Weekend Event Planner

These are the 12 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

Karen Slack will co-curate and star in "A Night of Black Excellence."

Photo by Kia Caldwell

The focus around Fort Worth this weekend will be almost exclusively on local events. There will be monster trucks and a big country singer in town, but offerings from Fort Worth Opera, Casa Mañana Theatre, Theatre Wesleyan, Artisan Center Theater, Stolen Shakespeare Guild, Texas Ballet Theater, Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, and Amon Carter Museum of American Art make it a good time to check out some of the best the area has to offer.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend.

Thursday, February 17

Fort Worth Opera presents "Women, Words, and Wisdom: Songs by Black Female Composers"
"Women, Words, and Wisdom: Songs by Black Female Composers" features Audra Scott, Karen Slack, Veronica Williams, Jasmine Barnes, and Joseph Williams, musicians who will pay homage to the music composed by Black female artists of the 20th and 21st Century. The concert at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will feature works by Nina Simone, Jasmine Barnes, Veronica Williams, Margaret Bonds, and more.

Casa Mañana Theatre presents Dylan On Dylan
Casa Mañana Theatre will present Dylan On Dylan, featuring Jared Weiss, who will take audiences on a musical journey through Bob Dylan’s early Greenwich Village days to his seminal mid-'70s Rolling Thunder Revue Tour. Weiss, complete with his backup band, will take audiences through a mix of the classics such as "Mr. Tambourine Man," "The Times They Are a Changin’," "Like a Rolling Stone," and deep cuts from one of the greatest songwriters of all time. There will be nightly performances through Saturday.

Theatre Wesleyan presents Chamber Music & Shuddersome: Tales of Poe
Theatre Wesleyan presents an evening of two one-act plays performed in sequence, Chamber Music and Shuddersome: Tales of Poe. In Chamber Music, eight famous women from different historical periods are all interned in the same insane asylum in 1938, including Gertrude Stein, Joan of Arc, Susan B. Anthony, Queen Isabella of Spain, Constanze Mozart, Amelia Earhart, Pearl White, and Osa Johnson. In Shuddersome: Tales of Poe, specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known works. There will be five performances through Sunday at Texas Wesleyan University.

Friday, February 18

Magnolia at the Modern: The Worst Person in the World
The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It chronicles four years in the life of a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is. The film, which is in Norwegian with English subtitles, will have seven screenings through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. (Read our review here.)

Artisan Center Theater presents The Wizard of Oz
Artisan Center Theater in Hurst will present The Wizard of Oz, a stage adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s beloved tale, featuring the iconic musical score from the MGM film. In the timeless tale, young Dorothy Gale travels from Kansas over the rainbow to the magical Land of Oz. The production will run through March 19.

Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents Merry Wives of Windsor
Sir John Falstaff, staying in Windsor and down on his luck, decides to restore his fortunes by seducing the wives of two wealthy citizens. He sends Mistress Page and Mistress Ford identical love letters, but they discover his double dealing and set about turning the tables. Part of the Stolen Shakespeare Festival, this show runs in repertory with Hamlet at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center through March 6.

Texas Ballet Theater presents "A Tchaikovsky Evening"
Texas Ballet Theater presents "A Tchaikovsky Evening," a mixed repertoire production featuring George Balanchine’s iconic Serenade and two world premieres — Star Crossed by Ben Stevenson and Violin Concerto in D by TBT Associate Artistic Director Tim O’Keefe. There will be four performances through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Saturday, February 19

Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth presents "Surprises of Tsarist Russia"
Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth presents Surprises of Tsarist Russia, which includes Anton Arensky's Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 32, Sergei Rachmaninov's Élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 50. The concert at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will feature the CMSFW Ensemble — Pavel Nersessian, piano; Gary Levinson, violin; and Inbal Segev, cello.

Monster Jam
Monster Jam fans will witness a fierce battle for the event championship, with each skilled Monster Jam athlete tearing up the dirt with gravity-defying feats in 12,000-pound Monster Jam trucks going head-to-head for points in Freestyle, the Skills Challenge, and Racing competitions. Plus, fans can become part of the action by voting for the winner in the Skills Challenge and Freestyle competitions via real-time, in-stadium fan voting on their smartphones. The event takes place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Josh Turner in concert
Country singer Josh Turner came out of the gates running on his debut in 2003, scoring a top 3 album with Long Black Train, and he hasn't slowed down since. All but one of his next seven albums made the top 3 on the Billboard Country charts thanks to a string of hit songs, including "Your Man," "Would You Go With Me?," "Why Don't We Just Dance?," and "Hometown Girl." He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas on Friday in support of his 2020 album, Country State of Mind.

