Courtney Thomas

Writing

Journalism (click the logos to read my bylines in each publication, or navigate by category using the lists below)

Theatre and Dance

"The past, present, and uncertain future of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kalita Humphreys Theatre in Dallas" American Theatre Magazine, (Winter 2025).
"A Baptist Setting Informs Tony-Nominated Play 'John Proctor is the Villain'" The Commons, (August 12, 2025).
"Catch a Show at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Theater" Texas Highways, (May 17, 2024).
"Ballet Austin’s “Poe: A Tale of Madness” is a Spectacle Fueled by Collaboration" Glasstire, (April 15, 2024).
"Rude Mechs’ “Contranyms” responds to political division with language games" Sightlines, (April 17, 2023).
"Theatre Review: R. Eric Thomas’ ‘Nightbird’ asks what should replace Confederate monuments" Sightlines, (March 12, 2023).
"Theatre review: At UT New Theatre, ‘Address the Body!’ and ‘Very Blue Light’." Sightlines, (February 25, 2023).
"Dance review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Sarah’s Songs’." Sightlines, (February 12, 2023).
"Theatre review: The spark doesn’t quite catch in Filigree’s ‘Fire in Dreamland’." Sightlines, (February 7, 2023).
"Theatre review: ‘In the Beginning’ imagines a playful, freeing, alternate Genesis." Sightlines, (February 5, 2023).
"Opera review: The horror and humor in Austin Opera’s ‘Sweeney Todd’." Sightlines, (January 31, 2023).
"Theater review: ‘Ride the Wave’ at the Vortex." Sightlines, (January 18, 2023).
"Theater review: Jarrott Productions’ ‘The Sound Inside’." Sightlines, (January 16, 2023).
"Seven performance highlights of 2022." Sightlines, (December 19, 2022).
"Theatre Review: “The Gulf” is a tender drama with humor and heart." Sightlines, (December 15, 2022).
"Review: Austin Opera’s ‘Barber of Seville’ exudes energy, and fun." Sightlines, (November 08, 2022).
"Theater Review: Bottle Alley’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’."Sightlines, (November 07, 2022).
"Theater review: ‘Casta’ is an ambitious piece of museum theater." Sightlines, (October 27, 2022).
"Theater review: ‘Yamel Cucuy’ shines with creativity." Sightlines, (October 26, 2022).
"Theater review: ‘In Sisters We Trust or My F*cked Up American Girl Doll Play’." Sightlines, (October 22, 2022).
"Theater review: ‘… but you could’ve held my hand’ at UT Theatre & Dance." Sightlines, (October 10, 2022).
"Theater review: Jarrott Productions’ ‘The Pact’." Sightlines, (October 3, 2022).
"Dance review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’." Sightlines, (September 19, 2022).
"Dance review: BLiPSWiTCH’s ‘Gentle our Driftless Caravan’." Sightlines, (September 6, 2022).
“Theater review: ‘Tales of a Blerd Ballerina’ seamlessly integrates dance, humor.” Sightlines, (July 12, 2022).
“Theater review: ‘Running Bear’ is an intense two-hander at Hyde Park Theatre.” Sightlines, (June 21, 2022).
“Review: Performa Dance’s ‘The Mad Scene’.” Sightlines, (June 14, 2022).
“Penfold Theatre’s ‘A War of the Worlds’ reimagines the famed radio drama, and probes artistic ethics” Sightlines, (June 10, 2022).

Politics, History, and Culture

"This Spring-Fed North Texas Swimming Hole Has Delighted Visitors for 96 Years" Texas Monthly, (June 6, 2025).
"A Texas Congressman Wrote the Culture War Playbook When He Killed a 1930s Theater Program" Texas Monthly, (July 25, 2024).
“Donald Trump, Grifter Extraordinaire is Now Selling Bibles: It's almost too perfect” Slate, (March 29, 2024).
“God Bless Abortions: An Analysis” The Texas Orator, (October 21, 2021).
“The Case of Reality Winner.” The Texas Orator, (June 3, 2020).
“Ideas: The 1860 and 2020 elections.” The Texas Orator, (Novermber 16, 2020).

