Robert Faires' 15 Favorites in 2013 Austin Theatre, Austin Chronicle

Top 10 Reasons I Stayed in Love With Theatre in 2013


Austin thespians played for keeps, with boundless commitment and imagination, in the year's most memorable theatre


By Robert Faires, Fri., Jan. 3, 2014


1) 'SLIP RIVER' (UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance/Cohen New Works Festival) Spiriting its audience beneath the Payne Theatre, past clotheslines and through butcher-paper forests, feeding it cornbread muffins, and leaving it onstage in a festive dance party, this exhilaratingly theatrical mash-up of 19th century novels and modern pop – its orphan hero chases freedom along an "underground railroad" run by Beyoncé! – packed more imagination, adventure, and wit into half an hour than most plays do in three times that.


2) 'RICHARD III' (Texas State University Dept. of Theatre & Dance) The Bard's diabolical monarch as Third World despot, with Eugene Lee channeling Idi Amin in his brutal grasp for the crown. The entire cast seemed caught in Richard's fearsome grip, and chilling images of mayhem from director Chuck Ney kept us in dread throughout. 

3) 'I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER' (Breaking String Theatre) Lives during wartime – a mob thug in modern Moscow and a soldier on the front lines of World War II – rendered in harrowing detail by playwright Yury Klavdiev and conjured with hallucinatory power by Joey Hood, fluidly sliding between past and present while maintaining a white-hot intensity.


4) 'THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS' (Capital T Theatre) Who knew that fusty old mystic William Blake could inspire such carnal passion, such hilarity, and such theatrical bliss? A rapturous union of script, director, and actors, teeming with intelligence and craft.


5) 'THE POISON SQUAD' (The Duplicates) This inquiry into the origins of food-safety testing proved, for epicures of performance, a feast – steeped in ingenuity and collaborative energy, and liberally seasoned with playfulness.


6) 'WATCH ME FALL' (Action Hero/Fusebox Festival) The British team's cheap-theatre replays of daredevil stunts (e.g., a bike jumping over bottles of fizzing Coke) were a hoot, but seeded within them were disturbing images that also dared us to confront our cultural lust for danger and mob mentality.


7) 'THE EDGE OF PEACE' (UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance) Suzan Zeder's valedictory effort at UT wove threads from her 30 years of playwriting into a deeply felt drama of community, growing up, and moving on. A fitting farewell to her Mother Hicks characters and the year's most artfully crafted script.


8) 'TRU'/'THIS WONDERFUL LIFE' (Zach Theatre) Two solo shows, both performed in the cozy Whisenhunt, both by actors of prodigious gifts giving themselves over completely to their subjects: Jaston Williams to Truman Capote, his portrait deepened by time and made even more poignant; Martin Burke to It's a Wonderful Life, embodying the film's characters with rare honesty and embracing its message with sincerity.


9) 'ADAM SULTAN' (Physical Plant) We all died at the hands of playwrights Steve Moore and Zeb West in this extraordinary meditation on mortality and community. It imagined one man's efforts to memorialize Austin's theatre artists as they pass over time and did so with humor and grace.


10) 'ORDINARY PEEPHOLE: THE SONGS OF DICK PRICE' (Rubber Repertory) A night around the old piano in the living room – literally, as an exuberant ensemble escorted us through a batch of this local songwriter's most personal tunes as we sat in a Hyde Park living room. Sheer delight.


Honorable Mentions:


'THE BOOK OF MORMON' (Broadway in Austin/Texas Performing Arts)

'QUALITIES OF STARLIGHT' (Vortex Repertory Company)

'HOLIER THAN THOU' (Poison Apple Initiative)

'REEFER MADNESS' (Doctuh Mistuh Productions)

'BUTT KAPINSKI: WE ARE THE DARK' (Deanna Fleysher/Institution Theater)

Elizabeth Cobbe's Favorite Theatre Sets for 2013, Austin Chronicle

Top 10 Theatrical Sets of 2013, to a Cat

The year's scenic designs proved especially appealing to the feline theatregoer

By Elizabeth Cobbe, Fri., Jan. 3, 2014

(uncredited photo via Austin Chronicle)

1) 'THE AMAZING ACRO-CATS' The performing cats wandered freely through the audience, making the whole theatre their set.


2) 'THE HEAD' (Connor Hopkins for Trouble Puppet Theater) The staging area provided levels upon levels, with intricate, handmade puppets for kitty to maul if she became bored.


3) '33 VARIATIONS' (Cliff Simon for Zach Theatre) How was there not a cat lurking in those cavernous archives?


4) 'NOISES OFF' (Patrick Crowley for Austin Playhouse) Disregard the slamming doors, if you can, and relish in the many hiding places for actors and felines alike.


5) 'FIXING KING JOHN' (Thomas Graves, Madge Darlington for Rude Mechanicals) Platforms rigged for actors and audience made ideal scratching posts.


6) 'INTIMATE APPAREL' (Jocelyn Pettway for UT Department of Theatre & Dance) Several detailed scenes existed together onstage, with beautiful fabrics waiting to be peed on and shredded.


