Jubilee Theatre names new artistic director

A year after Jubilee Theatre released Artistic Director Tre Garrett, who was arrested in early 2015 and accused of soliciting child prostitution, William “Bill” Earl Ray has been named the new artistic director of the longest-running black theater in North Texas. The announcement was made before Friday night’s opening of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, which Ray directed. He begins his post in March.

Ray’s career has spanned more than 30 years as a stage and film actor, stage director and artistic director. A native of Rockdale in the Texas Hill Country, he joined the Army and while based in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1970s, he saw an on-base production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner.

“It was the first time I had seen black people onstage,” he said.

Coincidentally, Amen Corner was the play in which Jubilee co-founders Rudy and Marian Eastman met at Fort Worth’s Sojourner Truth Players in the late ’70s. A few years later, they formed Jubilee.

Rudy Eastman was artistic director of Jubilee until his death in 2004. A year later, after a national search, Jubilee hired Ed Smith, who resigned early in 2010. Later that year, Jubilee hired Tre Garrett, 29, whom they first met in the search that landed Smith the job.

After South Korea, Ray was moved to Seattle, where he founded Ndaba Cultural Ensemble. He worked in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. and Portland, Ore., before heading to Los Angeles. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, he moved to Fort Worth.

He landed a role in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Stage West. Locally, he has acted or directed at Dallas Theater Center, Theatre Three, Circle Theatre and Amphibian Stage Productions, and he was the resident director at Dallas’ African American Repertory Theater for its first two years, from 2008 to 2010. At Jubilee, he directed A Love Song for Miss Lydia in 2007 and performed in the 2015 production of Sunset Baby.

“I know this community, not from the perspective of an artistic director, but as an artist,” Ray said of his advantage in taking the Jubilee post. “I’ve lived here, have contacts, and I know people.” Since 2014 he has been living in the Houston area and is moving back to Fort Worth.

His first task with Jubilee is help the theater recover from a $35,000 deficit from the previous fiscal year. He’s also selecting shows for the 2016-17 season, which will be announced in March.

“I’m going to stay with the structure of where it is now,” he says of Jubilee’s six-show season, a mix of musicals and plays, classics and newer works. “I want to look for works that educate, entertain, and provoke thought. It’s all about trying to balance the act.”

In August, Garrett was indicted on two first-degree felony counts, and trial it scheduled to begin Feb 26. He could receive a sentence of five to 99 years.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 8:19 AM with the headline "Jubilee Theatre names new artistic director."