By MARK LOWRY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Over two recent weekends, North Texas arts hounds had the chance to see three
unique and especially intriguing pieces of theater.
There was an outstanding production of the musical Urinetown; a jaw-dropping staging
of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, the theater god whose political works
partially inspired Urinetown; and an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw
for two actors.
But there was no need to drive from one end of the Metroplex to the other to catch all
three. These shows were all produced at one venue, the Addison Theatre Centre, a
modern facility of concrete, glass and stone that sits in the shadow of that suburb’s
water tower and is also home to the appropriately named WaterTower Theatre.
The 10-year-old WaterTower, boasting exceptionally strong acting, direction and design,
has arguably become the most consistent group in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Word of mouth about qualities like that spreads fast. Since 1998, WaterTower has been
headed by producing artistic director Terry Martin. Under his guidance, the organization’
s annual budget has doubled from $600,000 to $1.3 million, and its subscriber base has
nearly quadrupled, from 600 to 2,200. In the nonprofit world, that’s phenomenal growth.
“Originally, the board saw this as a theater for this community, for Addison, Carrollton
and Farmer’s Branch,” says Martin, 47. “It took a while for me to get them to understand
that we can have more influence than that.”
WaterTower produced the aforementioned Urinetown , staged in the ATC’s main space,
a 3-story auditorium that can be arranged for proscenium, in-the-round, thrust or tennis-
court staging styles. Depending on the configuration, the audience holds 200 to 230.
Often, sets are multilevel and the actors use the built-in second-story walkways on the
sides. It’s the most flexible and interesting performing space in the area.
And as if WaterTower’s own shows weren’t enough to draw crowds to Addison, it has
taken on a second identity as a sort of mentor theater for young, ambitious companies
in the area. WaterTower now presents seasons by Second Thought Theatre in the ATC’s
studio space and produces the Out of the Loop Festival, 10 days of theater, dance and
music, and visual art (see story on Page 9D). This year’s festival, which begins Thursday,
will feature more than 20 regional companies.
The 2-year-old Second Thought Theatre, which produced the aforementioned Caucasian
Chalk Circle in the ATC’s 60-seat black-box space, was founded by risk-taking Baylor
University grads. The Turn of the Screw , which was in the 40- to 50-seat Stone Cottage
on the facility’s grounds, was the inaugural production of Theatre Fusion, a group
planning its future home in Keller. Both of those groups are participating in Out of the
Loop.
“[Loop] is an opportunity for us to feed ourselves as artists, to work on stuff that we
normally wouldn’t necessarily get to work on the main stage,” Martin says.
It’s an event wholeheartedly supported by the city of Addison, which has hopes for
something akin to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.
“I love the idea of a lot of different productions packed into a few weeks,” says Ron
Whitehead, who has been Addison’s city manager for 24 years. “We’d love for [Loop] to
grow and become something that is nationally recognized.”
In fact, enthusiastic city support is a large part of WaterTower’s success. In addition to
giving the theater complete artistic freedom, the town contributes nearly $400,000
annually and has for years allowed WTT to advertise shows on a banner that stretches
across nearby busy Belt Line Road. More recently, shows get extra publicity on new
electronic signage on the ATC property and on the water tower itself (a recent
exception being Urinetown , which, for obvious reasons, wasn’t advertised on the
tower).
All this reflects Addison’s growth in the past decade or so. Part of that expansion
includes upscale apartments and condos, as well as shops and restaurants near
Addison Circle, just a block away from the ATC. (Addison reportedly has the highest
concentration of restaurants — about 170 in 4.3 square miles — in the nation.) The city
is also considering a future performing-arts space (around 500 seats), just south of the
ATC and the festival grounds that are home to many public events, including
performances by Shakespeare Dallas.
The $6 million Addison Theatre Centre, which also features a conference center, was
completed in 1992 and designed by architect Gary Cunningham. The previously existing
Stone Cottage housed Addison Community Theatre for about two decades. In the late ’
80s, some college students staged avant-garde fare with environmental designs there.
