Star-Telegram.com: Features

Fun on a budget in London

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:54 CDT

By JUDY WILEY

LONDON — The businessman from Oslo was a little drunk, and he was deeply unhappy with the Travelodge City Road. Near as I could tell, this was mostly because he had set his concealer above the toilet, it fell in and he was unable to retrieve it.

I wondered if there was a hotel in London where it was easier to get things out of the commode, and pondered men wearing concealer. I was a long way from Texas.

Actually, he was kind of right about the Travelodge in general. After a few days there I had come to view it as my main strategic error. The idea was a "budget London" story, which is just about a contradiction in terms. But there are ways to visit the city even if you’re not a supermodel or an oil baron.

The main problem with the Travelodge was its location. I read eight or 10 guidebooks, and concluded that staying on London’s hip and edgy East End was a good idea, partly because my 20-year-old daughter was coming with me. Sara is not known for her appreciation of museums, so I figured the part of town with cool boutiques, restaurants and clubs filled with people her age was the place to set up camp.

The interesting part only took about an afternoon. We would have been better off staying where we could walk to a few major attractions, instead of having to cram onto the Tube with everyone else in London every morning and evening. There were no nearby places for sodas, a quick snack, etc. that were open past the afternoon.

But the price was right, about $180 a night for the small room and one bed, a bargain here.

Breakfast at the hotel would have cost about $30 a day for the two of us. Remember that number — $30. You’ll see it a lot if you go to London.

What we did right: The room was spotlessly clean, everything worked, but it had no phone, no blow-dryer, no drawers. The front desk was either sweet and helpful or arrogant and mean, depending on who was on duty. Overall, the hotel chain idea was not a bad one.

If we had it to do over: I would try the Premier Inn London County Hall, near the London Eye. But book early.

Sightseeing

That moment that made me suddenly love London did not come after I paid $30 to see the Tower of London.

It did not come from riding a $30 sightseeing bus, although that was money well-spent in terms of getting our bearings.

It came the very first day, when I wandered out of the hot Travelodge room and across the street, I saw the castlelike Artillery Headquarters. I crossed to get a better look, and next to it, found a fence enclosing row upon row of very old tombstones, the moss-covered kind from fairy tales and Halloween.

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground may have started out as Bone Hill centuries ago.

England’s dead have rested here for probably more than 1,000 years. Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), William Blake (1757-1827) Pilgrim’s Progress author John Bunyan (1628-1688) are all occupants.

The old graveyard was tranquil and pretty. Grass and flowers grew amid the mossy slabs. Londoners lined the benches, reading, drowsing in the sun or walking the paved paths. A gaggle of schoolchildren in navy blue uniforms whirled through.

Time stood still while modern life danced past. This is what draws me so to Europe — the reassuring sense of walking through history, of knowing what has lasted.

What we did right: The hop-on, hop-off sightseeing tour, good for 24 hours, let us get oriented, and stop where we wanted without wearing ourselves out walking the wrong way from a Tube station. The Thames cruise that came with the tour was a bonus.

If we had it to do over: The walking tours in London get high marks from everyone who’s taken them. Go to www.walks.com to see details on one such company, London Walks.

Shopping

In Kara Walker exhibit, quaint-looking methods bring racial conflict into razor-sharp relief

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:46 CDT

By GAILE ROBINSON

Violent images of sexual aggression and racial subjugation frolic across the walls of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in stunning silhouettes.

This dichotomy of beautiful horrors is the handiwork of Kara Walker, one of the most celebrated young artists in the nation. A survey of her work, "Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love," opened Saturday at the Modern with more than 100 pieces, including drawings, films and silhouette murals.

Walker’s work is rife with conflict — power and oppression, romance and aggression, slavery and liberation are all depicted in caricatures that skewer Anglo-Americans and African-Americans. Many older African-Americans who fought for civil rights say the 39-year-old Walker has put the movement back 100 years. Her reply, recorded by the Museum of Modern Art in 1999, is that for her generation, "Blackness became a very loaded subject, a very loaded thing to be — all about forbidden passions and desires, and all about a history that’s still living."

