Season Announcement

Uptown's Theatre Three expands artistic leadership in local-focused season

Christie Vela and Jeffrey Schmidt.

Photo courtesy of Theatre Three

UPDATE: Theatre Three has added a holiday show, Gold, Frankincense, and Credit Card Debt: A Christmas Holiday December Sketch Comedy Show. This production is co-presented by Bootstraps Comedy Theatre and directed by celebrated local playwright Matt Lyle. It is written collectively by Matt Lyle, Nicole Neely, Jim Kuenzer, Jeff Swearingen, Matt Coleman, and Rachel Farmer, and will be performed December 13-28. Tickets are now on sale.

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Three works penned by Dallasites — two of which are world premieres — are featured in Theatre Three's 2019-20 season, but that's not the only big announcement from the theater-in-the-round in the Quadrangle.

Local director and actor Christie Vela is joining T3 as its associate artistic director, and is already slated to direct the first show of the company's 58th season.

"Christie is a longtime colleague and friend," says T3 artistic director Jeffrey Schmidt, who is entering his third year in the role. "Her work both as a director and actor here in the Metroplex as well as regionally is impressive, to say the least. Many will remember when both Norma Young and Jac Alder were the artistic forces behind Theatre Three. I'm thrilled to see where Theatre Three will head by combining our aesthetics and visions."

Together with Michael Federico, who co-wrote last season's new musical The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn, Vela conceived a new adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which will kick off the new season. Vela will direct (she also directed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from two seasons ago), with Federico writing the well-known Gothic horror tale from the perspective of through the eyes of the count's mysterious mistress, Mina.

It will play concurrently with The Bippy Bobby Boo Show, a haunting parody of 1960s musical variety shows co-produced by Danielle Georgiou Dance Group. A roster of theatrical ghosts living in the basement Theater Too space bring the works of Pirandello, Pinter, Albee, and Beckett into their acts for an evening of glamorous, ghoulish entertainment. This "double scream Halloween" pairing runs October 10-November 3, 2019.

Michael Frayn's classic farce Noises Off brings its door-slamming slapstick to the holiday season (seems the beleaguered experiment that was Solstice has been put to rest after two seasons). Kara-Lynn Vaeni directs the onstage comedy that shows the backstage antics of an amateur traveling theater production as it puts the saying "the show must go on" to the test. It runs November 29-December 29, 2019.

As was hinted last year, Denise Lee's original play Funny, You Don't Act Like a Negro is premiering under Vela's direction. Audience interaction seems like it will be encouraged during this world premiere, while will explore the pre-judgments we make on our neighbors, the biases we inadvertently pass on to our children, and how the simple act of talking to one another is being subverted by social media. It runs February 20-March 15, 2020.

Schmidt assumes the directing reins for The Elephant Man, Bernard Pomerance's biographical drama about medical marvel and social outcast John Merrick. Shunned by Victorian-era society due to his dramatically deformed body, Merrick finds compassion with a caring surgeon and longs to escape his "sideshow freak" status. It runs April 9-May 10, 2020.

Theatre Three has its own Hamilton ... Texas, that is. It's the setting for The Immigrant, Mark Harelik's based-on-a-true-story play about his grandfather, Haskell Harelik, and the changes the Russian-Jewish immigrant experiences over his 30 years in the town. Schmidt once again directs, and it runs June 4-28, 2020.

Noticing the lack of a musical in this lineup? T3 promises there will be one — sort of. A "special fundraising event" musical revue is planned for late January or early February, 2020, and will "scratch your musical itch with an evening jam-packed with Broadway's biggest hits."

Theatre Too will continue to provide a home for Theatre Three's Monday Playwright series, which provides local writers an opportunity to showcase their works-in-progress.

Season tickets (which range from $60-$225) will go on sale on May 14, 2019. Single tickets will be available at a later date. For ticket information, call 214-871-3300 or visit www.theatre3dallas.com.

theater

Season Announcement

Echo Theatre introduces Dallas audiences to a season of strangers in 2026

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

'The Roommate' was recently on Broadway.

It's a "Season of Strangers" for Echo Theatre this year, as the Southwest's premier company for promoting dramatic works by women+ focuses on how someone different than you can change your life.

The 28th season begins with the new musical Silhouettes by Jordan Ealey and Ari Afsar. This score-in-hand workshop was developed in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, and examines a pivotal moment in American history through the intersecting lives of two women navigating the decision to have an abortion. Echo's managing and artistic director Kateri Cale directs, with Vonda K. Bowling as musical director.

In a joint statement, Ealey and Afsar say that Silhouettes was born from their need to process the emotional and political aftermath of Roe’s fall. “We continue to see that history is cyclical and equity is fleeting,” they say. “But when policy fails, art has the opportunity to step in. Silhouettes is a musical about choice, sisterhood, and intergenerational courage.”

They add that presenting the work in Dallas reflects their commitment to community-building in states like Texas, where bans and restrictions have made women and gender minorities particularly vulnerable. “We want this musical to be a safe and brave haven amid attempts to create a culture of fear and a reminder that people are not alone.”

It runs January 16-17, 2026, and admission is free, though a $20 donation is suggested.

The world premiere of You Must Wear A Hat by C. Meaker is next, and plugged-in Dallas theater fans might recognize the play from its reading at Kitchen Dog Theater in 2019.

Tuesday and Weeks make hats on the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for the world to end. It's described as "A play for two. And a rabbit."

C. “Meaks” Meaker (they/them) is a playwright, essayist, and teacher whose work often explores queerness, monstrosity, and the end of the world. Their plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre (Seattle), Hub Theater (D.C.), Fat Theater Project (Chicago), and About Face (Chicago). They’re a two-year finalist for the Dramatist Guild National Fellows program and a recent finalist for the Jerome Hill Theater Arts Fellow.

You Must Wear a Hat runs February 27-March 14, 2026.

The season closes with The Roommate by Jen Silverman. The play was on Broadway in 2024 starring marquee names Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone.

In it, a divorced Midwesterner takes a roommate from The Bronx. A relationship evolves and secrets unfold into a darkly comedic exploration of life choices. It runs June 19-July 4, 2026.

All shows this season will be performed at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Dr., in White Rock Lake Park.

Tickets range from Pay-What-You-Can to $40, with discounts available for students and seniors.

Additional events this season include Cake by the Lake on April 21, Echo's free birthday party fundraiser that also launches its reading series, Echo Reads.

Echo Reads runs April through September, presenting six plays in six month. All plays will be performed on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm, and then read the next day at different venues around the city.

Echo Offstage Podcasts is going monthly. The free podcast series interviews women+ who are making art and making a difference.

And Echo is already teasing its 29th season, which will begin in the fall of 2026 and run the more traditional September through August instead of the calendar year.

The season 29 opener is a co-production, the company mysteriously hints, involving three Dallas theaters, two shows, and an internationally known writer. We'll all just have to wait and see what this intriguing production might be.

echo theatre podcasts world premieres echo reads the roommate play theater