In 2014, internationally renowned playwright Suzan-Lori Parks began her much-discussed “Watch Me Work,” an occasional performance on Monday evenings in which audiences can quite literally watch Parks working on her newest writing projects on the mezzanine of the Public Theater in New York.

When Tony®-Award-nominated director and choreographer Dan Knechtges took the helm of one of Houston’s oldest and largest theater companies, Theatre Under the Stars, he knew the artistic director title might require steering the organization through some stormy times, but he likely wasn’t ready for a real hurricane.