Athol Fugard’s Master Harold …and the boys, Westport Country
Playhouse, Westport, CT 2002
The News-Times: “Westport
offers a good, solid ‘Master Harold.’ “Walter Dallas has directed the play with
care balancing humor with a steadily encroaching atmosphere of hate.”
The Sunday Republican: “Westport production soars. Expertly directed by Walter Dallas…superbly
presented.”
Variety: Walter Dallas, the artistic
director of Philadelphia’s Freedom Theatre, directed with skill and feeling.”
Westport News: “a fine production…It is a strong play under Walter
Dallas’ astute direction.”
The Sunday Hour:
“…is being given a mostly luminous interpretation under the precise direction of Walter Dallas.
WMNR Fine Arts Radio: It does not seem possible that Athol Fugard’s autobiographical MMaster
Harold…and the boys premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre 20 years ago. That ninight is as clear in my mind,
as if it happened yesterday. There was such a stunning clarity toas the conception of the play; the writing was so incisive,
and the acting by young Lonnie PPrice, South African Zakes Mokae, and the then unknown Danny Glover, was so heartfelt, at
ththe end, the audience was initially silent. Then they rose to give all a standing ovation, rrroaring approval. This happened
when it traveled on to Broadway. And it occurred again at ththe Westport Country Playhouse, where this wonderful work, directed
with sensitivity by WWalter Dallas, is being given a finely wrought production.
Puddn’head Wilson, Adapted from Mark
Twain by Charles Smith, The Acting CCompany, NYC and National Tour, 2002
New York Times: …like a lot of Twain's
work, ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' is almost sneakily serious, a potent and layered narrative with the
sheen of a story for young people. And it is this quality that informs the stage adaptation being presented by the Acting
Company at the Lucille Lortel Theater through Saturday.
The show provides much of what you expect from this company, the
venerable traveling theater academy founded in 1972 by John Houseman and its current producing director, Margot Harley. That
is, it is full of enthusiastic young actors showing off formidable, if not yet nuanced, chops.
Under the direction of Walter
Dallas, all of the performances are clear and bold. The play's final moments provide a layer of grim irony that seems
eminently suitable to Twain. No one in Dawson's Landing is let off the hook here, and in a production that makes it perfectly
evident that a bigoted society is a collaboration, the point is well taken.
Dallas Awarded Honorary Doctorate, University
of the Arts, Philadelphia, 2002
On the occasion of presenting
him an Honorary Doctorate in 2002, Provost Virginia Red:
“To award Walter Dallas with an honorary degree from the University of the Arts is to recognize his outstanding achievements
not only as a groundbreaking director of new theater, but equally as a creative innovator, educator, and mentor to hundreds
of youngsters and aspiring artists. No one has worked harder or with greater success to bring public attention to contemporary
black theater in Philadelphia and across the country. Here at the University, we take special pride in his having founded
and directed our School of Theater.”\
Lazarus, Unstoned, A Gospel
Opera, Written and directed by Walter Dallas, New
Freedom Theatre, Philadelphia, PA,2002
Philadelphia Weekly: "It's
often said that the role of the director coincided with the birth of vernacular religious drama, and in Philadelphia nobody
is more adept at this style of theatre than Walter Dallas."
Philadelphia City Paper: As in Black Nativity, the spoken dialogue
carries only some of the narrative weight. The greater emphasis is on tableaux, and, of course, music and dance. In these
areas, Lazarus is always on firm ground. The staging by Dallas and his design team is austere and handsome, regularly
delivering some powerful images.
The greatest moments, though, are musical ones. Freedom has assembled a huge
ensemble that is also hugely talented. Amy Dean's mesmerizing singing of "Were You There?" -- staged against
a stark crucifixion scene -- is the show's most moving moment.
…both this show and the company deserve a long and healthy
life. I urge you this season to support the fine work on stage at Freedom.
2000-2001
Philadelphia Weekly: With no theater placing more than a single production in the Top 10, no company emerged as the year's
dominating force. Act II Playhouse and the Wilma Theater had consistently strong seasons, while with one exception the other
theaters all had at least one disappointment. Which brings us to the Freedom Repertory Theatre,
Philadelphia Weekly’s choice for Theater Company of the Year.
