Dane Rhodes in "The Weir"

‘Tis the season for brutal choices.

Constructing a list of the top performances of the year was excruciating for NoDef Theatre Writer Helen Jaksch and me. We did not take it lightly. Furthermore, we made it as difficult as possible by deciding that any list of our design would not resemble the last day of little league. In other words, not everyone would get a trophy. Therefore, no separate gender categories, no distinction between featured or lead role, and no honorable mentions. We removed our conflicts by deciding that neither From A Long Way Off nor Concierge Solitaire would be considered, since we were involved in the creation of those projects. About the only gift we gave ourselves was expanding the list from ten to twelve in honor of Christmas. So, without further ado, here are the leaping lords and dancing ladies that make our performers of the year.

12. Kyra Miller as Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha. She stole the show. During the performance I saw, an elderly patron leaned over to her companion and asked, “Why is she so good?” It took everything in my power not to poke my head in between them and tell them she was acting in the moment while singing. You would be amazed how rare that is in these parts.

11. Becca Chapman in Pchile Goyin. Chapman was a technical tour-de-force in the midst of this challenging, unusual show. When she was on the stage, you could not take your eyes off her.

10. Janet Shea as Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful. What lifted Shea’s performance from merely solid to something lovely was a flinty edge of sneaky resistance and calculation that could be sensed under her long-suffering widow.

9. Mike Harkins as Darling in Cat’s Paw. It could have easily degenerated into a series of tics and mannerism, the idea of an ordinary individual under of stress. But through all the twitching, sweating and trebling was a portrait of a man terrified to die. Because we believed him, we believed his captors capable.

8. Troi Bechet as Melba Thompkins in On the Air. I think I got this one right with my review description. “Sentimental without being mawkish, strong without being harsh, Bechet infused humanity into a role that very easily could have turned to cliché.” The woman can give you a lifetime of heartbreak in one song.

7. Kerry Cahill as Beth in Orange Flower Water. It all seemed too easy, too natural. Cahill seamlessly merged technique and organic emotion to make a fairly reprehensible woman heartbreakingly sympathetic. I kept feeling that I should not like her, but I did.

6. AJ Allegra as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Mincing with his steps but tough in his purpose, Allegra’s turn as the celebrated instigator provided the pulse of the elegiac evening at the museum.

5. Michael Martin as George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. If Miller stole her show, Martin was his show. Martin’s George held three hours of evening together with a subdued slow burn that was humiliating and thrilling at the same time.

4. Yvette Hargis in Renew Revue. What did she play? What do you got? I described her as “Madeline Kahn on a bender.” Whether she was playing a local celebrity, a disillusioned torch song singer, or a lascivious Edwin Edwards, Hargis let fly with a dizzying display of comic timing, spot on impersonations and biting snarl to come close to walking off with the year’s biggest crowd pleaser.

3. Aimée Hayes as Ruth in The Norman Conquests. Hayes had the best slow cross to retrieve a purse this year. As a woman unable to break away from her philandering husband, Southern Rep’s artistic director was a portrait of suspicion and resignation with the faintest hint of a heart. She was damn funny as well.

2. Emilie Whelan as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Over the top and utterly real, Whelan was the most likable narcissist ever. It was a ham of a performance that invited romantics everywhere to join in the fun. Her delineation of kicks, brays and snorts had me in disbelief.

1. Dane Rhodes as Jack Mullen in The Weir. A tremendous performance that came in the middle of a two-month period that had him playing three monstrous roles in rapid succession. The few audience members that attended were treated to what my colleague described as both “still” and “boisterous”. Helen put it best when she called his portrayal of the lonely, Irish mechanic a “hurricane of a performance.”

Merry Christmas.