Ch-ch-ch-changes in 2023

Dallas-Fort Worth theater's wild 2023, from singing Jesus to leadership switch-ups

His Story: The Musical was the story of the year.

Photo by Jeremy Daniel

Two musical productions staged in mall parking-lot tents were not on my 2023 BINGO card, but then again neither was a hometown horror movie or a $15 million gift to create a whole new department at SMU. But here we are!

The year 2023 was an unpredictable one for theater in Dallas-Fort Worth. Let's take a look back at some of the year's biggest happenings:

Without a doubt, the biggest theater story of the year was His Story. The faith-based, modern musical about the life and death of Jesus Christ erected a massive tent in The Colony's Grandscape parking lot during the summer and promised an open-ended run of the "Broadway-style" show, which was written by then-16-year-old Anna Miriam Brown, a DFW local.

It held a giant premiere complete with star cameos (Duck Dynasty's Willie and Korie Robertson were producers) and then it abruptly closed only a month later. To be honest, Magic Mike Live was a much more entertaining option when it came to performances in parking-lot tents.

The second-biggest news of 2023 was a major boon for Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts. Philanthropist and Broadway producer G. Marlyne Sexton gave the university $15 million to create a musical theater specialization, and DFW theater legend Joel Ferrell was tapped to develop and run it. 2026 is the target start date for this new undergraduate institute.

Ferrell was also involved this year in The Finale, a full-length feature film created by and starring DFW talent. The horror flick was filmed at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Kalita Humphreys Theater and Uptown's Theatre Three, and is available to stream on several platforms.

Local talent also got some promotions this year, as Kat Edwards was named Theatre Three's new managing director and Parker Gray assumed the position of executive director at Second Thought Theatre.

Bringing in experience from the outside are Gustavo Ott as Teatro Dallas' new executive artistic director and Samantha Turner as the new executive director of Dallas Children's Theater.

DFW also made waves outside Texas, with Rebecca Lowrey becoming the new owner and CEO of MusicalWriters.com. The organization provides coaching, publicity, networking, table reads, and workshop opportunities to help new musicals get off the ground, and could hopefully turn DFW into a launchpad for new works.

Two new theater companies made their debut in 2023: Sweet Apple Productions and NTPA Deaf Theatre, a division of North Texas Performing Arts.

Lyric Stage expanded its reach by opening up its rehearsal space in the Dallas Design District as a new performance venue. The Great American Trailer Park Musical was its inaugural show there, and Sweeney Todd is on tap for this spring.

Amphibian Stage gave theatergoers a little wallet relief with a new ticketing approach: name your own price.

The very start of 2023 saw the sad closure of Imprint Theatreworks, but artistic director Ashley H. White landed at the helm of Circle Theatre as its new leader.

Raphael Parry, a co-founder of Shakespeare Dallas and its former artistic and executive director, retired in March.

And now for the truly sad part of any year-end round-up: Bruce R. Coleman and John Garcia both passed away in 2023.

Coleman was a director, costumer, set designer, teacher, and playwright, and succumbed unexpectedly to a heart attack.

Garcia founded The Column, an online theater review site with a fundraising component that donated thousands to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

One part of DFW theater we won't be sad to see go? Those awful, uncomfortable green chairs at the Wyly Theatre — they were sold off in September to make way for gray chairs that an ATTPAC spokesperson promised will "provide much more comfort both in seating and back areas." Cheers to that!

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All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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