Actor Spotlight

Getting naked onstage doesn't scare Dallas actor Drew Wall — but clowns do

Take one look at Drew Wall's resume, and it's easy to see why we named him one of Dallas' best actors. Not only has he graced nearly every Dallas-Fort Worth stage, but his performances are known for being memorable and raw.

This month, he tackles Adam Rapp's visceral and hypnotic Nocturne at Second Thought Theatre, which begins with the line, "Fifteen years ago, I killed my sister."

Last time Second Thought combined Wall and Rapp in Red Light Winter, the results were outstanding. This time Wall is joined by director Miranda Parham, with Seth and Shawn Magill of local band Home by Hovercraft providing assistant set design and sound design, respectively.

In advance of Nocturne, which runs April 2-26, Wall recently took the time to fill out our survey of serious, fun and sometimes ridiculous questions.

Name: Drew Wall

Role in Nocturne: The son

Previous work in the DFW area:A Behanding in Spokane, The Bomb-itty of Errors, Red Light Winter, A Skull in Connemara, Lobby Hero and The Country Wife (Second Thought Theatre); The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Long Way Go Down, Macbeth, and Slasher (Kitchen Dog Theater); On The Eve, Defiance (Theatre Three); The Dog Problem (Undermain Theater); This Is Our Youth (Upstart Productions); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Dallas); Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (Inevitable Theatre Company) and The Secret War (Firebomb Productions).

Hometown: Oklahoma City and The Colony, Texas

Where you currently reside: Dallas

First theater role: Malvolio, Twelfth Night

First stage show you ever saw:A Christmas Carol at Dallas Theater Center, 1993

Moment you decided to pursue a career in theater: I’m not exactly sure there was an exact moment. It’s difficult; it’s like trying to pinpoint a moment you became best friends with someone. At some point early on in my theater experiences, I realized that people actually get paid to play pretend for a living on the stage (sort of), not just in Hollywood movies, and that seemed incredibly exciting. Over time, the theater gradually became something I couldn’t be away from, something that I was addicted to like a junkie.

Most challenging role you’ve played:Bomb-itty of Errors was by far the most exhausting. Red Light Winter was by far the most emotionally draining and frustrating. Although I should mention that in both examples, my fellow castmates were some of the strongest support groups I’ve ever worked with onstage.

Special skills: I love welding and metal sculpture.

Something you’re REALLY bad at: Quitting smoking cigarettes

Current pop culture obsession:Doctor Who and Kraft macaroni and cheese

Last book you read: I’m currently reading Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain.

Favorite movie(s):Star Wars, the full canon of Mel Brooks, Ghostbusters

Favorite musician(s): Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, The Band

Favorite song: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – The Band

Dream role: The fool in King Lear

Favorite play(s): Anything that moves me in a way I was unprepared for. Something that accidently changes me before I am ready for it.

Favorite musical(s): Rent, Fly By Night, Rocky Horror Picture Show

Favorite actors/actresses: Steve Buscemi, Bill Murray, Madeline Kahn, Dame Judi Dench

Favorite food: Lasagna or Mexican street tacos

Must-see TV show(s):South Park, Trailer Park Boys, Doctor Who. I also watch The Price Is Right every day.

Something most people don’t know about you: I’m terrified of circus clowns.

Place in the world you’d most like to visit: Somewhere tropical with a beach. Maybe something like the Maldive Islands.

Pre-show warm-up: Half a cup of coffee; a cigarette; and a very specific 15-20 minute (or as much as I have time for) full-body, breath and vocal warm-up routine. It’s a hodgepodge of a ton different exercises I’ve “borrowed” over the years from other learned and much more talented artists than I.

Favorite part about your current role: There’s something infinitely fascinating about having total control of the energy in the room and not exactly knowing where that’s going to take you. Every new thought or action is an unpredictable and terrifying moment-to-moment obstacle course. Navigating through that with a group of strangers each night is unbelievably exciting.

