Dallas is a city of art.
Whether it be ancient relics of Babylonia at the Dallas Museum of Art, contemporary paintings in the galleries of the Dallas Contemporary or operatic performances in the Dallas Arts District, you’re sure to find at least a few high-class pieces of every kind of art somewhere around the city.
There are a fair amount of things to do in the Dallas Arts District, but be sure to check out these performing art venues to experience some of the best of the best in opera, theater, music and more!
Venues in Dallas for watching performing arts
AT&T Performing Arts Center
Everyone in Dallas knows that the AT&T Performing Arts Center is the place to be for all things performing arts. It’s really more of a complex than a single location, containing four of the city's finest performing arts venues.
There’s the Winspear Opera House which, as the name suggests, is a fabulous opera house designed to be a modern rendition of the classical, horseshoe-shaped opera houses of old. It seats a whopping 2,200 guests and has played host to some of the country’s premier opera companies.
The Wyly Theatre proclaims itself as one of the more versatile theatrical venues on the planet, with the ability to alter its stage configuration and seating arrangements to suit each play separately. The rods running vertically down the exterior of the building give an illusion of the building being draped in a theater curtain.
Strauss Square is an outdoor performance venue that features a large lawn, a pavilion and a performance plaza. The venue is great for concerts and dance performances, and when the venue is not in use the public can access the lawn as desired!
The last piece of the arts center complex is Sammons Park, located directly across from the Winspear Opera House. It’s a gorgeous park that’s perfect for an afternoon picnic, but it’s also often used as a performance venue in itself for local performance artists.
The Black Academy of Arts and Letters
This internationally renowned theater is a hub for performance art of all kinds. Most notably, though, it is the home of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, which has had its dancers perform in over 16 countries since its founding in 1976. The group was the first Texas performing arts company to perform for Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1988 when he was president of the African nation.
Kalita Humphreys Theater
Designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959, the Kalita Humphreys Theater is Uptown’s premier performing arts venue. It is one of only three theaters that Wright ever designed, making it not just a gorgeous venue to visit, but also a fairly significant historical landmark. It’s host to concerts, dances, plays and more, including performances by the Uptown Players, the Second Thought Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center.
Majestic Theatre
The Majestic Theatre showcases the charm and character of historic Dallas. When it opened in 1921, it was one of the many venues along Theater Row, a street of entertainment venues ranging from live burlesque to newsreels to silent films and more. All of these historic theaters were demolished by the 1970s, save for the Majestic Theatre which, in 1977, was the first building in Dallas to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has undergone significant restoration into a performance art venue since then, and today the Renaissance-Revival-style theater is a popular venue for musicals, dances, concerts, plays and more!
Moody Performance Hall
The Moody Performance Hall — previously the Dallas City Performance Hall — is a massive performing arts center in the Dallas Arts District that’s known as a gateway stage for local and emerging artists from Dallas. The Hall hosts performances from local companies like the Dallas Chamber Symphony, the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, the Undermain Theatre and much, much more!
The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Designed by iconic architect I.M. Pei (yes, that one!), the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center is the home of the world-renowned Dallas Symphony Orchestra and is widely considered to be one of the greatest concert halls in the world. The careful acoustic design and magnificent detail has brought millions of guests through its doors since it opened in 1989.
If you live in or near our Dallas apartments — especially our Dallas Art District apartments — then be sure to give these venues a visit next time you’re out and about. The architecture and interiors of these famous landmarks are stunning to look at, and catching a performance in one of the best venues in the nation is a highlight that you won’t want to miss!
Enjoy!
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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/12019
Colleen Ford is a South African who now lives on Oahu in Hawai'i. She loves to travel, camp, spearfish and hike. She's also part of a super cool canoe club and is pretty decent at it. Colleen enjoys Star Wars and also not being cold ever.
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