presents
Cloud 9
by Caryl Churchill
directed by Stacey Connelly
April 13 - 15, 18 - 21
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.
Stieren Theatre, Ruth Taylor Theatre Building (#3 and #3A), Trinity University, San Antonio (click for campus map; click for Google area map)
Tickets Regular: $10, Seniors/Faculty/Alumni: $8, Students: $6 CASH, CHECK, OR TIGER BUCKS ONLY!
To reserve tickets call (210) 999-8515 or email tutheater@trinity.edu
Trinity University
presents
In Development
a musical by James Jarrott
directed by James Jarrot and Alison Kochman
April 2 - 4, 7 p.m. free admission
Attic Theatre, Taylor Fine Arts Bldg (#3 and #3A) Trinity University, San Antonio (click for campus map; click for Google map)
From City Theatre, Pittsburgh, where Tigers Be Still is about to open: "Depression has never been funnier! Sherry’s art therapy degree didn’t launch her dream career, so she moved back into her childhood bedroom. Her mom won’t come downstairs. Her sister won’t leave the couch. Her very first patient won’t stick around for a session. Her boss brings a rifle to work. And an escaped tiger roams the streets … but Sherry’s life is looking up. Variety commends Rosenstock’s “clever comic dialogue in a voice that is too smart to be cute.”
On March 28 ATP organizers announced their season through 2013, featuring The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, the musical Baby, Love Letters, Avenue Q, Edges - A Song Cycle, The House of Yes, Falsettos, and the 2013 Austin Holiday Project. They also discussed with Lisa Scheps the origins of their new initiative. Click below to listen to them on KOOP-FM's 'Off Stage and On the Air.' (9 minutes)
presents
Looking in The Wrong Direction
by Bianca Emery
April 6 and 7, 7:30 p.m.
Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road (click for map)
Tickets $20 available via BE Entertainment website
or telephone 1-800-917-8024
When You Take Your Eyes Off Of God and Focus On Other Things You Begin to Start Looking in the Wrong Direction. That is the pivotal message that comes from the New & Exciting Gospel & Inspirational Stage Play Looking in the Wrong Direction, Co-Produced by BE Entertainment & Productions & Beacon Multi-Media Entertainment and Productions. As well as Written and Directed by Bianca Emery. Comedy and Drama is the perfect combination for Entertainment. This is a play that you don't want to miss.
presents
Inherit the Wind
May 10 - June June 3
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.
City Theatre, 3823 Airport Road at 31 1/2 St. (behind the Shell Station) (click for map)
Go to City Theatre website for ticket information and reservations
One of the greatest plays of the twentieth century inspired by the famous 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial.” When a young teacher is arrested for teaching Darwin's Origin of the Species, the small southern town becomes the focus of the entire nation. Evolution and Creationism go head to head in one of the most momentous and groundbreaking courtroom battles in history. With a stellar cast including Laura Ray, Gil Austin, Andy Brown, Tony Salinas, Steve Wright, Ellen Massey, Vincent Doenges, Sam Damon and Scot Friedman.
presents
PATTERN NATION: WAVES
by Andrew Perry
May 10 - 15
Rollins Theatre, Long Center, Riverside Drive at South First (click for map)
Based on the very popular series of plays produced by Pollyanna written by Emily Cicchini, this new play is based on the popular concepts and characters that were first seen on Pollyanna’s stage five years ago. Designed to support important pre-literacy skills needed for learning success among pre-school children, PATTERN NATION: WAVES will explore the colorful world of waves. Great for elementary school children of all ages, PATTERN NATION: WAVES will be most enjoyed by students in pre-K, Kinder, and grades 1 & 2.
May 10 @ 11 am
May 11 @ 9:30, 11:30 am & 1 pm
May 12 @ 11 am, 2 & 4 pm
May 13 @ 2 pm (followed by a “PAY WHAT YOU LIKE” party in the AT&T Education Room)
May 14 NO PERFORMANCES
May 15 @ 9:30 & 11:30 am
For Reservations and information: 512-743-7966 or at judy@pollytheatre.org
Group Rates for School Audiences
Tickets between $3.00 – $5.00
Public Ticket Prices for Weekend Performances
$7.25 for children under 12
$8.25 for students 12-18, seniors, & Austin Creative Alliance members
$9.25 for adults
The Small Business Development Program's 5th annual free small business resource fair gathers dozens of local organizations that help business owners succeed. We provide the rare opportunity to meet, network, and learn from these organizations under one roof. Don't forget to register for free classes offered during the fair!
Free parking
Overview sessions
Click to register for the 3:15 p.m. session
Click to register for the 5:45 p.m. session
Panel Discussion
Putting Creative Projects in the Profit Margin, 4:30 p.m.
Click to register to attend panel discussion
Click Here for Event Details and Free Class Registration
Scriptworks and the Hyde Park Theatre
present a staged reading of
The Way of the Water
by Caridad Svich
Tuesday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. at Guadalupe (click for map)
Austin selected for reading of award-winning playwright's work marking two-year anniversary of Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill
Austin, along with several cities throughout the US and abroad will be the site of a multi-organization play reading of 2011 ATCA Francesca Primus Prize winning playwright Caridad Svich’s new play The Way of Water, marking the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill on Tuesday, April 3rd at Hyde Park Theatre at 511 W. 43rd Street. The reading is presented by Scriptworks and Hyde Park Theatre.
The project is spearheaded by the NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press, based out of Arizona, an unincorporated collective dedicated to the advocacy, production and publication of works expressive of cross-cultural and aesthetic diversity in the arts.
The Way of Water is a four character, two-act play that focuses on poverty in America and the devastation of the ongoing health and environmental crisis in the US Gulf region. The play was developed at the 2011 Winter Writers’ Retreat at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, after Svich’s extensive research.
The play, which deals with the aftermath of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects on human health and the environment in the US Gulf region, is being made available for local presentations during the month of April to mark the two-year anniversary of the spill and increase awareness of environmental concerns.
Among the theaters that will be presenting the play are American Stage Theatre Company in St. Petersburg, FL; ScriptWorks and Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX; California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA; Cornell University’s Teatrotaller and Theatre Incognita in Ithaca, NY; EAST LA REP in Los Angeles, CA; Emerson College & Atomic Age Theater Company in Boston, MA; ion theatre company in San Diego, CA; Main Street Theatre in Houston, TX; Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe, NM; Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque, NM; internationally at Aberystwyth University in Wales/UK, Leeds University Workshop Theatre and Rose Bruford College in England/UK, and Pat the Dog in Ontario, Canada, and venues in Berlin, Sao Paolo, Australia and Turkey, and more than twenty US universities including Carnegie Mellon and UC-Davis. Additional presenting venues will be announced in the near future.
Caridad Svich’s other plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia…a rave fable, and The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende. The dramaturgy team for the international reading scheme for The Way of Water are Philadelphia-based dramaturge Heather Helinsky and New York City-based dramatist & dramaturge R. Alex Davis. The play’s premiere has not yet been announced.
For more information about Caridad Svich’s The Way of Water, visit http://www.nopassport.org/thewayofthewater
About NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press
presents
The Sword and the Stone
by T.H. White
Like You've Never Seen It Before!
adapted and directed by Madge Darlington and Susan Gayle Todd
Saturdays and Sundays April 1, 7, 8, 15, 21 & 22
Scottish Rite Theatre,207 W. 18th St. at Lavaca (click for map)
Tickets $7.72 for children, $9.79 for adults (service fee included) available through
Arthur is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for Wart beyond mere squiredom. A vibrant new production
The Center for Women's and Gender Studies 19th Annual Graduate Student Conference
is honored to present Zell Miller III
in
The Evidence of Silence Broken
as our Keynote Performance at
8 p.m. on Thursday, March 29
at the Oscar Brockett Theatre
on the University of Texas at Austin campus.(click for map)
Admission to the performance is free for all registered conference attendees and participants. While registered conference presenters and attendees automatically have a seat reserved for them, there is a good number of additional seats available; please visit http://utwgsconference.eventbrite.com/ to reserve your free ticket. If you require any accommodations to participate in this event, please contact Tynisha Scott at <tynishascott [AT] utexas.edu>.
