Auditions for Austin Shakespeare's 2010-2011 Season

Found on-line at www.AustinActors.net:

Auditions for Austin Shakespeare for the season
Sat. Oct. 10, 2010 1 pm- 4 pm
Creative Alliance studio, 701 Tillery St.
Including Actors Equity contracts under SPT 1

2 men needed for a new stage adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Anthem in a NEW adaptation by Jeff Britting,
Performances at the Long Center: Thursday, Jan. 19 - Sunday, Jan. 23
Rehearsals begin Sun. Jan. 2
Directed by Ann Ciccolella

4 women; 7 men George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman
Performances at the Long Center: Thursday, Feb 17 - Sunday, March 6
Rehearsals begin Sun. Jan 23
Directed by Ann Ciccolella

2 women/10 men Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost
Performances at the Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park : Thursday, April 29 - Sunday, May 22
Rehearsals begin Sun. April 3
Directed by Robert Faires

TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT TIME: auditions@austinshakespeare.org

NOTE: Austin Shakespeare warmly encourages actors of all ethnic/racial backgrounds to audition.

Auditioners are asked to prepare a 1- 2 min speech from any classic or Shakespeare play, including Love’s Labour’s Lost or Man and Superman or Anthem. The piece may be memorized or read, but actors should be thoroughly familiar with the text. All roles are open. For more info on plot and cast breakdown see www.austinshakespeare.org

Contact: Austin Shakespeare auditions@austinshakespeare.org
Website: www.austinshakespeare.org

Upcoming: The Vampyress Cocktail Fundraiser, Vortex Repertory, October 9

Received directly:

The VORTEX & ethos

Cordially invite you to…

The Vampyress Cocktail Party

A Fundraiser for ethos’ production of Vampyress

When: October 9, 2010 at 9:00pm

Where: The VORTEX Café at 2307 Manor Rd., Austin, TX 78722

Admission: FREE

As the bats of Austin take flight into the darkness of the October night, follow the bloodline to The VORTEX for a special night of waxing moonlight delight. Swoop around the bonfire for the first Halloween Party of the year. Vampire costumes encouraged.

Fill your glass red to the brim and sink your fangs into a tasty bite. Soul and funk courtesy of Spence. Vampyress, Joanna Henson, appears from the shadows to tempt you with a quivering bellydance performance. And get a taste for ethos’ Halloween hit Vampyress as the cast warms your blood with enchanting musical numbers from the show, opening Oct.15^th, 2010 at The VORTEX. Vampire manicures with Melissa (by donation).

Silent Auction including items from . Cash Bar. Bring your own vodka to mix with Cedar’s Bloody Drink Setups.

www.vortexrep.org

Opportunity and Info Session: $4000 Grants to Texas Artists from The Idea Fund

Signaled online in the CreateAustin newsletter, September 28 and followed up online:

Call for applicants for 2011 The Idea Fund

The Idea Fund provides cash awards of $4,000 to 10 Texas-based, artist-generated/artist-centered projects that exemplify the unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices that occur outside the traditional framework of support. Application and supplement materials are due October 15, 2010.

Austin Info session:
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Austin Museum of Art (823 Congress Avenue)

Please visit www.theideafund.org for more information and application guidelines.

Click to go to AustinLiveTheatre.com for video of 2009 info session (26 min.)

GLITCH??: Free Night of Theatre 2010 Tickets: Now You See 'Em. . . .

Found on-line:

FURTHER UPDATE and ALT comment: "What we have here is a failure to communicate. . . .":

On its website today the Greater Austin Creative Alliance cheerfully explains that the only sold-out tickets for the Free Night of Theatre so far are those for the events for this coming weekend (11 listings). GACA says that because in previous years some lucky ticket holders forgot about the show dates later in the month, the organization has decided to release the remaining tickets (50 listings by ALT's count) week by week, making them available on the Tuesday beforehand. Just sign up on the site's "stand-by list," which is not a stand-by list at all but rather a list-serve that will remind you that Tuesday is coming around again. More tickets/opportunities will be added during the month.

There is no acknowledgment that the national web site does not mention GACA'S change in procedures. And there's no evident sensitivity to the fact that misleading prospective audiences with your marketing is one of the quickest ways in the world to motivate them to stay home in front of the television with their feet up .

UPDATE/AFTER ACTION REPORT, eight minutes into the release period:

just received:

ChrisNAustin has left a new comment on your post "Upcoming: Free Night of Theatre 2010, Tickets avai...":

What a joke!!! How at 11:01 are everyone one of these events "Sold Out"? Obviously they were available to someone prior to 11am, Tuesday September 28th as advertised here. Utterly dissappointing.

Posted by ChrisNAustin to Austin Live Theatre at September 28, 2010 11:08 AM

AustinLiveTheatre checked and can confirm that every item on the lengthy list for Austin is designated SOLD OUT. ALT forwarded Chris's comment to the info e-mail at the Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

as advertised:

Free Night of Theater 2010

during October

presented by Greater Austin Creative Alliance (GACA) at multiple locations

ALT note: beginning at 11 a.m., Tuesday, September 28 you can reserve two free tickets for shows listed for Austin at the Theatre Communication Group's Free Night of Theatre website (click to go there).

Performances occur during the period October 1-October 31, 2010.

Listed as of Tuesday morning, September 28:

Austin Chamber Music Center (one Saturday matinee of the Hispanic Heritage Concert)

Austin Community College (6 dates for Mauritius)

The Baron's Men (2 performances of Midsummer Night's Dream at the Curtain Theatre)

Coldtowne Theatre (11 performances)

The Georgetown Palace (6 dates for Cinderella by Rodgers and Hammerstein)

The Long Center (Drumline Live, Straight No Chaser and a Wednesday performance of Jaston Williams' Cowboy Noises)

The New Movement Theatre (21 performances)

Paradox Players, Unitarian Universalist Church (2 dates for Incorruptible)

Southwestern University (1 listing for a Thursday performance of The Man Who Came to Dinner by Kauffman and Hart)

Tapestry Dance Company (a Saturday matinee and evening for Voices of Rhythm)

UT (1 Sunday matinee for The Fantasticks)

The Vortex Repertory (1 Sunday evening listing for Vampyress)

Zach Theatre (2 matinees for Rent)

(GACA's listing indicates that more productions may be added to the list.)

