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Showing posts with label The Belle of Amherst. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Belle of Amherst. Show all posts
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
The Belle of Amherst by William Luce, featuring Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, November 14 - December 1, 2013
by Jess Helmke
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| (poster design: Alex Alford) |
I told myself, "I should have brought my favorite pen. Or maybe my secret stash of amateur poems? Some decorated stationary perhaps? Then again, freshly baked sugar cookies are sure to do the trick. . . ."
I was finally going to meet her. The dark, secluded and intriguing poetic genius herself, Ms. Emily Dickinson. I waited patiently and quietly in my chair for over an hour, but she never showed.
Instead, a woman dressed in white, full of tenacity, vigor and passion coyly offered me a pastry.
"I thought she was depressed?" I wanted to ask the usher, as I double checked the program.
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| Helen Merino (photo: Austin Shakespeare) |
Her attention engagingly hopped through a series of delightful stories with never a threatening intention, and I could almost smell Massachusetts in the fall. Amherst was her menagerie, her home, her paradise. I felt so thoughtfully selected by Ms. Emily that by the time she told me I was a poem and she loved me, I believed her.
How is it she could express her thoughts with such precision and diction that her writings blended into the monologue with the ease of tempera color into water?
When the time came, Emily addressed the issue of her eccentricity. Some would call it wit, but to me it seemed to be simple honesty, truth during a time when society was more aware of the likeness of men than of its own expectations of gracious womanhood. She spoke mainly of how she always different.
But what insanity it was to imagine she was ever awkward or unbeautiful in any way! She was set her apart from the others by her respect for precision in thought, an acknowledgment of surroundings, and her belief in the delicacy of life. It wasn't the all-white clothing or anonymous poetry in her journals. Emily Dickinson was intensely in love with words.
By intermission, I was ready to put a ring on her finger. Where had she been all my life? Could all the critics and literary analysts of the past of been wrong? It appeared so. With The Belle of Amherst Austin Shakespeare gave me my holiday blessing in disguise. The world on the stage and the places she spoke of became intensely real. I instantly recognized not the loneliness but instead the aloneness of great writers. I remembered the yearning and urgency of the artist to tell a story. And I basked in the happiness of a woman living in the merriment of her poetry.
Someone once stopped by the Dickinson homestead how to get to a certain address. Emily directed her to the town cemetery.
As for as the hermit, the shadow of a woman I was expecting to meet? A tide must have stolen her, because thanks to Helen Merino the actress, William Luce the playwright, and Austin Shakespeare, I met the most glowing soul in the theatre yesterday. And to think, she'd been there all along.
Good one, Ms. Emily. Definitely worth writing about.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
THE BELLE OF AMHERST, with Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, November 14 -24, 2013
presents
a one-woman performance by Helen Merino
November 14-24, 2013
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.
Rollins Theatre, Long Center, 701 Riverside at S. First -- click for map
Season subscription tickets for this production and for Othello now available on-line at the Long Center
Helen Merino returns to portray innovative American poet Emily Dickinson in this solo turn by celebrated playwright William Luce. With a wicked sense of humor, she defied the conventions of the time and was seldom published during her lifetime. Julie Harris won a Tony Award for her performance on Broadway in the 1970’s and appeared in a popular TV adaptation of the play.
Dickinson’s unique style of writing has had a profound influence on the future of American poetry. Known as an eccentric in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, she withdrew increasingly from society, relishing her local notoriety and becoming an accomplished baker as well as poet. Eventually, she wrote 1,800 poems, moving from the sentimentality of her early work to more emotional poems.
About Austin Shakespeare We strive to find the best classical actors in the Austin area; usually half of our casts have worked with Austin Shakespeare before and occasionally we bring in guest artists. We value designers. Our resident lighting designer, Jason Amato, transforms our stage world by taking us on a journey with his unique creativity. Artistic director Ann Ciccolella takes pride in casting a strong ensemble team from leads to character actors. Austin Shakespeare’s board of directors supports the company’s theater of ideas and emotions. At our core, we love glorious language. Our motto is to “celebrate the best within us.” Later in the season, we will continue our 30th anniversary of FREE Shakespeare in Zilker Park with the most romantic of comedies: As You Like It, the month of May at the Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theatre. In late June, our Young Shakespeare teen actors will stage a professionally designed and directed production of The Tempest at Richard Garriott de Cayeux’ Curtain Theatre, a replica of an Elizabethan theater on the shores of Lake Austin.