No one gets off lightly in Walker’s works, even when she reverses the roles of master and oppressed and suggests that no lessons are ever learned. Victims, when given the upper hand, usually then raise it in anger.

Walker tells these tales of racial conflicts through the popular 18th-century art form of silhouettes, and her facility at drawing is remarkable. After drawing her figures on black paper, she cuts out her figures and pastes them to the gallery or museum wall, often grouping as many as 10 little scenarios together for a single mural that is titled with references to fictional tales of the old South such as Gone With the Wind or Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Walker began making her mark around 1994, the year she received her master’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Since then, she has been making life-size murals of her silhouettes, as well as films that use the silhouettes like stick puppets. In several instances, images of Walker manipulating the puppets appear in the films; rather than looking like a mistake, this adds a dimension of biography to her fiction.

"I insert myself in a history that has excluded me," she says.

"There was no place in the history of art for African-American women, so she inserts herself in the classical art traditions," says Philippe Vergne, the chief curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the show’s organizing institution.

Adult themes

Walker’s adult themes mean that this show is definitely not for all ages. This is an artist who states in one of her written wall-size manifestos, "Every canvas is a space begging to be maimed." Here are some of her main subjects and how they’re treated:

Birth and death: Walker uses images of defecation to comment on the two greatest moments of life. For instance, women, and sometimes men, extrude babies as if dropping a litter; the infants fall from the womb head first, dropping on the ground with inaudible splats.

Scatological references: Defecation is also used to represent the slave histories that have been repressed.

Suckling: Images of suckling represent oral histories that have been passed through generations, providing a measure of nourishment even though the tales are horrifying. In one scene from The End of Uncle Tom and the Grand Allegorical Tableau of Eva in Heaven, four women, perhaps a generational family portrait, suckle each other.

Split bodies: Bodies torn in half represent the good and bad in everyone.

Severed legs: Amputation or the severing of an Achilles tendon were often the fates awaiting runaway slaves.

'You start reliving the story’

Walker’s early mural-size silhouette scenes have been incorporated into more recent media pieces. The first way she did this was by employing overhead projectors in the galleries so that viewers’ shadows become incorporated into the work. We are all implicated, even in shadowy forms. In Darkytown Rebellion, a parade of silhouettes dances and cavorts across the walls as the projector flashes colored gels behind the black cutouts. The gray shadows of museum visitors shuffle along with the parade.

Recently, Walker has added films to her canon, using her cutouts like stick puppets and manipulating them in stop-action animation. The lascivious actions are more brutal than the passive silhouettes and are almost too extreme to view in their entirety. Tweaking the discomfort level is Walker’s intent, and she manages to do it many times over.

There is a great deal to like about Walker’s work; her drawing ability and her cutout silhouettes are truly wonderful. Her themes tend to dampen the initial enthusiasm, though: It’s impossible to remain upbeat or positive about something desperately brutal. The viewer ends up being as conflicted as Walker is in her dichotomies and wishes for respite from the narrative.

But Walker notes on the opening panel of the show: "It’s interesting that as soon as you start telling the story of racism, you start reliving the story. You keep recreating a monster that swallows you. But as long as there’s a Darfur, as long as there are people saying, 'Hey, you don’t belong here’ to others, it only seems realistic to continue investigating the terrain of racism."

Eagles cover band closes out Fort Worth concert series

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:44 CDT

By PUNCH SHAW

FORT WORTH — The Eagles can still draw a crowd — and they don’t even have to be there to do it.

The Fort Worth Symphony concluded its Concerts in the Garden series Saturday with Take It to the Limit, an evening devoted to the music of the Eagles. And even though it was a tribute band doing the honors with the symphony’s help and not the real deal, it still packed the Botanic Garden with more than 4,500 fans of mellow ’70s pop-rock.

The music: Vocalist Randy Jackson was billed as the concert’s headliner. But as soon as he took the stage, he introduced Terry Brock as the evening’s lead singer.

