Capital Talent Agency
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Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson
Washington National Opera / Kennedy Center
directed by Tazewell Thompson, conductor John DeMain
Only well-established Washington, DC actress Dawn Ursula as Mrs. Kumalo, Lauren Michelle as Absalom's lover, and to some extent Mr. Owens, give us any realistic sense of the raw emotions that the characters are experiencing and the challenging circumstances they face.
BroadwayWorld.com
And Dawn Ursula, who has to be one of the most versatile performers on the Washington stage today, has just emerged from Stage Kiss at Round House Theatre. As Grace Kumalo, she is radiant as a pious woman whose belief shines in her face as she persuades her reluctant husband to set off on the search for Absalom. Ursula also plays Mrs. Mksie, a wickedly funny landlady encountered on the search.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Dawn Ursula as Kumalo’s wife brings depth and pathos to the role.
DC Theatre Scene
There is sturdy acting, as well, from Everyman Theatre resident artist Dawn Ursula as Stephen's wife.
Baltimore Sun
Washington National Opera / Kennedy Center
directed by Tazewell Thompson, conductor John DeMain
Only well-established Washington, DC actress Dawn Ursula as Mrs. Kumalo, Lauren Michelle as Absalom's lover, and to some extent Mr. Owens, give us any realistic sense of the raw emotions that the characters are experiencing and the challenging circumstances they face.
BroadwayWorld.com
And Dawn Ursula, who has to be one of the most versatile performers on the Washington stage today, has just emerged from Stage Kiss at Round House Theatre. As Grace Kumalo, she is radiant as a pious woman whose belief shines in her face as she persuades her reluctant husband to set off on the search for Absalom. Ursula also plays Mrs. Mksie, a wickedly funny landlady encountered on the search.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Dawn Ursula as Kumalo’s wife brings depth and pathos to the role.
DC Theatre Scene
There is sturdy acting, as well, from Everyman Theatre resident artist Dawn Ursula as Stephen's wife.
Baltimore Sun
Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl
Round House Theatre
directed by Aaron Posner
Ursula’s She makes a strong impression on the director (a funny Craig Wallace) with her jittery charm, tiptoeing through line readings and fumbling her bag. The character flies in six directions, and the incisive Ursula makes these nerves — which stick with her most of the night — thoroughly winning.
Washington Post
Sarah Ruhl's delightful play Stage Kiss, now at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, takes that premise and turns it inside out and back again, sparked by the multi-leveled performance of Dawn Ursula as an actress identified only as "She." From her first scene, where she auditions for a play opposite a less than optimal scene partner, Ursula makes the audience see the many layers of a character who is acting even when she pretends not to be—acting about acting, in other words.
Talkinbroadway.com
...played by the fabulously nuanced Dawn Ursula and the rakish yet sensitive Gregory Woddell, turn out to be former lovers who “ended things badly.” Watching them struggle against the reality of having to kiss their estranged ex, then giving in to the temptation of passion, forms the spine of the play. Their undeniable chemistry is a joy to watch throughout the play, but their mixed feelings about betraying their current families (played by delightfully hokey Rachel Zampelli, the charmingly tender Todd Scofield, and the vivacious Tyasia Velines) gives Stage Kiss a depth that makes it more interesting than your average comedy.
DC Theatre Scene
Fresh from a one-woman production at Theater J, in which she showed her incredible versatility, Dawn Ursula (She) here displays a joie de vivre, a deft comic touch, and a believable ambivalence between her husband and lover.
MD Theatre Guide
Dawn Ursula is not only superbly cast for her comedy chops, but she gets to the heart of the character, which could become supercilious, but Ms. Ursula's attention to the characters nuances makes her She seem much more three dimensional and she gets to the heart of the character and the story. Ms. Ursula really gives She depth into the character's relationship with the other actors... Ms. Ursula and Mr. Wooddell, make a dynamic couple that expertly plays the subtext that Ms. Ruhl carefully weaved into the script.
BroadwayWorld.com
Helen Hayes Award-winning actress Dawn Ursula is dynamic and exuberant as the conflicted She. Commanding powerful stage presence and exercising refined comedic timing, Ursula is convincing as an intense, but well-intentioned woman who delicately teeters between reality and make-belief. Employing precise body language and transparent facial expressions, Ursula leaves a lasting impression, particularly when She shares that living without her first love makes her feel like a “ghost person”.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Round House Theatre
directed by Aaron Posner
Ursula’s She makes a strong impression on the director (a funny Craig Wallace) with her jittery charm, tiptoeing through line readings and fumbling her bag. The character flies in six directions, and the incisive Ursula makes these nerves — which stick with her most of the night — thoroughly winning.
Washington Post
Sarah Ruhl's delightful play Stage Kiss, now at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, takes that premise and turns it inside out and back again, sparked by the multi-leveled performance of Dawn Ursula as an actress identified only as "She." From her first scene, where she auditions for a play opposite a less than optimal scene partner, Ursula makes the audience see the many layers of a character who is acting even when she pretends not to be—acting about acting, in other words.
Talkinbroadway.com
...played by the fabulously nuanced Dawn Ursula and the rakish yet sensitive Gregory Woddell, turn out to be former lovers who “ended things badly.” Watching them struggle against the reality of having to kiss their estranged ex, then giving in to the temptation of passion, forms the spine of the play. Their undeniable chemistry is a joy to watch throughout the play, but their mixed feelings about betraying their current families (played by delightfully hokey Rachel Zampelli, the charmingly tender Todd Scofield, and the vivacious Tyasia Velines) gives Stage Kiss a depth that makes it more interesting than your average comedy.
DC Theatre Scene
Fresh from a one-woman production at Theater J, in which she showed her incredible versatility, Dawn Ursula (She) here displays a joie de vivre, a deft comic touch, and a believable ambivalence between her husband and lover.
MD Theatre Guide
Dawn Ursula is not only superbly cast for her comedy chops, but she gets to the heart of the character, which could become supercilious, but Ms. Ursula's attention to the characters nuances makes her She seem much more three dimensional and she gets to the heart of the character and the story. Ms. Ursula really gives She depth into the character's relationship with the other actors... Ms. Ursula and Mr. Wooddell, make a dynamic couple that expertly plays the subtext that Ms. Ruhl carefully weaved into the script.
BroadwayWorld.com
Helen Hayes Award-winning actress Dawn Ursula is dynamic and exuberant as the conflicted She. Commanding powerful stage presence and exercising refined comedic timing, Ursula is convincing as an intense, but well-intentioned woman who delicately teeters between reality and make-belief. Employing precise body language and transparent facial expressions, Ursula leaves a lasting impression, particularly when She shares that living without her first love makes her feel like a “ghost person”.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Queen's Girl in the World by Caleen Sinnette Jennings
Theater J
directed by Eleanor Holdridge, associate director Paige Hernandez
Dawn Ursula is a lovely name for the remarkably gifted young actor starring in Caleen Sinnette Jennings’s sweet-spirited solo show “Queens Girl in the World,” directed by Eleanor Holdridge and presented by Theater J. The principal character is Jacqueline Marie Butler, daughter of a middle-class black couple with high ambitions for her.
Ms. Ursula also portrays — with star-quality brilliance — numerous other characters: Jacqueline’s imperious mother and her doctor father, who watch in consternation their 12-year-old daughter’s budding friendship with a neighbor, the boys she develops crushes on, the new friends she makes when her parents remove her from that neighbor’s influence by sending her to middle school at a school in Greenwich Village peopled mostly by Jewish kids.
