Theater Review - Five fab plays, five fab players

1. Spinning Into Butter (Alliance Theatre). In Rebecca Gilman’s corrosive satire of white guilt and racial sensitivity in academe, her characters consistently confounded our preconceived notions.

2. Below the Belt (Alliance Hertz Stage). Kyle Colerider-Krugh’s petty office tyrant is employee of the month for this uproarious white-collar spoof, marked by witty wordplay and corporate Catch-22s.

3. Julius Caesar (Georgia Shakespeare Festival). Director John Dillon’s “Huey Long” concept provided unnervingly effective imagery for Shakespeare’s still-relevant inquiry into power politics.

4. Hambone (Horizon Theatre). Playwright Javon Johnson offered rich and humorous observations of the similarities and differences that cut across races and generations.

5. The Women in Black (ART Station). Versatile performances by Daniel May and James Donadio transformed Stone Mountain’s little theater into a chilling haunted house in this classic Gothic ghost story.

FIVE FAB PLAYERS
1. Jen Apgar (Closer, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress). A certain girlishness informs and energizes many of the performances of the Rogue Planet co-founder, from Closer’s bitter stripper to Five Women’s born-again virgin.

2. Isma’il ibn Conner (Black Battles With Dogs, Hambone). Playing wrathful figures of near-mythic proportions in An Inspector Calls and Black Battles With Dogs, he yet proved a sympathetic troubled youth in Hambone.

3. Bill Murphey (Fully Committed). A favorite supporting player in Atlanta provided a staggering and hilarious 40 roles in Fully Committed at Theatre in the Square’s Alley Stage.

4. Kathleen Wattis (Private Eyes, On the Verge, One Flea Spare) One of the city’s most effervescent comic actresses extended her range as a hyper-verbal explorer in On the Verge and a repressed English wife in One Flea Spare.

5. Justin Welborn (The Laramie Project, Clockwork Orange, The Hobbit). The puckish actor provided some of the year’s most memorable antagonists, including a sinister convict in The Laramie Project, the sociopathic antihero of Clockwork Orange and Gollum in The Hobbit.

FIVE FAB PLAYERS
1. Jen Apgar (Closer, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress). A certain girlishness informs and energizes many of the performances of the Rogue Planet co-founder, from Closer’s bitter stripper to Five Women’s born-again virgin.

2. Isma’il ibn Conner (Black Battles With Dogs, Hambone). Playing wrathful figures of near-mythic proportions in An Inspector Calls and Black Battles With Dogs, he yet proved a sympathetic troubled youth in Hambone.

3. Bill Murphey (Fully Committed). A favorite supporting player in Atlanta provided a staggering and hilarious 40 roles in Fully Committed at Theatre in the Square’s Alley Stage.

4. Kathleen Wattis (Private Eyes, On the Verge, One Flea Spare) One of the city’s most effervescent comic actresses extended her range as a hyper-verbal explorer in On the Verge and a repressed English wife in One Flea Spare.

5. Justin Welborn (The Laramie Project, Clockwork Orange, The Hobbit). The puckish actor provided some of the year’s most memorable antagonists, including a sinister convict in The Laramie Project, the sociopathic antihero of Clockwork Orange and Gollum in The Hobbit.??