Ann Pittman's Austin Theatre Favorites in 2013

From her blog aNNpITTMAN, posted January 12:

Top Ten Twenty-Thirteen Theatre

Ann Pittman (via Blogspot)

Everyone has their favorites. And everyone's weighing in (Chronicle critics: AdamRoberts, Robert Faires ... a cat).

Of course, I have my own opinions :)

So here's my credential-free pick for Austin's Top Ten 2013 Theatre Experiences (p.s. I don't include national tours or shows I was in on this list... tours obvs. aren't Austin, and despite my first girl-on-girl kiss this year, its probably biased to nominate performances I was a part of). Of the over twenty shows I saw this year, here's some moments, people and experiences that I loved (in no particular order)...

1. Barbara Chisholm in Fixing King John. This was a fun, smart show by the Rude Mechs, and pulling her hair out in the middle of it was a brilliant Barbara Chisholm.

2. The amazing set of Nursery Crimes (the DAC has never been better utilized) and the supporting characters trio of Travis Bedard, Bobby DiPasquale, and Heath Thompson. Kudos to Last Act's Will Snider for some great choices.

3. Ryan Crowder's big fat crocodile tears (in addition to the rest of his performance) in Penfold Theatre's Red.

4. Martin Burke's final monologue in Harvey. Lovely.

5. Kristi Brawner in general. From Sally in Reefer Madness to Lucy in Charlie Brown, she is quickly becoming Austin's most versatile 20 Something (sorry guys, she's taken).

6. HPT's Ken Webster as Thom Pain. Again.

7. Mad Beat Hip & Gone. I cannot understand why this didn't get more critical attention. Whatev. You guys, it was great. And those lightbulbs...

8. The Drawbridge/Gangplank lowering and raising set piece thing in Austin Playhouse's Man of La Mancha. Awesome and daunting. Broke up the play and the mood perfectly appropriately.

9. Little Shop of Horrors' colorful costumes at Zilker Park.

10. ZACH's A Christmas Story set. You'll shoot your eye out.

AND what I really, really wanted to see (which might have influenced the above list), but, alas, life had other exciting adventures...

1. Mical Trejo in Teatro Vivo's Confessions of a Mexpatriate

2. And Then There Were None by Austin Playhouse

3. Tongues (in the swimming pool!) by Theatre at the J

4. Fat Pig by Theatre En Bloc

So there you have it! Of the Austin theatre events I saw, these were the most super-duper. Maybe next year I'll be brave enough to give you The Worst Of... who knows! In the meantime, here's looking forward to more great, funny, meaningful, important, silly theatre in the heart of Texas in 2014!

A LITTLE MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, adapted from Shakespeare by Brendan Milburn, Valerie Vigoda and Gene Lewin, University of Texas, June 27, 2013

Free Reading of New Rock Musical “A Little Midsummer Night’s Dream”



Music and Lyrics by Brendan Milburn, Valerie Vigoda, and Gene Lewin
Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Janet Roston
Music Direction by Ryan O’Connell

June 27 at 8:00 p.m.
B. Iden Payne Theatre

Tickets: Free Admission

About the A Little Midsummer Night’s Dream Created by songwriters Valerie Vigoda, Brendan Milburn and Gene Lewin, A Little Midsummer Night’s Dream is a rock-musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s beloved classic. Set in modern day at an outdoor rock festival, the musical is a collision of rock, iambic pentameter and glow sticks where rock stars Titania and Oberon quarrel over an electric guitar, circus performer Puck creates havoc and roadie Bottom finally gets a chance to shine.

The creative team of A Little Midsummer Night’s Dream has been invited to develop their new musical in residence at The University of Texas at Austin as part of the Texas Musical Theatre Workshop. This summer program, hosted at The University of Texas at Austin, is a pre-collegiate intensive for high school students exploring a potential career in musical theatre. Workshop participants are trained by industry professionals and are exposed to the creative process of new work development.