The performance will be followed by a conversation with featured discussants Maya Berry, Candace López, Dr. Meta DuEwa Jones, and Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones.
Artistic Director of The Cipher and Co-Artistic Director of UpRise! Productions Zell Milller III has won numerous awards for his work as an interdisciplinary theatre artist, poet, and youth counselor, teacher, and mentor. Miller directed the recent critically acclaimed production of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (UpRise! Productions) at The Vortex. He also directed the Xenogia Spoken Word Collective inThe Art of Verse, the latest in a long list of his works to earn the title of Best of Fest for the FronteraFest Short Fringe. He has worked with legendary theatre artists and poets such as sharon bridgforth, Daniel Alexander Jones, and Laurie Carlos, and he has been featured at poetry and theatre venues across the U.S. including the renowned Penumbra Theatre Company in Minnesota. C. Denby Swanson of The Austin Chronicle referred to Miller as "an incendiary device waiting to explode."
The Evidence of Silence Broken was developed through a workshop at Austin's Hyde Park Theatre and premiered at the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis in 2003 where it was voted Most Outstanding Theatrical Event 2003 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Miller brought the piece back to the Hyde Park Theatre in 2005 before it was published in the first anthology of Hip-Hop Theatre, Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy (TCG 2009).
The Oscar Brockett Theatre is located in the Winship Drama Building on the University of Texas at Austin campus at the corner of 23rd and San Jacinto and across the street from the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Parking is available along San Jacinto, Red River, and Dean Keeton; there are also parking garages located on San Jacinto and Manor. For more information about parking on campus, please visit http://www.utexas.edu/maps/index.html. For more information about UT Shuttle routes serving this area, please visit http://www.utexas.edu/parking/transportation/shuttle/index.php. And for information about Capitol Metro buses serving this area, please visit http://www.capmetro.org/.
The Center for Women's and Gender Studies 19th Annual Graduate Student Conference and this Keynote Performance have been made possible through generous funding and support from the Department of Theatre & Dance and their Performance as Public Practice program, Asian Studies, the College of Liberal Arts, Comparative Literature, the Division of Diversity & Community Engagement, Economics, the Embry Women's Human Rights Initiative, the Department of English, the Gender & sexuality Center, the Graduate Student Assembly, the Rapport Center for Human Rights and Justice, the School of Social Work, the Department of Spanish & Portugese, and the VP for Student Affairs.
Auditions for this year's show Alice in Wonderland are scheduled for Saturday, May 5 from 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. at the Boyd Vance Theatre in the George Washington Carver Museum. The museum and theatre are located at 1165 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702, which will also be the location of the performances. (click for map)
Note: Our cast consists of individuals who are graduating high school seniors and older who volunteer their time to be a part of this wonderful experience.
Please call 217-4911 to set up an appointment (walk-ins also accepted). Actors missing more than 2 rehearsals should expect to be dismissed with regrets from the cast due to the limited rehearsal schedule and our desire for a wonderful show.
The Austin Summer Musical For Children is celebrating 25 years of performing free children's musical theatre by entertaining delighted children and their families with familiar stories, catchy music, lively choreography, and colorful costumes. The cast interacts with the audience during the performances and in the autograph line to provide the children with maximum exposure to live characters. With a cast of 12, the ensemble provides wonderful family fun for the Austin community.
We would be delighted to provide you with any additional information you might require to join us in this amazing event. Please contact Debbie Touchet, the assistant director, with any questions: dtouchet@swbell.net or 217-4911.
For more information on the stage crew rehearsal schedule and performances, contact Jennifer Dormer - info@summermusical.com
The Austin Summer Musical For Children is celebrating 25 years of performing free children's musical theatre by entertaining delighted children and their families with familiar stories, catchy music, lively choreography, and colorful costumes. The cast interacts with the audience during the performances and in the autograph line to provide the children with maximum exposure to live characters.
in San Antonio
presents
The Fantasticks
May 11 - 27
at the Josephine Theatre, 339 W Josephine, San Antonio, Texas, 78212 (click for map)
Times: Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $30.00 Telephone (210) 734-4646
The Fantasticks tells the story of a young man and the girl next door, whose parents have built a wall to keep them apart. The youngsters nevertheless contrive to meet and fall in love. Their parents, meanwhile, are congratulating themselves, for they have erected the wall and staged a feud in order to achieve, by negation, a marriage between their willfully disobedient children.
A narrator sets the imagined scene and, in due time, progresses to the role of professional abductor convincing the giddy youngsters that they are deeply embroiled in a melodramatic encounter in a garden under the moonlight. The evening itself is entirely concerned with the notion that children – of whatever age – cannot fall in love unless their love is forbidden.
No Ties Productions presents
Stevie Taybeck (the musical)
A True Story of a Dead Girl’s Desire for Vengeance
An original play written & directed by William Marshall
Music & lyrics by William Marshall
Mar.29-31, 8 p.m.
Vortex Repertory, 2307 Manor Rd. (click for map)
Tickets: Adults - $18, Students & Seniors - $15
www.vortexrep.org or 512-478-LAVA(5282)
Limited seating. Advanced purchase recommended.
Just about a hundred years ago, I was woken by rough hands pulling me from the warmth and safety of my bed. It was in the early hours of a frigid January morning. I didn't scream. Pa raised me better'n that. Wouldn't have done a lick of good anyway. I wasn't surprised and even if I had been, I wouldn't have given them folks the satisfaction of hearin' my protests.
Mrs. Wagoner donated the rope and Reverend Jamison tied the knot. It's been told, and rightly so, that I spit directly in that man's eye and wished him a bumpy ride to hell in language not suitable for this post. When Billy Thurston, deputy sheriff at the time, hefted me onto the back of his old mare, I got a hold of his right ear and came away with a goodly piece of it still in my mouth. Shoulda seen the look on that old boy's face. That was a hoot for certain! Ha! He was hoppin', cussin' and screamin' like a little girl when Floyd Martin finally lost all his patience and swatted old Cassie's hindquarters sendin' her trottin' for home. She didn't give one bit a thought to leaving me swingin' and kickin' in the breeze. I reckon she was happy to be shed of the extra weight and be on her way. Weren't nothin' to her.
They say it took a full two minutes before I stopped twitchin'. Them that was there said I cackled right up to when the rope cut it off. Even after the good Father Jamison pronounced me gone to my maker, he swears I had a grin on my face would a given shivers to the devil himself. Billy, missin' a chunk of his ear, and the rest walked away knowin' in their hearts they done the right thing. Yep, every one of 'em was certain for sure that things would be gettin' back to normal real quick like. I guess they was wrong.
You can't put a bad girl down that easy.
Stevie
St. Edward’s University’s Visiting Writers Series will host UT Austin Professor of Playwriting Steven Dietz, in their Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 pm.
Since 1983, Dietz’s thirty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa. His work has been translated into ten languages.
Mr. Dietz joins authors Oscar Casares and Debra Monroe, and poets Marie Howe and Naomi Shihab Nye on the list of celebrated writers that the Visiting Writers Series will be bringing to the St. Edward’s University campus for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Location: Maloney Room, 3rd Floor of the Main Building (at the center of the campus)
St. Edward’s University, 3001 South Congress Ave. (click for campus map)
[photo: Steven Dietz, via University of Texas]
Received from Andy Berkovsky, City Theatre Director and Manager:
SUMMER ACTS! AUSTIN 2012: City Theatre’s two-week summer theatre festival with thirty-six stage performances playing host to emerging new works, original musicals, theatre on the edge, hard-hitting dramas, original comedy projects and much more. WE WANT YOUR SHOW!!
When? July 2 - 15, 2012 with shows starting July 5.