It didn’t really matter much, since the additional musicians were there to provide covers, not replicas, of Eagles hits. Brock, Jackson and company were especially strong on the harmonies in a set list that visited most of the California band’s biggest hits — One of These Nights, Witchy Woman, Desperado and Take It Easy, among others.

Brock doesn’t sound at all like Don Henley or any other Eagles vocalist, but he displayed a strong and flexible voice throughout the evening.

The symphony, under the baton of guest conductor Brent Havens, played along gamely but was usually drowned out by the amplified band.

But when it was heard, the orchestra filled out the overall sound nicely.

The mood: A peaceful easy feeling doesn’t begin to describe it. Maybe it was the heat or just July Fourth celebration fatigue, but if the crowd had been any more laid-back it would have been unconscious.

Memorable moments: The symphony made its best contribution to Desperado, the only number of the night for which the band stayed silent. Brock’s vocals were also especially good on this classic ballad.

And the only time the concert developed something resembling a pulse was during Get Over It, a driving rocker that featured symphony violinist Steven Huber.

Japanese-style game shows are trying to win over American audiences

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:53 CDT

By CARY DARLING

The Japanese have long been known for their torturous game shows that test not only physical endurance but sanity. Now this approach is finding a home on American TV. Why suffer the stolid bookishness of Jeopardy! — and run the risk of actually learning something — when you can watch Hurl! and savor the sight of guys revisiting their previous meal?

And this being the networks’ "off-season," when viewers’ brain cells are fried from the sun and summer-TV reality silliness, it’s no surprise that the Japanese style of competition is exploding across the airwaves. Here’s a guide to what’s out there:

Wipeout

7 p.m. Tuesdays on WFAA/Channel 8

Taken either as a tip of the hat or just a rip-off of the Japanese series Ninja Warrior, ABC’s Wipeout doesn’t measure up. Both shows are built on the premise of pushing individuals through an outlandish obstacle course in which a misplaced foot usually sends the contestant crashing into water. The difference is that most of the competitors on Ninja Warrior are athletic — some are even competitive athletes — so they stand a realistic chance of completing the course. It actually makes for a good contest. Most of the people on Wipeout are Homer Simpsons whose idea of exercise is popping open the Krispy Kreme box, so it’s just painful and generally repetitive — though it’s supposed to be funny — to watch them stumble, stagger, teeter and collapse into failure. The groan-worthy one-liners from hosts John Anderson, John Henson, and Jill Wagner don’t help.

I Survived a Japanese Game Show

8 p.m. Tuesdays on WFAA/Channel 8

***

What happens when 10 Americans, who know only that they’ve signed up for a reality show but don’t know the details, are flown to Tokyo and find themselves dumped in the middle of a popular Japanese game show? That’s the premise of ABC’s semi-entertaining I Survived aJapanese Game Show, which, on the surface, might appear to be as unlikable as Wipeout. But as only one person is eliminated per week, viewers get to know the victims, er, contestants, and the stunts themselves are silly but not as physically taxing as those on Wipeout. It’s reminiscent of an extra-long version of a challenge one might expect on The Amazing Race. Plus, the shots of Tokyo’s dazzling urban panorama are cool.

Ninja Warrior

8 p.m. weeknights on G4

****

Why bother with the rest when you can watch the best? Because viewing this Japanese show that obviously inspired Wipeout reminds viewers how superior it is. Though a few people are obviously included for laughs, most contestants — who sport about as much body fat as Britney does clothes — are serious as death about completing the increasingly difficult obstacle courses and being declared a true ninja warrior. The competitors generally have almost Olympics-worthy back stories — a fisherman or fireman who built his own Ninja Warrior course in his back yard in order to train — and the intensity of the Japanese announcers and crowds only adds to the sense of drama.

Unbeatable Banzuke

7:30 p.m. weeknights on G4

***

The title roughly translates from Japanese as "unbeatable ranking," and that’s still something of a mouthful. But the show itself is pretty simple: a goofier indoor version of Ninja Warrior featuring such competitions as walking upside down, up and down stairs, on one’s hands. Kids, don’t try that one at home. Once again, it’s the seriousness of all involved, including the studio crowd and announcers, that helps give Unbeatable Banzuke its juice. It precedes Ninja Warrior weeknights, so that makes for an hour of fun Japanese TV.

