criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield

2019 in a Teapot: Reflections on Regional Theatre

2020 ushers in my fifteen-year mark of writing theatre critique, advocacy and arts features in the Texas/Oklahoma region. How tempus does fugit. I saw an array of well wrought, engaging productions throughout the year. The endeavors of young, adventuresome artists encourage me to think that the region has enormous growth potential. Small companies with strict … Continue reading →

Delicate Truths: INTIMATE APPAREL

For many years fine women’s undergarments, meticulously crafted in lace-trimmed silk and satin, intended for exclusive view when worn, if ever seen by male gaze, were referred to as “delicates”, too private for common or graphic description. The creation of such “delicates” weaves the dramatic plotline of Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play, INTIMATE APPAREL, set in … Continue reading →

TCTP’s DUTCHMAN: The Subway Ride to Hades

Worthy live stage productions send us on magical roller coaster rides. Sometimes they lead to gales of laughter. Sometimes they drop us into the darkest pathways of tragic human existence. Sometimes they help us expand our world perspectives. Sometimes they reinforce how marvelous life can be. And sometimes the roller coaster hurtles full steam off … Continue reading →

Coming Soon to Your Barrio: ¡Estar Guars!

When George Lucas filmed his original “Star Wars” in Tunisia and an English film studio in 1975 and 1976, the film went $3 million dollars over budget due to production difficulties and cast and crew believed the film would fail at the box office. It opened in limited engagement on May 25, 1977. Nobody saw … Continue reading →

A Trifle Murderous at Water Tower Theatre

Murder most foul in Broadway musicals? Seems an odd pairing, but time has proven the combo major hit fodder. In 1975 Kander, Ebb and Fosse’s Chicago debuted 0n Broadway, based on a 1926 play about two murderesses’ trials, and ended up as second longest running musical on Broadway with six Tony Awards, two Oliviers and … Continue reading →

BLACK COMEDY: Theatre Arlington’s Fun Fruity Flambé

It starts with a snicker and a chuckle. Then comes a few snorts and a guffaw. More chuckles, leading to moans and groans. And suddenly the audience finds itself busting out in belly laughs…. That’s how Peter Shaffer’s 1965 romantic farce Black Comedy affects audiences as the absurdity picks up steam and careens down a … Continue reading →

Our Town/Nuestro Pueblo/Amar La Vida

Haunted Memory: Circle Theatre’s THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Penning a stage review of the eminent play THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams makes me feel like a humble commoner staring into my modest closet’s thrift store contents after receiving an invitation to an audience with the Queen of England. Overwhelmed. Will I reach inside and draw out anything worthy and credible, up to … Continue reading →

Spitting Nails with Governor Ann: Triumph at Zach Theatre

Ann Richards would spit nails. If she were alive today, Texas’ outspoken 1990’s Democrat governor might exclaim, “Why in tarnation is a lying, hate-mongering, racist, narcissistic abomination allowed to squat in our White House?” Here’s the best ticket to inspire hope for the soul and future of our nation and send voters to the polls … Continue reading →

Succulent Smorgasbord of Song: GHOST QUARTET

I believe works of performance art should stand alone, sans explanation. I should not need to research them before attending a performance to understand them. I don’t usually read the show program before viewing a show. I want to experience it just as it unfolds. This can lead to delightful experience as much as total … Continue reading →

Sizzle and Soul: TCTP’s Righteous SUMMER AND SMOKE

People tend to associate Tennessee Williams plays with pedantic required reading for high school English classes or as suitably relegated to university production where students “learn to act” through staging fusty, outdated Classics. How unfortunate. A worthy stage experience can transport an audience into an invented world of wonder and illumination, providing unanticipated insight into … Continue reading →

No Foolin’ Around at The Classics Theatre Project: Fool For Love

Sam Shepard’s lyrical, chilling fantasy drama Fool For Love debuted at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in 1983, starring the kick-ass Ed Harris and Kathy Baker. It won Obie Awards across the board, was nominated for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has soared in multiple national and international revivals over the years plus in … Continue reading →

Take The Leap: ON THE VERGE with WingSpan Theatre Co.

