Theater Buzz, TodayinAustin.com

Austin High School Red Dragon Players Rated #1 in UIL One-Act Play Competition

2012-05-24T18:01:00Z

The Red Dragon Players of Austin High School have won the UIL ONE-ACT PLAY 5A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP for the 2nd year in a row.

Last night the AHS Theatre Department broke records and received many accolades for their outstanding achievement in theatre.

Felipe Ramirez was named Best Actor in the State.

AHS won Best Actor at every level of competition with a different young man each time. (Richard Dent at District, Ian Erbe at Area, Billy Rainey at Region).

Richard Dent was named to the All-Star Cast.

Catherine Schwartz and Jasmin Weber were named to the Honorable Mention All-Star Cast.

Records Broken

First school to ever win two back to back Championships in 5A.
First School in 5A to advance to the State Finals six times in a row.
Only school to advance and win a championship with a sequel.
First school to have 4 different actors win Best Actor at four different levels of competition.

This has been an incredible year for the Austin High Theatre Department! Next month, they will take their production of Spring Awakening to the International Thespian Festival to perform in front of approximately 3000 students, teachers, directors, college/university reps, and theatre professionals from around the country.

Statesman and Chronilcle Writers Announce 2011-2012 'Critics' Table' Nominations

2012-05-24T06:59:00Z

Writers for the Chronicle and the Statesman put together their annual list and released it last night. Here are the nominations relating to Austin's live narrative theatre; the full list is available at Jeanne Claire van Ryzin's Seeing Things blog at the Statesman's Austin360.com website. Robert Faires describes the process in his feature at the Austin Chronicle.

THEATRE

Production, Drama
“Arcadia,” Austin Shakespeare
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” UT Department of Theatre & Dance
“Housebreaking,” Poison Apple Initiative
“The Lion in Winter,” Austin Playhouse
“The Pavilion,” Penfold Theatre Company
“Riddley Walker,” Trouble Puppet Theatre Company

Production, Comedy
“The Aliens,” Hyde Park Theatre
“The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,” Mary Moody Northen Theatre
“Guest by Courtesy,” Salvage Vanguard Theater
“Men of Tortuga,” Street Corner Productions
“Messenger No. 4,” Cambiare Productions
“The Schooling of Bento Bonchev,” Breaking String Theater

Production, Musical
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Soubrette Productions
“Hairspray,” Zach Theatre<.br> “I Love You Because,” Penfold Theatre Company
“Next to Normal,” Zach Theatre
“Oklahoma!,” Texas State University Department of Theatre and Dance
“[title of show],” TexARTS

Theatrical Event
“Bottled-in-Bond: The Decline and Fall of a Thug as Told in Five Drinks,” Fusebox Festival: Digestible Feats
“Jubilee,” Rubber Repertory
“The Orchid Flotilla,” Glass Half Full Productions
“Surprise Annie,” Rubber Repertory
“Sweet Betrayal,” Fusebox Festival: Digestible Feats

Direction
Bastion Carboni, “Housebreaking”
Daria Davis, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Kaitlin Hopkins, “Oklahoma!”/”Hair”
Zell Miller III, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf”
Andrea Skola, “Men of Tortuga”
Dave Steakley, “Hairspray”/”Next to Normal”/”The Laramie Project”
Ken Webster, “The Aliens”

Acting in a Leading Role
Liz Beckham, “Arcadia”
Jill Blackwood, “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler”
Andrew Cannata, “I Love You Because/Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”
Jon Cook, “The Aliens”
Babs George, “Ghosts”
Jude Hickey, “The Aliens”
Eugene Lee, “The Book of Grace”/”God of Carnage”
Claire Ludwig, “A Room With a View”
Meredith McCall, “Next to Normal”
Sam Mercer, “Housebreaking”
Nadine Mozon, “The Book of Grace”
Robert Pierson,”B. Beaver Animation”
Matt Radford, “Uncle Vanya”
Caroline Reck, “The Orchid Flotilla”
Nikki Zook, “The Children’s Hour”

