Dallas Theater Center Announces Community-Based Film

Dallas Theater Center announces the production and creative team members for its Public Works Dallas film, A Little Less Lonely, featuring the artistry of sixty community members. The film will be available for free on August 10th through the DTC website.

Instead of their annual summer pageant production, DTC, SMU Meadows School of the Arts and Ignite/Arts Dallas, will join with their Public Works Dallas community partners, Bachman Lake Together, City of Dallas Park & Recreation Department and Jubilee Park & Community Center, to produce a filmed version of an original theatrical production, created and performed by the sixty community participants from throughout Dallas. The community actors will rehearse virtually for most of the summer, then come together at the end of July for outdoor filming sessions at the community partner sites.

"Because of the pandemic we are unable to produce our annual Public Works Dallas pageant production this summer, which typically features 200 community members on stage at the Wyly Theatre," said Kevin Moriarty, Enloe/Rose Artistic Director, DTC. "However, we are thrilled to bring members of our community together this summer to create and perform an original theatrical piece. which we will film outdoors at our community partner sites. Like all of our Public Works Dallas programming, the film of A Little Less Lonely will celebrate our fundamental belief that theater belongs to everyone."

The production will incorporate filmed Zoom elements in addition to segments filmed in person. Filming will take place at 3 of the 5 Public Works Dallas community partners sites. The story will be based on inspirations from these communities. The show will be bilingual, incorporating both English and Spanish, throughout.

"This project is such a joy!" said Brandi Giles, Producer of A Little Less Lonely. "After the isolation so many of us have felt in the past year of the pandemic, having the opportunity to connect our Public Works Dallas partners, SMU Meadows School of the Arts and Ignite/Arts Dallas, the Drama League, the staff at DTC, and our community actors has been a whirlwind of eager excitement! We are all looking forward to making art together and creating a space where everyone feels a little less lonely in Zoom rehearsal rooms, on location for filming at our community partner sites, and, ultimately, in the video we will share with our community."

Tatyana-Marie Carlo, recipient of the Drama League's national Public Works Fellowship, is directing the production. Carlo is a recent graduate of Brown University/Trinity Repertory Theater's Master of Fine Arts Directing Program. She has directed The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, and Commedia de las Equivocaciónes, a bilingual Spanish/English adaptation by Kufa Castro of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. A Little Less Lonely will be designed by SMU graduate students Natalie Mabry, Shahrzad Mazaheri, Ariel Kregal, Cory Garrett, Britney Remy and SMU alum Lauren Floyd.

DTC's year-round Public Works Dallas program partners with community organizations throughout the City to provide free theater workshops for participants of all ages at Aspire, Bachman Lake Together Family Center, City of Dallas at Beckley Saner Rec Center, City of Dallas at Janie C. Turner Rec Center, and Jubilee Park and Community Center. The program culminates in an annual summer production that brings together community members and professional theater artists from throughout Dallas to create an ambitious work of participatory theater.

"We are so happy that this year Public Works Dallas came up with an innovative way for our families to participate in the summer showcase! Our families are looking for fun and happiness in the midst of what is going on in the world and we are all excited to see how it all comes together," Rosa Escobedo, Family & Community Engagement Manager at Bachman Lake Together.

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