criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield

Spirited conversation and congenial laughter, give and take, sober observations and impassioned advocacy over a tasty potluck lunch at Martha Heimberg’s stately Lakewood home made two hours simply fly by. Here’s the consensus of what worked well in regional theatre since September 2009, what we critics saw of it.

DALLAS-FORT WORTH THEATER CRITICS FORUM AWARD WINNERS 2009-10

Direction

• Robin Armstrong, Bach at Leipzig (Circle Theatre)
• Andy Baldwin, Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 (Theatre Arlington)
• Sharon Benge, Master Harold … and the Boys (African American Repertory Theater)
  

  Master Harold and the Boys

• Cheryl Denson, Funny Girl (Lyric Stage)
• Katherine Owens, Port Twilight (Undermain Theatre)
• Tom Parr IV, Alice in Wonderland (White Rock Pollution) Festival of Independent Theatres
• Alan Shorter, Opus (Circle Theatre)
• Stan Wojewodski Jr., Endgame (Undermain Theatre)

New Play or Musical

• The Road to Qatar! by Stephen Cole and David Krane (Lyric Stage)
• Long Way Go Down by Zayd Dohrn (Kitchen Dog Theater)
• Crystal City 1969 by David Lozano and Raul Trevino (Cara Mia Theatre Co.)

Actor

• Regan Adair, Reasons to be Pretty (Dallas Theater Center), Fat Pig (Dallas Theater Center) and Something Intangible (Circle Theatre)
• Jonathan Brooks, Port Twilight (Undermain)
  
  

  Chuck Huber in Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood

• Jeremy Dumont, Funny Girl (Lyric Stage)
• Chamblee Ferguson, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dallas Theater Center)
• Joey Folsom, for his season: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Broken Gears Project Theatre), Talk Radio (Upstart Productions) and subUrbia (Upstart Productions)
• Sean Hennigan, Death of a Salesman and A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center)
• Chuck Huber, Sherlock Holmes in the Crucifer of Blood (Theatre Three)
• Elias Taylorson, Talk Radio (Upstart Productions)
• Steven Walters, Fat Pig and The Shape of Things (Dallas Theater Center)

Actress

• Pam Dougherty, The Full Monty and Grey Gardens (WaterTower Theatre)
• Kristin Dausch, Funny Girl
• Marianne Galloway, Rabbit Hole (Contemporary Theatre of Dallas)
• Liz Mikel, Black Pearl Sings! (WaterTower Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dallas Theater Center)
  
  

  Trisha Miller in Much Ado About Nothing

• Trisha Miller, Much Ado About Nothing (Trinity Shakespeare Festival)
• Jennifer Powers, It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman (Dallas Theater Center)
• Cara Statham Serber, It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman (Dallas Theater Center)
• Diana Sheehan, Grey Gardens (Water Tower Theatre)
  
• Sally Nystuen Vahle, Death of a Salesman (Dallas Theater Center)
  
• Wendy Welch, Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits (Uptown Players)

Ensemble Performance

• Endgame
• Bach at Leipzig
• Opus
• subUrbia

Creative Contribution

• Design team of Port Twilight
• Robin Armstrong, for fight choreography and costume design, Bach at Leipzig
  

  Bach at Leipzig

   

• Bryan Wofford, for set design, Boom (Kitchen Dog Theater) and Long Way Go Down (Kitchen Dog Theater)
• Cindy Ernst and Zachary Broadhurst, for set design, subUrbia
• Scott and Joel Bayer for set design, Talk Radio
• Jeffrey Schmidt, for his season of design at Theatre Three, Echo Theatre and the Festival of Independent Theatres
• Design team of Sherlock Holmes in the Crucifer of Blood

Touring Production

The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac

• August: Osage County, Lexus Broadway Series at AT&T Performing Arts Center
• The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, Undermain Theatre
• Spring Awakening, Lexus Broadway Series at AT&T Performing Arts Center
• Xanadu, Dallas Summer Musicals

Special Citations

• For the Dallas Theater Center’s production of Neil LaBute’s The Beauty Plays, for innovation, ensemble acting (by Regan Adair, Aleisha Force, Steven Walters, Abbey Siegworth, Lee Trull, Christina Vela), direction (Joel Ferrell, Matthew Grey, Kevin Moriarty) and the audience talk-backs.
• Writer/performer/teacher/producer Fred Curchack, for being a true renaissance theater artist

Emerging Artist Award — Joey Folsom

Joey Folsom in subUrbia

PHOTO CREDITS:

• African American Repertory Theatre’s Master Harold and the Boys:l to r: Andrew Bourgeois, William “Bill” Earl Ray. Photo by Buddy Myers
• Theatre Three’s Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood: Chuck Huber. Photo by Jeffrey Schmidt
• Trinity Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: l to r: Jim Crawford, Trisha Miller. Photo by Amy Peterson
• Circle Theatre’s Bach at Leipzig: l to r: Steven Pounders, Andy Baldwin, David H. M. Lambert, Stephen Levall. Photo by Glen E. Ellman
• Stylized drawing of Taylor Mac from The New Yorker
• Upstart Productions’ subUrbia: l to r: Maryam Baig Lush, Andrews Cope, Joey Folsom. Marc Rouse photo

Participating critics:

Alexandra Bonifield, Criticalrant.com and Arts+Culture Magazine

Martha Heimberg, Turtle Creek News

Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice

Elaine Liner, Dallas Observer

Mark Lowry, TheaterJones.com and Arts+Culture Magazine

David Novinski, FrontRow

Punch Shaw, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Perry Stewart, TheaterJones.com

Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News

Joy Tipping, Dallas Morning News