This program will serve students from ages 17-22 who are interested in developing their skills in stage management, lighting design, costume design and a newly added puppetry design track. Each mentee will receive hands-on training from Fort Worth industry professionals on a mainstage show during Hip Pocket’s much awaited 50th Season, as well as a stipend for their work.

APPLICATION TIMELINE: 

• Application Open: January 24, 2026
• Application Closed: February 14, 2026
• Initial Interviews:  between February 15-28, 2026 based on student availability
• Decisions by: March 6th, 2026

TRACKS OFFERED

Stage Management – Gianina Lamberti-Stanfield (Mentor)

• Will shadow Gianina as Stage Manager throughout the entire rehearsal process and work as Assistant Stage Manager for a mainstage show.
• As ASM, they will be included in all rehearsal/show policies, procedures, and paperwork. They will learn what the distinguishing factors are for stage managing indoor and outdoor productions, and get hands-on experience in an outdoor theatrical setting.

*NEW* Puppetry Design – Basil Twist (Mentor)

• Will shadow and assist New York- based puppeteer and puppetry artist Basil Twist throughout the design process on the building, pulling, material sourcing and curating of all puppet elements
• Maintain and care for all puppetry elements for the duration of the show run.
• Will assume the role of Run Crew Member for the duration of the show run with a focus on puppetry elements.

Lighting Design – Nikki DeShea Smith (Mentor)

• Will shadow and assist Nikki throughout the design process including designing, hanging, programming cues.
• Will assume the role of Board Operator for the duration of the show run.

Costume Design – Susan Austin (Mentor)

• Will shadow Susan through the entire design process including vision boarding, sourcing, pulling altering and purchasing costumes/costume pieces.
• Will assume the role of Wardrobe Supervisor for the duration of the show run.

DATES AND REQUIREMENTS

1st Cohort Meeting (ALL TRACKS): Mid-May (Scheduled based on student availability)

Stage Management/Puppetry Design Track Dates:

• Production Meetings: Mondays at 6pm starting June 15, 2026
• Rehearsal Dates: June 22-July 2
• Tech Week: July 3-9
• Show Run: July 10-26 (Fri/Sat/Sun, 9PM performances)

Lighting Design/Costume Design Track Dates:

• Production Meetings: Mondays at 6pm starting July 6, 2026
• Rehearsal Dates: July 13-30
• Tech Week: July 31- Aug. 6
• Show Run: Aug. 7-30 ((Fri/Sat/Sun, 9PM performances)

Cohort Graduation (ALL TRACKS): Early September (Scheduled based on student availability)

REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL MENTEES:

• Fall within the 17-22 age range.
• Attend all scheduled production meetings, tech rehearsals, show nights (if applicable to track), and strike of show.
• Be responsible for transportation to and from the theater.

Ready to apply? Click the link here!

The post Applications Open for the Diane Simmons Mentorship Program at Hip Pocket Theatre first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Madeworthy: For our readers who haven’t been to see a performance under the stars, can you sum up what defines a Hip Pocket Theatre production?

Lake Simons: We share theatre work that is off the beaten track. We strive to experiment with the form. Hip Pocket has always been rooted in a homemade style of theatre making that weaves experimental theatre with nods to traditional forms.  Our theatre artists explore a variety of ways to tell a story- through words, images, movement, dance, puppetry, mask, pantomime, commedia, music, song, and poetry.

MW: When Hip Pocket started in 1976, it was the brash, genre-busting newcomer to the theater scene in North Texas. Now, you’re a Fort Worth institution, but you’re still on the cutting edge of theatrical performance. How does an institution keep its relevance?

LS: We continue to honor what the founders created and why they created it while also seeking new ways to push artistic boundaries. Theatre isn’t stagnant. It is an ever-developing artistic expression, and we continue to explore the medium. Fort Worth needs this outlet, and the artists that create on our stage need it.

Photo by Loli Kantor

MW: Founder Johnny Simons retired a couple of years ago. He was the driving force of the company for the entirety of his tenure, adapting works, writing, and acting. How have you filled his admittedly unfillable shoes?

LS: His daughters have taken the helm. [I’m] the Managing Artistic Director, and Lorca Simons is the Producing Artistic Director. Together, we are dedicated to honoring his vision and simultaneously infusing our own individual artistic visions into the future of Hip Pocket.

MW: Can you tell us a little about the rest of the 2023 season?

LS: We are currently in rehearsals for our mini-plays festival called Testing Ground 3+3 pairing three playwrights with three directors. 84-year-old Molemo! will share his pantomime – Old And In The Way – for three night only. [Editor’s Note: Molemo! is founder Johnny Simons’ artistic alter-ego.] We end our 47th season with a stage adaptation of The Fly, directed by Shawn Gann with original music created by Joe Rogers. An extra-special bonus is the Puppetry Pageant led by NYC puppetry artists, Erin Orr and Chris Green, to be created and performed by the DFW community as a pre-show experience on the closing weekend of The Fly.

