Siege - Day 185

 Well, this is cheerful!  

Despite the pandemic, the Dallas - Fort Worth Theater Critic Forum met (virtually) to decide their awards... and found plenty of worthy shows even in this weird, shortened season.  Read more HERE at TheaterJones.

Many good people, shows, and organizations are recognized - congratulations all!  Well deserved!

I won't shout-out all my friends (that gets kinda high school-y), but I will just note (in a totally modest way) that several shows I was involved with won awards for acting and/or direction - which the critics call "our version of best production".  The play Alabaster was noted as an outstanding new play along with another I-did-the-set new work, A Love Offering, which also got a best direction nod for Tina Parker.  Both shows were at Kitchen Dog Theater.  

Alabaster at Kitchen Dog Theater - photo by Jordan Fraker

A Love Offering at Kitchen Dog Theater - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

And at Stage West, director Marianne Galloway gets to wear a "best director" hat for The Lifespan of a Fact.  (That's the show that started with a shallow, white, stylized stage - just a wall really - that crash landed to reveal a highly detailed "Mom's house" living room.  You wouldn't think a play about fact checking would be so fascinating... but then this era is all about fact checking.)  

The Lifespan of a Fact at Stage West - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

Coolest of all, the critics gave this special award :  "The primitive paintings of animals in Kitchen Dog Theater’s Alabaster — a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere — lining the set helped create an authentic atmosphere for this play about a reclusive amateur folk artist whose work is made on shards of wood caused by a tornado that devastated her family. The paintings were a group project of the cast, crew and friends."

So my one shout-out should be to Prop Designer Cindy Ernst, who led this effort and herself painted much of the art.  Kudos Cindy!

"Folk" art by Cindy Ernst for Alabaster