Season Announcement

Addison's WaterTower Theatre changes it up with 2017-18 season

Steven Boyer and Tyrone in the original Broadway production of Hand to God.

Photo by Joan Marcus

First a new artistic director, then a new logo, and now a new season — Addison's WaterTower Theatre is fully embracing change, and it shows in the company's 2017-18 season.

Though new leader Joanie Schultz has already made one official programming selection with Hit the Wall, Ike Holter's play about the Stonewall riots that is replacing the previously announced musical Sunday in the Park with George this July and August, this is the first full season she has selected.

There's a nice balance between shows written by major award-winners (we're talking Pulitzer and Tony) and Texas playwrights (one who's offering up a world premiere), with classic literature and a festival of new works thrown in to boot.

Read on to learn more about the slated shows, and if you have thoughts about the upcoming season, you're invited to share them with Schultz at WaterTower Theatre's town hall on April 25 from 6-7:30 pm on the Canterbury Family Main Stage at Addison Conference and Theatre Center. It's free, and no RSVP is necessary.

The first show of the new season is Pride and Prejudice, a new adaptation of the Jane Austen novel by Kate Hamill. Schultz is directing the regional premiere (Dallas Theater Center produced Hamill's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in 2015), and it will run October 13-November 5, 2017.

Next is one of the two non-season add-ons, a holiday extra called The Great Distance Home. Created and conceived by associate artistic director Kelsey Leigh Ervi, this "multidisciplinary theatrical event" promises to immerse WaterTower audiences in "a story of joy, love, and the warmth you feel upon returning home after a long absence." It runs December 1-17, 2017.

Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Quiara Alegría Hudes looks at the effects of war through three generations of the same Puerto Rican family in the regional premiere of Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue. You know Hudes' name because she co-wrote In The Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and because Cara Mía Theatre Co. just produced her earlier work, Yemaya's Belly. The play runs January 26-February 18, 2018.

The Out of the Loop festival might be on hiatus, but WaterTower is still focused on giving local and national artists a chance to develop their work. Detour: A Festival of New Work will present performances and readings from March 1-4, 2018. Its offerings are not part of the regular season subscription.

Another premiere comes next, but this time of the "world" variety. Dallas-born playwright Regina Taylor has penned Bread, a family drama set in Oak Cliff that explores the racial tension and social upheaval that's happening right now in America. It runs April 13-May 6, 2018.

Though it was made into a movie in 2014 with Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, The Last Five Years is even more intimate when you see it live in a theater. That's because Jason Robert Brown's semi-autobiographical musical about a relationship that blossoms and sours is told through raw, funny, and unflinching songs — sung in opposing chronology by its two leads. Kelsey Leigh Ervi directs the two-person musical, which runs June 8-July 1, 2018.

Closing out the season is a play starring a raunchy, foul-mouthed puppet — no, not Avenue Q. Baylor grad Robert Askin's Hand to God puts us in a world where hand puppets, meant to gently impart moral lessons, take on a possessed life of their own and begin to wreak havoc in a suburban Texas town. Schultz directs, after having previously helmed an award-winning production at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. It will run August 3-26, 2018.

Subscriptions for the five-show season are priced from $100-$185 and are available by calling the WaterTower Theatre box office at 972-450-6232. Individual ticket prices for the 2017-2018 season range from $25-$42, and will go on sale in September for the first two productions. Individual tickets to holiday extra The Great Distance Home are $20. For Detour: A Festival of New Work, individual tickets are $10 and festival passes are $40 for subscribers, $45 for the general public.

There are several subscription series available, including Conversation with the Artists (a five-play series on all Wednesday nights and Sunday matinees that includes a post-show discussion with the actors, artists, or expert panelists), the Flex Pass (a pack of three or more tickets good for any 2017-18 season shows), Design Your Own Series, Student/Senior Subscription Series, and Hero's Subscription (firefighters, police officers, EMTs, veterans, and members of the armed forces and their immediate families receive 50 percent off any five-play subscription package).

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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