7) 'RED' (David Utley for Penfold Theatre Company) A thoughtful, realistic treatment of Mark Rothko's art studio provided hiding spaces and paint cans in abundance.


8) 'FAT PIG' (Patrick and Holly Crowley for Theatre en Bloc) Shifting platforms are great entertainment, provided you don't catch your tail in the rails.


9) 'MAD BEAT HIP & GONE' (Michael Raiford for Zach Theatre) Dark lighting made the catwalks all the more appealing to a true cat.


10) 'DIAL "M" FOR MURDER' (Ian Loveall for UT Department of Theatre & Dance) Nothing like a fancy English parlor with fine furniture if you're looking to shed.

Wayne Alan Brenner's Favorites in 2013, Austin Chronicle

Brenner's portmanteau of 13 items includes 6 from locally produced Austin theatre:

 

Top 10 Creative Things I Lucked Into in 2013

Remembering the year thick with superlative works of art onstage and in galleries

By Wayne Alan Brenner, Fri., Jan. 3, 2014

Katherine Catmull (photo: Capital T Theatre)

1) Joked with my editor that the first nine slots of this list would repeat 'THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS' (Capital T Theatre). That brilliant Mickle Maher comedy, about the consequences of two William Blake-enamored professors engaging in glorious copulation on the campus lawn in view of their students, was by far the best thing I experienced in a year thick with superlative works of art. Directed by Mark Pickell, the script was embodied by three actors – Jason Phelps, Katherine Catmull, and Ken Webster, already among the best in town – working at the height of their knock-you-over abilities.

. . . .

4) FRONTERAFEST is another multipartite perennial that keeps on giving, and one of the best Short Fringe things it gave was Kyle John Schmidt's "The Blissful Orphans," featuring Curtis Luciani, Bob Jones, and friends in a fractured fairy tale that surpassed anything Rocky & Bullwinkle ever attempted.

. . .

6) Using Jason Liebrecht as a hinge to open a door between two theatre productions: Martin McDonagh's 'THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE' (Capital T Theatre), brought to Grand Guignol life with Liebrecht chewing the scenery as an Irish terrorist who's out to slaughter whoever killed his beloved pet cat Wee Thomas; and 'FIXING KING JOHN' (Rude Mechanicals), Kirk Lynn's Deadwood-esque upgrade of Shakespeare, in which that same Liebrecht played the brave, hotheaded, sometimes near-colicky, and relentlessly besieged monarch contending with a cast of (mostly doomed) characters equal to his fierce talents.

7) Speaking of stagework, can somebody raid a sports paradigm and confer MVP status on actor MOLLY KARRASCH? I mean, Jesus, Slowgirl, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Tragedy: a tragedy, Dulcey and Roxy at City Hall – the woman's got range and a half.

8) Steve Moore and 'ADAM SULTAN' (Physical Plant) gave the Austin theatre scene an intimate view of itself with this heartfelt hall of mirrors, casting community stalwart Adam Sultan in the title role as a man who spends the increasingly lonely decades of his life commemorating all his creative friends who die as the years go by.

9) 'THE HEAD' (Trouble Puppet Theatre) was the semi-autobiographical apotheosis of everything that Connor Hopkins' strange and splendid company has done before, with so many disparate parts effectively orchestrated to show how ineffectively orchestrated a human can be when desire confounds sense and recreational drugs complicate the situation we call being alive.

Read full article at the Austin Chronicle on-line. . . .

Playwright Christopher Durang Attends Q & A and Performances of his Adrift in Macao, Texas State University

Christopher Durang (photo via Austin Chronicle)

 

 

Christopher Durang

Tony-winning playwright takes up residence at Texas State

by Robert Faires, October 3, 2013

[. . .] Adrift in Macao, a 2007 musical for which the playwright penned the book and lyrics, is being mounted by the Texas State University Department of Theatre and Dance, and the author will be in San Marcos to see it. Indeed, he and his partner of 26 years, John Augustine – a widely produced and very funny dramatist in his own right – will be on hand as playwrights-in-residence, thanks to the efforts of Kaitlin Hopkins, head of the musical theatre program at Texas State and an old friend of Durang's, with support from the Bowman Guest Artist Series.

The residency is obviously for the benefit of the department's students, and they'll have the chance to take a master class on the audition process with both authors, but Texas State is creating ample opportunities for the larger community to take advantage of it. After the evening performances of Adrift in Macao Friday and Saturday, Durang will join the cast for a talk-back moderated by Hopkins, who directed the production. And Saturday afternoon, a pair of programs involving the two writers will be open to the public – one focusing on Durang and his career, the other a roundtable discussion about collaboration featuring Durang and Augustine[. . . .]

Saturday, Oct. 12

"A Conversation With Christopher Durang" – 1-2 p.m.

Durang will field questions from head of playwriting Jim Price and the audience, and will also read from his own work.

"Collaboration: The Process" – 2:30-4pm

Durang and John Augustine will join students in Texas State's playwriting and directing programs for a roundtable discussion about the collaborative process between writer and director, and how it differs when the play is in development and when it's being fully produced. MFA directing associate professor Deb Alley will moderate.

