Dallas theatregoers have come to expect edgy and enigmatic works at Kitchen Dog Theatre, and the company's 1998-99 roster promises just that.
Opening with Bertolt Brecht's In The Jungle of the Cities, Kitchen Dog will also wait For Godot, make Fur fly, and offer a sharpened take on Taming of the Shrew. Capping next season will be the three-week "New Works Festival," wherein Kitchen Dog will collaborate with 13 other national theatre companies in the recently formed "National Theatre Alliance."
Here's the Kitchen Dog line-up:
Sept. 12-Oct. 11: Tim Johnson stages In The Jungle of the Cities, a dark, early work by Brecht, once described as "a metaphysical boxing match." Other Brecht plays include The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Galileo.
Oct. 24-Nov. 13: Director Aaron Ginsburg will mix contemporary satire with Commedia `del Arte spoofery in the comic battleground that is William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
Feb. 6-Mar. 7, 1999: Samuel Beckett's landmark metaphysical comedy/drama, Waiting For Godot arrives, directed by Dan Day and starring Day, Bill Lengfelder and Lynn Mathis. The play tells of two tramps awaiting word of the person who'll rescue them. Apr. 10-May 2, 1999: Tina Parker directs Migdalia Cruz's darkly poetic love triangle, Fur. Not your everyday love story, Fur explores the relationships between Michael, a man obsessed with Citrona, a bearded lady in a circus side show who herself is taken with Nena. To make the triangle complete, Nena doesn't return Citrona's affections, but instead focuses her interests on Michael.
A member of New Dramatists, Cruz, whose other plays include Miriam's Flowers and Dreams of Hope, has had her work produced at Arena Stage, Steppenwolf, and the New York Theater Workshop, among other venues.
May 22-June 13, 1999: "New Works Festival," featuring new plays selected in collaboration with Minneapolis' Playwrights Center and CT's O'Neill Center.
Kitchen Dog Theatre was founded in 1990 by five graduates of Southern Methodist University's Master's program in acting. For information on tickets and subscriptions to Kitchen Dog Theatre, 3120 McKinney Ave., call (214) 953-1055.
-- By David Lefkowitz