Hurl!

Premieres 8 p.m. July 15 on G4, moves to 6 p.m. Sundays beginning July 20

Buzz book: 'Stuff White People Like'

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:03 CDT

What started just months ago as a blog soon became a sensation, and now it's a book. Can Stuff White People Like: The Musical be far behind?

A compilation of 150 amusing mini essays from the Web site Stuff White People Like skewers not white people in general but a certain brand of Whole Foods-shoppin', New York Times-readin', NPR-supportin' diehard, the folks who no doubt make up the bulk of author Christian Lander's L.A. neighborhood. So it's really more about class and politics than race, but somehow Stuff Upper-Class Urban Coastal Liberals Like doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Some of SWPL — written as a field guide of sorts for those unfamiliar with the ways of caucasius? liberalis? — is genuinely humorous. The Daily Show/Colbert ReportBut other jabs miss the mark. The single-sentence No. 8 entry — "White people like Barack Obama because they are afraid that if they don't they will be considered racist" — may or may not be true, but it's neither funny nor particularly original. You can hear such lines any day of the week on talk radio.

In fact, SWPL might prove most popular with conservatives who can use it to gently browbeat their liberal friends. But perhaps Lander's true leanings can be discerned on SWPL's very last page, when he salutes the typeface Helvetica as "the official font of white people." Guess which font he uses for the book?

Young love overcomes difficulties to stand the test of time

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:43 CDT
By JUNE NAYLOR
As is the case for most young couples, things seemed pretty simple for Vickie and William "Daygo" Gentry when they first got together. She was 16, he was 23 and just out of the military; they were in love, with no idea of the challenges that life might throw them with alcoholism, employment worries and deaths in the family.
After all, Daygo — whose daddy, not fond of his boy’s given name, pinned the nickname on him at birth — swept Vickie off her feet the day he met her in her Haltom City front yard one hot September evening in 1970. And he did it in dramatic fashion, always a sure hit with a teenage girl.
"I was talking to a neighbor when Daygo came cruising down our street in his 1962 Plymouth hard top, along with one of his friends," Vickie says, recalling that this good-looking guy pulled over to chat. Vickie suggested that he needed air conditioning in his car on such a warm night.
"If I had one, would you go out with me on a date?" Daygo asked her, and she said she would. When he returned, she says she was in love.
Using a torch and saw, Daygo had cut the top off his car, and Vickie says she "knew then he would do anything for me."
Daygo says, "I was love-struck. That was the only car I had to my name."
They married eight months later, and while family and friends told them it couldn’t last, they learned the meaning of "for better or worse." Recently celebrating their 37th anniversary, they looked back at how they turned a difficult marriage into a happy one.
Raising four sons — who are now 36, 34, 32 and 20 — the couple learned that relying on faith was essential for overcoming drinking and other issues.
"I thought drinking was fun until I sobered up," Daygo says. "Then I realized what I had and how much I could enjoy things. Now I can serve the Lord and really help people."
For her part, Vickie says she’d retaliated against his drinking by spending money and eating fast food for comfort.
"I had to learn that wasn’t a good response," Vickie says. "I took my vows seriously, so my faith in God got us through."
With barriers out of the way, they learned the value of enjoying life in each other’s company. They love exploring history museums together, particularly those with vintage war aircraft. At home, they like to watch old Western programs together.
They admit they still argue from time to time — "anyone who tells you they’re in agreement 100 percent of the time is a liar or a dreamer," Daygo says — but they believe in the practice of not going to bed angry.
"We sit at the end of the bed and talk it out before we turn the light out," Vickie says, giggling at how she’s married to "the most amazing, wonderful person."
For his part, Daygo says marriage to Vickie is something he "wouldn’t trade for all the money in the world."
They sound remarkably like teenagers who just fell in love.

Tell us your story Would your courtship, engagement proposal, anniversary or marriage make an interesting story? If so, we want to consider it for our Sunday feature "I Do, I Do." Send your story to features@star-telegram.com (put I Do, I Do in the subject line) or include it on the Star-Telegram wedding announcement form.

