After an unprecedented 2023, where it grew and thrived in the face of post-pandemic uncertainty, Stage West is continuing to flourish. But the Fort Worth theater is always careful to remember its purpose.
Artistic director Dana Schultes is so committed to building her audience that she even opened up Stage West’s building, which houses two performance spaces, to long-running improv comedy troupe Four Day Weekend, which just ended its 27-year relationship with Sundance Square.
“When we learned Four Day Weekend was losing its downtown space, the only response was ‘come over here.’ Simply put: A thriving arts scene makes Fort Worth better,” Schultes said in a release. “It was a no-brainer on our part to extend a helping hand to a fellow Fort Worth arts institution.”
Satisfyingly running Oct. 17-Nov. 3, 2024, is Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the play follows high-schooler Heidi, who put herself through college by winning debates about the Constitution. Now an adult, she traces the generational impact America’s founding document has had on her life.
“I have always been a little obsessed with the Constitution and 1776, so this script spoke to me in its examination of that document through the lens of today,” says Schultes. “We put it right before the election to provoke civic engagement, to remind people that this democracy is ours, and make them stop and ask, ‘what does that mean to everyone?’”
No matter the results of the presidential election in November, everyone will need a good laugh. That is why Stage West is bringing back its wildly popular silly slapstick farce of a murder mystery The Play That Goes Wrong, a co-production with WaterTower Theatre in Addison.
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The cast of the Stage West 23/24 production of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear. Part two of the Holmes trilogy, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Soufflé, runs June 12-29, 2025. Photo by Jesse Scroggins.
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Stage West presents The Play That Goes Wrong, a co-production with WaterTower Theatre, Dec. 31-Jan. 12, 2025. Photo by Evan Michael Woods.
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Heidi Schrek, playwright of What the Constitution Means to Me, which opens Stage West’s 46 season, Oct. 17-Nov. 3, 2024. Photo by Zak DeZon.
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Eboni Booth, 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Primary Trust, which runs Jan. 30–Feb. 16, 2025 in a co-production with Dallas Theater Center. Photo by Lauren Crothers.
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John Cameron Mitchell, playwright of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which runs March 13-30, 2025. Photo by Matthew Placek.
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James Ijames, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Fat Ham, which runs Aug. 28-Sept. 14, 2025. Photo by Justin DeWalt.
Another co-production opens the New Year: Primary Trust by Eboni Booth, done in partnership with Dallas Theater Center. The Pulitzer Prize-winning ensemble piece is intimate and feels innately small-town America, but it is “unexpected in the way that a new group of people gets to tell their stories and discover themselves in a human way, without a filter,” says Schultes. It’s Stage West’s first co-pro with DTC, and Schultes and Storms see this pairing with a LORT theater as a big step toward more national exposure.
It’s been more than two decades since Kitchen Dog Theater’s regional premiere, and nearly a decade since Uptown Players’ memorable production, of John Cameron Mitchell’s groundbreaking musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Stage West reckons it’s time for “a reminder to be kind to one another.” Schultes reveals she was pursuing a different show altogether when she had the vision to produce this rock musical about a trans East German performer whose sex reassignment surgery goes awry.
“This is a show about somebody who has a very singular story and has felt very isolated and alone,” says Schultes. “They had to claw their way through life, with no one else like them; it’s a story of transformation and becoming, a cult classic musical but with a message that is very universal. You can identify with the humanity even if you don’t identify with Hedwig.” It runs March 13-30, 2025.
Closing out the season is James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award-nominated Fat Ham. The Southern remix of Shakespeare’s Hamlet transports the melancholy prince to a backyard barbecue, where the queer Black man must break the cycle of violence. It runs Aug. 28-Sept. 14, 2025.
“This season became title after title, with a capital ‘T,’ in a way we didn’t quite expect, and being able to end with this, the show that has taken the nation right now, is incredible,” says Schultes. “We have done a lot of adaptations of classics in our recent programming, and this fits right into that. It really showcases some of the talent in our area in a way that some of them have not been able to showcase themselves before.”
Stage West is so committed to fostering local talent that its Design Apprenticeship Program is back for another year. It gives the theater-makers of tomorrow the skills, professional mentorship, and networking necessary to land costume, scenic, and stage management jobs in the future.
The theater’s First Tuesdays are yet another way Stage West connects with its community. Schultes calls these offbeat events “a low-investment way to pay attention to the world, whether it’s through live music, painting, tarot card reading, or even fencing. No matter what that month’s event is, you can trust that it’s going to be interesting. And life is, if nothing else, about interesting experiences.”
—LINDSEY WILSON
