Friday, July 31, 2009
The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Weird City Theatre Company, July 16 - 26
Here's what I like about John Carroll and the Weird City Theatre Company: they have a sense of fun that's irreverent and modern, but they take their drama seriously.
Necessarily low-rent but not sloppy, the company performs with energy, confidence, and an appreciation for the text, whatever it might be. They have a taste for pop -- we've seen an adaptation of Night of the Living Dead, a faithful production of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, and around Halloween we'll get their take on Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau's 1921 unathorized film version of Dracula.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals from 1775 is pop of a different sort. Sheridan, born into a theatrical family and married for love. The success at Covent Garden of this, his first play, spurred him to buy out Garrick's Drury Lane and subsequently to run successfully for Parliament. It's a comedy of manners in which Jack, an artistocratic military officer, disguises his well born origins in order to court Miss Lydia Languish, a dizzy heiress beguiled by popular novels and intent on forfeiting her ample trust fund by marrying poor, for love.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Upcoming: R.U.R., Rossum's Universal Robots, Vortex Youth Production
Found on-line:
VORTEX Summer Youth Theater
presents
R.U.R. Rossum’s Universial Robots
by Karel Capek|
Directed by Gabriel Maldonado
Jul.31-Aug.02 (Friday-Sunday) AND Aug.06-08 (Thur-Sat)
8 pm !! Only 6 shows !!
Tickets: $30-$10: $30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists
Limited seating. Advanced purchase recommended.
Journey into a chillingly plausible future of artificial intelligence and human cloning in Karel Capek’s prophetic 1920’s play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Capek’s play introduced the term “robot” into the English language. Summer Youth Theatre brings this treasure of modern drama to life in a stylish new production, directed by Gabriel Maldonado.
R.U.R. features adult guest artists Daniel Sawtelle and Andy Agne. The Summer Youth Company features students from around Central Texas including, Cooper Acord, Ariel Atlas, Hayley Armstrong, Zeni Bechtol, Anjelica Hymel, Stephanie Lumpkin, Anissa L. McVea, Hannah Newcomer, Wyndham Shortt, Ismael Sobek, Xander Slay-Tamkin, and Cassidy Timms.
Scenic Design by award-winning resident designer, Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony. Costume Design by Talena Martinez. Sound Design by David DeMaris. Assistant Direction by Jonathan Blackwell. Stage Management by Adam Gunderson. Production Management by Helen Parish.
Photo by Kimberley Meade.
The Austin Chronicle lauds VORTEX’s Summer Youth Theatre (SYT) as “The Best Theatre for Kids That Treats Kids Like Grownups”. Now in its 18th year, SYT has mentored hundreds of Central Texas students, teaming them with adult professionals to create many award-winning productions of great world literature including Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, The Visit, Vitriol and Violets: Tales from the Algonquin Round Table, Machinal, The Frogs, and Moby Dick.
Upcoming: Steel Magnolias, Trinity Street Players at First Baptist Church, August 1 - 9
Click for ALT review, August 13
Noted in the Statesman's XL listings and then located on-line:
Trinity Street Players
present
Steel Magnolias
Friday, July 31 - Sunday, August 9, 2009
First Baptist Church Black Box Theater
901 Trinity Street,Austin, TX
View Google map
Reserve your FREE tickets now to see Steel Magnolias in FBC's Blackbox Theater! Written by Robert Harling but based on the true story of a small town, Steel Magnolias is a heart-warming play full of laughter tears and great eighties hair-dos!
Directed by Cathy Jones and assisted by David McCullars Steel Magnolias stars Ann Pittman, Mary Jane Smith, Julie Latimer-Spears, Elspeth Silva, Arleigh DeLeon and Linda Miller Raff.
Shows are almost completely sold out so we've added a Thursday night performance Aug. 6th! Call 476-2625 or 913-7636 to reserve your tickets for July 31, Aug 1, 6, 7, 8 at 8pm or Sundays Aug 2, 9 at 2:30pm!
Upcoming: As You Like It, Scottish Rite Theatre, August 7 - 30
UPDATE: Click for ALT review
Received directly:
The Scottish Rite Theatre
presents
As You Like It
directed by Beth Burns
with music by Michael McKelvey
August 7 - 30
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
207 West 18th Street, Austin, at the corner of 18th and Lavaca, catercorner from the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.