The right belt can give you instant glam

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:33 CDT
By KARALEE MILLER
Hoping to give your look instant glam with zero fuss?
It’s a cinch.
While jewelry, shoes and handbags are the trifecta of go-to accessories, a belt can be that unexpected, dramatic accent that turns a ho-hum cotton sundress into a garden party-ready frock.
"With so much volume in fashion this season, you need to add waist definition with a belt," says Gregg Andrews, a fashion director for Nordstrom. "It gives shape and dimension and stops the look from becoming too frumpy or overbearing."
Wear them high on the waist or slung low on the hips — either way is city chic. Super-skinny belts elevate the office look of a basic button-down and black pants. Take it a step further and double them up. Hefty, wide belts look summertime hot in patent and metallic.
There are two things to keep in mind, Andrews says, when shopping for belts.
"What is the volume of what it is you’re trying to belt and what is your body shape — how long is your actual physical waist."
A garment with more volume, he explains, looks best with a wider belt, while something leaner, like a pencil skirt, is more appropriate with a slimmer belt.
"But again," he says, "it all depends on the proportion of your body and the length of your waist."
Women who are long-waisted can pull off a wider belt, while short- or high-waisted women are better off wearing a medium to narrow belt.
Topaz Accessories brown reptile belt with crystal embellished buckle, $95, Dolce Vita/Fort Worth
Xhilaration black studded belt, $12.99, Target
Topaz Accessories white stretch patent belt, $45 (sale), Hot Poppy Couture/Fort Worth
Suzi Roher black patent link belt with stretch, $210, April Lane/Fort Worth
Steven by Steve Madden brown woven belt, $48, Spoiled Pink/Fort Worth

Where to shop April Lane, The Village at Camp Bowie, 6333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Suite 216,
Fort Worth
Dolce Vita, Montgomery Plaza, 2600
W. Seventh St., Suite 132, Fort Worth
Hot Poppy Couture, The Village at Camp Bowie, 6333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Suite 208, Fort Worth

Theater Q&A: Lorca Simons

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:47 CDT
By MARK LOWRY
The second show of Hip Pocket Theatre's season, Lorca Simons' The Water Bearer's Dream, opens Thursday. Although Lorca, one of founders Johnny and Diane Simons' two daughters, has performed at Hip Pocket, this is the first time the theater has produced one of her plays. The director is her frequent New York collaborator, Gabrielle Roth, with whom she co-founded the experimental theater 5RT, which is keen on movement-heavy ritual theater. We talked with Lorca about her show.

Tell me about the origin of this piece.
For the last several years, I've been collecting a lot of imagery. I think in pictures; I'm very visual. I've been writing down and drawing different pictures that feel strong to me. When I have an idea of an image, I start playing with it and moving it around in space - physically moving around, exploring my body in different shapes and seeing how it develops.

It's described as an exploration of the relationships between water and goodbyes. What's that about?
It's a personal journey. After my move to England, I'm been straddling two very different universes there and in New York, and three if you add Texas into the mix. Anyone who has gone through loss and separation and what it is to come back together will relate.

You presented it in England earlier this year, with Roth as director. How does Gabrielle help you with something so personal?
We've worked together for a long time. She helps me dive more into my heart, and brings out even more truth and helps me get even more into the piece. The primary focus has been to clarify what it is I'm doing and saying, and deepening the story. I knew that I needed a third eye.

Is there dialogue?
There is some spoken word, but it is primarily movement.

Was it a given that you would bring it to your parents' theater?
Hip Pocket is really important to me. I'm feeling a greater need to spend as much time here as possible. I'm really proud to collaborate with them, and I want to be a part of it, because it's a really cool place to be.
The Water Bearer's Dream runs Thursday through July 20 at Hip Pocket Theatre, 1950 Silver Creek Road, Fort Worth. $10-$15 ($5 on opening night). 817-246-9775; www.hippocket.org.

