The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation recently asked Paul Christensen and his wife Donna Christensen to serve as Technical Producers for the newly established Brinker International Lecture Series. The inaugural lecture, 
featuring seven-time Emmy Award-winning actress Mary Tyler Moore, recently took place at the beautifully restored Majestic Theatre in Dallas. Appearing before a packed audience of more than 1500 admiring fans, the distinguished personality of stage, television and films shared personal memories from her more than 40 year career, with a delivery punctuated by humor and fanciful recollections. Ms. Moore’s appearance followed a rousing performance by the Dallas Black Dance Theatre of a musical rendition of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple theme. The evening ended with a question and answer session with the audience. Gary Cogill, movie critic for Dallas’ WFAA TV, assisted Ms. Moore with the questions, providing a few thoughtful insights of his own.
Ms. Moore was originally scheduled to present the 2004 Brinker International Lecture, but graciously agreed to appear for the first lecture when legendary playwright Neil Simon, announced in January he would be forced to delay his participation as the first speaker, because of health reasons.
The Brinker International Lecture Series is presented by Brinker International produced by the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation with special support provided by The Dallas Morning News, WFAA Channel 8, KRLD NewsRadio 1080, The Mansion on Turtle Creek and American Airlines . Income generated by the series will help support the construction of the proposed Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation is headed by President William H. Lively.
Mary Tyler Moore first enjoyed success during the early 1960s as Laura
Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show , a role for which she won two Emmy Awards.
During the mid-Seventies, she starred in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which garnered 29 Emmys (including four for its star) during its seven-year run. Ms. Moore’s film credits include First You Cry, the groundbreaking story of a woman battling breast cancer; Ordinary People, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress; and Six Weeks, in which she co-starred with Dudley Moore.
Mary Tyler Moore made her dramatic debut on Broadway in Whose Life Is It Anyway?, in which she portrayed a hospitalized quadriplegic fighting for control of her destiny and for which Ms. Moore was honored with a Tony Award. Ms. Moore played Mary Todd Lincoln in the 1988 TV mini-series Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, earning critical praise and another Emmy nomination. She recently returned to comedy in the successful Flirting With Disaster and followed that project with producing the ABC movie Mary and Rhoda.
Most recently, Ms. Moore starred in Miss Lettie and Me for TNT. She will reunite later this spring with Dick Van Dyke to star in the television adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Gin Game.
Mary Tyler Moore is the international Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and was recently honored with the first annual David Angell Humanitarian Award presented by the American Screenwriters Association.
The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, was organized in September 2000 to complete the planning, fund raising and construction of the proposed $250 Million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The campaign to build the Center is the largest of its kind in Dallas history, with total gifts and pledges to date amounting to more than $130 million. The campaign’s goal is to raise $210 million in the private sector with additional funds to be provided by the City of Dallas through bond elections. The Center will provide world-class facilities for performances of opera, musical theater, classic and experimental theater, ballet and other forms of dance. Its theaters will become the main stage production facilities for The Dallas Opera, the Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, and many of the other performing arts organizations that serve Dallas and the surrounding area.
Brinker International owns and operates franchises or is involved in the ownership of more than 1,300 restaurants under the names Chili’s Grill & Bar, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Cozymel’s Coastal Grill, Corner Bakery Cafe, Big Bowl Asian Kitchen, and Rockfish Seafood Grill.
Omega Productions, a Dallas based entertainment production company, specializes in producing live entertainment and corporate events, as well as live concert shoots and recordings of artists and entertainment personalities across the US and overseas. For over 30 years, Paul and Donna Christensen have worked with the biggest names in Music, Film, Television and Theatre.