Click to read full article at the Austin Chronicle

---

Adrift in Macao runs Oct. 8-13, Tuesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m;. Sunday, 2 & 7:30 p.m., at University Mainstage Theatre, 430 Moon, Texas State campus in San Marcos. For more information, call 512/245-2204 or visit www.txstatepresents.com.

Brandon Watson on "Weird Rodeo at the Scottish Rite Theatre," Austin Chronicle, August 1, 2013

Following up word last week that artistic director Emily Marks was fired by the board:

 

 

'Weird Rodeo' at the Scottish Rite

Theatre fires artistic director as harassment charges come to light

By Brandon Watson, Aug. 1, 2013

When Emily Marks became artistic director of the Austin Scottish Rite The­ater in January of last year, she hit the ground running. The space soon became a creative hub, offering an eclectic mix of family programming, music, and comedy. Summer days were booked with camps to develop the next generation of Austin creativity. By most measures, Marks' tenure was a success. So it came as a shock to many in the community when, last week, she was abruptly fired.

 

According to former Executive Producer John Riedie, also fired last week, that termination was the culmination of a months-long campaign against Marks, sparked by her attempts to run the theatre independently from the Scottish Rite fraternity. Although the Scottish Rite gifted the building to the nonprofit theatre, Masons retained control of the board. Riedie says Marks was raising alarms because Scottish Rite involvement threatened the theatre's mission.


Indeed, minutes of the June 18, 2012 Board of Directors meeting reflect that Marks addressed the board with concerns about bylaw changes deepening Scottish Rite involvement – including giving the Masons sole authority to choose board members, and applying Scottish Rite rent payments as donations. That meeting's minutes read, "The Executive Director does not feel comfortable applying for grants relating the mission of providing 'Community & Children's Theatre' if the charter purpose of the corporation is not be[ing] followed due to the involvement of the Scot­tish Rite in Board decisions and business."


Around that time, Marks' relationship with the Board and some members of the fraternity began to sour. Riedie describes a culture of intimidation. He says there were weekly complaints from Masons about Marks, and incidents when Masons would padlock equipment to prevent use. He remembers occasions when a Scottish Rite member would refuse to shake Marks' hand. As Riedie describes it, it was a "weird rodeo of bullshit. They had a Mad Men-esque, retrograde way of handling professional women. Some bullied her. I saw one man get in her face shaking with rage." Riedie says the harassment got to a point that he and Marks formed a mutual evacuation plan.


Although the Board was made aware of those occurrences, Riedie says they were never adequately addressed. What's more, the Board appeared to be covering its tracks. After both he and Marks were terminated, the theatre quickly severed all ties with productions involving the pair. Performances of Charlotte's Web, which featured Marks as a cast member, were cancelled with only two days notice. On July 24, 35 participants in Mother Falcon's Music Lab were turned away by Scottish Rite brothers with the explanation that the building was deemed unsafe. A subsequent call to the fire department, Riedie says, revealed that no inspection of the building had occurred prior to that Wednesday.


Meanwhile, the fate of the theatre as a cultural institution remains unknown. Riedie says that although his contract gave him 180 days to complete work already in progress after termination, he is unsure if that programming will be allowed to happen. The summer camp series was also interrupted, with one group, "Puppet Pandemonium," still struggling to find a home.

[ALT note: A Facebook page 'Boycott Scottish Rite Theatre' currently has 135 'likes.']

Robert Faires on Calling a Thing by its Name, Austin Chronicle, July 25, 2013

From Robert Faires' column All Over Creation, some lexical advice: what kind of town is Austin, anyway?

 

 

All Over Creation: What Do You Mean?

Shaking up the lexicon once in a while is necessary if we want to be clear

by Robert Faires

[ . . . . ] Robert Lynch, president and CEO of the national advocacy group Americans for the Arts, in his speech on cultural tourism at the Marchesa last Thursday[, . . . .] related an anecdote about meeting a couple of folks in an airport, and Austin came up. "Oh, we love Austin," they told him. "Great," he said. "When you're there, do you ever do anything related to the arts?" "No," they replied. "We never do the arts, because we're too busy doing music." 

Rimshot.

Sure, we know what those people meant, but it still points to this divide that persists between anything artistic in popular culture and what are called traditional fine-art disciplines, as if all those sounds being cranked out at clubs and concert halls every night couldn't be part of the arts. Naw, that stuff is church; what bands play is fun. If you want to know why I and a number of other advocates for arts and culture have been ramming the word "creative" down your throat as a surrogate for "artist" of late, that's the reason. After 30 years of culture wars in which the arts have been demonized as elitist and offensive, "artist" is too charged a term to be effective in most public discourse.

"Creative" as a noun – and sorry, lexicon cops, I gotta break the law on this one – not only dispenses with all that baggage, it's more reflective of our contemporary attitude toward who's engaged in artistic pursuits. It encompasses filmmakers, designers, craftspeople, chefs, knitters, mixologists, architects, slam poets, programmers, and, yes, singer-songwriters, as well as painters, playwrights, dancers, and classical musicians. 

