Theater Critic Picks

Dallas-Fort Worth theater critics bestow honors on 2015-16 standouts

Members of the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum convened on September 3 for their annual volley of voting, determining who deserves recognition for the 2015-16 season.

In categories covering new works to stellar performances, the six critics fought for their favorites. Not everyone's picks made it through the voting process, which needed either 50 percent of the votes or a unanimous decision if only two or three critics had seen the production, so look out for personal favorites to pop up in those end-of-year lists.

Dallas Theater Center had a stellar year, as did Stage West and Undermain Theatre. Some artists scored both on and off the stage, earning nods for their performances as well as directing and design contributions. Without further ado, here are the awards:

Outstanding Direction

Akín Babatundé, Bootycandy, Stage West, and The Mountaintop, Dallas Theater Center
Emily Scott Banks, The Big Meal, WaterTower Theatre
David Lozano, Blood Wedding, Cara Mía Theatre Company
Katherine Owens, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Undermain Theatre
Artie Olaisen, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Dallas Children’s Theater
Len Pfluger, Grand Hotel, Lyric Stage
Susan Sargeant, Play, WingSpan Theatre Company
Ryan Mathieu Smith, Trainspotting, L.I.P. Service
Garret Storms, The Nether, Stage West
Regina Washington, Harriet Jacobs, African American Repertory Theater

Outstanding New Play or Musical

Clarkston by Samuel D. Hunter, Dallas Theater Center
Deferred Action by David Lozano and Lee Trull, Cara Mía Theatre Company and Dallas Theater Center
Faust by Michael Federico, Lydia Mackay, and Jeffrey Schmidt, The Drama Club
Stacy Has a Thing for Black Guys by Ruben Carrazana, The Tribe
Temple Spirit by Susan Felder, Echo Theatre

Outstanding Touring Production

Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, AT&T Performing Arts Center Off-Broadway on Flora Series
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, AT&T Performing Arts Center Broadway Series
Eric Bogosian’s Bitter Honey: The Best of 100 (Monologues), AT&T Performing Arts Center Off-Broadway on Flora Series
Cabaret, AT&T Performing Arts Center Broadway Series
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, AT&T Performing Arts Center Broadway Series
Ghost Quartet, AT&T Performing Arts Center Off-Broadway on Flora Series
The Sound of Music, Dallas Summer Musicals and Performing Arts Fort Worth

Outstanding Performance by an Actor

Christopher J. Deaton, Grand Hotel, Lyric Stage
Bruce DuBose, The Night Alive, Undermain Theatre
Hassan El-Amin, A Christmas Carol, Dallas Theater Center, and The Mountaintop, Dallas Theater Center
Ivan Jasso, Deferred Action, Cara Mía Theatre Company and Dallas Theater Center
Jason Leyva, The Whale, L.I.P. Service
Barry Nash, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Kitchen Dog Theater
Alex Organ, Constellations, Dallas Theater Center
Brandon Potter, Richard III, Shakespeare Dallas and Shakespeare in the Bar
Garret Storms, The Big Meal, WaterTower Theatre
Terry Vandivort, The Fantasticks, Theatre Three

Outstanding Performance by an Actress

Emily Scott Banks, Jacob Marley’s A Christmas Carol, Stage West
Jessica Cavanagh, Outside Mullingar, WaterTower Theatre
Amber Devlin, Picnic, Theatre Three
Frida Espinosa-Muller, Blood Wedding, Cara Mía Theatre Company and Deferred Action, Cara Mía Theatre Company and Dallas Theater Center
Tiana Johnson, The Mountaintop, Dallas Theater Center
Jenny Ledel, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Kitchen Dog Theater
Denise Lee, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Jubilee Theatre
Janelle Lutz, End of the Rainbow, Uptown Players, and Miracle on 34th Street, Dallas Children’s Theater
Karen Parrish, Blackberry Winter, Kitchen Dog Theater
Allison Pistorius, Constellations, Dallas Theater Center
Joanna Schellenberg, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Undermain Theatre
Diane Worman, The Thrush and the Woodpecker, Kitchen Dog Theater

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast

The Big Meal, WaterTower Theatre
Bootycandy, Stage West
Faust, The Drama Club
Grand Hotel, Lyric Stage
Long Day’s Journey into Night, Undermain Theatre
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Dallas Children’s Theater
The Nether, Stage West
Play, WingSpan Theatre Company
The Toxic Avenger, Uptown Players
Under the Skin, Circle Theatre

