Entertainment

11:30 AM CST on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News

Good news outweighed the bad on the local theater scene this year – just barely. All the major companies did some great work, and the younger ones such as Second Thought Theatre and Classical Acting Company hit triples, if not homers, every time they got up to bat.

But Plano Repertory Theatre, deep in debt, closed its doors. Our Endeavors Theatre Collective announced it was dissolving, although the individual artists will continue to work around town. Several of the most ambitious newer companies, including Contemporary Theatre of Dallas and Uptown Players, grew more populist to combat the tough financial climate.

The most heartening thing about the theater hereabouts was the growing pool of first-rate directors and actors who are getting challenging work all over town. It's still a struggle for even the most successful to make a living at their craft. But the cream has been rising. Many of the best people are working everywhere and all the time. Theatre Three, which used to be more or less a closed shop, now has fresh talent in every show, and even WaterTower Theatre, which mostly used its house directors, shows signs of welcoming new blood.

First-class theatrical design came to Dallas the night Adrian Hall began his regime at the Dallas Theater Center. That was in the early 1980s, when Eugene Lee painted the walls of the Kalita Humphreys Theater a dark green and scribbled mathematical formulas all over them for Brecht's Galileo.

Under artistic director Richard Hamburger the last dozen years, the Theater Center has kept on setting new national standards in fabulous design.

Amazingly, the whole Dallas theater scene is now catching up with its flagship company.

Walking into Far East at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas last February felt like a similarly epochal event. Randel Wright's looming but delicate set – a Japanese temple with sliding screens depicting Mount Fuji – combined ambition and taste. Astoundingly beautiful, it also served the play perfectly and was head and shoulders above the design for the New York production downstairs in Lincoln Center.

I doubt that any city in the country has so many smaller theaters with such high standards of design.

Wade J. Giampa is similarly consistent; his high point this year was a brilliantly simple environment for the four remarkable little premieres in Lyric Stage's The Living End. Architect-turned-designer Clare Floyd Devries has also been working all over town, turning out such original concepts as WaterTower Theatre's Enchanted April.

Longtime presences on the scene such as Rodney Dobbs have also surprised us with some brilliantly fresh work. Theatre Three's in-the-round setting is hard to dress up, but Jac Alder's stunning designs for several recent shows, including Metamorphoses, have raised the bar there, as well.

We've always had brilliant costumers, but we see their best more consistently these days. Giva Taylor's royal duds for Shakespeare Dallas' Richard III are a case in point. Lighting designers, of course, have the ability to make or break their colleagues' work. They just keep getting better, too – notably Tristan Q. Decker, all over town.

Of course, the most gorgeous designs go for naught if the performers who inhabit them don't bring them alive. But often a great look gives actors that extra spark of inspiration to take a show to the next level. A period show such as Echo Theatre's Sailing to Byzantium, especially, can only work when the clothing and furniture help take the cast back 100 years and transform themselves into the glittering poets and patrons the script requires them to be.

THEATER TOP 10

Emotional impact was the big news on local stages this year. From giddy joy to floods of tears, the best shows were not afraid to go for it.

Margo Veil

A former company member said, "It felt like the old Undermain," and indeed it did. Undermain Theatre artistic director Katherine Owens returned to peak form, whipping up Len Jenkin's elliptical fantasy about the transmigration of souls into exhilarating fun.

Elegies

Theatre Three's basement shows are invariably among the best things in town. Terry Dobson's stellar cast of singers milked every ounce of humor, as well as sadness, from William Finn's songs about dead friends and family members.

Movin' Out

Twyla Tharp's powerful dance piece about Vietnam vets – set to Billy Joel standards – packs such a wallop I had to see it twice. On the second visit to this Dallas Summer Musicals standout, I was surreptitiously wiping away tears as the lights came up for intermission – only to find my two companions doing the same. And the finale goes as high as the first act goes low.

Far East

Instead of its usual crowd-pleasing fare, Contemporary Theatre of Dallas tackled A.R. Gurney's toughest, and best, play. Under director René Moreno, the cast nailed the subtle ambiguities of this tale of two cultures – Madame Butterfly told from the point of view of the young American officer.

Metamorphoses

Theatre Three had a very mixed main stage year, but Mary Zimmerman's poignant retelling of ancient myths felt fresh and inspired. The young cast cavorted in the onstage pool, and scared and appalled us as it amused us.

Pluck the Day

The young Baylor University grads who put together the new Second Thought Theatre include some of the best actors in town. One of them, Steven Walters, is also a heck of a playwright. His rowdy but philosophical comedy about three good ol' boys and the woman they love produced big laughs and gave great opportunities to its performers.

Wicked

Few road companies really reproduce the experience of a big Broadway hit, but this tuneful Stephen Schwartz prequel to The Wizard of Oz did just that for the Summer Musicals. Eugene Lee's set looked stunning, and Stephanie J. Block at least equaled the performance that won Idina Menzel a Tony Award last year.

The Violet Hour

All the Dallas Theater Center guest directors did great work in 2005 – especially local boy Joel Ferrell in A Christmas Carol. But the company's new associate director, David Kennedy, topped them all with a version of Richard Greenberg's tricky, problematical The Violet Hour that worked much better than the Broadway version.

110 in the Shade

Lyric Stage's monthlong festival devoted to Texas greats Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones was one of the year's big events, and this folksy musical was the highlight. Laurie Bulaoro, James Wesley, Greg Allen and Michael Newberry were all perfect in their roles.

Living Out

René Moreno again – this time directing a funny but ultimately harrowing piece about (you guessed it) cultural divisions. Two actresses more identified with Fort Worth, Gigi Cervantes and Lydia Mackay, turned in terrific performances at Addison's WaterTower Theater, and it was fun seeing Dolores Godinez onstage again at last.