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Annual Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore Texas

June 4th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article on cultural events taking place in the Tyler area this summer. One such event that I would be remiss to forget is the annual Texas Shakespeare Festival (TSF) held at Kilgore College. The TSF is largely a company of professional actors as well as some drama students. While its summer performances are held at Van Cliburn auditorium every year, the festival which began in 1986 is technically independent from Kilgore College. However the school is a generous supporter of the event by not only providing a venue for the performances but also temporary room and board for the actors. The Texas Shakespeare Festival also receives numerous grants from the City of Kilgore, as well as many private businesses and corporations.

This summer the festival is entering its twenty fifth season. Over the past generation, the company has performed more than thirty of Shakespeare’s classic plays. But this company is about more than just Shakespearian dramas, (as if that weren’t enough). They have also performed other classics like Cyrano de Bergerac, She Stoops to Conquer, The Glass Menagerie, Amadeus, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Monkey King, and many, many others. This summer the company will be performing the Bard’s classic plays: As You Like It, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. They will also be performing several additional Plays including: The Learned Ladies, by Molière, Two by Two Music, by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Martin Charnin, and The Tortoise and the Hare, (based on a version entitled the Great Cross Country Race), by Alan Broadhurst. All features will be playing throughout the months of July and the beginning of August. For times and prices visit the Texas Shakespeare Festival website at www.texasshakespeare.com.

Shakespeare’s works, and plays in general are among the few things I’d rather watch than read, since they were written for that purpose. This great summer event is a tremendous opportunity for young people in particular, to begin to cultivate a love of literature and of learning. It has certainly helped to enrich our area and has developed a greater interest in the arts. Admittedly the festival is a few minutes outside Tyler, but it is well worth the small time investment required to head a little north for the day and take in a cultural and educational experience. For those interested in  other activities or events happening around Tyler and East Texas this summer look for my recent posts entitled, Summer Activities in the Tyler Area, and Cultural Events and Institutions in Tyler TX. For more information on Kilgore College, go to www.kilgore.edu.

The Brewtones Galaxy in Tyler Texas

May 27th, 2010

The search for Tyler area activities to write about has led me to the part time coffee bar, part time church, known to patrons and parishioners respectively as the Brewtones Galaxy, or the Vineyard Church of Tyler. The Brewtones coffee shop has become a well known venue for local artists, musicians, modern-day beatniks, and twenty-somethings in general, to gather for a cup of Joe and an “unplugged” musical performance by area indie bands that are usually quietly Christian. The venue is not large but it provides a slightly bigger than intimate setting, for area young people to gather and take in various musical performances.

The primary mission of the café is to provide a place for local and out of town bands often on the cusp of real commercial success, to play to a somewhat more, but not exclusively religious crowd. The Vineyard Church has always had as part of its mission to reach out to younger, more under-churched people. Given this focus, the Brewtones Galaxy is a sort of natural partnership. Attendees are not likely to hear any kind of homily or gospel reading, but it is an opportunity to mix with other college aged youth in an environment they may or may not be otherwise interested in. Past performances have come from artists like Eisley, Sleeping at last, Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot fame) The Rocketboys, Christi Dupree and others. If most of the names are not immediately familiar that’s not surprising. But many area young people cooler than I would recognize these bands in short order.

On May twenty eight, the band entitled Moving Castles, (apparently a reference to the novel and film by the same name), will be performing at Brewtones in Tyler, in honor of the release of their new CD. The doors open at seven and admission is ten dollars a person. For more information see the Brewtones website at http://www.myspace.com/brewtones. They are located at 5201 S. Broadway Ave., in Tyler. For more on the band Moving Castles, visit http://movingcastles.com/. To read more about The Vineyard Church in Tyler go to www.tylervineyard.com, or look for the article entitled The Vineyard Church of Tyler located elsewhere on this site.

Kings Academy Christian School in Tyler Texas

April 23rd, 2010

In the past, I have written and posted extensively on Tyler area private schools and other local educational opportunities. King’s Academy represents one of our area’s more unique educational establishments. As a University Model School, King’s college style schedule and admissions process helps to better prepare local young people for the experience of higher education. The School is a non-denominational institution that accepts students from any Christian denomination, and has as its goal to foster and cultivate parental and family relationships.

After six years of operation and somewhere around twenty graduated seniors later, the school is reaching out to the local Tyler community to help raise scholarship funds for students who have the desire to attend the school, but may lack the financial means. As a rule, the school’s tuition runs about one half, to three fourths what is charged by other area private schools, and they remain committed to providing a top notch academic education, in a religious setting, to local families for relatively low tuition costs.

On May 1st King’s Academy will be holding its second annual Bowl-a-thon at Green Acres Bowling Lanes, in Tyler. The students will be collecting individual sponsorships who agree to a “per pin” donation. King’s has also invited area churches, private schools and homeschoolers to come out and participate in the event. The annual fund raiser is a great opportunity to support a local Tyler school, and not for profit ministry. Individuals who would like to participate in the event, in some capacity, whether through donations, sponsorships or bowling for dollars, are encouraged to contact King’s Academy by phone at (903)534-9992. For more information on King’s Academy go to their website at www.kacs.net, or see the following listings also located on this site: Something Different in Education, Something Different at King’s Academy, and Six- Man Football returns to Tyler.

