Season Announcement

Dallas Opera's new season mixes crowd-pleasing classics with an intriguing premiere

Verdi's La traviata is part of Dallas Opera's 2017-18 season.

Photo by Maxine Helfman

The theme for Dallas Opera's 2017-18 season is "Motives Unmasked," inspiring visions of deceitful decisions and sexy double-crossing, along with some brutal truth-telling.

That's all in line with Camille Saint-Saëns' season opener Samson and Dalila, one of three classics that Dallas Opera has on tap for its 61st season. Tenor Clifton Forbis and Russian soprano Olga Borodina — in her eagerly awaited Dallas Opera debut — portray the doomed twosome, trapped in a love affair of biblical proportions. The five performances are October 20, 22 (matinee), 25, 28, and November 5 (matinee).

Next up is Giuseppe Verdi's heartbreaking 1853 masterpiece La traviata, sung in Italian with English supertitles. Called "the perfect Pretty Woman night at the opera," the perennial crowd-pleaser is a revival of a Lyric Opera of Chicago production and spotlights conductor Carlo Montanaro and director Stefania Panighini in their company debuts. Its performance dates are October 27 and 29 (matinee) and November 1, 4, 10, and 12 (matinee).

A unique pairing of two works is third: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 and The Ring of Polykrates. The latter is described by Dallas Opera general director and CEO Keith Cerny as "a delightful opera rarity so rare, that we believe it has only had two professional productions in this country since it originally premiered in Munich 100 years ago." The duo opens 2018 and will have only four performances: February 9, 11 (matinee), 14, and 17.

The term "groundbreaking" is apropos when applied to the next opera, which mixes 3-D elements into the live staging. Sunken Garden is composed by Michel van der Aa with libretto by British novelist David Mitchell, and van der Aa himself is directing. The critically acclaimed "occult film mystery opera" concerns a filmmaker’s obsession with the disappearance of a young girl and the discovery of a walled garden, which is the barrier between life and death. Performances are March 9, 11 (matinee), 14, and 17, 2018.

To close out the season, Dallas Opera is bringing back Mozart’s hell-raising comedy-drama Don Giovanni, based on the exploits of the legendary Don Juan. Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień stars in this provocative, R-rated production, under the baton of Dallas Opera music director Emmanuel Villaume. It runs April 13, 15 (matinee), 18, 21, 27, and 29 (matinee), 2018.

The Dallas Opera Family Performance Series also has some intrigue on tap, with two performances each of Donizetti and Company (October 15 and February 18, 2018), The Three Little Pigs (November 4 and February 3, 2018), and Pépito (November 19 and February 10, 2018). Tickets for these shows are only $5 and opera-lovers of all ages are welcome.

Single tickets to Dallas Opera's main 2017-18 season go on sale to the public in July and are available online at www.dallasopera.org or by calling 214-443-1000.

In addition, the next free live simulcast is set for March 18 at 7:30 pm and it's at a brand-new location. Dallas Cowboys world headquarters The Star in Frisco will host its first arts event with the high-definition screening of Madame Butterfly. Puccini's Italian opera is the third production in Dallas Opera's current season.

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Theater News

Dallas' Kitchen Dog Theater unveils powerful 2026-2027 season lineup

Photo by Cameron Cobb

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas will put on three mainstage productions for their 2026-2027 season.

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas has revealed the lineup for the 2026-2027 season, featuring a slate of plays that boasts power players like kings, prime ministers, space force commanders, and would-be presidents.

According to a release, the theater company's 36th season — their "most powerful yet" — will consist of three mainstage productions at its new permanent home in the Design District, as well as the annual New Works Festival, featuring a readings series and the 26th annual D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest.

The season will start with The Absentee by Julia Doolittle, running September 10-October 4, 2026. The play was the winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award.

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Force ship explodes in the galaxy, the Operator finds herself alone in deep space, with only her ship’s AI for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election.

As the Operator waits for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice.

The season's second production comes four months later, with Equivocation by Bill Cain, running February 4-28, 2027. In 1605 England, a terrorist plots to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come. Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard's name) is commissioned by the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches — the king wants witches.

But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe investigate the plot, they discover that the king's version of the story might, in fact, be a coverup. Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power and perhaps lose their heads? Or take the money and lie? Is there a third option? Equivocation?

A high-stakes political thriller with contemporary resonances, Equivocation gallops from the great Globe to the Tower of London to the halls of Parliament to the heart of Judith, Shag's younger daughter, who finds herself unexpectedly at the very heart of the political, dramatic and — ultimately — human mystery.

The final mainstage production of the season comes at the 2027 New Works Festival with Black Republican by KDT Artistic Company Member Jamal Gibran Sterling, running June 3-27, 2027.

Originally featured as a Staged Reading in the 2026 New Works Festival, the ambitious first play by Sterling centers on a Black Republican candidate on the national stage who finds his campaign threatened by an activist who challenges everything he claims to stand for. Their battle exposes uncomfortable truths about race, politics, and the stories we tell ourselves.

In addition to Black Republican, the 2027 New Works Festival will showcase four staged readings of some of the newest and most exciting Texas-based playwrights. Each reading will feature accomplished Dallas-Fort Worth actors and directors to highlight the breadth of talent in the area.

The final part of the festival is D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, featuring six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by Dallas-Fort Worth high school students and featuring student actors directed by area professionals. PUP Fest is the culmination of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.

Kitchen Dog Theater offers two season subscription packages for their inaugural season in their new facility. The Kitchen Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for any performance date for $90+ $8 fees for adults and $75 +$8 fees for students and seniors (ages 65+). The Saver Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays only. It is $60 + $8 fees for adults and $45 + $8 fees for students and seniors.

Both packages grant full access to the Staged Reading Series and PUP Fest. Subscribers also receive premium reserved seating for in-person performances, as well as subscriber-only discounts on additional single tickets, 2026 special events, and KDT merchandise.

Subscription packages are on sale now, and single tickets for each show will go on sale on Monday, August 24, at kitchendogtheater.org.

design district kitchen dog theater new works festival performing-arts plays theater