By Norma Adams-Wade
Texas Metro News
For elders who grew up in southern Dallas before integration, the enduring Forest Theater’s much-anticipated November 1 reopening ignites a floodgate of memories about the historic venue and equally historic South Dallas/Fair Park community.
“I can remember the first time I stepped inside,” recalled retired educator Dr. Thalia Brown Matherson. She grew up in the surrounding neighborhood and said she and her friends would walk to the Forest Theater on Saturdays. “I was in high school on my first date. It was right after they turned the theater over to Blacks people. You walked in and you thought you were in heaven. The furniture, the seating, the colors were beautiful – way above the little movie theaters we were used to attending on weekends in our community.”
Now early and current generations will get the opportunity to experience this community and city landmark from their diverse perspectives – memories and future visions.
The person at the helm
Dallas native and make-it-happen wizard Elizabeth Wattley is the force of energy, imagination, and inspiration behind the movement that has resurrected this treasured site and given wide-spread new life to surrounding properties. Wattley is founder, president and CEO of the Forest Forward nonprofit she created to produce this new life.
As Wattley juggles the myriad duties of preparing for the November 1 re-opening, the Spelman College and Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business graduate was not available for an interview. But a spokesperson gave me her boss’s prepared statement for media.
“The Forest Theater has always been bigger than a building,” Wattley said in the statement. “It is … a reminder of what is possible when we invest in people and place … a place where generations can imagine what is possible – and have the opportunity to make it possible…The Grand Return is more than a celebration – it’s a homecoming.”
What is Forest Forward?
Forest Forward is the prolific nonprofit that Wattley founded in 2020 to further expand revitalization of the historic Forest Theater and its neighborhood environment. The Dallas native previously had directed strategic initiatives at the City Square nonprofit that battles social ills of poverty in Dallas — and that purchased Forest Theater in 2017 as part of City Square’s low-income community revitalization plans.
Wattley took those plans further when she formed Forest Forward, energized a staff, executive team, board of directors, advisers, and financial supporters. That team of specialists structured a dazzling array of activities and offerings that they will present to the public during the Forest Theater’s “Grand Return” from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. November 1 at 1920 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. adjacent to I-45/So. Central Expressway.
The hallmark of Forest Forward is that the operation involves way more than re-opening a theater. One of the nonprofits first steps was acquiring various surrounding properties, including a busy liquor store and gambling house. The nonprofit’s services are structured as a catalyst beyond cultural arts — reaching far into the community and surrounding properties.
Services offered include cradle-to-college education support in collaboration with the Dallas school system and nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, neighborhood revitalization, jobs, and general quality of life improvement. A key goal is providing and supporting affordable housing to prevent displacing local residents and reverse despised government imminent domain that historically has plagued the community.
The theater itself features a 1,000-seat concert hall, 200-seat “black box” filming studio and recording and podcast studios. There is a large creative laboratory for students and professionals, and rooftop space with a view of the Dallas skyline for social events. Plans also are being developed to improve surrounding parking.
Who are some of the players?
The Honorable Diane Ragsdale, former Dallas City Councilmember and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, is an example of the high caliber “change agents” who comprise Forest Forward’s 19-member board of directors. Members include former Dallas School superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa; real estate development and philanthropist Peter Brodsky; lawyer, corporate executive and community advocate David Huntley; Senior Rabbi David Stern of Temple Emanu-El Synagogue; Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church senior pastor Matthew Ruffner; marketing and media executive Celia Walker; and executive search leader Matrice Ellis-Kirk who chairs the board and is married to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.
The 17-member staff runs various functions that include campus operations and finance, partnership and community engagements, artistic programs, strategy planning, technical productions, and Starbucks Coffeehouse management.
“My presence is to help strengthen the programs to ensure that they benefit the people who live in the community,” Ragsdale said, “– through housing development, retail services, cultural development and much more leading to an overall improvement in the quality of life for the people. …I think the staff under Elizabeth Wattley’s leadership has made sure that Forest Forward is a reflection of the community.”
Brief history of the Forest Theater
A prominent Jewish developer, Karl Hoblitzelle, built, then opened the Forest Theater in 1949 in what was then a prominent Jewish community South of downtown Dallas now known as “old South Dallas” and the South Dallas/Fair Park community. Hoblitzelle had previously opened other well-known local theaters – Majestic (1921) as a downtown Dallas Vaudeville theater, Lakewood (1938), Inwood (1947), then Forest (1949) on what was then Forest Avenue, well before it became Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in 1981.