Tyler Cabinet Maker Directory

February 1st, 2010

D&H Quality Cabinets and Woodworking

Rick Thrasher
PO Box 1895
Lindale, TX 75771
(903) 882-0274
info@dandhcabinets.com

B&L Cabinet & Supply, Inc., Paulette Copeland

901 Mobile Dr, Longview, TX 75604 (903) 297-2400
dpope@blcabinet.com

Barrett Homes, Bud Barrett

15311 CR 2123, Whitehouse, TX 75791 (903) 245-4444
bud@barretthomes.biz

CCS Woodworks, Chris Walker

2332 Old Henderson Hwy, Tyler, TX 75702 (903) 521-5018
cwalker5018@sbcglobal.net

Cupboards Plus Inc., Loy Eloi

PO Box 665, Van, TX 75790 (903) 963-8606

Donovan White Cabinets, Inc., Hank Neill

1348 Bromberg St, Mineola, TX 75773 (903) 569-5611
Neill5611@aol.com

ECS Cabinetry, Lonnie Ereman

PO Box 114, Murchison, TX 75778-0114 (903) 539-4197
ecscabinetry@gmail.com

Innovative Woodworks, Brian Wallace

4700A Old Troup Hwy, Tyler, TX 75707 (903) 509-9696
brian@innovativewoods.com

K&D Woodwork, David Burgin

381 Pine Rd, Big Sandy, TX 75755 (903) 636-4086
alice@kdwoodwork.com

Lonestar Millworks, Inc., Justin Morris

301 E McKay St, Overton, TX 75684 (903) 834-6086

M.A.C. Cabinets, Michael Coffey

5985 FM 2493, Troup, TX 75789 (903) 894-6135
mac-cabinets@earthlink.net

Old Shadetree Mills, Ltd., James Hughes

10620 Browning St, Brownsboro, TX 75756 (903) 852-5375

Ranger Custom Millwork, Inc., Andy Wyatt

4715 Candy Ln, Tyler, TX 75701 (903) 581-7822

Texas Wood Mill Cabinets, Inc.

326 PR 7904, Hawkins, TX 75765 (903) 769-3011
tim@woodmillcabinets.com

The above cabinet makers are all members of the Tyler Area Builders Association and can be called for quotes and estimates on building a custom cabinet for your Tyler or East Texas home.

Chandler Family Chiropractic Near Tyler

January 31st, 2010

Chandler Family Chiropractic

323 Hwy 31 E (PO Box 1894)
Chandler, TX 75758
Office: (903) 849-2200
Fax: (903) 849-2600

Chandler Family Chiropractic, Acupuncture & Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression is located in Chandler, TX directly off of Highway 31 E. It is only ten miles from Loop 323 in Tyler. It is easy to miss, as the town is very small and their sign is not very pronounced. Several times we have driven right by it. A good tip: It’s right across from the Mexican restaurant and within the main section of town. If you find that you’ve passed all of the gas stations and fast food restaurants, you’ve gone too far.

Dr. Charles R. Dixon has been serving the Tyler-area community since February 2001. His services include spinal decompression therapy, acupuncture (with or without needles), massage therapy, heat and ice therapy, electric stimulus therapy and more. His staff includes his wife and niece who run the front office and massage therapist Mindy Terrell.

Dr. Dixon runs his family practice with skill and enthusiasm. As a patient, I have been shown genuine kindness from all the staff and I have only good things to say about the quality of treatment. I am one of the many patients who used to be in chronic back pain, but that pain is now history. My husband has also been pain-free for months. He had horrible low back pain to the point where he would fall over.

I am always greeted at the door with warm and welcoming smiles. More than once Dr. Dixon has met me at my car and carried my daughter’s infant car seat for me to the office to save me from heavy lifting. He has repeatedly worked late or into his lunch break for us. Once on a Friday evening he even came back to the office after hours to adjust me because he didn’t want my weekend to be miserable.

I first came to know of Chandler Family Chiropractic through a friend of mine. I had been in pain for a year and had never gone to see a chiropractor because at the time I was in school, uninsured and could not afford it. This friend of mine gave me Dr. Dixon’s phone number, which I assumed was the number to his office. It was actually his cell phone number, and Dr. Dixon himself answered and discussed treatment for my back pain. He assured me that he would do his very best to make me pain-free, payment or not, and set up an appointment right then and there.

When I went into the office I was pleasantly surprised by how charming the little office was. The patients all seemed content and relaxed. The staff was more than simply welcoming. They made us feel like family by the time our visit was over, and they sent me home pain-free to boot! My husband and I have been his patients and friends ever since.

I am so thankful for the good care Dr. Dixon has afforded us over the years. He and his wife are good people who have a heartfelt compassion for the needs of others. They go above and beyond what is required or expected of chiropractic care in their hospitality and even in their very thorough and comprehensive medical care. It seems that they would give their services away if there was another way to support their family. They are some of the most giving people I know. I highly recommend his office to anyone who is in need of chiropractic care.