Dallas Theater Center has announced its slate of productions for the 2014-2015 season, and it's one that will have the venerable company tackling everything from campy favorites to bold new ventures.
It will also be an expanded season, with the number of productions going up from seven to nine, a move that will have the DTC using its old home of Kalita Humphreys Theater much more often.
Kicking off the season will be The Rocky Horror Show, the original musical from which the cult classic movie was adapted. Playing September 11-October 19 at Wyly Theatre, it'll feature everything you expect, like transvestites, mad scientists and monsters all singing the "Time Warp."
Casting decisions aren't usually announced this early, but when it's someone like Oscar nominee June Squibb, you make an exception.
Just as that one is winding down, Driving Miss Daisy will start up at Kalita Humphreys Theater, playing there October 16-November 16.
Casting decisions aren't usually announced this far in advance, but when it's someone like recent Oscar nominee June Squibb, you make an exception. Squibb will play the titular Miss Daisy in a return to DTC three years after her acclaimed performance in Dividing the Estate.
As always, DTC will present A Christmas Carol as its holiday show, playing November 25-December 27 at Wyly Theatre. Chamblee Ferguson will once again play Ebenezer Scrooge in a new adaptation of the story that never goes out of style.
The Book Club Play starts off 2015 with the regional premiere at Kalita Humphreys Theater January 1-February 1. Written by Karen Zacarías, it tells the story of a woman whose seemingly perfect life gets upended by a documentary film crew, a problem-causing new member of her book club and a few provocative titles.
Overlapping with that will be Stagger Lee, a world premiere musical written by DTC playwright-in-residence Will Power and Justin Ellington. Playing January 21-February 15 at Wyly Theatre, it takes old folk tales and songs about Stagger Lee, Frankie and Johnny, and Long Lost John and turns them into something deeper, with an original score that celebrates the history of African-American music throughout the 20th century.
As part of a new multi-year classical theater initiative, DTC will put on The School for Wives by Molière (playing February 20-March 29) in repertory with Euripides' Medea (playing February 19-March 29) at Kalita Humphreys Theater. The School for Wives is a comedy, while Medea is most definitely a drama, which should make for an interesting pairing.
The School for Wives will be on Kalita's main stage, while Medea will take place in Kalita's Down Center Stage basement performance space, the first time a production has been shown there in more than 30 years.
DTC will attempt to satisfy football fans' love of the game during off-season with Colossal, a "rolling world premiere" playing April 2-May 3 that will turn the Wyly Theatre into a football field. Promising an intimate and epic story about the nation’s most popular sport, it will feature a never-before-seen configuration of the Wyly Theatre’s Potter Rose Performance Hall, a drum line and full-contact choreography.
The 2014-2015 season will end with an adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, Sense and Sensibility, playing April 23-May 24 at Kalita Humphreys Theater. Dallas Theater Center will pay tribute to Austen's writing in a way only they can via this romance featuring the Dashwood sisters.
Full season subscriptions, which do not include Medea or A Christmas Carol, are available now starting at $126 per person. Anyone who buys a season ticket will have access to a pre-sale for individual tickets for the two other productions before they go on sale to the general public.
Oscar nominee June Squibb, seen here in Dividing the Estate , returns to Dallas Theater Center for Driving Miss Daisy.
Former President George W. Bush painting in his Dallas studio.Photo courtesy of Crown Publishing