Final Bow

Dallas' WingSpan Theatre Company closes the curtain after 25 years

Two Samuel Beckett plays will be performed together at WingSpan.

Photo by Lowell Sargeant

UPDATE 8-28-2022: The venue for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof has changed, see updated venue below.

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After 25 years of presenting seldom-produced plays for curious Dallas audiences, WingSpan Theatre Company has announced its closure.

"WingSpan Theatre Company completed its journey after 25 years," reads a Facebook post dated June 14, 2022. "We are very proud of our contribution to the Dallas-Fort Worth theatrical community. Special thanks to the Bath House Cultural Arts Center and to all of our patrons."

Producing artistic director Susan Sargeant confirmed the shuttering via email.

"What gave me the most joy was being able to provide opportunities to artists and shining a light on their talents," she says.

WingSpan Theatre Company was founded in May of 1997 for the purpose of producing plays that have seldom or never been produced in the Dallas area, with a particular emphasis on plays written by and about women.

Its first production was the one-woman play The Last Flapper, by William Luce about Zelda Fitzgerald and starring Sargeant. The final production was the critically acclaimed Two by Beckett: Footfalls & Not I in 2019.

It was a regular participant in the Festival of Independent Theatres — of which it was a founding member — and hosted one staged reading a year of a new, unproduced play that fit its mission statement, often by a local playwright.

Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, and Henrik Ibsen were popular scribes for WingSpan's mainstage productions, with Sargeant earning the unofficial title of DFW's expert interpreter of modern absurdist dramas.

She plans on continuing her artistic journey in DFW as both an actor and director, and is set to direct Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for The Classics Theatre Project, running August 26-September 11, 2022, at the Margo Jones Theatre at Magnolia Lounge, 1121 1st Ave. Dallas. ~~in the black box theater at the Addison Conference and Theatre Center~~.

Susan Sargeant and Mark Oristano in Edward Albee's Marriage Play, 2004.

Susan Sargeant and Mark Oristano in Marriage Play

Photo by Lowell Sargeant

Susan Sargeant and Mark Oristano in Edward Albee's Marriage Play, 2004.

theater closings

Arts in Fort Worth

DFW museum debuts landmark exhibition about Statue of Liberty

Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents "The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol"

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), Early View of the Statue of Liberty, n.d.,, watercolor, Musée Bartholdi, Colmar, 2005.0.16.3, © Musée Bartholdi, Colmar, Photo Chr. Kempf

"The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol" opens at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art on August 15.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art will celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary with a major exhibition examining one of the country's most recognizable symbols: "The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol" will open Saturday, August 15 for a nearly five-month run.

The exhibition, co-organized by the Denver Art Museum, is an examination of the Statue of Liberty’s enduring relevance in American visual culture and the evolution of its image from the 1870s to the present.

According to a release, it will bring together nearly 100 artworks and objects from more than 70 artists, exploring the statue’s varied manifestations - from artistic marvel and pop culture icon to symbol of immigration, patriotism, and resistance.

Successive generations of artists who have represented the statue's iconic form over the past 150 years will be included in the exhibition, including Pacita Abad, Benny Andrews, Edward Moran, Norman Rockwell, Nari Ward, and Andy Warhol.

The exhibition is anchored by a rare cast of French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s bronze sculpture Liberty Enlightening the World (Statue of Liberty) (1894-1901), one of only five domestic-scale bronze reductions made during the artist’s lifetime.

The exhibition will be broken up into four distinct sections:

Creating a Monument, which focuses on the statue’s origins and initial public reception in the tumultuous decades between the American Civil War and World War I.
A National Monument, which showcases the way society and visual culture were inundated with Statue of Liberty imagery between World War I and the 1950s. The installation of newspapers, advertisements, lithographs, images, films, and paintings demonstrate the turning point in the statue’s transformation into a dominant American icon.
Reimagining an Icon, which explores pop art and reproductions of the statue’s imagery, demonstrating its increasing detachment from its original image and malleability as an American symbol.
The Statue of Liberty Today, which closes the exhibition with a selection of works by living artists who have continued to investigate the Statue of Liberty’s meaning in the 21st century.

“This monumental exhibition tells the story of how our nation has interpreted the Statue of Liberty not only as a national icon, but also as a reflection of American values, creativity, and identity throughout our collective history,” said Scott Wilcox, Interim Director of the Carter, in a statement. “Premiering 'The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol' in Fort Worth on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding invites our community to see this emblematic statue in new dimensions.”

"The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol" will remain on display through January 3, 2027.

It will then travel to Denver for a presentation from March 14-July 4, 2027. The exhibition will also travel to the Munson Museum of Art in Utica, New York, from August 5-December 5, 2027.

The Amon Carter Museum will celebrate the opening with a special event called "Liberty Talks" on August 15 from 11 am-3 pm, featuring gallery talks, live music, poetry, treats, and more. A second event, "Second Thursdays: Monuments & Martinis," will take place September 10 and include Statue of Liberty-inspired flash tattoos by Fort Worth artist Joseph Ayala of Panther City Tattoo.

Admission to the Carter is free.

amon carter museum exhibitions-visual-arts museums statue of liberty