Jules Verne meets L. Frank Baum meets Steve Martin? Eric Overmyer’s 1980’s comedy On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning charms its audience into traversing across time and place with a prolific immersion of fanciful linguistic invention. Part proto-feminist manifesto, part visionary crossword puzzle from an Escher-like perspective with a droll hint of Burnsian … Continue reading →

FIT 20: Duelling Duos Disarm with Delight

A disarming duet of duos….FIT20, the Festival of Independent Theatres, opened this past weekend with a dynamite pair of two person shows that emerge from separate ends of the universe but make an entirely simpatico evening of theatrical whimsy for audiences into experiencing sensory immersion perched on the edge of daring. Catch this pair together … Continue reading →

Winning Serendipity Roulette: Trinity Shakespeare 2018

William Shakespeare was dead for forty-four years before any woman was allowed to perform any role in his plays, proclaims Theatre Unbound, a Minnesota women’s theatre company that mounts live stage productions “conceived and created” exclusively by women. Since 1999 this unique company has given opportunities to 137 female directors, 435 female actors, 109 male … Continue reading →

Justice Served? Media Metrics and Elephants In the Room

In response to the Dallas Morning News feature posted online May 2, 2018 and shortly after in print, “Now What?”: Do ethics and truth mean nothing compared to trolling for increased metrics under the flimsy guise of “presenting both sides of a story”? Clueless, callous opportunism? Check. The Dallas News article shed no new … Continue reading →

Breaking BREAD in Addison: Half a Loaf

Dallas native playwright Regina Taylor’s new play Bread, in its world premiere as commissioned and produced by Water Tower Theatre at the Addison Theatre Centre, promises a tasty treat judging by the enticing scents wafting out from its dramatic oven as it opens. It’s a play you hope to sit back with, inhale deeply and … Continue reading →

Heaven’s Hope: Isabella Ides’ White Monkey Chronicles

An air of mystical eternity permeates northern California’s Humboldt County. It’s not just the heady aroma of eucalyptus or the mist-shrouded sun floating silent over rolling hills at dawn. A pervasive spirit of ageless magic breathes soulful mantras beneath the surface of Humboldt’s every nook and cranny, vista and shady grove, day and night. Small … Continue reading →

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, ROCK THAT CRADLE

This opinionated essay constitutes my review of Brick Road Theatre’s educational, politically relevant, soaring production of LGBT composer Mark Blitzstein’s notorious 1937 play with music The Cradle Will Rock. If you value being an educated (and entertained) theatre patron, don’t miss it. It runs through March 18 at The Cox Playhouse in reconstruction-crazed downtown Plano. … Continue reading →

STIFF in NYC: Straight Up, Texas-style

Dare to tread where death abounds? The Blighted Heart surely killed the critic as he wrote his front row review of this 9-act torchy blunder. The farce it’s part of, Stiff, is simply to die for. Laughing, that is. Find this frenzied, farcical delite at The Barrow Group Theatre (TBG Theatre) through March 3, 2018 … Continue reading →

Dynamic Dame Creates World of Wonderful

When William Moulton Marston created the fictional Amazonian character Wonder Woman for DC Comics (first appeared in 1941), he probably had no clue of the paradigm shifting, multi-generational impact and popularity she would have. Nor could he have imagined the impact one creative, intelligent, impassioned producer/advocate, a veritable Wonder Woman in her own right, could … Continue reading →

Criticalrant Best Choices 2017: Theatre in N.TX/OK Region

Best of 2017? DFW fosters a diverse, vibrant theatre community with more talent expanding its depth and range every year. Many interesting roles for women in 2017…. Despite the focus on harassment issues and the #MeToo paradigm shift, DFW theatre trends towards more parity in male/female engagement. It’s always easy to recall an array of … Continue reading →

With a Little Help From Their Friends: Ochre House ORIGINAL MAN

Most human life consists of an ongoing, benumbing experience of mundane, routine existence. What “drama” appears isn’t all that pretty. We seek out events and connections that transport us beyond that limited experience, that can add hope, context and meaning. We long for joyful release in living our often-frustrating lives. Truly creative theatre can transport … Continue reading →

Guest Spot: Ward on LEAR

Thomas Ward·Saturday, November 11, 2017 Last night I saw Prism Movement Theater’s LEAR. It is a wordless adaptation of KING LEAR focusing on Lear, her Daughters, and the Fool. It was a fantastic piece and I’m so glad I was able to see it. This isn’t a review of the production, I’m just trying to … Continue reading →

Humanity Flyover: GRACELAND at L.I.P. Service

““I’m a person who doesn’t like summer or sunshine,” said Ellen Fairey, playwright and self-proclaimed melancholic.” opens a February 2010 nytimes.com article about then emerging playwright Ellen Fairey. For a woman with a decidedly pessimistic view of life, good fortune has certainly flooded her creative path. Chicago’s established Profiles Theatre booked her play Graceland before … Continue reading →

Fluid Emotion: Essential Lear at Theatre Too

Conventional, traditional productions of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, included in the 1623 First Folio, feature a substantial cast that includes fourteen speaking characters of some primary impact, plus an assortment of officers, soldiers, attendants and messengers. In Prism Movement Theater and Theatre Three’s co-production, called Lear, running through November 19th in the intimate Theatre Too … Continue reading →

