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Puppets, Poets, Prophets and Martians: Hip Pocket Theatre’s New Season


by Jerome Weeks 27 Apr 2009 7:20 AM

For its 33rd season, Fort Worth’s Hip Pocket Theatre has announced a collection of shows that reflect founder Johnny Simons’ long-held interests, including Beat poetry, pulp fiction and pop prophecy. Notable this season will be a bigger theater venue and a new five-year lease on the city-owned property on Silver Creek Road.

CTA TBD

For its 33rd season, Fort Worth’s Hip Pocket Theatre has announced a collection of shows that reflect founder Johnny Simons’ long-held interests, including Beat poetry, pulp fiction and pop prophecy. Notable this season will be a bigger theater venue and a new five-year lease on the city-owned property on Silver Creek Road.

Notable among the offerings, on the other hand, is something quite small and delicate: White Elephant (above), a puppetry-music-and-Super 8 film project by Simons’ daughter Lake and musician John Dyer. A poetic tale of a wicker elephant that is tossed into a bonfire and is transformed, White Elephant opened at La MAMA Experimental Theater Company this weekend in New York (Sept. 10-20).

  • Allen Ginsberg’s classic Beat poem, Howl, gets adapted by Johnny Simons (June 5-28).
  • Kahlil Gibran’s classic of new age philosophy (and eternal counter-cultural bestseller), The Prophet, gets adapted by Simons (July 10-26).
  • Then comes a new work by Simons: The Ugly Brothers Present a Perfectly Lovely Play Featuring the Quiver Sisters and Their Pretty Little Ways (Aug. 7-30).
  • The return of the Cowtown Puppetry Festival (Sept. 4-6).
  • And A Princess of Mars (Oct. 2-24), one of Edgar Rice Burroughs series of “Martian tales,” his most popular works after his Tarzan novels (which Simons has staged).

Season tickets are on sale. Call 817-246-9775.

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