Acting in a Supporting Role
Kim Adams, “Ghosts”/”The Pavilion”
Brian Coughlin, “Hairspray”
Michael Dalmon, “Arcadia”
Shelby Davenport, “Arcadia”
Emily Everidge, “Uncle Vanya”
Jamie Goodwin, “Next to Normal”
Joey Hood, “The Aliens”
Jarrett King, “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler”
Tom Parker, “A Room With a View”
Jason Phelps, “Spring Awakening”
Kelli Schultz, “Next to Normal”
Michael Slefinger, “Big Love”
Janis Stinson, “Hairspray”
Breanna Stogner, “Down the Drain”
Rommel Sulit, “Big Love”/”Men of Tortuga”/”Bacha Bazi (Boy Play)”/”The Dragon Play”

Ensemble Performance
“69 Love Scenes,” Gnap! Theatre Productions
“Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance
“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” UpRise! Productions/Vortex Repertory Co.
“God of Carnage,” Zach Theatre
“I Love You Because”, Penfold Theatre
“Jubilee,” Rubber Repertory

David Mark Cohen New Play Award
“360 (round dance),” Steven Dietz
“Bacha Bazi (Boy Play),” Gabriel Jason Dean
“Guest by Courtesy,” Hannah Kenah
“Messenger No. 4,” Will Hollis Snider
“River City,” Diana Grisanti
“Static,” Tom Horan

Music Direction
Greg Bolin, “Oklahoma!”/”Hair,” Texas State University Dept. of Theatre and Dance
Susan Finnegan, “The Spitfire Grill”
Austin Haller, “[title of show]”
Allen Robertson, “Hairspray”/”Next to Normal”

Movement
Quetta Carpenter, “Love’s Labour's Lost”, UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Matt Hislope and company, “Jubilee”
Robin Lewis. “Hairspray”
Amanda Mayi Moss & Sade Jones, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf”
Melinda Rebman & Zenobia Taylor, “The Dudleys: A Family Game”
Tom Truss, “Hair,” Texas State University Dept. of Theatre and Dance

DESIGN

Scenic Design
Rowan Doyle, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Ia EnsterÃ¤, “Uncle Vanya”/”Down the Drain”/”Ghosts”/”The Schooling of Bento Bonchev”/”The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm”/”Messenger No. 4”/”The Alien”s/”The Materiality of Impermanence”
Ann Marie Gordon, “Sarah Silver Hands”
Michael Raiford, “Hairspray”/”Spring Awakening”/”God of Carnage”
Chris H. Yoo, “360 (round dance)”

Costume Design
Yao Chen, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Julia Chinnock Howze, “Uncle Vanya”
Rachel McGinnis, “The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm”
Austin Rausch, “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler”
Susan Branch Towne, “The Magic Flute”/”Hairspray”
Proletina Veltchev, “Love’s Labours Lost”

Lighting Design
Jason Amato, “Devotion”/”Hairspray”/”Sarah Silver Hands”/”Next to Normal”/”Arcadia”
Kathryn Eader, “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler”
Kate Leahy, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Stephen Pruitt, “The Materiality of Impermanence”/”April Fools”
Steven Shirey, “Ghosts”/”The Schooling of Bento Bonchev”/”Jubilee”
Cheng-Wei Teng, “Love’s Labours Lost”

Sound Design
K. Eliot Haynes, “Riddley Walker”
Sam Kokajko, “Hairspray”
Jeffery Mills, “Civilization (All You Can Eat)”
Buzz Moran, “The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler”/”Ghosts”
Brian Schneider, “The Pavilion”

Video Design
Jo Beira, “Too & For” (Catalyst)
David Bengali, Angela Hill, Josh Lampman, David Mauro, Dan Monceaux, Camilo Munar & Jake Witten, and Jordan Rein, “The Dudleys: A Family Game”
Scott Hathaway, “Devotion”
Jeff Kurihara, “Broken Pieces”/”Just for the Night” (New York Stories)
Todd V. Wolfson, “The Materiality of Impermanence”

Upcoming: Medea by Euripides, with Suzanne Balling, City Theatre, June 7 - July 1

2012-05-23T19:35:00Z

The City Theatre

presents

Medea

by Euripides

with Suzanne Balling

directed by Karen Sneed

June 7 – July 1, Thursdays – Saturdays 8:00 p.m. Sundays 5:30 p.m.
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. 78757 – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street. (click for map)

General Seating $15. Guaranteed Front/2nd Row Reserved $25.
Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are available.
Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

The City Theatre Company turns up the heat to present Euripides’ famous Greek tale, Medea. In this masterly written drama of passion, suffering and the sensitivity of injured love are strongly drawn, until they culminate in the awful deed of vengeance. The production is directed by Karen Sneed and plays June 7 – July 1, Thursday – Saturday 8 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.
"I'll teach these people not to laugh at me. What's stopping me? I've nothing to live for." - Medea

Alone; Medea is the ancient Greek tragedy based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband, for whom she sacrificed everything.