What all these very different kinds of people do is creative, and these days they're much more likely to do it with one another – collaborating across discipline and form – than the artists of days past. If we want people in this city or elsewhere to gain a new appreciation for the expansiveness and pervasiveness of the arts in modern society and their profound impact in every corner of our culture – education, productivity, mental well-being, the economy, human values, entertainment – it behooves us to speak in terms that make our meaning as clear as possible. Sometimes that means setting aside favored words of old, words that in a sense point backward, in favor of words that are free of the barnacles of bad experiences and controversy, that can be heard without assumption, without prejudice, and point a way forward.

Read full text at the Austin Chronicle. . . .

Austin Print Journalists Anounce 2012-2013 Critics' Table Favorites

Theatre choices by reviewers for the Austin Statesman and the Austin Chronicle for 2012-2013, from the 'Critics' Table' list published by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin in the Austin Statesman:

THEATRE
Production, Drama (tie)
 
All My Sons, Palindrome Theatre
Rose Rage, The Hidden Room Theatre

Production, Comedy   Slip River, UT/David Mark Cohen New Works Festival

Production, Musical   Legally Blonde the Musical, Summer Stock Austin

Theatrical Event   Now Now Oh Now, Rude Mechanicals

Direction   Beth Burns, Rose Rage/Invisible, Inc.

Acting in a Leading Role 
Barbara Chisholm, The Importance of Being Earnest
Brock England, Rose Rage
Noel Gaulin, Accidental Death of an Anarchist/The Bear/Vodka, Fucking, and Television
Joey Hood, "I Am the Machine Gunner"

Acting in a Supporting Role 
Joey Banks, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Fran Dorn, The Edge of Peace
Robert Matney, Rose Rage
Laurence Pears, Rose Rage/Invisible, Inc.
Sydney Roberts, Urinetown: The Musical

Ensemble Performance   The Poison Squad, The Duplicates

Music Direction   Allen Robertson, Xanadu/Ragtime/Goodnight Moon

Movement   Cassie Abate, Urinetown: The Musical

David Mark Cohen New Play Award (tie) 
The Edge of Peace, Suzan Zeder
The Women of Juarez, Isaac Gomez and Bianca Sulaica

Touring Show, Theatre   Watch Me Fall, Action Hero/Fusebox Festival

DESIGN

Scenic Design   Thomas Graves, Michelle Marchesseault, Leilah Stewart, et al. (?) Now Now Oh Now

Costume Design   Susan Branch Towne, The Sound of Music/Xanadu/Ragtime

Lighting Design  The Duplicates, The Poison Squad

Sound Design   Buzz Moran, All My Sons/Under Construction/spacestation 1985

Video Design   Lowell Bartholomee, Vodka, Fucking, and Television

Special Citations

John Bustin Award for Exceptional Versatility   Jill Blackwood

W.H. "Deacon" Crain Award for Outstanding Student Work
 Isaac Gomez, UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Will Davis, UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Sophia Franzella, St. Edward's University
Lindsley Howard, St. Edward's University
Hannah Fonder, St. Edward's University

Visionary Vivifier Award   Caroline Reck and Glass Half Full Theatre

More Perfect Union Award   Thomas Graves and Hannah Kenah in Alfred and Agnes

Dress for Excess Award   Pam Friday, Seven Wonders of the World (Plus One)

Click to view full list, including choices for dance and music, at the Austin Statesman's www.Austin360 'Seeing Things' blog

Jennymarie Jemison - Qs and As with the Austin Chronicle, May 20, 2013

Austin actress and designer Jennymarie Jemison was interviewed by Wayne Alan Brenner of the Austin Chronicle for the All Over Creation blog, in connection with the Seattle showing of the film The Quiet Girl's Guide to Violence. Here are the Qs and As:

Austin Chronicle: Acting and graphic design aren't necessarily complementary skill sets, though you seem to have an instigating talent for both. How'd you choose to work in both areas?

Jennymarie Jemison: I always acted, all through high school – president of the thespians and all that – and then I was a National Merit Scholar. And, without really thinking about it, I decided I was gonna go to Southern Methodist University – because they have a bad-ass theatre program and it was just five hours away from my hometown in Arkansas. And most of my friends were going to the University of Arkansas, and I felt like I could go back and visit my friends, visit my parents, and still be at this bad-ass theatre school. But SMU was a school I did not belong in. I mean, my god. And I didn’t get into the theatre program. Long story about why I didn’t, but, um, I didn’t. And I couldn’t change schools, because once a National Merit Scholar designates the school they’re going to, they can’t change their mind. So I literally took out the course book and looked through it, trying to find some major, that wasn’t theatre, that I could live with. And I found the course description for the creative advertising track, and it seemed really interesting – and that was it.

AC: And from there, right into the industry?

JJ: Before I graduated, I was at a video-game company as an advertising intern. And by the time I graduated, I was the art director. I worked there for a year, did the box for the game Max Payne, and I was hired at Rockstar Games. So I moved to New York City in 2001 – the day before September 11th. I’d never been there before, and I was sixteen blocks away from the World Trade Center.

AC: Whoa. Jesus.