The GACA pitch:

Enjoy free tickets to events at theaters and galleries across Austin all this month! A national program of Theatre Communicatios Group, Free Night is presented locally by Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

The program was developed to make the experience of live performance available to people who may not have ever seen live theater, dance, music. We encourage you to use this opportunity to visit theaters or see events you have not seen before. Do encourage others to use this opportunity as well.

We thank all the arts organizations in Austin that make these offers available to you this year:

Austin Chamber Music Center; Austin Community College Department of Drama; Austin Film Society; The Baron's Men; Coldtowne Theatre; Georgetown Palace Theatre; Paradox Players; Sight Ain't Seen Productions' Tapestry Dance Company; The Hideout Theatre; The Long Cneter for the Performing Arts; The New Movement Theatre; University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance; Vortex Repertory Companuy; Weird City Theatre; Zach

YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR FREE NIGHT TICKETS ONLINE AT THE TCG LINK.

Since its inception in 2005, Free Night of Theater has boosted awareness of the nations arts organizations, while building new audiences and driving single ticket sales. Continuing in this tradition, Free Night 2010 will seek out new audiences, invite current theatergoers and arts patrons to try a new theater or arts venue, as well as ignite interest and create awareness about the variety of arts options in Austin and across the country. In 2009 Free Night of Theater celebrated its 5th anniversary in over 120 cities from coast to coast with 714 arts organizations offering over 65,000 tickets to more than 2,000 performances across the nation! Free Night of Theater 2010 will kick-off nation wide on October 14th. Tickets will be offered between October 1 and October 31

Arts Reporting: Texas State Dancers Cast in Shirley MacLaine/Jack Black Film

Found on-line:

Texas State Theatre and Dance students score roles with A-list stars

Brad Rollins on Tuesday, 28 September 2010

The filming of a major motion picture in Austin has presented eight musical theatre students from the Texas State University Department of Theatre and Dance with a special opportunity to showcase their talents on the big screen with some of the top names in the industry. Those chosen include Jennifer Foster of Thousand Oaks, Calif; Madelyn Shaffer of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Colin Bevis of Clarksville, Tenn.; Ian Saunders of Walled Lake, Mich.; Tim Heller of Libertyville, Ill.; Rachel Hull-Ryde of Grapevine; Jacqueline Bloom of Granite Bay, Calif.; and Trevor McGinnis of San Antonio.

“Bernie,” a film in progress directed by Richard Linklater and staring Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine, is a story inspired by a 1998 “Texas Monthly” article about the east Texas town of Carthage and its bizarre tale of a local undertaker and his 1997 confession to murdering his wealthy companion.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Nominations for B. Iden Payne Austin theatre awards, 2009-2010

Published September 29:

2009-2010 nominations for B. Iden Payne theatre awards

published September 28, 2010 at
http://www.bidenpayneawards.com/2010/09/2009-2010-nominations/

YOUTH THEATRE

Outstanding Production of Youth Theatre

* Call It Courage (Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School)
* Everything About a Day (Almost) (Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School)
* Greeks Alive! (Pollyanna Theatre Company)
* Just Bee (Pollyanna Theatre Company)
* There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom (UT Department of Theatre and Dance)

Outstanding Director of Youth Theatre

* Brian C. Fahey (There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom) – UT Department of Theatre and Dance
* Jaclyn Loewenstein (Everything About a Day (Almost)) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School
* Judy Matetzschk-Campbell (Greeks Alive!) – Pollyanna Theatre Company
* Judy Matetzschk-Campbell (Just Bee) – Pollyanna Theatre Company
* Adam Roberts (Call It Courage) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School

Outstanding Performer in Youth Theatre

* Stevi Baston (Carla Davis, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom) – UT Department of Theatre and Dance
* Jon Cook (Bradley Chalkers, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom) – UT Department of Theatre and Dance
* Steven Fay (Mr. Kirby, You Can’t Take It With You) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Rachel McGinnis (Queen Honey, Just Bee) – Pollyanna Theatre Company
* Gricelda Silva (the Boy, The Red Balloon) – Tongue and Groove Theatre

MUSIC THEATRE

Outstanding Production of Music Theatre

* The Drowsy Chaperone (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
* Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company)
* Sleeping Beauty (VORTEX Repertory Company)
* Sweet Charity (Summer Stock Austin)
* The Yeomen of the Guard (Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin)

Outstanding Director of Music Theatre

* Bonnie Cullum (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Nick Demos (The Drowsy Chaperone) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Ralph MacPhail, Jr. (The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Ginger Morris (Sweet Charity) – Summer Stock Austin
* Dustin Wills (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company

Outstanding Lead Actor in Music Theatre

* Andrew Cannata (John 1, John 2, John & Jen) – Penfold Theatre Company
* David Gallagher (Ash, Evil Dead) – Doctuh Mistuh Productions and Salvage Vanguard Theater
* Jamie Goodwin (Stine, City of Angels) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre
* Holton Johnson (Col. Fairfax, The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Scott Shipman (Oliver Warbucks, Annie) – Zilker Theatre Productions

Outstanding Lead Actress in Music Theatre

* Emily Bem (Miss Hannigan, Annie) – Zilker Theatre Productions
* Patricia Combs (Phoebe Meryll, The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Michelle Haché (Elsie Maynard, The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Corley Pillsbury (Cheryl, Evil Dead) – Doctuh Mistuh Productions and Salvage Vanguard Theater

Outstanding Featured Actor in Music Theatre

* Matt Connely (Jake, Evil Dead) – Doctuh Mistuh Productions and Salvage Vanguard Theater
* David Fontenot (Wilfred Shadbolt, The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Kirk German (Rooster, Annie) – Zilker Theatre Productions
* Jon Wayne Martin (Pancho Vargas, Lt. Munoz, City of Angels) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre
* Robert Pierson (Tom, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company