As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden with her cousin Celia, court jester Touchstone, and many other love-sick characters. Charades and disguise lead to all manner of frolics in the forest, with the lively plot ultimately resulting in a “happily ever after“ finale.
Tickets: Friday and Saturday $12 in advance (online or at Box Office) and $15 at the door
tickets online
Sundays: $10 in advance (online or at Box Office) and $12 at the door
As You Like It is brought to you by the same team behind last year's sparkling Twelfth Night. Director Beth Burns, fresh from the run of her own play The Long Now, returns to direct Shakespeare's pastoral masterpiece, with the help of music director and composer Michael McKelvey, and some of Austin's most accomplished classical actors.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
A Life in the Theatre by David Mamet, Tongue and Groove Theatre at Austin Playhouse, July 10 - 26
With David Mamet's name on the playbill, one expects edgy situations and sharp language, but this production of A Life in the Theatre was one of gentle comedy and smooth edges.
It's a two-man show in which we see two male actors in an unnamed fifth-rate theatrical company sharing a dressing room. Michael Stuart is the mature actor and Zeb West is the newcomer. Mamet gives us vignettes of them over the stretch of a season or so, sketching out their initial, stiffly polite contacts and showing the development of a relationship. The notion is that the stodgy, opinionated old-school actor is going to be eclipsed by the up-and-coming future rival. The implied question is whether there will be a passing of the torch or an arm wrestling contest for it.
Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Upcoming: I ♥ Walmart, Capital T Theatre at Hyde Park Theatre, August 13 - 29
Click for ALT review, August 26
UPDATE: Review by Sean Fuentes at AustinTheatreReview.com, August 26
UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at Examiner.com, August 18
Received directly from Capital T Theatre:
Cap T presents a new original play
I ♥ Walmart
which runs August 13th-29th at Hyde Park Theatre. This collaborative original work conceived by Mark Pickell and Carrie Klypchak examines the people who love Wal-Mart and the people who love to hate Walmart.
The show is being launched just in time to celebrate Northcross Mall’s conversion into an “upscale” two story Pantheon of 24-hour consumerism. :(
Comprised from the writings of more than a dozen playwrights across the US including former local favorite Jim Fritzler (of Nebraska now), it is guaranteed to spark a conversation or two.
Starring B Iden Payne and Austin Critics Table winners and nominees
Kelli Bland,Travis Dean, Mark Pickell, Mark Scheibmeir, Mason Stewart & Ben Wolfe,
and introducing
Mateo Barrera, Molly Fonseca, Carrie Klypchak, Joey LePage, & Miriam Shoemaker
Tickets Sliding Scale at the Door $15-$25
Buy online:
or call 479-PLAY
Interview: UT playwright Francis Cowhig on Keene & Yale Awards, Daily Texan, July 29
Francis Ya-Chu Cowhig talks to the Daily Texan Anderson Rodriguez about the $50,000 Keene prize from the Michener Center for her play Lidless and about another work in progress:
Cowhig: I am always working and thinking about multiple projects. I write best when I am able to go hard and deep into one project for a few months, then put it away for a couple months while I work on something else, and then go back to the first project with fresh eyes. This is how it has been with “LIDLESS.” For the past three weeks, I have been developing a different play, “410[GONE]” at PlayPenn in Philadelphia.
[“410[GONE]” was produced at UT last fall], and just today, I flew from Philadelphia to Houston, where I am at the Alley Theatre working on “LIDLESS” as a part of their New Plays Initiative.
Daily Texan: What was it like for “LIDLESS” to be such a success so soon after you finished your Michener Center fellowship? Is it daunting to set the bar so high early on?
Cowhig: The script of “LIDLESS” has had success in competitions. This does not mean it is a successful play. Plays are written for audiences, not for literary committees. The success of the play will be determined by the audiences that view it once it has the opportunity for professional productions.
Read full interview at Daily Texan Online. . . .Upcoming: ¡No Se Paga! We Won't Pay! by Dario Fo, Teatro Vivo at Salvage Vanguard, August 13 - 30
UPDATE: Click for ALT review, August 19
Received directly:
Teatro Vivo,
teatro de corazón y alma,
presents
¡No Se Paga! We Won't Pay!
by Nobel-prize winning dramatist
Dario Fo
Who said a recession couldn’t be funny?