Medea unleashes a vengeance on her enemies, making both assassins and victims of all those around her. Euripides produced Medea at the City Dionysian festival along with the lost plays Philoctetes, Dictys and the satyr play Theristai. So much like today’s writers, Euripides made a splendid effort to maintain the place of drama in the spiritual life of the society by modifying its interests, topics and themes in the sense which his own generation required. Heroic persons could still excite interest if they were made more real, - if, in them, the passions and sorrows of every-day life were portrayed with greater vividness and directness. In that, Euripides became the virtual founder of the romantic drama and he continued to write well-known works including Electra, The Bacchae and The Trojan Women. Read more on Euripides.

Featuring one of the most powerful female roles in the history of drama, Medea is an intense story fuelled by passion, hatred and deadly rage. Heroic yet deadly, sympathetic yet appalling, Medea’s barbaric actions will stir your emotions as you find yourself irresistibly drawn into the nightmare world of this spectacularly vengeful woman. Award-winning Austin actress Suzanne Balling leads the cast in the role of Medea, who will stop at nothing to repay Jason for the ultimate betrayal of his family and the woman he promised to love forever.

Joining her in the starring roles are Robert Lee Berry (Creon), Trevor Bissell (Jason) and Terri Lynne Hudson (Nurse). Also featured are Lauren Hayes, Leigh Hegedus, Craig Kanne, Becky Musser, Rachel Redig, Molly Sapp, Andreas Stein, Don Sneed, John Redig, James Holder, Bethany Bissell and Brooklyn Bissell. The production is directed by Karen Sneed (CTC’s The Imaginary Invalid) and is choreographed by Courtney Poole, with costume design by Kendi Erickson and set design by Andy Berkovsky.
The City Theatre Company is an Austin-based not for profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance, the Austin Cultural Arts Division and the AMD Foundation. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards and was twice voted “Best Theatre Company” by Austin- American Statesman’s Austin 360. CTC is dedicated in providing quality theatre experience and entertainment for Austin artists and its community.

Video Preview of Patience by Gibert & Sullivan, G&S Society of Austin, June 7 - 17

2012-05-23T15:11:00Z

Artistic Director Ralph MacPhail, Jr. previews the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin's 2012 Grand Summer Production of Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride with 9 performances, June 7-17, 2012, at the Brentwood Christian School Performing Arts Center, 11908 N. Lamar. (click for map)
Patience is one of the most lyrical and laugh-filled of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas. It satirizes the "aesthetic craze" of the Victorian era with wit, charm, poetry, and a delightfully complicated love triangle. Beautiful music, memorable characters, and colorful costumes and sets will captivate all ages.

Tickets can also be purchased online at www.gilbertsullivan.org, at the Long Center ticketing service website or by calling 512.474.5664. All seats are reserved, assigned on 'best available' baasis. Advance sale prices including fees are $23 for adults, $14.50 for students with ID and $10.75 for those 18 years old and younger. Day of performance rates are $28, $17.50 and $13.75.

Upcoming: Balderdash!, melodrama by Playhouse Smithville, June 8 - 24

2012-05-23T14:24:00Z

presents

the 2nd Annual Smithville Melodrama:

Balderdash!

June 8-23 (Fridays & Saturdays) at 7:30 pm.

Playhouse Smithville, 110 Main Street (click for map)

Tickets at www.playhousesmithville.com or call 512-360-7397.

Smithville is in peril again and the Playhouse is at fault. It’s popcorn throwing time for the Second Annual Playhouse Smithville Melodrama: Balderdash! Come see who’s gettin’ tied to the railroad tracks, cheer the hero, BOO the villain, be astonished at the beauty of the damsel in distress and gasp at the audacity of a northerner. Drink the town coffee at your own risk!

