The Cool Crowd

Cool folks are thick on the ground in Dallas. By cool we don't just mean that they can pull off Prada and Goodwill with equal aplomb. We're talking people whose actions make your local world richer, broader, more interesting. The ideas of Dallas' Creative Class rub off on this city every day, and the trickledown benefits are tangible: better media, cuisine, entertainment, buildings, and schools. These are the people you need to know.

THE GIFTED DROOG
Brian J. Smith, 21
ACTOR

Thanks to Brian Smith, people across the country are taking note of Quad C Theatre. Last year, as a student at Collin County Community College, Smith wowed audiences as Alex, the head "droog" in A Clockwork Orange. This spring, he was accepted by Juilliard. Yet another talented person fleeing Dallas for New York? Well, for the next four years anyway. But Smith says he's committed to doing regional theater, and, if we're lucky, we'll get him on his summer breaks.

THE EYE
Misty Keasler, 24
PHOTOGRAPHER

Most photographers try to tell a story. Misty Keasler, instead, documents the scene and lets the audience find the story, which lends her work a stark realism, void of sappy sentimentality. It also makes her one of the most promising and refreshing photographers in the country. She first gained national recognition with her photo essay on the Plano heroin epidemic, published in D Magazine in 2000. Since then her work has appeared in such publications as Nest and Texas Monthly. From exposing the realities of Parkland Hospital's ER to documenting the lives of Romanian gypsies, Keasler is merely a visitor to these worlds, and her work conveys voyeuristic appeal without sacrificing the subject's emotional power. Photo District News recognized her gift by recently naming her one of the country's 30 emerging talents. She's currently spending a year in Japan, working as a photographer for Newsweek, and her pictures from a recent trip to several Russian orphanages, revealing their somber conditions, will appear in an upcoming issue of D.  Misty is a former Theatre and Photography major at Collin County Community College.