On stages all across the Triad this year, some performances stopped our breath, and changes in our theater community brought new venues, new names and renewed appreciation.
Changes
After 75 years under a name that was synonymous with community theater, the Little Theatre of Winston-Salem became Twin City Stage, and the faithful were just as faithful even if they did continue to say "Little Theatre" more often than "Twin City Stage." But that gap is closing, and Twin City Stage continues to offer some of the area's most entertaining evenings where seeing your neighbors on stage or in the audience is part of the fun.
Among its most entertaining shows were Spider's Web, a very funny Agatha Christie classic, and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. Smoke was the third in a trilogy of down-home gospel entertainment that starred hometown favorite, Sarah Barnhardt, who can mime like a modern-day Carol Burnett.
To start off the year, Theatre Alliance settled into its new venue on Northwest Boulevard, and audiences settled into the velvet seats in the company's new, smaller space. As in the past, some of the area's edgier productions were on stage, but the company's production of Rent in October filled the theater; its extended run guaranteed a good evening of theater for audiences of all ages.
Dazzlers
In February, Gerald Freedman, the dean of drama at UNC School of the Arts, presented a breathtaking production of Sunday in the Park with George, one of the year's finest productions. During its run, Olympia Dukakis and Mandy Patinkin, friends of Freedman's, came to UNCSA to lead workshops and to honor Freedman, who was celebrating close to 20 years as dean. The gala in his honor and the play under his direction again underscored our fortune to have Freedman and his vision as part of our community.
The school mounted three other top-ranked plays. Robert Francesconi directed Scapino!, a full-tilt, slapstick comedy set in a circus ring. John Langs, a graduate, returned to direct Our Country's Good, a compelling drama about the colonization of Australia in the 1780s, and guest director Michele Shay stopped hearts with her staging of August Wilson's Fences. Finely tuned performances faithful to the plays' messages offered theater in its truest form.
This past summer, the National Black Theatre Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary with a roster of 116 performances over six days. The legacy of its founder, the late Larry Leon Hamlin, was honored with good attendance and a raft of creative offerings. In December, the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, the performing arm of the festival also started by Hamlin, reprised its holiday hit, Black Nativity.
Earlier, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival did what it does best: present Shakespeare and make us wish the evening would play on. In large part because of guest artist Karl Baumann (a Cirque du Soleil performer) as Puck, NCSF put the world of magic front and center in A Midsummer Night's Dream in September.
At Wake Forest University, two plays brought recognition to its theater department. King Lear with guest artist, Dennis Krausnick as Lear, and Doubt with student actors, Jenny Malarkey and Abby Suggs, were impressive additions to theater in the Triad.
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