Richard Rodriguez
It’s been 20 years since Kathleen Culebro co-founded Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth on a drive to produce innovative theater. This year, Amphibian, which moved in 2012 to the Near Southside’s South Main Village, is staging three world premieres and two developmental pieces. The developmental pieces allow directors and playwrights a low-pressure opportunity to experiment. Amphibian in early March completed a run of “Hans & Sophie,” a play about siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, builders of a major underground resistance in Nazi Germany. Beginning May 1, Amphibian will stage a three-week premiere of “Egress,” a psychological thriller. Amphibian continues to build its unique Comedy Series, which hosts budding comics. Culebro wears numerous hats; the organization operates on an $850,000 budget, two-thirds contributed, one-third earned due to its free programs.
Hosting premieres “We’re really leaning into the world premiere world and the new works. For [‘Hans & Sophie’], we’ll have eight producers flying to check it out. We’ve had really good luck getting [premieres] produced elsewhere. The one with the most success, we commissioned a play, an adaptation of ‘Cyrano.’ It’s now had five productions around the country.”
Turning point: Move to South Main “Maybe five years before we bought, Paul Paine, who was the executive director of Near Southside, Inc., took me on a tour of South Main, telling me this was the next thing. This was the recession; it looked scary. One day I got an email from [board member and title executive Jeff Davis]. It was the real estate agent’s information sheets. Through some magic of business minds, we found partners. We own half, and The Starr Conspiracy [marketing agency] owns the other half. We had Jeff help us with the real estate side. My husband [architect Greg Ibanez] designed the remodel, Fort Construction stepped in as contractor for a very friendly agreement, and then we pulled in every favor we could.”
The comedy series “The pressure on a comedian to have a perfect set is huge. What we offer is a place where a comedian can spend five nights and try new things. We encourage them to spend their day writing and then at night come out with new material. There’s nothing more fun for us to see the final product at the end of the five days or later on television or on tour.”
De-Cruit workshop for veterans “It uses actor training, breathing techniques and Shakespeare to help identify and manage the effects of PTSD. This was created by a veteran who was struggling. He went on to get his master’s. And now he has this program called De-Cruit. We started this in 2018. We go to Green Bay Prison where they have a veterans’ pod. We have a teacher who goes in and teaches them De-Cruit every week.”
Stilt dance classes “I was a shy nonathletic kid, and this is perfect for those kids. It’s coordination; it’s self-confidence. It’s learning how to interact with the public, because we will go out and, say, participate in Open Streets, and people want to come up and talk.”