August 13-30 Thursday- Saturday 8pm and Sunday 3pm
Salvage Vanguard Theatre • 2803 Manor Road • Austin, Texas 78722
Tickets: $16/$13 students/seniors $2 off if you bring a can food donation for Capital Area Food Bank
Thursday is “pay what you can” night
Ticket information from AusTIX 474-8497 or online at www.nowplayingaustin.com/austix
Teatro Vivo’s bilingual comedy offers a farcical look at a community facing a food shortage during a difficult economic time. Dario Fo’s ¡No Se Paga! We Won’t Pay! takes a look into the lives of two couples struggling between good and starvation. When prices become too high for life’s necessities, whom is to blame? Who is to suffer? And who are to take matters into their own hands?
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Men from Mars & Careful as Mice, ACC Experimental Student Performance Lab, July 15 - 25
Ryan Manning provided a lot of the energy for the Austin Community College Experimental Student Performance Lab. This summer 2009 enterprise put on four pieces, all student-written and student-directed, all performed by ACC students. Manning wrote three of them and performed in three. Whatever ESPL show was up there, Manning was part of it, somehow.
Bravo for that energy and engagement.
Austin Live Theatre published a review of Manning's "Beckett" piece An Empty Stage on July 25. The Manning canon is filled out with this double bill of his goofy-but-fun The Men from Mars and his "Pinter/Sam Shephard" work Careful as Mice.
Austin Community College students can whoop it up as well as anyone, and the intimate Gallery Theatre on the third floor of the Rio Grande campus was a fine place to do so. Think of every space opera you've ever seen, from Star Wars to Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica, put them in a blender and dress up your actors with intentionally campy outfits and attitudes. That was The Men from Mars. We whooped right along with them in the electronic music as those creepy Martians with stockings over their faces came attacking our noble troops, who were Good Guy Macho stereotypes from every war movie you've ever seen.
Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Upcoming: Staged by the Bell, Institution Theatre at U.S. Art Authority, Sunday nights in August
Found on-line, at AustinOnStage.com and at the website of the Institution Theatre:
Episodes of “Saved By The Bell” performed LIVE
No, really. We mean it. Read on.
Sundays at 8pm, August 2nd – 23rd
The United States Art Authority at The Spider House
2906 Fruth Street
Tickets: $10.
Performance Dates: August 2, 9, 16, 23
Click to purchase tickets
Everyone remembers the 1990’s Saturday morning television show “Saved By the Bell” for its ridiculously delivered messages, over-the-top characters, and comedic dialogue that only a laugh track could love. The stars of the show went on to suck in such equally unimpressive projects as Showgirls, Beverly Hills 90210 and the worst season of NYPD Blue ever! Clearly it’s a body of work lacking the merit that would deserve homage.
This is why The Institution Theatre feels that there is no better source material than Saved By The Bell for a full blown stage production with all the characters, dialogue, joy, laughter and life lessons completely and accurately in tact.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Upcoming: Pinocchio, Austin Summer Musical for Children, August 1 - 9
Found on-line:
Austin Summer Musical for Children
presents
Pinocchio
a FREE! musical at the Boyd Vance Theatre,
George Washington Carver Center
1165 Angelina, Austin
Weekends of August 1-2 and 8-9
Tickets available at the door starting 90 minutes before the performance
Saturdays at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Gala with silent auction, Friday, August 7, from 7 p.m. (click to purchase tickets, $10 each)
Click to view a 30-sec YouTube promo video
About the Cast
About the Organization
Upcoming: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, City Theatre, August 20 - September 13
Received directly:
The City Theatre
closes the 2009 summer theatre season with
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
based on C.S. Lewis’ favorite classic adventure
August 20 – September 13 Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.
NARNIA…a land frozen in eternal winter…a country waiting to be set free.
This wonderful adaptation based on the children’s novel by C. S. Lewis is the story of four children, Susan, Lucy, Edmond and Peter who escape the London blitz of World War II, when they are sent to live with their uncle in the countryside. Lucy’s discovery of a magic wardrobe in her uncle’s home, leads her and her siblings into a world where “it is always winter, but never Christmas”, the land known as Narnia.