The time is the turbulent early years of the civil rights movement. Ms. Jennings captures with admirable fluency the various voices of her characters, and in Ms. Ursula she finds the perfect actor to convey the play’s poignancy, as Jacqueline finds herself emotionally adrift: neither fully at home in the culture she was born into nor in the intellectually stimulating, politicized atmosphere of her nearly all-white new school.
NY Times
Any list of premier actors in Washington has to put Dawn Ursula’s name near the top, and the actress has been handed a dazzling showcase in the solo “Queens Girl in the World.” Ursula plays an adolescent named Jacqueline Marie Butler, a black girl with a sunbeam spirit — and she effortlessly suggests everyone else in this comic memoir, including Jackie’s hearty Caribbean father and white Jews when she is transferred to a tony Manhattan school.
This is palm-of-her-hand stuff: That’s how totally Ursula captivates the Theater J audience. She has a knack for inhabiting intimidating mothers, nervous girls and gushing teachers, each quickly recognizable through voices and facial expressions that grow warmly familiar over the show’s two hours. This versatility makes Ursula a supple interpreter for the easygoing yet tough-minded new play from Caleen Sinnette Jennings, premiering now as part of the city’s ongoing Women’s Voices Theater Festival.
Washington Post
Portraying Jacqueline and all of those that enter her life, Ursula proves remarkably adept at bringing the compelling story to life in a convincing and charming way. The diversity of characterizations she's required to take on is a bit staggering, but she does wonders with them all. From Jacqueline's upper class Jewish classmates at the elite Manhattan prep school, her sophisticated parents, to the typical girl on the block in Queens, Ursula gives a distinct voice to all of them, not faltering once.
BroadwayWorld.com
With a skilled infectious comic touch and insightful warm dramatic direction by Eleanor Holdridge and the inspired, multi-character performance from Helen Hayes Award recipient Dawn Ursula, the one-woman Queens Girl is a deeply charged “what is my identity” narrative during a time of social change.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
In addition to the finest acting I have seen in the last several years by Ms. Dawn Ursula, the brilliant artistic vision of director Eleanor Holdridge was well appreciated by the standing ovation. To direct a show such as this one requires not only an amazingly talented actress, but an incredibly detail oriented director. One woman representing so many different characters by sculpting little more than a facial gesture or body movement is an undertaking for only the most technical of actors.
MD Theatre Guide
And the effectiveness of Jackie’s story simply would not have been possible without the powerhouse performance of Dawn Ursula. Ursula plays a cacophonous assortment of characters, each one detailed, evocative and real. From Jackie’s self-assured Doctor father, to her lisping, neurotic white-Jewish best frenemy, to her series of would-be boyfriends, Ursula is hilariously on point in her characterizations, but never broad to the point that the characters cannot be deeply moving when the script calls for it.
However, Ursula’s most impressive performance is as Jackie herself. Jackie begins the play as a little girl with a lot to learn about every aspect of the world, but, by the show’s end, Jackie is different – not entirely grown up, not without room to become more secure, more confident – but she if different. It is the subtlety of this performance, intermixed with the dynamic shifts Ursula makes between the other characters on stage, that makes Queens Girl in the World one of the most electric pieces of theatre that I have seen in quite some time.
DC Theatre Scene
Theater J
directed by Eleanor Holdridge, associate director Paige Hernandez
Dawn Ursula is a lovely name for the remarkably gifted young actor starring in Caleen Sinnette Jennings’s sweet-spirited solo show “Queens Girl in the World,” directed by Eleanor Holdridge and presented by Theater J. The principal character is Jacqueline Marie Butler, daughter of a middle-class black couple with high ambitions for her.
Ms. Ursula also portrays — with star-quality brilliance — numerous other characters: Jacqueline’s imperious mother and her doctor father, who watch in consternation their 12-year-old daughter’s budding friendship with a neighbor, the boys she develops crushes on, the new friends she makes when her parents remove her from that neighbor’s influence by sending her to middle school at a school in Greenwich Village peopled mostly by Jewish kids.
The time is the turbulent early years of the civil rights movement. Ms. Jennings captures with admirable fluency the various voices of her characters, and in Ms. Ursula she finds the perfect actor to convey the play’s poignancy, as Jacqueline finds herself emotionally adrift: neither fully at home in the culture she was born into nor in the intellectually stimulating, politicized atmosphere of her nearly all-white new school.
NY Times
Any list of premier actors in Washington has to put Dawn Ursula’s name near the top, and the actress has been handed a dazzling showcase in the solo “Queens Girl in the World.” Ursula plays an adolescent named Jacqueline Marie Butler, a black girl with a sunbeam spirit — and she effortlessly suggests everyone else in this comic memoir, including Jackie’s hearty Caribbean father and white Jews when she is transferred to a tony Manhattan school.
This is palm-of-her-hand stuff: That’s how totally Ursula captivates the Theater J audience. She has a knack for inhabiting intimidating mothers, nervous girls and gushing teachers, each quickly recognizable through voices and facial expressions that grow warmly familiar over the show’s two hours. This versatility makes Ursula a supple interpreter for the easygoing yet tough-minded new play from Caleen Sinnette Jennings, premiering now as part of the city’s ongoing Women’s Voices Theater Festival.
Washington Post
Portraying Jacqueline and all of those that enter her life, Ursula proves remarkably adept at bringing the compelling story to life in a convincing and charming way. The diversity of characterizations she's required to take on is a bit staggering, but she does wonders with them all. From Jacqueline's upper class Jewish classmates at the elite Manhattan prep school, her sophisticated parents, to the typical girl on the block in Queens, Ursula gives a distinct voice to all of them, not faltering once.
BroadwayWorld.com
With a skilled infectious comic touch and insightful warm dramatic direction by Eleanor Holdridge and the inspired, multi-character performance from Helen Hayes Award recipient Dawn Ursula, the one-woman Queens Girl is a deeply charged “what is my identity” narrative during a time of social change.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
In addition to the finest acting I have seen in the last several years by Ms. Dawn Ursula, the brilliant artistic vision of director Eleanor Holdridge was well appreciated by the standing ovation. To direct a show such as this one requires not only an amazingly talented actress, but an incredibly detail oriented director. One woman representing so many different characters by sculpting little more than a facial gesture or body movement is an undertaking for only the most technical of actors.
MD Theatre Guide
And the effectiveness of Jackie’s story simply would not have been possible without the powerhouse performance of Dawn Ursula. Ursula plays a cacophonous assortment of characters, each one detailed, evocative and real. From Jackie’s self-assured Doctor father, to her lisping, neurotic white-Jewish best frenemy, to her series of would-be boyfriends, Ursula is hilariously on point in her characterizations, but never broad to the point that the characters cannot be deeply moving when the script calls for it.
However, Ursula’s most impressive performance is as Jackie herself. Jackie begins the play as a little girl with a lot to learn about every aspect of the world, but, by the show’s end, Jackie is different – not entirely grown up, not without room to become more secure, more confident – but she if different. It is the subtlety of this performance, intermixed with the dynamic shifts Ursula makes between the other characters on stage, that makes Queens Girl in the World one of the most electric pieces of theatre that I have seen in quite some time.
DC Theatre Scene
Zombie: The American by Robert O'Hara
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Howard Shalwitz
As the leader of the African nations upon whom future America depends for its peacekeeping forces, Secretary General Abidemi wields a great deal of power. Dawn Ursula is more than up to the task. Her performance is so oddly delightful, so off-the-cuff and unpredictable, you can’t help but smile as you watch.
