The year 2024 is Second Thought Theatre's 20th anniversary, and it's celebrating with a brand-new playwriting initiative and three plays making their regional/national premieres. All productions will be at Bryant Hall, 3400 Blackburn St. in Dallas.

First up is Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Texas native Will Arbery, directed by Jay Duffer and assistant directed by Alejandro Saucedo.

Heroes is “intentionally selected for a Dallas audience in an election year” says executive director Parker Gray. “When four alumnus of a conservative college reunite under the stars, they find themselves confronting theology, politics, and personal responsibility,” adds artistic director Carson McCain.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning took 2020 by storm, being a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and winner of the 2020 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the New Your Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, and Whiting Award for Drama.

Regarding the question “why this play now?” McCain offers this:

“Growing up in rural Texas, I found myself particularly enthralled by these characters. This play is uniquely able to invoke horror and foster empathy. Rarely have I encountered characters I disagree with so wholeheartedly, and yet they want what we all do: To be heard. To make a difference. I chose this play for STT not only because of Will Arbery, but because it made me uncomfortable. And this particular discomfort, I think, can be incredibly useful.”

Heroes of the Fourth Turning runs March 27-April 13, 2024.

Following Heroes is the regional premiere of Jen Silverman’s Wink directed by Jenna Burnett and starring Garret Storms as Wink the Cat.

“Few things in this world make sense to me,” says Gray. “But four things that make absolute, perfect sense to me? The combination of a Jen Silverman play, directed by Jenna Burnett, starring Garret Storms as a cat, and all on a Second Thought stage. That’s a perfect, wacky, holy, theatrical quadrinity if you ask me."

Wink follows unhappy housewife Sofie and her breadwinning husband, Gregor, who both seek weekly counseling from an unorthodox therapist, Doctor Frans. Their current topic of disagreement: the cat, Wink. When Wink goes missing, violent desires, domestic anarchy, and feline vengeance emerge, threatening the neatly ordered reality Sophie, Gregor, and Doctor Frans have constructed.

How did a play about a vengeful cat end up in the STT lineup? McCain has some answers:

“Garret Storms brought this play to me a couple of years ago. Second Thought audiences will know Garret from Martyr and Lela & Co., but also should know him as the person whose taste I trust most in the DFW area. When he told me this was a Second Thought play, I knew it would be worthwhile. This play explores our base desires, our violent urges, our need for connection, the parts of us we do and don’t like. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall in someone else’s therapy session, this is the play for you.”

Wink runs June 26-July 13, 2024.

Completing the season is the national premiere of British playwright debbie tucker green’s hang directed by Sasha Maya Ada. The play is quite simple: His life. In her hands. green’s hang is a shattering play about one woman’s unspeakable decision. “Is punishment justice? Or is it revenge?” asks McCain. “hang asks us to take a cold, hard look at injustice and forgiveness. It asks us to consider a legacy of pain, and how systems are complicit. But it also asks us to consider individuals as complicated and nuanced.”

Gray adds:

“This play is a punch. A punch to the head, a punch to the heart, a punch to the gut. When Carson and I read this play, we knew immediately it was a Second Thought play, and that Sasha Maya Ada needed to direct it. Admirers of Second Thought's 2022 hit production of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over can expect Sasha and Second Thought to deliver a similar, but altogether singular, experience with this American premiere that will be sure to leave you talking in the parking lot afterwards."

hang runs October 16-November 2, 2024.

And get ready for the inauguration of Thought Process: A Playwriting Cohort.

This year-long, monthly meeting of local writers provides a safe, low-stakes space for playwrights to interact with their peers; share pages from old, new, or commissioned work; and most importantly, write! This cohort seeks to give each playwright the experience they want for their work in order to serve their play, without the pressures of an institution making the work “producible."

Says Gray:

“Opportunities for theater artists in DFW are growing, and when Carson and I looked around the community for ways to continue serving and cultivating the incredible talent we have in the Metroplex, one group stood out to us: playwrights. There are so many incredible writers we know here in DFW, and many, I’m sure, we have not been introduced to yet. However, opportunities for local writers to develop and experiment with their work are few and far between. Enter Thought Process. In DFW, reading festivals exist, full productions exist, but a space for the hard work before a reading? Or the middle ground where a script is between drafts? That’s what we want to offer: A safe, supportive, and enticing space for local writers to “write around and find out."

Submissions for Thought Process are live and can be found here. The deadline to submit to this inaugural, one-of-a-kind program is January 5, 2024, at 8 pm.

Running:
Previews: March 27th and 28th
Opening Night: March 29th
Pay What You Can Mondays: April 1st and April 8th

Wink by Jen Silverman
A Regional Premiere
Directed by Jenna Burnett
Starring Garret Storms as Wink the Cat Running: June 26th - July 13th 2024 Previews: June 26th and 27th

Opening Night: June 28th
Pay What You Can Mondays: July 1st and July 8th

hang by debbie tucker green
An American Premiere
Directed by Sasha Maya Ada
Running: October 16th - November 2nd 2024 Previews: October 16th and 17th

Opening Night: October 18th
Pay What You Can Mondays: October 21st and October 28th