Actor Spotlight

Dallas actor Bill Jenkins talks former lives and breaking his back onstage

Award-winning actor Bill Jenkins has appeared in a variety of roles on numerous Dallas-Forth Worth stages. He's also a Ramones fan who's kissed Zsa Zsa Gabor; has a penchant for driving fast; and tells a very sweet story about how he met his wife, actress Linda Leonard.

These life experiences (and those had during his former lives — you'll want to read on) have given Jenkins a deep well to draw from when he's onstage. In WingSpan Theatre Company's production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, Jenkins plays the reticent counterpart to Stephanie Dunnam's Winnie, a chatty woman who spends the play more than half buried in a mound of dirt.

Jenkins recently took the time to fill out our survey of serious, fun and sometimes ridiculous questions.

Name: Bill Jenkins

Role in Happy Days: Willie

Previous work in the DFW area: WaterTower, Echo, Theatre Three, African American Rep, Uptown, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Children’s Theatre, Circle, Kitchen Dog, Lyric Stage, Casa Mañana, Granbury Opera House, Stage West, Theatre Britain, Granny’s Dinner Theater

Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama

Where you currently reside: East of White Rock Lake in Dallas

First theater role: Elyot in Private Lives (college); Marlowe in She Stoops to Conquer at Theatre Three (professional)

First stage show you ever saw: Rapunzel (children’s theater). Gave me a "thing" for girls with long hair.

Moment you decided to pursue a career in theater: College review "Bill Jenkins became Elyot" (from Private Lives at Centre College of Kentucky)

Most challenging role you’ve played: Dysart in Equus (grad school) or Peter in Forty Carats opposite Zsa Zsa Gabor. The latter was my first Actors Equity role at Granny’s Dinner Theater. Only seven days of rehearsal — kissed Zsa Zsa 25 times and lived to tell about it!

Special skills: Sailing, driving fast

Something you’re REALLY bad at: My theater nickname is “Hell on Props” because I'm really clumsy.

Current pop culture obsession: The musical group Cage the Elephant

Last book you read: Jane Roberts' The Education of Oversoul Seven

Favorite movie(s): Bell, Book and Candle; Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty; My Favorite Year; Avatar

Favorite musician(s): Joe Walsh, Mott the Hoople, Little Feat, The Ramones, Soul Coughing, Cake

Favorite song: "Rocky Mountain Way" by Joe Walsh or "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" by The Ramones

Dream role: Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird (played it — I am a descendant of four generations of Alabama lawyers and judges) and Henry opposite my wife, Linda Leonard, as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter

Favorite play(s): I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick, Eastern Standard (Theatre Three’s Patrons’ Favorite Award), Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg and The Dead Presidents’ Club by Larry L. King (Critics Forum Award for Richard Nixon)

Favorite musical(s): The Sound of Music (where I met my wife playing Von Trapp opposite her Maria) and My Favorite Year (Critics Forum Award for Alan Swann)

Favorite actors/actresses: Peter O’Toole, Michael Caine, Mark Wahlberg, Rosalind Russell, Katherine Hepburn, Katherine Heigl

Favorite food: Custom Ital-chos at Terilli’s with a full-bodied, oaky red wine

Must-see TV show(s): The Good Wife, Grimm, Blacklist

Something most people don’t know about you: I was supposedly good friends with Thomas Jefferson, killed in the Civil War as a Union soldier, and was a show biz lawyer in LA during the '30s and '40s — all in former lifetimes.

Place in the world you’d most like to visit: Paris and London with my wife

Pre-show warm-up: Mentally aligning myself with the character/prayer

Favorite part about your current role: Very little memorization

Most challenging part about your current role: Due to above, character analysis was virtually cryptic.

Most embarrassing onstage mishap: I fell three stories from the catwalk and broke my back onstage at WaterTower Theatre during the last 35 bars of the musical Working playing Mike the narrator, because I was too macho to worry about having a safety back-up system for a stunt I was doing.

Career you’d have if you weren’t a performer: Sound designer

Favorite post-show spot: At home with my dogs and my wife (when she’s out of her show) licking our wounds or toasting our success

Favorite thing about Dallas-Forth Worth: People tend to drive a little fast.

Most memorable theater moment: Preaching on Easter Sunday as Jerry in Theatre Three’s God’s Man in Texas

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WingSpan Theatre Company's Happy Days plays at the Bath House Cultural Center October 10-26.

Dallas actor Bill Jenkins is dangerously devoted to his craft.

Photo courtesy of Bill Jenkins

Dallas actor Bill Jenkins is dangerously devoted to his craft.

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Season Announcement

Echo Theatre introduces Dallas audiences to a season of strangers in 2026

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

'The Roommate' was recently on Broadway.

It's a "Season of Strangers" for Echo Theatre this year, as the Southwest's premier company for promoting dramatic works by women+ focuses on how someone different than you can change your life.

The 28th season begins with the new musical Silhouettes by Jordan Ealey and Ari Afsar. This score-in-hand workshop was developed in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, and examines a pivotal moment in American history through the intersecting lives of two women navigating the decision to have an abortion. Echo's managing and artistic director Kateri Cale directs, with Vonda K. Bowling as musical director.

In a joint statement, Ealey and Afsar say that Silhouettes was born from their need to process the emotional and political aftermath of Roe’s fall. “We continue to see that history is cyclical and equity is fleeting,” they say. “But when policy fails, art has the opportunity to step in. Silhouettes is a musical about choice, sisterhood, and intergenerational courage.”

They add that presenting the work in Dallas reflects their commitment to community-building in states like Texas, where bans and restrictions have made women and gender minorities particularly vulnerable. “We want this musical to be a safe and brave haven amid attempts to create a culture of fear and a reminder that people are not alone.”

It runs January 16-17, 2026, and admission is free, though a $20 donation is suggested.

The world premiere of You Must Wear A Hat by C. Meaker is next, and plugged-in Dallas theater fans might recognize the play from its reading at Kitchen Dog Theater in 2019.

Tuesday and Weeks make hats on the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for the world to end. It's described as "A play for two. And a rabbit."

C. “Meaks” Meaker (they/them) is a playwright, essayist, and teacher whose work often explores queerness, monstrosity, and the end of the world. Their plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre (Seattle), Hub Theater (D.C.), Fat Theater Project (Chicago), and About Face (Chicago). They’re a two-year finalist for the Dramatist Guild National Fellows program and a recent finalist for the Jerome Hill Theater Arts Fellow.

You Must Wear a Hat runs February 27-March 14, 2026.

The season closes with The Roommate by Jen Silverman. The play was on Broadway in 2024 starring marquee names Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone.

In it, a divorced Midwesterner takes a roommate from The Bronx. A relationship evolves and secrets unfold into a darkly comedic exploration of life choices. It runs June 19-July 4, 2026.

All shows this season will be performed at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Dr., in White Rock Lake Park.

Tickets range from Pay-What-You-Can to $40, with discounts available for students and seniors.

Additional events this season include Cake by the Lake on April 21, Echo's free birthday party fundraiser that also launches its reading series, Echo Reads.

Echo Reads runs April through September, presenting six plays in six month. All plays will be performed on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm, and then read the next day at different venues around the city.

Echo Offstage Podcasts is going monthly. The free podcast series interviews women+ who are making art and making a difference.

And Echo is already teasing its 29th season, which will begin in the fall of 2026 and run the more traditional September through August instead of the calendar year.

The season 29 opener is a co-production, the company mysteriously hints, involving three Dallas theaters, two shows, and an internationally known writer. We'll all just have to wait and see what this intriguing production might be.

echo theatre podcasts world premieres echo reads the roommate play theater