04 August 2007
Let's see a report on the yellow light times at these intersections
On the Chron's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles posts the latest information on the city's red light cameras:
The department has issued 89,000 citations, and about 57 percent of the cited motorists have paid. This rate, however, is skewed by the fact that motorists have about three months to pay. The payment rate from the earliest months of the program is much higher. Seventy-four percent of those cited in October have paid, for example.
There have been an average of 442 citations issued per day.
The busiest intersection is West Road at the North Freeway (1,066 citations, on average, per month). The slowest is North Shepherd at the North Loop (19 citations, on average, per month).
It could be true that the cameras (and publicity about them) have achieved the "behavior modifications" Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo wants. Monthly citations have declined from a height of 15,293 in April, when only 40 intersections were monitored, to 14,201 in May and 13,512 in June. All 50 cameras were operating during those two months, of course, so the decline is even more significant. We'll see whether this trend continues.
It still boggles my mind that Council didn't force the city to make sure all these intersections were functioning properly; specifically, that lights were timed properly and intersections were well-engineered. Recall that Chron columnist Lisa Falkenberg caught herself running red lights because of downtown's "synchronized" traffic signals. Also recall that, back when red light cameras were being debated, Mayor White balked at the suggestion of increasing yellow light times because he thought that would reduce mobility.
The behavior modification should have begun with city and HPD officials and how they opted for the most punishing "solution" to the problem of red-light running, a problem that might well have its roots in how the city manages its intersections.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/07 07:48 AM |
02 August 2007
The Insite tells "the rest of the story"
The Chronicle's Mike Glenn has a sanitized account of an HPD press conference earlier today:
A group of ministers appealed for people to remain calm Thursday in the wake of the fatal shooting of an armed southeast Houston man who held police at bay for more than an hour on Tuesday.
During an impromptu press conference in the parking lot at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, 8309 Brandon, the Rev. C.E. Smith urged residents to withhold judgment until the investigation into the death of Reginald Sumbler, 21, is concluded.
"We want the neighborhood to be quiet. Don't get excited (and) don't get nervous," said Smith, of the Houston Ministers Against Crime. "When we find out what's going on after this goes through the proper channels, then we'll talk."
Well, isn't that nice?
KRIV-26's Isiah Carey notes that the press conference actually turned into something of a fiasco for HPD. Carey also reproduces the HPD press alert about the press conference, which indicates that it was not quite as "impromptu" as the Chronicle reporter indicated.
Advantage: Insite!
UPDATE: Carey has updated his post with a response from HPD someone, who doesn't like his characterization of the press conference. Frankly, it sounds like HPD overreached with its press alert. But that's just our view from afar. We link, you decide!
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: KPRC-2.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/07 10:43 PM |
MOJO radio, or just BAD radio?
KPRC-950's big format flip took place earlier this week (for the most part), and as the Chronicle's Andrew Guy reports for the Chronicle, that means Walton and Johnson are now back on Clear Channel. They're on in the mornings, and they've been doing double duty in the afternoons until the new Chris Baker/Cynthia Hunt show launches later this month.
I listened to them twice today (the things I do for the blog!), and can report they are as unfunny and grating as ever. Mancow was... so-so, for the first time I've ever listened to him, and predictably less interesting during the "Mancow Happy Hour." It's possible he could be an acquired taste, but probably not one that I will acquire. Dave Ramsey seems out of place. Baker/Hunt can't be judged yet, since Walton and Johnson are filling that slot temporarily (and just as obnoxious in it as the earlier slot), but Baker's a genuine talent and should be fine. I didn't listen to any of the evening programs, some (maybe all?) of which are taped.
Indeed, it's really strange to see the once-great talk station running so much taped content, which means people in the Houston radio market (not some rural backwater) can't actually call in during the taped shows. But hey, they have a "Babe Pages" pictures link on the new website, so who needs interactivity on the radio side, right?
