While Rice has been a local theater presence for a few years, it was her preternaturally focused portrayal of the titular "Cat" in Fifty-Foot Penguin Theater's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last winter that inspired critics to start the search for superlatives. Indeed, her fluid, feline Maggie might very well have set Tennessee Williams himself to waltzing around Playwrights' Heaven with the first available angel (or whatever it is they have up there). Though Rice has the range to go from the roof to a gutter comedy, she brings expressive eyes and carefully calibrated physical energy to all her roles. And there are a lot of them: Rice is prolific as hell, meaning those unfortunates who haven't yet seen her perform will have ample opportunity to do so in the coming year. Rice is already slated to appear in productions by Pig's Eye Theater, Pillsbury House, and Fifty-Foot Penguin. So get with it, already!