The Forest Theater converted to an African American audience at the March 2, 1956 second opening. The theater ultimately closed and remained vacant until neo-soul, Grammy-winning songstress and Dallas native, Erykah Badu, leased the building and maintained it as an entertainment venue from 2002 to 2008 when the theater closed again.
What the “Grand Return” will offer
The younger generation already is expressing glee over the inclusion of Starbucks Coffeehouse next door to the rebooted Forest Theater, with an inside passageway to and from the theater. Social media posts reflected the enthusiasm when the popular coffeehouse opened months ahead of the theater’s Nov. 1, 2026 “Grand Return.”
Media reports tell how Wattley and advisers wrestled with but overcame concerns about community fear that Starbucks would be a sign of gentrification. Talks with the community and positive reactions allayed those fears. The current operating hours are 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. but may extend in the future. Activities at the reopening will include tours of the building, food trucks, vendors, live entertainment and music. The much-touted highlight of the occasion will be the late-evening relighting of the iconic tower and marquee for the first time in more than 50 years.
How to participate
Advance registration is required to attend “Grand Return” — but tickets, which were priced at $1 or “pay what you can,” are already sold out. Still, there is a friendly waitlist to join at https://www.eventbrite.com. There also are ways the public can donate to the restoration and get your names recorded in records as a supporter. The suggested dress code for the evening is “wear your best version of black.” To learn more basic information, visit https://www.forestforward.org/light-the-tower. You also may call 469-676-9567.
Comparing Forest and downtown Majestic theaters
Verna Brown Mitchell, sister of Dr. Thalia Brown Matherson, added her memories to her sister’s initial recollections of the 1956 Forest Theater’s conversion to a Blacks audience. Opening movies shown during that transition phase were Helen of Troy (released earlier in January 1956) and the short feature The Nat “King” Cole Story (released in December 1955).
“We went to the actual opening and discovered that the Forest Theater was three or four times bigger than the little movies we were used to visiting on the weekends.,” Mitchell said. “Also, now we could sit on the first floor and not have to go to the balcony like Blacks had to at the Majestic Theatre downtown.”
Another elder, Louis Peterson, said he enjoyed the movies shown at the segregated downtown Majestic, but always felt uncomfortable having to sit in the balcony and be quiet.
“The Forest Theater gave us the feeling that we belonged here,” Peterson recalled. “It was something we could take pride in because it was grand and it was in our neighborhood.”
Who is Elizabeth Wattley?
Quoting an old adage, Elizabeth Wattley comes from good stock. She probably couldn’t have failed if she tried to because success runs in her blood.
Evidence shows that everything she has accomplished so far came from her own tenacity and sweat. Yes, she deserves her own credit. But she also is successfully carrying on a legacy of achievement her parents cemented.
Elizabeth Wattley is founder, president and CEO of the nonprofit Forest Forward that will re-open the iconic Forest Theater during a November 1, 2026 razzle-dazzle “homecoming” celebration labeled the “Grand Return.” (See accompanying main story for details.)
The CEO was born and grew up in Dallas where her parents were all over the place racking up successes, earning honors, opening doors, and blazing trails. Now here comes their daughter, repeating the process.
THE CEO’s father heads Wattley Consulting Group that provides guidance for community development and economic opportunities. Her mother is renowned Dallas attorney Cheryl Wattley, a former federal prosecutor turned civil rights attorney who Democrats nominated for a North Texas District federal judgeship during former President Bill Clinton administration. Political rivalry arose, though, and Republicans ultimately blocked the nomination.
One illuminating example of legacy is the annual Quest for Success honor that the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce awards to Dallas metroplex African American entrepreneurs, business owners, nonprofit heads, and civic leaders who make a notable impact in business and civic service.
Elizabeth Wattley won the honor in August this year 2026. Interestingly, her father, entrepreneur consultant Thomas Wattley, won the same award 37 years previously in 1989 when his daughter Elizabeth was age 5. Elizabeth Wattley was born and grew up in Dallas, attended a Dallas Montessori Academy. In addition to a slew of community, business, and civic awards, she earned an undergraduate economics degree from the HBCU Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, and an MBA in entrepreneurship and strategy from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business in Dallas. She does not discuss her private life but has been quoted as describing herself as “a mother, a wife, and a boss.”
