Right off Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in South Dallas, Elizabeth Wattley and I stand in front of the bones of what will soon be a revamped Forest Theater. She speaks with the vivid urgency of someone who has already seen what’s ahead—and can’t help but color it in for me: a 66,000-square-foot venue with two performance halls, a 13,000-square-foot STEAM education hub, a rooftop terrace, a BIPOC-owned coffee shop, and movement and recording studios.
Amid the rumble of cement trucks and the whirl of machinery, the theater—once a South Dallas landmark that welcomed legends like Prince, Vanilla Ice, Erykah Badu, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, B.B. King, and Dave Chappelle—now stands as a symbol. A symbol that what was once old can be made new. And what is renewed can make a lasting impact.
Someone honks a horn and shouts from an idling car while waiting for a traffic light to turn green. “Hurry up and open! I’m ready to come see a show!”…