Literature

"Remembering in Concrete Form" Los Angeles Review of Books, (May 19, 2025).
“Favorite First Lines: Love in the Time of Cholera” The First Line, Winter 2021, 64-66. (print)

Lifestyle, Food, and Travel

"The Newly Renovated Indian Lodge Promises Peace and Southwestern Charm" Texas Monthly, (August 14, 2025).
“Experts Agree: Texas’s Pizza Is Getting Better and Better.” Texas Monthly, (July 30, 2024).
“Texas Sweets Shops Are Running Out of Viral Swedish Candy.” Texas Monthly, (February 10, 2025).

Visual Art and Museums

"Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan Reveals the Possibilities of Ceramics" Cultural Voice of North Carolina, (June 24, 2025).
"A World of Stars, Water, and Pink Balaclavas: Aliyah Bonnette’s She Fell into the Giving Sky at Peel Gallery" Cultural Voice of North Carolina, (May 24, 2025).
"Review: Ryan Goolsby and Leili Arai Tavallaei at Erin Cluley Gallery, Dallas" Glasstire, (June 13, 2025).
"Of Pleasure, of Curiosity, of Intelligence: An Outdoor Textile Installation by Danielle Hatch" Cultural Voice of North Carolina, (April 7, 2025).
"Selena Lives On in These Texas Murals" Texas Highways, (January 8, 2025)
"This and That: Martin Luther King Jr. and Joseph Stalin Memorials" Glasstire, (February 15, 2024).
"Alejandra Almuelle’s “De Tierra” Dialogues with Elisabet Ney’s Classically-Inspired Busts" Glasstire, (July 14, 2023).
"At Women & Their Work, the bright, vivid Texas of Lindy Chambers" Sightlines, (April 17, 2023).
"In “Competing with Lightning,” Eamon Ore-Giron summons surreal scenes, gods, and gold" Sightlines, (April 12, 2023).
"In her Tito’s Prize exhibition, Tammie Rubin explores migration, escape, and faith" Sightlines, (March 28, 2023).
"Virginia Colwell’s “To Have and to Hold” critiques sentimental views of the American South." Sightlines, (February 24, 2023).
"At Women & Their Work, Jade Walker’s ‘Wayfinding’ finds tension weaving together people and place." Sightlines, (January 23, 2023).
"At Ivester Contemporary, solo shows by Jasmin Zelaya and Natalia Rocafuerte." Sightlines, (December 12, 2022).
"The potent and poetic metal abstractions of Melvin Edwards in ‘WIRE(D) and CHAIN(ED)’." Sightlines, (November 28, 2022).
"Jenelle Esparza explores a complex layered history with cotton and family artifacts in a solo show at Women & Their Work." Sightlines, (November 21, 2022).
“Steef Crombach’s ‘One Bad Monkey’.” Sightlines, (July 16, 2022).
“The female gaze is front and center in ‘Women Painting Women’” Sightlines, (July 7, 2022).
“Rehab El Sadek’s ‘Secret Place’ at the Elisabet Ney Museum” Sightlines, (June 24, 2022).
“UnFlagging: Unfurling New Symbols.” Southwest Contemporary Magazine, (Feb 23, 2021).
“Cauleen Smith: The Artist Behind the Blanton Museum’s latest Acquisition.” The Texas Orator, (Nov 17, 2020).
“Juan Pablo González: Reflections on a Homeland.” The Texas Orator, (Feb 11, 2020).
“She Wolf + Lower Figs: A Colorful Response to Plaster Casts at the Blanton Museum.” The Texas Orator, (Nov 7, 2019).
“The Push Against Weapons Money in Museums.” The Texas Orator, (Oct 4, 2019).
“Amending History with Titus Kaphar’s Reimagined Monuments.” The Texas Orator, (Sept 11, 2019).
“Coca-Colonization, Latin America, and Contemporary Art.” The Texas Orator, (May 7, 2019).
“Make Tacos, Not War — Humor, and Art as Commentary on the U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis.” The Texas Orator, (April 9, 2019).

