Another year of outstanding D/FW thespian endeavor rolls by. Herein I post the decisions arrived at by the Dallas-Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum after three hours of deliberation, negotiation, advocacy and munching David Novinski’s delicious gluten-free brownies to finish our potluck meal at Martha’s. I’m stoked by the diversity and quality of performance art in … Continue reading
Tagged with african american repertory theater …
Truth in Black and White: A SOLDIER’S PLAY at African-American Repertory Theatre
Picture this: a military lawyer arrives at a base to investigate a crime. Considered an outsider, he finds himself deeply resented by those in charge. He presses on, however, determined to do his assigned job. Under his investigation’s gaze, the suspects in the case, the play’s characters, reveal complicated motives, sending first one and then … Continue reading
Follow the Path to Ferguson: AART’s “Detroit 67”
On Halloween night 2014, African American Repertory Theatre’s (AART) regional premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s award-winning period drama Detroit 67 opened its run at the KD Studio Theatre with an enthusiastic standing ovation from its sold-out multi-generational, multi-ethnic audience. The crowd hung around after to congratulate the cast and bask in the play’s artistry and discuss … Continue reading
Diverse, Dynamic, Dramatic Dallas Welcomes the TCG Conference
“It’s death by art,” she grins, ruefully. Referring to her killer arts schedule as Kitchen Dog Theater’s Co-Artistic Director, Tina Parker welcomes Theatre Communications Group’s annual national conference descending this week on Dallas TX in stride. Multi-tasking? No problemo for this canny, creative, ‘wondrous’ woman…. She just opened two major productions at her unique theatre … Continue reading
2009-10 Honorees: DFW Theater Critics Forum
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 … Continue reading
A Surfeit of Song: 4 Musical Ventures
If music be the food of love, cry me a river until another hundred people get off of the train…. It’s Summertime so musicals start bustin’out all over like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, which makes the livin’ less easy for busy reviewers. Another opening can be trouble with a T, but many … Continue reading
AART’s Inspired Light: Coretta’s Song
Coretta Scott King, American peace, social justice, women’s rights, anti-apartheid and LGBT activist, author and civil rights leader, recipient of the International Gandhi Peace prize, passed away on January 30, 2006. On Feb. 7, 2006 a reverential, multi-ethnic, multi-generational crowd of over 115,000 people filed past the open coffin of Coretta Scott King, during a … Continue reading
Speaking their truth: African American Repertory Theater
“Life is short, and it’s up to you to make it sweet.” Sadie Delany When lights come up on Having Our Say at DeSoto Corner Theatre, resident venue for African American Repertory Theater, a curious audience finds two kindly looking elderly African American women inviting it into their comfortably appointed home to share a cup … Continue reading
My Best of Live Theater in DFW 2009
Magic on stage in the Dallas-Ft. Worth region. A wealth of creative theatrical endeavor: satisfying, dignified and quirky, heart-warming and spine-chilling, thought-provoking and side-splitting, high art to lowly farce. Performance ritual reveals truths of the human condition through magical transformation. Or we hope that happens. Here’s what wove that special magic for me this year, … Continue reading
Waltzing A World Without Collisions: Master Harold…and the Boys
S. African playwright Athol Fugard must be one heck of an optimist. The son of an Afrikaner mother and a father of Irish Huguenot descent, he began writing plays in 1959, plays that took direct exception to the bigotry and repression of the apartheid regime ruling S. Africa at the time. After his first play … Continue reading
criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield 