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Cheyenne\u00a0Haynes as Mimi in the world premiere of Gracie Gardner’s “Saturn Return” at\u00a0Undermain Theatre.<\/p>\n
Paul Semrad<\/p>\n
Christina Cranshaw considers herself \u201ca big \u2018woo-woo\u2019 person.\u201d She\u2019s interested in the mysteries that lie beneath the surface of things.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m big into astrology. I know my chart,\u201d she says in a Zoom interview about her new position as artistic associate at Undermain Theatre and Saturn Return, the new Gracie Gardner play she\u2019s directing for the 42-year-old company.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s named for the astrological event that occurs between a person\u2019s 27th and 30th birthday. The planet Saturn returns to the same position in your chart as it was at the time of your birth. \u201cThis landed in my lap,\u201d Cranshaw says. \u201cI\u2019m a Libra sun, a Leo moon and have Capricorn rising. Then everything underneath is Scorpio. There\u2019s a lot of emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Undermain is producing the world premiere of this latest effort from Gardner, who won the company\u2019s Katherine Owens<\/a> award, named for its late co-founder, in 2024. That same year, Undermain produced the New York playwright\u2019s Athena<\/a>, about a pair of fencers training for the Junior Olympics. It starred Cranshaw and Nadia DeWolf, who plays the main character Tory in Saturn Return.<\/p>\n Tory is one of four 27-year-old \u201ctheater kids\u201d on the cusp of their Saturn returns brought back together for the memorial service of a high school classmate. Cranshaw, 31, just went through hers. In the midst of it almost a year ago, she got her new post at Undermain.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt just feels like everything in my life kind of has put me in these places where it all aligns,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Among her duties is helping artistic director Bruce DuBose plan future seasons. DuBose has been running the company since Owens, his wife, died of lymphoma in 2019. Then the 65-year-old had a stroke in December 2024. He has mostly recovered, acting in\u00a0the only speaking part in the demanding An Iliad<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just talking about how Katherine had done Macbeth with people hanging from the pillars,\u201d Cranshaw says. \u201cI\u2019m so interested in doing works that uncover the things that we\u2019re all scared to uncover \u2026 the stuff that we hide and the mask that we present to people. What\u2019s underneath that mask and who gets to see it?\u201d<\/p>\n The plot of Saturn Return revolves around Tory and her relationship with the deceased Jake, Cranshaw says, with the audience learning about Jake from each of the characters\u2019 viewpoints, including Mr. Littman (Patrick Bynane), their former teacher on the verge of his second Saturn return.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about their disconnections and miscommunications,\u201d she explains. \u201cEach Saturn return is different. We see people yearning for something. Whether it\u2019s fulfilled or not, I won\u2019t spoil it.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve seen her perform or just talked to her, you know Cranshaw is a fireball of feelings. In the recent Undermain production of Thornton Wilder\u2019s bizarre classic The Skin of Our Teeth<\/a>, she played two characters plus a version of herself when she steps out of one of the roles to loudly protest the scene unfolding onstage.<\/p>\n Earlier this season,\u00a0Cranshaw directed Sam Shepard\u2019s absurdist play Action<\/a> during which a cooked turkey was partially consumed by the cast, partially thrown around the stage. Later in the show, one of the nonsensical characters facing the aftermath of some kind of apocalypse sliced up a fish. The smells were palpable.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m scared I\u2019m getting the reputation for being the icky director in town,\u201d Cranshaw\u00a0says, adding her adaptation of\u00a0Kafka\u2019s Metamorphosis at Fort Worth\u2019s Hip Pocket Theatre<\/a> in 2024 to her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of visceral productions.<\/p>\n In the book, Gregor Samsa gets fed milk. For the stage production, Cranshaw decided to have the actor playing him, Doak Rapp, who also appears in Saturn Return, pour a powdered milk mixture all over his body.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very sensory,\u201d she understates. \u201cI just love the fact that we as artists can actually smell that fish being gutted. It\u2019s so much more potent if we do the things we say we\u2019re going to do on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Doak Rapp as Bucket in Gracie Gardner’s “Saturn Return.”<\/p>\n Paul Semrad<\/p>\n Trained in the physical movement technique developed by French theater artist Jacques Lecoq, Cranshaw says she chooses action over talk. \u201cAs a director, I\u2019m not great with words. When I get excited, I\u2019ll start juggling or throw myself in a trash can. I love getting up there with the actors and seeing if they have an idea. Just extreme collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n She was such a ham as a child, Cranshaw says, her mother put her in acting classes at KD Studio when she was 4. In another full-circle moment, she\u2019s now teaching at the affiliated KD Conservatory. Along with the Undermain artistic associate position, it made it possible for her to quit her 9-to-5 job.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Growing up in Mansfield, Cranshaw remembers being 10 and thinking she would skip college, move to Los Angeles and live out of her car. Instead, she put herself through school, eventually graduating with an acting degree from Texas Christian University.<\/p>\n One of her influences was her cousin Patrick Cranshaw, an actor who had small roles in movies like Bonnie and Clyde. He played a bank teller who\u2019s robbed by the outlaws. She says he gave her the confidence that she could do it, too.<\/p>\n A year after graduating from high school in 2013, Cranshaw started acting professionally at the avant-hippie Hip Pocket and studying with co-founder Johnny Simons and his daughters Lorca and Lake, who run the troupe now. She has continued to work there and is scheduled to direct the 50-year-old company\u2019s season opener, The Three Cuckolds, in June.<\/p>\n Cranshaw has also worked at other theaters around D-FW, including Dallas Children\u2019s Theater, Ochre House Theatre, Casa Ma\u00f1ana, Cara Mia Theatre, WaterTower Theatre, Stage West Theatre and Jubilee Theatre.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Around the same time she began appearing at Hip Pocket, she saw her first Undermain show, the near-future sci-fi drama Tomorrow Comes Today. Technological advances have made it possible for the rich to cheat death by moving into a new body.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember being blown away by the innovation of the writing and appreciated that I would never see anything else like that in the DFW theater community,\u201d Cranshaw\u00a0says. \u201cSince then, I\u2019ve seen show after show after show and started developing these relationships where\u00a0Undermain started to become the place I lean towards. They were doing stuff that I wanted to do. I thought, \u2018How can I get involved with them?\u2019 Finally I got my bachelor’s degree and became this butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n She first auditioned for Undermain in 2021 and was cast in Fairview, the company\u2019s co-production with Bishop Arts Theatre Center of the Pulitzer Prize winner that examined racial issues.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so nervous,\u201d she recalls of the audition, “but had a lot of trust in my piece. I did something from Dance Nation, gave it 110% \u2014 went truly out there wild \u2014 and left everything on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She was invited back to read for Bondage<\/a>, a play that takes place on a failing Southern plantation during slavery, and was cast as the precocious daughter of the plantation owner.<\/p>\n After that success, DuBose told her Undermain wanted her to star in Athena, a play the company had been trying to produce for years. Then at Undermain\u2019s Christmas party, he approached her about becoming artistic associate, a new part-time staff position.<\/p>\n “We want that person to be able to create their place the way they want it, and give us time to work with each other,\u201d he said of the job in an interview last June, shortly before publicly announcing Cranshaw had been hired.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBruce has really allowed me to take ownership of what I\u2019m doing this season,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful because I was in a mode of doing show after show after show and relying on a lot of stipends.\u201d<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cranshaw hopes to be a creative force at Undermain if she\u2019s not already. She has ideas around increasing community activities and possibly starting a salon series. \u201cI\u2019ve been given this opportunity,\u201d she says, \u201cto bring a fresh perspective and new eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n Details<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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