Deep Dish Theater Company to Close Doors

After 15 years of producing plays in Chapel Hill, the Deep Dish Theater Company is closing its doors.

Founding Artistic Director Paul Frellick made the announcement, noting the he and the theater's Executive Board had decided to close after a lengthy effort to find a future home for Deep Dish.

In an email to the theater's supporters, Frellick wrote that "we were until very recently optimistic that we could find a place that would make sense for us financially and accommodate the kind of work we were committed to presenting. We have looked in all directions, explored a variety of properties, consulted with possible partners, but to no avail.

He added that "in order to operate in sustainable fashion, we needed to double our audience and expand our programming," noting that such a process would probably have been a lengthy one. "We just couldn't find a way to finance those intervening years and cover the costs of building or upfitting a new theater space."

The Deep Dish Theater Company opened in April 26 with a sold-out two-week run of Samuel Beckett's apocalyptic comedy, Endgame. The original site was the space now occupied by the Dina Porter clothing store, but in 2003, shortly after the retailer A Southern Season opened in the former Belk's space, the theater company relocated to the other end of the mall. That space, adjacent to the newly-arrived Silverspot Cinema, is now part of a substantial overhaul of the property by the management of University Place, necessitating Deep Dish's departure.

Over the years, Deep Dish brought acclaimed writers like Eric Overmyer, Joel Drake Johnson and Austin Pendleton to Chapel Hill for productions of their plays; introduced the Triangle to the works of celebrated young playwrights like Sarah Ruhl, Amy Herzog, Daniel Perle and Annie Baker; offered new productions of such outstanding and rarely-seen masterpieces as Nathan the Wise, The Game of Love and Chance, and Journey's End; championed new work by area playwrights Adam Sobsey, Katja Hill and Ian Finley; and presented plays and musicals like The Exonerated, Polish Joke, The Landing, Superior Donuts, Via Dolorosa, Permanent Collection and Lobby Hero in regional premiere productions. The theater also showcased the work of many of the area's most accomplished actors, designers, directors and production personnel.

All told, the company produced well over 60 plays, readings, workshops and special events. The final offering was an acclaimed seven-week run of two plays in rotating repertory, Outside Mullingar and The Cherry Orchard; that production closed on November 14, 2015.

"It's been immensely gratifying these past few months to receive so much encouragement and support from those who missed us and anxiously awaited our return," Frellick wrote. "I wish we could have done so."

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