JJ: Yeah. [shakes her head] And I worked at Rockstar for three years. And I loved the work, and I loved the people I worked with. But the people that run that company? Are like the, I mean, I don’t even know if they’re human. They’re awful. It was soul-depleting to work there. I was in my early twenties, and I was like, “I don’t know if this is how I want to spend my youth, feeling like shit, and my best friend crying in the bathroom everyday.” It was horrible, just a very toxic workplace. So I left Rockstar and I was freelancing for Viacom and other tv networks, mostly Spike TV. And I didn’t know, like, how can I feel like I used to, when I was younger? I was only 25 and I was so burned out. And I was on the subway one day, and I saw a girl reading a script, and I thought, “Oh, yeah!” So I went to acting school – I went to Atlantic Theatre Company’s acting school that William H. Macy and David Mamet started, and it was great.

AC: And so again: You went to school, you graduated, and then boom?

JJ: I got some interviews with two commercial agents, and they both agreed to send me out on one freelance audition to see what would happen. And that first one I went on, I was completely terrified and intimidated – I was all meek, and the casting agent was like, “Why are you here?” But on the second one, without an agent, I was like, “Okay, that is not gonna happen again.” And it was for one of those Radio Shack commercials, where people would sit in a red chair and talk straight to the camera, and I booked it. And then I was in three national commercials, and I got the letter from SAG saying “You’d better join right now or you’re not gonna work anymore.” But I was broke. And then I moved to Texas, a right-to-work state.

AC: You moved here because the Screen Actors Guild –

JJ: I didn’t move here just to avoid SAG. I know that sounds terrible.

AC: And presumably that's not why you stay in Austin.

JJ: What keeps me in Austin is the theatre and the film scene – it’s amazing. And the community, that's the best thing about Austin. There’s nothing like this anywhere else. And once you’re a part of it, it’s pretty hard to not be a part of it. Even if, because of Quiet Girl, there was, like, the cool fantasy realized – where you get the deal, you get the money, you get to go and act in it yourself and not be replaced by Aubrey Plaza or whatever, the whole thing – I would still never leave Austin.

AC: And what if something happened, some weird Twilight Zone twist, where you couldn't work as an actor ever again and had to focus exclusively on your graphic-design work? What would you do?

JJ: I’d probably get someone in town to teach me – someone like Joe Swec – about sign painting. Because I love the transformative effects of signage in towns. The hand-lettering and typography on buildings that slowly erodes and crumbles and becomes part of the fabric of the town itself – instead of just the vinyl crap that people put up because it’s cheap. There are artists who completely transform cities that way. I’d invest in myself to learn that skill. I love watching people who do that well, love seeing the relics of old advertising. That’s the way it really works, doing advertising for a living and art at the same time? That’s where I see there being a marriage of the two that makes me happy. And sometimes it’s just pure art.

Reviews from Elsewhere: Jillian Owens on 'Colossal' by Andrew Hinderaker at the Cohen New Works Festival, University of Texas, March 25 - 29, 2013

Published March 28 in






Tackling Football’s Dark Side
 
Cohen New Works Festival: ‘Colossal’ reviewed

(photo: Josh Rasmussen via Austin Chronicle)

by Jillian Owens, 12:02PM, Wed. Mar. 27

If baseball is America’s pastime, then football is her guilty pleasure. Sure, it’s thrilling. But it’s also really fucking violent. It encourages players to muscle through concussions, and it encourages them to hate. Colossal, the spectacular play premiering at the Cohen New Works Festival, tackles these skeletons head-on.


It’s more of an event, really. As playwright Andrew Hinderaker said in a talkback after last night’s performance, Colossal is “intimate and epic at the same time.” He’s not exaggerating. Upon entering the performance space – a vast echoing studio in the prewar Anna Hiss Gym – audience members looked at one another and mouthed, “Damn, this is exciting.” Actors who look more like skinny football players ran the length of the room and caught balls and yelled and whistled and did push-ups, performing choreographed drills to the beat of a miniature drum line. We might have forgotten that we were at a play, not a football practice, save for one man dancing slowly, , through the glistening players.


Suddenly, as the team ran a play, they froze in mid-tackle, and a man in a wheelchair rolled through. This is Mike, played by Michael Patrick Thornton, a terrific Chicago-based actor who is disabled in real life, too. We learned that he’s constantly replaying an image of his younger self (Will Brittain) perform the act of recklessness that crippled him for life. Football was his passion – and a plague: Not only did he get hurt, but his dancer father (Steve Ochoa, the lone figure from the opening) disapproved. “I was the only son in the history of the United States,” Mike declared, “to disappoint his father by choosing football over dance.”


And so the story goes, in 15-minute quarters and a halftime show almost as good as Beyoncé’s. With direction from Will Davis, choreography by Andrea Beckham, and additional movement by Jeff Simon, Colossal is a shining example of the excellence that a department of theatre and dance can create when everyone works together. By far the most physically demanding play I’ve ever seen, it’s also a deeply character-driven work, especially when it comes to the cocky, impulsive younger Mike, impressively played by Brittain. (Where did this guy come from, a PacSun ad? Those abs belong in a magazine.) Hinderaker brings his love-hate relationship with football into conversation with other themes: repressed homosexuality, the narrow macho mindset, the danger of living in the past, the emotional and physical difficulty of rehabilitation. Colossal doesn’t denounce football – far from it. “Everybody loves football, even if they don’t know it yet,” says young Mike. The characters describe being hit as a blinding white light, searing pain, and then pleasure: “I’m not dead.” But football is complicated. It’s a compulsion, a joy, and, as Colossal makes us vividly aware, it’s also a game that hurts people.