Interested in participating? Application and information available on our website – www.citytheatreaustin.org
What do you get? Six performances on the City Theatre stage (3823 Airport Blvd -- click for map) which include use of all light and sound equipment, box office and lounge, an experienced technical and management staff, storage space, free publicity, eligibility for the 2012 Austin B. Iden Payne theatre awards and 100% of the box office!
Festival cost? $700 – a little over $115 per performance. With a $10 admission and twelve people attending, you’ve made your money back. Low, low cost!
As we get closer to the summer theatre frenzy and groups finalizing dates, and venues, City Theatre offers you this invitation to stage a show this July. Performance spots are limited, so if you have any questions, please email or give me a call 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org.
We hope Summer Acts! will prove to be beneficial here in Austin and give organizations and performers the opportunity to continue their craft during the summer months and throughout the year. Be a part of Summer Acts! Austin 2012!
Auditions will be held: Sunday, April 1st from 10am – 5pm, Singers from 2pm - 5pm. Callbacks will be scheduled individually the following weekend: Sunday, April 8th from 10am - 5pm. Please call 512-800 4998 or email andy@skycandyaustin.com to schedule your audition.
Actors: Please come prepared with a 1-3 min monologue performed in poetry form.
Aerialists: Please bring a 3-5 min solo on Lyra, Trapeze, Aerial Straps. We also are looking for aerialists with a great singing ability in the apparatus.
Artists with Special Skills: Please come prepared to show your ability within a 3-5 min window.
Artists with disabilities are also encouraged to audition for a segment about the Paralympics.
All performers should bring a picture and a resume and be prepared to fill out a waiver, release form and questionnaire about your availability over the course of rehearsal and production period.
Show opens July 12th - closes July 27th, one hour before the opening ceremony for the Olympics. There will be an Olympics opening party after the last performance. Rehearsals will start beginning of May for Aerialists and end of May for actors.
hosts East x South East: A Call to Poets and Spoken Word Artists
a Showcase of Verse and Poem
April 11 deadline for all applications
Premier performances April 27 at 12 am - 11:59pm, Channel 10
recorded at channelAustin Studios, 1143 Northwestern Ave., 78702 (click for map)
$15 per submission online -- see on -line information and submission form
follow us on channelAustin.org and on facebook.com/channelAustin.tx
This April East x South East (EXSE) returns to channelAustin. Showcasing poets and spoken word artists, EXSE invites bards of all sorts to submit original work to be considered for broadcast. If selected to participate, performers will receive local exposure during an all-day, twenty-four hours showcase on April 27 in celebration of National Poetry Month.
College circles in the 1980's quickly adopted spoken word poetry, starting a new wave of performance arts--one that is powerful, emotional and definitely not shy. More than just rhyming, spoken word uses prose to express love, humanity, inspiration and worldly views. Acting as a present-day soapbox, spoken word artists embrace frank, unedited, unfiltered and often-taboo subjects--something channelAustin has never shied away from.
"All of us here at channelAustin are excited to mark our sixth year of producing EXSE Spoken Word. Karla Saldaña has done an amazing job working with the poet and spoken word artist community to bring together awareness and appreciation for this cultural homage to National Poetry Month, "Executive Director Linda Litowsky says. "To provide this kind of content to the Austin community makes us especially proud."
EXSE Spoken Word takes place every April as a part of National Poetry Month, dedicated to drawing attention to the importance of artistic expression, free speech and poetry, both of new and old forms. With poetry evolving throughout the years--from Edgar Allen Poe to Maya Angelou to Shel Silverstein--channelAustin gathers spoken word artists who speak to the beat of a different poetic drum when sharing their fresh and innovative words.
Tickets are now on sale for the
Gaslight-Baker Theatre's
2012 Gala
Evening with the Stars
Saturday, April 21, 7-10 p.m.
Tickets are $25
Silent Auction, Dinner, Street Dancing
at the Gaslight Baker, 216 S. Main Street, Lockhart (click for map)
Purchase tickets online at www.MyGBT.org
or contact a Board of Directors member
Come ready to literally "trip the light fantastic" in our first-ever street dance, place your bids on exciting Silent Auction items, take a guided tour backstage of The BAKER theater,and have your picture taken.
South Main Street will be closed off, from Market St. to Prairie Lea St., for dancing, mingling, and dining.>
Come help us celebrate our progress and success in "Bringing the ART to Lockhart."
If you like - Come dressed like a movie star or in your 'going out' finest. Whatever you wear, you will feel like a star at this exciting event.
This is sure to be an evening full of glitz and glitter that will make you happy to be a participant in all the fun!
Playwrights: Colin Denby Swanson, Trey Deason, Aimee Gonzalez, Anne Marie Newsome, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Marshall Maresca, Robert M Barr, Elizabeth Cobbe
Directors: Jason Phelps, Ellie McBride, Lowell Bartholomee, Sharon Sparlin, and Debbie Lynn Carriger
Dramaturgs: Kristen Harrison, Ellie McBride, Debbie Lynn Carriger
Production & Design Team: Christi Moore, Kayla Newman, Cassandra Castillo, Christina Smith, Pam Friday, George Marsolek, Jen Rogers and Robert Fisher
at the University of Texas
presents
Fuddy Meers
by David Lindsay-Abaire
directed by Brooks Naylor and Susannah Morey
March 29, 7pm
March 31, 2pm and 7 pm
April 5 - 7, 7pm
Calhoun Hall 100, South Mall, University of Texas (click for map)
Tickets are $5 at the door. Language may not be suitable for some young children.
As the audience, you will dive into the life of Claire, a young woman who wakes up with no memory of her life whatsoever. In a flash, she is taken away by a half-blind, half-deaf, limping man with a lisp, and whisked into a whirlwind of confusion and revelations! Feast your eyes on a cast of characters that include a sassy lady cop, an old stroke victim, a drug-abusing teenager, a melodramatic MRI technician, and one filthy sock puppet.
In a lengthy Q&A Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Faires draws out Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro about his methods and discoveries about Shakespeare's life, especially during the process of writing 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.
Unraveling Shakespeare's Life
by Robert Faires, Fri. Mar. 23, 2012
Forget cradle to grave; get to know Will just one year at a time
Whether or not you believe William Shakespeare really wrote all those plays, you can probably concede that writing his life story is a challenge all its own. But Columbia professor of English James Shapiro has devised a cunning approach, one he's laid out in his acclaimed history, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.
Austin Chronicle: I've read enough biographies and partial biographies of Shakespeare to know that it's a particularly tricky pursuit. How did you choose which strand to pick up in writing about Shakespeare from a historical or biographical standpoint?
James Shapiro: "Strand" is exactly the right word, and it led me to the idea of unraveling. I even got curious when the word "unraveling" came into use in English. Turns out to have been a Dutch word introduced almost surely by Shakespeare's contemporary playwright, Thomas Dekker, and in Shakespeare's day it had a much stronger meaning than, say, unraveling the sleeve of a sweater. It had the sense of really undoing, and my talk is really about undoing what has been done, untangling various strands.
I've been practicing since 1988 a different kind of biography -- some people call it micro-biography, that sounds too close to micro-beer for me. It's studying a smaller but significant moment in a life. And one of the things that has long struck me is that there are a lot of great writers who had extraordinary moments of creativity or transformative moments in their writing careers and had them fairly early on, like Wordsworth at the beginning of his career and in the wake of the French Revolution, around 1800.
Click for a corrected .doc transcription of this 3250-word text at ALTcom . . . .
It helps to have someone holding your hand when you look over the edge of the precipice. Even if you've always lived alone, felt self sufficient and devoted yourself to the life of the mind.
Margaret Edson's Wit is the portrait of literature professor Vivian Bearing, a devotee of 17th century English literature renowned for her publications on the metaphysical poetry of John Donne. At the age of 50 this scholar has been discovered to be the victim of Stage IV ovarian cancer. Our time with her is spent in the cancer ward, except for brief flashbacks to happy moments - as a child, learning to read; as a graduate student discovering the woman professor who became her mentor; standing authoritatively in front of a class of undergraduates, challenging them to grapple with the conceits of Donne's poetry.
