Dallas talent deepens Kitchen Dog Theater's 2019-20 season of premieres

As was teased last year, Kitchen Dog Theater has nabbed a new work from local playwright Jonathan Norton called A Love Offering. But it's also got another world premiere from a pair of DFW scribes, a regional premiere, and a National New Play Networking rolling world premiere, all in addition to the 22nd anniversary of its New Works Festival and the 19th year of PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest.

In addition to its regular season schedule, KDT will also present two summertime season extras: a co-production with Cry Havoc Theater Company and the beloved One-Minute Play Festival (back for its sixth consecutive year).

A Love Offering starts off the mainstage season, following nurse's aide T'Wana Jepson and her coworker Miss Georgia as they care for patients with Alzheimer's and dementia. But after T'Wana is attacked by the patient in E 204, something happens that threatens the bonds of trust and friendship. Directed by KDT co-artistic director Tina Parker, it runs October 3-27, 2019.

The regional premiere of Queen of Basel by Hilary Bettis is next, directed by KDT co-artistic director Christopher Carlos. It's set at Art Basel, Miami's weeklong party for the rich and famous, where real estate heiress Julie reigns over the blowout her mogul father is throwing at his South Beach hotel. Her companions are Christine, a cocktail waitress who recently fled violence in Venezuela, and Christine's fiancé, John, an Uber driver with ambitions. This explosive elixir of power, class, and race within the Latinx community is a bold and contemporary take on Strindberg's Miss Julie. It runs November 21-December 15, 2019.

The NNPN rolling world premiere is Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly, an intimate portrait that explores the meaning and purpose of art and the struggle of the lost and tortured souls that seek to create it. A noted photographer sets out to explore the topography of "scars," and her journey lands her in the mysterious realm of an undiscovered folk artist hiding away on a small farm in North Alabama. Directed by KDT artistic company member Tim Johnson, it runs February 13-March 8, 2020.

Cameron Cobb and Michael Federico — two-thirds of the team that wrote KDT's 2018 hit musical Pompeii!! — are back with A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving. It's the mainstage production of the 2019 New Works Festival, and an almost totally true story of a financially ruined, washed-up Washington Irving who is blackmailed by the Vatican and given a simple literary assignment: to scrub the story of Cristóbal Colón, one of history's most notorious sea-faring pillagers. It is an origin story that asks: What happens when the myth becomes more powerful than the truth? Also, there's music. And murder. Lots of murder. Directed by KDT artistic company member Christie Vela, it runs June 4-28, 2020.

Speaking of the New Works Festival, its staged reading series presents six plays chosen from up to 1,000 submissions from across the globe. The NWF also features the 19th annual PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, an afternoon of short plays written and performed by some of Dallas' finest young talent, produced by D-PAC (Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective), KDT's partnership with Junior Players and Dallas Independent School District. It all goes down June 6-27, 2020.

Crossing the Line is a season add-on co-produced with Cry Havoc Theater Company. The world premiere is based on interviews conducted in Dallas, via Skype and at the border, that have been turned into an original documentary-style performance that focuses on the immigration debate and the situation at the border. It runs July 18-August 4, 2019.

The sixth annual One-Minute Play Festival runs August 10-12, 2019, at the Bob Hope Theatre at SMU's Meadows School for the Arts. Expect to see 80 one-minute plays by 40 local playwrights, with 10 directors and 60 actors.

All performances except for the One-Minute Play Festival will take place at the Trinity River Arts Center.

Single tickets range from $20-$30 for all regular season productions, while season subscriptions run $80 for adults and $60 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit KDT's website or call the box office at 214-953-1055.