It’s no longer New Year’s Day (literally and figuratively), so may we recommend the following events to consider as you firmly into the year 2024. This week, we’ve got world premiere dance works, a sneak peek at a regional premiere theater work, and the return of a musical spectacle after eight years. Keep reading for these and our other best bets over the next seven days.
ISHIDA Dance Company will visit The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Friday, January 12, to present their latest program titled keepsake, with includes two works from guest choreographers and two world premieres from choreographer and company founder Brett Ishida. Ishida recently told the Houston Press that the company presents “works that typically aren’t done, that are outside the box, but also aren’t so outside the box that people are going to be like I don’t get it…because that’s not what we’re about. We’re quite the opposite.” The program will also be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 13. Tickets can be purchased here for $38 to $120.50 (with VIP tickets, which include an on-stage reception with the dancers and choreographers, available for Friday night’s performance).
Though you won’t find the most obvious markers of Scotland – such as bagpipes or folk music – Felix Mendelssohn did manage to create something “brooding and dark and something sounding like a festival of some sort on a rare sunny day” in Symphony No. 3, and you can hear it at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 12, at Jones Hall during the Houston Symphony’s program Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony + Yoonshin Song. Conductor Juraj Valčuha will lead the Symphony as well as welcome violinist Song, who will play Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The concert will be performed again on Saturday, January 13, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 14, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets for any of the in-hall performances can be purchased here for $32 to $110. Saturday night’s performance will also be streamed live and access can be purchased here for $20.
There’s a new film festival in town and post-apocalyptic drama, object cinema and satire will all be making an appearance during the 1st Annual ShortFlix Film Fest set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 13, at the Pearl Theater. Ten short films (all less than 12 minutes) from around the world will be screened, and the fest will also include chances to meet the filmmakers, sit in on a Q&A with industry experts, join in on a networking reception, and participate in the awards ceremony by voting for audience favorite film. All-access badges for the fest can be purchased here for $10.
The “Movies Houstonians Love” series returns to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Saturday, January 13, 7 p.m. with a selection from Houston film community advocates Maureen Herzog and Dave Walker: O Brother, Where Art Thou? Herzog and Walker, the publishers of Indie Slate magazine and founders of the Foundation for Independent Media Arts, have chosen Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2000 film, “a Homeric journey through Mississippi during the Depression” complete with escaped prisoners (led by George Clooney), a search for treasure, sirens, the Ku Klux Klan, and a hit record. It’s also a film that boasts a soundtrack of bluegrass, gospel, country and blues produced by T Bone Burnett that’s “handily eclipsed the success of the film.” Tickets are available here for $7 to $9.
Back in 2015, Denis Plante told the Houston Chronicle that Mercury Chamber Orchestra was “trying to be innovative - bringing something more theatrical to the classical-music audience” ahead of the ensemble’s premiere of The Crimson Prince of Venice. The composer, director and creator of the piece (and brother of Mercury’s artistic director Antoine Plante) weaves together Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” the personas of Antonio Vivaldi and Niccoló Paganini, dancers from the Houston Ballet, and the ensemble’s musicians-turned-actors for the work, which can be seen once again in Houston at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 13, at the Wortham Theater Center. Tickets to the in-person show can be purchased here for $10 to $76. If you can’t make it, you can stream the performance from home for $20 here.
The 46th Annual “Original” MLK Jr. Parade, presented by Black Heritage Society Inc. in partnership with the City of Houston, returns to downtown Houston at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 15, under the theme of “Brotherly love is the strongest advocate for freedom, peace and justice for all.” Civil rights attorney Ben Crump will serve as grand marshal of the parade, which starts at the intersection of Smith and Lamar, will feature more than 5,000 participants – on floats, in marching bands, as part of walking groups and more – and expects around 30,000 spectators. Following the parade, stop by the MLK Jr Festival at Hermann Square on Houston’s City Hall grounds for live music, vendors, food trucks and more until 5 p.m. Both the parade and the festival are free and open to the public.
Next month, Main Street Theater will open the regional premiere of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Quiara Alegría Hudes’s 26 Miles, but on Tuesday, January 16, at 7:30 p.m. you can get an early peek at the show during a read-thru of the play during Main Street’s Part of the Art Series. The free event offers theater lovers the chance to be a fly on the wall as the cast reads the play, about an estranged mother and daughter road-tripping together, aloud together for the first time. If you’re interested, you have to RSVP here no later than today, January 11. But if you can’t make it, you can always catch the show during its run at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays from February 10 to March 3. Tickets for the show can be purchased here for $35 to $59.
