‘A Texas Romance’ @ Rover Dramawerks
—Charlotte Taylor
In 2026, it is worth remembering what a "yes" could actually cost a woman in 1928. A widow back then had more legal standing than a wife (oddly enough); she was free to hold property and run her own affairs in a way a married woman couldn't. What a widow did not have was security (or much say in how the town talked about her). So when a woman allowed a man to court her, she wasn’t just weighing her heart. She was weighing independence against a roof that won't leak. At Rover Dramawerks, playwright Ellsworth Schave's A Texas Romance understands that, and it's part of why it sits comfortably next to something like Horton Foote's The Widow Claire, another small Texas play that treats a woman's choice of husband as an economic decision wearing a courtship costume.
Doris (played by Laura Jennings) is a South Texas woman who carries that weight without ever saying it out loud. In this production, Jennings’ performance is worth the price of the ticket. She brings this character to life with all the punchiness of a woman who decided a long time ago that wit is cheaper than despair (and twice as useful). Doris stands stationed at her window ready to “meddle” if meddling is required. And Doris's sharpness isn't comic relief stuck onto a plot—it's love wearing its work clothes. Every barb she throws at Garland Steinholden (a younger man attempting to court her recently-widowed sister) is a shield to keep her from repeating something that nearly wrecked her.
Jennings’ performance holds wit and wisdom in one hand and a fierce protective streak in the other; she glides effortlessly between the two so well you never catch the seam between them. Doris is a woman who has spent her life wanting more for the people she loves than she ever wanted for herself. And in the depths of any kind of despair, just wave a piece of pecan pie in front of her, and see what happens. Jennings plays this role (remarkably) without asking for our pity, which is much harder than it might sound in a review.
On paper, Daisy Wilson is the harder role. Kendra Young plays Daisy—a widow who has to be funny, scared, furious, and hopeful (sometimes in the same scene). The shape of the character comes through even where the depth doesn't always follow. This Daisy orders "dirty" books by "Mr. Fitzgerald" and "Mr. Lawrence" through the mail (because you certainly can't buy them in town) and dreams of opening an art shop in what she clearly considers a cultural dustbowl. Young plays all of it with a physical poise that calls to mind a young Natalie Wood, and the comic timing doesn’t miss. What lags a little is the depth: the moments that need to cut deep sometimes arrive a beat late, as if Daisy is waiting for permission to show something instead of just feeling it. You believe in Daisy, even though she doesn't surprise you much.
The relationship between sisters Daisy and Doris has a push and pull, which is where the play really earns its keep. Their exchanges move fast and you can tell these two have been arguing since they were kids and don't need to finish a thought for the other one to already be mad about it. Doris fires something off, Daisy fires something back before Doris is done, and neither of them slows down enough to actually say the real thing that lies underneath. It's less about two women agreeing on a decision than two women circling the same fear from opposite directions. This production lets that circling be funny right up until it suddenly isn't. Kudos to both actors for how well they've built that rhythm together. You'd believe they'd been sisters for thirty years!
Garland (played by Devin Hite) is where the production finds something genuinely lovely, a man who's young and ageless at the same time, gentle in a way that seems to have shown up in him before he had any idea what to do with it. Hite carries role this so well I never questioned whether he was truly 10 years younger than Daisy. His boyishness and inexperience with life and love was woven into his character from the first time we see him lurking outside Daisy and Doris’ home in the opening scene. He's carrying around the weight of what a man is supposed to be without anyone ever teaching him how to wear it, and Hite plays that as real confusion instead of a punchline.
We believe Garland would do anything to make Daisy happy. He just can't find the anything. He hops after her like a frog looking for the right lily pad (although he probably would not find one of those in South Texas), each landing hopeful, each one slightly off-center; there's something almost moving about watching a man try that hard and keep missing. The character runs on good intentions and bad timing, and it works because the actor never winks at us about it. He wants Daisy to teach him. By the second act, so do we.
Director Janette Oswald has curated a small but wonderful cast of three to tell this romantic comedy (initially written for Austin’s Live Oak Theatre). A Texas Romance sits at the more traditional end of others Schave has written about Texas. Under a Texaco Canopy and The Turquoise Pontiac were described by the Dallas Morning News as eerie, frequently funny tall tales on a West Texas highway, "down-home mysticism like a Lone Star version of The Twilight Zone”—and sounding more adventurous than A Texas Romance. Oswald does a fantastic job of understanding the story underneath the story and gathering the wonderful elements of this play together, making everything work from sound design to scenic design to the wonderful engagement between the actors.
The sound design by Geoffrey Dall was remarkable, from the opening roosters crowing in the distance as the play opened to the transition 1920s-era music (and recordings?) used for scene transitions that at one point created an impromptu audience sing-along with “You Are My Sunshine”—ending in plenty of chuckles all around. The scenic design, designed by Eddy Herring and built by Jason Rice, was the best I have seen for the re-configured Cox Playhouse stage. The house and porch were perfectly represented and the working, very audible screen door was exactly the kind of element that made you feel like you were there.
I almost questioned the topiary-ish arch at the house’s entrance . . . until the very last scene. (No spoilers!) Director Oswald also did the costume design which was marvelous and I found myself excitedly waiting for the next group of 1920s everyday outfits I began to expect were coming whenever I heard the music start. Vivian Reed did a wonderful job with prop design—everything being era appropriate (including a “switch” Doris goes to retrieve at one point).
A Texas Romance is a small play set in a small town, but this cast finds a bigger feeling underneath it. The show runs through September 26 at Rover Dramawerks, and is worth the trip to Plano. What could easily have been a slight, dated comedy instead lands as something sturdier—with three actors who trust each other completely, a director who clearly read the play as more than just a courtship plot, and a design team that never once let 1928 slip.
WHEN: September 10-26, 2026
WHERE: Cox Playhouse, 1517 H Avenue, downtown Plano TX
WEB: roverdramawerks.com