MD Theatre Guide
Other standouts are Sarah Marshall as Lady Secretary of State Jessica Bloom and Dawn Ursula as Secretary General of the United African Nations Abidemi and her sister, Babirye. Ursula, a stunning presence, gives an ideal in-your-face irony to her powerful women.
Metro Weekly
Recent Helen Hayes Award Winner, Dawn Ursula (as Sec. Abidemi and her sister) as well as Woolly Company Member and DC acting legend Sarah Marshall are the two standouts. Ursula is a master of vocal inflection that makes a line read somewhat of a master class,
BroadwayWorld.com
More rewarding is Woolly regular Dawn Ursula’s imperious turn as the United Africa’s Secretary General, a leader who can inflect the word “motherfucker” more ways than Samuel L. Jackson, and who isn’t going to stand by when an African peacekeeper gets stoned to death in the once-again-wild American West. She offers up a new-but-in-fact-quite-old definition of “WMD” 99 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act: White Men Did it.
Washington City Paper
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Howard Shalwitz
As the leader of the African nations upon whom future America depends for its peacekeeping forces, Secretary General Abidemi wields a great deal of power. Dawn Ursula is more than up to the task. Her performance is so oddly delightful, so off-the-cuff and unpredictable, you can’t help but smile as you watch.
MD Theatre Guide
Other standouts are Sarah Marshall as Lady Secretary of State Jessica Bloom and Dawn Ursula as Secretary General of the United African Nations Abidemi and her sister, Babirye. Ursula, a stunning presence, gives an ideal in-your-face irony to her powerful women.
Metro Weekly
Recent Helen Hayes Award Winner, Dawn Ursula (as Sec. Abidemi and her sister) as well as Woolly Company Member and DC acting legend Sarah Marshall are the two standouts. Ursula is a master of vocal inflection that makes a line read somewhat of a master class,
BroadwayWorld.com
More rewarding is Woolly regular Dawn Ursula’s imperious turn as the United Africa’s Secretary General, a leader who can inflect the word “motherfucker” more ways than Samuel L. Jackson, and who isn’t going to stand by when an African peacekeeper gets stoned to death in the once-again-wild American West. She offers up a new-but-in-fact-quite-old definition of “WMD” 99 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act: White Men Did it.
Washington City Paper
Ruined by Lynn Nottage
Everyman Theatre
directed by Tazewell Thompson
Such a complex character requires an unusually gifted actress, which Everyman happens to have in resident company member Dawn Ursula. She triumphed in the company's production of a very different Nottage work last season, "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark." She triumphs again here.
Ursula truly disappears into the role. She starts by giving Mama an authentic accent and an authentic attitude (you know quickly why only the most intrepid soldier would want to mess with this woman), then adds one nuance after another. Just watch her, in the first scene, savor a chocolate caramel, as if the act of slowly stretching out the gooey center were a means of freezing time, suspending all worries.
The actress finishes by delivering authentic tears, the kind that can easily trigger your own, during the tense and unexpectedly sentimental final portion of the play, when Mama has to face everything she has long avoided — the true toll of war and profit-making from it; the danger of erecting barricades to keep others from getting close to you.
Baltimore Sun
The biggest challenge in playing Mama is to convince an audience that one skinny woman could control a barroom full of drunken soldiers, wily traders, and rebellious prostitutes by sheer will alone. Ursula radiates such a force field that not only do Mama’s customers and employees cower before her but so do we in the audience. As a result, the few moments she turns off that force field become moving epiphanies.
But the horrors of war are not the principal focus of Nottage’s script nor of Tazewell Thompson’s crisp direction. No, our attention is always turned to the question of what Mama must do to make the best of a horrible situation. We may not like the choices she has been given—offering blow jobs to killers or becoming the target of killers—but Nottage never pretends that the choice is something else. And Ursula, in a magnificent performance, makes it clear how much strength is required for such a decision and how much it takes out of her each time.
Baltimore City Paper
As a member of Everyman Theatre’s Resident Acting Company, Dawn Ursula has delivered some unforgettable performances—as a Hollywood maid in “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” as an apprentice conjurer in “Gem of the Ocean” and as a beleaguered wife in “A Raisin in the Sun”—but she hit a new peak in this year’s “Ruined” as the owner of a bar/brothel in the war-torn Congo. Mama Nadi churns with fondness and horror as rape victims and soldiers from various factions pass through her doors, but she has to keep those emotions under control if her business is to survive. Ursula used her body as much as her voice to reveal both the turbulent feelings and the struggle to keep the lid on. It was as if she were playing two characters—the outer Mama Nadi and the inner—and she captured both of them perfectly.
Baltimore City Paper "Best of" Award
In Ursula’s virtuoso performance, she glides between bright cordiality and cutthroat, to the point where you suppress a gasp when she tells one of the girls “I don’t care if he just slit your mother’s throat—you go with that man.” She is meticulous in not showing emotion and care—too dangerous in such a world—but at the end, when Mama Nadi reveals something about herself, it comes as an eruption, as though she is being split in two right before your eyes.
DC Theatre Scene
And, Dawn Ursula brilliantly captures and showcases all of Mama Nadi’s virtues with great range and skill: her arrogance and pride, her quick-wittedness and business acumen and her maternal protectiveness towards her stable of girls.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Instead, Nadi weaves a virtuoso performance, wheeling, dealing, commanding, and charming all around her most of the time, in order to keep herself and her girls as safe as she can, which is not always very much. It is a virtuoso part, and Dawn Ursula, a regular member of the Everyman troupe, does marvels with it, waving, gesticulating, stuttering with the overwhelming flow of her thoughts, capable of cutting coldness, flirtatiousness on demand, and of both wheedling venality and generosity.
BroadwayWorld.com
At the heart of Ruined is Dawn Ursula’s magnetic performance as Mama Nadi. She is a force of nature but not altogether likable. Her character is neither a saint nor savior but a survivor and businesswoman in a world ruled by brutal men. Like the saloons of the old American West, the soldiers must give up their bullets when they come into her saloon. This is her domain and she is funny and fierce, tough as nails – a wheeler-dealer who appears to takes no sides. She only wants to take their money. Any kind of warmth would be letting her guard down but the cracks do appear. Mama Nadi has her own story.
MD Theatre Guide
Everyman Theatre
directed by Tazewell Thompson
Such a complex character requires an unusually gifted actress, which Everyman happens to have in resident company member Dawn Ursula. She triumphed in the company's production of a very different Nottage work last season, "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark." She triumphs again here.
Ursula truly disappears into the role. She starts by giving Mama an authentic accent and an authentic attitude (you know quickly why only the most intrepid soldier would want to mess with this woman), then adds one nuance after another. Just watch her, in the first scene, savor a chocolate caramel, as if the act of slowly stretching out the gooey center were a means of freezing time, suspending all worries.
The actress finishes by delivering authentic tears, the kind that can easily trigger your own, during the tense and unexpectedly sentimental final portion of the play, when Mama has to face everything she has long avoided — the true toll of war and profit-making from it; the danger of erecting barricades to keep others from getting close to you.
Baltimore Sun
The biggest challenge in playing Mama is to convince an audience that one skinny woman could control a barroom full of drunken soldiers, wily traders, and rebellious prostitutes by sheer will alone. Ursula radiates such a force field that not only do Mama’s customers and employees cower before her but so do we in the audience. As a result, the few moments she turns off that force field become moving epiphanies.