Battling
financial uncertainty, the North Philadelphia institution launched a season featuring characters in search of something beyond
the material realm. With the year's finest domestic drama, The Old Settler; a dramatically revised version of
their holiday classic Black Nativity; The Dark Kalamazoo, a penetrating work from Oni Faida Lampley featuring
Kevin Campbell's luminously evocative score; and the world premiere of the infectious Sparkle, a musical aimed
at teenagers (another group often ignored by city's other companies), Freedom showed that theater is not about bright lights and big budgets, but rather
the stories through which we find the ability to discover ourselves.
Best Play of the Year; The Old Settler (Freedom Repertory Theatre)
Best Director,
Walter Dallas (The Old Settler)
Theater Company of the Year: Freedom Repertory Theatre,
Walter Dallas, Artistic Director
August Wilson’s Jitney, Crossroad Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, April-May, 1997
The Star Ledger: “Director
Walter Dallas is having quite a year. First he staged the stunning “The Old Settler”
at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, and now this. Here’s a production of a Wilson play that really
moves. Dallas has coaxed a terrific performance out of each of his cast members. This
fall, “Jitney” will open Off-Broadway, where it could become the lucky seventh New York Critics Circle
winner for the esteemed playwright. But it may also become a real August Wilson rarity. A
play for which it will be hard to get tickets.”
The Courier-News: “After Crossroads, “Jitney”
will move to Boston, then the Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club. I think the play should jolt Broadway
as soon as possible.”
New York Times (Klein): “The jitney station … is peopled by a gallery
of vivid characters, brought to life vibrantly by a terrific cast under Walter Dallas’s fleet direction.”
New York Times (Marks):
“… the production … locates the warmth and nobility in this work about the hardscrabble lives of
the jitney drivers, set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1977. Walter Dallas, the director, is best
at steering his ensemble through moments of pure comedy…”
The Star-Gazette: “…
playing now at the Crossroads Theatre … brilliantly cast and directed by Walter Dallas.
John Henry Redwood’s The Old Settler, McCarter
Theatre/Long Wharf Theatre, February-April, 1997
Hartford Courant: “Dallas
is at the vanguard of a renaissance, leading an explosion of African-American dramatic theatre, and is one of the most in-demand
directors in the nation. Not only has Dallas turned Philadelphia’s Freedom Theatre into one of the
finest regional companies, he directed the world premiere of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars.”
Dallas has had a wild year. Once his production of August Wilson’s “Jitney”
opens this spring [at Crossroads Theatre] and his theatrical adaptation of the 1975 film “Cooley High”
comes in this summer [at Freedom Theatre], Dallas will have brought eight plays to the stage in 12 months – in
cities as far apart as Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New Haven.”
American Theatre Magazine:
“… in Philadelphia, Dallas is in the process of turning a stable community theatre (founded in
1966 by John E. Allen, Jr.) into one of the leading regional theatres in the country. In the midst of a
major fundraising drive in 1992, Allen died and Dallas took over the company’s reigns. What he has
been able to accomplish in space of four years is by all accounts extraordinary.”
The New York Times:
“Walter Dallas draws knowing performances from an able cast. With a masterly sense of orchestration,
Dallas plays up moments of extravagance, surrounds the actors with a hush and bestows on Bess and Quilly the glow of forgiveness.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
“… a real treasure…a splendid cast, superbly directed by Walter
Dallas.”
The Star-Ledger: “…may be the best play of the
new season. The opening night audience embraced The Old Settler as it were the play they’d been looking for all their lives.”
Variety: “Walter Dallas has staged the piece with a keen
awareness of time and place.”
Asbury
Park Press: “…Walter Dallas’ sensitive staging solicits tears
from viewers at the end. Redwood has an uncanny ability to create believable female characters and, in
collaboration with Dallas, to make these characters real and universal.”
Time Off: “Walter
Dallas draws superb performances from all four actors. At the end of the performance, the entire audience
rose, virtually as one, in an old fashioned standing ovation which was very much deserved.
U.S. 1: “Under the direction of Walter Dallas, and with
the cadence and pacing of a finely tuned instrument, four actors give us Redwood’s tender composition in a feat of ensemble
acting at its best.”
August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, At Chicago’s
Goodman Theatre, January 1995
Newsweek Magazine: “Walter Dallas leads a
superb cast in an ensemble performance that raises sincerity to a force of shattering power.”
