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)

Photos by Stephen Pruitt for The Cruel Circus by Connor Hopkins, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard, May 8 - 25, 2013

Performance photos by Stephen Pruitt for the








production of

The Cruel Circus
by Connor Hopkins
May 9–May 25, 2013 (8 pm Thursdays – Saturdays, 6pm Sundays.)
Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722 - click for map
Arrive early (at least 15 min. before showtime) for preshow music by Cami Alys!

Tickets: $10-$20 at at the door or on-line via

(photo: Stephen Pruitt)

(photo: Stephen Pruitt)

 Frankenstein meets the island of misfit toys . . . and goes to the circus. A mysterious tinkerer brings to life an entire world of strange circus performers — some polished and complete, some clumsy and misshapen — then disappears, leaving them to make sense of who they are and what they are made for.

A new work of dark whimsy from the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, and most recently, Toil & Trouble. Trouble Puppet deploys bunraku-style tabletop puppets to create graceful, lifelike, compelling drama for adults. This production features beautiful, complex puppets of remarkable design, by Connor Hopkins. Come see the handwalker, unicyclist, lion-tamer, acrobats, human cannonball, and fuselier!


Click to view additional performance photos by Stephen Pruitt at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Reviews from Elsewhere: The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tongue and Groove Theatre at FronteraFest

Comment of Barry Pineo, published at the Austin Chronicle, January 27 (252 words):

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., 479-7529

www.hydeparktheatre.org Jan. 28, 7pm; Jan. 29, 4:15pm Running time: 45 min.

Almost every Tongue and Groove Theatre production presents an opportunity for great fun, and this, the company's latest effort produced for the FronteraFest Long Fringe, is no exception.

Click to read full text (252 words) at the Austin Chronicle . . . .

Upcoming: Flying by Olga Mukhina, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, January 28 - February 19

Received directly and researched on-line:

i

in association with the Rude Mechanicals proudly presents

the North American premiere of

Flying

by Olga Mukhina
translated by John Freedman

directed by Graham Schmidt

at the Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo Street (click for map)

January 28 - February 19

January 28, 29, 30 (Friday - Saturday; Sunday at 5 p.m.)

February 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Thursday - Monday)

February 10, 11, 13, 14 (Thursday - Monday)

February 16, 17, 18, 19 (Thursday - Saturday)

Performances at 8 p.m. except for Sunday, January 30

Tickets * $15-25 General Admission

* Mondays (February 7 and 14) are pay-what-you-want industry nights

A group of Russia’s so-called “golden youth,” smart, talented, well-heeled twenty-somethings are heading for disaster. Among them are DJs, VJs, PR agents and on-screen presenters for a hot new youth-oriented Moscow television production company. These people, with hip-sounding names like Snowstorm, Maniac, Snowflake and Orangina, are creating and living the images that will define the future. None wastes much time thinking about why one of their group is repeatedly battered by her husband or why another constantly takes tranquilizers to maintain her cool, collected image. But when an unsullied teenage girl joins their group one day, they are compelled to look beyond the usual limits of their purview. And when Snowstorm is arrested for possession of drugs and Orangina undergoes a religious experience, the insular nature of their world is quickly breached.

Breaking String has been proud to collaborate with playwright Olga Mukhina and critic / translator John Freedman in the development of this production.

The Cast: Jesse Bertron, David Boss, Joey Hood, Michelle Keffer, Adriene Mishler, Michael Plaster, Gricelda Silva, Jacob Trussell, Katie Van Winkle

The Crew: Graham Schmidt (Director), Angelica Mañez (Stage Manager), Adriene Mishler (Director of Movement) Ia Ensterä (Set Designer), Jamie Urban (Costume Designer), Steven Shirey (Lighting Designer), Justin Sherburn (Music and Sound Designer), Eric Johnson (Carpenter / Electrician)

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Justin Sherburn's Theatre Music, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, December 12

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Reviews from Elsewhere: Salome by David Yeakle & Justin Sherburn, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, September 4

Link received from Tongue & Groove Theatre:

Hip Pocket Theatre walks tightrope with 'Salome'
Posted Saturday, Sep. 04, 2010
By Mark Lowry
Special to the Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH -- A band of circus performers can be an odd lot, a mix of attention-hungry clowns, demanding bosses, ego-driven daredevils and aerialists whose moves blend precision and sensuality. But they all have one big thing in common: They're all misfits in a world that places so much emphasis on normalcy.

Put all those elements in one performance, and it can be thrilling one minute and creepy the next, peppered with amusing and erotic interludes.