Here the children discover strange wonders: centaurs, talking beavers, fairies, and a fawn-like creature known as Tumnus, who befriends the children.
But Narnia is a land of contrasts as well. There is evil, in the person of the ambitious and calculating White Witch who battles to rule all of Narnia, and goodness and nobility, embodied in the powerful Lion King Aslan, who opposes her and her diabolic schemes. This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a profound celebration of life and inspiration, captivating young and old for decades.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first in a seven-book series by C. S. Lewis called The Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. He was a professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Oxford. He wrote books on religion and philosophy, but is most famous for this remarkable series, that has captured the imagination of children and adults worldwide. Many will be familiar with the series through the recently released Walt Disney Productions and Walden Media films, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian.
The production is directed by Bridget Farias with additional staging by Andy Berkovsky and set design by Daniel LeFave and costumes by Jessi Brill. It features the company of Derek Vandi (Aslan), Samantha Brewer (White Witch), Chad Duda (Peter), Laura Ray (Susan), Raphael Jaquette (Edmund), Shannyn Rose Cowart (Lucy), Bobby DiPasquale (Mr. Beaver), Fiona Rene (Mrs. Beaver), Austin Rausch (Mr. Tunmus), Dario Konjicija (Fenris Ulf), Marques Deleeon (Dwarf), Justin McKnight (Elf), D.H. Thompson (Father Christmas/Professor), and Molly McKee, Monique Borses, Nikki Maldonado, Annabel Stephan, Matthew Haynes, and Cameron McKnight (Wood Creatures/Ensemble).
This production is recommended for all ages and fun live theatre entertainment for the entire family.
TICKETS AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org
General Seating $15 - $20. Guaranteed Reserve Seats$25. Kids under ten $10. Thursdays all seats $10. Group and senior discounts are available.
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street.
Visit our website www.citytheatreaustin.org
The City Theatre
closes the 2009 summer theatre season with
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
based on C.S. Lewis’ favorite classic adventure
August 20 – September 13 Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.
NARNIA…a land frozen in eternal winter…a country waiting to be set free.
This wonderful adaptation based on the children’s novel by C. S. Lewis is the story of four children, Susan, Lucy, Edmond and Peter who escape the London blitz of World War II, when they are sent to live with their uncle in the countryside. Lucy’s discovery of a magic wardrobe in her uncle’s home, leads her and her siblings into a world where “it is always winter, but never Christmas”, the land known as Narnia.
Here the children discover strange wonders: centaurs, talking beavers, fairies, and a fawn-like creature known as Tumnus, who befriends the children.
But Narnia is a land of contrasts as well. There is evil, in the person of the ambitious and calculating White Witch who battles to rule all of Narnia, and goodness and nobility, embodied in the powerful Lion King Aslan, who opposes her and her diabolic schemes. This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a profound celebration of life and inspiration, captivating young and old for decades.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first in a seven-book series by C. S. Lewis called The Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. He was a professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Oxford. He wrote books on religion and philosophy, but is most famous for this remarkable series, that has captured the imagination of children and adults worldwide. Many will be familiar with the series through the recently released Walt Disney Productions and Walden Media films, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian.
The production is directed by Bridget Farias with additional staging by Andy Berkovsky and set design by Daniel LeFave and costumes by Jessi Brill. It features the company of Derek Vandi (Aslan), Samantha Brewer (White Witch), Chad Duda (Peter), Laura Ray (Susan), Raphael Jaquette (Edmund), Shannyn Rose Cowart (Lucy), Bobby DiPasquale (Mr. Beaver), Fiona Rene (Mrs. Beaver), Austin Rausch (Mr. Tunmus), Dario Konjicija (Fenris Ulf), Marques Deleeon (Dwarf), Justin McKnight (Elf), D.H. Thompson (Father Christmas/Professor), and Molly McKee, Monique Borses, Nikki Maldonado, Annabel Stephan, Matthew Haynes, and Cameron McKnight (Wood Creatures/Ensemble).
This production is recommended for all ages and fun live theatre entertainment for the entire family.
TICKETS AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org
General Seating $15 - $20. Guaranteed Reserve Seats$25. Kids under ten $10. Thursdays all seats $10. Group and senior discounts are available.
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street.
