Please vote today for Critical Rant in the “Great Arts Blogger Challenge 2012“ The thing is very real at Stage West. Stoppard is the divine wordsmith; music works as cosmic intensifier. If music be the food of love…. So, what is it we want so desperately from love? The real thing. The real thing. In … Continue reading
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Anchor or Albatross? New York’s Cultural Capital
New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where? Chew on that image a while: “the cultural capital of America”. With the diversity of regional influences - cultural heritage, geography, job markets, educational opportunities, to name a few – it’s hard to say that any one location … Continue reading
Stage West: Occupy New Jerusalem?
That radical Baruch de Spinoza, on trial at Stage West…. And now, from the brave folks who brought the Dallas-Fort Worth region Frayn’s Copenhagen and Mamet’s November, comes another spell-binding brain-teaser of theatrical invention: David Ives’ New Jerusalem. Deepest bows to Stage West in Fort Worth for continuing a tradition of producing plays that challenge … Continue reading
Best of 2011: On Stage in North Texas
Reflecting on North Texas’ stage performance in 2011, I take pride in recognizing the region’s senior directors. They bring immense creative vision and studied, practiced, pragmatic understanding of their craft to the arts community. They inspire performers, critics, advocates and patrons, alike, to “keep after it”, even as we have less than a 9% share … Continue reading
Bursting Bellicosity’s Bubble @ Stage West
Any play that draws inspiration from Virgil’s Aeneid perks my ears up. One of GB Shaw’s early commercial “hits”, Arms and the Man, first produced in 1891, plucks its title from the opening lines of The Aeneid (Arma virumque cano: literally, I sing of arms and the man, meaning “I sing of the deeds of … Continue reading
Tempest in a Galactic Teapot: Dallas Theater Center Does Shakespeare, Again
Chamblee Ferguson is Dallas Theater Center’s Marathon Man. Is there any style of stage performance he can’t master with skill, dedication, depth and passionate lyricism? As brimming over with detailed, ornate stage settings and effects as DTC’s current production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest may be, Ferguson negates the need for any of it and would … Continue reading
Playing Foote-sie: Stage West & Dallas Theater Center
North Texas’ iconic Horton Foote Festival established itself on solid ground this past two weekends with entirely different productions opening at Stage West in Fort Worth and at the Dallas Theater Center’s Wyly Theatre. Running the full gamut from intimate to epic, these productions demonstrate eloquently why Foote’s work is worthy of a celebration festival … Continue reading
About this This at Stage West
In his 2009 New York Times review, Charles Isherwood wrote that with her play This, Melissa James Gibson “graduates into the theatrical big leagues with this beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible work.” Please consider this. Take some of the DFW region’s most talented, experienced, versatile actors and cast them as a tight 2011 … Continue reading
Best on Stage 2010: criticalrant.com
Ten Top Productions: Literary merit. Imaginative staging. Sophisticated direction. Cohesive ensemble performance. Comprehensive technical vision and execution. Delightful, viable realities. Our Town (Water Tower Theatre) August: Osage County (Oklahoma City Repertory Company) Much Ado About Nothing (Trinity Shakespeare Festival) The Dog Problem (Undermain Theatre) Umlauf’s Bicycle (The Ochre House) The 39 Steps (Stage West) Charm … Continue reading
Tread sans Dread: Stage West’s Sure-footed ‘The 39 Steps’
What is it with live stage comedy in Ft. Worth? There must be something in the water. When Ft. Worth based theatre companies produce dramas, they do fine work. When they take on comedy, they launch into supersonic dimension. Running through September 26, Stage West presents a fearlessly funny production of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 … Continue reading