Outstanding Featured Actress in Music Theatre

* Jill Blackwood (Rona Lisa Peretti, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Florinda Bryant (Stagger Lee, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company
* Lucy Jennings (Olive Ostrovsky, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Content Love Knowles (Tom’s Wife, Lincoln Lady, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company
* Liz Newchurch (Little Red Riding Hood, Into the Woods) – City Theatre Company

COMEDIES

Outstanding Production of a Comedy

* Becky’s New Car (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
* Body Awareness (Hyde Park Theatre)
* Bug (Capital T Theatre)
* The Cherry Orchard (Breaking String Theater)
* The Taming of the Shrew – Original Practices (Hidden Room Theatre)

Outstanding Director of a Comedy

* Beth Burns (The Taming of the Shrew – Original Practices) – Hidden Room Theatre
* Heather Huggins (Direct Object) – DA! Theatre Collective
* Derek Kolluri (Dead White Males) – Sustainable Theatre Project
* Mark Pickell (Bug) – Captial T Theatre
* Graham Schmidt (The Cherry Orchard) – Breaking String Theatre

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy

* Ryan Crowder (Katherina, The Taming of the Shrew – Original Practices) – Hidden Room Theatre
* Judd Farris (Petrucio, The Taming of the Shrew – Original Practices) – Hidden Room Theatre
* Joey Hood (Augustine Early, The Atheist) – Hyde Park Theatre
* Robert Matney (Albert Einstein, Picasso at the Lapin Agile) – Austin Playhouse
* Matt Radford (Yermolay Lopakhin, The Cherry Orchard) – Breaking String Theatre

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy

* Katie deBuys (Agnes White, Bug) – Capital T Theatre
* Lauren Lane (Becky Foster, Becky’s New Car) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Rebecca Robinson (Maxine, Sick) – Capital T Theatre
* JoJanie Segura (Carolina, Keeping Track) – Teatro Vivo
* Nikki Zook (Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, Spider’s Web) – Different Stages

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Comedy

* Dennis Kelleher Bailey (Pettlogg, Dead White Males) – Sustainable Theatre Project
* Jude Hickey (Milkman Moe, Pandora et al., Leave It to Beverly) – DA! Theatre Collective
* Doug Lebelle (Milt Fields, Laughter on the 23rd Floor) – City Theatre Company
* Stephen Mercantel (Jared, Body Awareness) – Hyde Park Theatre
* Nigel O’Hearn (Trofimov, The Cherry Orchard) – Breaking String Theatre

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Comedy

* Suzanne Balling (Doris, Dead White Males) – Sustainable Theatre Project
* Elizabeth Bigger (Peggy, Cheryl, Mom 2, Fluffy, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told) – City Theatre Company
* Katherine Catmull (Marty, Circle Mirror Transformation) – Hyde Park Theatre
* Liz Fisher (Varya, The Cherry Orchard) – Breaking String Theatre
* Xochitl Romero (Lauren, Circle Mirror Transformation) – Hyde Park Theatre

DRAMAS

Outstanding Production of a Drama

* Agnes of God (City Theatre Company)
* Bash: Three Plays (vestige group)
* Dionysus in 69 (Rude Mechanicals)
* Dying City (Capital T Theatre)
* The Jungle (Trouble Puppet Theater Company)

Outstanding Director of a Drama

* Andy Berkovsky (Agnes of God) – City Theatre Company
* Madge Darlington and Shawn Sides (Dionysus in 69) – Rude Mechanicals
* Jeff Hinkle (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) – City Theatre Company
* Connor Hopkins (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Derek Kolluri (Dying City) – Capital T Theatre

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama

* Sean Martin (Walker, Ned, Three Days of Rain) – Penfold Theatre Company
* Josh Meyer (Stork, A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits) – Salvage Vanguard Theater
* Mark Scheibmeir (Peter, Craig, Dying City) – Capital T Theatre
* David Stahl (Galileo Galilei, The Life of Galileo) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre
* Jacob Trussell (Peer Gynt, Peer Gynt) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama

* Kristen Bennett (Ruth Younger, A Raisin in the Sun) – City Theatre Company
* Liz Fisher (Kelly, Dying City) – Capital T Theatre
* Rachel McGinnis (Maggie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) – City Theatre Company
* Helen Merino (Mary Stuart, Mary Stuart) – Austin Shakespeare
* Bernadette Nason (everyone, A Christmas Carol) – Austin Playhouse
* Nicole Swahn (Eurydice, Eurydice) – Different Stages

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama

* Aaron Alexander (Zeus, Cinyras, Ceyx, Morpheus, Spirit of the Tree, Hades, Metamorphoses) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Marc Balester (Nasty Interesting Man, Lord of the Underworld, Eurydice) – Different Stages
* Duncan Coe (Button Moulder, Groom’s Father, Bugelbrain, ensemble, Peer Gynt) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre
* Gabriel Luna (Lover, Machinal) – Paper Chairs
* Garry Peters (Big Daddy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) – City Theatre Company

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama

* Terri Bennett (Big Mama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) – City Theatre Company
* Jen Brown (woman, “Medea Redux,” Bash) – vestige group
* Smaranda Ciceu (Cassandra, The Trojan Women) – UT Department of Theatre and Dance
* Sheila Gordon (Åsa, ensemble, Peer Gynt) – St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre
* Lindsley Howard (Jean, Early Girl) – Paladin Theatre Company
* Feliz Dia McDonald (Ariel, Sycorax) – Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective

TECHNICAL

Outstanding Set Design

* Ann Marie Gordon (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Connor Hopkins (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Lisa Laratta (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company
* Anne McMeeking (Three Days of Rain) – Penfold Theatre Company
* Mark Pickell and Tommy Grubbs (Bug) – Capital T Theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design

