Stage Notes: Bruce Wood Dance's new season; review of TA's 'Superior Donuts'

This new season will mark 14 years of Bruce Wood Dance. The upcoming lineup features featuring in-person dance productions, seasonal intensives and artistic collaborations. Artistic Director Joy Bollinger stated how this season pays tribute the company’s late founder.

“The 2023–24 season marks 10 years since our founder Bruce Wood’s passing. In the most Bruce-like way, this season’s works will take you to the edge and back with passion, poise, and power,” Bollinger said in a press release this week. “Performances include Wood favorites The Only Way Through Is Through, Polyester Dreams, Home, Anything Goes and Boléro. World premieres from Norbert De La Cruz III and me join the act alongside the outstanding addition of Twyla Tharp’s masterwork, Nine Sinatra Songs. The repertoire is spectacular. The dancers are phenomenal. The company is unstoppable.”

The new season will kick off in August but not in Dallas.

BWD’s 2023/24 season (from BWD):

Aug. 18: Battery Dance Festival. BWD performs In My Your Head by Bollinger at the 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival in New York City, which draws a combined audience of 12,000 people and 35,000 virtual viewers at Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City. For more information on tickets, click here.

Sept. 16: Homecoming 2.The company returns to Fort Worth for a one-night-only event at the W.E. Scott Theatre. The performance includes Joy Bollinger’s “Blue” along with two iconic works by Bruce Wood: “The Only Way Through Is Through” and his ’70s homage, “Polyester Dreams.”

Sept. 21-23: Fort Worth Dance Festival. I.M. Terrell High School of Visual and Performing Arts hosts the inaugural Fort Worth Dance Festival with three days of dance consisting of classes, presentations, and professional performances. Bruce Wood Dance and four professional DFW-based companies close the festival on Sept. 23 at the Terrell Performing Arts Center.

Nov.17-19: SOAR. In the world premiere by Filipino American choreographer Norbert de la Cruz III, the return of Joy Bollinger’s “In My Your Head” and Bruce Wood’s beloved “Home,” SOAR offers a riveting and uplifting exploration into our shared humanity. Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm; Sunday at 2:00 pm. At Moody Performance Hall.

January: WOOD | WORKS Winter Intensive. Advanced and pre–professional training in technique and repertoire. Dates to be determined. At Bruce Wood Dance Gallery.

March: WOOD/SHOP — New Works by Company Dancers. Dates tbd. Bruce Wood Dance Gallery.

April 6: 14th Anniversary Performance & Gala. This celebratory performance includes the Dallas premiere of Twyla Tharp’s masterpiece, “Nine Sinatra Songs” and Bruce Wood’s “Anything Goes” set to music by Cole Porter. Performance-only and VIP Gala Experience tickets will be available at a later date. At Moody Performance Hall.

June 7-9: Radiance. Three performances close the season with an encore performance of “Nine Sinatra Songs” by Twyla Tharp, a world premiere by Joy Bollinger, and Bruce Wood’s smoldering audience favorite, “Boléro.” At Moody Performance Hall.

July: WOOD | WORKS Summer Intensive. Advanced and pre–professional training in technique and repertoire. Dates tbd. At Bruce Wood Dance Gallery.

Lyric Stage announces cast and crew for Cinderella

Rachel Nicole Poole and Sadat Hossain in Lyric Stage’s ‘Cinderella.’ (Courtesy photo)

Lyric will launch its new season next month with its production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The show will run Aug. 24-27 at the Majestic Theatre. The production is directed and choreographed by Penny Ayn Maas.

The company announced the cast which includes BJ Cleveland among the large ensemble.

The cast includes Rachel Nicole Poole, Sadat Hossain, Julia Rose Hartman, Sydney Cornelius. Tara Park (who also understudies Poole), Elise Mendoza, Ryan Michael Friedman, BJ Cleveland and Jonah Munroe.

The ensemble includes Maya Hernandez-Pearson, Grace Moore, Ania Lyons (also serving as Dance Captain), Kelsey Jordan Ward, Abbey Copeland, Alexa Morgan, Gigi Johnson, Jacob Sewell, Ed Escamilla, Ben Ashcraft, Noah Sowalskie, Daniel Vanegas, Will Shafer, Keith J Warren, Robert Mata, Christy Troia and Lexi Nieto.

