This year, it seemed as if a wellspring of actors found complexity in fairly safe surroundings; they gave underwritten characters breadth that wasn't on the page. A small role in the American Heartland Theatre's female Odd Couple wasn't much of a challenge for someone like Kathleen Warfel. But donning a flapper wig and a billowing wardrobe to play a bitter friend of the title pair, she was so entrenched in her character that many people didn't even realize she was in the show. Warfel gave a cynical twist to lines that, in lesser hands, might have just fallen to the ground; with her performance, they became ammo.