Must-have coffee-table books shed light on Texas art exhibits and architecture

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:10 CDT
By Gaile Robinson
Several local art museums are hosting blockbuster shows this summer, and their attendant catalogs are also hits. For armchair travelers, there's also a new volume about some of the greatest residential architecture in the state.
Here are four must-have coffee-table books that'll enlighten you a bit more on the local scene.
Great Houses of Texas
by Lisa Germany, photos by Grant Mudford (Abrams, $50, hardcover, 256 pages) Among this book's selection of 25 of the most remarkable homes in Texas, Anne Bass' house in Fort Worth is the standout. Now maybe that's just regional chauvinism, but architect Paul Rudolph's cantilevered white planes that are stacked in a twirling pinwheel look as contemporary now as they did when the house was designed in 1970. This book offers a rare peek inside this exquisite home, where museum-size paintings by Morris Louis, Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly grace the public areas.
Another Fort Worth home, the Lasater residence, also made the short list. It was designed by architect Ted Flato, famous for championing the Texas vernacular form. His own San Antonio residence is in the book, but it is not the Hill Country-inspired dwelling one would expect - rather, it's a Moroccan-style house designed by architect Harvey Page in 1909.
Other famous homes of the rich include the King Ranch house and two Houston residences: Ima Hogg's and the house designed by Philip Johnson for art patrons John and Dominique de Menil.
Tadao Ando: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
by Philip Jodidio (Rizzoli, $45, hardcover, 156 pages) It was more than five years ago that the graceful concrete-and-glass building designed by Tadao Ando floated to a soft landing on a pond in the Fort Worth's Cultural District. Since its opening, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has received glowing reviews from international architectural critics and the artists whose work has been displayed in its beautiful, understated galleries. In this lovely new volume, the architect, museum personnel and artists look back at the building's design process and their experiences in this glorious structure.
The book is a valentine to the museum, showing it in its most favorable light - morning, noon and night. While the building got a great deal of press when it opened, now that it has aged at bit and housed a variety of exhibitions, the principals seem as pleased with its functionality as they were with the design when it was little more than embryonic scribbles in Ando's notebook.
The Impressionists: Master Paintings From the Art Institute of Chicago
by Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick (AIC, $40, softcover, 184 pages) The museum exhibit by the same title is the hot ticket of summer. The catalog is the take-home souvenir. This well-written, informative and engaging catalog offers more than reproductions of the 90-plus works in the exhibition on view at the Kimbell Art Museum through Nov. 2.
A timeline of how this group of masterpieces came to the Art Institute and backgrounds on the Chicago families that donated the bulk of the collection is included.
Discussions of the works, their significance to the collection, their diversity and the circumstances of when they were painted accompany each colorful plate.
Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece From Ciudad Rodrigo
Edited by Amanda W. Dotseth, Barbara C. Anderson and Mark A. Roglan (Meadows Museum, SMU, Philip Wilson Publishers, $75 hardcover, 360 pages) When the Meadows Museum took on the Ciudad Rodrigo altarpiece exhibition, it knew there was conservation work to be done. So little was known about the 26 panels that a thorough examination was in order. The panels were subjected to microscopic inspection, X-rays and infrared photography. The results of this complete art physical revealed some surprises: The altarpiece was the work of two 15th-century Castilian studios, those of Fernando Gallego and his contemporary Maestro Bartolome. Each studio had a distinct way of creating the underdrawings and the painting.
The research was carried out by Claire Barry, conservator for the Amon Carter and Kimbell museums. This is the most complete and detailed art-forensics work written for the public. The exhibit is on display through July 27, but the research in the book is more detailed than that on the walls.
Gaile Robinson is the Star-Telegram art and design critic, 817-390-7113