But the horrors of war are not the principal focus of Nottage’s script nor of Tazewell Thompson’s crisp direction. No, our attention is always turned to the question of what Mama must do to make the best of a horrible situation. We may not like the choices she has been given—offering blow jobs to killers or becoming the target of killers—but Nottage never pretends that the choice is something else. And Ursula, in a magnificent performance, makes it clear how much strength is required for such a decision and how much it takes out of her each time.
Baltimore City Paper
As a member of Everyman Theatre’s Resident Acting Company, Dawn Ursula has delivered some unforgettable performances—as a Hollywood maid in “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” as an apprentice conjurer in “Gem of the Ocean” and as a beleaguered wife in “A Raisin in the Sun”—but she hit a new peak in this year’s “Ruined” as the owner of a bar/brothel in the war-torn Congo. Mama Nadi churns with fondness and horror as rape victims and soldiers from various factions pass through her doors, but she has to keep those emotions under control if her business is to survive. Ursula used her body as much as her voice to reveal both the turbulent feelings and the struggle to keep the lid on. It was as if she were playing two characters—the outer Mama Nadi and the inner—and she captured both of them perfectly.
Baltimore City Paper "Best of" Award
In Ursula’s virtuoso performance, she glides between bright cordiality and cutthroat, to the point where you suppress a gasp when she tells one of the girls “I don’t care if he just slit your mother’s throat—you go with that man.” She is meticulous in not showing emotion and care—too dangerous in such a world—but at the end, when Mama Nadi reveals something about herself, it comes as an eruption, as though she is being split in two right before your eyes.
DC Theatre Scene
And, Dawn Ursula brilliantly captures and showcases all of Mama Nadi’s virtues with great range and skill: her arrogance and pride, her quick-wittedness and business acumen and her maternal protectiveness towards her stable of girls.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Instead, Nadi weaves a virtuoso performance, wheeling, dealing, commanding, and charming all around her most of the time, in order to keep herself and her girls as safe as she can, which is not always very much. It is a virtuoso part, and Dawn Ursula, a regular member of the Everyman troupe, does marvels with it, waving, gesticulating, stuttering with the overwhelming flow of her thoughts, capable of cutting coldness, flirtatiousness on demand, and of both wheedling venality and generosity.
BroadwayWorld.com
At the heart of Ruined is Dawn Ursula’s magnetic performance as Mama Nadi. She is a force of nature but not altogether likable. Her character is neither a saint nor savior but a survivor and businesswoman in a world ruled by brutal men. Like the saloons of the old American West, the soldiers must give up their bullets when they come into her saloon. This is her domain and she is funny and fierce, tough as nails – a wheeler-dealer who appears to takes no sides. She only wants to take their money. Any kind of warmth would be letting her guard down but the cracks do appear. Mama Nadi has her own story.
MD Theatre Guide
Marie Antoinette by by David Adjmi
Woolly Mammoth
directed by Yury Urnov
(embodied with perfection by the hilarious Dawn Ursula and Sue Jin Song)
BroadwayWorld.com
Marie’s friends at court, including Joseph (Gavin Lawrence), Yolande de Polignac (Dawn Ursula), Therese de Lambaille (Sue Jin Song) and Axel Fersen (Bradley Foster Smith) could all have been easily overshadowed, but strong acting and big personalities all around lead to some memorable performances.
DC Theatre Scene
A supporting cast of eight highly skilled and talented actors accompany Marie in their dismantling of civilization. Those ladies-in-waiting–Dawn Ursula tackles with authority the sultry yes-woman, Yolande de Polignac, and Sue Hin Song, the motherly Therese de Lamballe.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Woolly Mammoth
directed by Yury Urnov
(embodied with perfection by the hilarious Dawn Ursula and Sue Jin Song)
BroadwayWorld.com
Marie’s friends at court, including Joseph (Gavin Lawrence), Yolande de Polignac (Dawn Ursula), Therese de Lambaille (Sue Jin Song) and Axel Fersen (Bradley Foster Smith) could all have been easily overshadowed, but strong acting and big personalities all around lead to some memorable performances.
DC Theatre Scene
A supporting cast of eight highly skilled and talented actors accompany Marie in their dismantling of civilization. Those ladies-in-waiting–Dawn Ursula tackles with authority the sultry yes-woman, Yolande de Polignac, and Sue Hin Song, the motherly Therese de Lamballe.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
The Totalitarians by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Woolly Mammoth
directed by Robert O'Hara
But two towering comic performances make Robert O’Hara’s “rolling world premiere” production a must-see: Townley’s, plus Dawn Ursula’s as Francine Jefferson, a campaign manager who sees Penelope as an obedient blank canvas on which she can paint her ticket out of Nebraska.
Washington City Paper
Portrayed cleverly here as reluctantly ruthless by Dawn Ursula, Francine is tasked to come up with a slogan to incite Penny’s Nebraskan audience into patriotic fervor — without actually saying anything of substance at all.
dcist.com
Dawn Ursula is a powerhouse as Francine, obsessed with her job so she can eventually leave the state (this part is true to life).
MD Theatre Guide
Ursula, as the wildly engaging Francine, plays the part of the frustrated campaign manager just trying to carve out a niche of her own success along the way. Ursula is exceptionally talented when it comes to stirring up emotions and making people feel things. Whether it’s tickling the audience’s funny bone with her outrageous facial expressions or allowing us to discover the fear when she takes up the crossbow and drops her voice a few octaves; Ursula connects with the audience on multiple levels and delivers a sensational performance in this captivating role. Her personality is constantly ablaze with emotional energy, suffusing her feelings into every gesture made with her body, every speech blasted from her lips, Ursula stuns the audience with her dynamic portrayal.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Woolly Mammoth
directed by Robert O'Hara
But two towering comic performances make Robert O’Hara’s “rolling world premiere” production a must-see: Townley’s, plus Dawn Ursula’s as Francine Jefferson, a campaign manager who sees Penelope as an obedient blank canvas on which she can paint her ticket out of Nebraska.
Washington City Paper
Portrayed cleverly here as reluctantly ruthless by Dawn Ursula, Francine is tasked to come up with a slogan to incite Penny’s Nebraskan audience into patriotic fervor — without actually saying anything of substance at all.
dcist.com
Dawn Ursula is a powerhouse as Francine, obsessed with her job so she can eventually leave the state (this part is true to life).
MD Theatre Guide
Ursula, as the wildly engaging Francine, plays the part of the frustrated campaign manager just trying to carve out a niche of her own success along the way. Ursula is exceptionally talented when it comes to stirring up emotions and making people feel things. Whether it’s tickling the audience’s funny bone with her outrageous facial expressions or allowing us to discover the fear when she takes up the crossbow and drops her voice a few octaves; Ursula connects with the audience on multiple levels and delivers a sensational performance in this captivating role. Her personality is constantly ablaze with emotional energy, suffusing her feelings into every gesture made with her body, every speech blasted from her lips, Ursula stuns the audience with her dynamic portrayal.
DC Metro Theatre Arts
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage
Everyman Theatre
directed by Walter Dallas
Portrayed by the compelling Dawn Ursula..."By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" combines comedy and commentary in a bold, mostly successful fashion, encompassing seven decades of American entertainment and social history. In its Baltimore/Washington premiere, the play could not ask for a much more vibrant or rewarding introduction than the one offered by Everyman. The company has pulled out all the stops. Casting and direction are first-rate, and so is the stagecraft.
