For an award-winning arts school that has produced more than its share of Broadway stars, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts has somehow managed to be one of the few high schools in Dallas-Fort Worth that doesn’t produce musicals. Until now.
As previously announced, the school is producing Hair in a first-time collaboration with Dallas Theater Center, under the direction of DTC’s artistic director Kevin Moriarty. Now the date, Sept. 17-26, is swiftly approaching. DTC’s Lindy Davis serves as musical director and LaQuet Sharnell Pringle as choreographer for the 1968 musical about hippie counterculture and its protests about war, pollution, repression and discrimination. “Aquarius” and “Good Morning Sunshine” are among the show’s famous songs by Galt MacDermot and book and lyric writers James Rado and Gerome Ragni.
The performances will be Fridays through Sundays with pre-show “happenings” a half hour before each show.
The collaboration continues a strong relationship between DTC and the school. Moriarty and Christie Vela, a member of DTC’s resident acting company, have helped teach a DTC/BTWHSPVA Acting Lab and students have had internships with DTC as well as other area theaters, including Shakespeare Dallas, Big Thought, Theatre Three and Dallas Children’s Theater.
Built in 1922, the school was designated an arts magnet in the Dallas Independent School District in 1976. It focuses on dance, music, theater and visual arts as well as academics; Grammy Award winners Norah Jones, Roy Hargrove and Erykah Badu are among its graduates. Six alumni that have performed recently on Broadway are Alysha Deslorieux, Dylis Croman, C.K. Edwards, Britton Smith, Brian Gonzales and Cedric Neal.
Plan your life Sept. 17-26 at Montgomery Arts Theater, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, 2501 Flora Street, Dallas. $ 10-$ 25. 214-880-0202. ticketdfw.com.