About the Creative Team
Members of the musical trio GrooveLily, Vigoda and Milburn have received critical acclaim for their theatrical work, including Striking 12 (Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best Musical) and Sleeping Beauty Wakes (Two Ovation Awards, including World Premiere Musical).

Directions and ParkingPatrons are encouraged to purchase parking in advance at a discounted rate at https://utparking.clickandpark.com/venues. The discounted parking is only available online until 10pm, the day prior to an event. Please note that there is no longer free parking on campus. Learn more.

For more information about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, call 512-471-5793.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Video: Director Melissa Maxwell Discusses 'Intimate Apparel' by Lynn Nottage, University of Texas, March 1 - 9, 2013

(University of Texas theatres, Winship Drama Bldg. (WIN), near 23rd St. and San Jacinto, Austin)

presents

Intimate Apparel


by Lynn Nottage

directed by Melissa Maxwell


 March 1 - 9, 2013
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre, tickets $15.00-25.00

It’s 1905 in Manhattan. Esther, a gifted seamstress, crafts lingerie for a variety of clientele, including Fifth Avenue socialites and Tenderloin district prostitutes. She dreams of finding a husband and beginning a love-filled marriage. She also longs to open a beauty parlor in Harlem with the money she has quietly saved over the years. Through a series of long distance letters, Esther meets George, and her aspirations appear within reach.


 

Upcoming: Shakespeare Scrooged by Manuel Zarate, December 14 - 30

presents 



Shakespeare Scrooged
by Manuel Zarate

December 18 and 19 only, 7:30 p.m.

The Trinity Street Players Black Box (on the 4th floor of First Baptist Church, Austin) at the corner of 9th & Trinity in downtown Austin.

The HBMG Foundation presents Shakespeare Scrooged, a retelling written and directed by Manuel Zarate of the classic Dickens Christmas Caroll with Shakespeare's fiesty, funny and often infamous characters! With a stellar cast, Shakespeare Scrooged stars Michelle Haché (Sound of Music), Michelle Alexander (Xanadu), Alison Stebbins (All My Sons), Aaron Alexander (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Derek Jones (Of Mice & Men), Cody Eastman (Baby), and Ann Pittman (Ragtime)!

Two nights only and seating is limited! Email apittman@hbmginc.com to reserve your seat! Tickets are free, but donations are accepted!

Donations will be collected for Trinity Center and Caritas of Austin. 

Video: Blood Brothers by Willy Russell, Trinity Street Players, June 1 - 24

Austin Live Theatre's backstage visit with director Bob Beare and the cast:

Blood Brothers

by Willy Russell

directed by Bob Beare

Jun 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Black Box Theatre, 4th floor, First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street (click for map)

free admission; reservations at (512) 402-3086; donations gratefully accepted

Written by award-winning author Willy Russell, the plot of Blood Brothers revolves around the story of two twin brothers separated at birth. One brother, Eddie, was adopted by wealthy parents and lives an affluent life with endless opportunities. The other brother, Mickey, not blessed with similar circumstances, is raised in poverty by his birth mother. The tale spans more than 20 years of the boys’ lives and finds Eddie going to prestigious University of Oxford, while Mickey turns to a life of crime and ultimately prison. While trying to overcome the social divide, the boys both fall in love with the same girl. This proves to be too much, splits their relationship, and leads to tragedy.

Four Square by Manuel Zarate, FronteraFest at the Blue Theatre, January 27 - February 4

Inevitably, Manuel Zarate's one-act play Four Square reminds one of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story. There's a chance encounter in a public place with no one else around. The chat between two strangers starts with simple exchanges, courtesies, really, then progresses until we eventually see that one of them is a psychotic and the other is a victim. There's something of the bull ring to the concept, except that instead of the ceremonial squads to do the tormenting, there's only the psycho. And the shape is different: the playing space is defined by a chalk square scrupulously marked into quadrants. The two are chained together by circumstances -- metaphorically at first and then in an unexpected development, literally.

