Best of Theater 2000-2009 

Regional theater leaves the last decade stronger than when it started. Here's a long look back before launching into the future—which, for our purposes, begins this weekend. Happy new decade!

• A Lesson Before Dying, Justice Theater Project, 2004. — JTP proved exceptional theater can occur anywhere there are actors, a director—and vision.
• 
  
• A Mouthfulla Sacco & Vanzetti, Shakespeare & Originals, 2000 — Playwright Michael Smith's brilliant slapstick re-envisioning of an American injustice.
• 
  
• A Walk in the Woods, International Social Studies Project, 2000 — Paul Frellick placed nuclear arms negotiators on a geopolitical tightrope.
• 
  
• click to enlarge

  • Photo by The Right Image Photography Inc.
  • Sarah Whalen and Carl Martin in the Burning Coal Theatre Company production of Adrian Hall's "All the King's Men"
  All the King's Men (Parts 1 and 2), Burning Coal Theater, 2003 — Adrian Hall's audacious adaptation of Warren's novel on Southern political corruption.
• 
  
• Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches, Duke Theater Studies, 2005 — Amazing student cast performances—and Jeff West's jaw-dropping Roy Cohn.
• 
  
• Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika, Theatre in the Park (TIP), 2008 — Director Adam Twiss unleashed regional veterans on Kushner's closer.
• 
  
• As the Crow Flies, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, 2006 — Sophisticated tales, multistory puppets, compelling original music: pure Paperhand.
• 
  
• Back of the Throat, Manbites Dog Theater, 2005 — Conscience-challenging enhanced interrogation techniques, staged in real time.
• 
  
• Bash: Latterday Plays, Raleigh Ensemble Players (REP), 2001 — An impressive first regional staging of LaBute.
• 
  
• Bent, REP, 2001 (revived 2009) — The audience literally walked one man's path during the Holocaust.
• 
  
• The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, 2007 — A catty, caustic send-up of the Fassbinder film.
• 
  
• The Bluest Eye, PlayMakers Repertory Company, 2007 — A harrowing Toni Morrison stage adaptation: what happens when a village refuses to raise a child.
• 
  
• brooms: a play about saying yes, both hands theatre company, 2004 — Its first production evoked Gertrude Stein and Steve Reich: a thoughtful comedy about getting married.
• 
  
• The Cherry Orchard, Little Green Pig, 2006 — A production pointedly staged with brilliant African-American actors.
• 
  
• columbinus, REP, 2007 — This took us all back to high school—the day the murderers came.
• 
  
• Copenhagen, Broadway Series South, 2002 — An elegant touring production: three sides of the atomic bomb's unknown secret.
• 
  
• Cornucopia of Me, Katja Hill, 2007 — An autobiographical solo show—in mime, no less—mocked the day jobs an actor must take.
• 
  
• click to enlarge

  • Photo by The Right Image Photography Inc.
  • Debra Gillingham and David Henderson in the Burning Coal Theatre Company production of "James Joyce's 'The Dead'"
  The Dead, Burning Coal, 2004 — A very chilly musical adaptation of James Joyce.
• 
  
• Dream Boy, Streetsigns, 2003 — Jim Grimsley's gay coming-of-age story, tenderly adapted, acted and directed.
• 
  
• Fuddy Meers, Manbites Dog, 2000 — David Lindsay-Abaire's dark screwball comedy, well done.
• 
  
• The Glass Menagerie, PlayMakers Rep, 2000 — Director Kent Paul's unsentimental—and appropriate—reading of Tennessee Williams.
• 
  
• click to enlarge

  • Photo by Lisa Marie Albert
  • The Deep Dish Theater Company production of "Glengarry Glen Ross"
  Glengarry Glen Ross, Deep Dish, 2009 — A tight ensemble digs that Mamet jazz.
• 
  
• Hedda Gabler, Triad Stage, 2004 — An achievement in Gothic-tinged design and acting.
• 
  
• Holy Hell, 10 x 10 Festival, 2006 — Ten perfect minutes: a harrowing drama about a guilt-based marriage.
• 
  
