In December 2021, after 41 years of calling East Dallas home, the beloved Pocket Sandwich Theatre announced it was moving from its Mockingbird Lane location to Carrollton. Now, the theater announced it will open its new venue at Elm Street on Friday, November 25.
The theater kept fans updated through every step of the long moving process through its Facebook page and after announcing several delays and postponing the initial opening date in May, they finally were able to come forward with good news.
Ebenezer Scrooge, a Christmas musical show written by theater founder Joe Dickinson will premier the new venue in Carrollton with a month-long run from November 25 to December 23, 2022. The show has become a holiday tradition for the theater since 1981 and it was the last show they performed in 2021 at its staple Dallas location.
The theater was forced to change locations in 2021 after the owners of the Mockingbird Lane location broke the news that they were not going to renew the lease for the theater. “While the Pocket, like all other theaters, was struggling to survive the pandemic, the shopping center that had been our home for more than 31 years was sold,” read the theater’s statement posted on their website.
“Theater is meant to be transient; we create something that is meant to last for a moment in time,” continued the statement. “However, we remain confident that the story is not over.”
And it sure wasn’t. According to theater manager Shanon Dickinson, daughter of theater founder and Ebenezer Scrooge’s writer, Joe Dickinson, after hearing of the closure, the city of Carrollton reached out to the Pocket Sandwich Theatre offering a new home in an open space in the city’s historic downtown. “The city of Carrollton has been so overwhelmingly good to us,” she told NBCDFW.
In addition to the holiday show, for 2023 the theater has plans to run the fan-favorite popcorn-throwing melodrama Dracula. In the meantime, rush to get your Ebenezer Scroogetickets before they run out!
In case you missed it, here's Local Profile's report on NTPA's therapeutic theater.
