People sometimes ask me why I chose the name Pegasus for the theatre. There are two reasons, and depending on your background, you may be able to guess one or both of them.
If you know your Greek mythology, you may know that Pegasus was an immortal winged horse who was “born” when he sprang from the neck of the beheaded Medusa. This is not the reason I selected the name.
But Pegasus featured prominently in other myths, and in one of those he digs a hole in the ground, creating a well that became the source for all arts and culture. This was also metaphorically the source of my inspiration as an artist, so the name felt very appropriate.
The second reason is more contemporary, although you probably have to have lived in Dallas in the 1980s to guess it. You see, before the Dallas skyline acquired so many tall buildings, you could clearly see the Pegasus sign on top of the old Magnolia Building from miles around. In fact Pegasus was considered the symbol of Dallas and was featured on T-shirts for tourists. The story goes that the sign was intentionally made two-sided so that Dallas would never be a “one-horse town.”
As a native Dallasite, I couldn’t resist! Pegasus was the perfect name for this exciting new adventure I was undertaking. Even now, so many years and mispronunciations later (“Pregasus” seems to be the front runner), the name takes me back in time to those early years, and it makes me smile.