Theater News
Dallas' Theatre Three selects new artistic director with local cred
A year-and-a-half after the passing of Theatre Three co-founder and executive director Jac Alder, the Uptown theater-in-the-round has named his successor: Jeffrey Schmidt. He will assume the title of artistic director on January 1, 2017.
Schmidt is a familiar name to the Dallas-Fort Worth theater community, as he has been an active participant on and offstage here for more than 20 years. He's also been an artistic associate at Theatre Three for the past decade, directing and designing On the Eve, Hands on a Hardbody, Enron, The Crucifer of Blood, Talley's Folly, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and The Farnsworth Invention — to name a few — and appearing in The Novelist earlier this year. He's directing Theatre Three's next play, Laugh, opening in January.
"With its over 50-year history, Theatre Three is poised to be a major contributor to the arts conversation and to assume a more prominent leadership role in the community," says Schmidt in a press release. "I am excited by the opportunity to be the one who focuses the theater’s potential.
"Honoring the legacy of Jac and Norma while securing Theatre Three’s place in Dallas’s future will be no easy task. I am eager for the challenge.”
Schmidt also is a co-founder of the Drama Club, which recently has been creeping out Dallas audiences with its original works Faust and Wild, Wicked, Wyrd: Fairytale Time.
The release announcing Schmidt's appointment says that nearly 100 candidates were considered for the position. Director and designer Bruce R. Coleman has been acting artistic director since Alder's passing in May 2015.
Theatre Three chairman of the board Scott Williams helped lead the search, and says of Schmidt, "Jeffrey laid out an artistic vision for our theater that was truly impressive. I can’t wait for our audiences to see that vision come to life."
Theatre Three is currently in its 55th season, chosen and dubbed by Coleman as the "masquerade" season, with Laugh, Passing Strange, Susan and God, and A Little Night Music set to finish it out.