Maybe it will all turn out to be a stroke of genius for Michael "Babe Pages" Berry, if he manages to attract a previously untapped radio audience. But it will have to be a new audience, if some of the emails we have received are any indication, because quite a few listeners (especially female listeners) were probably shocked by the changes on Monday. We're guessing many of those listeners wound up discovering that KNTH and KSEV are pretty decent alternatives for political talk. We're also guessing John Granato is smiling about now, since the lineup he's built for KGOW's launch next month seems so much stronger than what KPRC (sorry, but I won't refer to it as 9 5 0 MOJO) is offering.
The ratings in a few months ought to be very interesting. In the meantime, it's probably worth noting the passing of a once-great talk radio station in Houston. Who knows -- maybe it will be again.
OTHER THOUGHTS: Radio-Info.
BLOGVERSATION: Off the Kuff, HouStoned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/02/07 09:51 PM |
01 August 2007
But everybody was a winner before the shakedown
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that Council could vote as soon as next week to approve Mayor White's multimillion-dollar shakedown of the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation:
The Houston City Council is expected to vote as early as next week to sell the 6.7-acre tract where the center is to the facility's Foundation for the Retarded. The center offers an array of services to about 600 mentally retarded people, including 200 who live in a six-story dormitory.
The vote would all but cap the center's hard-fought battle to remain on the land it has occupied for more than 40 years under a 99-year lease that city attorneys recently declared invalid.
Officials with the center said they are looking forward to closing on the property, which could occur within weeks.
"Everybody at the center will be thrilled to be focusing on our clients and adding value to our services instead of worrying about our survival," said David Baldwin, president of the Foundation for the Retarded.
Attorneys with the city and the center have been negotiating the final contract ever since Mayor Bill White announced the proposed sale in late April, calling it "an agreement where everyone wins."
Everybody "won" under the previous arrangement, which didn't raise legal questions for any previous mayoral administration. It remains a shameful moment for the White Administration that this shakedown ever took place. Thankfully, the Center's leaders were able to raise the money for the shakedown, so it did not come to the city evicting a group of retarded people to make room for developers.
Here's hoping that Mayor White is just as diligent about securing full value for city property in the proposed sale of Bolsover street.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/07 11:02 PM |
31 July 2007
Corrections from the Editorial LiveJournalists?
We were a little shocked to see the following corrections in the Chronicle today:
• An editorial on Page B8 Monday inaccurately referred to San Jacinto College and North Harris Montgomery College District.
• An editorial on Page B8 Monday incorrectly stated that eucalyptus, which is chiefly Australian, was unique to that continent.
It is rare that the Editorial LiveJournalists correct factual errors, even if newspaper personnel acknowledge the errors via email. I wonder what led to the prompt corrections today?
It would probably be picking nits to note that the correction STILL got one name wrong.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/07 09:24 PM |
Nice park or expensive boondoggle?
The Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg doesn't like Steve Radack's Soapwood Derby park.
Lou Minatti doesn't like Falkenberg's characterization of the park project.
We link, you decide.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/07 09:09 PM |
30 July 2007
Chron profiles Sidney Berger, one of UH's many gems
This weekend, the Chronicle ran an interesting profile of Sidney Berger, the renowned chair of UH's school of theater, who is stepping down after 38 years at the helm:
When Sidney Berger became chairman of the University of Houston drama department in 1969, it had a three-person faculty and 30 students with that major.
Today, as the UH School of Theatre and Dance, it boasts a faculty of 15 and 300 majors and a higher national profile — an enduring legacy as Berger steps away this week from a tenure of nearly four decades.
When Berger came aboard, there were no opportunities for UH students to absorb lessons directly from the theater's greatest talents.
Today, because of the celebrated artists Berger has attracted here, hundreds of alumni can include on their résumés that they studied with such renowned figures as playwrights Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson, producer Stuart Ostrow and directors José Quintero and Sir Peter Hall.
When Berger moved here, there was no professional outlet in which theater students could hone their craft.
Today, thanks to the two professional summer projects Berger founded in the 1970s (Houston Shakespeare Festival and Children's Theatre Festival), students have the opportunity to work with theater pros from across the city, as well as guest artists from elsewhere.
Peter Sargent, dean of the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts at St. Louis' Webster University, deems Berger's leadership at UH "visionary and successful." Sargent was one of three prominent figures in theater education contracted in 2003 to give an objective evaluation of the UH School of Theatre.
