Season Announcement

Kitchen Dog Theater lifts curtain on new Dallas home for 2026 season

The original cast of Pompeii!! in 2018.

Photo by Matt Mrozek

In a satisfying act of symmetry, Kitchen Dog Theater is christening its new, permanent performance space with a popular original musical the company created in 2018.

The return of this critically acclaimed work is part of the Dogs' 35th season, which will be its first in its newly constructed theater at 4774 Algiers St. in the Design District.

For the past 10 years, KDT has been a nomadic company, staging works at venues such as the Trinity River Arts Center, Expo Park, and even in and around Riders Field (home of the Frisco RoughRiders) and D-Town CrossFit. Before that, it performed mainly at the now-demolished McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Uptown (the site is now home to San Martin Bakery; The MAC lives on as an art gallery in the Cedars).

KDT's 2026 season is slightly truncated due to construction delays, but nevertheless encompasses three fully produced mainstage works; a Texas-focused New Works Festival staged readings series; and the landmark 25th-annual PUP Fest, which nurtures high school talent from all over DFW.

It begins in February with a remounting of Pompeii!!, directed by KDT co-artistic directors Tina Parker and Christopher Carlos.

Written by KDT Artistic Company members Cameron Cobb, Michael Federico, and Max Hartman, Pompeii!! is a (sadly still) timely musical satire of nationalistic hubris and narcissistic excess. Under the shadow of a volcano, the citizens of Pompeii sing, dance, and tell jokes in this zany vaudeville show that combines togas and tap shoes, centurions and sing-alongs.

This was KDT's first company-created musical, and it was the recipient of a prestigious Writers Alliance Grant from the Dramatists Guild Foundation and played to sold-out houses during its original run. This current production also marks the first-ever revisit to a past show title in the company’s 35-year history, and it will feature some of the original 2018 cast reprising their roles. It runs February 5-March 1, 2026.

Next is Dream Hou$e by Eliana Pipes, which was originally featured as a staged reading in KDT’s 2020 New Works Festival.

Two Latina sisters are appearing on an HGTV-style reality show to sell their family home, hoping to capitalize on the gentrification in their “changing neighborhood.” As they perform for the camera, the show starts to slip into the surreal: one sister grapples with turmoil in the family’s ancestral past and the other learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the family’s future.

Dream Hou$e earned both the Kendeda Award and Steinberg Playwriting Award in 2021. It runs April 9-May 3, 2026.

The mainstage production for this year's New Works Festival is Venus by Steve Yockey, which was a staged reading in last year's festival. If Yockey's name sounds at all familiar otherwise, it might be because he was a co-producer on Supernatural and creator/showrunner of the HBO Max thriller The Flight Attendant.

In this celestial, pitch-black comedy, two women learn that true love isn’t the only thing that bonds two people together…forever. Breakups are never fun. It’s easy to romanticize all of the good times: stargazing, waxing poetic about literature, that instant spark the first time your hands brushed. It’s even easier to forget about all of the bad times, like when they ghosted you after the perfect first date, or that one time you woke up in a shallow grave. It runs June 5-28, 2026.

Happening June 6, 2026, is the D-PAC PUP Fest. The Playwrights Under Progress Fest will present six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by DFW high school students, featuring student actors directed by area professional directors. PUP Fest is the culminating event of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.

The Texas Edition of the 2026 New Works Festival Staged Reading Series runs concurrently: Saturday, June 13, and Saturday, June 27.

Now in its 27th year, KDT's Staged Reading Series will showcase four titles, including two new plays written by KDT Artistic Company members: Black Republican by Jamal Sterling and Sound by Jenny Ledel.

There are two season subscription packages available now for this inaugural season in KDT’s new facility. Single tickets will go on sale at a later date. For more information, visit kitchendogtheater.org or call 214-953-1055.

kitchen dog theater dallas design district pompeii musical new works festival pup fest theater

RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70

Courtesy

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth, known for his jubilant creativity which he displayed in a wide range of media, died on February 18; he was 70 years old. According to friends, he suffered a heart attack.

Scherbarth's myriad "canvases" ranged from printmaking to furniture to steel and metal working. He was a colorful presence in the Dallas art scene with a shock of thick hair that stood tall, definitive horn-rimmed glasses, and an unfiltered, no-nonsense personal style.

He was also a key figure in the Cedars District: an urban pioneer who settled in the area directly south of downtown Dallas in the early '80s when the neighborhood was a mostly-deserted collection of abandoned warehouses, before it became a major art nexus.

A post by Lee Harvey's, the Cedars District bar, said that "Some people don’t just live in a neighborhood — they leave their mark on it. Albert did exactly that. Through his art, his presence, and his time at our bar, he became part of the story here. We’ll miss him more than we can say. Rest easy Bert."

He was a real character, as well — a stocky physical presence (he played football in high school) who'd fix his stare upon you as if you were a critter to be studied.

One friend said, "I always feel that Albert is going to spring some meta shit on me every time i see him and he rarely disappoints. What a cool cat."

A native of Nebraska, Scherbarth moved to Dallas in 1979 to earn a master's in fine arts at the University of Dallas, Irving. After graduating in 1981, he began teaching in the community college district, including Brookhaven College, Northlake College, University of Texas at Dallas, and the Creative Art Center, as well as at Dallas' Arts Magnet.

Sculpture by Albert Scherbarth which appeared at the State Fair of Texas in 2018.Laura Walters/Facebook

After graduating from art school, he felt the need to do "real" work like his father, and took jobs in construction and woodwork, which helped shape the very physical nature of his art.

He was one of the early and many artists who resided in the Continental Gin Building, where he worked on his designs and commissions, fabricated other artists’ ideas, and helped galleries with installations, crating, and shipping.

Through the years he made furniture, got into fused and cast glass, poured concrete countertops, and painted, including a successful era of doing giant flower paintings. In his latter years, he acquired a welding machine and worked with builders, designers, and architects constructing screens, fences, furniture, and sculptures.

His works around town include a giant wine tree for Fleming Steakhouse in Frisco, and a sculpture named, "Cecil, age 12" up on Henderson Avenue at Capital Street which was was a finalists for the Henderson Art Prize. He also worked on the famed Bowler Hat sculpture in the Cedars.

In an interview with Voyage Dallas, he said, "I’m constantly looking for more meaning and more permanence in the work that I’m doing," and acknowledged that "I’ve been very, very fortunate to get a lot of really great commissions over the years. I’ve sold a lot of work and fallen into great studio situations – large spaces, cheap rent and wonderful landlords. Today, I think my ignorance of all the pitfalls ahead allowed me to storm through life and I have a certain stubbornness, a dogged determination to succeed."

"My grandfathers died before I came of age, my father died, my favorite uncle died so there was not much in the way of male guidance or perspective on how to be a man, so I’ve just kind of made it up on my own, stumbling through, winging it and I’m still alive, amazingly enough."

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