Visit our website www.citytheatreaustin.org
Monday, July 27, 2009
Upcoming: Classical Crossover with A Clockwork Orange, PKW Productions, Alamo Lake Creek, August 2
Received directly:
PKWproductions Brings Back Their Most Uniquely Powerful and Disturbing Combination of Music and Film with A Clockwork Orange
PKWproductions director P. Kellach Waddle and a host of Austin's finest classical musicians will present once again an extraordinary classical event with two live chamber concerts to accompany Stanley Kubrick’s controversial cult classic A Clockwork Orange as the “Music and a Movie” series continues on Sunday, August 2 at 8 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek.
Second only to this series' flagship event, Amadeus, PKWproductions has received more demand to repeat this event than any other in the series' nearly 4-year history since PKWproductions’ first "Music and A Movie" presentation of A Clockwork Orange in November 2008 met with a near-sold out audience.
Since the film’s teenage miscreant Alex DeLarge is famous for drinking drugged milk and listening to Beethoven, the entire program is dedicated to the iconic German composer. The pre-movie concert's theme is "Obscure Beethoven" with a presentation of three of Beethoven's lesser known works and in a special intermission concert, three of Austin's most prominent composers (P. Kellach Waddle, Graham Reynolds and Peter Stopchinski) will present three brand new pieces on themes of Beethoven.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Tartuffe, City Theatre, July 23 - August 16
Molière was appalled and distressed when he learned that although Louis XIV had enjoyed the court performance of Tartuffe on May 12, 1664 the "Sun King" had listened to pious advisers and had forbidden any further presentations of the play.
This great comic tale of religious hypocrisy was in trouble from the start. The dramatist had produced a farce in elegant verse featuring a "holy man" intent on seduction, theft and exploitation, an adroit manipulator of religious concepts and of religious language. The court advisers were probably scandalized at the playwright's witty undermining of religiosity and some of them may have felt directly targeted.
Molière's eloquent protests went unheeded and the revised version he presented publicly three years later was immediately shut down. Not until 1669, after a delay of five years, was Tartuffe performed, apparently with the King's permission. It became the most successful and most profitable of Molière's plays.
Charles P. Stites serves as something of a Molière for the City Theatre's production of Tartuffe. He drafted this text, directed it and stars as Tartuffe.
And what better setting for religious hypocrisy (via tele-evangelism) than modern Central Texas?
Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Love Me and An Empty Stage, ACC Experimental Student Performance Lab, July 15 - 25
Austin Community College's summer 2009 Experimental Student Performance Lab got off to a good start for me with Philip Kreyche's expressionistic two-act work Love Me, preceded by Ryan Manning's whimsical curtain-raiser The Empty Stage.
Manning's short piece gives us Dani Miller as "Pye, the Man with No Memory," and Manning himself as "Que, The Man Who Reminds Him." Imagine Estragon and Vladimir, respectively, except that instead of waiting for Godot, they're trying to construct a story for themselves. Author Manning awards himself the smarter of the two roles, in which he impatiently corrects and cues Pye while cadging cigarettes from him.
They eventually concoct lightweight fantasies, enlivened by the appearance of Sally Ziegler, Ariel-like, as "the beautiful girl" and "the Spanish princess," and by Phillip Kreyche as "the last man of high moral character." Our two tramps wind up paddling an invisible canoe up the center aisle, finishing their dialogue behind us, and after a pause the action begins for the two-act production.
In the Q&A afterward an audience member confessed to being confused by the fact that the company made no explicit demarcation between the two pieces. The casts overlapped, but each piece was announced separately in the program.
Kreyche's two-act Love Me is triply impressive. He dug deep into German literary history to find the source documents, including especially an eerie quasi-autobiography by the Viennese painter Oskar Kokoschka describing the artist's self-destructive infatuation with Alma Mahler, wife of the composer. He wrote a piece that is starkly expressionistic in style, using incidents from Kokoschka's life and portraying them with a mixture of narrative and mad illusion. And he played the principal character, Kokoschka, with stage presence, palpable emotion, and style.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Arts News: Francis Ya-Chu Cowhig wins Keene, Yale prizes for Lidless
From UT news service:
7/23/2009
Recent Graduate Awarded $50,000 Literary Prize
Frances Ya–Chu Cowhig, Winner 2009 Keene Prize for Literature
Frances Ya–Chu Cowhig, a graduate of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the 2009 Keene Prize for Literature for her play titled "Lidless," a poetic treatment of the issue of torture at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Keene Prize is one of the world's largest student literary prizes. Cowhig will receive $50,000 and an additional $50,000 will be divided among three finalists. Cowhig's play was chosen out of 58 submissions in drama, poetry and fiction.
