THE CHECKLIST: HOW MANY CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SHOWS DID YOU SEE THIS SPRING?

The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center has had a pretty spectacular spring, presenting a host of unique and inspiring performances that critics and fans adored. Take a look and see how many you attended… bragging rights on us.

St. Vincent

Emmy Award-winning singer St. Vincent (a.k.a. Annie Clark) performed at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House with members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. It was a collaborative presentation with the DSO as part of the inaugural SOLUNA: International Music & Arts Festival.

D Magazine Front Row Blog
“On Sunday night at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House, St. Vincent and members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed for an eager, sell-out crowd. Presented as part of the orchestra’s inaugural SOLUNA festival, this was a one-off concert featuring a startlingly effective collaborative effort, a unique gift for hometown fans (Clark grew up in Dallas).”

Guidelive.com
“The Winspear Opera House played host to a worthwhile experiment in art-pop on Sunday evening, with a sold-out crowd of young music fanatics in attendance to witness it.”

Dallas Observer
“If hometown performer Annie Clark has proven anything to Dallas in her flight to fame, it’s that she’s a veritable rock god.”

#thinkspeak

The Center’s exciting new speaker series has been a huge hit with sold-out shows and more than 1,000 subscribers in the first year. With an all-star lineup including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Peadbody Award-winning Sarah Koenig, This American Life’s Ira Glass and Radiolab’s Jad Abumarad, the Center’s new speaker series is bound to impress. Jad Abumrad kicked #thinkspeak off in style with his program on “Gut Churn” and the creative process.

Theater Jones
“With an audience full of Radiolab fans possessing a musical bent, and subscribers to #thinkspeak just up for something new, Gut Churn was an intelligentsia-literati-hipster-techie event—as close to Manhattan as Dallas gets. “Kind of a mind-blowing series,” said Abumrad on stage that night, “so proud to be kicking this off.”

Stop Hitting Yourself, by the Rude Mechs

The Austin-based theater collective visits Dallas (for the first time) as part of the Center’s Off Broadway on Flora series.

CultureMap Dallas
“Yes, the Rude Mechs are as weird as promised, but they’re also extremely talented.”

Dallas Observer
“It moves at a fast pace and it’s so stimulating that at times it’s hard to keep in mind how all of the disparate ideological, satirical elements come together. But it’s entertaining from start to finish.”

Disney’s Newsies

The Disney classic leaped from film to stage in one of the most anticipated Broadway Series shows yet. The sold-out houses were among the top performers in the history of the Center’s Broadway Series.

Theater Jones
“In the Broadway Series at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House, hordes of “fansies” lined up for the opening of Newsies, shelling out happily for cute newsboy caps and “Seize the Day!” mugs. From the decibel level in the balconies, the show’s dedicated young followers were enjoying it all—and with Disney pulling out the stops for this national tour, the rest of us had a fun, foot-stomping night, too.”

Big Barre

TITAS Presents and the Center partnered to provide a barre class for the community, led by guest artist Arnaud Mahouy, a principal dancer with France’s Malandain Ballet Biarritz. 100 people took the free, public ballet class in Sammons Park on the Center’s campus.

Dallas Observer
“With dance classes sometimes cost-prohibitive, or just hard to fit into schedules for working, non-pro-dancer adults and especially kids, this free class with an international company is something for the extra-curricular to do list—or is it the tendu list?”

Command Performance Gala

TITAS Presents’ annual fundraising event is one of the can’t-miss performance events in Dallas, with pieces commissioned specifically for the program.

The Dallas Morning News
“Even without gala warhorse Caught and its strobe-lit effects on the bill, TITAS’ 2015 Command Performance fundraiser featured dazzling optical illusions generated primarily by athletic prowess, not technological trickery.”