Onstage NTX Writers’ 2025 ‘Bests & Faves’ (Ryan)
—Ryan Maffei
The end-of-year performing arts listmaker in cities across the country can face daunting considerations—how comprehensive to be, for one thing (a challenge of both time and space), and being accurate (impossible, really; one can only try to balance objectivity and subjectivity). And North Texas has a lot of theatre to talk about.
But the DFW theatre “appreciator” really has one major task—to spread love and gratitude for the bountiful theatre scene around us. And what’s nice about these laurels is I’m liable to run into their subjects around town to give them directly. These odds decrease for the NYC theatre appreciator (also, it is colder outside up there). But in case I don’t see you, I want you to know you did really good work this year. Here are my thoughts, contributed with admiration:
1) The entire cast and crew of Primary Trust, a Dallas Theater Center/Stage West joint effort that played in both Fort Worth and Dallas. Sasha Maya Ada regularly proves she’s one of the sharpest and most visionary directors in town – as well as one of the most eloquent speakers on what needs to change to make things better. Another such director/actor, Tiana Kaye Blair, gave a multi-character tour-de-force performance in Primary Trust, matched by Lee George, who played just one highly challenging character consistently well throughout. This one was an A+.
2) Theatre Three put on quite a few shows for us this year, and not all of them were part of its season. My favorite one of the ones I caught was the irresistible trifle Debbie Does Dallas – the collective laughter practically raised the room temp in the Theatre Too space – and while the whole cast was fabulous, Lily Gast really does deserve singling out. I don’t know if I saw smarter comic work all year.
3) Plague Mask Players’ Alice was quite a feat, with special props to its ensemble. And this production was a master class in “lighting as set” (and as a sure-fire ticket to Wonderland). No longer in DFW, Mia Lindemann was one of the best such designers we ever had.
4) Xanadu at Uptown Players was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life, and I intentionally skipped the (I’m sure real good) other one just to preserve the experience. Ally Van Deuren is a literal genius, and the rest of the cast, including the ever-lovable Luke Weber, worthily kept pace with her – on skates, no less.
5) I happened to be nominated for Best Performer in a Play this year for Broadway World Dallas. My vote in that (stacked) category was for John Marshall in Theatre Arlington’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. The level of work, compassion and humor in Marshall’s performance was something to behold.
6) Hire Claire Fountain, DFW theatre-makers – not only did she do brilliant (and important) intimacy work for more shows than you can count on two hands, she lit up Sundown Theatre Collective’s The Amphibians – co-starring with the collective’s director Julia Bodiford, who matched her sublime beat for sublime beat. This incredible Dan Caffrey play, whimsically yet cuttingly staged by Taylor Hoyt, was a sign of the times we all need to heed. Sundown is worth so much more attention than it gets in DFW.
7) Meagan Harris’ Lux: a Solo Show doesn’t exactly defy description – I reviewed it, after all – but attempts to reduce the experience to sensible size are doomed. Now due for a revival in Los Angeles, this completely sui generis piece is well worth the plane ticket.
8) Every once in a while you see a performance that brings the word “Tony” to mind. And Mary Gilbreath Grim singing “He’s My Boy” in Uptown Players’ Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was one of those performances – I’m still crying over it.
9) Opera Box was my favorite of the handful of Ochre House Theater shows I caught this year – its empathy and textured humanity pierced the avant-garde cloak the shows normally come wrapped in. Amazing work by Matthew Posey (the playwright and AD); a wonderful comic turn by Lauren Massey; and a haunting song from the irrepressible Christina Cranshaw about addiction, a moment that will stick with me forever.
10) I probably didn’t see anything better than Circle Theatre’s Mac Beth this year. With a court of spirited, hilarious, brilliant young actors surrounding Savannah Yasmine Elayyach’s all-dimensions usurper, its giddy, nonstop sense of humor survived even the year’s most awful death scene. Sasha Maya Ada strikes again.
Also, a special shout-out to the ghost making the machine go in innumerable productions around town – Harper Caroline Lee. You can’t wave your hands on a DFW stage without hitting someone whose working experience was improved by Lee’s inexhaustible efforts.
And if it isn’t too self-indulgent, a shout-out to a show that didn’t make it to the stage, Hip Pocket Theatre’s Christina Cranshaw-adapted/directed Frankenstein – in which I was to portray the creature (move over Elordi), alongside Evan Christopher Arnold, Rashae Boyd, Grainger Esch, Claire Fountain, Vermont Horner, David Huner, Paul Heyduck, James Warila, and Kim Winnubst. Creatures rise from the dead; one hopes plays may do the same.
