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

Season Announcement

Dallas choral group Verdigris Ensemble promises multi-sensory new season

Photo by Richard Hill Photography

A scene from SHAMS in April 2023.

A mere month after announcing the hiring of its new executive director, acclaimed choral group Verdigris Ensemble is lifting the curtain on its seventh season.

It centers on the theme of “Regrowth,” with each multi-sensory performance telling a Texas-based story focused on both challenges and opportunities for environmental justice and community renewal.

To actually walk the walk, every ticket purchased this season will support Texas Trees Foundation’s planting efforts in the state to deliver on the promise of regrowth.

The season opens with The Endangered, a synergistic collaboration between Verdigris Ensemble and Dallas Contemporary Museum of Art.

This vocal and orchestral experience combines with movement and projections to look honestly and compassionately at natural preservation. The work is firmly planted in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for The Endangered, with a libretto by poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows.

Text from five Dallas poets is set to music by five regional composers. It runs October 27-29, 2023, at Dallas Contemporary.

The second performance series, Beautification, continues at the Dallas Contemporary December 1-3, 2023, and celebrates a unique collaboration inspired by site-specific work with visual artist Bianca Bondi.

Commissioning 8-10 composers, this work weaves together a narrative of Ladybird Johnson’s Highway Beautification Act and the native flowers of Texas. The Act was passed in 1965 and created restrictions on highway billboards that detracted from the natural beauty of Texas landscapes, and seeds of native flowers were distributed to bring native beauty to road travelers.

Projections of individual flowers envelop audience members in an experience much like driving a car on a highway. Iconic audio pieces of Ladybird’s speeches make the program a cohesive experience.

Dust Bowl, the season’s third performance, combines a unique medley of bluegrass band, video projection, and choreographed movement. The work shares stories from the period of the Dust Bowl through previously unexplored mediums and confronts questions of what caused this ecological disaster and what was learned from it.

This fan favorite debuted in 2020 and returns to Dallas in 2024 with an original libretto and added musical material.

The Dust Bowl began in 1931 and lasted for almost a decade, displacing entire populations in the Southern Plains region of the United States. Setting texts from newspaper articles, diaries, and oral accounts of survivors, the work pieces together a period of human struggle, hopefulness, and perseverance in the face of constant catastrophe. It runs February 23-25, 2024, at the Wyly Theatre' Potter Rose Performance Hall.

The season finale, Mis-Lead, is composed by Kirsten Soriano and premieres featuring 16 vocalists and basic percussion instruments found in factories that resonate throughout the production.

In 1934, a lead smelter was opened in West Dallas, resulting in toxic byproducts being dumped into nearby landfills and around people's homes. For over four decades, residents suffered consistent symptoms resulting in chronic diseases and death due to higher-than-normal levels of lead in their bodies.

This artistic piece brings attention to these communities, documenting the facts to prevent similar events in our future, while fostering human connection from all sides of the cultural spectrum. It runs April 5-7, 2024, at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Founded in 2017, Verdigris Ensemble is a Dallas-based professional choir dedicated to bringing choral music to the modern audience through creative concert programming, unconventional use of space, and collaboration.

Focusing on story-driven musical narratives, Verdigris Ensemble commissions new works, collaborates with interdisciplinary artists, inspires new audiences, and invests in the next generation of musicians.

Tickets may be purchased at www.verdigrismusic.org. Discount pricing is available for students.

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