Most challenging part about your current role: The complexity of the language. One passage is simple, direct and logical and then immediately you’re forced to dive into an overwhelmingly dense narrative with an uncompromising cadence. The musicality can sometimes be a bit harsh and unforgiving.

Most embarrassing onstage mishap: I once had my “gentleman bits” fall out of a dance belt while run-leaping across the stage in a dress out at Shakespeare Dallas. After hiding in shame behind another actor, the problem was quickly resolved. I cry-laughed for several minutes afterward.

Career you’d have if you weren’t a performer: A space astronaut or a flower grower. (I assume those exist?)

Favorite post-show spot:Lakewood Landing

Favorite thing about Dallas-Forth Worth: The abundance of great art, phenomenal food and the insanely low cost of living.

Most memorable theater moment: The first time I completely undressed in front of an audience (purposely).

Drew Wall and Tara Magill in Nocturne.

Drew Wall in Second Thought Theatre's "Nocturne"

Photo by Karen Almond

Drew Wall and Tara Magill in Nocturne.

Season Announcement

'Come find your people' in Echo Theatre Dallas' 2025 season

Catch as Catch Can Off-Broadway

Photo by Joan Marcus

A scene from the Off-Broadway production of Catch As Catch Can.

The theme for Echo Theatre's 2025 season is family, with the tagline "Come find your people." Echo, if you need a reminder, is the Dallas-based company that solely produces plays written by women-plus.

"We recognize the limiting nature of the binary use of the word 'woman,'" the company explains on its website. "We use the term 'women-plus' to include an expansive and diverse array of people, including those born female, those who identify as women, and those who are gender non-conforming."

“This season, my thoughts have turned to family in all its forms,” says artistic director Kateri Cale. “Every person experiences generations of family expectations, judgements, competitions, celebrations, and disappointments, over and over again. If we're lucky, we experience the fierce love of family too.”

First up is the regional premiere of Catch as Catch Can by Mia Chung.

Double-cast across gender, generation, and race and set in a blue-collar New England town, the drama follows two families — the Irish-American Phelans and the Italian-American Lavecchias — as the prodigal son returns home for a holiday gathering. Two off-stage characters, who are Korean and Korean-American, impact the families as they face the weight of generational expectations.

“With Catch as Catch Can, I wanted the audience’s experience of what they’re watching to mirror that felt by the characters; the character doubling articulates and enhances the propulsion of the play," says Chung in a release about the play's Off-Broadway debut in 2022. "I believe in performance, I believe in the actor’s capacity to inhabit a character to the extent that an audience may stop seeing that the actor is a man, or is Asian, or is 30 years younger than the role they’re playing. The cognitive dissonance is by design.”

It runs February 3-March 8, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Next is OPEN by Crystal Skillman, a queer love story told by an amateur magician, presented during Pride Month.

A woman called the Magician presents myriad tricks for our entertainment, yet her performance seems to be attempting the impossible: to save the life of her partner, Jenny. But is our faith in her illusions enough to rewrite the past? The clock is ticking, the show must go on, and, as impossible as it may seem, this Magician’s act may be our last hope against a world filled with intolerance and hate.

It runs June 6-21, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Last is El Rey del Pollo, a world-premiere "nuevo comedy" by Anna Skidis Vargas that the playwright describes as "a Shakespearean telenovela that’s loosely based on King Lear, but it’s a lot shorter and a lot sillier."

Reymundo Lear is about to retire from his fried chicken empire, and he is leaving everything to his three daughters. But things aren’t as easy as they seem. Cordelia gets disinherited, and Gisela and Raquel hike the prices. El Rey del Pollo features a hungry old man, essential oils, a giant chicken suit, and all the family drama you can eat.

It runs September 11-27, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

The Echo Reads free play readings will continue next year, and are scheduled for the months of March, April, May and September, October, November.

Season tickets are on sale now at echotheatre.org. Single tickets will be available at a later date.

A fun fact about Echo Theatre productions: Up to 10 free tickets are set aside for every performance and given out on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons must email the box office directly at reservations@echotheatre.org to participate.

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