MW: The Theatre’s whimsy seems to me uniquely Fort Worthian. Do you think the Hip Pocket Theatre could exist anywhere else?

LS: It is hard to imagine Hip Pocket in another city or state. The roots are deep in Fort Worth. So much of what Hip Pocket is today came from three people (Johnny Simons, Diane Simons, and Douglas Balentine), all three Fort Worthians sharing themselves as artists on the Hip Pocket stage. Although Lorca and I do not have Fort Worth addresses, we are drawn to our Texas roots every season to continue the tradition.

MW: One of the Theatre’s signatures is performing under the stars. Doing anything outdoors in North Texas during the summer and fall is always a gamble – if it isn’t storming, it’s sizzling. Why does the Theatre continue under the stars?

LS: It is primitive, and that is the real deal. Nature and creation go hand in hand. Making art under the stars without walls pushes us and makes us vulnerable which keeps both it and us present. And there is nothing like hearing the cicadas sing and feeling a gentle breeze as one steps onto that magical roughhewn stage to share a story. It is worth it.

The post Made in Fort Worth: Hip Pocket Theatre first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Performances are at 8:15 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 30 and tickets are available on the Hip Pocket website.

The classic American fable written by Washington Irving has been reimagined through the eyes of Hip Pocket’s own Johnny Simons, consulting artistic director. Composer Joe Rogers adds whimsy and delight by incorporating his diverse musical stylings to this adaptation. Rogers, Antonia Valdez and Eddie Dunlap will perform the music live. While the story’s core remains true to Irving’s original work, the collaboration of Simons and Rogers puts a magical musical spin on this family-friendly production in a way that only Hip Pocket Theatre could do.

photo credit:: Shannon Atkinson Cahoon

The cast of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow features Grainger Esch as Ichabod Crane, Nathan Saul as Nicholas Pickle, Peggy Bott Kirby as Dame vanTassel, Lauren Riley as Katrina vanTassel, Damek Salazar as Brom Bones, Tyler Dorney as Hans van Ripper, Gary Payne as Baltus vanTassel and an ensemble comprised of Marcos Barrow, Jozy Camp, Ron Fernandez, Kristi Ramos Toler and Rebo Salazar.

Directed by JoAnn Gracey, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow marks Gracey’s return to Hip Pocket Theatre this season as director. “Being asked to direct, I figured my familiarity with the story would give me a head start,” Gracey shared. “I was surprised to find the adaptation was a musical.” Comparing this production to Irving’s tale, Gracey added, “I believe we’ve kept the spookiness of the original while adding a little Hip Pocket twist.”

JoAnn Gracey is an actor and director whose credits at Hip Pocket include adapting and directing Baby Snooks (2019) and directing Thrive (2018), as well as appearances on stage in Mr. Weaver’s Backyard Circus presents Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Tempest, Luke of the Lake, Will of the Woods and A Fragile Dance of Elders into the Great Beyond. She also has stage-managed numerous shows for Hip Pocket.

photo credit: Shannon Atkinson Cahoon

Composer Joe Rogers is a native of Fort Worth and a longtime contributor to Hip Pocket and the surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth theatre community. A graduate of the University of North Texas, Rogers is a world-renowned composer, having over a thousand song titles to his credit. For more than 20 years, Rogers served as the musical director at Jubilee Theatre. In 2008 his accomplishments earned him the Elston Brooks Lifetime Achievement Award from the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County.

Scenic design is by Megan Beddingfield; costume design is by Sarah Green; lighting design is by Nikki DeShea Smith; and the stage manager is Crystal Todd. Please visit the Hip Pocket website for more information about Gracey, Rogers and the cast and crew.

Adult tickets are $25 on Fridays and Saturdays and $20 on Sundays, with reduced prices for seniors, military, teachers, students and children 12 and under. Tickets are available online on the Hip Pocket website. The gates open at 6:30 p.m. and performances are at 8:15 p.m. There is no late seating.

The Hip Café in The BackYard opens at 7 p.m. and offers beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks for purchase before or after the show. A French Country Picnic is also available for $25 with advanced reservations (reserve by 11 p.m. the night before the performance) and is available Friday and Saturday nights only. Purchase online or by calling 817-246-9775. No outside food or beverages are permitted. Live music in The BackYard begins at 7 p.m. and follows the performance.

The post A Classic Returns to Hip Pocket Theatre first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

When We Were Very Young, by A.A. Milne, is the first book in the Winnie-The-Pooh series. In this first book, Pooh is not yet Winnie-The-Pooh. There is a teddy bear and a swan Christopher Robin calls Pooh. Adapted for stage by Lake Simons and John Dyer, the duo has created a story that transcends generations and resonates with the child in all of us. Dyer composed the music and will play it live during performances.

Photo courtesy of Hip Pocket Theatre

The cast of When We Were Very Young features an ensemble of characters brought to life by Marcus Barron, Casey Collier, Christina Cranshaw, Ellen Mahoney Crouse, Tyler Dorney, Cy Dyer, Grainger Esch, Grace Hays, Jeffrey Stanfield and Kristi Ramos Toler.

