Upcoming: Miscast, musical scenes by Phoenix Theatre, UT, September 18

Found on-line at the Daily Texan, September 16:

UT Broadway revue recasts gender roles

Event Preview - Miscast

By Sarah Pressley, Daily Texan Staff
Published: Thursday, September 16, 2010

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls this Saturday as Phoenix Theatre Company, a group of UT theatre and dance students, perform “Miscast,” a montage of scenes from Broadway plays that challenges typecasting and traditional gender roles.

“Miscast” is an annual event in New York City performed to raise money for Broadway productions. This summer a group of theatre students decided to follow suit and finally find a way to play the roles they could normally only dream of.

“We were all sitting around joking about how we would never be cast in certain roles,” said Kelli Schultz, a theatre and dance senior and an actress in the show. “It’s about performing in shows we would never get to. The shows would never work if we performed them as ladies and men. It’s about getting together and doing a show with material we like.”

The students chose and began rehearsing individual scenes over the summer, but have come together to help each other direct and perfect the show, which features 11 different pieces by nine students. Together they have also written an original opening and closing for the show.

Performance: Saturday, September 18 at Winship Drama building Room 2.180, free admission

Read more of the feature by Sarah Pressley at the Daily Texan online. . . .

Arts Reporting: Sarah Pressley Interviews kt shorb about Una Corda, Daily Texan, September 10

Found on-line at the Daily Texan:

One-woman play explores the rituals of cancer

Loss of relatives, friends because of cancer inspires woman to create play

By Sarah Pressley, Daily Texan Staff
Published: Friday, September 10, 2010

kt shorb portrays a woman who must deal with knowing a terminally ill loved one in “Una Corda” at The Blue Theatre on Thursday.

According to the American Cancer Society, one in three women and one in two men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. K.T. Shorb, a local writer and performer, has known three such women.

This weekend, Shorb will debut her new one-woman play, “Una Corda,” which centers on the feelings she dealt with while watching her mother and two of her close friends as they battled cancer and ultimately succumbed to the disease.

Shorb actually considers “Una Corda” to be a ritual because it focuses on the daily repetitive trials of dealing with loved ones that have cancer.

Read more at Daily Texan on-line. . . .

Upcoming: The Man with the Dancing Eyes, Lab Theatre, University of Texas, September 2 - 4

Found at the Daily Texan on-line:

Dahl’s book re-imagined by students as stage play

(Lab Theatre, Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.)

By Sarah Pressley, Daily Texan Staff

Published: Thursday, September 2, 2010

Mute characters will manipulate the world around a young woman as she falls in and out of love in “The Man With the Dancing Eyes.” She discovers love, heartbreak and, eventually, a happy ending in a beloved children’s book brought to life in a virtual new world.

“The Man With the Dancing Eyes,” a play based on a book of the same name by Sophie Dahl, depicts a modern-day fairy tale as told by a group of UT students from the Department of Theatre and Dance.

“[The show] follows Pierre, a young woman from an elite and eclectic breeding,” director Courtney Sale said. “Pierre falls in love, has her heart broken and sets off to make a new life for herself in New York.”

The play was adapted by the students from Dahl’s illustrated picture book. They originally planned to put on a different play but ended up changing their minds when they found out another group would be performing the same show a few weeks later. “The Man With the Dancing Eyes” was an old favorite of the set designer and one of the actors, so the group decided to adapt this story for the stage instead.

Read more at the Daily Texan on-line . . . .

Daily Texan: UT Lab Theatre Project profiled by Sara Pressley of Daily Texan, February 26

Excerpted from Sara Pressley's article of February 26 about the UT Lab Theatre presentations of plays by MFA playwriting candidates:

Event lifts curtains on student-driven playwright project

By Sarah Pressley
[photo: Sydney Andrews rehearses lines, by Jeff Heimsath, Daily Texan] [. . . .]

Blue Point

Kyle John Schmidt decided to switch from acting to playwriting when, during a train ride to Connecticut, he realized the change meant choosing writing over memorizing monologues.

Once he saw how time-consuming writing full-length plays can be, Schmidt decided to take advantage of the opportunities graduate school has to offer.

“I had time and space to make mistakes and do things,” Schmidt said about his graduate school experience. “I had time to write. It’s been nice.”

Schmidt’s play, Blue Point, was featured last weekend as a part of the UTNT production. Schmidt began writing Blue Point for a UT workshop, but it took encouragement for him to realize the potential of the play. [. . .]

The Tides of Aberdeen

This weekend, UTNT will feature The Tides of Aberdeen by Erin Phillips, who is happy to have spent the past three years exploring her craft.

“An M.F.A. in playwriting is sort of like a gift because you get three years to just write and not have to do anything else,” Phillips said. “The people you work with and your collaborators are probably going to be your collaborators forever, so it’s a good place to network.”

During her first week of graduate school, Phillips began the first version of The Tides of Aberdeen, though she did not realize it would develop into a play at that point. [. . .]

Read full article at Daily Texan online. . . .