The movie clip is really on film, depicting a scene from "The Belle of New Orleans," the big-break movie for Vera that lets her reveal the soul behind the slave.This film component has been so expertly crafted for Everyman by cinematographer Thomas Kaufman, and so deftly acted by Ursula and Hylton, that it's a shame that Nottage didn't provide enough material for it to last more than a few minutes. But that's all she wrote.
And when, interviewed on that TV chat show, Vera says she is still "bound to Tilly" 40 years later, it is easy to feel the sting, especially given Ursula's brilliant portrayal.The actress, one of Everyman's resident artists, has the beauty and nuance to make a riveting Vera, and she lets you sense every ounce of frustration inside. (Nottage based the character on Theresa Harris, whose film career was largely confined to maid roles despite her physical glamour).
Ursula also handles the funny stuff in Act 1 with aplomb, verbally and physically.
The Baltimore Sun
And Ursula just kills it in the title role. Whether she's having to demean herself to get a role, going head to head with Mitchell about their shared past, coolly skating around delicate questions on the 1970s talk show, or over-cranking the emotions in the faux film clips of Belle that introduce the second act, Ursula makes Stark an actress who can't hide how completely she understands the role she's been asked to play in each instance.
Baltimore City Paper
The actress playing Vera Stark has to carry the show of course and Helen Hayes Award winner Dawn Ursula more than does so. Her portrayal of the maid turned actress is one of the best performances you will see all season. It never becomes cartoony and by the end you feel so bad for her character and realize what could have been if things were different in Hollywood at the time of her film career.
MD Theatre Guide
Not enough can be said about Dawn Ursula’s performance. It is a true star turn, showing breathtaking versatility (she sings, she dances, she acts!) and generosity of spirit, both playful and poignant.
DC Theatre Scene
But for Vera, the screen role of a servant is her only inroad. Vera knows – and Everyman actress Dawn Ursula leaves no doubt – that she has the talent to make it a star turn.
WYPR
But this play needs a leading lady who can handle a very complex role, an actress who has incredible talent to play the multi-layered person who is Vera Stark. And thankfully, Lancisi has just that person who just happens to be a member of the Everyman Acting Company making her debut on the stage of the "new" Everyman Theatre, Dawn Ursula and A STAR IS BORN. What an incredible performance Ursula gives to the role of this multi-layered person. It's a compelling performance.
BroadwayWorld.com
Everyman Theatre
directed by Walter Dallas
Portrayed by the compelling Dawn Ursula..."By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" combines comedy and commentary in a bold, mostly successful fashion, encompassing seven decades of American entertainment and social history. In its Baltimore/Washington premiere, the play could not ask for a much more vibrant or rewarding introduction than the one offered by Everyman. The company has pulled out all the stops. Casting and direction are first-rate, and so is the stagecraft.
The movie clip is really on film, depicting a scene from "The Belle of New Orleans," the big-break movie for Vera that lets her reveal the soul behind the slave.This film component has been so expertly crafted for Everyman by cinematographer Thomas Kaufman, and so deftly acted by Ursula and Hylton, that it's a shame that Nottage didn't provide enough material for it to last more than a few minutes. But that's all she wrote.
And when, interviewed on that TV chat show, Vera says she is still "bound to Tilly" 40 years later, it is easy to feel the sting, especially given Ursula's brilliant portrayal.The actress, one of Everyman's resident artists, has the beauty and nuance to make a riveting Vera, and she lets you sense every ounce of frustration inside. (Nottage based the character on Theresa Harris, whose film career was largely confined to maid roles despite her physical glamour).
Ursula also handles the funny stuff in Act 1 with aplomb, verbally and physically.
The Baltimore Sun
And Ursula just kills it in the title role. Whether she's having to demean herself to get a role, going head to head with Mitchell about their shared past, coolly skating around delicate questions on the 1970s talk show, or over-cranking the emotions in the faux film clips of Belle that introduce the second act, Ursula makes Stark an actress who can't hide how completely she understands the role she's been asked to play in each instance.
Baltimore City Paper
The actress playing Vera Stark has to carry the show of course and Helen Hayes Award winner Dawn Ursula more than does so. Her portrayal of the maid turned actress is one of the best performances you will see all season. It never becomes cartoony and by the end you feel so bad for her character and realize what could have been if things were different in Hollywood at the time of her film career.
MD Theatre Guide
Not enough can be said about Dawn Ursula’s performance. It is a true star turn, showing breathtaking versatility (she sings, she dances, she acts!) and generosity of spirit, both playful and poignant.
DC Theatre Scene
But for Vera, the screen role of a servant is her only inroad. Vera knows – and Everyman actress Dawn Ursula leaves no doubt – that she has the talent to make it a star turn.
WYPR
But this play needs a leading lady who can handle a very complex role, an actress who has incredible talent to play the multi-layered person who is Vera Stark. And thankfully, Lancisi has just that person who just happens to be a member of the Everyman Acting Company making her debut on the stage of the "new" Everyman Theatre, Dawn Ursula and A STAR IS BORN. What an incredible performance Ursula gives to the role of this multi-layered person. It's a compelling performance.
BroadwayWorld.com
photo Stan Barouh
WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION ABOUT THE HERERO OF NAMIBIA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTH WEST AFRICA, FROM THE GERMAN SUDWESTAFRIKA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Michael John Garcés
Woolly’s ensemble consists of six remarkable actors: Andreu Honeycutt, Peter Howard, Joe Isenberg, Holly Twyford, Dawn Ursula, and Michael Anthony Williams. Ursula’s artistic director plays protagonist with a fierce combination of grace, humor, and stubbornness. Though claiming collaborative intent, she pushes her actors into psychological terrain no one is prepared to enter, much less explore with knowledge and art. This naiveté is essential to the play’s believability.
Maryland Theatre Guide
While the piece is truly that of an ensemble, company member Dawn Ursula asserts her presence early on as the self-proclaimed leader character. At first her constructed character is brassy and annoying, fitting perfectly into that figurehead of pushy domineer; but ultimately Ursula gives an incredibly stunning performance that really blows the audience out of the water when watching her. Her snappy personality infused into the rehearsal and developmental moments of the show gives way to a more somber and deeply disturbed side of her character, especially as the play throttles toward its drastic conclusion.
DCMetroTheaterArts
DC-area actress Dawn Ursula directs the experimentation as the passionate company leader. Ursula displays veteran poise as she pushes her fellow actors to the edges of their comfort zones, all in the name of artistic honesty. She professes a deep connection to photos of the Herero people; one photo makes her feel “as if she’s staring at her Grandmother”. Ursula’s emotional investment keeps the show grounded throughout the company’s chaotic free association.
DC Theatre Scene
...the ringleader (played with bottomless reserves of wit and indignation by Dawn Ursula)
Though Woolly’s actors play nameless generic characters, each portrait is etched with clean, knife-like strokes. Ursula is a magnetic center as the black woman who pointedly identifies herself as the artistic director.
Washington Post
Huge credit goes to a hardworking ensemble of actors - Andreu Honeycutt, Peter Howard, Joe Isenberg, Holly Twyford, Dawn Ursula, and Michael Anthony Williams - and director Michael John Garcés for working together to create a special theatre production that's probably unlike anything most people have seen… The unrelenting commitment and energy that the actors bring to the table - along with strong comedic and drama skills and an enviable chemistry with one another make minute one to minute 120 a joy or near joy to watch. There's not a weak link in the bunch and versatility is definitely the name of the game. I knew from watching numerous productions on the DC stages that Holly Twyford and Dawn Ursula have an amazing chameleon-like ability to transform into something else entirely not only in each production but within productions when needed, but here every actor impressed me with that ability as they took on a range of challenging material and even simultaneously dealt with some pretty specific choreography (Paige Hernandez), recitative chants, and singing. Garcés is deserving of many accolades for bringing out the best in his actors, but also letting their natural talents shine through because after all, this is a play about actors playing actors.
