Madrigal Theatre Play and Musical Auditions, January 15 - 17, 2013

Calling all University of Texas at Austin students! 

UT's Madrigal Theatre Committee is holding auditions for its two original, student-written productions to debut this spring! For the first time ever, our committee is simultaneously producing an original play and an original musical, and we're looking for performers of all experience levels to cast these exciting new shows! Auditions for both shows will take place across three days in the Student Activity Center on campus. You must be a UT student to audition but do not need to be any particular major.

 


Auditions for the musical Agon:
Tuesday Jan. 15: SAC 1.118, 7-10 p.m.; Wednesday Jan. 16: SAC 1.118, 7-10 p.m.; Thursday Jan. 17: SAC 1.118, 8-11 p.m.

The Madrigal play auditions:
Tuesday Jan. 15: SAC 1.106, 7-10 p.m.; Wednesday Jan. 16: SAC 1.106, 7-10 p.m.; Thursday Jan. 17: SAC 1.106, 7-10 p.m.

Those auditioning for the musical should plan to show up promptly at the beginning of the audition block (7:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, 8pm on Thursday) on their selected audition day, prepared to sing 32 bars or 30 seconds to a minute of a song that showcases their voice. Beyond that, auditions for both the play and the musical will consist of cold reads. No monologue necessary.

The musical Agon tells the story of a high school class election that takes place in a dystopian future where nerds have taken control of society. The play has been picked from several exciting submissions, all of which are written by UT students. The Madrigal play will perform April 10 and 11 in the SAC Auditorium. The musical, Agon, performs April 18, 19, 20 in the SAC Auditorium as well.

Join us for these exciting new productions! Contact Reid O'Conor at reidoconor@utexas.edu or Matt Hill at mattbhill@live.com for more information on Madrigal Theatre auditions, or visit us at our website or at Facebook.

Upcoming: Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally, Austin Theatre Project at MC Church, May 25 - June 10

presents

 

 

Corpus Christi

by Terrence McNally
directed by Jeff Hinkle
MCC Austin at Freedom Oaks, 8601 S. First Street (click for map)

May 25 - June 10, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.
Saturday matinee on June 2 at 2 p.m.

Tickets from $26.87 for students/seniors to $37.22 for premium seating

available now via

Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi is perhaps his most moving and controversial play, telling the story of Joshua, a young gay boy in 1950's Corpus Christi, TX. He is ridiculed, bullied, and hated by most of the people in his hometown and after he finishes high school, he flees... seeking people to share his message of tolerance and unconditional love. During his travels he finds a group of followers who help to spread his message. The time comes for him to return home and when he does so, he is betrayed by his high school boyfriend, Judas... with tragic results. Written in 1997, the themes of unconditional love and tolerance are honestly presented alongside the themes of bullying and hate crime, all of which make this work even more relevant today than it was fifteen years ago.

Austin Chronicle Picks for the Best of 2011

All over the map -- a good thing! -- as published January 5 by

10 (+7) Theatrical Wonders, by Robert Faires

10 Notable Theatrics, by Adam Roberts

10 Theatrical Delights of the Latter Half of 2011, by Jillian Owens

10 Arts Events, by Wayne Alan Brenner

Opinion: Robert Faires' Reflections on the Collective Nature of the Theatre Experience, Austin Chronicle, September 22

Published by the Austin Chronicle:

All Over Creation: Come Together

You're not alone in the theatre, and there's power in that

by Robert Faires

Having Helen Merino return to the role of Hamlet for Austin Shakespeare now – the production runs Sept. 22-Oct. 9 at the Long Center's Rollins Theatre – isn't in itself unusual. A few dozen blocks away, Emily Erington, Kelsey Kling, and Rebecca Robinson are back together as the sisters in Marion Bridge (see Exhibitionism for Elizabeth Cobbe's review), a play they first performed at Hyde Park Theatre in 2002 under director Ken Webster, who revisits past parts himself fairly often. Actors reprise roles all the time. What's curious about Merino slipping back into the inky cloak of the melancholy Dane is the timing: It's 10 years to the month of her initial stab at the role (a point chronicled on our Sept. 28, 2001, cover). Given all the recent remembrances of the tragic events of that September, Merino's return to Denmark sounds a strange echo of the first.

To my ears, anyway – I was in that earlier production of Hamlet, along with my wife, Barbara Chisholm, and our daughter, Rosalind, then just 8. My memories of it will be forever linked to 9/11 because the tragedy occurred two days before our Hamlet was to open. That day and the next, those of us in the show had no idea if people would want to see any play, much less one trafficking in as much blood and misery as Hamlet. Still, we were show folk, so we did what show folk do: rehearse and trust that somebody would show up on opening night. And much to our amazement, somebody did. Not in great numbers, but people came, and they seemed not only to want to be there but to need to be there – to be with others, sharing the pain they felt in a public place. Moreover, they needed to share a healing experience that would balance that shattering experience the entire country had shared. Hamlet may seem a curious choice for a balm, but its exploration of murder, of revenge, of grief, of our fragile mortality, all treated with such humanity, made it a cleansing drama in that moment.

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

An Annual Report: ALTcom in 2010

AustinLiveTheatre became a "sponsored project" of the Austin Creative Alliance last year, a status it shares with many another small theatre concern here. One advantage is exemption from sales taxes, derivative from the umbrella organization's status as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. The Creative Alliance can also serve as monitor and guarantor of grants made by the City, collecting a 10% fee for its own overhead for that service.

For any theatre group without the half-million dollar turnover and permanent staff required by the City to qualify for direct grants, the $120 membership fee to the Alliance for sponsored projects is a pretty good deal. You reach your break-even in this world of 8.25% sales tax by the time that you spend just over $1400 to purchase otherwise taxable materials for your project.

Your contract with the Alliance requires an annual report of your activities as a sponsored project. I've just submitted ALT's report, which you can read here at your leisure. Meanwhile, following good business practice, ALT presents this executive summary:

ALT provides to locally-produced narrative theatre events a number of free services:

• full-page "upcoming" announcements with images, posted both on interior pages at ALTcom and on the front page of the blog (www.austinlivetheatre.blogspot.com)
• front-page icons linked to upcoming performances of theatre for youth or by youth
• display of a poster icon on the ALTcom "front page" for two weeks before opening and throughout the run
• listing on the comprehensive Austin Theatre Calendar covering the upcoming two months of performances
• publication of photo features
• posting of clickable audio and video features either in "upcoming" announcements or as separate feature articles
• ALT reviews of local theatre productions and notification of their publication directly to the producing company and to the 225 followers on Twitter of @ALTcom
• links to theatre reviews published elsewhere, posted immediately at the foot of the ALT review and at the top of the "upcoming" announcement
  
• facsimile publication of event programs, scanned as .pdf files and held on the ALTcom server
• arts news coverage, both original and excerpted, with appropriate links to full coverage
• announcement sof auditions and educational opportunities
• The Guide to Austin Stages, a work in progress available via a "front-page" link (because of the press of ALT administrative work, the most recent update was in September, 2010)
• coverage of Austin productions of Shakespeare and Shakespeare-related theatre for www.playShakespeare.com

Readership fluctuates from day to day and in the course of the week, with 250-400 hits daily at ALTcom and 150-200 at the blog. Monthly total hits are approximately 13,000.

Expenditures for 2010 were about $6225, including $990 in donations to nine non-profit theatre groups and to two schools. ALTcom had zero income in 2010 but received in-kind donations of 27 complimentary theatre tickets.

ALT published 870 articles in 2010.

These included 578 "upcoming" features in 2010 for the greater Austin area, announcing narrative theatre productions within a periphery established by the cities of Killeen, Salado, Georgetown, Smithville, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Wimberley, Lakeway, Cottonwood Shores near Marble Falls, and Leander. ALT provided "upcoming" features for five theatres of interest in San Antonio.

ALT wrote 115 reviews of theatre productions.

Other categories of articles: arts reporting, 87 (including 9 on the controversy concerning criteria for City of Austin grants funded by the hotel and occupancy tax); auditions and opportunities, 34; classes and education,. 22; opinion pieces from elsewhere, 17; reviews from elsewhere, 10; postings at www.playShakespeare.com, 8; books of interest to theatre artists and scholoars, 3; video features not in "upcoming" articles, 3; and the Guide to Austin Theatre (a work in progress).

Approaching its third anniversary of operation, ALT acknowledges that it has reached the performance limits of its structure as a non-commercial single-proprietor service to Austin arts. I am looking for ways to reduce workload or to find additional resources.