Once More With Feeling

Addison's WaterTower Theatre finds new stage for its summer musicals

"Mary Poppins" was the big summer musical of 2024.

Photo by Paris Marie Productions

Following the announcement last fall that going forward, WaterTower Theatre will occupy less space in the Addison Conference and Theatre Centre, the theater company has found a solution to its venue problem.

It's launching WaterTower Summer Musicals, to be performed at the Dallas College Brookhaven Campus Theatre in Farmers Branch.

An email to newsletter subscribers sent on January 1 — and a Facebook post from WTT on December 31, 2024 — states that the first production will be Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock, set for summer 2025. It will be directed by JC Schuster, music directed by Cody Dry, and choreographed by Alli Betsill.

Both communications include a video that begins with producing artistic director Shane Peterman on the Brookhaven stage, spotlighting the venue's 650 very nice-looking seats.

He and several WTT employees go on to note the success of WTT's last two summer productions, Mary Poppins and the world-premiere Goin' Hollywood, as well as Brookhaven's plentiful free parking and spacious lobby.

"And as for the Addison Theatre Center, don't worry," says Brian Gonzales, director of audience and benefactor development, in the video. "The Addison Theatre Center is still our home, and our partnership with the town of Addison is still as strong as ever. Think of Brookhaven as an extension of the WaterTower family, allowing us to bring the summer musicals to an even bigger stage."

Also found on WTT's website is a job posting for an associate producing artistic director — the same position that Elizabeth Kensek was abruptly terminated from in August 2024.

At the time, WTT explained her layoff this way: "...modifications at the Addison Theatre Centre, directed by the Town’s leadership, have led us to consolidate roles and departments for greater efficiency. This unfortunately resulted in some layoffs and structural shifts."

Applications for the position will be accepted through January 17.

WaterTower Theatre is currently presenting The Play That Goes Wrong, co-produced with Stage West in Fort Worth. The show has recently been extended through January 19, a week past its original closing date.

musicals brookhaven college school of rock video theater

Season Announcement

Second Thought Theatre focuses 2025 season on Dallas-Fort Worth talent

Graphic by Evan Michael Woods

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For its 2025 season, Second Thought Theatre is going all-in on world premieres written by Dallas-Fort Worth playwrights.

While exploring the question of “What space does STT provide in DFW?” executive director Parker Davis Gray says, “STT is a place where audiences intentionally attend to be challenged by and wrestle with sharp new stories and an electric take on reimagined classics.”

The company likens this perspective to the work produced by the independent TV and film production company A24, and says that has inspired this upcoming season.

Opening Second Thought’s 21st season is Blake Hackler’s Healed, which follows Gail, who has been sick for 25 years.

Every doctor, every test, every treatment — none of it has worked. Now, with nothing left to lose, she sells everything and heads to a radical health center in the Texas Hill Country, run by the enigmatic and controversial Dr. T. Will this be her cure, her salvation, or something else entirely? It runs April 25-May 10, 2025.

Hackler’s previous work at STT includes the premieres of What We Were, The Necessities, and the 2018 Ibsen adaptation Enemies/ People.

Ringing in the summer is the sci-fi experiment Your Wife’s Dead Body, written by STT artistic associate Jenny Ledel in her playwriting premiere.

While Ledel is remembered for her performances in Belleville, Grounded, and What We Were, this shift to the other side of the table has been years in the making.

“Over the past few years, I’ve been reading Jenny’s plays and attending readings of her work,” says Gray, “she has such an accessible, inviting, and exciting voice that will resonate with Dallas as we begin to navigate the unknown landscape the next few years will bring us.”

Your Wife’s Dead Body takes place in the near future, as Jane takes advantage of a new AI technology that would extend her lifespan ... even if she's not around to see it for herself. A play about relationships, the nature of self, and what may or may not remain of us when we leave this life behind, this story asks us to consider the new and difficult questions humans may face as new technologies emerge.

Ledel’s world premiere will be directed by former STT artistic director (and Ledel's husband) Alex Organ. It runs July 11-26, 2025.

To close out the 2025 season, STT will dive into a new genre with INCARNATE by STT’s own Parker Davis Gray.

Trapped in her cell, Rosamund is hellbent on escaping her fate while the Man who kidnapped her struggles with the consequences of what grief can do, and how far he will go to escape it. Can they live with themselves? Or more importantly, who else is living with them?

A horror/thriller that follows two artists over the course of a year in their seemingly pointless pursuit of creation while suffering under great grief. Directed by Jenna Burnett, who also directed the original reading at Undermain Theatre, it runs October 17-November 1, 2025.

In addition to a world premiere-packed season, STT will continue its year-long playwriting incubator program, Thought Process, andadd another development program to the docket.

2025 will be the inaugural year of Second Thought Theatre’s Associate Director Program, a year-long cohort aimed at providing professional development through education, exposure, and opportunity. Three early-career professionals will have the opportunity to assist on one production of the 2025 season, gain training and receive feedback from professional directors, spend the year working on scene study with STT artistic director Carson McCain, and then end their year with each director taking the lead on one to three readings.

“The purpose of this cohort is to fill a gap we currently see in the DFW arts community,” says McCain. “We want to offer early career directors a safe place to develop their craft and seek feedback from their peers and other professionals. We want this to be a group that allows directors to grow without the pressures of impressing a professional theater in order to be hired again. STT will serve as facilitators and educators, giving feedback, training, and a place to ask questions.”

Season subscriptions and individual tickets are now on sale at SecondThoughtTheatre.com. All productions will take place at Bryant Hall.

Second Thought Theatre Announces their new season centered around cost and consequence as they showcase the sharp and bold voices of local DFW playwrights.

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