Bearing's thoughts spin as she confronts the unimaginative protocol realities of medicine. She works to remain objective and in intellectual control, occasionally sharing with us a fugue state, sometimes even over the unnerving revelations being delivered by her physicians.
This piece demands a virtuoso performance every night, by a virtuoso performer, and Judith Laird is exactly that. Wit is essentially a monologue with regular lapses into conventional stage representation. The frail, earnest protagonist speaks directly to us as audience, acknowledges our presence and even comments in passing, "I have only two hours here before I die." That ironic confiding in the spectators has a touch of the metaphysical to it, a shadowed reflection of Donne's perspective in the Holy Sonnets written late in his life.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Austin Playhouse and SummerStock Austin are pleased to announce auditions for its co-production, CHESS Saturday, April 7 9am-2pm Where: Carriage House, St. Edward's University We are looking for actors to fill roles and ensemble positions. Actors will be compensated and some Equity Guest contracts may be available. To schedule an appointment: email Michael McKelvey at mmckelvey3@gmail.com.
Austin Playhouse and SummerStockAustin will co-produce the Austin premiere of one of the world's most famous rock musicals, CHESS, composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice. The production will rehearse for two weeks in June and play for a three-week run in July at the Austin Playhouse Tent and then move to the Long Center's Rollins Theatre to conclude the SSA season with a reinforced chorus during the first two weeks of August. The production will be directed by Michael McKelvey with Lara Toner.
Click to view descriptions of roles available at AustinLiveTheatre.com
presents
The Dixie Swim Club
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten
directed by Mary Ellen Butler
April 6 - 29, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Georgetown Palace Theatre, 810 S. Austin Ave. (click for map)
Tickets for reserved seats are available on-line are $24 General Admission, $22 Seniors (55+), $14 Students (13-22) and Active Military, and $10 Children (12 and younger). The Palace office in the lobby of the theatre is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (except for some holiday dates). Purchase tickets and select seating on-line at www.thegeorgetownpalace.org or by calling (512) 869-7469 or (512) 869-5081. (Please call ahead regarding special needs seating.) Visa and Master Card are accepted.
The plot thickens each year in August when the Swim Club members – whose friendships began many years ago on their college swim team – meet for a long weekend in the same beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to recharge their relationships. The Dixie Swim Club focuses on four of those weekends and spans a period of thirty-three years. It is the story of five unforgettable women – a hilarious and touching comedy about friendships that last forever.
This will be a brief sojourn for the five Southern women who make up The Dixie Swim Club: you can catch them at the Palace for only the four weekends in April. These five – each with her own distinctive personality, quirks, and life experiences – are ready to share their stories, not only with each other, but also with you, the audience. Prepare to be charmed, enlightened, and regaled! Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten – who teamed up to write The Dixie Swim Club – knew what they were doing! And our director, Mary Ellen Butler, brings out the best (and worst, when required) in the actors who portray the members of this intriguing club.
Here are the five Southern women who make up The Dixie Swim Club: Sheree Hollinger, played by Jan Phillips, who was last seen at the Palace some years ago as Truvy in Steel Magnolias. Sheree is the practical, supportive, and energetic one of the group! Dinah Grayson, the wise-cracking cynic, is portrayed by Virginia Keeley (in Harvey, The Odd Couple, and other Palace productions). Lexie Richards, played by Trina Sherman, is a true Southern belle! (Trina was in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Evita, among others at the Palace, and writes for our Palace newsletter.) Jeri Neal McFeeley, who always sees the positive side of things, is brought to life by Kat Sparks (a newcomer to the Palace but well-heeled with credits such as her recurring principal role as Patty in The Young & the Restless). And last, but not least, is Vernadette Simms, the hard-luck case of the group. Maureen Slabaugh plays the role of Vernadette, was recently seen in A Christmas Carol at the Palace, and is now teaching a Dance Theatre class for the Palace’s education program. Read the full bios of these five wonderful actors in our Playbill when you come to see The Dixie Swim Club.
Just tweeted by Kara Sanders of Brand New Theatre Company (and re-tweeted by ALT):
