ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Different Stages at Vortex Repertory, November 22 - December 14, 2013

Different Stages

presents

Joseph Kesselring’s

Arsenic and Old Lace

November 22 – December 14

The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.

No performance on Thanksgiving November 28

Added performance on Wednesday December 11

“Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30

Call 512-478-5282

Different Stages opens its 2013-2014 season with the classic comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to relieving the loneliness of old men by inviting them in for a nice glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide. Add to the mix his two brothers - one who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, and one who is a serial killer. Toss in a police officer who thinks he's a playwright, sprinkle in a few corpses and you have one of the most hilarious and enduring comedies in American theater. The New York Times called Arsenic and Old Lace "so funny that none of us will ever forget it."!

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (Night Must Fall) Arsenic and Old Lace features Jennifer Underwood (Well) and Karen Jambon (The Skin of Our Teeth) as the Brewster sisters. Tyler Jones (Little Shop of Horrors) plays Mortimer and Sara Danko plays his fiancé. His brother Teddy is played by Michael Harlan (La Cage aux folles) and his gangster brother Jonathan is played by Steven Fay. Also in the cast are Mick D’Arcy, Andy Brown, and Sebastian Garcia (You Can’t Take it with You), Porter Gandy(Good People) Mike Dellens and Grayson Little.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. No performance on Thanksgiving Thursday November 28 and added performance on Wednesday December 11. Tickets are Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, and $30.

For tickets and information call 512-478-5282

TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 16 - June 9, 2013

(3823 Airport Rd. at 38 1/2 St., behind the Shell station)



presents

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

MOON OVER BUFFALO by Ken Ludwig, City Theatre, March 21 - April 14, 2013

(3823 Airport Rd. at 38 1/2 St., behind the Shell station)

presents

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Of Mice and Men, City Theatre, May 12 - June 8

Received directly:

THE CITY THEATRE

proudly presents John Steinbeck's American classic

OF MICE AND MEN

with Derek Jones as George Milton and Andy Brown as Lennie Small.

also featuring Samantha Brewer, Gabriel Diehl, Scot Friedman, Larry Oliver, Garry Peters, Daniel Sawtelle, Gabriel Smith, and Ben Woods

May 12 – June 5

Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m.

The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. 78757 – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street (click for map)

Tickets $15 - $20. Guaranteed Front/2^nd Row Reserved $25.

Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are available.

Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

www.citytheatreaustin.org

The City Theatre Company continues its 2011 season with the critically-acclaimed Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. This classic tale and Nobel Prize-winning novella about two migrant workers’ quest for the American dream portrays the struggle for independence, the responsibility we have to one another, and the desire for a place we all long to call our own.

“We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.” - George

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Dashing Through the Snow, Hope, Jones & Wooton, Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock, December 3 - 18

Found on-line:

Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock, presents

Dashing Through the Snow

by Hope, Jones & Wooten

directed by Andy Brown

December 3- 18, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

SBCT, 600 Lee Street, Round Rock (click for map)

$15 adults; $13 seniors and students; $10 Wednesday and Thursday shows; $10 groups of 10 or more

Purchase tickets on-line

It's four days before Christmas in the tiny town of Tinsel, Texas, and a colorful parade of eccentric guests arrive at the Snowflake Inn and deck the halls with holiday hilarity! Trina, the harried, yet upbeat inkeeper of this B&B has more than she can handle coping with these nuttier-than-a-fruitcake lodgers. Hoyt and his sister, Donna Jo, make the mistake of trying to end a thirty-year feud between their curmudgeonly aunts, Ennis and Della, with sidesplitting results. Ainsley and Lenora, self-involved actors from a lower-than-low-budget touring production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, descend on the Inn to fulfill a promise, leaving comedic chaos in their wake.

Add to this Yuletide mayhem an ill-advised romantic rendezvous between Mrs. Claus and one of Santa's elves, a demanding guest who refuses to leave, not to mention a tipsy housekeeper, and it's clear it will take more than a kiss under the mistletoe to keep Trina's spirits merry and bright. But a spur of the moment Christmas Eve wedding that brings together the Futrelle sisters - Honey Raye, Twink, Frankie and Rhonda Lynn - and their best friend, Raynerd takes a surprising and delightful turn that leads to a laugh-til-your-sides-ache climax, changing all their lives forever.

