Actor, playwright, and professor Blake Hackler. Photograph by Jordan Fraker.
How to be Fabulous A Fulbright Scholar, Blake Hackler, an actor, playwright, and associate professor of theatre at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, joins Dallas Theater Center’s Brierley Resident Acting Company. BY TERRI PROVENCAL
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lake Hackler is reading three books: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell; How to Be an Artist by Jerry Saltz; and The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko & James Wright. “I have my morning, afternoon, and night readings—three books for three different times of day,” says the associate professor of theatre at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. This natural elasticity is what defines the actor, director, playwright, and instructor who was recently awarded a second Fulbright Scholar grant. This grant will allow him to teach Shakespeare and conduct research for four months in Romania; his first grant took him to Bulgaria. And in a time when a glimmer of hope is what we need more than ever, Dallas Theater Center shared a second piece of good news: Hackler has been appointed to the Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company. “This has been the most unified and joyful response to bringing in a new member since we formed the company a decade ago,” says Kevin Moriarty, the Enloe/Rose Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center, with regards to selecting Hackler (along with his student Molly Searcy, a graduate of SMU’s 2020 MFA acting program) to join the company. “Anyone
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who has ever seen Blake on a stage or had a conversation with him is blown away by his depth of knowledge. He is a masterful teacher. He is an incredibly skilled director. He is an equally accomplished playwright.” DTC has collaborated with SMU for many years now. “One of the many things that has been a strength and joy of our partnership with SMU—and has become deeply important to us—is Blake’s classroom,” says Moriarty. “The students that Blake is teaching in the classroom will also have the opportunity to watch him in the rehearsal room, and the opportunity to watch him build a performance. Former students will have opportunities to act opposite him. This is the way that theatre has been passed on for thousands of years. Artisans passing down skills, tradition… There is something great about how those experiences collide in a room.” Moriarty describes Dallas Theater Center’s partnership with SMU as “a source of artistic strength and inspiration for both of our institutions and for Dallas audiences.” Samuel S. Holland, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts echoes this: “We are grateful for the opportunities Dallas Theater Center has provided over several decades to our students, alumni, and faculty, and for the chance
