{"id":474200,"date":"2026-10-23T05:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474200\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T05:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:26:26","slug":"two-north-texas-plays-present-historic-true-stories-imaginatively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474200\/","title":{"rendered":"Two North Texas plays present historic, true stories imaginatively"},"content":{"rendered":"

On one stage, a 1,000-gallon swimming pool\u00a0stands\u00a0in for Iran<\/a> as it\u2019s about to suffer a Western-backed coup. On the other, Blake Hackler\u00a0performs 35 to 40 roles, centrally a German transgender antiquarian who survived the Nazi and Soviet regimes. Based on true stories, they prove that plays can present history imaginatively.<\/p>\n

Produced by Amphibian Stage, \u201cAjax\u201d is billed as a noir comedy set in a North Tehran villa where an American CIA operative (Carson Wright) puts in motion the overthrow of the country\u2019s first democratically elected prime minister and the reinstallation of the Shah (David Mattar Merten). The pool is given voice by an actor (Jovane Caama\u00f1o).<\/p>\n

Playwright Habib Yazdi\u2019s satirical approach to the events of August 1953 that followed the prime minister\u2019s nationalization of the British-owned oil industry includes telling the story from the point of view of the villa\u2019s pool boy (Shayan Hooshmand), who strikes up a friendship with the American spy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pool isn\u2019t just scenery, it\u2019s a character and a witness,\u201d says scenic designer Leah Mazur. \u201cIt is present for the history unfolding around it, responding to everybody who enters it and every disturbance of its surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Theatre Three\u2019s production of Dallas native Doug Wright\u2019s Pulitzer and Tony winning solo show \u201cI Am My Own Wife\u201d follows the harrowing adventures of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transgender woman who successfully navigated some of the most turbulent chapters in German history \u2014 sometimes by accommodating the authorities \u2014 while preserving a collection of the country\u2019s antiquities.<\/p>\n

Hackler, theater chair at Southern Methodist University and resident actor at Dallas Theater Center, portrays von Mahlsdorf and a host of other characters, including government officials, reporters and family members. Wright, who got his start acting at Theatre Three, interviewed her as part of his research.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, it’s just a great piece of theater, especially when performed by such an accomplished actor as Blake Hackler,\u201d says Theatre Three artistic director Jeffrey Schmidt. \u201cAdd to that a director like Garret Storms whose attention to detail and refined storytelling are unmatched and you have a thrilling night of live performance.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI Am My Own Wife\u201d through Nov. 1 at 2688 Laclede St., Dallas. $37-$40. theatre3dallas.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On one stage, a 1,000-gallon swimming pool\u00a0stands\u00a0in for Iran as it\u2019s about to suffer a Western-backed coup. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,93542,87998,89868,88643,92692],"class_list":["post-474200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-tp-performing-arts","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-theater-center","tag-tp-fort-worth","tag-tp-theatre-three"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}