"He is going to leave quite a legacy," Sargent says. "He has attracted nationally significant theater artists and professionals to present a thorough perspective on theater education. His leadership of HSF and its partnership with the school is an excellent example of how two institutions can work together successfully. He has moved the UH school to a position of national recognition. And he has done so with a sense of what is best for the institution and the students."
Thankfully, Berger will be staying on at the fine department he built, as a faculty member and as director of the annual Shakespeare Festival held at Hermann Park every summer.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/07 09:21 PM |
Interest groups promote interests (updated)
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee today wrote about his field trip to look at freight train operations with the Citizens' Transportation Coalition.
This blurb describing the group (the third graf) caught my eye:
Self-described as an "all-volunteer grassroots transportation advocacy organization," the group has worked to give residents a stronger voice in the planning of major projects that affect their neighborhoods.
The first clause in that paragraph seems fair enough. How groups describe themselves is, in some ways, preferable to journalists actually trying to put labels on them. The problem is in the second clause, which is Sallee's description of the group, and which really seems to downplay (nay, omit) the group's advocacy on transportation issues.
Far from being a group that simply fosters public debate and attempts to empower neighborhoods on transportation issues, the CTC frequently takes stands on issues. Most notably, members of the group have long argued for a specific rail alignment on Richmond, even as they publicly said they merely wanted all options on the table. Interestingly, even as the group was talking about "all options," key members of the group were corresponding with METRO on how best to promote the Richmond alignment. Since quite a few people who actually live/work along Richmond oppose that alignment, it's not really accurate to suggest that the group is giving those residents a stronger voice in this instance. Rather, the group is arguing for its preferred position.
This is not to suggest there's anything wrong with that. Interest-group pluralism depends upon informed groups putting their views out into the marketplace of ideas for debate, and the Citizens' Transportation Coalition is an interest group that certainly adds an intelligent voice to the local conversation. But it does take stands on transportation issues (rather than simply empowering neighborhood residents or promoting discussion), a point that did not seem adequately conveyed by Sallee's column.
To his credit, Sallee did respond to the discussion on the article with a comment on my Chron.com message page, and said he didn't mean to suggest that CTC doesn't take positions on issues.
UPDATE (08-01-2007): Lo and behold, here is the most recent example of the CTC empowering neighborhoods instead of promoting an agenda, as Rad Sallee would have it. A more objective view, of course, is that the formulation should be reversed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/07 09:09 PM |
29 July 2007
Marvin Zindler, 1921-2007
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 07:36 PM |
Cragg Hines has left the building
Today, Chronicle DC columnist Cragg Hines turns in his last column -- fittingly, a reflection of his career and himself:
I thought about going quietly, just a couple of sentences toward the end of a regular column noting that after more than three decades of writing about politics and government for Chronicle readers that I was pulling the plug.
I decided that approach, however elegant and restrained, was sort of chicken and not actually my style. There would be a summing up, a possibly self-indulgent coda to my current career. I knew I'd have fun doing a wrap-up, and I have.
The Chron's veteran columnist has seemed bored for quite a while now, turning in either predictably lazy blasts at Republican pols or, worse, dispatches on his C-SPAN viewing or his take on Washington Post architecture columns. In many ways, he had come to epitomize a largely irrelevant D.C. bureau that never breaks news or offers fresh, well-sourced insight. We can't help but think that at some point, the accomplished journalist simply grew bored with the routine at an irrelevant bureau.
It's tempting to suggest that the Chron DC bureau may benefit from addition by subtraction, but as we have seen from the Plagiarist's hiatus from the newspaper's metro/state pages, that's not necessarily the case. Indeed, if it means the DC bureau will be featuring more of Julie Mason's editorial rambles, then it certainly won't be a case of addition by subtraction.
In any case, the Coven wishes Hines well in whatever comes next. Personally, I'd like to see him continue writing about travel in some capacity. He's an avid traveler, and that has been some of his most interesting, compelling writing in recent years.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 02:20 PM |
LA Times profiles Quanell the Tenth
Houston's own Quanell the Tenth was profiled this week in the LA Times. Here's an excerpt:
Quanell X was once just Quanell Evans, a Houston street urchin from a shattered home who was slinging crack and staring at a future he knew would put him in prison or a coffin before age 25.