BroadwayWorld.com
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Michael John Garcés
Woolly’s ensemble consists of six remarkable actors: Andreu Honeycutt, Peter Howard, Joe Isenberg, Holly Twyford, Dawn Ursula, and Michael Anthony Williams. Ursula’s artistic director plays protagonist with a fierce combination of grace, humor, and stubbornness. Though claiming collaborative intent, she pushes her actors into psychological terrain no one is prepared to enter, much less explore with knowledge and art. This naiveté is essential to the play’s believability.
Maryland Theatre Guide
While the piece is truly that of an ensemble, company member Dawn Ursula asserts her presence early on as the self-proclaimed leader character. At first her constructed character is brassy and annoying, fitting perfectly into that figurehead of pushy domineer; but ultimately Ursula gives an incredibly stunning performance that really blows the audience out of the water when watching her. Her snappy personality infused into the rehearsal and developmental moments of the show gives way to a more somber and deeply disturbed side of her character, especially as the play throttles toward its drastic conclusion.
DCMetroTheaterArts
DC-area actress Dawn Ursula directs the experimentation as the passionate company leader. Ursula displays veteran poise as she pushes her fellow actors to the edges of their comfort zones, all in the name of artistic honesty. She professes a deep connection to photos of the Herero people; one photo makes her feel “as if she’s staring at her Grandmother”. Ursula’s emotional investment keeps the show grounded throughout the company’s chaotic free association.
DC Theatre Scene
...the ringleader (played with bottomless reserves of wit and indignation by Dawn Ursula)
Though Woolly’s actors play nameless generic characters, each portrait is etched with clean, knife-like strokes. Ursula is a magnetic center as the black woman who pointedly identifies herself as the artistic director.
Washington Post
Huge credit goes to a hardworking ensemble of actors - Andreu Honeycutt, Peter Howard, Joe Isenberg, Holly Twyford, Dawn Ursula, and Michael Anthony Williams - and director Michael John Garcés for working together to create a special theatre production that's probably unlike anything most people have seen… The unrelenting commitment and energy that the actors bring to the table - along with strong comedic and drama skills and an enviable chemistry with one another make minute one to minute 120 a joy or near joy to watch. There's not a weak link in the bunch and versatility is definitely the name of the game. I knew from watching numerous productions on the DC stages that Holly Twyford and Dawn Ursula have an amazing chameleon-like ability to transform into something else entirely not only in each production but within productions when needed, but here every actor impressed me with that ability as they took on a range of challenging material and even simultaneously dealt with some pretty specific choreography (Paige Hernandez), recitative chants, and singing. Garcés is deserving of many accolades for bringing out the best in his actors, but also letting their natural talents shine through because after all, this is a play about actors playing actors.
BroadwayWorld.com
photo Teresa Wood
Love in Afghanistan by Charles Randolph Wright
Arena Stage
directed by Lucie Tiberghien
"...Dawn Ursula manages to command the play in stretches as Desiree. Ursula is one of those actresses who can use sentences like chefs use knives, which comes in handy as the no-nonsense Desiree carves up her capricious son."
Washington Post
"As the parental figures, Kamal and Ursula give solid performances as professionals that are also parents wanting what's best for their sometimes challenging children. Ursula's performance is particularly elegant and perfectly suited to her driven character."
BroadwayWorld.com
"The show draws strength from the performances of Ursula and Kamal, who are complex and funny characters who also develop an attraction to one another (if a less wide-eyed version of the puppy love that Duke seems to feel for Roya). As Desiree, Ursula is the more dominant of the two, and lords it over her son so spectacularly that how he gathered the initiative to become a rapper rather than a business school graduate is anyone’s guess."
Washingtonian
"Roya’s father Sayeed (played by Joseph Kamal) hooks up with Duke’s mother Desiree (played by Dawn Ursula) in a scene that is as delightfully enthusiastic as the younger couple’s romance is ironically suppressed. These two actors capture not only their blossoming love between one another but also the parental dimensions of their respective characters. Their angst is both believable and authentic."
MD Theatre Guide
"Ursula plays the role to the hilt, and is animated and humorous as Duke’s mother, who sometimes requests that she be introduced as his sister."
The Washington Informer
"The supporting players in this play, if you can even call them that, provide honesty and levity at the same time, which is a credit to their performances that they are able to provide both. Dawn Ursula’s Desiree is pointed, strong, and an in control mother of a son who doesn’t always think with his head. Ursula’s performance is beautifully colored, with strength of self throughout and moments of brevity and humor that punctuate the scene and the pace of the play beautifully. Ursula and Kamal have dynamite chemistry with each other, as well, and watching that chemistry play itself out is all too bittersweet."
DC Metro Theater Arts
"Ursula plays strident British-Jamaican careerist Desiree with feisty energy. Immediately after her arrival, she cuts through Duke’s boastful façade with motherly love cloaked in biting sarcasm. She also adds a valuable sounding board for Roya as the two swap stories of unrealistic expectations thrust upon minority women around the world."
DC Theatre Scene
Arena Stage
directed by Lucie Tiberghien
"...Dawn Ursula manages to command the play in stretches as Desiree. Ursula is one of those actresses who can use sentences like chefs use knives, which comes in handy as the no-nonsense Desiree carves up her capricious son."
Washington Post
"As the parental figures, Kamal and Ursula give solid performances as professionals that are also parents wanting what's best for their sometimes challenging children. Ursula's performance is particularly elegant and perfectly suited to her driven character."
BroadwayWorld.com
"The show draws strength from the performances of Ursula and Kamal, who are complex and funny characters who also develop an attraction to one another (if a less wide-eyed version of the puppy love that Duke seems to feel for Roya). As Desiree, Ursula is the more dominant of the two, and lords it over her son so spectacularly that how he gathered the initiative to become a rapper rather than a business school graduate is anyone’s guess."
Washingtonian
"Roya’s father Sayeed (played by Joseph Kamal) hooks up with Duke’s mother Desiree (played by Dawn Ursula) in a scene that is as delightfully enthusiastic as the younger couple’s romance is ironically suppressed. These two actors capture not only their blossoming love between one another but also the parental dimensions of their respective characters. Their angst is both believable and authentic."
MD Theatre Guide
"Ursula plays the role to the hilt, and is animated and humorous as Duke’s mother, who sometimes requests that she be introduced as his sister."
The Washington Informer
"The supporting players in this play, if you can even call them that, provide honesty and levity at the same time, which is a credit to their performances that they are able to provide both. Dawn Ursula’s Desiree is pointed, strong, and an in control mother of a son who doesn’t always think with his head. Ursula’s performance is beautifully colored, with strength of self throughout and moments of brevity and humor that punctuate the scene and the pace of the play beautifully. Ursula and Kamal have dynamite chemistry with each other, as well, and watching that chemistry play itself out is all too bittersweet."
DC Metro Theater Arts
"Ursula plays strident British-Jamaican careerist Desiree with feisty energy. Immediately after her arrival, she cuts through Duke’s boastful façade with motherly love cloaked in biting sarcasm. She also adds a valuable sounding board for Roya as the two swap stories of unrealistic expectations thrust upon minority women around the world."
