Season Announcement

ATTPAC's Elevator Project 2021-22 season is multi-genre and mega-local

Soul Rep Theatre Company presents Do No Harm

Soul Rep Theatre Company's Do No Harm, recorded at Dallas Heritage Village last year, will be performed live in March 2022.

Photo by Malcolm Herod

The 2021-2022 season of the Elevator Project, a program from the AT&T Performing Arts Center that features the work of small and emerging arts groups throughout the center’s campus, has been released.

Produced by David Denson, the season encompasses new productions from eight Dallas-based performing arts companies, as well as one local company rescheduled from the 2019-20 season (thanks, COVID-19).

Of the dance, theater, music, multi-genre, and a spoken word performances, six productions will be staged in the Studio Theatre, located on the sixth floor of the Wyly Theatre; two will be outdoors in Strauss Square; and one will be in Hamon Hall in the Winspear Opera House.

It begins October 28-30, 2021, in the Studio Theatre with Sangeet Millennium and Art Nomadic's Clear Light of the Void, a multidisciplinary, multi-media, multi-linguistic performance installation exploring the notion of a journey through a metaphysical world. Three distinct but related mystical traditions are enacted through music, movement, spoken word recitation, light installations, and video projections.

Soul Rep Theatre Company's production of Do No Harm is next, March 10-19, 2022, in the Studio Theatre. Written by Soul Rep's co-founder Anyika McMillan-Herod and commissioned by theologian Dr. Evelyn Parker and the Association of Practical Theology, the play explores the story of three enslaved women — Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy — who were experimented on without anesthesia by Dr. J. Marion Sims, credited as "the father of modern gynecology."

Do No Harm was filmed in November 2020 in a slave cabin at Dallas Heritage Village and made its world premiere as a hybrid play/film for Soul Rep’s recent 25th anniversary season. This will be a traditional play for the stage, with a live audience — as the company first intended it.

Janelle Gray's Rage is a one-act play that explores the stories of "Black U.S.-ian women" throughout the history of the United States. Ten women take their place onstage to share their stories of strength, resilience, perseverance, and struggle, from the 1842 Cherokee Revolt to the Streetcar Boycotts of 1900-1906, and the continuing injustices of today. It runs March 31-April 9, 2022, in the Studio Theatre.

Rescheduled from the 2019-20 season, Indique Dance Company will use pure dance and storytelling to explore the different ways in which perspective shapes our relationships in Maya: The Illusion We Live. It is human nature to allow our personal biases and assumptions to become a pair of tinted glasses that color everything we see, but what happens when we remove the filters? Find out April 14-16, 2022, in the Studio Theatre.

Urban Arts Collective takes us outside to Strauss Square June 2-4, 2022, with Love You Madly: Celebrating the Music of Duke Ellington. Get transported back to 1920s New York City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating the big band era through music, dance and spoken word. The entire band is comprised of Dallas musicians under the direction of Dallas’ premiere jazz band director, Dean Hilland, and the show is choreographed by JuNene K. and directed by Obie Award winner Ed Smith.

Also in Strauss Square is Bandan Koro African Drum and Dance Ensemble's Griots: Celebrating a Compilation of Dallas’ Cultural Storytellers of the African Diaspora. "Griot" is a French word that originated in the 13th century from the Mande empire of Mali, West Africa, and for centuries they have told and retold the history of the empire, keeping their stories and traditions alive. Pay homage to an array of Dallas' key artistic and cultural storytellers, such as Erykah Badu, Vicki Meek, Michelle Gibson, Baba Hassan, the late Afiah Bey, Bandon Koro’s own Tony Browne and Nana Kweku, plus many, many more. It runs June 17-18, 2022.

Rhythm and Rhapsody from Verb Kulture is an artistic fusion of storytelling and poetic expression that shares stories that reflect social challenges in the African-American community. The stories presented are inspired by news headlines, Dallas community interviews, and personal experiences. It runs July 14-16, 2022, in Hamon Hall.

Justin Locklear is deconstructing Shakespeare's The Tempest with Enter Several Strange Shapes, Bringing in a Banquet, a genre-bending work that plays with elements of dance, theater, performance art, and multi-media. Utilizing none of the characters from the original work, the play instead builds a world from the themes and metaphors of The Tempest, creating a new myth altogether. It runs August 4-13, 2022, in the Studio Theatre.

Bombshell Dance Project finishes out the season with In the Conservatory with the Knife, an immersive dance experience loosely inspired by the game of Clue. With a unique, free-form nature, audiences will choose for themselves how and when to move throughout the Studio Theatre, guaranteeing a different experience for each person. It runs August 26-28, 2022.

All shows are $29.50 general admission, and tickets are available to purchase now at www.attpac.org or by calling 214-880-0202.

dance concerts theater

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