Your ticket to decades of stars, producers and memories at Casa Manana

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:36 CDT
By MARK LOWRY
Fort Worth’s best-known theater, Casa Mañana, had a number of homes throughout the 20th century, from Billy Rose’s original 1936 amphitheater to downtown Fort Worth’s Casa in the Square in the 1990s and Bass Hall.
But Casa will forever be identified with that geodesic dome in the Cultural District — the "Jiffy Pop," as many have called it after seeing the dome’s aluminum underside. That building opened July 5, 1958 — 50 years ago today — with a production of Cole Porter’s Can-Can. As the organization celebrates the building’s anniversary today (see the box), we look back through the decades at the local theater where more than a few stars were born.
The building
Melvin Dacus was general manager of the Fort Worth Opera when he read about architect R. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome designs and began planning an indoor theater-in-the-round, keeping Billy Rose’s name. The theater, which had 1,832 seats, opened in 1958, about 100 yards from where Rose’s original theater once stood.
There were additions throughout the years, including the restaurant La Cantina, which opened in the mid-’70s. But none caused as big a stir as the overhaul of the in-the-round format to the theater’s current thrust/modified proscenium stage earlier this decade. The theater now holds about 1,100 seats, and offers a much bigger lobby and more bathrooms. Thankfully, the signature Jiffy Pop structure remained intact.
Extra! Extra!
Before the 2003 renovation and the controversy that ensued, there was another major dust-up. In 1973, Actors Equity Association demanded that Casa raise the minimum wage for chorus performers. Negotiations broke down, and actors went on strike while the Casa season continued with non-Equity performers.
In response, several well-known actors picketed outside. These included Rip Torn,Geraldine Page,Theodore Bikel and Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes). With ticket sales declining, the season was canceled, but not before the theater staged the musical Cabaret, starring Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the Emcee, in his professional stage debut. In that production, Sally Bowles was played by Linda Daugherty, now the resident playwright for Dallas Children’s Theater.
In 1974, a new Equity contract was signed and Casa started back up, and Klemperer returned for the reopening ceremony.
Big and bright
Spiner was one actor who played on Casa’s stage before becoming famous. Another was promising young soprano Beverly Sills, who starred in 1958’s The Merry Widow.
Arguably, the biggest star born from Casa was Betty Buckley. As a teen, billed as Betty Lynn Buckley, she was in the Casa Playhouse staging of Beauty and the Beast in 1962. In subsequent decades, her roles there included Ado Annie in Oklahoma!, Maria in The Sound of Music (1982) and (in her big return after she won her Tony Award for Cats), Desiree in A Little Night Music in 1991.
One of Casa’s most famous performers is film actress Ruta Lee, who debuted at Casa in 1964 in Meredith Willson’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Willson saw that production and reportedly claimed Lee was the best Molly he had seen). Lee would continue performing at Casa throughout the decades, often with a "Ruta show" built into each season. She was seen most recently in the February staging of Steel Magnolias.
Many other actors who first became famous in film and TV worked at Casa, including the recently deceased Cyd Charisse (Grand Hotel, 1993) and The Love Boat’sGavin MacLeod (Grossinger’s, with Ruta Lee, in 1997), and in recent years, Lou Diamond Phillips,Jensen Ackles,Sally Struthers and Lorenzo Lamas.
Comedians, singers and actors who have appeared in their own act on Casa’s stage through the years include Debbie Reynolds,Joan Rivers,Don Rickles,Jerry Seinfeld,Penn & Teller,Pat Boone,George Carlin,Carol Channing, Ray Charles, Phyllis Diller and Barbara Mandrell.
Leaders of the pack
The current executive producer and president, Denton Yockey, is the organization’s fourth head honcho. Here’s a look back at Casa’s leadership:
Mel Dacus was executive producer/general manager at the time of the 1958 opening. He remained in that role until he was dismissed in 1975. He was known for finding talent such as Buckley, and pulling in stars he could build seasons around, such as Lee. Mel Dacus died in 1999, and his wife, Katy, an actress, died two years later.
One of Dacus’ significant hires was musical director Joseph Stecko in 1967. He retired in 2002.
Next up was Bud Franks, a director/choreographer who once was a member of Casa’s dance ensemble. He continued and added to Dacus’ tradition of pulling in known performers and scored points by casting husband-and-wife Mel and Katy Dacus as Tevye and Golde in a 1979 production of Fiddler on the Roof. Franks resigned in 1990 to become executive director of Starlight Musical Theatre in San Diego.