He sought a new start through the Nation of Islam, but his hate-filled diatribes against white America — which have included anti-Semitic remarks and exhortations to "mug you some good white folks" — proved too much even for a black Muslim organization used to helping angry hoodlums out of the gutter.
So he left to join a splinter group of gun-toting black separatists, and he advocated racial justice by any means necessary in a misguided fantasy that he was the new Malcolm X — a self-aggrandizing pose that brought him more ridicule than respect.
Now 36, Quanell X is morphing again, this time into a self-appointed spokesman for the black underclass that he came from, and his services are in high demand.
"They come to me because they know I am not afraid to challenge the powers that be," he said. "I'm not tiptoeing through the tulips and pussyfooting around. I'm saying what other people think but don't have the courage to say."
RELATED: Who is Quanell X? (Owen Courrèges, Chronically Biased).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/07 01:41 PM |
Peter Brown fights for better streets around the Menil
Last week, the Chron ran a This Week story about how Menil officials and Councilman Peter Brown want the City of Houston to repair the streets around the museum:
The city of Houston is working on patching up the pothole-filled streets surrounding the Menil Collection, 1515 Sul Ross, while museum officials and Peter Brown, an at-large city council member, are seeking a longer-term fix.
The Menil and Brown's office said they believe repairing the streets around the facility is important because of what the museum does for Houston's image. Streets affected are Branard, Mandell, Sul Ross and Yupon.
"We appreciate the positive attention the Menil receives for its art collection," said Jonathan Fong, Brown's personal assistant. "(But) if people can't get down those streets, then they're not going to go."
Said Vance Muse, the Menil's communications director, "The Menil gets a whole lot of visitors from out of the city and out of state and we want them to get the best possible view of the city."
Muse said the museum began complaining to various city departments about six months ago at the beginning of its 20th anniversary year about the surrounding streets.
[snip]
Wes Johnson, spokesman for the Public Works, explained the financial situation.
"All the money is committed for a certain period of time," Johnson said. "You can't just suddenly start reworking streets — it's not that easy to do. In the meantime, we send people out to do some patchwork."
We imagine if Mayor White really WANTED those streets fixed, he'd find a way to make it happen.
By the way, as a commenter on the Chron story pointed out, Councilman Brown is somewhat connected to the Menil Collection by marriage -- his wife is Anne Schlumberger. Perhaps that should have been disclosed?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/29/07 09:59 AM |
28 July 2007
City looks to buy former Hackberry Golf Course
The City of Houston is purchasing a new park (via KUHF-88.7):
In a $5 million deal, the city is about to purchase 22 acres of land in the heart of Alief. Houston Parks Department Director Joe Turner says the Houston Parks Board, a non-profit organization, identified the site a while back as a potential park. It's a chunk of land that used to be a 9-hole golf course.
"It actually has three or four water features in it. We know the cart paths are going to need some repair work, but we know they'd be wonderful walking trails. It's a small clubhouse but we should be able to use it for some meeting space type facilities and it has a nice parking lot. Long term plans would be to be able to put a playground at it and possibly maybe even a sprayground. It's just going to be a wonderful neighborhood park."
The Parks Department will present the purchase proposal to Houston City Council next week. The city will put up $3 million toward the purchase. The remaining funds will come from the Houston Parks Board, including money to refurbish the buildings and turn the golf cart paths into walking trails.
Just wondering if Houston has made any progress toward purchasing the $150 million emergency radio network it needs?
PREVIOUSLY: City surplus jumps to $33 million
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/28/07 06:25 PM |
Chron: Everything's fine in Tilman-land, really!
Today, the Chronicle affords Tilman Fertitta the opportunity to assure readers that his operation is fine, in response to recent reporting on his company's refinancing woes:
Landry's Restaurants Chairman and CEO Tilman Fertitta said Friday the company is financially sound and that its current debt problem is easily solved.
"It's no big deal," he said. "I can solve it tomorrow by writing a check, but I'm negotiating."
