THE HEAD by Connor Hopkins, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, September 26 - October 12, 2013

[resident at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

presents

 
 The Head: A Trouble Puppet Show

by Connor Hopkins
Sept. 26–Oct. 12, 2013, 8 pm
Thursdays – Saturdays, 6pm Sundays

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722 - click for map

ASL interpretation offered on selected nights. Group sales welcome. Director/cast talkbacks available for groups of five or more.
**This show contains content and copious amounts of language not suitable for children.** 

Tickets$10–$20 at the door or via






Trouble Puppet Theater Co. presents The Head, a darkly hilarious original work of puppet theater for grown-ups. Inside the Man's head, an overworked Mechanic struggles with faulty machinery and the head's other residents, the Personal Demons, to navigate through the day.

The Mechanic maintains and operates the machinery that makes it possible for The Man to get out of bed, go to work, have conversations, and otherwise live daily life. The Man's issues, poor judgment, and bad habits chronically make the little Mechanic's job more difficult. When the Personal Demons climb out of the shadows of the Limbic Lobe, all hell breaks loose inside and outside the Head.

Trouble Puppet's bunraku-style tabletop puppets are each manipulated by as many as 3 puppeteers and are designed and built by Connor Hopkins, our assistant builder, and invited guest builders from out of town. The puppets, the set, and the show are a visually and technically remarkable spectacle, with a gorgeous original score.

A completely original work by the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, Toil & Trouble, and The Cruel Circus. Written and directed by Artistic Director Connor Hopkins (winner of B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Drama as well as Outstanding Original Script and The Austin Examiner's Best New Play Written by an Austinite), The Head features music by Justin Sherburn, lighting by Megan Reilly, sound design by K. Eliot Haynes, costume design by Monica Gibson, graphic design by Chris Owen. Performers: Jose Villarreal, Noel Gaulin, Rachel Wiese, Parker Dority, David Higgins, Travis Bedard, Kim Adams, Nathan Lahay, Elyce Lahay, Chris Gibson.

Trouble Puppet Theater Company: Founded in 2004, Trouble Puppet is dedicated to the creation of exceptional works of puppet theater, to the promotion of the art of puppetry, and to the support of its practitioners. We reach as far as we can into the possibilities that puppetry offers, in its many forms and styles, and seek to balance risk and exploration with a drive for excellent craft and technique. Our work is inspired not only by our artistic passion but by our social, political, and human convictions: that there can be no end to the struggle for knowledge and compassion, against injustice and intolerance . . . and boring theater.

Trouble Puppet is a sponsored project of Salvage Vanguard Theater. This production is supported by the Jim Henson Foundation.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Three or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

(poster design by JennyMarie Jemison)

by Brian Paul Scipione

What Philosophers Call It

A pause button: many wish for it and none achieve it.

Many of life’s moments skyrocket past us with meteor-like frenzy. Some we miss altogether, because we were simply too wrapped up in, well, what we consider to be life. Vonnegut fantasizes about something similar in Slaughterhouse Five: the ability to stretch time out like taffy, look at each and every important moment from our past, and understand how they brought us to the present. Because, honestly, we know all along as it’s happening. One thing does lead to another,r and while nothing was actually our fault, if we could do it all over again differently-- we probably would.

Three or the Sound of Existential Nothingness is not science fiction or a playful modern fantasy. It’s a modern adaption of Chekov’s masterpiece Three Sisters. The play portrays the titular trio plus one lover and one brother. No special effects or time travel involved; yet while watching the play, the spectator is whisked back and forth, through a thousand moments: many seem insignificant but all matter.

Allow me to explain, if I can (avoiding spoilers and misdirection, of course).

Jeff Mills (photo: Will Hollis Snider)

Within the first three minutes of the evening the fourth wall is shattered. No objection to that; many people know that playwright Timothy Braun is adapting 113-year-old material for a modern audience: why not take a casual approach to the format? Alas, this is only the least of the changes to this inter-dimensional story. 

The crux of the drama lies not in what Andres the brother (Jeff Mills) says directly to the audience as the de facto narrator. Rather, it consists of every little thing the characters don’t say. Here, the five players of Three truly explode the parameters of Ia Enstera’s theatre-in-the-round set-up.

Wait, let’s pause and rewind. . . .

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . . 

Photos by Will Hollis Snider for Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

A photo spread by Will Hollis Snider with costumes by Jamie Urban for the

presentation of

Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness

by Timothy Braun

directed by Graham Schmidt

July 26, 27 - August 1, 2, 3, 5 - August 8, 9, 10 - August 14, 15, 16, 17 

at The Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th Street and Robert Martinez (behind Joe's Bakery) - click for map

In Timothy Braun's fantastical re-interpretation, five characters from Chekhov's 1901 masterpiece live highly circumscribed lives in a small town somewhere in present-day America. Breaking String presented an early draft at Hyde Park Theatre in December of 2012, and recruited an elite creative team comprising veterans of Austin's new works community, for a development process. The result is a highly playful and theatrical piece in which Mr. Braun explores themes central to Chekhov's work: loneliness, the yearning for a better life, and the struggle to connect.

Cami Alys, Dawn Youngs, Gricelda Silva, Jeff Mills (image: Will Hollis Snider)

Gricelda Silva (image: Will Hollis Snider)

David Higgins, Chris Gibson (photo: Will Hollis Snider)

Click to view additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

AustinLiveTheatre Review: It's A Wonderful Life, a live radio play by Joe Landry, Penfold Theatre, November 29 - December 15

by Michael Meigs


Frank Capra's film It's A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart captured the yearning, optimism and nostalgia for small-town U.S.A. in 1946, a time when millions of American men were returning from the war. The film made an unpromising start and was considered something of a failure in its first release, but yearly television showings of this black-and-white tale of redemption and grace set it deeply into our collective consciousness. 

 Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed as his sweetheart, Lionel Barrymore as the wicked, grasping Old Man Potter -- in effect, reprising his role as Scrooge -- well, you've almost certainly seen the film, and if you haven't, then you should.


Stewart had debuted as a naive and gangling youngster in 1930's films but during the War he'd enlisted and eventually flown B-24 missions over Germany; and here he was, in his unassuming way, pretending to be an earnest small town savings-and-loan manager, 4-F because of a deaf ear.


Republic Pictures failed to renew the copyright on the film in the 1970's and had to struggle to re-establish control over the piece. It's not clear to me whether Joe Landry had to pay royalties when he put together this piece in 1996. If not, that clerical error cost Capra's estate and others dear, for this simple staging of the story has become an adored staple of the holiday season.


Penfold Theatre did it last year at Friar Tuck's cafe in downtown Round Rock, and this year they've secured the charming but faux Rice's Crossing Country Store at the Old Settler's Association, a perfectly appropriate setting for this time trip. The Gaslight Baker Theatre also did it for the 2011 holidays, the Bastrop Opera House performed it in 2009 and Austin Playhouse did it in their Larry L. King Theatre in 2008. San Antonio's Classic Theatre performed the show four times last month, and KSTX Texas Public Radio in San Antonio will play a recording of the Classic Theatre version at 8 p.m. this coming Christmas eve.


I brought a friend from Arizona to Penfold's November 29 opening night, and upon his return he discovered that the show was also playing in Tucson.


Joe Landry's website lists 151 productions playing this year, ten of them -- including this one -- in Texas. He must be a very happy man.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Upcoming: It's A Wonderful Life, a live radio show, Penfold Theatre in Round Rock, November 29 - December 23

It's a Wonderful Life
a live radio show

by Joe Landry
directed by Nathan Jerkins
featuring Ryan Crowder, Jenni Finley, Chris Gibson, David R. Jarrott, Claire Ludwig
November 29 – December 23
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm. Sundays at 6:00pm.
Opening night party following the show on Thursday, November 29
$25 Opening night, $20 Regular, $18 Student/senior
Rice’s Crossing Store (3300 Palm Valley Blvd, Round Rock, TX 78665) (click for map)
More information available at www.penfoldtheatre.org

Penfold Theatre Company presents It's a Wonderful Life: a live radio show at Rice’s Crossing Store in Round Rock from November 29 to December 23. 

It's Christmas Eve 1946, and members of the KPNF radio station are coming together for a live radio performance of It’s a Wonderful Life. As the live studio audience, guests step back in time while five actors bring the entire story to life with dozens of characterizations and live foley sound effects. In this imaginative re-incarnation of a cherished holiday tradition, audiences of all ages will fall in love with George Bailey and his timeless tale of despair, redemption and hope all over again.

The show takes place at Rice’s Crossing Store, named for Texas war hero James O. Rice and one of the oldest structures in Williamson County. Fully restored and relocated to the historic village at the Old Settlers’ Association, the store is the perfect yesteryear backdrop for a story that spans the first half of the twentieth century.

Guests can enjoy holiday treats as they watch the show, which features mock radio commercials of local businesses and a nightly cameo role for a selected member of the audience. The show returns after a completely sold out run last holiday season, so guests are encouraged to make their reservations early.

ABOUT PENFOLD THEATRE COMPANY Penfold Theatre Company cultivates a love for live theatre in northern Travis and Williamson Counties by offering first-class theatre performances and education programs. 2012-13 is the company’s fifth anniversary season and features a variety of work, from old favorites to regional premieres: Moonlight and Magnolias (October 2012), It’s a Wonderful Life: a live radio show (December 2012), A Minister’s Wife (March 2013) and Shipwrecked! (June 2013).

(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Leave It to Beverly, DA! Theatre Collective at the Off Center, November 5 -21

Kirk German's Leave It to Beverly is a rib-tickler. His characters and cast go sailing off into TV Land of the 1950s and 1960s, taking the gags and the mannerisms way up over the top. DA! applies its energetic young 21st-century humor to Mom and Pop's naive entertainments and comes away a winner.

Consider, for example, canned laughter. The early days of television featured many programs filmed before live audiences, but with rising costs and the introduction of video tape, producers were happy to sweeten audience reactions or do away with them entirely by using "laugh tracks." A single eccentric artist, Charlie Douglas, pretty much had the monopoly of that business through the 1960s, thanks to his "laff box," a complicated non-computerized device.

German's opening episode "Leave It to Beverly" features our dear housewife Beverly, newly a mother of twins, and Husband, a big, genial horned-rim-glasses-wearing avatar of Robert Young. Author and actors satirize the saccharine and the silliness of those classic sitcoms, in an acting style both coy and twinkling, and the action is regularly interrupted by roars of recorded laughter.

Beverly and her girlfriends become somewhat flustered by this unexplained punctuation of their lives. Eventually, after "Trixie Knows Best," the knock-off of both Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, the girls discover great big tins resembling 2-gallon Campbell's soup containers, labeled "HA.HA.HA." Within them is a gelatinous colored substance that has got to be the canned laughter that permeates their existence. How it got there and the reason for it are enigmas that are solved in the final, post-intermission episode, "Make Room for Lorraine."

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