Undermain Theatre

Undermain Theatre history

In fall 1983, Katherine Owens and Raphael Parry arrived in Dallas. Both were interested in presenting new and experimental material with an ensemble company in the Deep Ellum area. They began producing together at Stage Number One's Greenville Avenue Theater, in association with Dallas Actor’s Theater, on a triple bill of Action, Killer’s Head and Icarus's Mother by Sam Shepard. In early 1984, they found the vacant basement space of the now historical Interstate Forwarding Company building on 3200 Main Street. By spring 1984, they had their first production, Excavations: Killer’s Head, Twirler, Waking Up, in the Main Street space.

Excavations was part of a Gallery Walk event and was presented in a promenade style due to the lack of seating in their basement theater space. The show was a series of one-acts that both Owens and Parry directed and performed in. By the end of their first season, they were on their way to building their ensemble. In April 1985, Bruce DuBose joined the cast of Dario Fo’s Can't Pay? Won't Pay!, beginning a longtime relationship that eventually took DuBose to the position of executive producer of Undermain Theatre.

With each season, Undermain continued to thrive and grow. By its third season, Dallas critics began to take notice and by the end of the foutth season, in spring 1987, Undermain flew in the playwright John O’Keefe to develop his play, All Night Long. In September that year, Undermain developed a relationship with Jeff Jones while producing Seventy Scenes of Halloween. This friendship proved to be advantageous, leading to Undermain’s long standing relationships with the playwrights Len Jenkin, Mac Wellman and Eric Ehn and the subsequent productions of Poor Folks Pleasure, Harm’s Way, A Murder of Crows and The Red Plays, among other shows, establishing Undermain Theatre’s name among the language playwrights in New York City and around the US.

Milestones

Travel

In 1995, Undermain Theatre traveled to the Republic of Macedonia to perform Goran Stefanvovski's Sarajevo in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Undermain also performed at the ancient Roman Theatre at Bittola and at the Ohrid Theater Festival. In 2000, the theater company traveled to New York City for the first time, producing three shows there (Coaticook by Lenora Champagne, Gold Into Mud and Swedish Tales of Woe by Erik Ehn) as well as four shows in Dallas. In 2001, the company returned to the Balkans with a new work and performed at the DAH Teatar Anniversary Celebration in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

The building

The unique building, constructed in 1913 by B.D. Milam and E.C. Connor as the first US Customs warehouse in Dallas, is a six-story, Chicago-style building billed as absolutely fireproof with an exterior that was made with red and ironspot bricks and concrete. Jim and Michelle Herling, the owners of the building in the early 1980s, were patrons of the arts, already housing an art gallery on the first floor of the building, and were willing to allow Owens and Parry to rent the entire basement floor at a very low price. From that, Owens and Parry transformed the warehouse basement into a unique performance space that became the home of Undermain Theatre. In 1989, Undermain Properties bought the building on 3200 Main Street. It was adapted for residential use in 1991 by Graham Greene & RTHL to include 28 residential units, keeping both the theatre and the art galleries in their respective places. The building became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1991 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It is also a City of Dallas Landmark.

The chairs

The 90-seat house at Undermain Theatre is also unique. The chairs, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, were originally housed in the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Obtained by the Undermain from the Dallas Theater Center in 1989, the seating was designed by Taliesin architects, the firm that completed many of Wright’s projects after his death in 1959. Its design was based on a variety of ideas promoted by Wright himself and by Paul Baker (Director of the Dallas Theater Center in 1957).

Critical acclaim

Awards

Production history

Arabian Nights ed. by Stephen Foglia

We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury

Abraham Zobell’s Home Movie: Final Reel... by Len Jenkin

The New Frontier: Landmark Speeches of JFK by Ted Sorensen - Undermain Reads at the DMA

Profanity by Sylvan Oswald*

Sacrifice by Rabindranath Tagore

The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg

The Conference of the Birds by Farīd ud-Dīn Attar - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

Penelope by Enda Walsh

Burying Our Father: A Biblical Debacle by Fred Curchack

An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare

Joyce’s Ulysses by James Joyce - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

Color Struck by Zora Neale Hurston - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

Time In Kafka by Len Jenkin*

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

Ages Of The Moon by Sam Shepard

Ilira by Thomas Riccio - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

The Shipment by Young Jean Lee

Easter by August Strindberg translated by Michael Meyer*

Two Noh plays by Yukio Mishima - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

The Golem by H. Leivick - Undermain Reads at the Dallas Museum Of Art

The Dog Problem by David Rabe

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac written and performed by Taylor Mac

Port Twilight by Len Jenkin*

The Black Monk by David Rabe*

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl

Monkey: The Quest To The West by Laura Jorgensen and Fred Curchack

Neil Young’s Greendale adapted for the stage by Bruce DuBose*

Noh: Angels, Demons & Dreams created & performed by Laura Jorgensen and Fred Curchack

