Theater Critics' Picks

Dallas-Fort Worth theater critics declare standouts from 2013-14 season

Members of the DFW Theater Critics Forum gathered September 6 to hash out their picks from the 2013-14 season in categories such as best direction, best actor and actress, and best new play. Rather than declare a single winner in each category, the critics dole out accolades to several deserving works.

With stellar seasons from Uptown Players, Jubilee Theatre, Dallas Theater Center and Kitchen Dog Theater, several contenders just missed the five-vote minimum for inclusion, which led to many impassioned pleas from individuals who fought for their favorites, says Lindsey Wilson, CultureMap contributor and critic for D Magazine. So expect to see more people and plays than these on end-of-year best-of lists.

Without further ado, these are the critics’ picks for 2013-14:

Direction

Liesl Tommy, Les Miserables (Dallas Theater Center)
Tim Johnson, Detroit (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Tre Garrett, A Raisin in the Sun (Dallas Theater Center) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Jubilee Theatre)
Susan Sargeant, The Diaries of Adam and Eve and Happy Days (WingSpan Theatre Co.)
Daniel Aukin, The Fortress of Solitude (Dallas Theater Center)
Terry Martin, Dogfight (WaterTower Theatre)
Kevin Moriarty, Oedipus el Rey (Dallas Theater Center)
David Denson, Year of the Rooster (Upstart Productions)
B.J. Cleveland, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Uptown Players)

Actor

Steven Walters, Les Miserables (Dallas Theater Center)
Drew Wall, Nocturne (Second Thought Theatre)
Garret Storms, for his season of performances
Adam A. Anderson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Jubilee Theatre)
Joey Folsom, Year of the Rooster (Upstart Productions) and Hank Williams: Lost Highway (WaterTower Theatre)
Alex Ross, The Boy From Oz (Uptown Players)
Jaxon Beeson, Stiff (Fun House Theatre and Film)

Actress

Tina Parker, Detroit (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Liz Mikel, A Raisin in the Sun (Dallas Theater Center)
Tiffany Hobbs, A Raisin in the Sun (Dallas Theater Center) and Spunk (WaterTower Theatre)
Allison Pistorius, Venus in Fur (Circle Theatre) and Clybourne Park (Dallas Theater Center)
Juliette Talley, Dogfight (WaterTower Theatre)
Janelle Lutz, The Boy from Oz (Uptown Players)
Sarah Elizabeth Smith, The Boy from Oz (Uptown Players)
Ashley Wilkerson, The Mountaintop (Jubilee Theatre)

Ensemble

Heroes (Stage West)
Barbecue Apocalypse (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Uptown Players)
The Echo Room Presents: Her Song (Echo Theatre)

Creative Contribution

Coy Covington for his wig and makeup design for The Boy From Oz (Uptown Players) and wig designs for Pageant: The Musical (Uptown Players)
Gary James for his wig designs for Dogfight (WaterTower Theatre)
Clare Floyd DeVries for her set design for Detroit (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Jay Dias for his music direction of Nine and Titanic (Lyric Stage)
The design team for their season with Trinity Shakespeare Festival
Jeffrey Colangelo and Katy Tye for their movement design in Galatea (Prism Co.)

New Play or Musical

Stiff by Jeff Swearingen (Fun House Theatre and Film)
Booth by Steven Walters (Second Thought Theatre)
Barbecue Apocalypse by Matt Lyle (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Mania/Gift by Shelby-Allison Hibbs (Echo Theatre)
The Fortress of Solitude by Itamar Moses and Michael Friedman (Dallas Theater Center)

Touring Production

Evita (Dallas Summer Musicals)
Trick Boxing (Sossy Mechanics)
The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess (ATTPAC)
Peter and the Starcatcher (ATTPAC)

Special Citations

To Matt Tomlanovich for reviving the Margo Jones as a busy performance space; opening it to fledgling companies at a reasonable price; and making it available to small festivals, poetry slams, readings and dance groups.
To Lawson Taitte for his distinguished career in arts criticism.

Contributing critics:

Lindsey Wilson, D Magazine
Elaine Liner and Lauren Smart, Dallas Observer
Mark Lowry, TheaterJones.com and Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Martha Heimberg, Dallas Weekly and TheaterJones.com
Jan Farrington, M. Lance Lusk, David Novinski, TheaterJones.com
Alexandra Bonifield, Criticalrant.com
Punch Shaw, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice
Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News

A Raisin in the Sun at Dallas Theater Center.

Cast of Dallas Theater Center's A Raisin in the Sun

Photo by Karen Almond

A Raisin in the Sun at Dallas Theater Center.

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Lawsuit news

Artist sues FIFA for $25 million over painted-over Dallas whale mural

Facebook/Wyland

Artist Wyland's Whaling Wall mural being painted over for a FIFA World Cup-related mural in Dallas.

The artist who painted a giant mural on a building in downtown Dallas of life-sized swimming whales has filed a $25 million lawsuit against soccer's international governing body and others, saying they illegally painted over his work to promote the city's upcoming World Cup matches.

The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered roughly 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) across two of the building's walls.

The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the mural's grand scale and message of ocean conservation.

The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in place of Wyland's mural, new artwork is planned "that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland's mural would be preserved.

Wyland filed suit Monday, June 1 in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that World Cup organizers, along with the building's owner and management company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.

Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.

“Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city, in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city,” the artist's lawsuit says.

A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament's local organizing committee.

A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to comment. The committee isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural space for “a new public art installation.”

“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company's spokesperson said in an email.

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Wyland's Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.

An online petition protesting the mural's destruction and calling for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than 2,600 signatures.

Wyland's lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.

A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.

fifa world cup fifa world cup 2026 lawsuit wyland whaling mural murals downtown dallas