Film and TV

“Bliss: It’s Just Another Simulation.” The Second Stylus, (Sept 2, 2021).
“Annette: A Surreal and Surprising Musical.” The Second Stylus, (August 26, 2021).
“What If …? Episode 1: Meet Captain Carter.” The Second Stylus, (August 18, 2021).
“Haseen Dillruba: A Pulpy Hindi-Language Thriller.” The Second Stylus, (August 12, 2021).
“Frank of Ireland: A Disappointing Comedy” The Second Stylus, (August 5, 2021).
“The Map of Tint Perfect Things: Wholesome but Forgettable.” The Second Stylus, (July 29, 2021).
“The Great Escapists: Sitcom Elements Shipwreck Promising Engineering Show.” The Second Stylus, (July 22, 2021).
“Clarkson’s Farm: Jeremy Clarkson Trades Petrol for Pastures.” The Second Stylus, (July 15, 2021).
“Luca: A Feel-Good Summer Animation.” The Second Stylus, (July 08, 2021).
“One Night in Miami: ‘A Work of Fiction Powered by the Truth’.” The Second Stylus, (July 01, 2021).
“This is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist Review.” The Second Stylus, (June 24, 2021).
“Pretend It’s a City: A Fantastic Compilation of Lebowitz’s Lifetime of Witty N.Y.C.-Centric Observations” The Second Stylus, (June 17, 2021).

Awards:

Phi Beta Kappa

McNamara Scholarship, The Theatre Librarian Association, 2024

First Prize - University of Texas at Austin First Amendment Studies Freedom of Speech Essay Contest 2022.

Liberal Arts Honors Upper-Division Essay Scholarship at the University of Texas at Austin, 2020, 2021.

Academic Publications and Presentations

PAPERS:

"Worth What She Doth Cost: Representing Female Sexuality in Troilus and Cressida from the Restoration to the Present Day." In The University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol. 19. (2020), 1-11.
Review of This Must Be the Place: An Oral History of Latin American Artists in New York, 1965-1975, by Aimé Iglesias Lukin (Author), Karen Marta (Editor), Tie Jojima (Editor, Contributor), Abigail Lapin Dardashti (Contributor), Harper Montgomery (Contributor), Yasmin Ramirez (Contributor). US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal, 2024.
“Checking Misinformation: Platform Self-Moderation and a Government-Partnered Giftschrank.” First Amendment Studies at University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts 2022.
An Adaptation Studies Approach to Rude Mechs’ Lipstick Traces. 2022. The University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts B.A. Honors Thesis.

WORKING PAPERS / CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:

“Beyond Cut and Paste: Technique, Material, Gesture, and (de)constructing Identity in Contemporary U.S. American Collage Art” [Conference presentation]. 13th Annual Art History Graduate Student Association Conference at University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States. (2024 May 18).
“Copyright Ownership and A.I. use by Creatives” [Conference presentation]. 2024 Symposium on Information for Social Good, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States. (2024 April 26).
“Indecline’s Culture Jamming of Evangelical Propaganda Sites: Billboards and The Great Passion Play 2020/2021” [Conference presentation]. 56th annual Comparative World Literature Conference at California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, United States. (2022 April 13-14).
“An Adaptation Studies Approach to Rude Mechs’ Lipstick Traces” [Conference Presentation] 2022 Humanities Honors Undergraduate Thesis Symposium, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. (May 2022).

Marketing Copy Clients

SEO-Focused article-length content: VA Claims Insider, SpaceKap, True North Metal, and more.

University of Texas Press

Author Interviews:

Catalog and Book Jacket Copy:

See the catalogs:

Selected Flap Copy

Fall 2023

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Film, Media, Comics, Music, and Popular Culture

Latin American Studies & Carribean Studies

2024

Social Media

UT Press Instagram Sample

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