Fort Worth, TX, March 25, 2008—Hip Pocket Theatre and the Amon Carter Museum are presenting a fun, fanciful, and family-friendly take on Shakespeare in a special play that honors Dickson and Flora Reeder, two of the artists featured in the special exhibition Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s, on view at the Carter through May 11.

The couple founded their Reeder Children’s Theater and Design School in Fort Worth in 1945, and for the next 12 years enabled hundreds of Fort Worth youth and their parents to experience a panoramic view of the interrelation of the arts. With Dickson Reeder creating the sets and costumes and Flora’s in charge of training the young actors, the school’s curriculum allowed children, ages four to fourteen, to undertake the study of a single play over the course of each school year, culminating in a spring performance.

Tempest in a Dream, adapted and directed by Hip Pocket Theatre’s Diane Simons, intertwines the plots of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a story that pays tribute to the Reeder’s efforts with the school and its impact on the community.

“The Reeders left an enormous legacy that has not only directly affected and inspired the Hip Pocket Theatre, but also countless artists—visual, musical, and of course theatrical,” Simons said. “I came across Flora’s script for The Tempest, and some of her cutting and musical notations are used in this performance.”

Tempest in a Dream will be presented in the Back Gallery at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center at 1300 Gendy Street, just across the street from the Amon Carter Museum. The gallery’s capacity is 125, and there are four performance times: Saturday, April 5, 7 p.m., Sunday, April 6, 2 p.m., Friday, April 11, 7 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 7 p.m.

Admission is free; tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis by calling the museum at 817.989.5057 or e-mailing education@cartermuseum.org.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Betty Sanders Family.