Dallas audiences invited to Echo Theatre for intimate two-person drama You Must Wear a Hat running Feb. 27 through March 14
Dallas, Texas – Audiences will soon gather at Echo Theatre for the debut of a brand-new work that leans into uncertainty, memory and the quiet weight of survival. From Feb. 27 through March 14, 2026, the company will stage the world premiere of You Must Wear a Hat, written by C. “Meaks” Meaker and directed by Echo Creative Hadley Shipley.
Performances are scheduled for Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday shows at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., offering multiple chances to step into a world that feels both distant and unsettlingly close.
At the center of the play are two strangers, Tuesday and Weeks. They are waiting—for what, exactly, is part of the tension that carries the story. The fish are gone. The coral is fading. It has been a long time since they have seen another person. Outside, the heat is relentless. In this stark landscape, there is one simple rule: you must wear a hat.
What unfolds is a spare, intimate piece written for two actors—and a rabbit. As Tuesday and Weeks pass the time making hats, they also circle larger questions. Does it matter to keep creating something, even if no one is left to see it? What does it mean to hold on to ritual, to habit, to craft, when the future feels thin?
Meaker’s script leans into what is left unsaid. Hope and grief move quietly between the lines. Memories surface. Plans are made, though tomorrow feels uncertain—maybe it will come, maybe it will not. The play asks what parts of humanity are worth preserving when the world itself seems to be slipping away.
Under Shipley’s direction, Echo Theatre introduces this new work to the stage with a focus on intimacy and reflection. The production invites audiences to sit with the characters’ waiting, their debates, and their small acts of creation in the face of a warming, empty world.
Additional information and tickets are available through Echo Theatre’s website.