Technical direction is by Megan Beddingfield; costume design is by Susan Austin; puppetry design is by Lake Simons; lighting design is by Nikki DeShea Smith; and the stage manager is Jake Olds.

In adapting When We Were Very Young for the stage, Simons and Dyer first selected the poems that allowed for a simple journey to be taken by the child, moving from inside to outside, experiencing animals, nature and the world around them, before returning home again. This is the 14th Simons and Dyer collaboration, many of which have been performed at Hip Pocket.

Lake Simons, managing artistic director of Hip Pocket Theatre, is a Texas-raised and Brooklyn-based director, designer, puppeteer and physical theatre performer. For over 25 years, she has contributed as a director, performer and designer with Hip Pocket. She has had a lengthy career in New York and Texas, creating experimental movement and puppetry-driven theatre. Simons has received multiple Jim Henson Foundation grants to support her original puppetry productions. Simons was the associate puppetry director for Warhorse on Broadway as well as for the National Tour. Her formal education includes Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, and the North Carolina School of the Arts, and she teaches in the theatre department at Sarah Lawrence College.

Photo courtesy of Hip Pocket Theatre

John Dyer is a songwriter, composer, musician and theatre and visual artist.  Founder of Fort Worth’s Drama Tiki (1992-1998) and music director for North Carolina’s Paperhand Puppet Intervention (1999-2001), he now lives in New York, where he’s performed at The Living Room, St. Ann’s Warehouse, HERE, Dixon Place and La Mama. He has produced several solo albums and he is the recipient of multiple ASCAPLus Awards, Meet the Composer Grants and Dallas Fort Worth Theatre Critic’s Forum Awards.

Adult tickets are $25 on Fridays and Saturdays and $20 on Sundays, with reduced prices for seniors, military, teachers, students and children 12 and under. Tickets are available online on the Hip Pocket website. The gates open at 7 p.m. and performances are at 9 p.m. There is no late seating.

The Hip Café in The BackYard opens at 7:30 p.m. and offers beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks for purchase before or after the show. No outside food or beverages are permitted. Live music in The BackYard begins at 8 p.m. and follows the performance.

Photo credits: John Dyer and John Carlisle Moore

The post When We Were Very Young Under the Stars first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Through the wit of Mark Twain and as a tribute to his wife, Olivia, The Diaries of Adam and Eve explores the love and loss of human relationships. Told through an ensemble of Adams, Eves and a Forbidden Chorus, this adaptation reminds us that the original love story wasn’t always a walk in the park, but worth it in the end.

The cast of The Diaries of Adam and Eve features Ronald Fernandez, Jr., Shelby Griffin and Paul Heyduck as the show’s Adams, and Aja Jones-Crowe, Kristi Ramos Toler and Amanda Reyes as the production’s Eves. Thad Isbell and Amanda Merrill round out the cast, with original music by Darrin Kobetich.

Adapted and directed by Yvonne Duque-Guerrero, The Diaries of Adam and Eve will be Duque-Guerrero’s directing debut with the company. “It’s a privilege to be working under the stars this summer and creating magic with this beautiful tribe and I am honored.”

Duque-Guerrero first appeared as a bee-girl on the Hip Pocket stage at Oak Acres in 1989. She continued to work with the company throughout several productions, including those directed by Johnny Simons, one of Hip Pocket Theatre’s founders, and Duque-Guerrero considers her time with the theatre as part of her education.

As co-founder and first artistic director of the theatre initiative for Artes de la Rosa at the historic Rose Marine Theatre in Fort Worth, Duque-Guerrero gained national recognition. In 2006, former first lady Laura Bush recognized her with the Coming Up Taller Award for outstanding achievement in arts youth programming. Having spent most of her career in nonprofit theatre, Duque-Guerrero has transitioned those skills to education, and she is currently employed as a high school theatre arts teacher.

A lifelong learner, Duque-Guerrero’s education has taken her across the United States. She studied mask-making and mask performance at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts at Texas Woman’s University and an MFA in theatre arts with a performance focus at Penn State.

Scenic design for this production is by Megan Beddingfield; costume design is by Susan Austin; lighting design is by Nikki DeShea Smith; the stage manager is Lauren Riley; and the assistant stage manager is Casey Collier.

Adult tickets are $25 on Fridays and Saturdays and $20 on Sundays, with reduced prices for seniors, military, teachers, students, and children. Hip Passes, which provide 10 tickets that may be used throughout the season, are available at discounted prices through July 3. Tickets are available online on the Hip Pocket website. The gates open at 7 p.m. and performances are at 9 p.m. There is no late seating.

With advanced reservations (reserve by 11 p.m. the night before the performance), dinners are available Friday and Saturday nights with a dessert trio offered on Sundays. Purchase online or by calling 817-246-9775. Beer, wine, soft drinks, desserts, and snacks are also available.

The post Adam, Eve, and Mark Twain at the Hip Pocket Theatre first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.