About That Kessler Theater Video: Girls Gone Wild, And One Does Live in This University Park House

By now you may have seen the video everyone is talking about over the watercooler: the Kessler Theater video, taken by artistic director Jeff Liles and posted on his Facebook Page. It’s of two women who may or may not have been drinking a bit too much alcohol (as was insinuated in the video), who were allegedly asked to leave the theater during last week’s Lee Ann Womack concert (whom they claimed they are friends with) because they were allegedly too loud. If you have not seen it, here it is: 6,000+ shares on The Dallas Observer.

We debated posting this Monday, and held back because, well, yeah, and also because I believe we all live in glass houses. If you could have seen me at Cattle Baron’s Ball last year, or rather after, in between the Vodka giggles and the hiccups,  I was rather smashed. A mess. It happens to all of us once in awhile. (And I am not saying these gals were smashed.) But I kept thinking, this video is really about real estate and neighborhoods, and stupid stereotypes that some people still have.

And is Oak Cliff, where the Kessler Theater is located and where I have spent lots of time, really the “hood”?

Just what is ” the hood”? Is it a “bad part of town,” the “other side of the tracks”?  Does being in “the hood” lower property values or can it sometimes beef them up, because the hood is the cool place to be? I mean, look at Hell’s Kitchen in NYC, 39th Street and 10th, once one of the grittiest, grimiest neighborhoods in the city loaded with poor immigrants : this home is $14 million. Or Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco?  That “hood” of 19th century wooden houses became a hippie and drug haven during the ’60s, when rooms were cheap and property values had dropped because of a proposed freeway. Here’s a condo available for $1.349.

Then I spoke with someone in real estate Tuesday who agreed with me that the video was really a real estate story — a discussion of Dallas neighborhoods.  It’s also a story about two women out having a (too) good time. The Observer said the diatribe was “an obscenity-laced speech full of racist and homophobic slurs and insinuations”. Well, there were some obscenities, but I’ve heard worse, and at one point a complaint about “the lesbians”, but mostly it was just plain rudeness. Like who calls themselves “white, normal people” and then tells someone how to wash their dreadlocks?

The two women, who claim in the video to be friends of Womack’s, were removed from the theater after complaints from other concertgoers. One of the women quickly leaves the scene when she realizes Liles is filming them, but the other, who has been identified as Kayla Watts, attempts to defend herself in a 10-minute recording that is awfully difficult to stomach. After describing herself and her friend as “white, normal people,” she refers to Oak Cliff as “the hood” and even insults Liles’ hair. (He has dreadlocks and can be seen later in the video.)

All in all, Liles and the Kessler staff for deal with the situation exceptionally well in the video. Kudos to them for remaining so patient and professional throughout the encounter.

When Liles was explaining the need to be quiet in theaters, it’s like he is talking to two children. He might have had better luck asking them to play the “quiet game.”

I was dying to know where these gals live. Part of me thought no, no, they don’t live in the Park Cities, maybe North Dallas or even…  Garland? (Kidding!) But no, I did a little digging and found that Kayla Watts, the pretty blonde the “white, normal person” who attempts to defend her behavior — “we were just having fun!” — does indeed live in University Park. She and her husband or S/O bought a 5,110-square-foot home in University Park August 15 of last year for about $1.5 million.

(I’m not going to tell you where the house is in University Park. But it’s there. And really nice.)

Interestingly, there are homes of similar value not too far from the Kessler Theater, in what Watts calls “the hood.”

Really, Kayla, just read CandysDirt.com every day, and we will teach you all about Dallas real estate. Great houses and schools all over the map. Having lots of spirit and pride in where you live is great, but there’s never, ever a need to be a snob about your ‘hood. Not in this town.