arts

With Diverse Voices, Houston-Penned Premieres and Peter Pan, Stages Sets Comeback Season

With Diverse Voices, Houston-Penned Premieres and Peter Pan, Stages Sets Comeback Season

Amid a flurry of locally created world premieres, a holiday spin on Houston fave 'Late Nite Catechism' series starring Denise Fennell also makes the roster.

AFTER MORE THAN a year of not presenting in-person performances, Stages has announced its new season, which will see the diversity-and-inclusion-focused theater returning to its new $35 million campus, The Gordy, which opened briefly in January of 2020 before being forced to shutter its doors.

The local professional Equity theater's 2021-2022 season, which features celebrated comedies, musicals and several projects that explore the human experience from different perspectives, includes six world premieres, with four of them by Houston-based playwrights.

"There are shows we have longed to produce but have been unable to due to Covid, and there are new pieces that were developed during the pandemic," said Artistic Director Kenn McLaughlin in a statement. "Taken as a whole, the season captures our modern moment of coming back to live performance with a bit of what was before, combined with pieces from the current moment. It functions like a link between where we were and where we are going."

The theater's new season kicks off in October with family-friendly comedy Hook's Tail by celebrated playwright John Leonard Pielmeier that presents a re-imagining of Peter Pan. Another family-friendly comedy, the Tony Award-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, also hits in October.

Holiday programming at Stages will include audience favorite Sister's Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi's Gold, a hilarious, nun-centered comedy that seeks to unravel the mystery of what happened to the Magi's gold, and world premiere Panto Little Mermaid by Houston-based playwrights Elizabeth A.M. Keel and ShaWanna Renee Rivon.

The theater's spring repertoire includes rock-n-roll musical comedy MacGyver: The Musical!, based on the popular TV series by Lee David Zlotoff; Surprise Coven, a dark new comedy about the American healthcare system by Houston-based author Brendan Borque-Sheil; and Rivon's You Are Cordially Invited to Sit-In, a new musical set to the love songs, dance hits and revolutionary tunes of the 1960s and 1970s that is centered around the lives of four Black college-aged kids who join the revolution against inequality and racism.

The theater's jam-packed spring repertoire will conclude with Inda Craig-Galvan's Black Super Hero Magic Mama, a new play dealing with a mother's grief after losing her son, and Song of Me, a family drama about tradition, Vietnamese cooking and growing up in Houston by local playwrights Mai Lé and Đạt Peter Ton.

Tickets for Stages' new season go on sale later this summer, with individual tickets starting at $25.

From Your Site Articles
Art + Entertainment
promoted

Thrive & Inspire: Alchemy’s Arquella Hargrove ‘Inspired by People Making an Impact in the World’

Thrive & Inspire: Alchemy’s Arquella Hargrove ‘Inspired by People Making an Impact in the World’

Arquella Hargrove, Chief Culture Officer and Owner of the Alchemy Consulting Group

WHAT IS THE secret to running a successful business? The secret to a successful business is a rockstar team. With a rockstar team, clients experience the transformation within their culture. This also is connected to other success factors — a commitment to relentless change, communicating courageously, and collaborating to win. The ultimate goal is to be the change for our clients and to create a culture where team members thrive and grow exponentially.

Keep Reading Show less
food

Októ Joins Mi Luna and Marmo as Hot Spots at Mediterranean-Marvelous Montrose Collective

Paella Valenciana at Mi Luna

THOUGH IT'S BEEN in Houston less than a decade, Sof Hospitality has made major inroads with foodies and critics alike. Its concepts include Doris Metropolitan, Hamsa and Badolina Bakery, all of which deliver the rich flavors of Israeli cuisine in complex, photogenic and delicious dishes. Its newest, Októ, opened earlier this year, one of several energetic restaurants to bow in the Montrose Collective, just in time for the holidays.

Keep Reading Show less
Food
art

Five Fabulously Diverse Exhibits Are Arriving at Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Bill Viola’s ‘Ascension,’ on display as part of ‘Living with the Gods’ at MFAH

THE ARTIST WHO ushered in the expressionist movement in the early 20th century was not, in fact, Picasso or Matisse. It was Paul Gauguin, whose career spanned the decades just preceding the turn of the century. The French painter is the subject of the Museum of Fine Arts’ latest exhibit, Gauguin in the World, which was organized by Henri Loyrette (formerly of the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). The show, just one of the museum’s diverse winter season shows, debuted in Australia in June and will be on display through Feb. 16, 2025, at the MFAH, the only U.S. venue for the survey.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment