Kitchen Dog Theater Company

In 2001, Kitchen Dog Theater (KDT) joined with the award-winning Dallas arts education organization Junior Players (JP) to create PUP Fest, a locally lauded (DFW Critics’ Forum Award) and nationally recognized (NEA) program dedicated to the cultivation of student playwrights. In 2017 the two organizations forged a new partnership with the Dallas Independent School District called D-PAC. By leveraging organizational assets, this new partnership has allowed for greatly expanded services and additional performance opportunities. Initial expansion focused on expanding opportunities in lower income communities and for at-risk student populations. D-PAC now provides services to twenty DISD high school. D-PAC activities include three interrelated components.

In-school masterclasses include three sessions per school and are led by local professional playwrights. In addition, there are several city-wide masterclasses held at area libraries. The instruction allows for a deeper, richer understanding of dramatic texts and provides opportunities for literacy development through the application of creative and analytical thinking skills.

The D-PAC Festival is a districtwide competition of fifteen-minute plays written, directed, and performed by students. Many of these plays come out of the in-school master classes and each school selects which script to produce. Over six hundred student playwrights, directors, actors, designers and technicians receive feedback from professional artists working in these areas.

PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, which is part of Kitchen Dog Theater’s annual New Works Festival (NWF) in June, features six staged readings of jury-selected scripts by students. Theater professionals lead acting classes, mentor student playwrights and direct student actors during the week-long rehearsal process leading up to the performances. A vital NWF component, PUP Fest has become an eagerly anticipated event, playing to near capacity crowds. Each year, the winning plays are featured in a professionally designed and printed anthology.

One of the great success stories from PUP Fest, Sarah Einspanier is a recent alumni of Ars Nova’s Play Group, whose past members include Annie Baker and Lin-Manuela Miranda, and Cherry Lane Theatre’s Obie Award-winning Mentor Project, one of the nation’s most respected play development programs. In the Cherry Lane program, Sarah received on-going, one-on-one mentoring from Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, Oliver Award winner Katori Hall, and Sheila Callaghan, winner of the prestigious Whiting Award in drama. Sarah participated in the 2007 PUP Fest and credits the program for inspiring her decision to pursue a career as a playwright. “PUP Fest not only opened my eyes to the possibility of a career in the arts, but it also opened my parents’ eyes to the world of theatre. My mother now jokes about how when I first told her about my desire to be involved in theatre, she said, ‘Sarah, in this family, we do sports, not plays!’ However, after witnessing my experience with PUP Fest, a passion for the arts almost as great as mine was ignited in both of my parents. Thank you for being my first supporters, for always taking me and my work seriously, and for helping me realize that playwriting is not only a passion, but also a profession.”

Founded in 1955, Junior Players is the oldest performing arts education nonprofit in North Texas, Kitchen Dog Theater’s annual New Works Festival is the longest running new play festival in the state of Texas, and Dallas Independent School District is the fourteenth-largest school district in the United States. Together, D-PAC is one of the most innovative student playwriting programs in the country and one of the largest in terms of reach, scope, and diversity of activities.

In 2017, Kitchen Dog Theater initiated its groundbreaking Admit:ALL program, which provides 20 free tickets to every performance of every KDT production. Admit:ALL is an extension of the company’s egalitarian mission and seeks to reach communities that have been traditionally underserved by the arts and eliminate real or perceived barriers to participation. In exchange for a ticket that is completely free, patrons are only asked to provide contact information to assist in developing long-term relationships.

For KDT, theater is, by definition, a place of community – a vibrant dialogue between the artists and the audience that is crucial to our humanity. As such, KDT believes that theater should look and feel like the community it serves and that its audience should reflect the diversity of the Dallas community. KDT has a long history of presenting challenging, provocative, and diverse plays with diverging points of view. By increasing accessibility and diversifying audiences, Admit:ALL will hopefully allow for meaningful conversations between communities. Kitchen Dog believes that art shouldn't be a luxury, but rather is an essential part of the human experience.

Based on extensive research and site visits to other theaters, KDT utilizes a grassroots outreach approach to marketing its free ticketing program in historically underserved communities, particularly those without the financial means to access the arts. KDT’s Manager of Literary and Community Initiatives works to identify and build relationships with community advocates and community leaders and forge partnerships with community organizations. KDT also reaches out to engage area bloggers and community groups focused on issues relevant to specific productions with invitations and tickets. In addition, KDT partners with area nonprofits focused on social change issues related to the content of specific productions with fundraising performance events.

KDT is focusing its efforts in high density, lower income communities in closest proximity to the Trinity River Arts Center (TRAC) – West Dallas, northern Oak Cliff, and just south of downtown. Many of the zip codes in these target areas do not appear in the top 100 communities served by the performing arts, according to TRG's North Texas Cultural Co-op statistics. Through Admit: All, KDT seeks to lead the way for dynamic change in engaging these underserved audiences.

Last fall, KDT merged its existing Admit:ALL program with the city’s new Culture Pass program, resulting in a dramatic increase in utilization of available free tickets. The Culture Pass program went live mid-way through the run of QUEEN OF BASEL and KDT saw an 82% increase in average per show utilization. In February, KDT’s production of ALABASTER saw a 173% increase in utilization. In the three years since the rollout of Admit:ALL, KDT has provided over 850 free Admit:ALL tickets, valued at approximately $21,500, to Dallas audiences. KDT captures contact information for 89% of users and, of those, 57% were first time KDT patrons.