Ochre House Theater continues to take its signature creativity to the stage in “DADDY’S RABBITS: A Cotton Tale”

When attending a production at the intimate Ochre House Theater near the state fairgrounds in Dallas, audiences should expect the unexpected. “One thing I always tell patrons when they come to see a show at the Ochre House is you’re guaranteed to see something you’ve never seen before, because nobody has seen this before” Ochre House Theater Operations Manager Kevin Grammer says.

The company has long described themselves using a term you probably haven’t seen before either, “Suavant-garde.” The company says the invented term means “out-there, surrealist, experimental, but with sophistication and charm.” In addition, the company recently boasts a brand-new descriptor after D Magazine named Ochre House the “Best Theater Company” for 2024 as part of the magazine’s annual Best of Big D awards.

Fresh off the heels of the D Magazine announcement, Ochre House Theater is continuing its innovative ways with its latest production, “DADDY’S RABBITS: A Cotton Tale.” According to the company, “DADDY’S RABBIT’S” tells the tale of a small boarding house run by characters named Mommy and Daddy, “where eccentric boarders reside together in perfect harmony with Daddy’s hutch of jackrabbits.” The harmonious nature soon changes when a stranger enters the boarding house. The show currently runs through August 31 and marks the conclusion of the company’s 16th season.

“Without giving too much away, I’ll just say this is about the rituals and cycles of a group of individuals who are coming together, finding themselves in this area of space and time together, and the shenanigans that ensue,” Ochre House Theatre Managing Director and “DADDY’S RABBITS” Playwright and Director Carla Parker says. “DADDY’S RABBITS” marks Parker’s seventh originally written production for Ochre House and promises plenty of the playwright’s and theater’s signature creativity throughout.

“One of the fun things about every single Carla Parker show that I’ve been involved in is that there is an element of imagination and whimsy that’s typically sometimes reserved for aesthetic, but for her shows, it’s very much a part of the plot,” Ochre House Theater Artist-in-Residence Justin Locklear says. Locklear is the production’s music director and one of its puppet designers alongside Cameron Wisener. He also performs as part of the show’s live onstage music and voices one of the rabbits.

Locklear calls the show “a fantastical dark children’s book come to life.” Parker says she found inspiration for “DADDY’S RABBITS” in “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Twilight Zone,” among other influences pulled from poetry, her personal life and her professional career.

The “storybook” quality of the show extends to the show’s rabbit puppets, which Locklear says are based on a design created by Ochre House Theater’s Artistic Director Matthew Posey. Puppets are often one of the calling cards of an Ochre House Theater production. “It feels very drawn, no pun intended, from illustrations (and) from children’s books,” Locklear says of the puppet designs, comparing them to the look of old nursery rhyme illustrations and wood cuttings. In other words, don’t mistakenly expect cuddly bunnies onstage. “They’re more sinewy and a little nightmarish, which is a lot of fun.”

The ability to have fun creating the show while simultaneously working hard exploring different imaginative approaches onstage resonates strongly with the show’s cast and crew. “I was reduced to tears of laughter quite recently in rehearsal from the cast’s ability to just play and be authentic to their own creative process,” Locklear says.

“Carla has given us so much room to play and so much room to explore, and we all kind of try to crack each other up as much as we can, but that leads to a lot of creativity in and of itself,” Grammer, who plays Hairy Hamm in the production, says.

Locklear’s music direction exemplifies that creative freedom. He playfully dubs the show’s music style as “trinketful” when explaining its diverse mix of rock, 80s pop, classical and silent film score inspirations. Parker recalls how Locklear’s inventiveness in making an on-the-spot change to the music during a fight scene in rehearsals “totally changed the feel of the scene for the better” and ended up in the show.

Overall, it’s Oche House Theater’s “creativity and spontaneity” in productions like “DADDY’S RABBITS” that Grammer feels captures audience’s attention and keeps them coming back for more. “It registers with the audience,” Grammer says of Ochre House’s original approach. “They can feel it.”

Ochre House Theater’s “DADDY’S RABBITS: A Cotton Tale” runs through August 31. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit https://ochrehousetheater.org/.

These interviews have been edited for clarity.