Alongside Maas, the creative team includes Bruce Greer serves as Music Director, Catherine Carpenter Cox serves as executive producer, and Andy Baldwin serves as Artistic Director.

Tickets are available here.

Review: Order a baker’s dozen of Theatre Arlington’s Superior Donuts

‘Superior Donuts’ at Theatre Arlington. (Courtesy photos by Jacob Oderberg)

Last weekend, Theatre Arlington brought both laughs and drama to its stage with Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Superior Donuts. Directed by Larry Cure and Sharon Kaye Miller, the story is set all in the titular donut shop in Chicago where an unlikely friendship unfolds among the shop owner and his new young employee along with the mix of characters who frequent the sweet spot.

Although a cast of nine, Ivan Klousia and Reginald Keith Dunlap II hold the crux of the story as Arthur the shop owner and Franco, the young author trying to earn some fast money. Arthur is a middle aged hapless man going through life on autopilot while Franco is this whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm.

Klousia embodied the role with just-right slacker energy. Arthur isn’t the coolest guy on the planet until you get to know him and Klousia unpacked that aptly from beginning to end. His gentle delivery gave the show its anchor because Letts built in this perpetual feeling that something is going to go wrong. Not a spoiler, but something does and Klousia embraced it with a tangible worry and anxiety. Klouisa’s understated performance while delivering so much was prodigious to watch.

In turn, Dunlap seemed enthusiastic to play Franco’s enthusiasm. He was a pure delight as the sunshine to Arthur’s rainy day outlook. But Dunlap never burst into his scenes and instead settled into a comfortable groove that he and Klousia shared. Franco’s ebullience hides something deeper and Dunlap brought strong balance to that.

Letts’ story does rely on the Magical Black trope where the appearance of a Black character (Franco) helps the white character (Arthur) overcome his own personal crisis. That was clearly in the makeup of Superior Donuts, but didn’t distract from the two actors creating something genuine between their characters.

Samantha Padilla played Officer Randy who has eyes on Arthur. As usual, Padilla has the ability to mix theatricality and humanity into a memorable mix as she did in Lyric’s Mamma Mia and in TA’s Gypsy. She made Randy so easy to root for in her chase while also making her a strong independent woman. J.R. Bradford played her partner Officer James and brought a level-headed approach balancing the goings-on of the show.

Then Russian landlord Max is ready to take over the space Arthur has occupied too long. David Fenley bordered on caricature but was still spot-on as the newly Americanized immigrant. Hannah Bell did wonders with so little as the eccentric (and perhaps homeless?) Lady Boyle. With sometimes just a word, she summoned laughs from the audience. In a final act intro, Tim Crabb’s Kiril made a charming impression as Max’s tough henchman with a heart.

The not-so-sweet part of Donuts was embodied by the wily Tanner Mobley as Luther and the hulking Maximilian Swenson as Kevin. The characters have a precarious connection to Franco. The actors served up some majorly sinister vibes in contrast to each other: Swenson as the strong quiet menace to Mobley’s Joker-esque energy. Those vibes clearly worked well as their time onstage clearly shifted the energy of the show into something darker.

In short, the cast was amazing, but Cure and Miller’s direction was tight. The show flowed beautifully amid its highs and lows. Bryan Stevenson’s set was dynamic and effective. He really captured the essence of those innocuous donut shops that dot most strip malls. This was enhanced by Kevin Brown’s smart set dressing. Both created this corner of the world that convincingly drew the audience (ok, me) into the story.

Reviews have compared Superior Donuts to a sitcom and in some ways it is, but despite the clever and funny dialogue and moments, the sitcom felt more Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman than say Seinfeld. Letts wrote it with a certain dryness that didn’t feel like it pandered to the audience. Sure there were some emotionally manipulative moments, but that didn’t take away from the humanity felt in last Saturday night’s performance.

Superior Donuts runs through Aug. 6.

—Rich Lopez

Stage Notes: Bruce Wood Dance’s new season; review of TA’s ‘Superior Donuts’