:: 30TH ANNIVERSARY SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE DRAMATIC READING :: The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honoring women playwrights from around the world, has decided to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary by hosting a reading and the awards in Houston. Five short works by local women playwrights (a talented bunch) will be presented as dramatic readings by Houston’s acting community (another talented bunch) at the Alley Theatre’s Neuhaus Stage this Sunday, March 9th at 3:00PM. Excerpts......

::Dominic Walsh Dance: Celebrating Moving Bodies - Moving Minds:: Dominic Walsh wows again with this excellent lineup celebrating the fifth anniversary of the company's premiere performance. The centerpiece of the program will be Double You by with Jiri Kylian, one of the most renowned contemporary choreographers in the world today. Also on the program is the world premier of Walsh's Amadeus and a pas de deux from his full-length Orfeo ed Euridice, created for......

Spent all your cash on girlie drinks and shattered dreams again this weekend, didn't you? No worries - Thriftster gives you the lowdown on cheap stuff to do until Paycheck Friday. Monday: Celebrate the work and life of Dr. Martin Luther King today at the Houston Children's Museum (1500 Binz) - reduced $3 admission gets you in for live performances (like a mock Civil Right rally and Dr. King's 'I Have A Dream' speech), art......

::You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid:: A Christmas Story Back by popular demand for a second season at Texas Repertory, this wonderfully warm and wildly funny memoir of growing up in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his undying quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB Gun under the tree for Christmas. Join us for the first time, or all over again, as Ralphie pleads his case – only to hear the consistent......

Are you a big fan of dream sequences? Perhaps you'd like to give yourself a headache? Maybe you're a fan of avant garde films? If you answered yes to any of the preceding questions, you should check out David Lynch's Eraserhead at River Oaks Theatre. Like much of Lynch's material, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraserhead" target=new>Eraserhead promises to warp your brain with a hard to follow story, astounding visuals and lots of stuff to make you go hmmm.......

Filled up on turkey and dressing? Here's some event stuffing fer youse. add event to your Google Calendar view all events on the Houstonist Google Calendar [26 MONDAY]Double Feature: Monday Movies at MFA and Domy BooksMemories of Irving Berlin (last Monday)Bayou City Concert Musicals | doors at 7pm, ensemble Theatre ($20) [27 TUESDAY]Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: book signing and discussion | 3pm, Barnes & Noble Town & Country (free)Rice Humanities Lecture: An Ordinary, Everyday......

Americans for the Arts' Vice President Policy and Research, Randy Cohen, makes a trip to Houston today to discuss economic impact of the arts results from a recent Cultural Impact Study, which Mayor Bill White formally introduced at the Business of the Arts Luncheon hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership in September. You can view a copy of the study here. This morning's discussion will convey how arts organizations can utilize the findings to......

::Ken Burns' The War at the Wortham Center:: How did you spend your Veteran's Day? Did you fly a flag? Did you hug a Vet? No? Well, here's your last chance at redemption. If you missed Ken Burns' World War II Series, The War, on PBS a few months back, you can catch it again tonight at the Wortham Center, as Burns is on hand to screen and discuss the series. Burns' works are......

::Elizabeth Alexander & Taha Muhammad Ali at the Alley:: Well, if the intellects are to take over a day, might as well be Monday. Leave the killing brain cells to us the rest of the week. ELIZABETH ALEXANDER, whose dynamic work penetrates the African American experience, is a poet, essayist, and playwright. Winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers (one of the nation’s leading poetry prizes), she is the author of......

Remember when you were a little bitty Houstonist and someone would read to you at night and you could just lose yourself in the story, abandoning all other thoughts of the day? Well you can still do it now, you know. In fact, you might be all the more eager to shed your quotidian annoyances now that you're grown. Here are a few places to hear some stellar writers read from their work: Friday......

::Lucy Lecture at HMNS:: Tonight is your chance to catch the discoverer (how weird does that sound?) of the infamous, Lucy, now on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Special Lecture: Lucy's Legacy The Houston Museum of Natural Science Distinguished Lecture Series presents Lucy's Legacy, presented by Donald Johanson, paleoanthropologist and discoverer of Lucy. Lucy continues to be a diadem in the crown of hominid fossils and serves as an important touchstone......

We're moving the weekly Live Music Calendar to Wednesdays to make room for our new weekly New CD Releases feature on Tuesday. OK, let's pretend you have a five-day date with some wannabe Sirius radio DJ and you have to wade through everything the city has to offer this week. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Well, good thing you listen to everything we have to say! May we recommend that you start off in familiar territory......

::HOME: The Aramco Brat's Story:: Tonight, River Oaks Theatre hosts the Houston screening of the feature length documentary, HOME: Aramco Brat's Story, a film depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as seen through the eyes of the Western expatriate children who grew up there between 1933 and present day. With all the attention given to the Middle East today, it is important that the Western public receives a complete picture in order that their......

::Inprint Brown Reading Series - Richard Powers & Jennifer Egan:: For the 27th year, Inprint presents one of the finest reading series in the country, giving Houstonians a chance to hear from and meet some of the world’s leading writers. From September through April, 14 renowned authors will come to Houston, many for the first time, sharing their work and insights. These authors’ works address pressing contemporary issues, taking us on a journey around the......

Into art? How about dance? You like music? Theater? Have a thing for opera? Or maybe you just (pretend to) like “culture” in general to seem smart and hip and urban? Want to impress a date while not knowing a damn thing about the previously mentioned subjects? Boy, does Houstonist have a shindig for you. Tonight brings us Culture Collision II, hosted by a fleet of Museum and Theatre District young professionals' groups, including the......