Colossal will be performed Wednesday, March 27, 8:30pm, and Thursday, March 28, 8pm, in Anna Hiss Gym 134, UT campus. For more information, visit www.coopnwf.org.

Theatre Thinker - Profile of Travis Bedard by Dan Solomon, Austin Chronicle

Theatre Thinker


In the online dialogue about the art of the stage, Travis Bedard is a star

By Dan Solomon, Fri., Jan. 18, 2013

If you're reading this at two o'clock in the morning, there's a good chance that Travis Bedard is awake and on the Internet.


He's probably poring over a vast assortment of theatre blogs from around the world, but he might be on Twitter. If he is, he's either telling the more than 2,500 theatremakers who follow @TravisBedard about the best things he's read on those blogs or treating them to cranky, pithy bon mots framed as advice. ("Approaching what you do as though it's holy can be the beginnings of beauty. Forcing others to do the same never is.") Or he could be preparing a post for 2amtheatre.com, the theatre discussion blog for which he serves as managing editor. But it's a safe bet that, if it's the middle of the night, Travis Bedard is awake, online, and thinking about theatre.


The amount of time that Bedard spends thinking – and talking – about theatre has built him a not-insubstantial international following.


Read more at the Austin Chronicle on-line. . . .

Bonnie Cullum Tells Wayne Alan Brenner The Story of the Butterfly Bar at the Vortex Repertory, Austin Chronicle, January 11, 2013

The Bullet Hole in the Butterfly Bar
This East Austin joint's a good story you could be part of
by Wayne Alan Brenner, 11:00AM, Fri. Jan. 11

There's a bullet hole and there's a story that goes with the bullet hole, and Bonnie Cullum – artistic director of Vortex Repertory Company, owner of the multipurpose Vortex compound near where Chestnut Avenue intersects the restaurant-studded stretch of Manor Road – Bonnie Cullum is telling me that story.


"It happened in the Seventies," she says. "This bar was at The Landing on San Antonio's Riverwalk. And the story goes, there was a cat burglar who kept coming and breaking the pane of glass, opening the door and coming in and taking all the money out of the cigarette machine. So they hired a private security dude, because they were going to be closed over Christmas, and they thought it would happen again. And the security dude looked remarkably like Santa: Big fat guy, white beard, white hair. And nothing's going down, so he takes a little nap on the bandstand. And here comes the cat burglar, he's breaking into the cigarette machine, and Santa stands up, says 'Hold it right there!' – and he's got a gun. The burglar starts to run and Santa fires the gun towards the ceiling. It's a cement ceiling, and the bullet ricochets off that and goes through the bar and slices off the beer tap. The cat burglar's fainted from hearing the loud bang, he's out cold on the floor, the beer is hitting the ceiling and splashing down, and the burglar wakes up and there's Santa Claus staring down at him, holding a gun, and the beer's pouring down all over him."


That's the story – the story of the bullet hole in the bar at the Butterfly Bar, the Eastside watering hole attached to the Vortex theatre. But the Butterfly Bar has its own story, too – a much more recent one, a story that's still evolving, and we'll get to that soon enough. Right now, let's look at the bar, the impressive artifact itself. The joint's had this gorgeous wooden bar for a while – it used to belong to Cullum's father, renowned San Antonio jazz man Jim Cullum.

Read more at the Austin Chronicle on-line . . . .

Opinion: Elizabeth Cobbe Selects Top 10 Designer Contributions of 2012, Austin Chronicle

In today's weekly Austin Chronicle:

Top 10 Designer Contributions of 2012

Celebrating the year's most exquisite – and often surprising – stage designs

By Elizabeth Cobbe, Fri., Jan. 4, 2013


 

1) THE SEVEN DESIGNERS AND NINE ASSISTANTS FOR 'NOW NOW OH NOW' (Rude Mechanicals) The interactive set contained surprise after delightful surprise.

2) IA ENSTERÄ'S SET FOR 'THE TWELFTH LABOR' (Tutto Theatre Company) The roof of the family house seemed to disintegrate into the fly space.

3) ANN MARIE GORDON'S SET FOR 'WATER' (Vortex Repertory Company) The onstage waterfall introduced great potential for interaction with the dancers.

4) KATHRYN EADER'S LIGHTING FOR 'UNDER CONSTRUCTION' (Mary Moody Northen Theatre) The lighting tied together the work of a splendid design team.

5) DAVID UTLEY'S SET FOR 'THE PAVILION' (Penfold Theatre) Sometimes good, solid realism is just what you need.

6) K. ELIOT HAYNES' SOUND AND VIDEO FOR 'THE CRAPSTALL STREET BOYS' (Trouble Puppet Theater Company) One puppeteer carried a camera that projected onto a large screen, allowing for puppet close-ups.

7) GEORGE MARSOLEK'S SET FOR 'THE ATTIC SPACE' (Palindrome Theatre) The set showed literal layers, and Tara Cooper's puppets were also lovely in their detail.