Sunday, February 20

Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents "Beauty and Life: The Finis Welch Collection"
Newly acquired photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Marco Breuer, Edward Weston, and more will be on view for the first time at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in "Beauty and Life: The Finis Welch Collection." The exhibition features a selection of artworks from a collection of over 240 photographs and works on paper gifted to the Carter by the Texas collector. The exhibition will remain on display through May 8.

Fort Worth Opera presents "A Night of Black Excellence: Say It Loud - Songs of a Revolution"
Fort Worth Opera will present "A Night of Black Excellence: Say It Loud - Songs of a Revolution," with a starry line-up of internationally renowned artists. Featuring performances by renowned opera singers Audra Scott, Karen Slack, FWO Lesley Resident Artist Brandon Bell, and more, the event at I.M. Terrell Academy will also honor Fort Worth civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Opal Lee with a special tribute. The concert will feature works by Cyrus Chestnut, Duke Ellington, Shawn Okpebholo, Nina Simone, and more.

Artisan Center Theater in Hurst presents The Wizard of Oz starting on February 18.

Artisan Center Theater presents The Wizard of Oz

Photo by Chris Gallego Wong

Artisan Center Theater in Hurst presents The Wizard of Oz starting on February 18.

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Movie Review

We Live in Time takes unusual approach to give cancer saga a new twist

Photo by Peter Mountain/courtesy of A24

Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in We Live in Time.

The art of filmmaking is one that can be done in myriad ways, although the vast majority of them tend to follow the three-act structure of telling a story linearly from beginning to end. Filmmakers that play around with that structure, as is done in aptly-named We Live in Time, must find sufficient ways in which to involve viewers or they risk undercutting the power of the story they’re trying to tell.

Within the first few minutes of the film, it has shown scenes featuring Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) in the midst of early love, interacting with their young daughter, and reacting to the news of a cancer diagnosis for Almut. Two of those revelations are ones that are typically held back in a story focused on the romance of one couple, so the fact that they’re shown right away is an indication that director John Crowley and writer Nick Payne have great confidence in their ability to keep viewers hooked.

The film continues its transmogrification of time throughout, sometimes stopping to show a few scenes in a row from one period in Almut and Tobias’ life together, but more often than not mixing them up as a way of comparing and contrasting how alike or different they are. Each scene builds upon the next to paint a picture of the couple’s unique love.

Organizing the film as a traditional narrative would have been the safe way to go for the filmmakers, as it has all the hallmarks of the grand romance turned tearjerker. This mixing up of the story definitely makes it stand out, although the results are hit-and-miss. When Crowley sticks with one timeline longer than he had previously, it helps to connect with the two main characters. When he goes through the multiple times rapidly, it forces the audience to play catch up, slightly hampering the story’s progress.

The scenes that work the best are the ones depicting the couple’s burgeoning bond, as it shows who they were as individuals and what they were becoming together. The film mostly elides the age gap between the two actors (Garfield is 41, Pugh is 28), and that’s for the best as the characters have an affinity for one another that transcends any other concerns.

As the film progresses, it does become a little difficult to keep the timelines straight. The story contains certain markers that aid in the storytelling, but the rapidity with which Crowley goes back and forth between different times, as well as similar looks for the two stars, leads to questions about when a certain segment is taking place.

Even if the story is not quite as powerful as it could have been, both Pugh and Garfield put in great performances. The former Oscar nominees each have a way of saying a lot with just their faces, and their expressiveness often does more to elicit emotions than the story itself. Few other actors get much time to make much of an impact, but Lee Braithwaite makes a nice impression as a sous chef to Almut, who is an acclaimed chef.

Going the linear route might have helped the legibility of the story of We Live in Time, but it also would have made it the same as most other films in its genre. The strength of the narrative is somewhat muted by its early reveals, but it still has a very affecting arc for the central couple, aided by two award-worthy actors demonstrating their significant talents.

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We Live in Time opens in theaters on October 18.

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