Upcoming: Poison Apple Initiative Play Slams, July 1 - 22

2012-05-22T19:06:00Z

presents

Slams (like the poetry kind but with plays!)

Saturdays, July 1 - 22 at Wardenclyffe, 1101 Springdale Road (click for map)

Beloveds. There comes a time in every young company's life when ancillary programming becomes possible, like when you can afford pot to go with your beer. That time, for PAI, is nigh.

So SLAM is basically this:

1. 8-10 playwrights bring in 10 minutes of a larger work. This can be an older piece that's finished or a fresh-from-the-brain-womb play with wobbly legs like a fawn.

2. Playwrights draw actor names from a hat. Said actors perform 5 minutes of that playwright's work COLD.

3. A beer-misted/-soaked audience opines good-naturedly (or else). A panel considers audience input and chooses 4-5 of those plays they want to see more of. Selected playwrights choose their actors and have 10 minutes to give notes before presenting the full 10 minutes of their selection.

4. The winning playwright goes to the finals on July 22nd where they'll present 15 minutes of their work. The SLAM winner receives a staged reading of their piece hosted by Poison Apple Initiative.

OTHER BRASS TACKS:

1. BEER. We'll have it. It's a major contributing factor.

2. Suggested donation for audience/ participants- $5.

3. ABSOLUTELY ANYONE is urged to participate regardless of experience or prestigious grants or crippling stage fright or whatever. Playwrights should bring enough sides for all necessary characters. Actors should be prepared to feel some stuff.

4. SLAMs will be held on July 1, 8, 15, and 22 with one finalist from each. There will be a regular-type SLAM before the finals on the 22nd.

For more info shoot a line to bethany@poisonappleinitiative.com.

In radness,
PAI

Auditions: Neighborhood 3, Requisition of Doom, Poison Apple Initiative and Vestige Group auditioning for allegorical zombie play, June 3

2012-05-22T18:44:00Z

Poison Apple Initiative in conjunction with the Vestige Group, is making a play. We want you to audition for it. It's got allegorical zombies and weaponized weedwackers and blood. Auditions are June 3 from 2:00am [sic -- see more below!] until June 4 at 9:30pm at Wardenclyffe, 1101 Springdae Road (click for map)

In an unnamed suburban housing division the kids of the neighborhood become fixated on an online horror video game. As things go missing and sirens get closer, their parents begin to realize that the game might not just be confined behind the computer screen.

BRASS TACKS:

1. We need 4 actors comfortable with playing multiple nuanced characters: a male and female in their late 30s-mid 40s and a male and female in their late teens-early 20s. These are Westlake-type people.

2. AUDITIONS will be held Sun, June 3rd from 1-4 with additional auditions/ callbacks on Mon, June 4th. Sides will be provided. A dialog sample can be found on Google Books.

3. REHEARSALS begin June 9th and will be held Mon-Thurs evenings with some Saturdays. PERFORMANCES are Weds-Sat, July 12-28th.

4. Actors will be paid a stipend.

If you've any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, email bastion@poisonappleinitiat ive.com

In radness,
PAI

Lucien Douglas Honored with University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Award

2012-05-22T18:30:00Z

Lucien Douglas, Department of Theatre and dance professor and senior associate chair, has been named the recipient of the 2012 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award. The faculty and student-nominated award is the college’s highest honor for teaching excellence.

As an actor and director, Douglas has taught undergraduate and graduate students at the university since 1997. His highly popular classes include acting and directing, as well as topics courses in contemporary stage performance and acting for the camera.

A consummate ambassador for the Department of Theatre and Dance, Douglas has built vital relationships with high school educators and their students. He presents master classes and workshops for schools throughout the stage, and works closely with University Interscholastic League (UIL) and Texas Educational Theatre Association (TETA). Under his leadership, the Department of Theatre and Dance is developing new curriculum that will enhance the undergraduate actor-training program.