[snip]
Landry's said [recently downgraded] ratings should improve once the debt issue is resolved.
In addition to the notes, which are held in trust by U.S. Bank, Landry's has a $450 million credit agreement with Wachovia Bank with a similar stipulation regarding its filing of financial statements.
Landry's said Wachovia could require immediate payment of the $97 million it owes on the credit agreement, but it hasn't and it doesn't expect the bank to.
"Nothing is wrong with the company," Fertitta said.
Well, if Fertitta says so, allrighty then!
One Chron.com commenter had an amusing take on the story and Fertitta:
I'm going to sell my Enron stock and buy some Landry's stock. I beleive him.
Ken Lay
Nice.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers (and here), Liberty's Blog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/07 01:44 PM |
27 July 2007
Chron scaffolding is not world class
KTRK-13's Miya Shay blogs about the eyesore that just won't go away at 801 Texas Avenue:
If you've walked by the Houston Chronicle's building downtown in the last.. oh.. FIVE years, chances are you've either seen or had to duck through some sort of scaffolding. It seems like the City of Houston is getting a bit frustrated with the lack of progress to repair the Chron's building facade.
The city's Public Works director says the project has sped up noticeably recently.
Strange, but we hadn't noticed. And apparently Miya Shay hasn't either.
Surely Hearst could move this project along, if only in the interest of projecting a world-class facade to the rest of downtown!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/07 10:26 PM |
Who can blame them for being concerned? It's Metro, after all
KTRK-13 has another story on residents in southeast Houston who aren't pleased a light rail line is coming to their neighborhood:
For more than 30 years, Rutha Hymon has lived in MacGregor Place.
"This is a quiet neighborhood, it's close to downtown, you know it's nice," she said.
She lives just a half block from Martin Luther King Boulevard. It's a long a stretch that METRO has selected for construction of a 1.2 mile light rail line between Old Spanish Trail and Griggs Road.
Hymon fears the line could leak stray electricity into the neighborhood and could endanger children who cross MLK to Peck Elementary.
"I don't welcome more problems," she said.
Others agree and say it is risky for METRO to put in a line near where children gather. There is fear that children don't always look both ways before crossing the street.
"They don't do it," said Baba Shango of the Sehah Youth Center. "Some will do it, some won't do it and that is too much of a chance."
Shango is one of a half dozen people who pled with METRO's board to move the route behind their neighborhoods. They also accused the board of not notifying the neighborhood residents concerning public meetings on the issue.
METRO's CEO says 14,000 door hanger meeting notifications were sent out before 140 meetings on the issue which took place over a six year period. He says METRO has been sensitive to the homeowner's concerns and laments that there is no way to please everyone.
"So it is our responsibility to make sure we disrupt the community as little as possible," said METRO's David Wolff. "We're sensitive to safety concerns and we make sure businesses continue to prosper and we are committed to that."
Certainly there is enough of a track record (literally!) along the Danger Train line that residents have plenty of valid reasons to be concerned. Metro's competence to build light rail is not a given.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: KHOU-11 also has a story on this topic. Unfortunately, we will continue to see these sorts of stories so long as we are determined to build light rail at grade, down busy streets and along busy intersections. It's a dangerous, short-sighted way to build transit, and hardly world-class (when compared to the great transit systems of the world, which are not run down busy streets).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/07 05:01 AM |
26 July 2007
KHOU: Mobile food vendors protest new regulations
KHOU-11's Karla Barguiarena reports that some mobile food vendors are unhappy with new regulations that will go into effect in September:
On the corner of Airline and Aldine Mail Road, Rosario Torres' fajita recipe has become a hit.
But come Sept. 1, Torres fears her success will hit a roadblock.
New state regulations that will force her to change the way she's run her business.
"It's very, very confusing for me. It's very problem,” said Torres.
Right now, Torres pays a company to come in and clean her stand three times a week.
With the new regulations, she'll have to drive it 20 miles to the nearest commissary every night.
"My business is not a big one to pay every day,” she said.
She'll also have to add extra insurance to cover the vehicle. It's time and money she says, she can't afford.
"It's really difficult to be moving the stand every single day,” said fellow taco stand owner Jose Lara.
Other taco stand owners are calling the changes monumental and unnecessary.
It strikes me that a "mobile" food stand that never or rarely moves isn't really a mobile food stand any more, and probably should meet the same standards as any non-mobile food stand.
So are the new regulations a legitimate attempt to hold non-mobile "mobile" food stands to higher standards, or just a thinly veiled effort to reduce the number of mobile food stands?
Please leave your thoughts in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/07 08:56 PM |
25 July 2007
Chron Eye for the 100th Harris County Death Row Killer Guy!
A three-reporter Chronicle story today notes the indifference over what the reporters (or at least their editors) probably thought would be a much bigger, much more exciting story:
Lonnie Earl Johnson, convicted of the 1990 robbery-murder of two Magnolia teenagers, became the 100th killer sent to Texas' death house by a Harris County jury on Tuesday.
The execution took place without the street theater and bullhorn-amplified protests that normally mark such events.
No television cameramen jockeyed for position as witnesses marched into the Huntsville Unit.
Seven death penalty opponents watched wordlessly from a distance.
Little emotion was displayed, either by Johnson's sole witness or by relatives of the victims, who declined comment Tuesday.
Maybe there's a lesson for the Chronicle's editors, who chose to devote three reporters to this latest Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Like most people (apparently), Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal did not seem to regard 100 as any sort of magical number:
Johnson's status as the 100th killer executed at the behest of Harris County juries since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982 caused little stir at the district attorney's office.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal dismissed it as "insignificant."
In the story, the three reporters note that #101 is scheduled for August.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/07 08:52 PM |
Just be honest and say they are lifetime benefits
Every few months, local media treat us to the latest story of how Hurricane Katrina victims will have their housing aid extended. Here's KTRK-13:
Families that received federal housing assistance before getting displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will get extensions of up to nine months on their disaster benefits, government officials said Monday.
About 11,400 families have been part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Voucher Program, which was scheduled to end Sept. 30. About 3,500 of the families are in the Houston area.
"What happened two years ago had a devastating affect on people's lives," HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson told a group of Katrina evacuees at an apartment complex for seniors that still has 80 relocated families. "We can't change what God does, but we can make the best of it."
Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, devastating a large swath of the Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coasts and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans. Rita hit southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas less than a month later.
At its peak, 30,700 families were using the Disaster Voucher Program to cover their housing costs.
On Jan. 1, 7,600 of the remaining families will go back to HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, which they were on before the storm. Under this program, participants get help paying their rent to a private landlord.
"Extensions of up to nine months." Please. We all know whatever "deadline" is given will be extended...and extended...and extended.
In effect, two years later nothing has changed, except how the housing assistance is coded. It's still taxpayer dollars taken from hard-working folks in order to subsidize others.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/25/07 06:47 PM |
24 July 2007
Infernal Bridegroom Productions shuts down
The Chronicle's Everett Evans reports some disappointing news about the Houston stage scene:
Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Houston's foremost avant-garde theater company, has ceased operations because of "insurmountable financial difficulties."
The news was made public late Tuesday in an e-mail released by IBP board president Chet Farmer. The company's own phone line was disconnected.
Tamarie Cooper, a founding company member and IBP's acting artistic director, could not be reached for comment.
Founded in 1993, IBP specialized in Houston premieres of bold works by such cutting-edge playwrights as Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, Sarah Kane, Heiner Müller and Wallace Shawn, mixed with avant-garde classics by such masters as Samuel Becket, Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco.
For its often rough-hewn yet usually potent renditions of daring fare — as well as its troupe of original and idiosyncratic writer-performers — IBP attracted a loyal following locally and, in recent years, increasing national attention.
IBP drew the most notice with its world premieres, including Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks' ****ing A, Brian Jucha's We Have Some Planes and Lisa D'Amour's Hide Town, all featured in American Theatre magazine.
By all accounts, IBP did some truly innovative stage work. Sadly, Houston tastes tend towards shops that mostly put on musicals, or the high-end see-and-be-seen productions downtown. Smaller, innovative companies tend to struggle in such an environment.
BLOGVERSATION: Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and Hell Storms, Arts Houston, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/07 11:22 PM |
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