Experimental Theater

Edgy Dallas theater troupe Dead White Zombies blurs the line between audienceand performer

“Two people could split off and follow one person or scene and have twodifferent impressions of the narrative, and that’s how it should be,” saysfounder/director Thomas Riccio.
Photo courtesy of Dead White Zombies
(w)hole allows each attendee to have his or her own unique theatricalexperience.
Photo courtesy of Dead White Zombies
Audience members are free to move throughout the space as they follow any of the18 main or supporting players.
Photo courtesy of Dead White Zombies
(w)hole, the most recent Dead White Zombies production, opens November 29.
Photo courtesy of Dead White Zombies

One could be forgiven for thinking Dead White Zombies is an homage to pop culture’s current monster du jour. In reality, this Dallas-based collective of sound, video and theater artists has a headier source of inspiration — not to mention the lofty goal of blurring the boundaries between audience and performer.

“[The name] celebrates the death of white civilization in the sense that Western culture has come to the end of its cycle,” says founder/director Thomas Riccio, who created the Zombies in 2011. “We’re walking around like zombies repeating what’s already out there, so we celebrate and commemorate that.”

“It’s an old view of the world to have the audience sitting in the dark watching the stage,” says founder/director Thomas Riccio.

(w)hole, the most recent Dead White Zombies production opening Thursday, November 29, is a “karmic love story” based on Hindu cosmology. As the performance follows two soul mates separated during the fall of Troy, audience members are free to move throughout the space — a 36,000-square-foot former welding shop in the Arts District — as they follow any of the 18 main or supporting players.

Reminiscent in its interactivity of the British immersive troupe Punchdrunk, (w)hole allows each attendee to have his or her own unique theatrical experience.

“Two people could split off and follow one person or scene and have two different impressions of the narrative, and that’s how it should be,” says Riccio, who spends his time off from the troupe teaching performance and aesthetic studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. “It’s an old view of the world to have the audience sitting in the dark watching the stage.”

Riccio was inspired to develop this unique approach through his work with indigenous peoples across the globe. Having begun his career working off Broadway with the likes of La Mama Experimental Theatre, he spent time working with Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre and Chicago’s Organic Theater before accepting a teaching position at the University of Alaska.

While in the land of the midnight sun, Riccio became artistic director of an Inuit theater group, beginning what would evolve into a worldwide exploration of storytelling traditions. From the Zulus in South Africa to the Bushmen of the Kalahari, throughout Siberia, Asia, Europe and the United States, Riccio discovered a linear thread that he’s now applying to the Zombies’ current and future works.

“Bushmen have no sense of metaphor. When they are performing the wind, they become the wind,” he says. “They’re performing parts of themselves, and these things inform the work we’re doing now. The world view we’re all searching for is this completeness and wholeness. It’s like the idea of the Garden of Eden — we’re all open, we’re all warm and we’re comfortable with this oneness.”

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(w)hole: A Karmic Love Story performance installation runs Thursday-Saturday through December 22 at 500 Singleton Blvd.

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Season announcement

Mystic Pizza's Dallas premiere leads new AT&T PAC Broadway season

Photo courtesy of Lively McCabe Entertainment

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The 2026-2027 Broadway at the Center season at Dallas' AT&T Performing Arts Center will feature a mixture of new and returning shows, including several recent Tony Award-nominated productions.

According to a release, the main season will consist of five musicals: Mystic Pizza: A New Musical, Shucked, Beetlejuice, The Who’s Tommy, and The Wiz. All productions take place at Winspear Opera House in downtown Dallas.

They will be joined by two previously-announced co-productions with Broadway Dallas - The Notebook and Hadestown - as well as TITAS/Dance Unbound co-production, Dance Me - The Music of Leonard Cohen.

First up will be Dance Me - The Music of Leonard Cohen, a creation inspired by the work of famed Montreal-based poet, artist, and songwriter Leonard Cohen, performed by Ballet Jazz Montreal.

The homage to the iconic artist evokes the grand cycles of existence in five seasons, as described in Cohen’s deeply reflective music and poems. There will be performances on September 18 and 19, 2026.

The first theater production will be Mystic Pizza: A New Musical, making its Dallas premiere. It is based on the 1988 rom-com that tells the story of three working-class girls who navigate the complexities of life, love, and family in a small-town pizza joint.

The score features megahits of the '80s and '90s, including songs originally recorded by Melissa Etheridge, Cyndi Lauper, John Cougar Mellencamp, and more. It will run November 20-22, 2026.

After the Broadway Dallas co-production of The Notebook, running January 12-24, 2027, the season picks up again with the return of Shucked, which played at the Music Hall at Fair Park in December 2024.

In the Tony Award-winning comedy, the corn that protects a small community starts to die. The town needs answers. But who will dare to venture beyond the borders of Cob County?

The Broadway hit, running March 19-21, 2027 is about an unlikely hero, an unscrupulous con artist, and a battle for the heart and soil of a small town.

Hadestown will follow shortly thereafter, running March 30-April 4, 2027, before the third Broadway Dallas co-production of the season, Beetlejuice, running April 28-May 2, 2027.

The musical, which previously came to Dallas in early 2024, is based on Tim Burton’s 1988 film and tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes.

June 2027 will bring the final two productions of the season, The Who’s Tommy (running June 3-5) and The Wiz (running June 10-13).

The Who's 1969 rock opera is about the young Tommy Walker whose innate knack for pinball catapults him from reticent adolescent to celebrity savior. It features the anthems “I’m Free,” “See Me, Feel Me,” “Sensation,” and “Pinball Wizard.”

The Wiz, which just came to Dallas in September 2025, is a groundbreaking twist on The Wizard of Oz that features soul, gospel, rock, and '70s funk that puts Dorothy’s journey to find her place in a contemporary world.

“This season is designed to welcome both longtime subscribers and new audiences with a lineup that celebrates the full range of Broadway - from high-energy crowd pleasers and reimagined classics to bold contemporary storytelling,” said Warren Tranquada, CEO and President of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, in a statement.

For the first time in their partnership with Broadway Dallas, Broadway at the Center subscribers will enjoy early access and full subscriber benefits for Beetlejuice through May 1.

After May 1, all ticket purchases, customer service questions, and support for Beetlejuice will be handled directly by Broadway Dallas.

The Center offers a flexible subscription package that allows patrons to choose four or five shows from the season lineup, with the option to add or remove shows by contacting the box office directly.

Subscription package prices range from $150-$660, and sales begin on Monday, April 13, 2026. Packages may be purchased by phone at 214-880-0202, or online at attpac.org/broadway.

att performing arts center beetlejuice broadway at the center music mystic pizza performing-arts the wiz theater winspear opera house