This year, Douglas performed alongside department students, and taught by example in The Cherry Orchard and Love’s Labour’s Lost. At the same time, Douglas continues to work professionally. In February, he performed his solo show A Dream Within a Dream: Performing the Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe at The Arts Cottage in Smithville, Texas. He is the lead voice-over talent for “Pirates 101” and “Wizards 101”, video games produced by Kingsisle Entertainment. He is also currently working with acclaimed director Richard Linklater on a new project.

Upcoming: Fundraiser for Last Act Theatre Company at Sky Candy Aerial Arts, June 15

2012-05-21T13:00:00Z

One-Year Anniversary Party!

(B.G. at Sky Candy aerial arts)

Friday, June 15, 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. (or later!)

at Sky Candy Aerial Arts Studios, 507 Calles St., #117 (click for map)

The Last Act Theatre Company will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary with a huge Fundraising Party at Sky Candy (aerial acrobrats) in which a $10 ticket will get you admission to enjoy free food, drinks and entertainment.

The event will be Friday June 15th from 7 pm-10 pm (maybe longer) and feature several 10-minute acts which will include singing by Bridget Farr, David Miller and Andrew Brett, a choreographed fight by Andrew Rodgers, Domenic Procaccini, Andrew Brett and Mindy Griffin and much much more! This will be such a fun event and we can't wait to see you all there. So...save the date to party LATco style!

Upcoming: 'Tis Pity She's A Whore by John Ford, 7 Towers Theatre Company, June 22 - July 15

2012-05-20T15:26:00Z

presents

Classic Theatre San Antonio Announces Its 2012-2013 Season

2012-05-20T14:52:00Z

announces the 2012 - 2013 season:

Season tickets $60 - $80 for four productions, available via

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

August 10 - 26

The Firebugs by Max Frisch

October 12 - 28

Painting Churches by Tina Howe

February 8 - 24, 2013

Scapin by Molière

May 10 - 26, 2013

Upcoming: DayBoyNightGirl, DA! Theatre Collective at the Rollins Theatre, June 6 - 10

2012-05-20T14:21:00Z

DA! Theatre Collective proudly presents…

DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL

June 6 - 9, Wednesday - Saturday at 8 p.m.

matinees at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 10

Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 West Riverside Drive

Tickets $15 - $35 (sliding scale) available on-line via DA! or via the Long Center box-office

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY, DA! Theatre Collective is proud to present the premiere of DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL, their first full-length production since the award-winning 2009 hit Leave it to Beverly. Developed and work-shopped for over a year by the Collective under the direction of Heather Huggins, DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL features choreography by Lisa del Rosario, a script by Kirk German, and an original score composed by guest artist Catherine Davis.

Loosely adapted from The Romance of Photogen & Nycteris, a magical novella written by Scottish author George MacDonald in 1882, DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL tells the fable of a mysterious castle where one child is raised entirely in darkness while another is nurtured by the sun. But kids will be kids, and each of the children soon starts craving new experiences… Using only bodies, music, and light, DA! intertwines movement, music and storytelling to illuminate this forgotten Gaelic fairy tale.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Opinion: Robert Faires on Writing, Home and the Fortress of Solitude, via the Fusebox Festival Writer's Room Audio Project

2012-05-19T14:18:00Z

From Turnstyle.com and the Fusebox Festival, with a tip of the hat to Travis Bedard:

The Writer's Room Audio Project

(a sample: Robert Faires)

Robert Faires on writing (click to listen to it via AustinLiveTheatre.com)

Robert Faires on the Fortress of Solitude (and a cue why his Twitter image is that of George Reeves in the 1950's b&w television series Superman)

(interviewer: Jill Meyers, editor of American Short Fiction) (click to listen to it via AustinLiveTheatre.com)

Robert Faires on home

(interviewer: Deepa Donde, independent producer of the project) (click to listen to it via AustinLiveTheatre.com)

This podcast features writer Robert Faires, talking about his creative space. Faires is the Arts Editor for The Austin Chronicle and has been active in the city's theatre scene as a writer, actor, and director since 1980.

It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga. [Click HERE to go to the Fusebox Festival web page with links to interviews with additional Austin writers (Amparo Garcia-Crow, Annie La Ganga, Bill Cotter, Wayne Alan Brenner, Katherine Catmull).]

Producer Deepa Donde in association with American Short Fiction gathered writers into a studio for this series. Donde got a preview of the walking tour, and shares these thoughts about Robert Faires' space.

