DCMTA 2021 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Performances in Community Theater Productions

As the 12 months draws to a near, we requested DCMTA writers to think again on the reveals that left an indelible perception on them in 2021. Listed here are the performances that stood out to our reviewers. This yr, we reviewed exhibits within a 30-mile radius of Washington, DC. Congratulations to every person who managed to put on a clearly show this 12 months. You are all wonderful in our guide.

A Black and White Cookie, Silver Spring Stage
Melvin D. Smith as Harold
Harold, an avid Mets lover who wears his adore of baseball on his sleeve, chest, and cap, faces compelled retirement if he loses his newsstand. Melvin D. Smith finds the heart in Harold, a gentleman who forms a bond with a pal in spite of previous pre-conceived notions.
Go through Lisa Traiger’s comprehensive assessment

A Doll’s Household, Section 2, Silver Spring Phase (Zoom)
Jacqueline Youm as Nora
Jacqueline Youm in Silver Spring Stage’s manufacturing of A Doll’s Household, Component 2 plays the direct Nora with terrific complexity, earning passionate arguments versus relationship that even these days really feel controversial, even though also manipulating the other figures to assist her attain her objectives. She can also be discouraging, rejecting a noble gesture to be a martyr for her beliefs. Even more impressive is that Youm provides this kind of a effective, sophisticated functionality by way of Zoom.
Browse Charlie Green’s total overview

Rumors, Rockville Minor Theatre
Joseph Coracle as Ken Gorman
In this Neil Simon comedy, Joseph Coracle performs party visitor Ken Gorman. Coracle excelled in his use of bodily humor, utilizing snicker-inducing gestures and facial expressions as he peeked out from powering doorways and ran up and downstairs while checking on a gunshot sufferer. At just one issue in the demonstrate, his character is quickly deaf. This authorized for hilarious exchanges like “I hear you have a cold.” “You assume I search outdated?” Coracle employed every section of his being to enjoy up the comedy of these exchanges.
Read Nicole Hertvik’s complete evaluate

The Mountaintop, Rockville Little Theatre
Robert Freemon as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Zenia McPherson as Camae
Freemon and McPherson lend appropriate gravitas to this fictional two-hander about how Martin Luther King Jr. spent the night before his assassination. The Mountaintop, superbly produced and played, is as suitable these days as Dr. King was in his own time. As King, Freemon alternates in between exhaustion, flirtation, and stress. As Camae, the maid in the resort wherever King used his final evening, McPherson is charismatic, on edge, and a fantastic preacher in her very own appropriate.
Read through Sophia Howes’ entire evaluate

The Revolutionists, The Colonial Gamers of Annapolis
Carey Bibb, Samantha McEwen Deininger, Mary Rogers, and Ryan Harris
Lauren Gunderson’s engage in The Revolutionists opens on the condominium of Olympe de Gouges, a writer and social activist, played here by Mary C. Rogers. As the to start with act proceeds, we are greeted by two figures who loom big in French record: Marie Antoinette (Ryan Gunning Harris) and Charlotte Corday (Carey Bibb). The fourth character is Marianne Angelle—played by the breathtaking Samantha McEwen Deininger—who did not exist in point but is a composite character representing free of charge Black women of all ages on the island of Saint-Domingue. Each and every of these ladies delivers a distinctive electrical power to this ensemble and it will make for a great generation. Rogers, as Gouges, is believably restrained and frightened by the truth of her have energy to impact record with her words and phrases. Bibb, as Corday, delivers instability although reminding us of the injustice of Charlotte Corday’s trial. Harris’s comedic timing is impeccable as the doomed queen Marie Antoinette.
Read through Darby Dejarnette’s comprehensive critique

The Wizard of Oz: A British Pantomime, The British Gamers
Amanda Dullin-Jones as Toto
All over substantially of the initial act, Dullin-Jones gave a magnificent wordless effectiveness (she is a canine immediately after all). Even without phrases, Dullin-Jones conveyed significant-spirited humor that produced it obvious she belonged on that phase. But her significant instant comes near the close of Act A person when she breaks out into music (and encourages the viewers to applaud her. She is now a conversing puppy, soon after all!) with the amount “My Heart Belongs to Dottie.”
Clare Palace as Salt and Sarah Leembruggen as Pepper
Then there are Salt and Pepper: a hip-hop duo who sign up for in searching for Dorothy once she is lost in Oz. The duo’s rap to the legendary “Push It” — renamed “Pop It” with new lyrics unique to the clearly show — is a high place in the production’s hilarity. Clare Palace as Salt and Sarah Leembruggen as Pepper are like a hip-hop, Cockney-accented Abbott and Costello. Their major variety induces quite a few justly attained guffaws.
Missi Tessier as the Witch
As the Wicked Witch, the fierce Missi Tessier crammed the auditorium with cackles each and every time her energetic existence strike the phase. Her stage existence was invigorating. A higher place in her effectiveness was the song “Whatever Lola Wants” from the 1950s musical Damn Yankees (restyled as “Whatever Witchy Wants”). In addition to her electrifying effectiveness, Tessier also contributed to the new lyrics of quite a few songs in the present.
Read through Nicole Hertvik’s comprehensive Wizard of Oz overview

SEE ALSO:

DCMTA 2021 Staff members Favorites: Exceptional Structure Components in Local community Theater Productions
DCMTA 2021 Team Favorites: Exceptional Neighborhood Theater Productions
DCMTA 2021 Employees Favorites: Superb Experienced Theater ProductionsDCMTA 2021 Staff Favorites: Excellent Electronic Theater