Mesquite Community Theatre – Mesquite, Texas
Mesquite Arts Theatre strives to provide live theatrical entertainment to the eastern Dallas County region that is a cut above traditional community theater fare. To this end, MCT will engage with the community served and will work diligently to attract the best talent, producing a rich blend of entertaining, challenging, and, occasionally, thought-provoking work.
Mesquite Community Theatre strives to provide live theatrical entertainment to the eastern Dallas County region that is a cut above traditional community theater fare. To this end, MCT will engage with the community served and will work diligently to attract the best talent, producing a rich blend of entertaining, challenging, and, occasionally, thought-provoking work.
History
In the fall of 1983, Steve and Tricia Crawley put a notice in the Mesquite newspaper inviting any interested persons to a meeting at their home to start a community theater in Mesquite. Approximately six people came that first night, including a friend or two of the Crawleys.
Tricia Crawley provided the artistic leadership of the fledgling group, being our resident actress, and Steve marshaled the other members to raise funds, find rehearsal and performance space, and get the word out that Mesquite now had a community theater. They also made flats, scrounged props and costumes, recruited directors and actors, and tried even harder to raise money. The bylaws to make Mesquite Community Theater a non-profit corporation were signed on Jan. 24, 1984.
The first rehearsal space was the fellowship hall of a local church. The first two shows were performed at Mesquite High School (some of us still remember the flying cockroaches backstage). Eat Your Heart Out was performed with the curtain as the backdrop, and chairs, tables, different colored tablecloths represented the various restaurant settings. The second show, Bell, Book, and Candle, had the first flats MAT built as the backdrop. After that, MAT was performed in various churches for some time.
This meant the set had to be built every Thursday night and torn down after the performance on Saturday night. There was a nightmare of an old light board that worked sometimes and lights on two opposing poles that resulted in maddening shadows on stage. We performed wonderful plays such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.
In those days, as it is now, it was thought important to have an audience for dress rehearsals, so Senior Centers members were invited free of charge. These were sometimes the biggest audiences of the run. Today, we continue the tradition of inviting senior citizens from assisted living facilities to our preview performances.
Enjoy a night at the theatre, and see some truly talented amateur actors on the stage at the Mesquite Community Theatre. First formed in 1983, this non-profit is located within the same building as the Mesquite Arts Center. Past plays have included Little Shop of Horrors, Always a Bridesmaid, Once Upon a Mattress, and more.