Posted in February 2011 …

Norton Wins 9th Annual TeCo New Play Competition

From TeCo Theatrical Productions: Jonathan Norton (GRAND PRIZE WINNER) walked away $1,000 richer this afternoon for his one-act play The Last Supper at the culminating performance of TeCo Theatrical Productions’ 9th Annual New Play Competition. He is currently a graduate student in the Liberal Studies program at SMU and the recent recipient of the Diaspora … Continue reading →

Bardly Bedlam @ The Magnolia Lounge

“Who is really running the asylum?” asks Director Tom Parr in his program notes to Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure, the play inaugurating Nouveau 47 Theatre into the N. Texas thespian scene. The question might be applied to the logic behind selecting this complicated “problem” play and its resulting uneven production. A new company in an … Continue reading →

Brothers Barely Bad-Ass: True West @ CTD

The evening I attended True West at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Artistic Director Sue Loncar gave the curtain speech and explained why she chose to produce Sam Shepard’s black comedy. She said people kept complaining about “all the women’s plays” at CTD, so she decided to present one with an abundance of testosterone. Now that … Continue reading →

Broken Gears’ CREDITORS: Debt Paid in Full

Snuggle up tight, lover, and pay your debt. When Alan Rickman directed the 1888 play Creditors in London and New York in 2008, he described it as “three characters dragged through a hedge backwards in 90 minutes,” Make that a humongous holly hedge with sharp barbs. Creditors is a rank, double-dip dose of double cross … Continue reading →

Kitchen Dog’s MACBETH: Mind Full of Scorpions

“We have brought down the regime”, chanted the Cairo Tahrir crowd , while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another. Mohamed El Baradei, an Egyptian opposition leader, hailed the moment as being the “greatest day of my life… The country has been liberated after decades of repression.” (AP Press) As Egypt sheds a … Continue reading →

Texas Commission on the Arts: Only a Symbol?

An opinion from Terry Martin, Producing Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre: Today many area arts organizations continue struggling with the decision of whether to cancel or go on with performances during this unusual snowy weather, cancellations that will result in the loss of much needed income; a situation that surely cannot be helped. However, we … Continue reading →

Echo Theatre Wields A Gnarly Axe

“A theatre that is missing the work of women is missing half the story, half the canon, half the life of our time. That is the situation we have now.” Dallas’ opinionated ‘butch bluestocking’ critic is up on her soapbox again. What’s it about now? Plays. By. Women. Holy Goddess. Hey, Dallas and Ft. Worth … Continue reading →