The Snow Queen by Lynn Alvarez*

Shining City by Conor McPherson

The Appeal by Young Jean Lee

Waiting for a Train (expanded) by Bruce DuBose*

Waiting for a Train: The Life and Songs of Jimmy Rodgers by Bruce DuBose*

Margo Veil by Len Jenkin

A Number by Caryl Churchill

A Man’s Best Friend by Jeffery M. Jones (Dallas & Ohio Theatre, New York)*

Blasted by Sarah Kane

Two September by Mac Wellman

The Late Henry Moss by Sam Shepard

Silence by Moira Buffini

Glamour by John O’Keefe (Dallas & Ohio Theatre, New York)*

Cats Paw by Mac Wellman

Judges 19: Black Lung Exhaling by Ruth Margaff (Belgrade, Dallas, Austin)*

St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson

Swedish Tales of Woe by Erik Ehn (Dallas & Ohio Theatre, New York)*

Gold Into Mud by Erik Ehn (Dallas & New York)*

Coaticook by Lenora Champagne (ICE Factory Festival, New York & Dallas Video Festival)*

Live Love Acts written and performed by Fred Curchack

Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare

Shiner by Erik Ehn and Octavio Solis*

Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka

Wallpaper Psalms by Ruth Margraff

A Por Quinley Christmas by Quincy Long (1997 & 1998)*

Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola adapted by Neal Bell

Babbler by John O’Keefe

The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite by Quincy Long

Homework by Franz Xaver Kroetz

Uncle Bob by Austin Pendleton

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

The Sound and The Fury by Erik Ehn*

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

Tattoo Girl by Naomi Iizuka (University of Texas, Dallas)

The Deatherians by John O’Keefe*

The Puppets Delirious: Two Iphigenia Plays by Ellen McLaughlin

All He Fears by Howard Barker

Camino Real by Tennessee Williams

Sarajevo by Goran Stefanovski (ORCHID, Bitola, Skopje, Macedonia)*

Beginner by Erik Ehn*

Tiny Dimes by Peter Mattei

The Fever by Wallace Shawn (Chimera Festival, Addison)

The Hyacinth Macaw by Mac Wellman

Two Saints (DASHBOARD and LOCUS) by Erik Ehn*

Love Trouble by Jeffrey M. Jones*

Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The Castle by Howard Barker

Imperceptible Mutabilities In the Third Kingdom by Suzan-Lori Parks

The Red Plays: (Red Sheets and Moira McOc) by Erik Ehn*

Almost Asleep by Julie Herbert*

Seagulls by Caryl Churchill (Chimera Festival, Addison)

The Poet & the Rent by David Mamet

Laughter! by Peter Barnes

A Murder of Crows by Mac Wellman*

Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

The Possibilities by Howard Barker

The Anger in Ernest and Earnestine by Leah Chemick and Martha Ross

Cabaret Epiphany developed by Undermain Theatre*

Harm’s Way by Mac Wellman

Poor Folk’s Pleasure by Len Jenkin

Disgrace by John O'Keefe

Night Coil by Jeffery M. Jones

Cosmetic Surgery by Paul Rudnick (Deep Ellum Clubs)

Goose and Tomtom by David Rabe (1989 & 1991)

Two Small Bodies by Neil Bell

Request Concert by Franz Xaver Kroetz

Vinegar Tom by Caryl Churchill

Bloody Poetry by Howard Brenton

Ghosts by John O'Keefe

Seventy Scenes of Halloween by Jeffery M. Jones (Dallas & Canada)*

Blood on the Cat’s Neck and Bremen Coffee by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

All Night Long by John O'Keefe*

Rough for Theatre I (three one-act plays) by Samuel Beckett

Traps by Caryl Churchill

Security Anxiety developed by Undermain Theatre (Dallas Museum of Art)*

Criminal Minds by Robin Swicord

Fen by Caryl Churchill

Other Places: three one-act plays by Harold Pinter

Can't Pay? Won't Pay! by Dario Fo

Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II and Imagination Dead Imagine by Samuel Beckett

In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes by John Guare

Excavations: Killer’s Head by Sam Shepard

Twirler by Jane Martin

Waking Up by Franca Rame

Notable authors

Mac Wellman, Jeffrey M. Jones, John O’Keefe, Erik Ehn, Susan Lori-Parks, Lenora Champagne, Howard Baker, Caryl Churchill, Goran Stefanovski, Octavio Solis, Lynne Alvarez, David Rabe, Connor McPherson, Young Jean Lee, Len Jenkin, Dario Fo, David Ray, Sam Shepard, Samuel Beckett,

Collaborations