8) HAYDEE ANTUNANO'S COSTUMES FOR 'PRIDE AND PREJUDICE' (Austin Shakespeare) I am a sucker for a good Empire waist dress.

9) PAM FLETCHER FRIDAY'S COSTUME FOR 'THE ALIEN BABY PLAY' (Tutto Theatre Company) By the end, the alien baby in utero glowed with colorful lights.

10) SUSAN BRANCH TOWNE'S COSTUMES FOR 'XANADU' (Zach Theatre) The centaur is what did it.

Opinion: Adam Roberts' Top 10 Ensembles of 2012, Austin Chronicle

In today's weekly Austin Chronicle:

 

Top 10 Ensembles of 2012

The year's most memorable groupings in classical music, dance, and theatre

By Adam Roberts, Fri., Jan. 4, 2013

In no order:

1) ENSEMBLE VIII Within a few years, we'll see this choral ensemble's name alongside the most distinguished in its genre. Thanks to James Morrow and the group's artists, we have – right here in Austin – a musical force that is on its way to world-class status in the field of early music.

Nathan Osborn, Babs George, Nathan Brockett (Palindrome Theatre)

2) THE CAST OF 'ALL MY SONS' (Palin­drome Theatre) Possibly the most striking aspect of a wholly fantastic staging.

3) JUPITER STRING QUARTET This chamber group's four members achieve both breadth and depth in their brilliant steering of intricate counterpoint.

4) THE DANCERS OF 'LIGHT/THE HOLOCAUST & HUMANITY PROJECT' (Ballet Austin) They delivered much grace in remembrance of a horrific tragedy.

5) THE CAST OF 'MIDDLETOWN' (Hyde Park Theatre) One of the largest ever in an HPT show, and every member was solid.

6) THE COMPANY OF 'TURANDOT' (Austin Lyric Opera) It brimmed with talented performers of all ages.

7) JILL BLACKWOOD, MARTIN BURKE, JASON CONNOR, AND AMY DOWNING IN 'THE SANTALAND DIARIES' (Zach Theatre) This foursome feted the final year of Zach's holiday staple in style.

8) CONSPIRARE AND AUSTIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA These groups joined forces for a massive, power-charged concert of Bach, Bernstein, Stokowski, and Stravinsky.

9) THE CAST OF 'LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL' (Summer Stock Austin) The kids sang and danced to the bubblegum-pop score with the energy of a nonstop sugar rush.

10) THE STORY WRANGLERS (Paramount Theatre) This group gives voice – and wonderfully silly staging – to stories by elementary school kids throughout Austin.

Opinion: Dan Solomon's Top 10 Arts Events of 2012, Austin Chronicle

In today's weekly Austin Chronicle:

Top 10 Arts Events of 2012

Remembering the year onstage in dynamic acting, atmospheric design, and unexpected beauty

By Dan Solomon, Fri., Jan. 4, 2013

in no order:

Zac Crofford (Trouble Puppet Theatre Co.)

1) FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY FOR 'TOIL AND TROUBLE' (Trouble Puppet Theater Company) Trouble Puppet has proven itself good at everything, and when it pulls off the unexpected – like compelling, well-articulated stage combat – it just serves notice that they're still finding new ways to impress you.

2) NOEL GAULIN IN EVERYTHING Gaulin had a hell of a year – screaming, jumping, moving-as-if-on-strings, and otherwise turning himself into a live-action cartoon character in The Bear, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and Vodka, Fucking, and Television.

3) RACHEL WEISE'S DIRECTION Yeah, my wife wrote one of the lovely plays Weise directed this year, The Man Who Planted Trees. But I also loved her staging of The Bear by Anton Chekhov, and I've never even met him.

4) THE SCRIPT FOR 'MESSENGER NO. 4 (OR ... HOW TO SURVIVE A GREEK TRAGEDY)' (Cambiare Productions) Will Hollis Snider's charming and inventive epic blended Back to the Future, The Matrix, and Euripedes into something altogether new.

5) THE FINAL MINUTES OF 'JUBILEE' (Rub­ber Repertory) Making your cast jump up and down for an interminable amount of time sounds boring, and making boring-sounding things beautiful was what Jubilee did best.

6) THE ATMOSPHERE OF 'DREAM CABINET' (Salvage Vanguard Theater) Few productions set a mood more effectively.

7) EVERYTHING ABOUT 'LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL' (Summer Stock Austin) I'm not made of stone, you guys.

8) BETH BRODERICK IN 'JUST OUTSIDE REDEMPTION' (Theatre en Bloc) Broderick stole every scene by balancing charm, humor, and gravity.

9) KACY TODD IN 'HOLIER THAN THOU' (Poison Apple Initiative) Todd carried the emotional climax of a play consisting of interconnected monologues – no mean feat.

10) SOUND DESIGN FOR 'SPACESTATION1985' (Natalie George Presents) I didn't love the play, but the sound by Buzz Moran made the outer space setting come to life.