DC Theatre Scene
photo Stan Barouh
The Convert by Danai Gurira
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Michael John Garcés
"As portrayed to perfection by Dawn Ursula, Prudence is a splendidly overbred enigma. She’s terminally unhappy, unsuited to the skirt-chasing Chancellor, contemptuous of the innocent Ester and in turn held in contempt by the whites whose English isn’t as pretty as hers. She’s an inspired tragic figure, conscious of the figurative prison that has been built for her. No wonder an audience can never fully figure out where she’s headed: neither can she. She’s politically and philosophically in the wrong place at the wrong time, an idea reinforced as the downtrodden locals begin taking vicious revenge."
Washington Post
"Dawn Ursula plays the liberated feminist Prudence with authentic force. Taking her cue from Susan B. Anthony’s pipe smoking ways, her Prudence might suffer fools but she will not do so lightly. Of all of Ms. Gurira’s magnificent female characters, hers is definitely the most finely crafted of gems."
MD Theatre Guide
"Dawn Ursula is always a treat to watch in any Woolly Mammoth show, but she rises to yet another level as Prudence, fiancé to the Chancellor (a delightfully slimy Alvin Keith) who is also engaged in efforts to bring change - whether good or bad - to Rhodesia. Prudence is an educated African woman who has 'been there done that' in terms of balancing Western ideals (though not necessarily religious ones) with tradition. Ursula has a wise air about her, but her uncanny delivery and knack for comedic and terse exchanges, makes us respect Prudence all the more. "
BroadwayWorld.com
"In the case of ‘one of these things is not like the other’ Prudence (Dawn Ursula) fits the bill. From her character’s prim lace gloves and umbrella right down to her hoity-toity arrival, Ursula plays a British snob from on high. With all of the pristine English colloquialisms over enunciated and slightly haughty airs, you would believe as she believes that she is the smartest most educated person of them all. Ursula has a keen sense of comic timing and delivers her lines with a smarmy edge that leaves the audience laughing, but make no mistake when she falls into darkness its harrowing, a haunting moment that will set your soul on edge to see it"
DC Metro Theater Arts
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Michael John Garcés
"As portrayed to perfection by Dawn Ursula, Prudence is a splendidly overbred enigma. She’s terminally unhappy, unsuited to the skirt-chasing Chancellor, contemptuous of the innocent Ester and in turn held in contempt by the whites whose English isn’t as pretty as hers. She’s an inspired tragic figure, conscious of the figurative prison that has been built for her. No wonder an audience can never fully figure out where she’s headed: neither can she. She’s politically and philosophically in the wrong place at the wrong time, an idea reinforced as the downtrodden locals begin taking vicious revenge."
Washington Post
"Dawn Ursula plays the liberated feminist Prudence with authentic force. Taking her cue from Susan B. Anthony’s pipe smoking ways, her Prudence might suffer fools but she will not do so lightly. Of all of Ms. Gurira’s magnificent female characters, hers is definitely the most finely crafted of gems."
MD Theatre Guide
"Dawn Ursula is always a treat to watch in any Woolly Mammoth show, but she rises to yet another level as Prudence, fiancé to the Chancellor (a delightfully slimy Alvin Keith) who is also engaged in efforts to bring change - whether good or bad - to Rhodesia. Prudence is an educated African woman who has 'been there done that' in terms of balancing Western ideals (though not necessarily religious ones) with tradition. Ursula has a wise air about her, but her uncanny delivery and knack for comedic and terse exchanges, makes us respect Prudence all the more. "
BroadwayWorld.com
"In the case of ‘one of these things is not like the other’ Prudence (Dawn Ursula) fits the bill. From her character’s prim lace gloves and umbrella right down to her hoity-toity arrival, Ursula plays a British snob from on high. With all of the pristine English colloquialisms over enunciated and slightly haughty airs, you would believe as she believes that she is the smartest most educated person of them all. Ursula has a keen sense of comic timing and delivers her lines with a smarmy edge that leaves the audience laughing, but make no mistake when she falls into darkness its harrowing, a haunting moment that will set your soul on edge to see it"
DC Metro Theater Arts
photo Stan Barouh
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Howard Shalwitz
"reprise...played superbly both times by Dawn Ursula"
Washington Post
"...their black maid, Francine (the extraordinary Dawn Ursula)"
Washington Examiner
"Jefferson A. Russell and Dawn Ursula (Kevin and Lena) are both stunning..."
BroadwayWorld.com
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Howard Shalwitz
"reprise...played superbly both times by Dawn Ursula"
Washington Post
"...their black maid, Francine (the extraordinary Dawn Ursula)"
Washington Examiner
"Jefferson A. Russell and Dawn Ursula (Kevin and Lena) are both stunning..."
BroadwayWorld.com
photo Stan Barouh
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Everyman Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Meanwhile Walter’s wife Ruth (Everyman company member Dawn Ursula) is pregnant and considering an abortion. Ruth is Mama’s ally and her foil: Emotions move imperceptibly beneath the surface in Ruth, and when she expresses anything strongly—pain, joy—it sends a ripple through her family, and the audience. Ruth and Walter’s dynamic is one of the central tensions in the production, and each time they come together or pull apart, you buy it. Those classic lines—“How we gets to the place where we scared to talk softness to each other?” Walter asks—resonate all the more for the pregnant pauses in which the pair is not afraid to linger."
Baltimore City Paper
"Dawn Ursula has sparkled in the past as the title character in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's The Taming of the Shrew, as Black Mary in Everyman Theatre's Gem of the Ocean, and as Mrs. "Bunny" Colvin on HBO's The Wire. But Ursula turns in her greatest performance yet as Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, now at Everyman. With her high cheekbones and hawk-like nose, Ursula projects such a force-field of strength that when her characters falter, the effect can be devastating. When Ruth despairs over her marriage and her new pregnancy, Ursula seems to stagger and we in the audience stagger along with her."
Baltimore City Paper "Best of" Award
"...the most powerful emotional charge in this production comes from Dawn Ursula as Walter Lee's wife, Ruth, who quietly works as a maid for white families and yet who is not afraid to speak up when it's called for. Ursula, who has given many fine performances in local theater, has such a wonderfully expressive face that she anchors this production."
The Baltimore Sun
Everyman Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Meanwhile Walter’s wife Ruth (Everyman company member Dawn Ursula) is pregnant and considering an abortion. Ruth is Mama’s ally and her foil: Emotions move imperceptibly beneath the surface in Ruth, and when she expresses anything strongly—pain, joy—it sends a ripple through her family, and the audience. Ruth and Walter’s dynamic is one of the central tensions in the production, and each time they come together or pull apart, you buy it. Those classic lines—“How we gets to the place where we scared to talk softness to each other?” Walter asks—resonate all the more for the pregnant pauses in which the pair is not afraid to linger."
Baltimore City Paper
"Dawn Ursula has sparkled in the past as the title character in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's The Taming of the Shrew, as Black Mary in Everyman Theatre's Gem of the Ocean, and as Mrs. "Bunny" Colvin on HBO's The Wire. But Ursula turns in her greatest performance yet as Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, now at Everyman. With her high cheekbones and hawk-like nose, Ursula projects such a force-field of strength that when her characters falter, the effect can be devastating. When Ruth despairs over her marriage and her new pregnancy, Ursula seems to stagger and we in the audience stagger along with her."
