Natalie de la Garza - Page 4

'Black History Month provides an incredible opportunity to honor, remember, and enjoy the contributions of African Americans in our various fields,' says Harrison Guy, founder and artistic director of Urban Souls Dance Company and this weekend's inaugural AFRICAN AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: AND STILL WE DANCE. 'I did not want to miss this opportunity to celebrate the achievements of African American dancers, choreographers, and dance teachers [and] students.'

THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by Jack O'Brien, finds the perfect balance for Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic story, a story that can be sickeningly saccharine in the wrong hands and therefore easily dismissed. O'Brien's vision is a bit more weighty and grounded and complemented brilliantly by the performances and work of Scenic Designer Douglas W. Schmidt and Lighting Designer Natasha Katz.

The premise of THE FINAL PROJECT is simple: six college students visit a supposedly haunted plantation to film a documentary for extra credit. They realize too late that supposedly is more like definitely. Kind of like the audience, who will realize too late that they definitely chose the wrong movie if they go see this one.

Its separate, incongruous elements should make a mash-up like Austen and zombies fun. Unfortunately, the keyword there is should. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is decidedly lacking in the fun department.

In this interview, BroadwayWorld.com talks to Classical Theatre Company Executive Artistic Director John Johnston about directing CTC's A DOLL'S HOUSE, Ibsen's meaning, and the play's controversial ending.

Through February 6th, Intrepid Fringe is staging the classic Shakespearean tragedy JULIUS CAESAR - with a twist. Set in the year 4000 CE in a galaxy far away, the play, written with only two small speaking roles for women, has been partially gender swapped, with six women now commanding lead roles. Today Broadwayworld.com talks to the co-owners of Intrepid Fringe hal evans (also JULIUS CAESAR's director) and Tracy Hults about the challenges and the relevance of JULIUS CAESAR and what happens when you gender swap one of Shakespeare's most manly of plays.

A quick look through my notes from Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film THE REVENANT reveals adjectives like 'epic,' 'brutal,' 'grimy,' 'magnificent,' 'beautiful,' etc. And none of it is hyperbole.

Despite an interesting enough jumping off point , THE 5TH WAVE is ultimately little more than the latest in an increasingly derivative series of teen dystopian films.

Since its debut in 1892, THE NUTCRACKER, based on E.T.A. Hoffman's 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,' has been a holiday staple, its music, by Romantic composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, ubiquitous. And, since 1987, Ben Stevenson's THE NUTCRACKER has been a Houston institution.

'BELLEVILLE at its core, I think, is about a fractured marriage,' says Kelsey McMillan, director of Firecracker Productions upcoming show. Said marriage, in Amy Herzog's BELLEVILLE, is between Zack, a doctor specializing in pediatric AIDS research, and Abby, an aspiring actress but current yoga instructor.

Smart, sexy, and vicious, Legend is a worthy addition to the gangster genre. Tom Hardy is brilliant - one of the must-see performances of the year!

Directed by John Crowley, BROOKLYN is a beautifully crafted, cohesive film. Though subtle, it is richly layered. The incredibly contained story, scripted by Nick Hornby, is circular, reminding us in multiple places and ways that Eilis' story (both as an immigrant story and a coming of age story) is not unique.

Dalton Trumbo is the writer of such films as SPARTACUS, ROMAN HOLIDAY, and EXODUS. All are films that, if HUAC and Hedda Hopper and the Motion Picture Alliance had their way during a dark chapter of American history, he'd either never have written or never received credit for writing. Trumbo's is a story worth telling, and a movie certainly worth watching.

Tom McCarthy's SPOTLIGHT dramatizes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that began with one 'bad apple' priest and led to the discovery of a massive, decades-long institutional cover-up of countless sexual abuse allegations in the Boston archdiocese. SPOTLIGHT is well directed, acted, and edited. It's not to be missed.

Over the last decade, Dan and Jeff have created a frantic, fast-paced 70 minute romp through all seven Harry Potter books. Yes, that's roughly 4000 pages of story and over 300 characters culled down and squeezed into a little over an hour and yes, it's quite the sight to see.

Right on the heels of Spielberg's BRIDGE OF SPIES, comes another late-50s period piece, Giulio Ricciarelli's LABYRINTH OF LIES. The difference is time (slightly), place (by a few miles), and that Ricciarelli's film presents a more complex look at what justice really is in a difficult situation.

It's 1957, the U.S. is about a decade into the coldest of wars, and an insurance lawyer from Brooklyn is unanimously chosen by his peers to defend an accused Soviet spy.

William Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, the granddaddy of all rom-coms, is the story of two courtships: Benedick and Beatrice, both too stubborn and clever for their own good, and Claudio and Hero, both too innocent and naive to not be taken advantage of by the resident villain. It's a classic for a reason, which means that companies mount productions of it all the time. So the question then, when the Rice Theatre Program decides to do a production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, is what are they going to bring to the already crowded table?

Let's start by noting that GOODNIGHT MOMMY is not just another weird foreign film testing the creepiness factor of twins. Though it is definitely weird, it does feature twins and they are pretty creepy. (Just check out the poster.)

This Friday's H-Town Cinema Celebration, Discovery Green's celebration of Houston filmmakers and film organizations, will give Houstonians a fun night out and a great movie. It's also given the night's emcee, John Behlmann, an excuse to come home.