In the play, a former Guantanamo detainee dying of liver disease journeys to the home of his female interrogator to demand reparation for the damage she wreaked on his body and soul. It recreates the traumatic experience of interrogation and moves toward reconciliation between its protagonists.
[. . . .]
In addition to the Keene Prize "Lidless" has been selected by playwright Sir David Hare as the winner of the 2009 Yale Emerging Playwrights Prize.
The play was produced at the university's Department of Theatre and Dance Lab Theatre as part of the annual production, UT New Theatre (UTNT), last spring and will be given staged readings at Houston's Alley Theatre, Ojai Playwrights Conference and Yale Repertory Theatre. It will be published by Yale University Press.
[See continuation for rest of UT press release]
From website of D.C. Horn Foundation
“Lidless” centers on the reunion of a male Guantánamo Bay detainee and his former female Army interrogator. Fifteen years after his release, the prisoner revisits his captor and demands half her liver as recompense for the physical and psychological wounds inflicted during their interrogations.
Despite the political backdrop, the playwright contends the play centers on emotions. “It’s really a play about the senses — how visual and sensory experiences inform the moral and political issues,” Cowhig said. “There’s messy biological stuff. In a sense, I’m taking a political thing and putting a mirror of magical realism over it. No one wants to see a play that should be an op-ed piece.”
Ms. Cowhig is a graduate of The International School of Beijing, Brown University, where she studied play writing with Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, and has spent the last three years in Austin Texas as a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers doing a multi-genre MFA program.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Friday, July 24, 2009
Upcoming: The Tempest for Young Audiences, Polyanna Theatre at Dougherty Arts Center, August 7 - 11
Found at the Polyanna website:
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
Adapted for young audiences by Judy Matetzschk-Campbell
August 7-11th
Presented at The Dougherty Arts Center
If you and your children enjoyed Pollyanna's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, you will not want to miss our young people's version of The Tempest. This 50-minute version of the classic tale of mistaken identities, shipwrecks, and deserted islands make a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare's language, characters, and stories.
Best for children ages 6-11.
Friday, August 7 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, August 8 at 11:00 and 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 9 at 2:00 p.m.
Monday, August 10 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Tuesday, August 11 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Theatre Tickets at $6.25 for children under 12, $7.25 for student age 12 and older, ACOT members and Seniors, and $8.25 for adults
GROUP RATES FOR SCHOOLS GROUPS ranging from $3.00-$5.00 are available depending on the total number of tickets reserved.
Financial Aid is available based on financial need. Call for Reservations and Information: 743-7966
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
Adapted for young audiences by Judy Matetzschk-Campbell
August 7-11th
Presented at The Dougherty Arts Center
If you and your children enjoyed Pollyanna's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, you will not want to miss our young people's version of The Tempest. This 50-minute version of the classic tale of mistaken identities, shipwrecks, and deserted islands make a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare's language, characters, and stories.
Best for children ages 6-11.
Friday, August 7 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, August 8 at 11:00 and 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 9 at 2:00 p.m.
Monday, August 10 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Tuesday, August 11 at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Theatre Tickets at $6.25 for children under 12, $7.25 for student age 12 and older, ACOT members and Seniors, and $8.25 for adults
GROUP RATES FOR SCHOOLS GROUPS ranging from $3.00-$5.00 are available depending on the total number of tickets reserved.
Financial Aid is available based on financial need. Call for Reservations and Information: 743-7966
Upcoming Melodrama: Hartburn Hotel, Way Off Broadway Community Players, Leander, August 7 - 22
Found at the WOBCP website:
Way Off Broadway Community Players of Leander present the melodrama
Hartburn Hotel
by Ryan Garrity
Directed By Karen S Miller
August 7 - 22
The Calamity Gulch trilogy is completed with this new melodrama-farce. Faced with losing the Last Chance Inn once again, Ma and Pa Culpepper turn to glamorous Sahara Hartburn. Sahara pays off their loan with money from a "well-heeled admirer" and promptly takes over the inn. Transformed into the Hartburn Hotel, the place becomes a residence for young ladies with a "no men allowed upstairs" policy.