* Jason Amato (The Red Balloon) – Tongue and Groove Theatre
* Jason Amato (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Mark Pickell (Bug) – Capital T Theatre
* Stephen Pruitt (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Megan M. Reilly (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company

Outstanding Sound Design

* Craig Brock (The Drowsy Chaperone) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Eliot Haynes (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Adam Hilton (Bug) – Capital T Theatre
* Adam Hilton (The Cherry Orchard) – Breaking String Theatre
* Content Love Knowles (Eurydice) – Different Stages

Outstanding Costume Design

* Ia Enstera (Just Bee) – Pollyanna Theatre Company
* Pam Fletcher-Friday and Griffon Ramsey (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Kim H. Ngo (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company
* Susan Branch Towne (The Drowsy Chaperone) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Cherie Weed (The Taming of the Shrew – Original Practices) – Hidden Room Theatre

Outstanding Music Director

* Jeffrey Jones-Ragona (The Yeomen of the Guard) – Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin
* Content Love Knowles (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Adam Roberts (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Allen Robertson (The Drowsy Chaperone) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Mark Stewart and Andy Tindall (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company

Outstanding Choreographer

* Lisa del Rosario (Leave It to Beverly) – DA! Theatre Collective
* Robin Lewis (The Drowsy Chaperone) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center
* Adam Roberts (Call It Courage) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School
* Vincent Sandoval (Sweet Charity) – Summer Stock Austin
* Nicole Whiteside (Metamorphoses) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center

Outstanding Original Script

* the company (Suitors and Tutors) – La Fenice
* Connor Hopkins (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Adam Overett (Call It Courage) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School
* Louis Sachar (There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom) – UT Department of Theater and Dance
* Erica Saenz (Keeping Track) – Teatro Vivo

Outstanding Original Score

* Matt Hines (Melancholy Play) – Palindrome Theatre
* Content Love Knowles (Sleeping Beauty) – VORTEX Repertory Company
* Kevin O’Donnell (The Trojan Women) – UT Department of Theatre and Dance
* Justin Sherburn (The Jungle) – Trouble Puppet Theater Company
* Mark Stewart and Andy Tindall (Murder Ballad Murder Mystery) – TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company

SPECIAL

Outstanding Cast or Ensemble Performance

* Agnes of God (cast, City Theatre Company)
* Dionysus in 69 (cast, Rude Mechanicals)
* The Drowsy Chaperone (cast, Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
* Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (ensemble, musicians, pimps, TUTTO Theatre Company and VORTEX Repertory Company)
* Sleeping Beauty (ensemble, the Fae, VORTEX Repertory Company)

Outstanding Young Performer

* Sarah Burke (Charity Hope Valentine, Sweet Charity) – Summer Stock Austin
* Josean Rodriguez (Oscar Lidquist, Sweet Charity) – Summer Stock Austin
* Olivia Schuh (Molly, Annie) – Zilker Theatre Productions
* Matthew Stellato (Falstaff, The Merry Wives of Windsor) – Austin Shakespeare’s Young Shakespeare Program
* Alina Vega (Mother, ** performances, Call It Courage) – Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School

Special Certificate for Puppetry: Trouble Puppet Theater Company, The Jungle

Special Certificate for Translation: Graham Schmidt, The Cherry Orchard – Breaking String Theatre

Rudy Kloptik Award for Outstanding Work in Improvisational Theatre
(nominated by members of the Austin Improv Collective)

* Austin Secrets (The Hideout Theatre)
* ColdTowne (ColdTowne Theater)
* Confidence Men: Improvised Mamet (The Institution Theater)
* Dusk: Improvised Tween Erotica (Gnap! Theater Projects)
* The Frank Mills (ColdTowne Theater)

Images of Midsummer Night's Dream by the Baron's Men at the Curtain Theatre, September 24 - October 16

Images by Kimberley Mead and by Mark Vittek:

Magic, Mirth and Mayhem...

The Baron's Men is pleased to announce our re-telling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This spectacularly beautiful production will include live music and dancing, rich Elizabethan costuming and masks, warring fairy armies, and fabulous magical effects all in a scale replica of the Globe Theater on the shores of Lake Austin.

The production runs Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00PM, September 24 through October 16 at The Curtain Theatre, with a Goblin Market showcasing local vendors and entertainers, nightly from 7:00PM - 8:00PM.

Appropriate for the entire family!

Click to view additional images of the Baron's Men production of Midsummer Night's Dream at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Auditions: Heddatron at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, October 24

Received directly:

Auditions for Salvage Vanguard Theater mainstage production

HEDDATRON

by Elizabeth Meriwether.

Directed by Dustin Wills.

Show performances are Feb 11- March 5 at Salvage Vanguard.

Auditions will be held October 24 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

By appointment only. Email jenny@salvagevanguard.org to schedule.

Sides will be provided at the audition. Actors will be compensated for the performance.

ABOUT HEDDATRON, written by Elizabeth Meriwether

A pregnant housewife, Jane, is abducted by robots and taken to the rainforest and forced to perform Hedda Gabler by her robot captors. Meanwhile, her family back home in Michigan trying to find her, and Henrik Ibsen is in Norway attempting to write Hedda Gabler, as Strindberg taunts him. A hilarious and savage journey to freedom.

"That's my robot heart beating itself to death inside my rock hard torso-tron."

CHARACTERS to cast

RICK GORDON / HANS ROBOT - male, early 30's - early 40's, weak but not dumb, normal in a frustrating way. Jane's husband. ROBOT: tall, glowing, muscular, articulate.

CUBBY GORDON / BILLY ROBOT - male, mid 20's - late 30's, figuratively or literally mustachioed, wears rings. Rick's brother. ROBOT: junky, visible rust, stop-start way of speaking.

MRS. IBSEN / AUNT JULIE-BOT - female, late 30's - early 50's, a pistol-whip, not to be reckoned with. ROBOT: wears a big tacky hat.

NUGGET GORDON - female, ten years old, freakishly brilliant. Jane's daughter

FILM STUDENT - male, just barely 20, in over his head. Pimples.