Outstanding Design or Creative Contribution

Jeffrey Colangelo, fight choreography, Christina Valentine, fight assistant, and Bobby Garcia, martial arts consultant, Animal vs. Machine, PrismCo
Design team, Faust, The Drama Club
Design team, Jonah, Undermain Theatre
Jay Dias, musical direction and orchestration restoration, Anything Goes, Lyric Stage
John M. Flores, sound design, The Thrush and the Woodpecker, Kitchen Dog Theater
Richard Gwozdz, orchestra conducting, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Artes de la Rosa
Kyle Igneczi, puppet design and direction, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, Amphibian Stage Productions
Benjamin Lutz and Dillon White, video design, Trainspotting, L.I.P. Service
Lynn Mauldin and Rebekka Koepke, properties design, The Adventures of Flo and Greg, Echo Theatre
Scott Osborne, set design, The Fantasticks, Theatre Three
Karen Perry, costume design, Dreamgirls, Dallas Theater Center
Gil Pritchett, musical direction, Harriet Jacobs, African American Repertory Theater
Ryan Rumery, original music and sound design, Constellations, Dallas Theater Center
Garret Storms and Nate Davis, set design, The Nether, Stage West

Special Citations

Rose Pearson, co-founder of Circle Theatre, for a lifetime of visionary leadership of professional theater in Fort Worth and support of female theater artists.
Kurt Kleinmann, for his creation of Pegasus Theatre’s Living Black & White productions and 30 years as bumbling noir detective Harry Hunsacker.
Dallas Children’s Theater for providing sensory friendly performances for kids with special needs.

Critics

Lindsey Wilson, CultureMap
Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News
Martha Heimberg, TheaterJones.com and Dallas Weekly
Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice
Mark Lowry, TheaterJones.com and Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Punch Shaw, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum is an organization of professional, paid critics that recognizes outstanding theatrical contributions in North Texas. Members see 50 or more productions per season (September 1-August 31) and are not practicing theater artists.

The joint production between Dallas Theater Center and Cara Mía Theatre Company, Deferred Action, was one of the year's best new works.

Deferred Action at Dallas Theater Center

Photo by Karen Almond

The joint production between Dallas Theater Center and Cara Mía Theatre Company, Deferred Action, was one of the year's best new works.

theater awards

Theater News

Dallas' Kitchen Dog Theater unveils powerful 2026-2027 season lineup

Photo by Cameron Cobb

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas will put on three mainstage productions for their 2026-2027 season.

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas has revealed the lineup for the 2026-2027 season, featuring a slate of plays that boasts power players like kings, prime ministers, space force commanders, and would-be presidents.

According to a release, the theater company's 36th season — their "most powerful yet" — will consist of three mainstage productions at its new permanent home in the Design District, as well as the annual New Works Festival, featuring a readings series and the 26th annual D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest.

The season will start with The Absentee by Julia Doolittle, running September 10-October 4, 2026. The play was the winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award.

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Force ship explodes in the galaxy, the Operator finds herself alone in deep space, with only her ship’s AI for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election.

As the Operator waits for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice.

The season's second production comes four months later, with Equivocation by Bill Cain, running February 4-28, 2027. In 1605 England, a terrorist plots to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come. Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard's name) is commissioned by the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches — the king wants witches.

But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe investigate the plot, they discover that the king's version of the story might, in fact, be a coverup. Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power and perhaps lose their heads? Or take the money and lie? Is there a third option? Equivocation?

A high-stakes political thriller with contemporary resonances, Equivocation gallops from the great Globe to the Tower of London to the halls of Parliament to the heart of Judith, Shag's younger daughter, who finds herself unexpectedly at the very heart of the political, dramatic and — ultimately — human mystery.

The final mainstage production of the season comes at the 2027 New Works Festival with Black Republican by KDT Artistic Company Member Jamal Gibran Sterling, running June 3-27, 2027.

Originally featured as a Staged Reading in the 2026 New Works Festival, the ambitious first play by Sterling centers on a Black Republican candidate on the national stage who finds his campaign threatened by an activist who challenges everything he claims to stand for. Their battle exposes uncomfortable truths about race, politics, and the stories we tell ourselves.

In addition to Black Republican, the 2027 New Works Festival will showcase four staged readings of some of the newest and most exciting Texas-based playwrights. Each reading will feature accomplished Dallas-Fort Worth actors and directors to highlight the breadth of talent in the area.

The final part of the festival is D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, featuring six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by Dallas-Fort Worth high school students and featuring student actors directed by area professionals. PUP Fest is the culmination of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.

Kitchen Dog Theater offers two season subscription packages for their inaugural season in their new facility. The Kitchen Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for any performance date for $90+ $8 fees for adults and $75 +$8 fees for students and seniors (ages 65+). The Saver Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays only. It is $60 + $8 fees for adults and $45 + $8 fees for students and seniors.

Both packages grant full access to the Staged Reading Series and PUP Fest. Subscribers also receive premium reserved seating for in-person performances, as well as subscriber-only discounts on additional single tickets, 2026 special events, and KDT merchandise.

Subscription packages are on sale now, and single tickets for each show will go on sale on Monday, August 24, at kitchendogtheater.org.

design district kitchen dog theater new works festival performing-arts plays theater