When it comes to live theater, serious fans know that you can’t sleep on the universities. College theater productions might not have the same polish, prestige, or production values as plays put on by professional outfits, but they have provided a starting point for the likes of Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project, Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, and Greg Kotis’ Urinetown. Maybe the next great theatrical sensation receives its start at one of North Texas’ universities. With that in mind, we hereby present our preview of what’s to come this fall at our local schools.
TCU will kick off its theatrical season with a one-night staged reading at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The event called Stethoscope Stage features monologues and playlets by various authors that take on health-related subjects like body image issues and GLP-1 use, which is certainly a hot topic these days. The event is accompanied by a panel discussion with health professionals, so the evening will be of interest to more than just theatergoers. Following that in October is a proper run of The Moors, Jen Silverman’s patch on English gothic thrillers about two sisters and their dog whose lonely life in their family mansion is interrupted by the arrival of a governess and a bird. (The animals are portrayed by human actors, which should give you an idea of the play’s sense of humor.)
If that’s too weird for you, TCU will also put on A Chorus Line in November. The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about dancers aiming for a last shot at the Broadway stage has lost little of its relevance in the 50 years since it premiered. And since the film versions of The Odyssey and Hadestown have whetted our appetites for Greek mythology, TCU’s fall concludes with Anna Ziegler’s The Minotaur, telling a whimsical, contemporary version of the story from the half-bull/half-man’s point of view as he’s driven by his desire to eat people but also yearns for human connection and love.
Speaking of humans portraying animals, details have been doled out drop by drop about Tarrant County College’s upcoming theater shows, but Theatre Northwest’s next production will be an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, so Mr. Toad will ride again for your kids to see.
Meanwhile, UTA begins fall with a bang. Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s much-feted rock opera about German teens coming to terms with their sexuality, Spring Awakening is a collaboration with Dallas’ Theatre Three. It runs concurrently with another UTA collab, this one with Dallas’ Second Thought Theatre. Clare Barron’s Dance Nation is about a group of pre-teen girls in Ohio trying to keep their morality as they focus on reaching and winning a national dance championship.
UTA stays focused on music and dance with an October production of Into the Woods, featuring fairy-tale characters singing some of Stephen Sondheim’s most tongue-twisting songs. If musicals aren’t your thing, UTA will follow that with one weekend’s run of Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets’ 1935 play about a group of New York taxi drivers debating whether to go on strike for higher wages and chafing against their union leaders for shady labor practices. The fall season at UTA concludes with their Fringe Festival, a run of short plays and sketches by student and faculty playwrights, musicians, and designers.
As of this writing, we have not received word on upcoming theater productions at UNT, SMU, Texas Wesleyan, or Texas Woman’s University. However, once those schools set their schedules for the season, our Night & Day page will keep you informed, so be sure to check our print and web editions. As long as our colleges and universities continue to contribute to North Texas’ cultural life, we will stay abreast of their doings onstage.