AUGUST STRINDBERG - male, early 30's - late 40's, sexy, sexual, if Sweden had cowboys.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Wimberley Players, September 24 - October 17

The charming musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers now playing on weekends at the Wimberley Players' stage makes me think of the waggish definition of a "theatre classic": something that's really good but that no one does any more.

Director Lee Colée Atnip has been working since February with members of this cast of 37, and that preparation pays off. Both the players and the members of the preview audience last week were having a tremendous time with this frontier tale.

The cast performs the show to recorded musical accompaniment, which provides players less discretion than with a live orchestra and musical director. But with that many performers packed in the wings, the Players would've had nowhere to put live musicians. The choreography is vigorously entertaining, especially for the town social that winds up in a comic brawl.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has an MGM brightness to it, which should not surprise, because that's where it came from.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The ALT Guide to Austin Stages (a work in progress)

Austin, Texas, offers you an astonishing variety of locally produced narrative theatre, often with imaginative stagings and almost always with affordable tickets. This guide is a companion to the Austin Theatre Calendar, which lists stage productions for the upcoming two months. This Guide aims at helping you choose theatre companies that are easily accessible and fit your tastes -- and tells you about tickets, ticket prices, theatre venues, parking and public transportation.

Listings are alphabetical. ALT offers comments about each company or venue and welcomes any comments or clarifications from readers. Each listing includes a link to the company's website and a link to a Google map of the venue.

Click to go to the ALT Guide to Austin Stages (a work in progress)

Arts Reporting: Lloyd Webber Prepares A New Version of 'Oz' and the Telegraph (UK) Explores Its Perennial Appeal

Found on-line via artsbeat@ARTSJOURNAL.com:

Wizard of Oz: Why is Andrew Lloyd Webber setting out on the Yellow Brick Road?

William Langley explores the perennial appeal of L Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz.

The Telegraph, UK

Published: 6:35PM BST 25 Sep 2010

Looked at closely enough, even the greatest showbusiness masterpieces have their flaws. But happily, most of them are nothing the good Lord Lloyd-Webber can't fix.

"The fact is that The Wizard of Oz has never really worked in the theatre," declares the West End maestro. "The film has one or two holes where you really need a song. For instance, there's nothing for either of the two witches to sing."

Next year, therefore, Lloyd Webber's souped-up, enhanced-witch-deployment version will hit the stage – starring Michael Crawford, it was announced last week, alongside 18-year-old Danielle Hope, winner of the BBC talent show Over The Rainbow.

But will it be better? Worse? Or just different? For more than 70 years, the original film version of L Frank Baum's children's story has stood as such a monument to wholesomeness and innocence that hardly anyone remembers what a nightmare it was to make, or the toll it took on its participants.

Judy Garland, barely 16 when she landed the role of Dorothy, went on to a life of scarcely relieved hell, marrying five times, sinking into debt and depression, and dying, aged 47, from an overdose of barbiturates. Popular song-and-dance man Buddy Ebsen, originally cast as the Tin Man, nearly died after inhaling aluminium powder from his costume and woke up in hospital to be handed a bunch of flowers by producer Mervyn LeRoy and told: "By the way, you're fired." On Palm Sunday in 1962, Clara Blandick, who played lovely Auntie Em, returned home alone from church, laid out the awards, mementos and photographs from her career in her bedroom, put a gold blanket over her shoulders, and tied a plastic bag around her head. Even Toto the dog had a nervous breakdown.

And it wasn't as if the film was an immediate success. [ . . .]

Read more at the Telegraph newspaper, UK . . . .

Auditions for Austin Shakespeare's 2010-2011 Season

Found on-line at www.AustinActors.net:

Auditions for Austin Shakespeare for the season
Sat. Oct. 10, 2010 1 pm- 4 pm
Creative Alliance studio, 701 Tillery St.
Including Actors Equity contracts under SPT 1

2 men needed for a new stage adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Anthem in a NEW adaptation by Jeff Britting,
Performances at the Long Center: Thursday, Jan. 19 - Sunday, Jan. 23
Rehearsals begin Sun. Jan. 2
Directed by Ann Ciccolella

4 women; 7 men George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman
Performances at the Long Center: Thursday, Feb 17 - Sunday, March 6
Rehearsals begin Sun. Jan 23
Directed by Ann Ciccolella

2 women/10 men Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost
Performances at the Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park : Thursday, April 29 - Sunday, May 22
Rehearsals begin Sun. April 3
Directed by Robert Faires

TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT TIME: auditions@austinshakespeare.org

NOTE: Austin Shakespeare warmly encourages actors of all ethnic/racial backgrounds to audition.

Auditioners are asked to prepare a 1- 2 min speech from any classic or Shakespeare play, including Love’s Labour’s Lost or Man and Superman or Anthem. The piece may be memorized or read, but actors should be thoroughly familiar with the text. All roles are open. For more info on plot and cast breakdown see www.austinshakespeare.org

Contact: Austin Shakespeare auditions@austinshakespeare.org
Website: www.austinshakespeare.org

Hamlet, Scottish Rite Theatre, September 16 - October 3

Those lustrous eyes, that bony frame, that complexion sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought -- many of us believe that Justin Scalise was born to play Hamlet.

He has certainly trained for Shakespeare and for this role, in New Orleans, in England, and for the past three years in Austin. We have seen him as Bottom, Feste, Adam & Silvius, Don John, Mercutio and Lucio. And even Hamlet, freeze-dried, for Austin Shakespeare's 2008 and 2009 World's Fastest Hamlet.

This Hamlet drected by Andrew Matthews for the Scottish Rite Theatre is a keen, intelligent, entertaining and gripping production. Scalise has the principal role but this evening offers much more than just an outing for his fan club.

