{"id":319936,"date":"2025-10-21T01:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319936\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:16:14","slug":"forest-theater-transforms-to-revitalize-south-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319936\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Theater transforms to revitalize South Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DALLAS \u2014 Past the bricks and beams, transformation breathes life into a known historic building.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was the original fa\u00e7ade of the building,\u201d said Nijeul X. He joined Forest Theater as the new Executive and Artistic Director in October, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re entering the historic lobby, which every time I come in this space, it\u2019s very ceremonious,\u201d said X as he gave WFAA a tour of the construction alongside Elizabeth Wattley, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forestforward.org\/what-we-do\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Forest Forward<\/a> President and CEO.<\/p>\n<p>The Forest Theater in South Dallas is historic welcoming countless artists in its 76 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something to really think about who walked these halls before and what the opportunity we\u2019re getting ready to create for other artists, community members, families to walk the halls in the future,\u201d said X.<\/p>\n<p>He and Wattley shared the vision of what is soon to come. \u201cWhat I am hoping will happen for artists here is activation of economics, business opportunity, employment opportunity,\u201d said Wattley.<\/p>\n<p>The building will include a concert hall, creative laboratory, roof deck and studio theater.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s to have the feeling of South Dallas,\u201d said Wattley. \u201cIt\u2019s very detailed down to the music, to what you&#8217;re smelling, and that&#8217;s important to craft that nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s even been a point to reconnect. They tore down the former US Hwy 175 that destroyed over 1,400 during segregation and made it a boulevard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big piece on how it\u2019s starting to suture the neighborhood back together and reverse some of that economic impact,\u201d said Wattley.<\/p>\n<p>She says the boulevard slows down traffic, allows pedestrians to safely cross and brings more access to the theater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m hoping we&#8217;re able to cultivate the next Erykah Badu, the next BB King right here in South Dallas because they are here and they need a place and a space to build themselves,\u201d said X. \u201cCulture is our greatest export.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forest Theater is expected to have its grand reopening in November 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Past the bricks and beams, transformation breathes life into a known historic building. \u201cThis was the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":319937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-319936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115409518049399416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}