Opinion: Jillian Owens' Top 10 (+1) Theatrical Joys of 2012, Austin Chronicle

In today's weekly Austin Chronicle:

 

Top 10 (+1) Theatrical Joys of 2012

Recalling a year of Shakespeare on bikes, masterful Miller, and a one-woman eco-soap

Liz Beckham (photo: Bret Brookshire)

By Jillian Owens, Fri., Jan. 4, 2013

In chronological order:

1) PUPPET THEATRE Connor Hopkins (Trouble Puppet Theater Company) and Caroline Reck (Glass Half Full Theatre) have done Jim Henson proud this year with original works The Crapstall Street Boys and FupDuck.

2) LIZ BECKHAM The charming actress stormed Austin stages this year in Arcadia, Dividing the Estate, and Pride and Prejudice.

3) 'CL1000P'/'NOW NOW OH NOW' (Rude Mechanicals) The Rudes' colorful February workshop evolved into May's epic mystery, in which the audience accidentally let a character die.

4) 'THE ALIENS' (Hyde Park Theatre) I laughed. I cried. And so did everyone else, thanks to Ken Webster and the dynamic trio of Jon Cook, Jude Hickey, and Joey Hood.

5) 'MIDSUMMER IN MOTION' (Austin Bike Zoo) Killer Queen Rudy Ramirez, who directed, combined well-performed Shakespeare with stunning visuals: Sky Candy stunts and creatures escaped from the Austin Bike Zoo.

6) 'THE SOUND OF MUSIC' (Zilker Theatre Productions) I loved it unequivocally.

7) 'ALL MY SONS' (Palindrome Theatre) The company's penultimate production was a masterful reissue of Arthur Miller's tragedy. Nigel O'Hearn's contributions to Austin theatre will be missed.

8) 'ROSE RAGE' (The Hidden Room Theatre) This famously melted my face off. I am still recovering.

9) ZACH'S TOPFER THEATRE Cheers to Eric Scott's special events team, which produced to perfection two back-to-back celebrations, unhindered by even the most obnoxious thunderstorm.

10) HEATHER WOODBURY'S 'AS THE GLOBE WARMS' (Vortex Repertory Company) The one-woman theatrical soap opera was addictive enough to keep me (and Richard Linklater) coming back for more.

11) 'The POISON SQUAD' (The Duplicates) A beautiful/grotesque workshop production from this theatrical supergroup. Look for a full production at Fusebox 2013.

Opinion: Robert Faires' Top10 Theatrical Wonders of 2012, Austin Chronicle

In today's weekly Austin Chronicle:

 

Top 10 Theatrical Wonders of 2012

History plays with contemporary urgency and giddy surprises made the year memorable in theatre

By Robert Faires, Fri., Jan. 4, 2013


1) 'ROSE RAGE' (The Hidden Room Theatre) Shakespeare's left-for-dead histories of Henry VI charged to vital, absorbing life by director Beth Burns and the year's most vigorous, committed ensemble. Her Original Practices crew made arcane family feuds over the English crown as urgent as this season's high-stakes political battles and made four hours race by.

2) 'RAGTIME' (Zach Theatre) More than a showpiece for the new Topfer Theatre's bells and whistles, this deeply felt drama of humanity and history threaded together in a tapestry by turns tragic and inspirational said as much about us today as about Americans a century past.

3) BERNADETTE PETERS/BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL (Zach Theatre) Broadway royalty blessed Zach's Topfer Theatre in separate concerts with distinct characters – the queen's poised and glamorous, the king's informal and boisterous – but the same peerless musical-theatre artistry in this deliriously intimate space.

4) 'NOW NOW OH NOW' (Rude Mechanicals) A mind-tickling foray into the natures of beauty, society, evolution, and chance, with attendees teamed in quests, teased with puzzles, toasted with cordials, and treated to a series of giddy surprises.

5) 'SUPER NIGHT SHOT' (Fusebox Festival) Visiting troupe Gob Squad played tricksters along SoCo, drawing passersby into an improvised drama, captured in realtime on video, then screened on completion. Wicked fun.

6) 'THE ALIENS' (Hyde Park Theatre) A detailed portrait of friendship, etched in silences more than words. Beautifully acted, with a fearless Jude Hickey scratching 130 layers under his character's skin just by repeating "ladder."

7) 'JUBILEE' (Rubber Repertory) Watching this show felt rather like spying on endurance tests at a theatre camp, but its odd exercises also tapped some essence of drama in presenting the thrillingly unexpected and unpredictable.

8) 'BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON' (Doctuh Mistuh Productions) Screw the history books. This gloriously messy musical reveled in irreverence, ditching the same-old, same-old "Old Hickory" for an emo rock god, fiercely embodied by David Gallagher.

9) 'UNDER CONSTRUCTION' (Mary Moody Northen Theatre) Another exhilarating spin with director David Long and playwright Charles Mee, this time across the USA, circa midcentury, joyously celebrating and subverting those happy days and American values.

10) 'BOTTLED-IN-BOND: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF A THUG AS TOLD IN FIVE DRINKS' (Fusebox Festival) Patrons were drafted to act out a cornball melodrama of love among thieves, but who minded when served with such good humor, sweet theatricality, and intoxicating craft cocktails? As fun as audience participation gets.

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