Time Magazine and CNN: A “nearly flawless
production…directed with both theatricality and honesty by Walter Dallas…an experienced interpreter of Wilson,
who was brought in when Lloyd Richards, who has directed the premiere of every other Wilson play, had to bow out because of
a health problem. …vivid…staging skillful.”
Time Magazine: …one of the Top Ten Theatre Events of 1995.
New York Times: “Walter Dallas has directed Seven Guitars with
the same feeling for the grace of Mr. Wilson’s work that Lloyd Richards brought to the earlier plays. The
Goodman production is first-rate.”
Variety: “…the
production flows smoothly and nicely captures the real strengths of Wilson’s writing…”
New York Post: “With a great
cast, it has been vividly staged by Walter Dallas. …probably in some very slightly revised form,
Seven Guitars seems a safe bet for Broadway either next season or the season after.”
Wall Street Journal: “Mr.
Dallas seems almost perfectly suited to bringing Mr. Wilson’s work to life. No one in his company
of seven actors makes false moves or suggests sham feelings… Mr. Dallas transcends such textual lapses with graceful
choreography… Mr. Dallas is even more greatly blessed with abundant onstage talent. Seven Guitars…could
become a classic of the American theater.”
Chicago
Tribune: “Director Walter Dallas provides an incandescent---production that serves as an
admirable work print for a more honed version undoubtedly to come.”
Chicago Sun-Times: “Seven Guitars”
is a fierce celebration of the life force. …holds passion in its strings…
The Milwaukee Journal: “The Goodman’s
cast, under the direction of Walter Dallas, is superb.”
Chicago Reader: “… exquisitely acted and vividly
designed… Under the direction of Walter Dallas – whose strong, formalistic visual sense is
supported…--this is a richly remembered and imagined tapestry. The production’s superb cast
seems to have just the right vocal and gestural inflection for each moment, which is essential to the script’s heightened
sense of language and image.”
WBBM: “Powerful
material with performances that go to the limit. Seven Guitars is enthralling.”
Backstage: “A splendid world premiere production.
A beautiful ensemble effort, smoothly and unpretentiously orchestrated by Walter Dallas.”
Daily Herald: “The Goodman production, directed
by Walter Dallas is handsome and well-staged.”
Chicago Defender: “…filled with compelling dramatic
urgency… Dallas brought to Seven Guitars a blazing interpretation, brilliant for its intensity, discerning
for its involved mother-wit, wonderfully perceptive for its sensitive feelings of love…”
Minneapolis Star Tribune: “…crisply
directed.”
Windy City Times:
“Stunning staging by Walter Dallas.”
Illinois
Leisure: “…vivid characterizations…flawless ensemble performance.”
N’DIGO: “Walter Dallas directs this
fine ensemble with an intelligence that keeps us on the road…illuminating the dark, changing up the rhythm and keeping
the story foremost in our minds.”
Edgebrook Times Review:
“A strong ensemble cast provides steady, secure performances, directed by Walter Dallas…magic
happens.”
And, on Sunday, June 4, 1995, the day of the Tony Awards:
New York Times:
“What was possibly the best new American play of the season has yet to be seen in New York.
It’s “Seven Guitars”, August Wilson’s latest work in his continuing exploration of
the black American experience, which is also the white American experience. With its broad narrative sweep
and language of almost biblical richness, the play was a stunner as directed by Walter Dallas at the Goodman Theater in Chicago
last January.”
Chicago
Crusader, August 5, 1995: “I strongly suggest that the City of Philadelphia hold on to the
National Treasure they have in Walter Dallas because I can think of several cities just waiting to snap him up.”
December, 1995: Time Magazine names “Seven
Guitars” one of the Ten Best Theatre Events of 1995.
June 3, 1996: The Day of the Tony Awards:
New York Times: “I thought it [Seven Guitars] was just
super in Chicago directed by Walter Dallas and was swept away by it. Then it comes to New York, fixed so-called,
[by director Lloyd Richards] and it’s not as good.” -Vincent Canby.
December
18, 1996
Philadelphia Weekly: “By 1991, the brilliant Walter Dallas, head of the
University of the Arts’ theatre program since 1983-the man August Wilson tapped to direct the world premiere of his
Seven Guitars, the artist James Baldwin sought out as a collaborator-had taken the helm of Freedom Theatre, turning
it into an equity company offering challenging, original fare.”
