Formed in 1990 by five graduates of the MFA Theater Program at Southern Methodist University, KDT's co-founders' decision to remain in Dallas reflected their commitment to enhancing the artistic life of the Dallas community. In an effort to nurture the rich talent pool and help keep Dallas' best artists in Dallas, KDT maintains a resident company of 40+ area artists. KDT is one of the 13 founding members of the National New Play Network (NNPN), an alliance of 32 professional theaters dedicated to championing new work. As a result, KDT and Dallas are nationally recognized as a hub for new play development and production. KDT aims to be fiscally conservative and artistically liberal. Mission: It is the mission of Kitchen Dog Theater to provide a place where questions of justice, morality, and human freedom can be explored. We choose plays that challenge our moral and social consciences, and invite our audiences to be provoked, challenged, and amazed. We believe that the theater is a site of individual discovery as well as a force against conventional views of the self and experience. It is not a provider of answers, but an invitation to question. Since theater of this kind is not bound by any tradition, Kitchen Dog Theater is committed to exploring these questions whether they are found in the classics, contemporary works, or new plays. About the Name: The name Kitchen Dog Theater is drawn from Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece "Waiting for Godot." In this play, the “kitchen dog” is a symbol of the victim/participant in our society’s seemingly endless cycle of ignorance and injustice. We call ourselves Kitchen Dog because our work seeks to question this cycle.