Stop the World - I Want to Get Off by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse July 31 - Aug. 23, 2009
Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is set against the backdrop of a circus. Written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, Stop the World is directed by Jay Jennings and produced by Teresa Stankiewicz.
This is the tale of Littlechap, a dreamer of dreams. He is determined to become rich and carry out excursions to Cannes, Capri and Royal Ascot. He imagines that the stairway to success is the marriage to the boss’s daughter. While he is dreaming of what could be, life happens.
Weekends from July 31 until August 23 Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8:00pm, and Sunday matinees at 2:30pm. Tickets are $15, except for the opening night champagne reception ($20). Buy tickets online or call (512) 905-9878. The Box Office will be open weekdays July 20 to August 1, 1:00–5:00pm. Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Rabbit Hole by David Linday-Abaires is a quiet play about loss. Becca and Howie were young parents six months ago when a swift series of random events sent their four-year-old son Danny running after his dog, just as a teenager drove down the street going maybe just a tiny bit too fast.
That back story is not shoved into your face. The action opens as Becca's loud, impulsive sister Izzy is sitting at Becca's kitchen table, telling a comic-horrible story about a confrontation that she had in a bar. Becca is folding laundry, tiny boys' garments, as she listens, fascinated to Izzy crowing. "You punched her?" Becca gasps, "Izzy, you mean that you were in a bar fight?" Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
From the Arts Project of Austin, one weekend only,
The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood a play by Mary Lynn Dobson
It sure is hard to be humble when you're a swashbuckling, egocentric super-hero. But our gallant guy-in-green tries his best as he swaggers through The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood, a frantically funny, Monty Pythonesque retelling of the classic. This time around, the legendary legend, in his never-ending quest to aid the needy, encounters a lovely damsel-in-distress (oddly obsessed with skin conditions); an ever-scheming sheriff who would rather bowl a strike than hit a bulls eye; a gold-hoarding, bad-guy monarch wannabe; and a good-natured "Town's Guy" who manages to make his way into every scene, whether he belongs there or not. Combine them with an expandable band of spoon-wielding Merry Men whose collective IQs equal six, and you've got an irreverent jaunt through Sherwood Forest you won't soon forget!
RUNS JULY 24-25 at 7:00pm, with a JULY 25 matinee at 2:30. TICKETS $10 adults, $8 children under 12, students, seniors.
Austin Community College Experimental Student Performance Lab Summer Play Festival Rio Grande Campus Mainstage/Gallery Theaters
Careful As Mice Chasing the America Dream is the backdrop for this dark comedy homage to mid-centruy exploitation films, set in a crumbling boarding house. Written by Ryan Manning, directed by Sally Zeigler. Careful As Mice plays in the Mainstage Theatre Wednesday July 15th, Friday July 17th, and Thursday July 23rd at 7 p.m. and Saturday July 25th at 1 p.m.
Love Me A descent into madness, chronicling the life of German Expressionist artist, Okskar Kokoshcka and his obession with Alma Mahler, wife of the composer Gustav Mahler. Written by Philip Kreyche, Directed by Ryan Manning. Love Me plays in the Mainstage Theatre Thursday July 16th, Wednesday July 22nd, and Friday July 24th at 7 p.m. and Saturday July 18th at 1 p.m.
The Men From Mars features epic theatre gone awry amidst a Martian takeover, with live soundscape. Written by Ryan Manning, Directed by Michael Gonzalez and Dani Miller. The Men From Mars plays in the Gallery Theatre Wednesday July 15th, Friday July 17th, and Thursday July 23rd at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday July 25th at 2:30 p.m.
Capital T presents the Austin Premiere EXTENDED RUN of
Killer Joe by Tracy Letts Directed by Mark Pickell July 23-August 8 Thursday-Saturday at 8pm Hyde Park Theatre 511 W 43rd St. Autsin, Texas 78751 Tickets $15-$25 (Sliding Scale) www.capitalT.org or 479-PLAY
After a Sold out 4 week run Killer Joe is back with the same amazing script and the same killer cast that thrilled audiences at Hyde Park Theatre in June. This ain't 'Greater Tuna'-- Killer Joe is not coming back. You have 9 more chances to see what Austin critics have been raving about.
Under the artistic direction of Norman Blumensaadt, Different Stages and its predecessor the Small Potatoes Theatre Company have furnished Austin Theatre with a considerable library of stage work. The back page of the program for An Inspector Calls lists 109 productions the company has brought to the boards since 1981.
Different Stages has given the city a good dose of the classics and a wide array of works from the British and European stages. The company has often reached back decades in the English-speaking repertoire to present twentieth century works unlikely to be offered by other enterprises in town. For example, their production last year of Shaw's Getting Married was a fine example of Blumensaadt's taste, dedication and success as a curator.
J.B. Priestly's An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945. It recounts a story set in 1912 urban Britain. It's a moral fable with an intrigue that inexorably and progressively reveals the hypocrisy of each member and associate of a wealthy capitalist family. Priestly gives the story a twist of the supernatural, but it' essentially a piece preaching to the British middle class about the wickedness of earlier capitalist generations' exploitation of the poor.
The first two productions of An Inspector Calls were in Moscow. The 1946 London production featured Ralph Richardson as the ominous Inspector Goole, Margaret Leighton as ingenue Sheila Birling, and Alec Guiness as her brother Eric. Goole's berating of the non-aristocratic capitalists touched sensibilities in post-war Britain.
Ahhhh! A life in the theatre! The drafty halls, the penciled scripts, the stories you hear. The greasepaint–just vivid colors in oily goop, but somehow as evocative as Proust’s madelines–blah blah blah blah….
What is it with actors and their maddening romanticizing about life in the theatre? The surest traditions are long hours, lousy pay, inept producers, sweaty dressing rooms, falling scenery, and the wrath of critics.
The only thing that could make the job worse is some creepy old actor with an irrepressible desire to educate the uninitiated.Here we have the young Zeb West (The Red Balloon) barely tolerating the wisdom and idiosyncrasies of the old Michael Stuart (The Fantasticks)—onstage and off—in this hilarious and touching send-up of the traditions, superstitions, and vagaries of the theatre.
Directed by Mark Stewart (Bomb Shelter: Or The Modern Pinocchio).
Tongue and Groove Theatre is a sponsored project of Austin Circle of Theaters. This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