"Behind the hustle and bustle of Austin's SoCo district are the homes of humble writers, chefs, musicians, and filmmakers. On that sunny Sunday afternoon, Robert welcomed us into his home, with the kind of Texan hospitality befitting one of the city's most prolific writers.

"The splendid display of comic books suspends you into this speeding time capsule of a time that can still live today. Superman, DC Comics, Teen Titans, Lost Annual Next Wave Agents, Thor the Mighty Avenger, and The Green Lantern (one of my absolute secret crushes as a young teenage girl). It was obvious to take note, the specifically placed figurines, an army of supermans, wonderwomans (I always take note of how many in a man's collection - it speaks volumes of his character - and he has a dazzling number.), In the spaces between those boyhood moments, there are glimpses into the man Robert is. The books of Tolkein, Tom Stoppard, Michael Chabon, the Keith Jarret album. Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat & a beautiful book on Frank Llyod Wright. But what astounds us writers is his own comic drawings - his hand drawn replica of a comic book that he bought when he was 9. When comic books only cost 12 cents. And as he points proudly to a replica of the Daily Planet, where for a moment, I imagine that this mild-mannered reporter who works for a newspaper of a mid-sized city, could bear resemblance to Clark Kent. This intimate beautiful journey into Robert's home reveals a writer's transformation from the inspired place of a young boy to the man he has become today. And if you are lucky, there might be a chance to find out, like I did, that the really best martini in Austin is one made by a master like him."

The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour was part of the 2012 Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas. Originally published on Turnstylenews.com, a digital information service surfacing emerging stories in news, entertainment, art and culture; powered by award-winning journalists.

Different Stages Announces Its 2012-2013 Season

2012-05-18T14:44:00Z

announces its 2012-2013 season:

You Can’t Take It With You

by George Kaufman and Moss Hart

November - December 2012

The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd

Director-Mick Darcy

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this comedy introduces us to the Sycamores, a family that delights in eccentricity. They may seem mad, but they show us that those who pursue convention for its own sake and who need to conform to society’s conventions are the maddest of us all. This play about living life to the fullest, following your own dreams, and daring to be unconventional has been a perennial since its debut in 1936.

Quills

by Douglas Wright

January 2013,

City Theater, 3823 Airport, Suite D

Director-Norman Blumensaadt

Sex. Perversion. Violence. These are the themes of the tales that drip from the ink-laden quills of the notoriously irreverent Marquis de Sade in this Obie Award winning play. Confined to the Charneton Asylum for the Insane for the outlandish escapades he’d committed during the Napoleonic Era, the Marquis continues to pen his stories to the delight of the young seamstress, Madeleine, and to the scorn of Charenton’s devout Abbe DuCoulmeir. When the Abbe attempts to silence the Marquis by taking his quills, his ink, and his paper, something intriguing occurs: the Marquis still finds a way to voice his scandalous yarns. As the Abbe’s religious devotion clashes with the Marquis’s dedication to freedom of expression, the audience is treated to a tale of wit, irony, blasphemy, philosophy, and the struggle for power told partly as a blend of comedy of manners and Grand Guignol with a dash of grotesque exaggeration and a soupcon of gore.

Good People

by David Lindsay-Abaire

April – May; City Theate

3823 Airport, Suite D

Director-Karen Jambon

With humor and pathos, Good People, explores the struggles, shifting loyalties, and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America. Set in Boston’s Southie neighborhood, where a night on the town means a rousing night of bingo, where this month’s paycheck barely covers last month’s bills, we meet Margaret Walsh. Margaret has lost her job, is facing eviction, and scrambling to catch a break. When she re-acquaints with a friend from the old neighborhood, someone who is now a very successful doctor, she attempts to use their childhood acquaintance as a ticket to turning her life around. Good People is tough and tender and explores the tension of class in America. Pending availability of performance rights.

Child’s Play

by Robert Marasco

June – July

The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd

Director-Bob Tolaro

Something is amiss in a Catholic boys’ boarding school. The students have become sinister, furtive, and conspiratorial as they steal up and down staircases after hours. The menace erupts in savagery as the students torture one of their members and then another and then…. What is the disease that has settled in their souls? Who is torturing the crotchety classics professor by sending obscene photographs to his dying mother? And why? - The answer is hate in its devilish forms of pride, envy, and jealousy- a hate so perverse that is has infested the students and the staff. The New York Times called this play “a powerful melodrama the will thrill audiences for a long time to come.” Pending availability of performance rights.