Performing Kate Hamill: A Bold Risk for Water Tower Theatre

The concept of “re-imagining” performance art seems to be en vogue lately, discussed and debated as if it’s something new, innovative. There’s nothing much new about it. William Shakespeare “re-imagined” virtually every play published under his name, and it has worked out quite well for him and about 500 years’ worth of theatre audiences. Very … Continue reading →

Bats in Outcry Theatre’s Belfry

Bat Boy: The Musical is no Spring Awakening, if that’s what it aspires to. Are you easily offended? If so, give this show a pass. It’s an equal opportunity, multi-level offender. But if you find a parody concerning a disabled, blood-sucking, kind of effeminate, part human lad, widely misunderstood by stereotypically violent, rural hicks a … Continue reading →

Parents Trapped at Proper Hijinx

No goofy teen Hayley Mills bebops about in Bathsheba Doran’s hour long Parents Evening, presented by Proper Hijinx at the Addison Conference Center Studio Theatre through Sunday, October 1. An embattled, bickering, relentlessly flagellating homage to the ritual prep some couples with progeny must go through prior to engaging in parent-teacher conferences at the dreaded … Continue reading →

DFW THEATRE CRITICS FORUM 2017

Go, team — 6 of 9 lauded directors are women….  OUTSTANDING DIRECTION Robin Armstrong, Ripcord, Circle Theatre Emily Scott Banks, Stupid Fucking Bird, Stage West; The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, WaterTower Theatre Cheryl Denson, Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, Uptown Players Marianne Galloway, Stiff, Risk Theater Initiative (Festival of Independent … Continue reading →

Hit or Miss? HIT THE WALL at Water Tower Theatre

Underwhelmed. Puzzled about it. When I attend a play heralded as a product of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, I expect to experience a performance of depth, resonance and drama. I attended Water Tower Theatre’s opening night regional premiere performance of Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall (running through August 20), anticipating a wow. I waited and waited. … Continue reading →

Devil’s Return: Joey Folsom’s Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce is back and looks damn good for a guy who died of a morphine overdose in 1966. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. When he stepped out on the Dallas Comedy House stage Friday August 4, he looked like a million greenbacks, sparkling with macho swagger and lady-killer grin. From the slick, … Continue reading →

Like An Angel: Van Quattro’s TOMMY CAIN at FIT 2017

“I am getting out of this booty-busting shithole today, six months of hell, man I hate this place. I have been sitting here for over two hours just waiting…where is she?” Tommy Cain, Van Quattro’s taboo-trampling, sharp-edged solo play, runs through August 5 at Dallas’ 2017 Festival of Independent Theatres, and you should haul your … Continue reading →

Vulnerability Awesome: Quattro and Ward at FIT

Regional esteemed professional actor/playwright Van Quattro put his heart and soul on the line in his successful autobiographical one man show Standing 8, portraying his search for love and self-worth as an angry, unstable young man in LA. It’s a gripping, honest and poignant confession. I witnessed several versions as he dug deeper and refined … Continue reading →

FIRST WEEK Ruminations on FIT 2017

The three productions that round out Festival of Independent Theatres 2017’s opening volley (aside from Risk Theatre Initiative’s brilliant Stiff, reviewed separately) are standard fare for appropriate inclusion. David Meglino and his brainstorming crew know what they are doing in assembling this yearly puzzle. This enduring niche festival has a devoted audience; many will enjoy … Continue reading →

The Serendipity of Sugartits: STIFF at FIT17

I have never experienced a performance quite like Stiff before. Most plays exist as art underpinned by some aspect of life, from the realistic to the absurd, the tragic to the comic, the trite and predictable to the original and unexpected. The Art defines reality on stage. Risk Theater Initiative’s entrant in the 2017 Festival … Continue reading →

Colonic for the Soul: LENNY BRUCE IS BACK with Joey Folsom

Dallas Comedy House, Dallas, Texas’ premier comedy venue, declares, “Humor is subjective and comedy is personal” on their website. Salacious sage/infamous stand up comic Lenny Bruce might agree with that, with the addition of a few choice expletives sure to make somebody’s granny blush. August 4 and 5 Dallas audiences get the chance to … Continue reading →

From Machiavelli to Samsara: Trinity Shakespeare Festival 2017

RICHARD III The term Machiavellian gets applied to Richard III often, referencing the incarnation of the king William Shakespeare created for a British court focused on dynastic justification. It frequently inspires two kinds of portrayals of the titular character on stage. They are 1) a supremely vile psychopath who rages at the drop of a … Continue reading →

Game On: WAITING FOR LEFTY by Upstart Productions

“The world is supposed to be for all of us…Hello, America!” Waiting for Lefty Delighted to see that the frequently conservative Dallas Morning News has not blacklisted Upstart Productions for producing Clifford Odet’s Waiting For Lefty and that the production will continue its run through April 1, playing to full houses. That’s exactly … Continue reading →

