In collaboration with Big D Reads’ city-wide reading initiative, Second Thought will present its upcoming production of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over in parallel to Jim Schutze’s The Accommodation.
Previews: July 13th & 14th, 2022
Opening Night: July 15th, 2022
Run: July 30th, 2022
Tickets on Sale Now
Dallas (July, 2022) – Second Thought Theatre is thrilled to announce their second production of the 2022 season–Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu–opening later this month. Harrowing and provocative, Nwandu’s politically charged work will be presented in conjunction with the Big D Reads ‘22 initiative, a community-wide reading program championing Jim Schutze’s incisive 1986 book The Accommodation: The Politics of Race in an American City.
“Pass Over is the biblical tale of our age,” says director Sasha Maya Ada. “Nwandu skillfully and poetically captures the complexities of Blackness in our post 2020 world—a much needed reprieve from the chaos.”
Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy, Pass Over – the first full play to open on Broadway in 2021 after the pandemic-necessitated lockdown – crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young, black men looking for a way out. A sobering reinterpretation of Waiting for Godot, nuanced with elements of the biblical Exodus story, Nwandu’s play is politically charged and necessarily critical in its social reflection.
As a community partner with Big D Reads, Second Thought seeks to correlate the enduring themes of the play with those of Schutze’s powerful novel.
“The Accommodation is an effective device,” says STT Director of Communications Richard Oliver, “for reaching into the dark annals of Dallas’ racial past and pulling out a clearer understanding of how and why we find certain things are the way they are. The synergy between it and Pass Over creates a unique opportunity for Dallasites to reconcile with some ugly, necessary truths and apply those truths globally.”
The Big D Reads project this year, which officially launched in March, includes educational, artistic, and social programming in support of the book’s revival and redistribution throughout the city. The theatrical run of Pass Over will serve as a distribution site for copies of the novel. In addition, representatives of the project will join Second Thought for panels and talk-backs to follow performances on select evenings.
ABOUT BIG D READS THE ACCOMMODATION:
Big D Reads ‘22 is a community-wide reading program modeled on the widely acclaimed community book club created in 2013. Partners will distribute a single title and facilitate roundtables and panels, produce community events, and hold public gatherings. The Accommodation, by Jim Schutze, tells the mid-century history of Dallas, centered on the civic response to the bombing of Black citizens’ homes, and the ongoing housing crisis that traces its roots to the Civil War and Jim Crow. The goal of a city-wide read of Jim Schutze’ The Accommodation — soon to be reissued by Deep Vellum with a new forward written by John Wiley Price — is to advance the understanding of Dallas’ history among students, young professionals, leaders, and residents, while encouraging candid community conversations on how we create a more equitable future for our city.
Organized by volunteers from the Dallas Public Library, Deep Vellum Books, D Magazine Partners, Communities Foundation of Texas, Better Block, City of Dallas Office of Equity and Inclusion, and Dallas Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation — along with the business community’s support — Big D Reads will fund the printing of 25,000 paperback copies that will be distributed to Dallas community members for free for a September 2022 city-wide read. The program will have activation guides for schools and universities, cultural institutions, nonprofit partners, and more. This is a movement to unite the city in this critical time in the hope that these conversations, events, and programs will serve as launching points that lead to a more equitable future for all communities in Dallas.
To learn more about STT’s 2022 season subscriptions tickets to PASS OVER, please visit the ATTEND page here.
To learn more about the Big D Reads initiative, check out their webpage here.