artists

Latino Arts Project is a first-of-its-kind “pop-up” museum created to bring a meaningful and unique art museum experience in both traditional and innovative spaces. Keep in touch with Latino Arts Project on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Latino Arts Project created an immersive art experience celebrating the little-known story of Gaspar Yanga, the first liberator of the Americas, and the cultural wealth of the AfroMexican communities descended from the enslaved people brought to Mexico from Africa. Mexico’s histories often overlook its involvement in the slave trade, and the Latino Arts Project has made a point of not only highlighting the cultural impact of these incredible AfroMexican communities, but also Yanga’s role in establishing one of the earliest free Black settlements in the Americas.

Yanga and the AfroMexican Experience had two sections. The first, devoted to Yanga, explores his story with documents that show Yanga’s negotiation with the King of Spain for freedom for his community, with contemporary artworks from the town now known just as Yanga. The second gallery was devoted to exploring the cultural impact of the AfroMexican experience, including the music, dance, food and art in each of the three main areas of Mexico with a direct African impact.

The Walls at Pleasant Grove “StylesFest” – Photo by Rebecca Slezak, courtesy of The Dallas Morning News

The Walls at Pleasant Grove

StylesFest

Learn more about the WALLS AT PLEASANT GROVE

Unrestricted Grant: $2,000 Pop-Up Grant
Artist Bonus Funds: $4,000 Artist Bonus Funding to 1 Key Artists and 8 Supporting Artists

For more than a decade, Dallas native Khadafy Branch, aka DAP ONE, has curated the The Walls at Pleasant Grove, inviting aerosol artists from across the globe to share their unique painting styles at this hidden cultural gem in southeast Dallas.

On October 15, The Walls at Pleasant Grove organized the first Stylesfest, a free public event for the entire family to enjoy live art, creative workshops, music and food. Over the course of three days, the event featured a mash-up of over fifteen local and national artists, including pioneers of the aerosol art movement such as PART ONE, BIO & NICER along with a few Home Town Dallas artists. This project created unique access to these muralists, with the opportunity to see their creative process up close and personal. StylesFest gave festival attendees a special peek into the world of aerosol artists, with a feeling that you were welcomed into a creative community.

WHAT’S A POP-UP GRANT?
We started our Pop-Up Grant program to shine a light on arts organizations creating programming that demonstrates exceptional quality, innovation, and accessibility safely, without skimping on the creative impact.

HOW DO YOU PICK THE RECIPIENTS?
Grant recipients are meticulously selected via a nomination process that incorporates 45+ anonymous volunteers. Nominations are made each month and a selection committee meets afterward to determine grantees based on our criteria above.

To learn more about Pop-Up Grants, please click here.

HEADER PHOTO: Cara Mía Theatre’s “Latinidades: A Festival of Latinx Theatre” – Photo by Jay Williams