Daisy lives with her older sister Doris, and her sister’s husband. They share a small, isolated house in a Texas town, in 1928. Daisy is what you’d call a ringtailed tooter. Though not exactly playful. She’s tall, dresses with sleek aplomb, congenial and charming one moment, strident the next. Daisy had taken some tough blows. Her deceased husband was promiscuous. In a moment of cosmic retribution, his mistress shot him dead, leaving Daisy with miserable feelings of betrayal, rage and hopelessness. Strangely enough, this ugly turn takes Daisy to her husband’s funeral, where catches the eye of one Garland Steinholden. In an act of spontaneous defiance, she grabs a yellow rose from the coffin, placing it behind her ear. In a word, Garland is smitten.
Ellsworth Schave’s Texas Romance (like the best comedies) gives us the pleasure of amusement with genuine moments of despair. He has a keen sense of Texas culture, somber and resigned. Giddy and rambunctious. His feel for Texas natives is accurate and nuanced. Daisy, Doris and Garland are not the familiar caricatures we’ve been subjected to. Like Horton Foote or Larry MacMurtry, his characters are complicated and intriguing. Schave’s written them against type. Doris is the over-protective scold, but she really doesn’t want to be. Garland is solicitous (not submissive) and patient. Daisy is gorgeous and plainspoken, even flirtatious, but never dainty. She might be Edna Ferber’s Leslie Benedict from Giant, or Katherine from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.
Director Janette Oswald brings her comprehensive, pitch perfect experience to this difficult yet engaging piece. Oswald sorts the timing, the pathos, the smart humor. She brings the tonal shifts, the quirkiness, the unique flavor of this surprising narrative. Kendra Young (Daisy) wields beguiling presence to the stage, flouncy and turbulent. Devin Hite (Garland) brings gentle class, and nobility to a character who never mistakes piety for virtue. Laura Jennings (Doris) is truly phenomenal. She balances the stern older sister with warmth and vulnerability.
Rover Dramawerks presents: Texas Romance, playing from September 10th-26th, 2026. 972-849-0358. 1517 H Avenue, Plano, Texas 75074. roverdramawerks.com