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The Crimson White

Serving The University of Alabama since 1894.

The Crimson White

Serving The University of Alabama since 1894.

The Crimson White

All content by Michael Dawson
Review: 'Sweeney Todd' a delightfully disturbing production

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ a delightfully disturbing production

Michael Dawson April 24, 2018

The very first show of "Sweeney Todd" I ever saw was the original Sondheim 1979 production that I found on YouTube. It was also the first theatre show I had ever seen from start to finish, so I wasn't...

Review: 'I Gelosi' depicts comedy troupe with heart and wit

Review: ‘I Gelosi’ depicts comedy troupe with heart and wit

Michael Dawson April 12, 2018

"I Gelosi," or "The Jealous Ones," is a play set in the tradition of commedia dell'arte, or the Italian art of comedy, that explores the lives of the real-life acting troupe the Gelosi. They lived in the...

America cannot be great without universal health care

America cannot be great without universal health care

Michael Dawson March 8, 2018

When I was a kid, things like hospital bills, rent and mortgages were all vague and nebulous concepts to me. The most pressing matter to me was when the next Zelda game would be coming out. However, over...

A Bright Room Called Day mixes history, tragedy and comedy

A Bright Room Called Day mixes history, tragedy and comedy

Michael Dawson March 5, 2018

Written in 1994 by Tony Kushner, "A Bright Room Called Day" takes place in 1933 Berlin on the very heel of the Nazis' rise to power. It follows the life of film actress Agnes Eggling, who struggles with...

Black Panther offers important representation for people of color

Black Panther offers important representation for people of color

Michael Dawson March 2, 2018

There isn’t a lot of representation out there for people of color. Everything, from television, movies, books, video games, magazines, pop culture, etc., is dominated mainly by white people, and it has...

Pure Products Reading series returns to Monarch this Thursday

Pure Products Reading series returns to Monarch this Thursday

Michael Dawson January 31, 2018

The Pure Products Reading & Lecture Series is back. This Thursday, the Department of English and Creative Writing Program will host its popular Pure Products Reading & Lecture Series, the first of the...

Men can and should be better "Me Too" allies

Men can and should be better “Me Too” allies

Michael Dawson January 29, 2018

The #metoo movement set off a wave of sexual assault allegations that highlighted the many ways that Hollywood is still very much a men's club. Many of these men, such as Louis C.K and Aziz Ansari come...

Country singer Cole Swindell to perform tonight

Country singer Cole Swindell to perform tonight

Michael Dawson January 19, 2018

Few up-and-coming musicians have garnered as much attention and popularity as rising country music star Cole Swindell. The alternative country singer-songwriter will be perform as part of his "Down Home...

Red Mountain Theatre Company hosts annual Holiday Spectacular

Red Mountain Theatre Company hosts annual Holiday Spectacular

Michael Dawson December 6, 2017

The holidays are here again, and with them comes the Red Mountain Theatre Company’s 2017 Holiday Spectacular. From Dec. 1-17, the Red Mountain Theater Company will be running its annual production of...

"August: Osage County" cast hauntingly portrays distraught family

“August: Osage County” cast hauntingly portrays distraught family

Michael Dawson November 16, 2017

There's a scene in the play "August: Osage County" when Violet Weston says "Wouldn't we be better off, all of us, if we stopped lying about these things and told the truth? Women aren't sexy when they're...

We need more non-violent video games

We need more non-violent video games

Michael Dawson November 15, 2017

Video games are an expressive art media, capable of inspiring empathy in users through an entire canvas of characters and backstories with which player can interact. In that regard, video games are a somewhat...

Musical makes a spelling bee fun for all

Musical makes a spelling bee fun for all

Michael Dawson November 8, 2017

How does theatre make something as academically dry and mundane as a spelling bee exciting and hilarious to watch? It's a task that not many shows can do, but “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling...

YouTube should amplify voices of LGBTQ  minorities

YouTube should amplify voices of LGBTQ minorities

Michael Dawson November 6, 2017

Success for YouTube, its content-makers and its viewers, has always relied on algorithms, the invisible math that guides relevant content matches whenever you search for a video. And as advanced and effective...

The Beach Boys to play their 'good vibrations' in Birmingham Saturday

The Beach Boys to play their ‘good vibrations’ in Birmingham Saturday

Michael Dawson November 3, 2017

The Beach Boys will bring their classic "Good Vibrations" to the Birmingham this weekend.  This Saturday Nov. 4, the legendary rockers will perform at The Alabama Theater in Birmingham from 7:30 p.m....

The white privilege within terrorism

The white privilege within terrorism

Michael Dawson October 17, 2017

On October 1st at 10 pm, a gunman by the name of Stephen Paddock, perched from a hotel room at the Mandala Bay casino in Las Vegas, used an illegal semi-automatic modification to murder 59 people and injure...

Rapper MadeinTYO performs at Druid City Music Hall tonight

Rapper MadeinTYO performs at Druid City Music Hall tonight

Michael Dawson October 17, 2017

Rapper MadeinTYO (pronounced "Made in Tokyo") will take the Druid City stage tonight.  Tonight at 8:30 p.m. Druid City Music Hall presents MadeinTYO, along with 24hrs and K Swisha. It is open to all ages...

Avondale Brewing Company welcomes Jon Pardi with CMT tour

Avondale Brewing Company welcomes Jon Pardi with CMT tour

Michael Dawson October 11, 2017

The Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, Alabama will be hosting Jon Pardi's CMT Tour concert on Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. The tour features up-and-coming country music star acts, such as Jon Pardi, Runaway...

Opera Guild hosts annual fundraising gala

Opera Guild hosts annual fundraising gala

Michael Dawson October 6, 2017

On Friday, Oct. 6 from 6:30-7:30 p.m., the University of Alabama Opera Guild will host its fourth annual Opera Gala, BRAVO! An Evening with Our Stars. The event, organized by UA Opera Theater students...

Review: “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is a stirring performance with rewarding plot

Michael Dawson October 5, 2017

There is a moment in "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" where everything clicks.  The passionate, but uneventful opening acts give way into the fourth and final where everything unfolds into intensely artistic...

Political Correctness and the Jemele Hill Controversy

Political Correctness and the Jemele Hill Controversy

Michael Dawson October 2, 2017

It's Tuesday, September 12, 2017; Apple unveils the iPhone X at $999, Hurricane Irma is twisting its wreckage across the southern region of America and an ESPN news anchor named Jemele Hill is about to...

Play highlights themes of genocide and racisim

Play highlights themes of genocide and racisim

Michael Dawson September 26, 2017

On the coast of the southernmost tip of South Africa is a small country called Namibia, inhabited mostly by the Damara, Nama, San, and Herero people. In 1884, in a mostly colonialized Africa, Otto von...

With some majors, books aren't the biggest cost

With some majors, books aren’t the biggest cost

Michael Dawson September 25, 2017

Going to college is expensive. Despite the fact that having a degree lends itself to more job opportunities and larger salaries than those without one, the path to getting there is often fraught with fees...

Column: The political side of the Emmys

Column: The political side of the Emmys

Michael Dawson September 19, 2017

The Emmys, television's largest and most prestigious award show, have always been about big names conquering and broadcasting to millions. While the Emmys themselves aren't inherently political, nominations...

OPPOSING VIEWS: We should remove Confederate statues

OPPOSING VIEWS: We should remove Confederate statues

Michael Dawson September 1, 2017

Last sunday, in Brantley, Alabama at Confederate Veterans Memorial Park, hundreds of people decked in Confederate clothing and waving the Confederate flag gathered before the raising of a Confederate soldier...

Tuscaloosa Museum of Art offers a look at art history

Tuscaloosa Museum of Art offers a look at art history

Michael Dawson July 24, 2017

Nestled away on Jack Warner Parkway is a sizable collection of historical art of the American West, the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art. The gallery has pieces from numerous American artists such as Edwin Forbes,...

Alabama Blues Project to host two-day blues festival

Alabama Blues Project to host two-day blues festival

Michael Dawson July 6, 2017

The Alabama Blues Project will host their annual Alabama Blues Weekend festival July 7 and 8 on The University of Alabama Campus. During the two-day festival, guests can attend master classes given by...