One week to go until Thanksgiving and it’s starting to look a lot like the holiday season when you explore the offerings at the city’s art organizations. Though we’ve got some holiday productions for you today, we’ve also got a film festival, the union of multimedia and a classic ghost story, and free pancakes. Keep reading to see all of this week’s best bets.
On Thursday, November 16, at 6:45 p.m. director Vassilis Xiros’s debut film, A Day in the Life of a Teddy Bear – the first-ever co-production between Greece and China – will open the 6th Annual Houston Greek Film Festival at The MATCH. The only festival in the Lone Star State to showcase new films coming from Greece, Cyprus and the diaspora, as well as films made by and featuring Greek/Cypriot filmmakers, producers and actors, will screen 12 feature-length films and 14 short films over the course of the weekend, culminating with a closing reception on Sunday, November 19. Tickets to individual screenings are available for $18, while an all-access ticket is available for $90. Both can be purchased here (as well as tickets for the closing reception, which are available for $30).
Don’t forget: Not only did Motown Records put out “the soul and pop classics that changed America,” they boast quite the holiday playlist. From standards like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by The Temptations and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by The Jackson 5 to originals like Stevie Wonder’s “What Christmas Means to Me” and Marvin Gaye’s “Purple Snowflakes,” there was a lot of material for playwright Nate Jacobs to choose from when writing A Motown Christmas. Beginning on Friday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m. you can learn what songs made the cut when The Ensemble Theatre opens an all-new adaptation of Jacobs’s holiday revue, now with an even bigger cast and more music. Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays through December 24. Tickets can be purchased here for $41 to $72.
Everyone has advice for making the best pancakes. Some say the secret is wet ingredients, then dry. Sneaking in extra baking powder, and maybe lemon juice. Not overmixing the batter. And some people swear by the cookie scoop. Luckily, like pizza, even when pancakes are meh, they’re still pretty good. On Saturday, November 18, at 8 p.m. you can get your fill of pancakes with the return of the Pancakes and Booze Art Show to Warehouse Live. The pop-up art show will serve up the free pancakes as you view more than 500 pieces of work from more than 75 local artists, listen to sets from DJs and music producers, and take in a little live body painting. Tickets to the 18-and-over-only show are available here for $15 (and will also be available for $20 day of the show).
The Catastrophic Theatre will take a multimedia approach to Henry James’s oft-interpreted ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, when it opens on Friday, November 17, at 8 p.m., incorporating puppetry and live cinema. Adam J. Thompson, who is co-directing with Afsaneh Aayani, recently told the Houston Press that the show will appeal to anyone who likes ghost stories or is “interested in less traditional interpretations of theater,” adding that “the story is about the nature of truth and how different people can have different interpretations of the truth” which is “a really relevant conversation.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and November 27, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through December 9 at The MATCH. Tickets pay-what-you-can (with a suggested price of $35) and can be purchased here. Children under the age of 10 will not be permitted into the performance.
You can trace the independently published content we call zines back to arguably the first zine, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, in 1517 all the way through to the broadsides produced during the American Revolution in the 1770s and the riot grrrl zines of the 1990s. On Saturday, November 18, from 12 to 6 p.m. at The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, both makers and lovers of zines can head for Zine Fest Houston to learn more about the local scene and join tours, talks, and workshops. Zine Fest co-organizer María-Elisa Heg told Houstonia that the art form is “fundamentally about the ability to control the means of production of the printed matter and the content they’re in,” adding that zines are “very much the product of the author or authors’ voices without their voices being diluted through the publishing process.” Admission to the fest is free.
Mr. Darcy’s sister gets a turn in the spotlight in Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley, the third (and final) installment in the Christmas at Pemberley series of plays by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, opening at Main Street Theater on Saturday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m. Lindsay Ehrhardt, who plays the role of sister Georgiana, recently told the Houston Press that the character is “pretty shy” compared to her best friend Kitty Bennet, who “has this kind of magnetic personality that draws people to her,” which makes it fun to explore what “makes their friendship work.” However, the play’s “shenanigans” really unfold following the arrival of a gentleman Georgiana has invited to spend Christmas with the family. Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and on November 22, and 3 p.m. Sundays through December 17. Tickets can be purchased here for $39 to $59.
November 22 marks 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, and the most recent Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans (65 percent) believe that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing the president. On Sunday, November 19, at 5 p.m. the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will screen a digital restoration of Emile de Antonio’s 1966 documentary Rush to Judgement. Based on a book of the same name by Mark Lane, the lawyer who represented Oswald before the Warren Commission, the film is one of the earliest to question the finds of the Warren Report. The documentary will be screened a second time on the actual anniversary of the assassination, Wednesday, November 22, at 2 p.m. Tickets to either screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
The Dinkel family heads to East Texas to celebrate Christmas at Mee-Maw Jane’s ranch. Unfortunately, granddaughter Greta discovers Mee-Maw’s passed away, leaving the grandkids to try to hide her passing Weekend at Bernie’s-style to avoid ruining Christmas. Well, that sounds like A Texas Carol, a holiday show returning to A.D. Players for the second year in a row on Wednesday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m. A.D. Players executive artistic director Jayme McGhan told the Houston Press that the play “has a really big heart. It’s a family divided and they’re just trying to figure out their way in a space where they just don’t know what to do.” Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through December 23 at The George Theater. Tickets can be purchased here for $34 to $62.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
