For its 39th season, Undermain Theatre is returning to a full slate of professional live performances. It includes a co-production of a regional premiere, a world premiere inspired and commissioned by Undermain founding artistic director Katherine Owens, a long-awaited workshop production of a new play by an American theater icon, and the regional premiere of a play concerning a crisis of humanity in Juárez, Mexico.
A note on COVID: "As we keep an eye on the COVID-19 pandemic and the fluctuating infection rate, it is our hope to offer live performances with masks optional for our audiences," says artistic director Bruce DuBose. "We will continue to evaluate live performances based on the status of the pandemic. The health and safety of our audience, cast, crew, and staff is our top priority. We’ve made upgrades to our HVAC systems and environment to provide the healthiest atmosphere possible. Together we can stay safe, enjoy cutting edge performance, and find our way back to the art of live theater."
Up first is Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Directed by Jiles King, this is a co-production with Bishop Arts Theatre Center and will be presented on the BATC stage instead of in Undermain's Deep Ellum performance space.
At the Frasier household, preparations for Grandma’s birthday party are underway. Beverly is holding onto her sanity by a thread to make sure this party is perfect, but her sister is drinking, her husband can’t seem to listen, her brother is MIA, her daughter is a teenager, and maybe nothing is what it seems in the first place. A play about race, though not only about race, it ultimately brings the audience into the actors’ community to face the deep-seated prejudices of societal perceptions. It runs October 20-November 6, 2022.
The world premiere of Lenora Champagne's Feeding on Light is next, directed by DuBose.
Nora is a curious writer who seeks to understand her friend and collaborator Katherine’s obsession with 20th-century French philosopher and activist Simone Weil. As their discussion deepens, Nora and Katherine embody scenes from Weil's life in an attempt to communicate with her across time and space. Feeding on Light is based on the playwright's personal relationship and discussions with Undermain Theatre’s late founding artistic director Katherine Owens, to whom the play is dedicated. It runs November 10-27, 2022, with no performance on Thanksgiving.
Directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni and written by David Rabe, He's Born, He's Born is a workshop that explores a primitive, medieval world that exists outside of actual human history.
The characters are agrarian peasants who work the land. When a young child falls from a tree, the angel of death comes to claim him for the underworld. They embark on a quest to hide the child with help from two angels who are overseers of the stars and planets of the night sky. It runs April 12-30, 2023.
The regional premiere of Isaac Gómez's The Way She Spoke is a haunting and theatrical one-woman play that travels from the stage to the treacherous streets of Juárez, Mexico, where thousands of women have been murdered for decades in an epidemic of violence that has yet to stop.
Based on the playwright's intimate interviews, the play is a raw and riveting exploration of responsibility. Directed by Blake Hackler, it runs June 1-17, 2023.
Visit www.undermain.org to purchase subscriptions online or call the box office at 214-747-5515.
Discounts are available for seniors, students, KERA members, and groups for in person performances. You must call 214-747-5515 for your discount. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at the corner of Murray Street in Deep Ellum. The closest paid lot is on the corner of Main and Hall streets.