• Howie the Rookie, Delta Boys, 2008 — Lucius Robinson, Stephen LeTrent and Kathryn Milliken explored Dublin's punk underbelly.
• 
  
• The Island, Manbites Dog, 2008 — Acting authenticity hallmarked a fully embodied Fugard play.
• 
  
• The Laramie Project, PlayMakers Rep, 2001 — A crisply directed, taut and compelling act of community.
• 
  
• Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Streetsigns, 2001 — An ambitious adaptation of Evans and Agee's classic text.
• 
  
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, PlayMakers Rep, 2009 — PRC strained to produce an abridged version of Edgar's script—and it showed.
• 
  
• Life, Love, Cows, Shakespeare & Originals, 2001 — This Chekhov adaptation kept us spellbound. For an hour. Outdoors. In cold weather.
• 
  
• The Lion in Winter, TIP, 2005 — A vehicle for theatrical lions Ira David Wood and Lynda Clark.
• 
  
• Minstrel Show: The Lynching of William Brown, Theatre Alliance for Social Change, 2002 — Two aging black entertainers presented grim evidence with dignity in the first 2002 staging.
• 
  
• Never the Sinner, REP, 2000 — Sweat dripped from murderers and audience alike in this taut crime trial.
• 
  
• click to enlarge

  • Photo courtesy of Manbites Dog Theater
  • Derrick Ivey as the president and Carl Martin as Henry Kissinger in the Manbites Dog Theater production of "Nixon's Nixon"
  Nixon's Nixon, Manbites Dog, 2004 — A scathing political comedy, and an amazing Nixon by Derrick Ivey.
• 
  
• The Old Settler, Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT), 2000 — A robust production of John Henry Redwood's black 1940s romantic drama.
• 
  
• Out of the Dark, Wordshed Productions, 2005 — Hannah Blevins' script took us deep into West Virginia coal mines—and the miner's lives.
• 
  
• The Pillowman, Manbites Dog, 2007 — Martin McDonagh's sharp take on artistic responsibilities, helmed by an exceptional quartet.
• 
  
• The Prisoner's Dilemma, Burning Coal, 2008 — Expert actors construct a fragile diplomatic bridge of words in David Edgar's geopolitical thriller.
• 
  
• The Price, Deep Dish, 2003 — Four veteran actors calculate the cost of old mistrusts in Arthur Miller's family drama.
• 
  
• Private Eyes, Flying Machine, 2000 — Steven Dietz's intricate puzzle box contains two relationships.
• 
  
• Ragtime, NC Theatre, 2004 — A boisterous restaging of this turn-of-the-last-century musical.
• 
  
• click to enlarge

  • Photo by The Right Image Photography Inc.
  • Elissa Olin and Alice Cannon in the Burning Coal Theatre Company production of Athol Fugard's "The Road to Mecca"
  The Road to Mecca, Burning Coal, 2002 — An aging South African artist worries she's losing more than her physical vision in Athol Fugard's drama.
• 
  
• Shakespeare's R&J, Streetsigns, 2003 — Four military school students staged Shakespeare—unauthorized—in this astounding production.
• 
  
• Snow, Archipelago Theatre, 2000 — An ice cavern of a set, intense sounds and lights abetted an original script on how relationships grow chill.
• 
  
• Terra Nova, RLT, 2001 — A cool, psychologized retelling of Robert Scott's Antarctic disaster.
• 
  
• Three Sisters (on Ice), Little Green Pig, 2006 — An improbably revelatory—and deranged—revision of Chekhov.
• 
  
• Uncle Tom's Cabin, Burning Coal, 2001 — A hellish, avant-garde, audio-animatronic tour through American racism.
• 
  
• Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, REP, 2000 — A sinuous, seductive and truly merciless nightlife puzzle.
• 
  
• Wit, PlayMakers Rep, 2000 — Tandy Cronyn, as a dying English professor, aces her truly final exam.
• 
  

click to enlarge

• Photo by Jon Gardiner
• The Playmakers Repertory Company production of "The Glass Menagerie"