Albee's story is simple, a searing descending arc; Zarate's is considerably more complex. The victim in this story is a woman, Beverly -- hesitant and a mild physical handicap. Ann Catherine Pittman in that role initially seems to resemble a bird with a broken wing but as the story develops she proves capable of anger, stubbornness and effective resistance. J. Ben Wolfe is David, who says that he's waiting for a bus so he can visit his wife and daughter. It never comes and he was probably not waiting for it in the first place. Late in the action in a flash of insight unexplained to the audience, Beverly realizes that David probably has no family because he has driven them away or perhaps even killed them.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Auditions: Male Actor for a month at the Edinburgh Fringe in August in Four Square by Manuel Zarate

Seeking actor for role of “David” in the Long Fringe production Four Square, to be performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, August 2-30, with other potential performances earlier during spring or summer in Austin, Texas. Paid position, $207/week for Equity/Non-Equity actors. Written and directed by Manuel Zarate, Four Square features Douglas Taylor and Ann Pittman, with Andy Perry as stage manager.

This is a very physical three-person show. FronteraFest description: "What is love? It's everything and nothing. It's funny and awful. It's the "till death do us part" and the one night stand. For three strangers in Austin, Texas, one night will change their lives forever. Each will face the myth of their past and the reality of their present. Love is not what we thought it was."

To audition: please attend a performance of Four Square playing at Austin’s Frontera Fest and thenspeak with Manuel, Andy, Doug, or Ann after the performance. You may also email your resume & headshot to Manuel at mzarate@hbmginc.com. Four Square will be performed Jan 27^th at 7pm, Jan 29^th at 4:15pm, Feb. 1^st at 7pm and Feb. 4^th at 9:15pm at the Blue Theater. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door or on-line. After the company gauges interest, formal auditions will start in February with rehearsals in July for the Edinburgh performances in August.

Upcoming: Four Square by Manuel Zarate, FronteraFest at the Blue Theatre, January 27 - February 4

Received directly:

She Loves Me, Wimberley Players, November 18 - December 11

by Michael Meigs

The Wimberley Players' production of She Loves Me directed by Dawn Youngs delivers a serene and intricately musical vision of a 1930s fairy tale. Preserved as if in one of those snow globes awaiting a gentle shake to send the flakes whirling, a perfume shop in Budapest is a holiday setting where affairs of the heart predominate. The elegant ladies of the city come seeking their creams, perfumes and philtres; the clerks of the shop, good earnest working folk, do their best to please. Love will not be lured by artifice, of course, but it does thrive on mystery.

This gentle musical comedy uses one of the oldest comic plot devices in the book: the anonymous love letter. The audience's fun is doubled as it watches as both participants in this courtship by mail just happen to become employees of the shop and quickly become annoyed rivals.

Ann Pittman is new arrival Amalia Balash who won't take 'no' for an answer, brashly outdoing shop manager Georg Nowack (Jim Lindsay), gaining a job and causing Nowack to lose a wager with the boss. Pittman and Lindsay have paired before, as Juan and Evita Perón in the Georgetown Palace's Evita last February, where each demonstrated stature and dignity along with fine singing voices.

In She Loves Me you can enjoy a different take: they're lively, self-assured and assertive in their in-store rivalry but vulnerable and sentimental in the imaginings of their correspondence, each writing letters to the anonymous 'Dear Friend.'

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Stop The World, I Want to Get Off, Austin Playhouse, April 22 - May 22

Received directly:

presents

Stop the World - I Want to Get Off!

by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
directed by Don Toner
musical direction by Oliver Worthington
choreography by Danny Herman & Rocker Verastique
April 22 - May 22, 2011
Austin Playhouse Main Stage, Penn Field, 3601 South Congress (click for map)
Tickets are $26 Thursday and Friday and $28 Saturday and Sunday. All student tickets are half price!

Call (512) 476-0084 for tickets or visit http://www.austinplayhouse.com.

Austin Playhouse is proud to present the classic musical: Stop the World – I Want to Get Off! A thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success, this beloved musical celebrates its 50th year in 2011.

Stop the World! - I Want to Get Off is set in a circus and tells the timeless tale of a Littlechap, played by Rick Roemer, who recently starred as Lady Bracknell in our production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The show is a musical classic—a boundless, humorously entertaining, and tender story about the choices we make and the opportunities we get during our lifetime.

"Stop the World" is directed by Don Toner with musical direction by Oliver Worthington and choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique. The show stars Rick Roemer as Littlechap and Angela Davis as Evie with an ensemble that includes Kimberly Barrow, Rachel Dendy, Hildreth England, Emily Everidge, Kasey Erin Kelly, Eedann McCord, Stephanie Ngo-Hatchie, Ann Pittman, Hannah Rose, and Jennifer Blakeney Young.

OPENING WEEKEND HALF-PRICE SPECIAL!!! We're offering 20 half-price tickets (that's only $14 each!) for our first Saturday and Sunday performances: April 23rd and 24th. Call 476-0084 and mention the opening weekend special or use discount code: "Littlechap" when you order tickets online at www.austinplayhouse.com. Not valid with any other discounts.

Main Stage Subscribers - Reserve your tickets by phone at 476-0084 or email austinplayhouse@aol.com.

Upcoming: Stop The World, I Want to Get Off, Austin Playhouse, April 22 - May 22

Received directly:

presents

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off!

by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

directed by Don Toner

April 22 – May 22; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, Penn Field (behind the water tower), 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C (click for map)

Tickets $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Available at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

Closing out the 2010-2011 Season, Austin Playhouse presents a Bricusse/Newley classic and multiple Tony Award nominated production, a thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success. This beloved musical celebrates its 50^th year in 2011.

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off! is set in a circus and tells the timeless tale of a Littlechap, a clown who conquers the world but loses himself. The story will be told through song, dance, drama, and the artistry of the Austin Playhouse acting company over a one-month run. The show is a boundless, shameless, and humorously entertaining production. Stop the World is about the responsibility we have for our own lives, and how it sometimes feels like the world is spinning out of control and you just want to get off.

Directed by Don Toner, musical direction by Oliver Worthington, and choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique. The Austin production stars Rick Roemer as Littlechap and Angela Davis as Evie, with an ensemble cast that includes Kimberly Barrow, Rachel Dendy, Hildreth England, Kasey Erin Eggleston, Eedann McCord, Stephanie Ngo-Hatchie, Ann Pittman, Hannah Rose, and Jennifer Blakeney Young.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Evita, Georgetown Palace, February 18 - March 20

Evita offers not only the Georgetown Palace's usual high standards of performance, but also something more: a deglamorization of the Lloyd Webber/Rice tragic fairy tale.

Eva Duarte de Perón came from almost literally nowhere -- from a provincial Argentine town where she was one of several illegitimate children of a wealthy rancher. She became leading lady, first lady and "Spiritual Leader of the Nation."

Lloyd Webber's score and Tim Rice's libretto have furnished us with memorable if only partly understood standards of the English language musical theatre. Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, for example, is a stirring anthem that lurks somewhere in the popular mind in the region of Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way.

Few of us in American audiences are aware of the complicated history between the United Kingdom and Argentina, ranging from the quaint polo match and familiarities of the wealthy upper classes caricatured in the play to the bloodily decisive conflict in 1982 over the Faulklands/Malvinas islands, just four years after Evita was first produced. Mid-century Argentina evoked for the British mind aspects of European fascism. At the very time that Evita was first staged, the tactics of Argentine military rulers against their own people gave us a new locution in English -- the verb "to disappear" not only acquired a transitive mode but even became a passive transitive. As in, "After their arrests, the radical student leaders were promptly disappeared."