You'll swear this family-friendly Jones Hope Wooten Christmas comedy is more fun than a joy ride in a one horse open sleigh!

The Dixie Swim Club, Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock, January 29 - February 20

The Sam Bass Community Theatre celebrates friendship and nostalgia in The Dixie Swim Club, by that clever trio of writers who dropped out of the big time to devote themselves to crafting vehicles for community theatres.

Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten now have residences in Asheville NC and in New York City, according to their website. After careers in television and regional theatre, they hit gold with their 2005 North Carolina premiere of Dearly Beloved, introducing the formidable Futrelle sisters from the mythical crossroads town of Fayro, Texas. The trio's Futrelle output is now up to a trilogy, and they've branched out to further quirky Southern-flavored comedies.

The Dixie Swim Club opened in 2007 in Wilson, a mid-sized town in eastern North Carolina, halfway between the sophisticated university town of Raleigh and the beaches of the Outer Banks. It's a female Southern Comfort buddy play, portraying summer ritual beach house vacations of five university classmates over 55 years. There's a Big Chill factor at work here -- offering audience members scenes that inevitably raise memories and tug at their heartstrings. This is sure-fire heart-warming stuff.

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

Upcoming: The Dixie Swim Club, Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock, January 29 - February 20

Found on-line:

Sam Bass Community Theatre
presents

The Dixie Swim Club
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope & Jamie Wooten
Directed by Andy Brown
Fridays - Sundays, January 29 - February 20
reserve on-line

Five Southern women, whose friendships began many years ago on their college swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge those relationships. Free from husbands, kids and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina's Outer Banks to catch up, laugh and meddle in each other's lives.

The Dixie Swim Club focuses on four of those weekends over a span of thirty-three years. As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, aging) that life flings at them. And when fate throws a wrench into one of their lives, these friends, proving the enduring power of "teamwork", rally 'round their own with the strength and love that takes this comedy in a poignant and surprising direction.

Show Rating: May not be suitable for young children - parental discretion is advised.

Driving Miss Daisy, Georgetown Palace Theatre, August 28 - October

Driving Miss Daisy is about nostalgia and trust, but it is also about entropy.

Fortunate or not in this material life, we can all expect to age, to slow, and to become feeble. We may dislike growing old, but we shun the obvious alternative.

That major theme should be mirrored in the dynamic of these familiar characters and in the rhythm of the production.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

God's Man in Texas, Georgetown Palace Theatre, February 22 - March 8

With her decision to stage God's Man in Texas at the Georgetown Palace Theatre, artistic director Mary Ellen Butler has taken a risk. She acknowledges in the program that she has waited seven years to put it on -- "as the Palace grew . . . in depth of audience, attendance, and actor availability."

The Palace is now a highly successful non-profit venture, depending on a local audience including a big percentage of retirees -- folks you might assume to be relatively conservative in their outlook. It specializes in high quality light fare (sometimes 'lite' fare). For example, this season features two comedies, three musical comedies, a musical, and God's Man in Texas.

God's Man in Texas premiered at a festival in Kentucky in 1999. It has been regularly produced since then, and companies have tended to emphasize the humor in it ("an entertaining drama"; "a harsh though sometimes humorous look at organized religion"; "intelligent, thought-provoking and funny"; "with gentle humor and great respect, [it] brings to light issues common to any corporate or religious environment. . . "; etc.). Mary Ellen Butler opens her program comments with the notice, "God's Man in Texas is not a spoof or a skewering but a thoughtful, probing comedy about succession, the reach of church power and the quest for redemption that never ends, even for authentic men of God."

What I saw was a drama of scope and penetration, one that was dealing principally with the egregious sins of pride and ambition. Playwright Rambo adroitly uses the forms of evangelistic oratory and carefully exaggerates the peculiarly American characteristics of mass religion.