ALL PLAYS, LOCATIONS AND DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Upcoming: Rapunzel's Bad Hair Day, Polyanna Theatre Company at Rollins Theatre, Long Center, July 18 - 22

2012-05-18T03:33:00Z

presents

RAPUNZEL’S BAD HAIR DAY

by Lou Clark

July 18 - 22

LONG CENTER’S ROLLINS STUDIO THEATRE

Public Ticket Prices for Weekend Performances
$7.50 for children under 12; $8.50 for students 12-18, seniors, & Austin Creative Alliance members; $9.50 for adults

Group Rates for School Audiences - Tickets between $3.00 – $5.00

For Reservations and information: 512-743-7966 or at judy@pollytheatre.org

Sampson believes his hair gave him strength. Rapunzel believes that her hair might just be holding her back. But both have dreams that take their imaginations into the stars. See what happens when two very unlikely friends join forces to make their dreams come true.

July 18 @ 11 am
July 19 @ 9:15, 11 am & 1 pm
July 20 @ 9:15, 11 am & 1 pm
July 21 @ 11 am, 2 & 4 pm
July 22 @ 2 pm (followed by a “PAY WHAT YOU LIKE” party in the AT&T Education Room)

Woodlawn Theatre San Antonio Announces 2012-2013 Season

2012-05-17T13:48:00Z

Via Deborah Martin of the San Antonio Express-News and www.mysanantonio.com:

‘In the Heights,’ ‘Frost/Nixon’ slated for Woodlawn

Posted on 05/15/2012 by Deborah Martin

Greg Hinojosa’s first full season at the helm of the Woodlawn Theatre includes such big-buzz titles as “In the Heights,” “The Producers” and “Frost/Nixon.”

The theater’s season runs on a calendar year, so all of these shows run in 2013.

Here are the dates for the main stage: “The Producers,” Feb. 15-March 17; “The Full Monty,” April 5-May 5; “In the Heights,” May 24-June 23; and “Reefer Madness,” Oct. 3-Nov. 2.

The August and December shows are TBA.

In the neighboring black box, the season holds: “Bug,” Jan. 11-Feb. 3; “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” March 15-April 17; “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” May 10-26; “Night, Mother,” July 5-21; “Frost/Nixon,” Sept. 6-29.

In addition, the theater will present at staging of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the black box; those dates are also TBA.

Next up at the theater: “The Pillowman,” opening June 14 in the black box; and “Next to Normal,” opening on the main stage June 29.

Dougherty Arts Center Will Close - Marshall Jones, Culturemap

2012-05-17T13:39:00Z

from

Dougherty Arts Center demolition inevitable: Austin may not fund a new facility

By Marshall Jones

05.16.12 | 07:30 am

The Dougherty Arts Center (better known as "The DAC") could be the next Austin landmark to face the wrecking ball. And it's going to happen sooner, rather than later.

What is not yet clear is whether the city will support rebuilding the popular hub, either at its current location — a long shot due to serious environmental problems — or somewhere else, taking a decades-old resource out of central Austin.

The DAC is just on the 78704 side of Lady Bird Lake, on Barton Springs road between the old Union Pacific railroad tracks and the new Palmer Events Center. Originally built as a U.S. Marine Corps and Navy Reserve facility back in the 1940s, the building is like thousands of other prefabricated, metal boxes built for the military immediately following WWII — cramped and not especially attractive.

But after the city took it over in 1978, the surrounding community made the most of the space, naming it for philanthropist and former Junior League of Austin president Mary Ireland Graves Dougherty and augmenting the old training center with studio and gallery space.

Just a few years after the abandoned National Guard armory down the street was reborn as the Armadillo World Headquarters, the postwar Naval Reserve building became a 26,200 square-foot community arts center with a 150-seat auditorium where the drill hall used to be.

If someone made a list of every class, performance, camp and concert that has taken place here over the years, it wouldn't fit into one of the tiny upstairs offices.