This cast knows how to speak the speech. Babs George as Gertrude, Harvey Guion as Claudius, Robert Deike as a whole suite of ordinaries, Brock England as Horatio, Chuck Ney as Polonius. . . the verse comes trippingly on those tongues. It's a thrill to hear it delivered articulately, with convincing scansion and appropriate targeting and emotion. The action is swift but unerringly certain. There are moments when one would like to see a bubble of silence as a character reflects or absorbs the meaning of something just said. But anyone who has studied the play, read it or seen any other version of Hamlet will follow the players all the way and will be on the edge of his seat.

Matthews has put them into contemporary costume but does not burden the play with unnecessary concept or gimmickry. No telephoning in performances, no AK-47s, no roller skates or cowboy hats. The familiar, haunting action develops immediately before us in the intimacy of the Scottish Rite Theatre, using a minimum of portable furniture placed as needed before various of its intricate trompe-l'oeuil 19th century painted backdrops. The striking, appropriate music before the play is recorded.

In this version, the play's the thing.

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

Rent, Zach Theatre, September 16 - October 31

Rent is the sort of production the Zach theatre uses to pay the rent: the staging of a familiar rock and roll work with appeal for the young, for the young professionals, for the creatives and for the club goers. Seen as daring at its 1996 debut, Rent has become sufficiently mainstream that it can be staged in community theatres, summer theatres, and, this past February, even by the kidsActing studio here in Austin.

Director Dave Steakley gets a powerhouse performance from a cast consisting redundantly of "local Austin artists."

You just can't help being seduced by the spotlight numbers in this show: winsome Andrew Cannata and Kristen Bennett doing the wickedly funny Tango Maureen, the irrepressibly strutting Joshua Denning as Angel the drag queen extraordinaire in the damn-your-eyes-love-me glitzy Today 4 U (Tomorrow 4 Me), and Ginger Leigh's leering, laughing physicality in the trippy story about the cow that jumped Over the Moon.

Multi-talented Jonathan Larson did book, music and lyrics for a story that he based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, the elegantly sentimental 1896 opera portraying a bunch of down and art artists in Paris and the doomed romance between a writer and Mimi, the street waif who dies of tuberculosis in the last act.

Puccini's work has been called the most popular opera of all time, and Larson's use of it is a savagely ironic premise. No doubt all those affluent parents in Scarsdale and similar well-trimmed suburbs (West Lake Hills, for example, or Lakeway) had the cash and leisure to buy opera tickets, as their neglected children grew up unguided and then slipped off to the grim-smeared once-upon-a-time low-rent districts of the Bowery.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

GLITCH??: Free Night of Theatre 2010, Tickets available on-line from 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 28

Found on-line:

UPDATE and ALT comment: "What we have here is a failure to communicate. . . .":

On its website today the Greater Austin Creative Alliance cheerfully explains that the only sold-out tickets for the Free Night of Theatre so far are those for the events for this coming weekend (11 listings). GACA says that because in previous years some lucky ticket holders forgot about the show dates later in the month, the organization has decided to release the remaining tickets (50 listings by ALT's count) week by week, making them available on the Tuesdays beforehand. Just sign up on the site's "stand-by list," which is not a stand-by list at all but rather a list-serve that will remind you that Tuesday is coming around again. More tickets/opportunities will be added during the month.

There is no acknowledgment that the national web site does not mention GACA'S change in procedures. And there's no evident sensitivity to the fact that misleading prospective audiences with your marketing is one of the quickest ways in the world to motivate them to stay home in front of the television with their feet up .

UPDATE/AFTER ACTION REPORT:

just received:

ChrisNAustin has left a new comment on your post "Upcoming: Free Night of Theatre 2010, Tickets avai...":

What a joke!!! How at 11:01 are everyone one of these events "Sold Out"? Obviously they were available to someone prior to 11am, Tuesday September 28th as advertised here. Utterly dissappointing.

Posted by ChrisNAustin to Austin Live Theatre at September 28, 2010 11:08 AM

AustinLiveTheatre checked and can confirm that every item on the lengthy list for Austin is designated SOLD OUT. ALT forwarded Chris's comment to the info e-mail at the Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

Free Night of Theater 2010

during October

presented by Greater Austin Creative Alliance (GACA) at multiple locations

ALT note: beginning at 11 a.m., Tuesday, September 28 you can reserve two free tickets for shows listed for Austin at the Theatre Communication Group's Free Night of Theatre website (click to go there).

Performances occur during the period October 1-October 31, 2010.

Listed as of Thursday, September 23:

The New Movement Theatre (21 performances)

The Georgetown Palace (6 dates for Cinderella by Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Paradox Players, Unitarian Universalist Church (2 dates for Incorruptible)

Zach Theatre (2 matinees for Rent)

UT (1 Sunday matinee for The Fantasticks)

Southwestern University (1 listing for a Thursday performance of The Man Who Came to Dinner by Kauffman and Hart)

The Vortex Repertory (1 Sunday evening listing for Vampyress)

Tapestry Dance Company (a Saturday matinee and evening for Voices of Rhythm)

(GACA's listing indicates that more productions will be added to the list.)

The GACA pitch:

Enjoy free tickets to events at theaters and galleries across Austin all this month! A national program of Theatre Communicatios Group, Free Night is presented locally by Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

The program was developed to make the experience of live performance available to people who may not have ever seen live theater, dance, music. We encourage you to use this opportunity to visit theaters or see events you have not seen before. Do encourage others to use this opportunity as well.

We thank all the arts organizations in Austin that make these offers available to you this year:

Austin Chamber Music Center; Austin Community College Department of Drama; Austin Film Society; The Baron's Men; Coldtowne Theatre; Georgetown Palace Theatre; Paradox Players; Sight Ain't Seen Productions' Tapestry Dance Company; The Hideout Theatre; The Long Cneter for the Performing Arts; The New Movement Theatre; University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance; Vortex Repertory Companuy; Weird City Theatre; Zach

YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR FREE NIGHT TICKETS ONLINE AT THE TCG LINK.

