Kitchen Dog Theater kicks off its 13th annual New Works Festival, with a world premiere main stage production of Elaine Romero’s Ponzi, a National New Play Network Commission work that won an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. Presented as a reading in KDT’s 2010 New Works Festival, the play also received readings at Chicago’s … Continue reading
Posted in May 2011 …
Snowy, snowy night: Shooting Star soars
Airport terminals provide great settings for iconic teary send-offs, nostalgic peaks of unrequited love torn asunder; revisit the movie classic “Casablanca” to reach for the Kleenex box. In a quirky one-night spin that brushes up against elements of romantic nostalgia and the realities of time’s passage, Steven Dietz’s Shooting Star offers WaterTower Theatre the opportunity … Continue reading
Held Captive: The Birthday Boys @ The Texas Theatre
Whether your politics are to the right of Donald Rumsfeld or far left of Cindy Sheehan, you may appreciate Aaron Kozak’s The Birthday Boys equally. In two acts spanning less than twenty-four hours, it portrays a horrible experience that strengthens the bond between three Marine grunts taken captive by Mahdi Militia in Iraq, one that … Continue reading
Porcine Lullaby: Ochre House ‘The Butcher’
All trussed up with no place to go? Let The Butcher carve up your dessert at The Ochre House. Matt Posey’s latest creation, billed as a dark musical, is actually a porcine lullaby souffle, equal parts black Irish menace and Brechtian decay, where the stench of maggot-ridden evil drips from every meat-hook and lurks behind … Continue reading
The Texas Theatre: Live with “The Birthday Boys”
Eric Steele is a man with plans and vision. Actor, playwright, arts venue entrepreneur – he’s a savvy partner with film industry consultant Barak Epstein’s Aviation Cinemas. Them’s the folks that took over the lease of the Oak Cliff Foundations’ historic Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard in 2010 and are making giant strides in turning … Continue reading
Trinity’s Cast Shakes It Up for 2011 Festival
In rounding out an article about the 2011 Trinity Shakespeare Festival for the regional Arts & Culture DFW Magazine, I sent e-mails to a range of festival company members asking them to share their perceptions and feelings about the festival. So impressed by the impassioned responses I received, I post them below in their entirety … Continue reading
Mikado Tinged Blue: FW Opera
As its 2011 festival season commences, Fort Worth Opera cashes in on the “exotic allure” and ever-ready adaptability of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous operetta, The Mikado, with mixed results. Traditionalists may quibble over liberties taken (and frown at one non-script based scene of questionable taste) while modernists may chafe at its static quaintness straining … Continue reading
9 to 5: what a way to make a livin’!
What career path might a well-crafted college paper inspire? During screenwriter Patricia Resnick’s last year as a USC film student, well before she co-wrote the film 9 to 5, she penned an academic paper about film director Robert Altman. He read it and gave her an internship when she graduated. One day while Resnick was … Continue reading
Zombie Zen: blahblah @ The Green Zone
2011 A Space Odyssey meets It’s A Wonderful Life in walkabout dream-time. Doors open unexpectedly, physically, metaphorically, virtually and otherwise…. Pretty, average, twenty-something Joyce has a bad case of the blah-blahs and whines about it in no uncertain terms: her job, her life, her friends, and her boyfriend Karl, especially. Average, intellectual, not too hunky … Continue reading
Green Light 4 Red @ Second Thought
Red Light Winter has extended due to popular demand. Folks must like to see hot sex and rape enacted up close. Not gettin’ any at home? Extra performances are scheduled for May 10, 11 and 12 at 7:30 pm and Friday May 13 at 8 pm. Celebrate Friday the 13th here with someone you love … Continue reading
criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield 