Don’t let the grim title scare you away. Mortgage. The creative folks at Fun House Theatre and Film likes to come up with catchy one-word titles (like Stiff earlier this year) so they’re easy to remember. The titles don’t always have a lot to do with the shows, themselves. As in this one, running through … Continue reading
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2013-14 DFW Theater Critics Forum Awards
Some of these shows I did not see. A number I would not honor with awards. EVER. I am disappointed that neither Ochre House’s Christhelmet (directed by Matthew Posey) nor Diana Sheehan’s Full Gallop or her sophisticated cabaret, Searching for Gertrude Lawrence at WaterTower Theatre met the critical popularity threshold. I am quite thrilled for other wins. Call it a draw…. Direction: … Continue reading
STIFF: Deadly tale of mirth & woe at Fun House Theatre and Film
Fun House Theatre’s Stiff riddle: what’s more fun than one stiff? TWO. Bawdy bodies, a dead drunk and a corpse. Scurrilous schemes. A manic play within a play, with a deadly 9-act script, sure to kill off a critic? Add Jeff Swearingen’s dandy pack of thespian lads and lasses to the mix with their tight … Continue reading
A Stilted, Shapeless Thing: FunHouse Attempts Neil LaBute
I respect the acting ensemble at FunHouse Theatre in Plano. I admire the fearless veracity with which they take on challenging projects and own them. They are capable of producing solid works of genuine performance art that entertain as well as illuminate. In their current production of Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things”, they give … Continue reading
DFW Theatre Critics’ Forum Awards: 2013
Critics’ Forum Awards in 2013: a testament to the diverse, dynamic thespian output produced in our North Texas region, from originals to Classics, contemporary and edgy to the beloved, tried-and-true. In 2013 a youth theatre program figures prominently in the honors, and a 12-year-old member of its dedicated ensemble earns recognition for giving one of … Continue reading
Petal-Plucking Princess Wars Please at Fun House Theatre
Youth theatre with a raw edge? Find it by the compost heap-full at Fun House Theatre and Film in Plano. Performing through May12th, this Sunday, Jeff Swearingen’s cadre of talented, dedicated mademoiselles present Daffodil Girls, his comic parody adaptation of David Mamet’s celebrated drama Glengarry Glen Ross and come out Olympic champs. Swearingen turns … Continue reading
Sugar & spice & not very nice? Fun House Theatre’s Daffodil Girls
Good times roll again at Fun House Theatre in Plano, starting this Tuesday May 7. Daffodil Girls will work its nefarious charms and prick up the neck hairs on an unsuspecting audience. Find it a down and dirty, accurately voiced parody of David Mamet’s 1984 Glengarry Glen Ross as the female members of Jeff Swearingen’s … Continue reading
Moonrock Around the Clock! FunHouse Theatre’s Ultimate Easter Experience
Crawl out from under your school desks and emerge from your nuclear bomb shelters…hop on over to FunHouse Theatre’s “Ultimate Easter Experience” one mo’ time this Thursday night 3/28 before that wacky satellite of whimsical hilarity returns to its wobbly orbit around the moon. It’s the eagerly anticipated “prequel” to the award winning, world-famous (in … Continue reading
Fun House Theatre’s HAMLET: An Unquestionable Triumph
That infamous Dane may dilly-dally around in Shakespeare’s play, but there’s nothing indecisive about Fun House Theatre’s production of “Hamlet”, nor with the production’s 15 year old lead Chris Rodenbaugh, plotting and fretting on barely contained “simmer”, waiting for the perfect moment to exact revenge yet unable to move from contemplation to consummation. Respectful and … Continue reading
A Fine, Fresh Approach: “Hamlet” at Fun House Theatre
William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as youth theatre? Not a concept one might ordinarily envision. The prospect of young thespians undertaking and understanding so complex and “adult” a play, much less memorizing all those lines in Elizabethan English, boggles the mind. Step back a moment and consider Jeff Swearingen’s Fun House Theatre and Film in Plano. If … Continue reading