Since its inception in 2005, Free Night of Theater has boosted awareness of the nations arts organizations, while building new audiences and driving single ticket sales. Continuing in this tradition, Free Night 2010 will seek out new audiences, invite current theatergoers and arts patrons to try a new theater or arts venue, as well as ignite interest and create awareness about the variety of arts options in Austin and across the country. In 2009 Free Night of Theater celebrated its 5th anniversary in over 120 cities from coast to coast with 714 arts organizations offering over 65,000 tickets to more than 2,000 performances across the nation! Free Night of Theater 2010 will kick-off nation wide on October 14th. Tickets will be offered between October 1 and October 31

The Tempest, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, September 9 - 26

Prospero's kingdom is an enchanted isle, suggested by the wide circle marked out on the floor of the Rollins Theatre. As did Shakespeare, Ann Ciccolella invites the audience to create that world by participating with their imaginations. The scenery is minimal -- little more than towering dark blue flats at the back of the playing area, an unassuming balcony or elevation at stage right, rear, and a couple of rickety bushes on platforms pushed onstage as needed.

One needs little more than that, augmented by the rich suggestiveness of Jason Amato's lighting. The dense artificial haze generated as the play begins is superfluous and somewhat distracting.

The waves of the opening tempest are evoked by the stage hands holding long, wide muslim bands across the playing area downstage and deepstage, raising and agitating them so that their billows suggest the increasing fury of the storm. The crew despairs of salvation, the members of the noble retinue returning to Naples from Carthage are aghast. Above them on the island's lookout, gentle Miranda and her father Prospero look on.

The Tempest was probably Shakespeare's last work, and it's easy to interpret it as his farewell to the stage. A studious magician in a magic isle is wrapping up loose ends -- preparing to renounce his magic and to drown his books, righting wrongs done against himself and his daughter, rebuking the guilty and preparing to leave and to reassume his dukedom. Prospero's a man of wisdom, a master of the isle and the spirits upon it, endowed with powers sufficient to command the elements. Many an actor plays him with sweep and rhetoric and high authority, like Charleston Heston doing Moses in the Ten Commandments.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Opinion: Kirk R. Tuck on Contributing Photography Services to a Non-Profit Theatre

From Kirk R. Tuck's blog "Visual Science Lab," September 18:

Just thinking about the role of photography in branding and marketing non-profits.

I recently had reason to pause and reflect on my relationship with a non-profit theater that I do a lot of work with. A fair amount of the work is done as a donation. . . .[Sometimes] I calculate the benefits and detractions of donating the work I do.

In the plus column are many things:

1. The actors don't make a lot of money and put a tremendous amount of time, talent and heart into each performance of each play.

2. I generally work without impediment or undue direction when I'm shooting a dress rehearsal or similar project. When we work on a bigger project, like a season brochure, the collaboration is generally friendly and intelligent.

3. The sets and stage lighting are very competent which gives all of my reportage style photos a big head start.

4. We've won numerous ad industry awards and have been published in many theater publications.

5. Everything I produce has a big credit line adjacent.

6. In theory, I get all the comp tickets I would ever want for every show.

7. Every year I have the option of getting the entire house for a private show. I've generally chosen their superb holiday production of David Sedaris's, Santaland Diaries, and it's been fun to ring in the holidays with 150 of your best clients and dear friends with a first class, classic comedy.

8. I get to try out the latest gear in highly complex situations without the fear that momentary failure will end my career. That means I get to take more risks and really come to understand the capabilities of the equipment I'll be pressing into service for national advertising clients.

[9.] There is, of course, the benefit of hundreds of thousands of advertising impressions of some of my best work. Delivered to the best household demographics in the best market in the entire southwestern United States, with my credit adjacent to every image.. And,

10. I really, really enjoy the live theater ethos.

[. . . .]

Is it all worth it? Is it worth my time? It's hard to say. [. . . ] [I]t's a big and complicated calculus. An intertwined and conflicting matrix. But in the end the fact that I've been doing this work for nearly 18 years provides the real answer. I love it and I'd be sad to abandon it. I do it for the images and for the actors. And the actors do it because they love their craft. Nobody is getting rich here but in many ways the impact in the community is both contagious and worthwhile. And isn't that what art is all about? Doesn't real art explain what it is to be human?

What sweet power to be the visual translator of a rich, rich creative community......

Read full posting at Kirk R. Tuck's Visual Science Lab. . . .

it's a big and complicated calculus. An intertwined and conflicting matrix. But in the end the fact that I've been doing this work for nearly 18 years provides the real answer. I love it and I'd be sad to abandon it. I do it for the images and for the actors. And the actors do it because they love their craft. Nobody is getting rich here but in many ways the impact in the community is both contagious and worthwhile. And isn't that what art is all about? Doesn't real art explain what it is to be human?

Arts Reporting: Paramount Theatre Selected for $25,000 grant by National Trust for Historic Preservation

Published at Preservation Nation, the blog of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, September 20:

The votes have been counted in the ‘This Place Matters’ Community Challenge and we’re pleased to announce that the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas has won the popular vote – and $25,000. Runners up in the month-long online competition were the Tinker Cottage Museum in Illinois; the Pemberville Opera House in Ohio; the Ohio Theatre in Madison, IN; and the Mead Building in Yankton, SD.

While only the Paramount Theater won a cash award, many participating organizations reported that the very process of participating in the Challenge elevated community awareness for their historic projects and even uncovered new volunteers and supporters.

After September 21, voters will be encouraged to return to the This Place Matters website to ‘vote with their pocketbooks’ by making donations to their favorite project. 100% of funds collected on the This Place Matters site will be passed to the individual organizations.

(Click for background and for September 20 response from the theaters' management, September 20)

The announcement came shortly after the following e-mailed appeal on September 7 from Ken Stein,Executive Director for the Paramount and State Theatres:

I need your help while we keep the Paramount open during some significant plumping repairs occurring at the Theatre. If you have already made a donation in support of this project, I can’t thank you enough - but, read on for an update on how we are using your contribution.

The plumbing project I wrote you about a couple weeks ago has grown in scale and, therefore, more than doubled in cost.

