Photography by Lauren Allen.
The Dallas Children’s Theater celebrated its 40th season last year, a milestone for one of the largest family theaters in the U.S.
It also marked the first season under the leadership of Executive Director Samantha Turner. With an early career background in Fortune 500 marketing and recent experience leading Ballet Arizona, Turner brings a versatile, savvy approach to an institution navigating the harsh realities of the post-COVID performing arts environment.
“These are challenging times for performing arts organizations,” she says. “So, how do we continue to survive and thrive in what has now become a world that’s more expensive — with all sorts of other entertainment options — with changes in what and how people experience the world and entertainment?”
According to a 2024 Southern Methodist University DataArts study, based on data from 233 arts organizations around the U.S., large arts organizations- — a category that the DCT falls under due to its 3.5 million dollar operating budget — have seen an average 43% decline in attendance since 2019.
“Ten, 15 years ago, people didn’t stay home and watch Netflix as an option, or didn’t feel that was as good of an option as something else,” Turner says. “So [we’re] thinking about what our place is in the future of this community. And this summer, we went through a visioning process to think about what it is that we want to be in? You know, we’ve called it Vision 2030.”
A vision for the future will be critical for the DCT as it enters a period of change and evolution. Artistic director Artie Olaisen, a fixture of the theater’s productions for over 30 years, will retire this season. Olaisen joins DCT co-founder, Robyn Flatt, in retirement. Flatt retired at the end of the 2022-23 season after close to four decades at the helm, leaving Turner to carry on her legacy.
$500
Flatt comes from an artistic pedigree. Her father, local arts legend Paul Baker, founded The Dallas Theater Center and was the first Director of Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She studied fine arts at Baylor University and returned to Dallas as a resident company member at the Theater Center, where she remained for 20 years.
After leaving in the early ’80s, she went on the road with a troupe of actors from the Center and staged free performances at public parks around Dallas.
The audiences were diverse and multi-generational, and the performances were well-received, she says. Flatt began thinking about starting a fully-fledged theater company with performances geared towards children. Shortly after, she launched the Dallas Children’s Theater with $500 scraped together from the donations to the troupe.
“It was insane. What was I thinking?,” she says. “I wouldn’t let my own daughter be a major employee. I mean, she worked some for us, and she was great, but I was terrified that we couldn’t make it, and then my daughter would be starving too. I thought, well, it’s enough for one of us to starve. But it was insane. I didn’t have any money.”
She’d been surrounded by professional acting for much of her life, and the product she set out to create wasn’t going to be junior-level, even if her audience was.
“The kids need quality,” Flatt says. “They need something that’s really challenging and inspiring to them.”
The theater’s earliest activities, performances at El Centro College and academy classes for local youth, were funded by timely donations by the Meadows and Clark Foundations.
The DCT originally performed at Withers Elementary School along with El Centro. As the company grew, performances were moved to the Crescent Theater, although occasional performances were staged at the community college well into the 2000s.
The company moved into its current home, the 58,000-square-feet Rosewood Center, in 2003. The space boasts two theaters with a combined capacity of 650, four classrooms, offices, production space and a reception area.
Throughout Flatt’s tenure, the DCT put on classic family productions like James and the Giant Peach, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,and A Charlie Brown Christmas. But some of the performances she’s most proud of are the ones that tackled difficult issues, like To Kill a Mockingbird. Notable topics have included bullying, divorce and self-harm.
“Where in the world are they going to talk about them if we don’t bring those topics up and expose them in a way that is safe,” Flatt says.
She originally planned to step down before COVID, but when the pandemic hit, she felt she could not leave during such an uncertain time. In 2022, she announced that she would retire following the conclusion of the 2023 season. She says she has every confidence in Turner.
Today
The Dallas Children’s Theater annually performs for an audience of 150,000 North Texas children and their families through five annual productions and in-school residencies.
Many people can be understandably confused by the name, Turner says.
“We are a professional theater company, so it’s professionals and adults on the stage,” she says. “Many people think it’s kids on the stage.”
Shows at the theater are geared toward various age levels and interests. Performances like this year’s production of Pete the Cat recreate toddler storytime favorites on the big stage, while shows like Grace for President tackle timely issues for a 6-year-old and above audience.
Set of Grace for President.
Accessibility has become a fixture of DCT shows in recent years. Productions typically include one sensory-friendly performance with lights dimmed and sound effects softened. The theater also provides 10,000 free or reduced-cost tickets to families each year.
“The kids will come in and you hear them say, ‘Wow, this place is really cool.’ They’ve never been anywhere like it,” Turner says. “And what’s even more astounding is, when they walk out, their eyes are so big.”
The emphasis of inclusivity extends to the theater’s academy classes. The Blue Pegasus Players classes, of which Turner says she is very proud of, are specially designed for children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities.
“We just give them a little bit more support, more people in the room to help them.” she says. “And those are students who have anything from a sensory issue, or we’ve had students who have some physical challenges, students who have visual or auditory issues, and we just have to make sure we have people in the room who can help them have the theater experience too.”
Turner says the theater hosts over 2,000 children a year for its academy classes, which range from basic acting to more advanced disciplines. The theater also boasts a musical conservatory for the training of actors in musical theater.
The children in academy classes don’t perform for audiences, only their families. That’s okay, Turner says, they’ve got simpler goals in mind.
“Our academy is not about creating actors who are going to star on Broadway,” she says. “It is about instilling in children the benefits of what happens with the theater experience, collaboration, confidence, understanding others and empathy.”
Turner also said she’s proud to be one of the two largest employers of actors in the Dallas area, along with the Theater Center.
Despite its often competitive relationship with the theater, technology has been used to elevate DCT performances. Its production department has begun incorporating digital lighting, visual effects and 3D-printed masks into shows, creating a more immersive experience for the audience.
“I want to see us making sure that we continue to use technology to its fullest so that it allows people to have the best possible experience,” Turner says.
The Dallas Children’s Theater’s next scheduled show is A Charlie Brown Christmas, premiering later this month.
Stage Light vs. Blue Light
COVID may have contributed to the fall in performance attendances around the country, but Turner knows what the real enemy is: screens.
“We have really come to realize that our job is to de-emphasize the blue light and emphasize the stage light in kids’ minds, because there’s so much evidence now of the the the disservice we’ve done kids in allowing them to have a childhood that’s based on a phone instead of based on interacting with others and experiencing the world,” she says.
Turner says that theater gives children an opportunity to have a visceral experience which ignites creativity and imagination.
“I think we are going to play a more and more important role in helping kids get back to being kids and having childhoods that are play oriented and experimentation oriented, and helping them move away from that phone,” she says.
While she didn’t reveal specifics about the theater’s Vision 2030 plan, it’s clear Turner sees a place for the Dallas Children’s Theater in the future of the Dallas arts community.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the findings of the SMU DataArts Study.
