Writer-director Matthew Posey is pictured during a rehearsal of the flamenco-inspired production of Picasso: Matador de M‡laga, at the Ochre House Theater on Exposition Avenue in Dallas, photographed on Monday, June 4, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer
Matthew Posey, the renowned Dallas actor and director who founded Ochre House Theater and spearheaded its self-described “Suavant-Garde” style, has died at 68.
Posey died Friday, the theater confirmed in an obituary posted online for its founder.
“He was a unique and unforgettable person whose humor, creativity, stories, and larger-than-life personality made an impression on everyone who knew him,” the theater said in the obituary. No cause of death was disclosed.
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Posey founded Ochre House Theater in 2008. He made Ochre unique by promising what he and his company called “Suavant-Garde” style: A mix of out-there, surrealist and experimental performances with a sophisticated charm.
Posey hosted, wrote and acted in several of the performances inside the quaint, 45-seat storefront theater near Fair Park at 825 Exposition Avenue.
Matthew Posey as Baron Leopold Verdugo in Ochre House Theater’s “Moving Creatures.”
Trent Stephenson
His deep love for the arts emerged at a young age. According to the theater’s post, he interviewed vegetables at 4 years old, and when he was a sophomore at Coronado High School he participated in his school’s play based on American Graffiti. Originally from Houston, Posey’s theater resume stretches throughout Texas and Los Angeles, his obituary said.
He settled in Dallas and created Ochre House Theater as a home for raw original art famous for a “deconstructed, musical-narrative style, incorporating live music, striking visual magic realism and intricate, Bunraku-inspired puppetry,” the obituary said.
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Polly Maynard and Dante Martinez, wearing a puppet head, in a scene from Opera Box, the latest stylistically eclectic show from Ochre House Theater.
Trent Stephenson
Posey’s theater creations didn’t happen overnight. The storyteller kept bound notebooks that held more than a decade of original pieces capturing meaningful topics of discussion that examined the human condition, love, societal ranks, addiction, and domestic and institutionalized violence.
“His work brought him into the lives of many people, both on stage and screen, and his talent and distinctive personality left a lasting impression,” the theater’s post said.
Posey wrote and directed more than 40 critically acclaimed productions, including Moving Creatures, Opera Box, and Kaput: The Show.
His plays also brought international and local artists to the stage using flamenco dance. The theater founder collaborated with the Dallas-based Flame Foundation for several years to create original full-length plays incorporating authentic flamenco.
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Ochre House Theater across the street from Fair Park on Saturday, January 28, 2017 on Exposition Avenue in Dallas.
(Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)
In 2017, Posey survived a shooting in Deep Ellum two minutes from the Ochre House Theater. The shooting caused a brief cancellation of Dr. Bobaganush, a play Posey wrote and directed that was showing at the time.
Posey was struck twice in the parking lot outside Cold Beer Company at 3600 Main St., when he and another person left the bar.
He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Posey leaves behind a rich theatrical footprint in Dallas, Hollywood and independent cinema. According to his obituary, Posey appeared in more than 60 major films and television shows, including roles in HBO’s Love & Death, Oliver Stone’s JFK, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men and the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven.
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He was more than an actor and artist to those close to him. Posey was a beloved partner, brother, uncle, friend, and artistic father figure, his obituary said.
“His presence will be deeply missed, but his stories, his work, his humor, and the memories he gave to those who loved him will remain,” his obituary said.
The theater is planning a celebration of life in honor of Posey. Instead of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Ochre House Theater.