After 28 years, Fort Worth's Jubilee Theatre is North Texas' longest-running African-American theater company. During that time, a number of black theaters have come and gone in the Dallas area.

A new one has arrived: The African-American Repertory Theater in DeSoto, co-founded by film actress and sometime Dallas resident Irma P. Hall, who will also serve as artistic director. The theater's opening was announced Tuesday.

Hall is known for such movies as Soul Food, The Ladykillers and Patch Adams. Over the years, she took breaks from Hollywood to perform in A Raisin in the Sun at the Dallas Theater Center in 1999 and in DeSoto in 2007.

It was last year's staging that planted the seed for the African-American Repertory Theater (ART), said Vince McGill, who also acted in the 2007 edition of Raisin and will be the new company's education director. "The city of DeSoto approached us about starting the theater and gave us some grant money," he said.

The third co-founder is managing director Regina Washington, a frequent Jubilee performer.

The theater will begin with staged readings in February, then will open full productions in the fall, with titles to be announced.

Hall has taught at several schools in Dallas and founded the black theater Minority Rep in the 1970s.

That group lasted for about a decade, and its collaborators included future Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart).

Of ART's potential competition with Jubilee Theatre, McGill said, "we would hope there would be room here for two African-American theaters. We hope to have a positive relationship with them, and we will continue to work around town as actors."

African-American Repertory Theater

Feb. 9-10: Staged readings of A Woman Called Truth, about Sojourner Truth, and The Meeting, about a supposed meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Where: Performing at the Corner Theatre, 211 E. Pleasant Run Road, DeSoto

Tickets: $10

Information: www.aareptheater.com

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