For example, the audience enters and finds itself facing an enormous cross, a pulpit and some fussy, mannered flower arrangements in front of a curtain of shimmering lavender. After the opening scene, we realize that the church set, stretching the entire width of the stage, is built on a huge turntable. Stagehands push it around to reveal the ample, comfortably furnished wood-paneled formal office of the church pastor. The set itself, which revolves perhaps ten times during the evening suggests the enormous scale of a megachurch.

We meet the young, modest pastor Dr. Jeremiah "Jerry" Mears, who has been invited as guest preacher. He is pleased and flattered to be appearing in this historic pulpit. Derek Jones as Mears is earnest, respectful and contained. He is attended by the church's audio-visual technician Hugo Taney (Andy Brown). Cheerful and talkative, Taney is unabashed about confiding that Rock Baptist Church and its pastor turned his life around.

Enter the pastor, Dr. Phillip Gottschall, played with wily élan and orotund assurance by Joe Penrod. He's a pastor for the ages, on the level with Billy Graham and equally at home with presidents of the United States ("except Clinton, of course"). He's 82 years old, the founder and pastor of the Rock Baptist Church, a mega-institution in Houston so big that the young adult program has 6,000 members. Gottschall is vigorous, in full possession of his faculties, charming, authoritative and the very picture of a successful CEO. We learn that without consulting him the church board has decided to invite guest preachers over a succession of Sundays, with the evident intention of acquainting the congregation with possible candidates to replace him.

Though the playwright doesn't tell us this, "Gottschall" in German suggests "resounding call of God."


The first half of the piece features excerpts from Mears' series of sermons, which evolve under helpful coaching from A-V tech Hugo Taney from cerebral meditations to folksy homilies, though always with conviction and fine preacherly presentation. There's a clever set of jokes about broccoli and the first President Bush.



Gottschall thwarts the "disloyal" initiative of the committee by blocking a rival and announces that Mears will be co-pastor of Rock Baptist. The first act ends with a fierce sermon by Gottschall on the theme, "The time is not yet!" One could play this piece for laughs, highlighting Gottschall's implicit comparison of himself with Jesus or the Deity; but Joe Penrod's delivery is instead so monumental, a perfectly pitched representation of the Mosaic certainty of an erudite man of God, that one involuntarily begins to search one's own soul, instead. The man's adamant warnings are chilling.

Jerry Mears wins the position, and in the second act he quickly picks up the jargon of "the numbers" (of baptized, of contributions, of membership -- all the quantification of Big Business). Gottschall sets him an unending series of trivial tasks -- for example, we get to hear him bless the new bowling alley at Rock Baptist, and we hear him address AA and other backsliders, where he runs across A-V tech Hugo. Some woman has been insistently calling Mears, trying to get into contact with Hugo. . . .

Gottschall becomes more and more threatened by Jerry, while Hugo is pursued by the unknown woman from his past. She tells Jerry that Hugo has a son from their liaison 13 years earlier. When Jerry passes this on, Hugo is completely taken aback. Dismissal becomes denial becomes uncertainty as Jerry counsels him.

Andy Brown has established Hugo for us as simple man who is happy to have found home and a salvation at Rock Baptist -- in effect, he represents for us all those thousands who are faithful clients of this huge enterprise. We identify with him as we see him hesitate, apprehensive about this new development, about these new people, and about the uncertainty of Gottschall's reaction to the unwelcome news.

With good reason. The Great Man misreads their counseling session as conspiracy, and the piece builds to a climax.

God's Man in Texas sails very close to the wind, raising issues that some of us might wish to avoid. Rambo uses the theatrical rituals of church to great effect -- the symbols and evangelical language, confession and counseling, and the public side of pastoral communication. Religious faith is never questioned, for all three men are firm believers.

In the last analysis, it's a parable. We have three sinners in this piece: a great man who is blind to his own shortcomings, a simple man who tries to keep his own sins from destroying him, and a young pastor who struggles with the illusions of worldly authority and power. There are some moments of humor and caricature, but in the main this play is as serious as a Sunday school lesson. Judging from the comments I heard about me in the audience, the Georgetown public received it with appreciation.

Dramaurgy: A conversation with David Rambo about the play

David Rambo's comments to Actors theatre, with his biography