Undermain Theatre History
In the fall of 1983, Katherine Owens and Raphael Parry arrived in Dallas. Both were interested in presenting new and experimental material with an ensemble company in the Deep Ellum area. They began producing together at Stage Number One's Greenville Avenue Theater, in association with Dallas Actor’s Theater, on a triple bill of Action, Killer’s Head and Icarus's Mother by Sam Shepard. In early 1984 they found the vacant basement space of the now historical Interstate Forwarding Company building on 3200 Main Street. By the spring of 1984, they had their first production, Excavations: Killer’s Head, Twirler, Waking Up, in the Main Street space.
Excavations was part of a Gallery Walk event and was presented in a promenade style due to the lack of seating in their basement/theater space. This show was a series of one-acts that both Ms Owens and Mr. Parry directed and performed in. By the end of their first season they were on their way to building their ensemble. In April 1985, Bruce DuBose joined the cast of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay/Won’t Pay, beginning a longtime relationship that would eventually take Mr. DuBose to the position of Executive Producer of Undermain Theatre.
With each season, Undermain continued to thrive and grow. By its third season, the Dallas critics began to take notice and by the end of the 4th season, in the spring of 1987, Undermain flew in playwright John O’Keefe to develop his play, All Night Long. In September of that year Undermain developed a relationship with Jeff Jones while producing Seventy Scenes of Halloween. This friendship proved to be quite advantageous leading to Undermain’s long standing relationships with playwrights Len Jenkin, Mac Wellman, and Eric Ehn and the subsequent productions of Poor Folks Pleasure, Harm’s Way, A Murder of Crows, and The Red Plays, among other shows, establishing Undermain Theatre’s name among the language playwrights in New York City and around the country.
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