WHAT THE DEUCE! A Dreamy Double-Dose of Drama

Double your pleasure, double your fun. Double your impact? With the NEA, NEH and PBS funding at risk under a wildcat Republican administration in DC, it’s hard not to worry how the arts will survive and thrive. Two Best of the Region theatre companies have linked resources to offer audiences a special two-fer deal this … Continue reading →

Curse of the Mommy: A BEAUTY at Greater Lewisville Community Theatre

As much as many people revere motherhood and elevate that august personage on to a hallowed pedestal, the reality exists that sometimes she’s just a mean, conniving old broad that deserves a sharp comeuppance. Martin McDonagh’s 1996 black comedy The Beauty Queen of Leenane addresses the subject explicitly. If well performed, the play can both … Continue reading →

Step Up to The Basement: Our Future, Performing Today

Just don’t call them “kids” in the theatre…. When they walk into a rehearsal or performance setting, these artists are as professional as they come in our arts community. They are the creative engines, the future visionary drivers emerging from Jeff Swearingen’s Fun House Theatre and Film. And they are stepping out in style in … Continue reading →

The Caveman Returns! John Venable at Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre

Handsome, expressive, congenial, versatile. Longtime Dallas stage and film actor John Venable earned that reputation honestly among his peers in the DFW theatre community. For five years he has had the good fortune to join the unique ranks of actors hired to nationally tour as the solo “apologist” for the entire male gender in Rob … Continue reading →

On Hallowed Ground at Second Thought Theatre

“Most guys don’t like what I do…feel they’re less of a guy around me. I take the guy spot, and they don’t know where they belong.” The female fighter pilot in Grounded Some reviews beg to be written. Second Thought Theatre’s Grounded by George Brandt has haunted me since I witnessed last Friday the 13th’s … Continue reading →

Home for the Holidays at CityRep: A TUNA CHRISTMAS 2016

How do two best friends of almost 40 years celebrate the holidays together? They mount a simple little two-person show for their friends and family. Except it also happens to be the most requested show and biggest hit in Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre’s 15-year history. A Tuna Christmas, Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard’s … Continue reading →

Bang the drum: Trinity Shakespeare Festival 2017 doth come!

Trinity Shakespeare Festival proudly announces its productions for Summer 2017, as it enters its 9th year of audience-pleasing excellence in performance. Richard III and Measure for Measure will run in repertory June 13-July 2, 2017 on the campus of Texas Christian University. AUDITIONS FOR TRINITY SHAKESPEARE 2017 Wednesday and Thursday January 18th and 19th Open … Continue reading →

Clowns Command with Charm in Cara Mia’s NUESTRA PASTORELA

Guest review by Dr. Darise Eror In the Medieval era, clergymen faced the challenge of keeping the sacred embedded and relevant in the lives of a burgeoning middle class. Their answer? Make it funny! Thus emerged the Morality and Mystery Pageant plays, which blended the sacred with the profane in absorbing, anachronism-riddled theatre. Co-writers Jeffry … Continue reading →

Flock the Holidays with Cara Mia Theatre Co.

Cara Mia Theatre Co. aims to enchant Dallas theatregoers into the holiday spirit with their original family comedy favorite Nuestra Pastorela, opening Saturday November 19th and running through Sunday December 11th at the Latino Cultural Center. Directed by top-drawer movement and combat specialist and Cara Mia member artist Jeffrey Colangelo, the family friendly play unfolds … Continue reading →

“Get Wicked” with House Party: Interview with MACBETH’s Taylor Harris

#getwicked “We have party in our name? We think theatre’s a party and we want our audiences to think so to,” chuckles House Party Theatre’s Creative Director Taylor Harris, his resonant, rich voice rumbling with glee. He’s playing the title role of the company’s inaugural production of a sweet little play by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, … Continue reading →

PRISMCo’s MIDAS: Mining Aurulent Reflection

Pay attention, class. How many of you know the story of King Midas with his Golden Touch? And you think of him as a seedy, greedy dude whose ability to turn everything he touched into gold backfired on him? Big, bland moral. What a yawner. That’s one perspective. But what if there was a human, … Continue reading →

A Fresh, Adult Take: R & J Reboot

Think it’s a bit strange to see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with two actors over the age of 50 playing the leads? Think again. According to guinessworldrecords.com, the oldest actor to portray Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, was 76-year-old Sian Phillips in a 2020 Old Vic production, with then 66-year-old stage and film star … Continue reading →

Sensational Savagery @ Theatre Three

Savagely seductive over its three hour long two interval duration, Theatre Three’s production of Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? finally opened Saturday July 10th to a smallish house of ardent T3 and Albee supporters. Regional respected director, SMU and Yale theatre professor and Fulbright scholar Blake Hackler brought forth a salaciously sapient and … Continue reading →