Season Announcement

Dallas' Echo Theatre teases a very uneasy season with eerie premieres

Something eerie this way comes.

Painting by David Wm Cale

For its 26th season, Echo Theatre has on tap three premiere productions which "explore the off-putting, painful, inscrutable, and unexplainable aspects of humanity that would normally cause us to look away. This year, Echo Theatre stares them straight in the eye."

First up is Feeding the Cat, Incorrectly, Several Times Over by Shyama Nithiananda. This regional premiere is also a winner of the 2023 Texas Shout Out New Play Contest for Women+ BIPOC Authors, and will be directed by Katie Ibrahim.

Jo and Jen live parallel lives: They study medicine. They pay the rent. They fight with their partners. And they keep big secrets. When Jo's decision to keep a patient's secret backfires, she is forced to reckon with her responsibility to partners, strangers, and enemies alike.

There are content warnings for language, blood, adult themes, depictions of medical procedures, and discussions of domestic violence.

Performances at the Bath House Cultural Center run February 8-23, 2024.

Next is the world premiere of an Echo Theatre commissioned work Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper by Ann Timmons.

This new historical drama delves into the extraordinary life of feminist author and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Known to many for her short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte’s work explores the realities of womanhood at the turn of the 20th century. From adolescence to her deathbed, we follow Charlotte’s complicated journey to professional success, and experience firsthand how her ongoing struggle with depression and an unconventional life shaped her work.

There are content warnings for depression, post-partum depression, and suicidal ideation.

Directed by Caroline Hamilton, performances are at the Bath House Cultural Center May 8-25, 2024.

The season finishes with the secret keepers by Erin Malone Turner, a regional premiere and a winner of the 2023 Texas Shout Out New Play Contest for Women+ BIPOC Authors.

Trudging through life at The Right Path Academy is a group of silly, intense, thoughtful, difficult high school seniors. During their last semester at the run-down boarding school, nightmares plague the unspoken leader of the group, shadowy figures come and go, skeletons tumble out of their closets, and one of the teens goes missing. Will they graduate with more troubles than they started with?

This Southern gothic, coming-of-age play explores taking responsibility for our relationships, the messiness of growing up, and learning to let go of the things we’ve never truly had.

There are content warnings for discussions of self harm, disordered eating, and suspenseful sequences.

The play is directed by Sasha Maya Ada, and performances are at the Bath House Cultural Center September 12-28.

Echo Reads play readings, Echo Writes playwright-led workshops, and Echo Offstage podcasts will also be returning for patrons this season. Echo Reads will return this fall (2023) featuring the finalists from the Texas Shout Out playwriting competition.

Dates for Echo Writes and Echo Offstage will be announced at a later time.

Tickets and season subscriptions are available at EchoTheatre.org.

Museum News

2 Dallas museums partner on landmark Roy Lichtenstein acquisition

Courtesy

Roy Lichtenstein

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the Nasher Sculpture Center will present works from the joint acquisition of more than 50 artworks generously gifted by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in 2024, showing prints, drawings, and sculptures by the groundbreaking American artist at the two neighboring institutions in the Dallas Arts District.

According to a release, the installations will be on view from January 31 to August 16, 2026 at the Nasher and from January 1 to July 5, 2026 at the DMA.

The joint gift made by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to the DMA and the Nasher in Celebration of the Centennial of Roy Lichtenstein is comprised of a selection of prints, drawings, maquettes, and sculptures by Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), a leading figure in twentieth-century American art and a pioneer of the Pop Art movement.

The works were specifically selected by the curatorial staff of both institutions and relate to objects already in their respective collections including sculptures, works on paper, and maquettes, along with tools and study objects.

Organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Senior Curator Dr. Catherine Craft, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA Ade Omotosho, and The Allen and Kelli Questrom Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the DMA Dr. Emily Friedman, the presentation is divided according to each institution’s strengths and will be shown in combination with objects by Lichtenstein already in their respective permanent collections.

At the Nasher, works relating to three sculptures from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection—Head with Blue Shadow, Peace through Chemistry, and Double Glass—will be accompanied by a selection from the Foundation's gift of more than two dozen drawings and maquettes associated with Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke sculptures.

At the Dallas Museum of Art, the presentation features a set of Brushstroke sculptures carved from wood alongside various prints and studies that reveal the artist’s eclectic imagery.

Events
In addition to the exhibition, the DMA and the Nasher will co-host a Study Day focused on the artist on March 28, 2026, sponsored by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. This scholarly event will bring together a variety of curators, academics, and conservators to discuss Lichtenstein’s studio practice and the fabrication and conservation of his sculptures.

Concluding the Study Day will be a public conversation held at the DMA between Nasher Director Carlos Basualdo and artist Alex Da Corte, regarding Da Corte’s work on the forthcoming Lichtenstein retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“In bestowing this generous gift, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation established Dallas as a center for the study and display of Lichtenstein’s work,” Basualdo says in a statement. “This collaborative presentation of the gift and the corresponding programming is an important step in the direction of pursuing that goal, deepening the understanding of an artist who remains immensely influential to contemporary art and its relationship with mass media and today’s culture.”

Roy Lichtenstein is made possible by support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District (DTPID).

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