But the Dougherty Arts Center's fatal flaws aren't about the cramped quarters; they're about safety.

A 2009 State of the Environment study produced by the City of Austin reported there are more than 70 known abandoned landfills in and around the city.

One of them is directly under the Dougherty Arts Center.

Book: Papers, Presentations and Patter from the 2011 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival

2012-05-17T01:22:00Z

Now available for Gilbert & Sullivan students and fans:

Papers, Presentations and Patter: A Savoyards’ Symposium

Papers Presented at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, June 27–28, 2011

Edited and with an Introduction by Ralph MacPhail, Jr.

York, Pennsylvania, 2012

Gilbert and Gilbert & Sullivan: Ian Bradley

Carolyn Williams
The Masculine Woman and the Feminine Man: Gender Parody in the Savoy Operas

Shane Kingston Magargal
A Greek Remark: The Savoy Operas Viewed through an Aristotelian Lens

Harry Benford
Components of Gilbert’s Genius

Andrew Vorder Bruegge
A Dull Enigma: Historians’ Analysis of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Impact on the Development of the American Musical Theatre

Sullivan, Gilbert, Gilbert & Sullivan— and A Soupçon of Cellier: John E. Dreslin

Elise Curran
Gilbert’s Girls: Comes a Train of Little Ladies

Sylvan H. Kesilman
The Principal Comic Roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas

J. Donald Smith
The Writing and Composition of The Mountebanks: The Evidence of theAutograph Score, the Vocal Scores and the Early Librettos

Wisdom from the East and from the West: Thomas Drucker

Cheerful Facts about Matters Mathematical
Al Grand

Think British—Sing Yiddish!
Daniel Kravetz

Interfering in Politics: The Reality of Iolanthe
Marc Shepherd

The Curious Case of “Little Maid of Arcadee”
William Hyder

H.M.S. Pinafore in American Waters: Re ections, Corrections, and a Startling RevelationL Was Gilbert a Little Liberal or a Little Conservative?
The Humor of the Operas: It’s Not All in the Words

Upcoming: Joan of Arc - The Night Before by Daniella Paluselli, Ad Astera Productions at Boyd Vance Theatre, June 9 and 10

2012-05-16T23:15:00Z

“…riveting, suspenseful, shockingly real.”

Ad Astera

presents

Joan of Arc - The Night Before

by Daniela Paluselli

Saturday June 9, 2012 7 p.m.
Sunday June 10, 2012 5 p.m.

BOYD VANCE THEATRE, George Washington CarverMuseum & Cultural Center
1165 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702 (click for map)$20 ($15 for students and military) CASH ONLY

www.joanofarcthenightbefore.com
info@joanofarcthenightbefore.com -- tel 512-258 1617

Through the powerful and moving one-act monologue by Daniela Paluselli, Joan of Arc is portrayed the night before she gets burned at the stake. Prevailing over despair, terror and doubt, Joan's sublime heroism uplifts the audience to a higher level of consciousness and life involvement.

"Being of Irish descent, I am rarely at a loss for words. But afterseeing Daniela Paluselli’s Joan of Arc, The Night Before, I was overwhelmed into silence. I sat in the theater after the performance unable to move, unable to speak. I felt stunned by the power and the raw beauty of this new drama about St. Joan. Historically, psychologically, and spiritually this play hits the mark… Be warned: this play gets into your blood; it stays with you; it makes you really feel; it makes you really think; it can make you speechless." -- Sarah Jane O’Shea, Ph.D., M.S.O.M.

Click to view AustinLiveTheatre review of November, 2009

Opportunity for Male Actor in Shakespeare in the Park's The Comedy of Errors

2012-05-16T22:32:00Z

Shakespeare in the Park is seeking amale actor age 19 - 25 to take on two roles (the Duke and Balthasar) in upcoming production of The Comedy of Errors.

A new theater endeavor by Chelsea Bunn, this production will take place in Ramsey Park and be free and open to the public.

Performance dates are June 22,23,24,29,30 and July 1st. Rehearsals have already begun so time is of the essence! Interested parties should email a head shot and resume to shakespeare.park@gmail.com, along with their availability, to schedule an audition. This production will have improvisational tones so actors should be comfortable playing!