Check this, yo. Do you love you some literary salon each month? Well here it is a again, and an excellent pair of peeps for tonight's reading. Join Houston Arts Alliance tonight, from 7PM -8PM at space125gallery for an evening of poetry, scenes and literature. "Meet the Authors" reception begins at 6:30PM. Featured Authors: >>John Pluecker, samplings from his poetry and short stories: John has worked with various community organizations, popular campaigns, and artistic......

Was your head feeling like someone was pounding on it this morning, like ours was? We keep forgetting that Thursday nights, are not Friday nights. There's that whole having to wake up to a screaming alarm, while fighting a hangover on Fridays, but not Saturdays. Ugh. Well, since pounding started off our day, we figure we'd just continue the trend. We love themes. Tonight, Miller Outdoor Theatre hosts Kaminari Taiko, and all weekend long, at......

HMNA presents a Special Lecture: Excavations at Aksum Tonight, the Houston Museum of Natural Science Distinguished Lecture Series presents Excavations at Aksum, Insights to the Early Christian Kingdom in Ethiopia, presented by Kathryn Bard, Ph.D., Boston University, and Rodolfo Fattovich, Ph.D., University of Naples. One of the oldest African kingdoms, Aksum arose in a high altitude region of Northern Ethiopia in the 4th century BC. This was a literate state that left writing in Greek,......

Contemporary Dance Showcase at MOT Beginning tonight, Dance Source Houston presents a Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, to be held at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Now in its 13th year, A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, presents a snapshot of the contemporary dance scene in Houston featuring new work and revivals of recent work. This artistic sampler features a range of choreographic styles set to music that ranges from classical to experimental. Featuring the best of......

Falling Apart to Half Time Dance has seen a vast resurgance in the country this year, whether blame lies with Fall Out Boy, or So You Think You Can Dance, we're not sure. But we are sure we are loving all the great talent that exists right here in dancetown Houston, TX. Swayze was so ahead of his time. Companies like the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater has helped to encourage these recent trends, and also......

Houston's Theater District is having an Open House this Sunday, August 26th from noon to 5PM, while also hosting Taste of Downtown, meaning there's lots to sample for free, free, free! Besides about 40 million performances, there will also be backstage tours, sneak previews of the 2007-2008 Theater District seasons, Q&A's with performers, activities for the kids such as costume trunks and an instrument petting zoo, free refreshments, season ticket information booths and lots......

If Amy Winehouse has inspired you to hear more fantastic women's jazz voices (rather than go to rehab), you're in luck tonight. The 2007 version of Jazz Cross Roads presents "Women in Jazz" showcasing the work of the great Sarah Vaughan through female jazz vocalists Kamil Bonner and Mickie Moseley and saxophonist Theresa Grayson. The women will perform both in small ensemble and with the Scott Joplin Chamber Orchestra. The evening is presented by the......

Goodbye hump day, hello rain. Did anyone else have a sucky Wednesday? And to top it off, the current monsoon over our office is making us have flashbacks of the beginning of the summer. What happened to our 108 degrees and sunny?! We are on a mission to make the most of this wet and soggy day, so we are heading to the Museum of Fine Arts tonight as they present Artful Thursdays. Because......

Callaloo, among the top literary magazines in the country, is sending four writers (all faculty from Callaloo's Creative Writing Workshops) to read in Houston for one night only. Terrance Hayes, Mat Johnson, Tayari Jones, and Tracy K. Smith will give a public reading Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ensemble Theatre, located at 3535 Main Street. These four writers have won more than a dozen national awards and fellowships; they are at......

Some people consider Sunday the beginning of their week, we usually like to look at it as a great lazy way to wrap up a hectic 7 days, and prepare for the next round. We've decided to pull together a list of events that are ending today, so now's your chance to catch these before they are gone for ever. Kinda like last week. Bwah-ha-ha. Thoroughly Modern Millie | Playhouse 1960 The Sound of Music......

Houston Shakespeare Festival That which we call a free show , by any other name would smell as free. And with that poor, poor attempt at Shakespearean quote alteration, Houston kicks off the annual Shakespeare Festival. Love's Labor's Lost Directed by Sidney Berger Performances | July 27 , August 2, 4, 8, 10 Romeo and Juliet Directed by Carolyn Houston Boone Performances | July 28 , August 1, 3, 9, 11 Now celebrating its thirty-third......

A musical about Tammy Faye? Topical. Penned by former Chronicle giant Fernando Dovalina and making its Houston premiere tonight? Even better. The Gospel According to Tammy Faye is a two-act musical based on the life of iconic televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. Dovalina, who spent thirty-two years at the Chron, along with co-writer and former UH classmate JT Buck was granted a long interview with Messner in 2005 in which they discussed her childhood and......

Beehive: The Musical! Now through July 18th, head out to Miller Outdoor Theater to see the sensational "Beehive: The Musical!"producned by Houston TUTS. Performances are nightly at 8:15pm. Grab the hairspray and come on down to the rockin' 60s musical, featuring more than 35 of the hottest hits of the girl groups and female singers of the era. FIVE WAILING WOMEN, ONE HOT BAND, AND 25 CANS OF HAIR SPRAY A WEEK can only......

Last Night to check out Murder Mondays Since June 25th, the Alley Theatre and Angelika Film Center have presented Murder Mondays. A film series that complements the Alley Theatre’s ExxonMobil Summer Chills production of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (July 6–July 29). Screenings are held at the Angelika Film Center and introduced by James Black, director of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Tonight will be the final film in the series: Death on......

No, it's not by driving as fast as we can around loop 610, but it does include city-wide celebrations, all hoping for the same thing: No rain. Here are a few of the events we'll be checking out tomorrow. Where will you be? Tell us, maybe we'll ditch our plans and join you. But probably not. >>Freedom Over Texas Festival Houston's Official 4th of July Celebration. Chevy presents a concert and Independence Day celebration at......