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

The Fortress of Solitude at Dallas Theater Center.

Photo by Karen Almond

The Fortress of Solitude at Dallas Theater Center.

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Mural News

Netflix House will debut in Dallas with murals from acclaimed artist

Netflix House

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix House

A long-awaited immersive venue is opening in Dallas, and it will debut with local art on its walls: Netflix House, a year-round exhibit revolving around Netflix shows and movies, will open at Galleria Dallas on December 11, with two murals from award-winning Dallas multi-medium artist Jeremy Biggers.

Netflix House is an immersive dive complete with merchandise store, film house, arcade, and restaurant-bar. When it opens, Dallas will be the second location in the U.S., following Philadelphia, where it debuted in November 2025, also with murals from a local artist.

A graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Biggers is a renowned artist whose murals can be found spashed on walls across Dallas. Many, such as the Selena portrait on the wall outside Top Ten Records at 306 S. Bishop Ave., have become local landmarks.

He's a logical choice, having worked with a number of corporations including Nike, Adidas, the Dallas Mavericks, and IBM, for whom he created the "THINK" mural in their Dallas corporate office. His works have also been exhibited nationally, including a 2024 solo exhibition "be safe out there bro" at Band of Vices, a gallery in Los Angeles.

"Being chosen to be the artist to paint this mural, it would have been a disservice to myself, as well as the art scene in the city, not to try to infuse myself into it," he says.

$\u200bJeremy Biggers at Netflix House$ Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

Biggers did two murals featuring his interpretation of Netflix figures including the Squid Game Young-hee doll, characters from KPop Demon Hunters and megahit series Stranger Things, plus Pandy and DJ Catnip, the best friends in the interactive series Gabby’s Dollhouse.

Both murals are intensely colored works that incorporate Biggers' signature motif: a grid of polka dots spread across the image.

One is on the exterior of Netflix House, at the parking entrance, a colorful collage of characters, measuring 38 feet x 50 feet — the tallest mural Biggers has tackled. He painted it with aerosol; it took him two months to complete.
The other is on the interior, on the mall side entrance of Netflix House, measuring 57 feet x 12 feet — a study in moody blacks and blues, with accents of neon-red that give it a 3D effect.

“I'm trying to tell the story of Netflix, and the story of where Netflix has been historically, where Netflix is headed in the future, and then also infusing my own narrative and my own language visually into that story,” he says.

“They could have opened this anywhere, so for Dallas to be one of the very first locations — that’s a testament to us as a market, as consumers of arts and consumers in general," he says.

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

galleries openings

Theater Critics' Picks

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

The Fortress of Solitude at Dallas Theater Center.

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