Walter Dallas, a giant of Black theater, has died
In 1992 Dallas left UArts to take over as artistic director of the New Freedom Theatre on North Broad Street after its founder, John E. Allen, Jr, died. During his 15-year tenure, Dallas made the theater an equity house (all-professional) and built its 300-seat auditorium.
“He brought a real professional standard to that theater, a standard that set us apart from other theaters,” said Hobbs.
Dallas created the classic Freedom Theatre production of Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity,” an annual holiday play that became a family tradition for many in Philadelphia. “To see Black Nativity was like seeing The Nutcracker for a while there,” said Hobbs.
Dallas stepped down from Freedom and left Philadelphia for the University of Maryland, where he taught and continued to work nationally as a director for hire, often returning to Philadelphia to helm award-winning plays.
Eventually he resettled back into his hometown of Atlanta. Over his more than a half-century career he worked with James Baldwin, August Wilson, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis and countless others. His last directorial work, “Autumn,” which premiered in Brooklyn at the Billie Holiday Theater in 2016, won six AUDELCO awards.
“Never the need to be the loudest or smartest person in the room. Never did he ever drop a name,” wrote Dr. Indira Etwaroo, artist director of the BHT. “Walter Dallas is one of our true knight errants in the Black Theater, the American theater, righting wrongs and fighting for an ideal of great humanity on and off the stage.”
WURD Radio will feature a tribute to the legacy of Walter Dallas Friday, May 8, at 10a.m. Hosted by Tiffany Bacon and produced by LaNeshe Miller-White, the program will feature Zuhairah McGill, Ozzie Jones, Malika Oyetimein, Lee Edward Colston and other Black theater directors who were directly influenced by Dallas.
