It’s National Letter Writing Day, and if you need a little bit more to talk about to fill out the pages, may we suggest partaking in some of this week’s best bets. If you want to make the recipient jealous of your local arts scene, keep reading to learn about a world premiere dance work, a festival celebrating its tenth anniversary, a nearly perfect film from 1983, and much more.
A young girl approaching her quinceañera falls down a rabbit hole in Panto Alicia in Wonderland, a musical by Benito Vasquez and Marissa Castillo, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 7, at Stages. Juan Sebastián Cruz, who plays six roles in the world premiere production, told the Houston Press that the bilingual two-act musical depicts the Latin American experience, noting that the show “has recognizable pop stars that sing in English like Shakira and Pit Bull, but also some more folkloric aspects, different dance styles that represent more of a folkloric, Latin experience in dance and culture.” Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through December 31 at The Gordy. Tickets can be purchased here for $30 to $84.
Five patron saints pulled from various universes and mythologies gather to build a second Eden in The Saints’ Offering, a dance collaboration from Houston-based choreographers Adam Castañeda and Ashley Horn, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 8, at Claire’s School of Dance (located in Grace United Methodist Church). The intimate work, which leans into the fantastical to seek a sense of calm and peace, will be performed two additional times, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 9, and Sunday, December 10. General admission tickets can be purchased for any of the performances here for $15. (If you can’t make it, keep an eye out: The Saints’ Offering will be presented again at a new performing arts festival at The MATCH in January.)
The Islamic Arts Festival turns ten this year when the event opens at the Masjid Al-Salam on Saturday, December 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The two-day festival – the oldest and largest Islamic arts festival in the country – will return with plenty of art work to buy, interactive art workshops and sessions, and food trucks featuring ethnic cuisine. To celebrate the special anniversary, this year’s festival will welcome special guest artists from around the country to sell their art and lead workshops, including New York-based Iranian-American artist Behnaz Karjoo, who will teach students about the traditional art of Islamic illumination. The festival will continue on Sunday, December 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry to the festival is free.
The Movies Houstonians Love series returns to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Saturday, December 9, at 5 p.m. with a film Christopher Nolan called “an almost perfect movie”: Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film The Right Stuff. Based on Tom Wolfe’s book of the same name, the film about test pilots breaking the sound barrier to travel to the edge of the atmosphere shows spaceflight as “a far more human pursuit—a story not of external threats but inner resolve.” The Houstonian who loves this film (and will be on hand to introduce it) is retired astronaut Colonel Terry Virts, who says that the movie inspired him to become an astronaut. Tickets to the screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
Regardless of whether you believe “Pumpkin King Jack Skellington’s attempt to take over Christmas” is really a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie, it’s undeniable that “Jack’s gleefully ghoulish world,” as seen in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, is one we’ve liked to visit every holiday season for the last 30 years. One reason for the 1993 film’s success is the “catchy music and lyrics came from Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman,” and on Saturday, December 9, at 7:30 p.m. you can head over to Jones Hall to see the Houston Symphony play Elfman’s score live while the film is projected on a big screen. The concert will be performed a second time on Sunday, December 10, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets to either performance can be purchased here for $43 to $185.
On Sunday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Houston will welcome comedian Howie Mandel – of Bobby’s World, America’s Got Talent and (a personal favorite) Walk Like a Man fame – to Jones Hall. Though this will be Mandel’s first time at Jones Hall, he recently told the Houston Press that he likes “any venue where people want to show up, escape for a couple of hours, laugh and have fun,” adding “I look forward to having fun without a plan. Obviously with over 40 years in the business, I have material and things I can do. But what I love about live entertaining over everything that I do is there are no marks to hit, no lines to recite, anything can happen.” Tickets can be purchased here for $29 to $99.
If you can’t get enough of The Nutcracker, make your way back to Jones Hall on Tuesday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m. when the Houston Symphony presents Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker. The Symphony will perform selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, and the Jazz Houston Orchestra will play Ellington’s jazz version from 1960. Ellington’s “suite toes that line between reverence and transgression” with music like “a boozy, languid ‘Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)’ to an upbeat ‘Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)’ that turns a waltz into a swing.” KPRC meteorologist Khambrel Marshall will be on hand to narrate the story. Tickets to the concert can be purchased here for $38 to $135.
Pianist Yan Shen made the difficult decision to quit her job at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, China, to move to the United States, once saying that she “gave up security and a prestigious position” to follow her heart and seek a “bigger stage with more freedom.” Shen’s journey brought her to Houston, where she earned a doctoral degree at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music (and where she still works today). On Wednesday, December 13, at 7:30 p.m., you can catch Shen in a solo recital at Asia Society Texas titled From Debussy to Tan Dun. The program will explore the conversation between European and Chinese composers using works from Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, Tan Dun and Jianzhong Wang. Tickets to the performance can be purchased here for $20.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
