DREAM WRITING PRODUCTIONS
Dallas – Everyone has a dream that they would love to see turn into a reality, and for Domenique Smith, he is making all of his dreams come true. He was born and raised in Dallas Texas, and is a very motivated and determined individual. Domenique is also well educated, and double majored with a BBA in Human Resource Management, and also received a degree in Banking and Financial Institutions, with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Business Communications from Sam Houston State University. Although his educational background doesn’t have anything to do with his aspirations, which is theater and production, Domenique still takes pride in the education that he worked hard for.
He fell in love with theater in 2007 under the direction of Dr. Kimberly Jackson, who introduced him to the world and life of theater. This prompted Domenique to begin his journey in creating a life that revolves around what he loves to do. When he arrived at Sam Houston State University in 2008, he was approached by an organization called Act One, and this is where Domenique started creating his stage plays. During his time at Sam Houston, he was able to produce several phenomenal shows, and after graduation, he moved back home, and continued to create more stage productions.
Domenique is the CEO and founder of Dream Writing Productions, which is a theater company filled with a group of young individuals who have the same goal in mind. “We all want to do something that we love. We love art, and we love creativity. We love just being able to make people smile, make people cry, and being able to make people get emotionally wound up over something we created,” expressed Domenique. His team is dream chasers, and they believe that they have broken down America’s barrier as to what is the American dream. They are constantly working towards creating their own path in life, under their mission statement, which is “don’t just dream, create life.” Through their productions, and their art, they are creating life for many individuals.
In addition to, Domenique looks at writing plays and being on stage as free therapy. He expressed, “you are able to relieve a lot of emotions that you cannot do at the workplace… around certain individuals…and in a lot of different areas.” Domenique loves to bring different characters alive, and isn’t worried about what people think, or how they judge him. When it comes to these characters, he made it known that, “it’s not who I really am, but its fun to be this individual to see people judge you and this is not even who you are. For me, I get a kick out of that.”
When it comes to his productions, he wants the community to get a lesson out of his stage plays. He also wants people to relate to his stories, to enjoy the stories, but most of all, to respect the writing behind it. There are many hours that go into writing a stage play, and he wants people to really appreciate the time, effort, and energy that took place into preparing a great story. Additionally, a lot of his inspiration comes from his personal life, and other things that he has witnessed from his friends and family. Domenique expressed that, “I can only write based on what I know.”
Furthermore, there are many people that Domenique admires, and looks up to. These individuals include Tyler Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Courtney Kemp, who is the writer for Power, Kurt Sutter and Chris Collins, who were the writers for Sons of Anarchy, and Steven Spielberg. He not only applauds their work, but he has great respect for the work that they do, and hopes that he can work with these phenomenal individuals one day.
Although Domenique has had great success thus far, it hasn’t always been an easy road. One of the challenges that he has encountered, is not knowing who he can depend on. There have been some individuals that have made investments and commitments to helping him with his business, and some either burned him, backed out of their investments, or just stopped helping him all together. When this happens, Domenique stated, “the challenging part is feeling like you are starting from scratch and not knowing whom to trust.” Through it all, he still has a great support system from his team, and together, they are making it to bigger and better things.
In addition to, Domenique and his team still have a lot of goals that they want to achieve. One short-term goal is to keep building their audience. They want to continue to reach the people in the Dallas market, and see how far they can go. In regards to their long-term goals, they want to take their shows on the road, and build an audience in different cities. Furthermore, they would love to one day own their own office and studio for all of their stage productions, and for even film productions as well.
Domenique’s advice for young writers and those that are following their dreams is to trust your gut. “A lot of things that I’ve done, I just trusted my gut…If you can get out there and do it, and you are really passionate about it, trust your gut and you’re going to make it happen.” He is very passionate about what he is doing, and knows that he couldn’t have done it without the support of his great team. He wants to thank his team for sticking by him, and for all of their hard work that they have done thus far. He couldn’t have done it without the love and support of Alexandria Warfield (Executive VP), Julian Williams (Chief Operator), Cheri Henrise (Chief Financial Officer), Naeadria Callihan (Event Coordinator), Rashad Alexander (Brand Ambassador), and Ashleigh Jones (Director of Communications). For more information about Dream Writing Productions, and their upcoming shows, you can visit their website at www.dreamwritingprod.com.