Questions? Call the 3M Box Office at (512) 474-LONG (5664), TTY (800) 735-2989.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Monday, July 22, 2013
2013-2014 Austin Shakespeare Season
2013 - 2014 Season
The Belle of Amherst by William Luce
November 13 - December 1, 2013
Othello by William Shakespeare
February 12 - March 2, 2014
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
May 1 - 25, 2014
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Young Shakespeare Troupe at the Curtain Theatre
June 19 - 29, 2014
Celebrating its 30th year in 2014, Austin Shakespeare announces its new season starting with the acclaimed solo portrait of Emily Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst, starring Helen Merino (Hamlet) Nov. 14-Dec. 1, 2013; and Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Othello, Feb. 12-Mar. 2, 2014; both performed at The Long Center’s Rollins Theater, where Austin Shakespeare is a resident company. The season ends May 1-25, 2014 with Shakespeare’s perfect romantic comedy, As You Like It. The company will return to Zilker Park for the 30th anniversary of “FREE Shakespeare in the Park.”
The season kicks off with a delightful evening’s entertainment of the now-famous poet, Emily Dickinson: The Belle of Amherst by William Luce. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella comments: “Join Emily Dickinson in her home and share her incandescent gaiety and touching sadness as this New England recluse lives to innovate poetry with her new style of writing.” November 14 – December 1, 2013, with a low-priced preview on November 13.
Austin Shakespeare invites audiences to a new experience of Shakespeare’s great tale of jealousy and passion in a new production of Othello, February 13-March 2, 2014 at the Long Center’s Rollins Theater, with a low-priced preview on February 12.
In the spring, teens are invited to open auditions (March 22 & 29, 2014) for Austin Shakespeare’s “Young Shakespeare” company to perform in the comic romance of magic and mayhem, The Tempest, to be staged at Richard Garriott de Cayeux’ replica of an Elizabethan stage, The Curtain Theater, June 19-29, 2014. Now in its sixth year, Young Shakespeare is a company of teen actors who will be directed by Austin Shakespeare professional actor and teaching artist, Nancy Eyermann (Love’s Labours Lost, The Winter’s Tale).
For its “FREE Shakespeare in the Park” show, Austin Shakespeare will bring the sexy, cross-dressing romp in the green world to Zilker Hillside Theater with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, May 1-25, 2014. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella will direct and describes it as: “In the city and in the country, Rosalind, the smartest girl in the world, falls in love with the most desirable man in the world! Hear the famous “Seven Ages of Man” speech and meet Touchstone, the jester! The show culminates in a RenFaire fun fest while we all sing – ‘With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino!’”
Alongside the 2013-14 season in three locations with four Austin productions, Austin Shakespeare will be performing Off-Broadway in New York City for the first time in its history with Ayn Rand’s Anthem, adapted by Jeff Britting, Sept. 25-Dec. 1, 2013 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater. Austin Shakespeare experienced sold-out success for Anthem at the Long Center’s Rollins Theater in 2011.
AUSTIN SHAKESPEARE Austin Shakespeare’s mission is to present professional theatre of the highest quality with an emphasis on the plays of William Shakespeare, bringing to the public performances that are fresh, imaginative, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible, connecting the truths of the past with the challenges and possibilities of today. Founded in 1984 Austin Shakespeare is the only professional classic theater company in Central Texas. Austin Shakespeare also brings professional actors and directors directly into the classroom throughout Central Texas. For more information, contact Austin Shakespeare Managing Director Alex Alford at alex@austinshakespeare.org.
Austin Shakespeare is a member of the Austin Creative Alliance, and is funded in part by the City of Austin through The Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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