In the eyes of civilized Brits, the middle of the twentieth century was a sad disappointment all across Latin America, and nowhere more so for them than in Argentina.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Fantasticks, Trinity Street Players at First Baptist Church, August 12 - 22

The Trinity Street Players call the third-floor theatre space at the First Baptist Church "the black box theatre." Now that I've attended three performances in that space, it seems to me that the appellation is a bit too generic.

"Black box" suggests a void, perhaps one that's wrapped in mystery. A better reference for this long-running Theatre Ministry might be "jewel box."

When we were living in Geneva, Switzerland, in the opening years of this 21st century, I took my adolescent daughter N with me for some special Christmas shopping. We went to Gobelins, the discreet high-priced dealer in jewelry and horlogerie at the Rue de Rive. In addition to their displays of the newest and most sparkling, Gobelins maintains a binder describing "heritage jewelry" for sale. With an appointment and a few days of advance notice, one can view a chosen assortment of previously-owned pieces. In that seance in early December, with my daughter's approval, in a heart-stopping moment I picked out a beautiful, classic Christmas present for my wife K.

That, approximately, is what the Trinity Street Players are about. In their third-floor space at the First Baptist Church on Trinity Street, they have been preparing and performing with discernment, discretion and style a selection of some of the best, most solid, traditional, high-value items of English language theatre. Assistant director David McCullars enticed me to their Steel Magnolias last year; I reveled in their You Can't Take It With You earlier this year; they are holding auditions on August 28 for the November production of Shadowlands, the play by William Nicholson based on the marriage of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. McCullars will direct.

The Fantasticks fits solidly into that tradition. The show written by UT alumni celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and it is the longest-running musical in New York. In fact, UT is holding a two-day conference on October 15-16 to celebrate the anniversary, as well as staging its own production of The Fantasticks from October 15 - 24. From an earlier conversation with Trinity Street player the Rev. Ann Pittman, I had the impression that the players hadn't been aware that UT was planning the bash.

Director Cathy Jones rose to the occasion in her pre-curtain remarks, marking the 50th anniversary. That was diplomatic but unnecessary, because Trinity Street's attractive, gripping and musically sophisticated production of the show will stand up to any other that may come along.

Part of the appeal of The Fantasticks is the simplicity of its concept. Boy and girl fall in love; their fathers pretend to oppose the match and hire "El Gallo," a bandit and merchant of dreams to give the boy his chance to be a hero. Romance triumphs but gives way to unease. In the second act the boy ventures forth to explore the cruel world while the girl dallies with the mendacious El Gallo. An eventual happy ending is tinged with the melancholy feel that life is more earnest and more difficult that the dreams of romance. This action is wrapped in tunes that have become key in the musical theatre canon: Try to Remember, Soon It's Gonna Rain, and I Can See It, to name only the most evident.

Cathy Jones recruited experienced, charismatic players for this show. Joe Penrod, playing the cynical El Gallo, is one of my favorites on the Austin musical stage. Justin Langford, playing the earnest, naive young man, appeared with Penrod in Man of La Mancha at the Georgetown Palace, capturing our attention with his pure tenor.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

You Can't Take It with You, Trinity Street Players, First Baptist Church, April 15 - 25

Director Rev. Ann Pittman and the Trinity Street Players have put together an accomplished, warm and funny production of Kaufman & Hart's You Can't Take It With You at the 4th floor black box theatre of Austin's First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, downtown.

This affectionate study of a family of distracted amateur would-be artists and entrepreneurs bears the title You Can't . . . but the message is clearly You Can. You can be an artist, a writer, a dancer, a fireworks maker, a master printer -- even if you don't really have much talent for it. One major pleasure of art is the pleasure of creation, without much thought for commercial success or even for an audience, other than for family and friends. That theme fits a lot of Austin's theatre scene, even though the level of talent here is a lot higher than that in the Vanderhof family.

