For North Texas theatergoers who want to see something new and local, Second Thought Theatre (STT) delivers. The Dallas theater’s 21st season is full of world premieres written by homegrown playwrights.
“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,” said Parker Davis Gray, STT’s Executive Director.
The selection of new works was inspired by the work produced by the independent TV and film production company, A24.
“Thinking about this season, I’ve been meditating on grief—which isn’t really a sexy theme for a season—but I believe that most of us are grieving not just losses we have experienced, but also all the lives we haven’t experienced. There is a potential multiverse out there and I am stuck here with this life and all the things that have happened to me. Would I choose another one if I could? And what is the cost of that choice?” said Carson McCain, STT’s Artistic Director.
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The season opens this spring with Blake Hackler’s Healed, running April 23 – May 10. Gail 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? A surreal journey into the costs of chronic illness, Healed dares to ask: How far would you go to reclaim your health? And what might it cost you?
Hackler previous plays at STT include What We Were, The Necessities, and the 2018 Ibsen adaptation Enemies/ People.
The Scene
“When Carson and I had the idea of doing an entire season of world premieres by local writers, Blake was our obvious first thought. Second Thought has consistently served as an incubator for Blake’s new plays, and we were eager to see what Blake would cook up! He sent along several incredible ideas and scripts —all of which felt like Second Thought plays and all entirely fresh and interesting stories. Whilst we were reading and discussing their potential within the season, Blake sent along another idea to us. One that immediately fell in line with our other ideas for the season, and after reading the first three pages, I called up Carson and said, ’This is it. This is the one.’ I am so excited to start off our season with this beautifully haunting play and bring back a Second Thought staple to our audiences,” Gray said
In the summer, STT Artistic Associate Jenny Ledel makes her playwriting premiere with Your Wife’s Dead Body, running July 9 – 26. Ledel has been an in-demand actor for years. At STT, audiences will remember her in Belleville, Grounded, and What We Were. Now she is trading the stage for the page.
“Over the past few years, I’ve been reading Jenny’s plays and attending readings of her work,” Gray said. “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 is set 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. Alex Organ, STT’s former Artistic Director, will direct the show.
“I'm excited and grateful to be back at Second Thought to tell this story that deals with foundational questions about what it means to be human in the face of great change. I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Jenny Ledel, my chief collaborator, and it's a special treat that we get to do it at STT,” Organ said.
The season closes with Gray’s INCARNATE, running October 15 – November 1. 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.
This is a new genre for STT. After its original reading at Undermain Theatre in 2022, McCain couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“Our staff often talks about how we know we've succeeded when we leave the theatre after a performance and audience members are still in the parking lot talking about the play. This was my experience after seeing the staged reading of INCARNATE. My husband and I spent the next three hours talking about who could and should produce this play, how I had never seen horror like it on stage, and what a thrilling creative challenge it would be to tackle. INCARNATE was the most personal piece I had experienced in a long time. Parker's writing is raw with emotion, but polished in structure. It surprised me. It scared me. It broke my heart. I knew it would be the most ambitious technical piece that Second Thought had ever taken on. I am honored that Parker let me push so hard for it to be ours,” she said.
Subscriptions are now on sale. All performances are at Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys Theater campus in Dallas.
Learn more: Second Thought Theatre