Make a donation to ensure that the Paramount Theatre remains open while significant repairs are being completed.

To access pipes that are nearly 100 years old, a tunnel is being dug about 5 ½ feet under the Paramount’s lobby. It will extend the entire length from the north ground floor men’s lounge to the alley. The tunnel is being dug deep to ensure that the integrity of the historic interior remains undisturbed.

The expanded scope of the project is estimated to now cost the Paramount between $40,000 and $50,000. Your donation will go directly toward covering the cost of these much needed and immediate repairs.

Just like an old house, the Paramount Theatre requires a little extra TLC. Unforeseen repairs such as these occur in a 1915 building and that is why I need your help.

During this time, all of our regular programming is going on as scheduled. I’ll make sure to continue to keep you updated with photos and information on this important project.

Make a donation at this critical time and keep the Paramount Theatre in tip-top shape for the community for generations to come.

With sincere appreciation,

Ken A. Stein, Executive Director
The Paramount & State Theatres

PS. In honor of our Summer Classic Film Series, make a donation of $250 or more and receive your choice of DVD - Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) or The Money Pit (1986).

Book Recommendation: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare by James Shapiro (courtesy of the Ransom Center and Penelope Lively)

In its "Cultural Compass" blog entry of September 21, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas passes along the responses of its prominent supporters to the invitation, "Name the book of the decade."

Novelist Penelope Lively, whose archive resides at the Ransom Center, responded,

I like books that leave me better informed, that surprise me, that change my view. James Shapiro's 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare did all that. I suppose that I held—vaguely—the Coleridgean view that Shakespeare transcends his age "as if of another planet." Shapiro demonstrates with elegance and authority how the work of that year—Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, first draft of Hamlet—sprang directly from the action and the anxieties of the age: the war in Ireland, the fear of the Spanish, the question of the succession, and the possibility of Elizabeth's assassination.

[1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro, Harper Collins, Harper Perennial Library, 2005, ISBN 978-0060088743]

The Imaginary Invalid by Molière and David Chambers, Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, September 16 - 26

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin would not have objected at all to this re-do of his 1673 farce. He wrote The Imaginary Invalid in rapid-fire prose, using verse only for comic ballets at the intervals (omitted in this staging). David Chambers' translation/interpretation of the piece follows the action faithfully, although often with slangy word choices. Between them, Chambers and director David Long apply a clownification of the characters and a Borscht Belt leer not obvious in the original texts.

David Long has a good time, sending the characters zinging along. Some of his direction recalled those presentational techniques he used last year for bobrauschenbergamerica -- marking soliloquies and the young lovers' mock operetta with rapid, showy shifts of lighting, for example.

Argan, the title character played with fine finicky flair by veteran actor Richard Robichaux, is a rich hypochondriac with two daughters. Their mother passed away and Argan remarried -- to an effusive gold digger determined to persuade him to deed his property to her. Chambers renders this character -- Béline in the original -- as "Nastya," played by the charming Jill Blackwood with a patently fake Russian accent. Argan is determined to marry off his elder daughter Angelina (Michelle Elisabeth Brandt) to a physician so that he'll have free medical care, but she has already fallen in love with another (Cléanthe, played by Jon Wayne Martin).

Robichaux has lots of grumpy one-liners, mostly insults. His perpetual antagonist is Toinette, the servant, but he also gets into it with physician Thomas Diablo (Robert Faires), with Cléanthe, and with his brother (also played by Faires). In contrast and to our great amusement, the hypochondriac goes all goo-goo eyes with wife Nastya and gets entirely panicked by the rages of his principal physician Dr. Defecato (Meredith Montgomery).

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

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. . . .

Upcoming: Nevermore, Jeffrey Combs' portrayal of Edgar Allan Poe, Alamo Drafthouse, October 1 & 2

Received directly:

The Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest presentJeffrey Combs as Edgar Allan Poe in

Nevermore

an evening with Edgar Allan Poe

prose, poetry and perversion

directed by Stuart Gordon at Fantastic Fest, September 29, 6:15 p.m. & September 30, 7 p.m.
open to the public October 1 & 2, 7 p.m.
Alamo Drafthouse South, 1120 South Lamar

Director Stuart Gordon and Star Jeffrey Combs Live in Person!

"...a must-see for anyone interested in tales of horror and the supernatural."- metromix

"GO ...a gorgeous rendition of a tragic clown whose heart has been cleaved open by loss and regret... beautifully directed by Stuart Gordon" - LA Weekly

From Tim League at Fantastic Fest: "Dennis Paoli wrote the play, using a compilation of historical accounts, actual monologues, articles, letters and Poe's own words to construct the definitive portrait of American's most famous macabre poet. The play ran for months in Los Angeles and received unanimously glowing reviews. When I saw the show in November, we immediately invited Jeffrey Combs and director Stuart Gordon to come to Austin for this year's Fantastic Fest. Although not a film, NEVERMORE was the very first show booked for this year's festival. We will have 2 screenings open to Fantastic Fest badge holders with additional screenings available to the general public."

Director Stuart Gordon's description of the show: "NEVERMORE is our attempt to recreate the public recitals that Edgar Allan Poe presented during the last few years of his much-too-short life. Set in 1848, a year after the death of his beloved wife Virginia (and a year before his own), Poe had become internationally famous as the author of 'The Raven' and his 'Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.' But his fame did not provide fortune and so he was constantly seeking financial security and respect from the literary establishment. As a Southerner by breeding, raised in Virginia, he was looked down upon by the New England-based writers of the time, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, and Edgar’s arch-nemesis Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"This is Poe in his own words. Our text is taken from his letters and essays and we have based our evening on reviews and reports of his actual appearances. Our goal is to present a sense of the fascinating man behind the poetry and brilliant tales, a man who could be his own worst enemy, and whose life was even more bizarre and tragic than his strangest story."

Click 'Read more' for a review and for a 4 min. video interview with actor Jeffrey Combs and director Stuart Gordon, posted by Backstage Magazine