The Trinity Street Players themselves are proof of the theme, as well, for these players, many of them self-confessed neophytes, do a fine job of bringing the Vanderhof clan to life. With Rev. Pittman's assured directing and perceptive casting, they spin the fleece into gold.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Rod Machen: You Can't Take It With You, Trinity St. Players, April 15 -

Click for ALT review, April 22

Received directly, production stills by Rod Machen of Trinity Street Players' current staging of You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, directed by Ann Pittman:

Right: Grandpa Vanderhof (Roland Johnson) doubts the IRS agent (Hector DeLeon)

You Can't Take It with You is a delightful comedy in three acts set in the home of a quirky, but remarkable family. The plot still resonates today: The family may be crazy, but the world is even more crazy!

You Can't Take It With You plays April 15 - 25, Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at the 4th floor Black Box Theatre of the, First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street. Admission is free.Call 476-2625 to reserve your tickets. Free childcare is available the first Sunday, April 18 and the second Saturday, April 24. (Childcare reservations must be made when you reserve your tickets for the show.)

(fireworks by DePinna (Tommy Chiodo) and Sycamore (Doug Keenan)

See more images by Rod Machen at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Trinity Street Players, First Baptist Church, April 15 - 25

Received directly:

The Trinity Street Players, First Baptist Church, present

the Pulitzer Prize-Winning play

You Can't Take It With You

by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman

Directed by Ann Pittman

April 15 - 25, Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Black Box Theatre, First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street. Admission is free.

You Can’t Take it With You is a delightful comedy set in the home of a quirky, but remarkable family. It was first produced for stage in 1936, and it was quickly adapted by Frank Capra for his 1938 film starring Jimmy Stewart. The plot still resonates today: The family may be crazy, but the world is even more crazy!

You Can't Take It With You is a must-see, especially since it's free! Call 476-2625 to reserve your tickets. Child care is available April 18 and 22.

The Trinity Street Players is a part of The First Baptist Church of Austin. You Can’t Take It With You is the latest of their numerous highly touted productions.

Steel Magnolias, Trinity Street Players at First Baptist Church, July 31 - August 9

I was invited this past weekend to attend the closing performance of Steel Magnolias, produced at the First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, by the aptly named Trinity Street Players.

The audience filled the black box theatre, a converted space on the upper floor of the church, in which banks of raised seating stood on three sides of the rectangular playing space.

Both the venue and the disposition of the stage brought to mind one of the essays in UT philosopher Paul Woodruff's book last year, The Necessity of Theatre: The Art of Watching and Being Watched (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). After thirty years of work, like me, he returned to an early passion for the theatre. "Instead of writing about Aristotle," he comments in the introduction, "I have written a kind of poetics of my own."

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Steel Magnolias, Trinity Street Players at First Baptist Church, August 1 - 9

Click for ALT review, August 13




Noted in the Statesman's XL listings and then located on-line:

Trinity Street Players
present

Steel Magnolias

Friday, July 31 - Sunday, August 9, 2009

First Baptist Church Black Box Theater
901 Trinity Street,Austin, TX
View Google map

Reserve your FREE tickets now to see Steel Magnolias in FBC's Blackbox Theater! Written by Robert Harling but based on the true story of a small town, Steel Magnolias is a heart-warming play full of laughter tears and great eighties hair-dos!

Directed by Cathy Jones and assisted by David McCullars Steel Magnolias stars Ann Pittman, Mary Jane Smith, Julie Latimer-Spears, Elspeth Silva, Arleigh DeLeon and Linda Miller Raff.

Shows are almost completely sold out so we've added a Thursday night performance Aug. 6th! Call 476-2625 or 913-7636 to reserve your tickets for July 31, Aug 1, 6, 7, 8 at 8pm or Sundays Aug 2, 9 at 2:30pm!