This week is all about coffee. Today, September 29, is National Coffee Day, which – no surprise – coincides with National Starbucks Day (not that we’re playing favorites). The point is coffee may be exactly what you need in order to squeeze as many of this week’s best bets as possible into your schedule. Dance programs, plays and a musical, a parade and some festivals, are just a few things that made the list. Keep reading for more.
If you were looking for the world premiere of Crystal Rae’s one-man show, Tied: A One-Man Play, last week, it was postponed due to illness. On the Verge Theatre, in collaboration with The Ensemble Theatre, will now open the show tonight, Thursday, September 29, at 7:30 p.m. If you recall, Rae (a winner of Houston Press Theater Awards in 2020 and in 2022) told the Press she was inspired to write the show from the perspective of the father of one of the four girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 after a conversation with a fellow actor. Performances will continue through October 9 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays at The Ensemble Theatre. You can purchase tickets here for $25 to $35 (Thursday, October 6, will be pay-what-you-can with a suggested price of $35).
It’s considered “one of the most extraordinary photo essays ever” to appear in LIFE magazine, a December 1951 piece about Maude Callen, a nurse and midwife from rural South Carolina. On Friday, September 30 at 8 p.m., A.D. Players will officially open the pre-Broadway world premiere of Miss Maude at The George Theater, a play about the lifelong friendship formed between Callen, a Black woman, and Eugene Smith, the White photojournalist from New York who spent almost two months with her. Rosalyn Coleman, who makes her Houston debut in the production, describes Maude as “selfless” and “a jewel in her community,” adding, “It’s an honor to portray her.” Performances continue through October 23 at 8 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and October 5. You may purchase tickets here for $25 to $75.
Over at The MATCH on Friday, September 30, at 8 p.m. Social Movement Contemporary Dance will present the first of three programs titled Movements: New & Revised. Each program will feature the world premiere of Artistic Director Elijah Alhadji Gibson’s In Syndication, a new work about depression, alongside re-imaginations of the company’s past repertoire. Two of these past works – Gibson’s celebration of women, Autonomy, and homage to hip-hop, The Culture – were performed earlier this month over at Miller Outdoor Theatre during the Fall 2022 ExtravaDance, so this will be a perfect time to catch them if you missed them then. Movements: New & Revised will also be presented on Saturday, October 1, at 2:30 and 8 p.m. General admission tickets can be purchased here for $30.
Sixty-two years ago on October 1, Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom. Right here in Downtown Houston on Saturday, October 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can join the celebration at the Nigeria Cultural Parade and Festival, Houston’s official Nigerian independence event. The parade will start at 10 a.m., and following the parade you can enjoy the festival at Root Memorial Square Park (across the street from the Toyota Center), where you’ll find a marketplace, music, dancing, and (of course) jollof rice. Entry to the festivities is free (you can register here until tomorrow, September 30), and if you can’t make it downtown on Saturday, check out the livestream on the Nigeria Cultural Parade & Festival YouTube channel.
Acadians, enslaved West Africans, Choctaw, German immigrants, French and Spanish settlers, and many others “blended their native cultural practices—culinary, linguistic, musical—to create new cultural forms.” On Saturday, October 1, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. you can celebrate the result of this cultural exchange at the 8th Annual Houston Creole Heritage Festival at Emancipation Park. Comedian Heather Hatton will MC the family-friendly event, which includes plenty of food (and a special Mardi Gras punch), more than two dozen vendors, and live musical performances from Ruben Moreno and the Zydeco Re-Evolution, Marcus Ardoin, Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe, and Amy Nicole and Zydeco Soul. Children 12 and under get in free and adult general admission tickets can be purchased here for $10. Or you can get a VIP ticket for $50, which enters you in a raffle for a private dinner prepared by New Orleans’ Chef Gason Nelson, who will also be on hand to create a special VIP tasting experience.
Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung drew from memories of a “1960s street artist who performed in and around Bangka,” known as Thirteen Tongues, to create a piece of the same name for professional dance company Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. 13 Tongues “has the feeling of something both ancient and modern,” and “demonstrates beautifully the extraordinary, elemental quality of the Cloud Gate dancers.” And on Saturday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. Houstonians will have the chance to see it live at the Wortham Center, courtesy of Asia Society Texas Center and Performing Arts Houston. You can purchase tickets here for $39 to $119. Following Saturday’s performance, Cheng will stop by Asia Society Texas Center on Sunday, October 2, at 3 p.m. to talk with arts writer Sherry Cheng about the company and the inspiration behind 13 Tongues. You can register for free here.
Poet Javier Zamora was just 9 years old when he made a 4,000 mile, two-month journey from his home in El Salvador to Arizona, where his parents waited for him. In Solito: A Memoir, Zamora tells the story from a child’s perspective, his own, and in “describing his surroundings with plainness, presenting his survival without bluster, he reveals the true horrors of migration.” On Monday, October 3, at 7:30 p.m. Inprint will welcome Zamora to the Ballroom at Bayou Place as part of the 2022/2023 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Zamora, the first Salvadoran to make The New York Times best-seller list, will join author Daniel Peña in conversation, read from the book, and stick around for a book sale and signing. Tickets can be purchased here for $5. If you can’t make it, pick up a ticket to the rebroadcast, scheduled for Thursday, October 6, here. You can also pick up a copy of Zamora’s book for a discount at Brazos Bookstore. More information here.
The bad news is that Omicron forced the Houston run of Hadestown to be postponed back in January. The good news is that it’s finally the Bayou City’s turn to experience the show’s national tour, courtesy of Broadway at the Hobby Center, beginning Tuesday, October 4, at 7:30 p.m. The production, with music, lyrics and book by Anaïs Mitchell, imagines Orpheus and Eurydice – of Greek mythology fame – as a singer-songwriter and the impoverished woman he travels to the underworld to rescue. The winner of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical (one of eight awards it took home that year) “deals with some serious stuff, like climate change, poverty, power, death, trust, loyalty” and sets them to “beguiling Dixieland melodies and provocative lyrics.” Performances continue through October 9 at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. on Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are mostly gone, but if you’re lucky you can nab a resale ticket (of varying prices) here.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