The city built ATC for them.
“That’s how the environmental flexibility nature of the theater was born,” says WTT
artistic associate and communications manager James Lemons.
Of course, filling the seats for experimental theater became more difficult when the
number of seats quadrupled, so the works produced on the main stage eventually
became more pedestrian. One production has become local legend, a radical
interpretation of Oklahoma! in which Aunt Eller was elevated far above the rest of the
cast via a pneumatic lift. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization promptly shut it
down.
The theater soon became an Actor’s Equity Small Professional Theater (SPT) and in 1996
re-formed as WaterTower Theatre. After a national search and director tryouts, Martin
was named artistic director. Lemons came on in 1999, working box office and shadowing
director Martin, and soon developed into a formidable director himself — he directed
Urinetown .
Before he was hired by WaterTower, Martin, who moved to Dallas from New York in
1992, was a local actor (he appeared in Stage West’s Lost in Yonkers and Lips Together,
Teeth Apart ).
“I had no plans of being a director, much less an artistic director,” Martin says, “but I
knew an opportunity like this wouldn’t come around again.”
A typical WaterTower season is, like those at most regional theaters, a mix of
contemporary and classic plays and musicals that actors can seriously delve into.
WaterTower has taken on masters such as Lanford Wilson, Eugene O’Neill and Stephen
Sondheim, and championed newer works such as the musical The Spitfire Grill , whose
design featured a running creek with live fish. In fact, WaterTower’s national reputation
is gaining so much ground that Martin now gets calls from big-name playwrights’ agents
, in addition to the barrage of unsolicited scripts that professional theaters constantly
receive.
Coming up on WaterTower’s schedule are Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Richard
Greenberg’s Take Me Out , about a gay major-league baseball player who comes out
and which features a nude shower scene. But even when it’s taking such risks,
WaterTower fills up its house.
“There have been times when people have objected to content of a particular play,”
says Whitehead, the city manager, “and we’ve told them that it’s not the role of
government to get involved with that.”
As for groups like Second Thought, settling under WaterTower’s wing has proven
beneficial. They do pay rent, but WaterTower helps with publicity, box office and other
invaluable services.
“If we have any needs, such as costume shop, WaterTower gives us great support,”
says Barbara Bouman, a co-founder of Second Thought Theatre, which moved last year
from Frank’s Place at the Dallas Theater Center and is already planning its third season
in Addison.
“We took control of the studio space and presenting companies whose work that we
believe in,” Martin says, “so we can have more control of the quality of the stuff being
done.”
Consistent quality and work in all its spaces are just a few reasons WaterTower is at the
forefront of local theaters. It’s only a matter of time before that standing expands to a
national level.
“The tricky thing is that as city councils and mayors change, there’s always the potential
that the amount of support may change,” Martin says. “But they’re happy because we’re
doing what they wanted this building to do all along, to bring people here.”
PICK OF THE WEEK | ADDISON
Out of the Loop Festival
By Mark Lowry
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Performing-arts festivals are rare occurrences around here. Which is why you should
make hotel reservations right now for a weekend in Addison, where you can easily see
10 or so performances in one weekend at WaterTower Theatre's Out of the Loop
Festival. The fifth annual festival of nonstop theater, visual art, music, cabaret and
dance happens in various locations within Addison Theatre Centre. Highlights this year
are a cappella musical-comedy group Minimum Wage from New York (pictured above);
WaterTower's staging of Neil LaBute's This Is How It Goes; and Theatre Fusion's
Evolution, which combines Brechtian theatricality with "all things Madonna." Other
groups include Second Thought Theatre, Cyrano Players and Fort Worth's SceneShop.
Out of the Loop Festival
Thursday through March 12
Addison Theatre Centre
15650 Addison Road
Addison
$5-$15 per show; $50 for a festival pass
(972) 450-6232
www.watertowertheatre.org/outoftheloop.asp
