AT&T Performing Arts Center Announces the 2025/2026 Season of the Elevator Project

This season will mark 11 years of The Elevator Project proudly presenting exciting and ambitious new works by small and emerging Dallas arts groups

(DALLAS) – 

The nonprofit, AT&T Performing Arts Center, is pleased to announce the 2025/2026 season of The Elevator Project, featuring nine productions including six first-time participants and three returning companies. This diverse 11^th season includes a mix of artistic styles, including different genres of dance, theater and music.

“For eleven years, The Elevator Project has not only provided a much-needed home for some of Dallas’ most exciting artists but also a platform that truly amplifies these untold stories and voices that otherwise may not have been heard,” says Kitchen Dog Theater Co-Artistic Director Tina Parker. “It was an honor to serve on this panel with my esteemed colleagues. I can’t wait to see all of these dynamic projects come to life!”

Since 2014, this singular initiative has featured the work of small, emerging and historically marginalized arts groups performing on the Center’s stages. The selected participants receive a myriad of support including venue access, production assistance, marketing, and other resources to help bring their artistic visions to life.

Selection Process:

Elevator Project participants are chosen through a two-tier, peer-review process. The first tier is the five-member Advisory Review Panel. Their selections are then reviewed by the Executive Review Committee.

Advisory Review Panel:

• John Batchelder – Dallas Chamber Music Society, Executive Director, Viola
• Joel Olivas – Amuze Studio, Owner, Immersive Multi-media Producer, co-founder of mixtamotus
• Tina Parker – Kitchen Dog Theater, Co-Artistic Director/Company Manager, Actor, Director, Producer
• Cherish Love Robinson – The Vocal Store, Owner, Singer, Composer, Vocal Coach, Music Director, Actor
• Cole Vernon – Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, Company Dancer, Choreographer, Dance Instructor

Executive Review Committee:

• Martine Elyse Phillipe – City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture, Director
• David Small – City of Dallas Arts and Culture Advisory Commission, Chair,
• Warren Tranquada – AT&T Performing Arts Center, President & CEO

Selected artists and organizations:

Shakti Collective

Pegasus Theatre

Mr. PIXIE

Mac Welch

The Flame Foundation

Sam Cormier

Over the Bridge Arts

Baba Kuboye

Bandan Koro African Drum and Dance Ensemble

The 2025/2026 season of the Elevator Project will be staged in several venues on the Center’s campus. Dates and venues will be announced at a later date. The Center presents the innovative Elevator Project with support from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Eugene McDermott Foundation, the Theodore and Beulah Beasley Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

2025/2026 SEASON of THE ELEVATOR PROJECT

*Dates and venues for the 2025/2026 season of The Elevator Project will be announced at a later date.

Shakti Collective

Shades of Women in Love

Shades of Women in Love discovers the timeless power of love through the lens of feminist poets and ancient texts. From Maya Angelou to NatyaShastra’s AshtaNayikas, explore the emotional states of women in love. Understand how these archetypes connect to modern-day experiences, highlighting themes of love, longing, and empowerment. Dive into the rich tapestry of women’s emotions and see how love defines strength and resilience across ages.

Pegasus Theatre

MacMurder!

MacMurder! is a world premiere production of an original comedy-murder mystery that captures the look and feel of an old Hollywood movie from the 1930s and 1940s. The script will feature three crime-fighting characters: Harry Hunsacker (an inept but endearing private detective), Nigel Grouse (Harry’s paid-by-the-hour assistant), and Lt. Foster of the real police (a regular guy who is constantly driven crazy by Harry’s hare-brained ideas). They encounter a host of eccentric characters and are soon faced with a “whodunnit”. One of the characters has been bumped off and others are at risk, unless Harry, Nigel, and Lt. Foster can decipher the clues, catch the bad guys (or gals), and see that justice is served.

Mr. PIXIE

Selfie-Conscious

Selfie-Conscious is an interactive theater production in which a host, Mr. PIXIE, guides the audience in creating an avatar for his new social network platform, “Selfie Conscious”. This is achieved by taking pictures of 4 different volunteers and compiling those into a kind of Frankenstein’s monster collage. Throughout the show the audience is also guided through “selfie exercises” in which they converse with themselves in comic and poignant ways.

By incorporating our ever-present phones into the show, Selfie-Conscious seeks to create a space for audiences to examine how they use social media, as well as how they view themselves in digital spaces. By facilitating this unique dialogue and also using the audience to create a collective avatar (or “creature”), the show invites contemplation on the intersection between digital platforms and real-life interactions.

Mac Welch

Lungs by Duncan Macmillan

“Ten thousand tons of CO2. That’s the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I’d be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower.”

This humorous remark captures the tone of Lungs, Duncan Macmillan’s striking yet occasionally frustrating play. “Lungs changed my life. It made me realize that the scary part is not living my life and focusing on my day-to-day, but lacking awareness. I have more impact on the world surrounding me than I realize. And why can’t there be beauty in the immense impact we have on individuals, not just the impact we have on the world.” – Mac Welsh, Director

The Flame Foundation

Macho Flamenco: Boys Don’t Dance

Macho Flamenco: Boys Don’t Dance brings forth the blend of flamenco styles from traditional expected male and female dances to contemporary styles that have paved a way so that Flamenco as an art form breaks tabooed overarching perimeters.

Sam Cormier

Remember Me

Remember Me is an immersive soundscape performance that blends original music, photography, and theater performance from queer, Dallas artists. The performance will explore the unique and shared experiences of three queer artists, exploring their relationships with family and their personal experience growing up as a queer person in Texas.

Over the Bridge Arts

NEXT

In a world that was constantly moving, blinking, beeping, talking and droning, the noises came to a stop. Downtown streets were quiet and top tourist destinations deserted. The skies brightened to their original blues, the air cleared, and animals crept out from their hiding places to roam the streets. It was 2020, and the human race was facing a global pandemic with outcomes unknown.  Shock. Panic. Fear. What was really going on? Some wondered: What’s NEXT?  Five years later, what has changed? What words and phrases have become so common we’ve forgotten they were ever new? How did technology jump into the void and alter the way we connect and communicate – or don’t? How many precious relationships have we lost, and how many gained? How have our expectations around “work” and “play” and “dating” changed, and where are the boundaries?

Baba Kuboye

Summer Heats and Afrobeats

Summer Heats and Afrobeats is a journey through Afrobeat from its inception to the present day. The music presented will include the original compositions of Fela Kuti, – the founder of Afrobeat.   The music will also include covers of top 40 afrobeat hits as well as original music from Baba Kuboye. Hence the journey is the origination, the current situation and the future of Afrobeat.

Bandan Koro African Drum and Dance Ensemble

Wakati Wa Mavuno

Wakati Wa Mavuno is a signature, interactive experience exploring one’s cultural identity guided by the music and dance of Sub-Saharan Africa. This cultivating journey presents the idea that through reflection you can learn that the power to manifest a plentiful harvest for your life lies within you.

The 2025/2026 season of The Elevator Project will be staged in several venues on the Center’s campus. Dates, venues and showtimes will be announced at a later date, with initial shows starting in September 2025. Ticket prices are $29.50 for all shows, with reduced-priced parking for Elevator Project patrons when buying tickets online.

Note: Downloadable photos of past seasons are available at www.attpac.org/media