Baltimore City Paper "Best of" Award
"...the most powerful emotional charge in this production comes from Dawn Ursula as Walter Lee's wife, Ruth, who quietly works as a maid for white families and yet who is not afraid to speak up when it's called for. Ursula, who has given many fine performances in local theater, has such a wonderfully expressive face that she anchors this production."
The Baltimore Sun
photo Stan Barouh
Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson
Everyman Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Dawn Ursula plays Black Mary in a mysteriously cagey kind of way. She is slow to show us all of her character's hand - those cards are drawn tightly to her chest and revealed only when necessary. But Black Mary has learned, through several husbands and a nasty close relative that playing it close to the vest is to err on the side of good caution. There is a terrific scene in act two where Ms. Ursula really lets it all go, and the pay off is more than worth the wait."
BroadwayWorld.com
"Ursula...turns the subordinate character Black Mary into one of the evening's high points with a fiery performance."
Baltimore City Paper
"For several years now, Dawn Ursula has been one of those actresses who sparkle in supporting roles, demanding attention for the short periods she's been onstage. This was the year, however, when she moved from the bottom paragraphs of reviews to the top. This was the year her scalpel-wielding monologues, her eagle-faced stares, and her indomitable, big-boned body language completely took over the stage for long stretches at a time. At Everyman Theatre, where she has been a company member for some time, she played laundress/cook Black Mary in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, a smoldering presence until she erupts in complaints too ferocious to deflect. And in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's outdoor production of William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, she played the title role and made Kate's insults sting."
Baltimore City Paper "Best of " Award
Everyman Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Dawn Ursula plays Black Mary in a mysteriously cagey kind of way. She is slow to show us all of her character's hand - those cards are drawn tightly to her chest and revealed only when necessary. But Black Mary has learned, through several husbands and a nasty close relative that playing it close to the vest is to err on the side of good caution. There is a terrific scene in act two where Ms. Ursula really lets it all go, and the pay off is more than worth the wait."
BroadwayWorld.com
"Ursula...turns the subordinate character Black Mary into one of the evening's high points with a fiery performance."
Baltimore City Paper
"For several years now, Dawn Ursula has been one of those actresses who sparkle in supporting roles, demanding attention for the short periods she's been onstage. This was the year, however, when she moved from the bottom paragraphs of reviews to the top. This was the year her scalpel-wielding monologues, her eagle-faced stares, and her indomitable, big-boned body language completely took over the stage for long stretches at a time. At Everyman Theatre, where she has been a company member for some time, she played laundress/cook Black Mary in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, a smoldering presence until she erupts in complaints too ferocious to deflect. And in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's outdoor production of William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, she played the title role and made Kate's insults sting."
Baltimore City Paper "Best of " Award
photo Thomas Hoebbel
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
Hangar Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Craig Wallace and Dawn Ursula as Boy Willie and Berniece are electric, delivering focused and honest performances. Ursula redefines the term "cold fury" with a passionate, straightforward and uncompromising rendering of the character."
CNY Theater News
"Ursula gives a more sardonic rendering of Berniece than I've ever seen; it's convincing but quirky, as if she's ready to shatter from the pressure she's under."
ithacajournal.com
Hangar Theatre
directed by Jennifer Nelson
"Craig Wallace and Dawn Ursula as Boy Willie and Berniece are electric, delivering focused and honest performances. Ursula redefines the term "cold fury" with a passionate, straightforward and uncompromising rendering of the character."
CNY Theater News
"Ursula gives a more sardonic rendering of Berniece than I've ever seen; it's convincing but quirky, as if she's ready to shatter from the pressure she's under."
ithacajournal.com
photo Danisha Crosby
Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts
Round House Theatre
directed by Mark Ramont
"Ursula lends Holly an inner life that makes her more than the calm foil among the play’s combatants."
Washington Post
"The quiet genius of this ensemble comes through in the naturalness of their interactions...and Ursula blends deep-down strength with bits of trendy spirituality."
Talkinbroadway.com
Round House Theatre
directed by Mark Ramont
"Ursula lends Holly an inner life that makes her more than the calm foil among the play’s combatants."
Washington Post
"The quiet genius of this ensemble comes through in the naturalness of their interactions...and Ursula blends deep-down strength with bits of trendy spirituality."
Talkinbroadway.com
photo Stan Barouh
Doubt, A Parable by John Patrick Shanley
Everyman Theatre
directed by Vincent Lancisi
"...played by Dawn Ursula in a short but dazzling turn."
Baltimore City Paper
Everyman Theatre
directed by Vincent Lancisi
"...played by Dawn Ursula in a short but dazzling turn."
Baltimore City Paper
photo Stan Barouh
Eclipsed by Danai Gurira
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Liesl Tommy
"The strongest moments in Danai Gurira's Eclipsed are the smallest ones...when a peace activist's irrational, intimately personal hope dies suddenly, shockingly, as you watch. Ayesha Ngauajh and Dawn Ursula, respectively, create those moments..."
Washington City Paper
"Aduba, Ursula, Dukes, and Ngaujah create sympathetic, memorable and believable characters - indelible portraits of women attempting to negotiate hell."
Washington Post Weekend Pass
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
directed by Liesl Tommy
"The strongest moments in Danai Gurira's Eclipsed are the smallest ones...when a peace activist's irrational, intimately personal hope dies suddenly, shockingly, as you watch. Ayesha Ngauajh and Dawn Ursula, respectively, create those moments..."
Washington City Paper
"Aduba, Ursula, Dukes, and Ngaujah create sympathetic, memorable and believable characters - indelible portraits of women attempting to negotiate hell."
Washington Post Weekend Pass
photo Jen Plants
Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
Baltimore Shakespeare Festival
directed by Joe Brady
"Dominating the production, however, is Ursula. After standing out in supporting roles in the Everyman Theatre productions of Gem of the Ocean and Much Ado about Nothing, she finally gets a leading role and makes the most of it." Baltimore City Paper
Baltimore Shakespeare Festival
directed by Joe Brady
"Dominating the production, however, is Ursula. After standing out in supporting roles in the Everyman Theatre productions of Gem of the Ocean and Much Ado about Nothing, she finally gets a leading role and makes the most of it." Baltimore City Paper
photo Stan Barouh
Two Rooms by Lee Blessing
Everyman Theatre
directed by Vincent Lancisi
"It's in the electric chemistry between Brandhagen and Ursula, a chemistry palpable despite the fact that the two actors share almost no stage time. Lanie is simultaneously fiercely strong and break-at-a-breath fragile. But we also see Lanie's softness as she imagines talking to her husband, touching his face."
Baltimore City Paper
"Most of the intensity of Everyman's production comes from Dawn Ursula's quietly powerful depiction of Lanie. Ursula leaves no doubt that Lanie's outward restraint is a thin veneer covering longing, frustration and escalating anger...Dawn Ursula makes us feel this. Her performance will send a chill up your spine."
Maryland Morning WYPR 88.1
Everyman Theatre
directed by Vincent Lancisi
"It's in the electric chemistry between Brandhagen and Ursula, a chemistry palpable despite the fact that the two actors share almost no stage time. Lanie is simultaneously fiercely strong and break-at-a-breath fragile. But we also see Lanie's softness as she imagines talking to her husband, touching his face."
Baltimore City Paper
"Most of the intensity of Everyman's production comes from Dawn Ursula's quietly powerful depiction of Lanie. Ursula leaves no doubt that Lanie's outward restraint is a thin veneer covering longing, frustration and escalating anger...Dawn Ursula makes us feel this. Her performance will send a chill up your spine."
Maryland Morning WYPR 88.1