Sahara schemes to find a scandal that will give her new venture some publicity, and finds it when the new schoolteacher, Polly Sincere, is paid a visit by her dapper and devoted boyfriend, Jasper Jones - in her room! To escape, Jasper dresses as a girl and poses as "Jasmine Sincere," Polly's sister. Complications arise when a visiting sheriff falls for "Jasmine" and "her" sudden disappearance leads Sahara to accuse Polly of murder! An attempt to clear Polly's name, an outrageous chase, and the search for a bank robber all conspire to bring the play to a surprising - and side-splitting - conclusion.
Click Here to make Reservations
10960 E. Crystal Falls Pkwy in Leander, TX, close to Parmer Lane
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Arts Opportunity: ACOT's new "A" Team
Received directly from the Austin Circle of Theatre (ACOT), for dissemination:
The "A"-Team
Dear Austin Theatre Companies and Arts Enthusiasts,
ACoT is about to launch a unique program that not only will help fill seats in your house on opening weekend, but will provide an added stream of positive reviews to draw traffic both to your show, and your website.
This program is called the A-Team.
The "A"-Team will be made up of local arts enthusiasts who will be given tickets to attend events covering all disciplines of art and culture in Austin found on NowPlayingAustin.com. These folks will then report back on the shows they have seen by writing reviews on NowPlayingAustin.com. There will also be monthly happy hours in which The "A"-Team can network and discuss the different events they've attended throughout the month.
How can you help?
THEATRES
Please let me know if you would be interested in having these A-team members attend your show! If you agree to participate, I will send an email weekly to organizations that have a show opening. You will tell me how many tickets you are willing to donate. One ticket will be given to each A-team member. ( Hopefully they will bring a friend.) Feel free to donate as many or as few tickets as you can afford.
You will be notified with the information of the A-team member so that you can add that person to your database.
ARTS FOLK
Wanna be on the A-Team? All you need to do is join ACoT as an individual member at a reduced rate ( 36 instead of 48) and you are on a roll! The free tix will pay for the membership fees in no time.
Please let me know if you are interested in joining us to help promote the "A-team" and the arts in Austin.
Thanks!
Susie Gidseg (susie.vestige@gmail.com)
Upcoming Melodrama: Peril on the High Seas, Gaslight Baker Theatre, Lockhart, July 17 - August 1
Received directly and from Gaslight Baker website:
Peril at the High Seas
...or...Let's get together and do Launch
By: Billy St. John
Directed by: Gail Hellums
All aboard the H.M.S. Majestic for a riotous adventure in this full length melodrama set in the Roaring Twenties! Little does our heroine, the heiress Merry Ann Sweet, know that she is the intended victim of the villainous Snively Swine's kidnapping plot. With his partner, the slinky and exotic Aracnia Webb, Swine disguises himself as Sir Reginald Rottentot, a British nobleman, in order to gain the confidence of Merry and her flapper friends, Mitzi, Ritzy and Ditzy. But Merry falls for the handsome waiter, Cary De Mille. Poor Cary—he loves Merry, too, but ship's policy says he can't get involved with a passenger.
Must these two ships pass in the night? Not if Merry's flapper friends can help it! Together, they transform Merry from a shy young lady into a red-hot jazz baby. Meanwhile, Swine launches his kidnap scheme. It's sink or swim for Cary. Can he save Merry and stay out of Aracnia's clutches?
It's up to the passengers—movie star Mary Pickaxe, gossip columnist Hedda Hooper, detective Willy Ketchum and more—to help Cary put the damper on Swine. Your cast and audience will go overboard in their enthusiasm for this rollicking production!
July 17 - August 1 at 8:00 PM. House will open at 7:30.
July 25 Will also feature a matinee performance starting at 2:00 PM.
Purchase Tickets Here
On-line tickets only are available for standard $12 ticket...any special promotions, group rates, senior / student prices, etc...will have to be purchased in person at the box office. Please contact us if you have any questions.
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