Upcoming: SummerStock Austin Does Legally Blonde, Chess, Frog and Toad at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, July 26 - August 12

 

announces its 8th season featuring

Legally Blonde

Chess (co-produced with Austin Playhouse)

and

A Year with Frog and Toad

July 26-Aug. 12

The Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Riverside at South First (click for map)

Ticket Information: Long Center Box Office at www.longcenter.org or (512) 474-5664. 

LEGALLY BLONDE - July 26-August 12
SSA is very excited to open its season with the Broadway hit musical, LEGALLY BLONDE. Based on the hit movie of the same name, Legally Blonde The Musical is the award-winning Broadway sensation that’s an all singing, all dancing, feel good musical comedy and the highlight of your year.
Elle Woods, Emmett, Warner and even Brewster will all be there. So, pack up your (legal) briefs and join us for this fun-packed production.
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD - July 28-August 12
If you missed it last year, you have another chance. The B. Iden Payne Award-winner of Best Play for Youth and an Austin Chronicle Top 10 pick of 2011 is back as part of our Theatre for All initiative. Join Arnold Lobel’s amphibian friends for a morning of tuneful and heart-warming songs, and a story that tells us that friendships really can last forever.
CHESS - August 2-12
SSA is excited to announce its new sponsor, Austin Playhouse, one of the area’s most respected professional theatres. To celebrate this new partnership, the two companies have collaborated to produce the Austin premiere of the musical, CHESS. The production will feature professional actors, SSA Alumni, as well as members of the SSA company.

Click to view full day-by-day production schedule 

and ticket information at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

SummerStock Austin Second Call for Auditions: Looking forAdditional Male Actor/Singers and Theatre Techs, March 17, 18, 24, 25

Just received from Michael McKelvey:

SummerStock Austin will be holding its final round of auditions this weekend at Ballet Austin. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help spread the word to your students, friends and anyone else who may be interested. The shows: The Austin premiere of LEGALLY BLONDE, a remount of the award-winning A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD, and a co-production with Austin Playhouse and Austin premiere of CHESS. We are really in need of men, stage management and tech personnel. The sign up information is below. Additional time slots will be posted today. If students are unavailable, they can also submit a video audition to us by contacting, mmckelvey3@gmail.com. We also have 5 more paid mentorships for college students.

Thanks for getting the word out there,
Michael

SummerStock Austin is pleased to announce its auditions for its 8th season, which will present productions of the smash-hit musical Legally Blonde, Chess (featuring the music of ABBA) and a remount of our award-winning A Year with Frog and Toad. Upcoming auditions are on Saturday, March 17 (9am-3pm) and Sunday March 18, (9am-3pm), Saturday, March 24 (1:30pm-6:30pm) and Sunday, March 25 (9am-2pm) at Ballet Austin Studios, 501 W 3rd St, Austin, TX 78701 (click for map). *To reserve an audition time and specific information, please go to www.summerstockaustin.org. If you are unavailable on the audition dates, please contact Michael McKelvey at mmckelvey3@gmail.com and he will give you instructions on how to post an audition video.

Seeking College and High School age Performers, Stage Managers and Technicians. Note to College Students: There will be 8-14 paid mentorships available for the season. See our website for mentorship positions and specifics.

What to Prepare: 2 songs (16 bars of a ballad/32 bars of an uptempo. One selection should be in pop/rock style) and a 60-90 second contemporary monologue. There will be a dance call each day.

SSA is a unique theatrical training program, as well as repertory theatre company, that features the talent of college and high school students under the supervision of theatre professionals. This award-winning program is the only one of its kind in the United States and was founded to serve the students of the greater Austin area. This past season, SSA's production of A Year with Frog and Toad was awarded the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Production for Youth and its other two productions, The Producers and Urinetown, were both nominated for Outstanding Musical. We welcome all college and high school students to come out and audition for this one-of-a-kind opportunity.

The SSA rehearsal period runs July 5-26 and the performance season runs July 26-August 12. All performances will be at The Long Center for the Performing Arts. Also, Chess may feature some guest SSA alumni and professional actors.)

For further information or specific questions, please contact Producing Artistic Director Michael McKelvey at mmckelvey3@gmail.com.

Auditions for SummerStock Austin's Legally Blonde, Chess and A Year with Frog and Toad, March 17 - 25

SummerStock Austin is pleased to announce its auditions for its 8th season, which will present productions of the smash-hit musical Legally Blonde, Chess (featuring the music of ABBA) and a remount of our award-winning A Year with Frog and Toad.




SSA is a unique theatrical training program, as well as repertory theatre company, that features the talent of college and high school students under the supervision of theatre professionals. This award-winning program is the only one of its kind in the United States and was founded to serve the students of the greater Austin area. This past season, SSA's production of A Year with Frog and Toad was awarded the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Production for Youth and its other two productions, The Producers and Urinetown, were both nominated for Outstanding Musical. We welcome all college and high school students to come out and audition for this one-of-a-kind opportunity.

Auditions: Saturday, March 17 (9am-3pm) and Sunday March 18, (9am-3pm), Saturday, March 24 (1:30pm-6:30pm) and Sunday, March 25 (9am-2pm).

Where: Ballet Austin Studios, 501 W 3rd St, Austin, TX 78701 (click for map)

Who: College and High School age Performers, Stage Managers and Technicians. ( Chess will also feature some guest SSA alumni.)

Note to College Students: There will be 8-14 paid mentorships available for the season. See our website for mentorship positions and specifics.

What to Prepare: 2 songs (16 bars of a ballad/32 bars of an uptempo. One selection should be in pop/rock style) and a 60-90 second contemporary monologue. There will be a dance call each day.

Note: The SSA rehearsal period runs July 5-26 and the performance season runs July 26-August 12. All performances will be at The Long Center for the Performing Arts.

To reserve an audition time and specific information, please go to www.summerstockaustin.org For further information or specific questions, please contact Producing Artistic Director Michael McKelvey at mmckelvey3@gmail.com.

A Year with Frog and Toad, musical for families, SummerStock Austin at the Rollins Theatre, weekends July 23 - August 7

by Michael Meigs

I got up and cheered for the curtain call of A Year with Frog and Toad, and I happily accepted the invitation from director Michael McKelvey for audience members to mingle with the cast onstage afterwards. This musical was so appealing and well executed that it lured me out of the comfortable semi-anonymity of the audience to let these performers know how much I appreciated them. And, incidentally, to inquire whether we would be seeing them on Austin stages anytime soon.

Michael McKelvey might well have stood up and cheered at audition time for this show, when he saw the two principals Zach Dailey and Ryan Borses do their stuff for the first time. Not only could they sing, dance and dialogue with the best of them, but they were the perfect somatypes for the two amphibian friends who since the 1970's have been entertaining us and luring youngsters into the adventure of reading. Zach as Frog is a broad-shouldered, rounded and thoughtful endomorph, and Ryan as Toad is the slim and energetic ectomorph, as lively as an animated Etch-A-Sketch character. It's a classic comic contrast. It works as well in Lobel's books and in this singing, dancing charmer as it did with Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Year with Frog and Toad, SummerStock Austin, July 23 - August 7

Click for ALT review (Highly recommended!)

From information received directly:

presents

A Year with Frog and Toad

a musical adaptation of Arnold Lobel's classic picture story

10 a.m., Saturdays and Sundays, July 23-24, July 30-31, August 6-7

and 10 a.m. on Thursday, August 4

Rollins Theatre, Long Center, 701 Riverside at South First

Click for ticket information

From the show description at www.stjohns.edu:

Arnold Lobel's well-loved characters hop from the page to the stage in Robert and Willie Reale's musical A Year With Frog And Toad. Conceived by Mr. Lobel's daughter, Adrianne Lobel, A Year With Frog And Toad remains true to the spirit of the original stories as it follows two great friends, the cheerful and popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad through four fun-filled seasons. Waking from hibernation in the spring, they proceed to plant gardens, swim, rake leaves and go sledding, learning life lessons along the way, including a most important one about friendship and rejoicing in the attributes that make each of us different and special.

Upcoming: SummerStock Austin musicals, July - August

Received directly:

SummerStock Austin presents its 7^th Season with three titles sure to offer something for everyone!

• THE PRODUCERS
• URINETOWN and
  
• A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
• July 21-August 7
• The Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts
• Tickets: Ranging from $6-25. Special prices for opening and closing nights. Purchase through the Long Center Box Office at www.longcenter.org or (512) 474-5664. Tickets will go on sale through the Long Center Box Office starting in July.
• More Information: www.summerstockaustin.org or (512) 428-1297
  

SummerStock Austin announces its seventh anniversary season with three productions: The Producers, Urinetown and A Year With Frog and Toad. The three shows will play in repertory with The Producers opening July 21 and closing Aug. 6, and A Year with Frog and Toad opening July 23 and closing Aug. 7, and Urinetown opening July 28 and closing August 7. For the further information about SSA and our detailed performance calendar, please see the SummerStock Austin website: www.summerstockaustin.org

The Producers, which won more Tony Awards than any show in Broadway history-including Best Musical of the Year, is based on the Mel Brooks’ film. The production will be directed by Ginger Morris with choreography by Ms. Morris and Madison Piner with additional choreography by Austin Musical Theatre founder Scott Thompson. Musical direction will be by Michael McKelvey with Jordan Cunningham. (Appropriate for audiences 12 years old and up)

SSA’s first Theatre For All (TFA) production, A Year with Frog and Toad is based on the timeless children’s stories by Arnold Lobel. The show original received a Tony nomination for Best Musical. SSA’s production will be directed by Michael McKelvey with choreography by Mikayla Agrella and musical direction by Jordan Cunningham. (Appropriate for all ages)

Urinetown, which won three Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Book of a Musical, will complete the SSA 2011 season. Although the title may give some audience members pause, the show is considered to be one of the witty and original pieces of musical theatre written in the past twenty years. Urinetown will be directed by Michael McKelvey with choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique and musical direction by Dr. McKelvey with Jason Connor. (Appropriate for ages 10 years old and up)

The productions are performed entirely by a student (college and high school) company, and this year will also feature some student musicians in the orchestra. Student performers and crew are drawn from St. Edward’s University, University of Texas, Texas State University, Baylor University, Milliken University, Oklahoma City University, Chapman University and Otterbein University. High school participants come from over 10 high schools from the Austin, Dripping Springs, Leander, Westlake and Round Rock School Districts. More than 100 students auditioned and interviewed to be part of the sixth season. The applicant pool not only tapped the greater Austin area, but included representatives from Houston and Dallas as well.

SummerStock Austin is a sponsored project of St. Edward’s University, as well as Zilker Theatre Productions. While the shows will be performed at the beautiful Long Center for the Performing Arts, rehearsals, administrative offices and set construction will remain at St. Edward’s University.

Founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St. Edward's University has been named as one of America's Best Colleges for 2009 by U.S. News & World Report and was selected by The Princeton Review for inclusion in the guide Colleges with a Conscience. St. Edward's is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university of more than 5,300 students located in Austin, Texas. For more information on St. Edward’s University, visit www.stedwards.edu.

About Theatre For All: Theatre For All provides free and significantly discounted tickets to approximately 200-250 young audience members over three weeks of the season. The students are chosen from at-risk and at-need groups from the greater Austin area. As of now, TFA will be hosting children from Dell Children’s Hospital and SafePlace Austin.