Every time Amanda Reyes goes on stage for a live theater performance in Fort Worth, she feels empowered.
The Fort Worth actress has starred in nearly 10 local productions since formally launching her theater career in 2021. Each show is a reminder that not only is she living a childhood dream, but she’s doing it in a city she loves.
Reyes is one of several locally based stage actors who chose to stay in Panther City to grow their careers instead of going to the traditional theater meccas of New York City and Chicago.
These creatives express how the unique opportunities and challenges in Fort Worth along with a tight-knit community of artists make it the perfect place to prosper.
“Fort Worth has an incredible pool of creatives and actors. It’s just insane,” Reyes said. “I realized how much my skills and how much I had experienced could be a contribution to the community. We need advocacy here. We need the talent here.”
Venues provide diverse opportunities
Fort Worth’s live theater scene has experienced several periods of growth and development, dating to the prominent theaters of the early 1900s, such as the Palace, Worth and Hollywood in downtown. The venues hosted live performances, operas and plays, before transitioning to screening movies.
The opening of Casa Mañana in 1958 brought Broadway musicals and live theater performances to what is now the Cultural District. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the diversity of performing arts venues grew with spaces like Stage West Theatre, Jubilee Theatre and Circle Theatre. Other performing arts venues, including Amphibian Stage, leaped up in the early 2000s.
Reyes said each theater in the city has its “own niche,” giving actors a variety of production types to choose from. Jubilee Theatre, located in Sundance Square, highlights the Black American experience, Hip Pocket Theatre in far west Fort Worth focuses on experimental shows in a rustic, outdoor setting while Near Southside’s black box theater Amphibian features sometimes contemporary plays and even comics.
North Texas theater actress Debbie Brown, who has performed locally at Casa Mañana since the 1980s, including as Mrs. Claus in the world premiere of “Santa Claus: A New Musical,” echoed Reyes’ sentiment, adding there are “many more opportunities” than when she began acting.
“From traditional companies to those doing brand-new works, readings, cabarets, there are endless chances to hone one’s skills, in whatever medium you want to pursue,” she said via email.
In addition to the East Coast and New York City being very expensive places to live, Brown described them as having an “overblown population of aspiring actors.”
“Too many performers, not enough shows to accommodate them,” she said. “I know many young performers who have gone to NYC or LA and not gotten to actually work at their craft onstage for months and even years.”
Joe Brown, chair of theater at Texas Wesleyan University, has watched the live theater community evolve in Tarrant County for nearly 50 years. He said a supportive theater community makes Fort Worth appealing to area talent.
“Like a small town, (theaters) support each other in sharing talent resources and sharing places to find props and designer resources,” he said. “Dallas is not quite as supportive of other theaters within their territory of square miles.”
The small Fort Worth community also creates a tighter bond between the local theatrical performers, Reyes said.
“If you’re an actor, you’re also a dramaturge, you’re also studying, you’re also going to see other shows and support your friends,” she said. “Everyone has each other’s back.”
Amanda Reyes starred as the only cast member of “Destroying David” at Circle Theatre in February 2025. The show told the story of an art restorer who takes a group of people on a private tour of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, with the intention of destroying Michelangelo’s David statue. (Courtesy photo | Taylor Staniforth)
Advocating to keep creativity alive
Even with the diverse opportunities, it isn’t always easy for performers to pursue their careers full time, Reyes said. Several actors have to work in traditional jobs to be able to dedicate time on the weekends for productions.
“I have to pay the bills to get my passion out. I’m constantly working when I’m in a show,” Reyes said.
Fort Worth actress Christina Cranshaw, who starred in “Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook” at Casa Mañana in 2023 and “Arcadia Darling” at Hip Pocket in 2019, frequently advocates for livable wages for performers.
Christina Cranshaw, left, rehearses at Hip Pocket Theatre for its production of “Pinocchio Commedia.” (Courtesy photo | Christina Cranshaw)
“There needs to be enough to have artists not have to be in hustle mode, but to allow them to breathe and take a break when necessary,” she said. “That’s when creativity dies, when you’re just constantly in survival mode.”
A decrease in the number of people attending live theater performances since the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for some actors to thrive, Cranshaw said.
In 2017, about 9.4% of American adults attended a nonmusical stage play. Attendance dropped 52% in 2022, according to surveys by the National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Census Bureau.
“A lot of theater companies have had to resort to having smaller casts and smaller production values in order to compensate and really save money,” Cranshaw said.
Reyes hopes to see local performing arts venues continue to advocate for their talent and push more people to fill in seats.
She’s optimistic that those who choose to experience a live production for the first time will have their lives changed forever — the same way the art form changed hers all those years ago.
“Theater provokes empathy. It literally changes our brain chemistry and stirs the soul,” she said. “There is theater out there that is accessible, and it’s going to give you something that no screen can.”
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
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