Dallas Theater Center KICKS OFF ITS SEASON WITH TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS

DALLAS - Tiny Beautiful Things officially marks Dallas Theater Center's (DTC) return to live performances! The production starts September 8 in the Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre. This is the first live, indoor production at DTC since March 2020.

Based on the New York Times' best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed (author of Wild), Tiny Beautiful Things follows Sugar, an online advice columnist who uses her personal experiences to help the real-life readers who pour their hearts out to her.

Joel Ferrell is directing the production. Ferrell served as Associate Artistic Director at DTC from 2011-2019. He has directed and choreographed for productions around the country including Denver Center Theater, Portland Center Stage, and North Shore Music Theater. He has served as adjunct theater faculty for Southern Methodist University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington, as well as teaching regularly for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

"Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things pulls no punches in exploring the human experience. The book, and now stage adaptation, takes us on an unexpected ride into the absurd, painful, joyful, and often brave lives of strangers looking for connection," said Joel Ferrell, Director (Tiny Beautiful Things). "Strayed's superpower is blunt but empathetic honesty--delivered by a human who has climbed back out of the well of grief and brokenness. After our corporate journey through pandemic isolation and trauma, this work has lifted me, refreshed me, and actually helped heal me. I suspect it will do the same for many others."

Christie Vela portrays Sugar in the production. Vela is the Associate Artistic Director at Theatre Three. She was a founding member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company at DTC and featured in DTC's productions of Steel Magnolias, Inherit the Wind, Sense and Sensibility, and Les Misérables. She has also directed several productions at the theater including A Christmas Carol (2015), Gloria, and Real Women Have Curves. Vela has also directed productions at Shakespeare Dallas, Second Thought Theatre, and Kitchen Dog Theater.

"Tiny Beautiful Things is a lovely and oftentimes a heartbreaking reminder of the universality of the human experience. It reminded me that I was not alone," said Christie Vela, Sugar (Tiny Beautiful Things).

Dallas Theater Center will offer social distance seating during their live performances of Tiny Beautiful Things. Guests are welcome to select the option of being placed in the social distance section during the checkout process when purchasing tickets online. Concessions will not be served. Select performances will also forgo intermission to allow additional comfortability for guests. To view their COVID-19 Guest Policy, visit www.dallastheatercenter.org/covid-19-guest-policy.

Tiny Beautiful Things is running in repertory with Cake Ladies in the Wyly Theatre. The production runs from September 8 - October 16. To get more information or to buy tickets visit www.dallastheatercenter.org/show/tiny-beautiful-things/.

ABOUT Dallas Theater Center:
One of the leading regional theaters in the country and the 2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award® Recipient, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 100,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Dallas Theater Center is one of only two theaters in Texas that is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, the largest and most prestigious non-profit professional theater association in the country. Under the leadership of Enloe/Rose Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Jeffrey Woodward, Dallas Theater Center produces a year-round subscription series of classics, musicals, and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award-winning Project Discovery, a partnership with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts; and many community collaborations. In 2017, in collaboration with Ignite/Arts Dallas at SMU Meadows School of the Arts and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, DTC launched Public Works Dallas, a groundbreaking community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and community members, culminating in an annual production featuring more than 200 Dallas citizens performing a large scale theatrical production. Throughout its history, Dallas Theater Center has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978; Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986; and recent premieres of Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew; Stagger Lee by Will Power; Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs; Penny Candy by Jonathan Norton; Clarkston by Samuel D. Hunter and Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical by Robert Horn, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. Dallas Theater Center gratefully acknowledges the support of our season sponsors: Texas Instruments and Texas Instruments Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, American Airlines, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Lexus, TACA, and Texas Commission on the Arts.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: At Dallas Theater Center, all are welcome. We want to be the best place to work and see theater, and to be a positive and transformational force in Dallas and beyond. We stand-up for equity, diversity, and inclusion across our company and community. As a leading national theater, we recognize that building an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment is central to our relevance and sustainability in the community we serve and love. We acknowledge the land upon which this production was filmed as the ancestral home of many Indigenous Peoples including the Caddo, Wichita, Tawakoni and Kiikaapoi, as well as the tribes that may have lived here and roamed the area including Comanche, Kiowa and Apache and those indigenous people whose names we don't know anymore. We honor, revere and respect those who were stewards of this land long before we made it our home. We also acknowledge the neighborhood we inhabit as one of the original Freedman's towns of Dallas built by those who were enslaved by European colonization.

 

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