Pro-Focus Artist: Meet Mac Welch!
Despite playing a very convincing villain as Edmund in Fair Assembly's King Lear, Mac Welch is genuinely kind, compassionate and humble, with just the right amount of focus and ambition. He is progressive in his art, with an educator's mindset that institutes the success of other artists. Creators, young and old, through new works and established hits, all have a place in his vision of society and community within the Theater.
I am honored to recognize Actor/Director/ Producer Mac Welch as a Dallas Theatre Journal Pro-Focus Artist. To know him is to love him! I so enjoyed reading his responses to my interview questions below, and I know you will to!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your position in the Theatre Community?
My name is Mac Welch! I am an artist in the area who mostly lives in the theatre world. I serve as the Artistic Producer for Teatro Dallas, a company member of Fair Assembly, a co-founder of Watering Hole Collective, and I freelance as an actor and director with companies and films across DFW and the country. I have tried to insert myself in the community by helping indie artists make the things they want to make, and simultaneously gather as many aspiring artists as I can for my own projects. I am interested in both institutional theatre that costs $80,000 and passion projects that cost $500. I hope to sweeten the pot for artists to stay in DFW and make the art they want to make, instead of trying to move to a new market and potentially burnout.
2. What was your inspiration for Teatro Dallas?
There are a couple of things I would really like to fulfill with Teatro Dallas. We have been known in the community for almost 40 years for being the starting place of all of the most coveted artists in the area. Teatro Dallas will always be the company that takes risks on artists and lets those artists lead the way we produce. We don't have one way of producing theatre, because we mold it around the artists that lead the project. First and foremost, we find the artists we want to work with, then we collaborate with them to find a piece that they feel equipped to do. We are a company of dreams and fresh, high-quality, modern theatre. Hence, this season features 3 first-time directors, 4 directors under thirty, and dozens of artists who have never worked with us.
I think the other big focus of mine with Teatro Dallas is gaining back the trust we had built leading up to Covid. The pandemic was supremely hard on our company in every way you can imagine, and we are finally bouncing back. So with that, I just want to remind people that we have high standards, we work with the coolest artists in town, and we are worth your attention.
3. You mentioned Watering Hole Collective, as well. Can you tell us more about that?
Sure! I was part of a group of 4 artists that started a nonprofit at the end of 2023 called the Watering Hole Collective. It is a nonprofit that focuses on pairing artists with nonprofit resources to ensure that there is a tangible community impact associated with everything the company produces. Our flagship production was the aforementioned Spring Awakening. We partnered with sexual education and mental health nonprofits to give comprehensive talkbacks with professionals after each show. We did community outreach that saw over a dozen patrons seeking mental health resources. Most importantly, we were able to raise over $72,000 to properly compensate all artists involved in the process and give all proceeds back to the nonprofits we worked alongside.
I left the company in June as I made my transition to going full-time at Teatro Dallas, but I'm still involved with decisions pertaining to the founders. I'm not sure what's next for the organization, but I will do whatever I can to see it thrive.
4. If you had to choose your favorite role to perform and your favorite show to direct, what would they be and why?
My favorite role to perform looking back was Kevin in Heroes of the Fourth Turning. That was the first moment that I felt like I was able to show the community the type of work I want to be doing. I say "looking back" because it was one of the most mentally and physically taxing things I've ever done. That character is on stage talking for 2.5 hours straight with only one break to fill my mouth with fake vomit offstage. I was never not tired, but it was worth every second. That being said: it was the most fun, it was with some of the best actors I've ever known, and it was a script I believed in with every ounce of me.
My favorite role in the moment was Edmund in King Lear. It was fun and fairly easy. Not easy in the doing it, but easy in the characterizing. I just got to use all of my favorite tools. I've always talked like Edmund; we have similar rhythms and get pissed off at the same things. I want to revisit that one badly.
My favorite to direct would have to be either Spring Awakening or Time Stands Still. There's nothing quite like a group of people who truly believe in what they're making. Everyone in those rooms demanded only the best from each other. In both, we got to run a lot of experiments and make it our own. And hey, it helped that everyone seemed to like them! I know I did. Very different shows, but they fulfilled me in similar ways. I hope to do more work like that.
5. What projects do you have coming up that you'd like your audience to know?
A couple of things are coming up!
Bolt: A 24-hour Musical Game is happening on Jan. 4th. I am directing and producing this. The community submits songs, and we draw 10 of them at random. Our writers have Friday evening until 7 AM the next morning to create a script that ties these songs into a show. As dawn breaks, the directors, along with a music director, will gather the team of actors and use the following 12 hours to rehearse, stage, and perform the newly written musical by 7 PM the following day. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bolt-a-new-24-hour-musical-game-tickets-1031251018557?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawGqBkRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHdZN0Uq3ekLETljx12wchF5MaVV4V7li215QZsRJpHFze-y9SK8xxxTiog_aem_X2exmxnaUpk10AkiH0SVSQ
I am directing Twelfth Night with Fair Assembly. Feb. 13-23. A text-first version of the darkest and sexiest comedy from Shakespeare! https://www.fairassembly.com/twelfth-night
And then I am producing NUEVO MUNDO: New Directors Festival at Teatro Dallas. Those directors will be:
Gabriel Scampini, mentored by Christie Vela
Lauren Secrest, mentored by Sasha Maya Ada
Gerald Taylor II, mentored by Lauren Leblanc
https://teatrodallas.org/productions/nuevo-mundo-festival/
So stay on the lookout! There is always more to come.
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