All those aspects work for Oscar Wilde's most scandalous play, Salome.

It comes together magically in David Yeakle's adaptation of the 1891 script, set in a circus milieu, for Hip Pocket Theatre.

In Yeakle's vision, the virginal temptress Salome is an aerialist (Mimi Kayl-Vaughan), her stepfather, Herod, is Ringmaster (Thad Isbell), mom Herodias a retired aerialist (Susan Austin), and Jokanaan, the character based on John the Baptist (Richard Rangel), is a caged wild man. Narraboth is an animal trainer (Paul Logsdon), and Naaman, the executioner, is a knife thrower, sharpening his blades throughout the show (and played by Grover Coulson).

Around them, strongmen, contortionists and clowns create that sense of whimsy and awe that can best be captured under the big top.

The show uses original music (by keyboardist Justin Sherburn), and oddly, a foursome of readers who speak the lines of the play, while most of the actors mime the action.

Read more at the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram on-line . . .

The Red Balloon, Tongue and Groove Theatre, Rollins Theatre, May 20 - 30

In 1956 the 34-year-old French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse wrote and filmed the slim, imaginative, 34-minute fantasyThe Red Balloon. His son Pascal played the central role, that of a quiet, lonely schoolboy who discovers a magical red balloon -- one that recognizes him, follows him with the simplicity and loyalty of a pet dog, and provides an escape from the emptiness of barren city life. Lamorisse's daughter Sabine plays the little girl who has found a similar but blue balloon. The film is a lyrical meditation on the imagination of childhood. It won award after award, including a U.S. Academy Award for best original screenplay -- the only time in the history of the Oscars that a short film received a major Academy victory outside the short film category.

It's a wonderful piece, largely without dialogue and scored to a whimsical score by Maurice Leroux. It was widely distributed and admired; copies of the 16 mm film resided in many school libraries in the United States, where successive generations were surprised and enchanted by it.

David Yeakle, animator Leah Lovise and composer Justin Sherburn have taken that elegantly minimalist film, inflated it, expanded it, decorated it and rescored it. Their production of The Red Balloon, "adapted freely from the film 'Le Ballon Rouge,'" is equally captivating but in a different way.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Red Balloon, reprised, Tongue and Groove Theatre, Rollins Theatre at the Long Center, May 20 - 30

Click for ALT review, May 24

Received directly:

Tongue and Groove Theatre re-inflates

The Red Balloon

Directed by David Yeakle.
Original music composed and conducted by Justin Sherburn.
Original animation by Leah Lovise.
Lighting Design by Jason Amato.

Wednesdays – Sundays, May 20 – 30, 2010
The Rollins Theatre at the Long Center

Tongue and Groove Theatre's The Red Balloon from Leah Sharpe on Vimeo.

KUT's Michael Lee interviews director David Yeakle and composer Justin Sherburne, May 16 (2 min.)

Tongue and Groove Theatre will remount its award-winning production The Red Balloon for a limited engagement in the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. The winner of five 2008 B. Iden Payne Awards and two Austin Critics’ Table Awards, this family-friendly whimsical play will open Thursday, May 20 at 8 p.m. with subsequent performances Friday – Sunday, May 21-23, and Wednesday – Sunday, May 26 – 30, 8 p.m., and 3 p.m. matinee performances on Saturday, May 22, Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Jungle, Trouble Puppet Theatre, September 17 - October 4

Click for ALT review, September 21

UPDATE: Elizabeth Cobbe's pre-opening feature interview of Connor Hopkin in the Austin Chronicle, September 17

UPDATE: Jeanne Claire van Ryzin's pre-opening feature interview of Connor Hopkins in the Austin Stateman's 360 XL Arts weekly supplement, September 17

Found on-line:

Trouble Puppet Theater

presents

The Jungle
Based on Upton Sinclair’s novel
Adapted by Connor Hopkins

A work of puppet theater based on Upton Sinclair’s groundbreaking novel about the conditions faced by immigrant workers in Chicago’s meatpacking industry, The Jungle uses a form of puppetry inspired by the Japanese Bunraku style. It includes human choreography, tabletop puppets, life sized , two and three dimensional, and shadow puppetry, as well as imagery by LettuceTurnip Media Services, graphic animation by Leah Sharpe (Tongue & Groove’s Red Balloon), and music by Justin Sherburn (Okkervill River).

Originally conceived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Puppetry Conference in 2007, Trouble Puppet’s The Jungle received a workshop performance at the 2009 Conference. It was also awarded a Jim Henson Foundation Seed Grant for development the same year. The production is written and designed by Connor Hopkins.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .