CYBERFEST, Ethos at the Vortex, September 20 - 28, 2013

ethos presents

Cyber-Fest 2013

An Audio-Visual Immersion Event
September 20-28, 2013 9 p.m.
Friday-Sunday, September 20-22 and Thursday-Saturday, September 26-28
Join us for cocktails with the artists after the shows
The VORTEX, 2307 Manor Rd. Austin, TX 78722 - click for map Free Parking. Bus Route. The Butterfly Bar@The VORTEX--open nightly at 5 pm
Tickets: $30-$10: $30 Priority Seating, $20 General Admission , $10 Artists/Students
Available at www.vortexrep.org or 512-478-5282. Advance Purchase Recommended.
Radical Rush—Limited Free tickets available nightly at 8pm.
The VORTEX rocks the doors wide open for CyberFest-- an audio-visual emersion event. This extraordinary live musical performance features fantastical costumes, stunning lighting, spectacular hyper-real imagery, cybernetic movement, and electronic music-- showcasing the original work of ethos, an Austin-based performance troupe headed by composer and visionary Chad Salvata. A blend of electronic media and live performance transcends a typical theatrical or musical experience. This concert-style show invites the audience to dance, drink, tweet, and take photos. In fact, there will be an Instagram photo contest during the performances. The Grand Prize will be a Cybernetic Makeover and photo session as well as a collection of ethos CDs.
Since 1995, Chad Salvata has been shaping ethos’ unique work and vision. CyberFest includes great songs from ethos’ award-winning cybernetic operas including The Black Blood, Panoptikon, Triskelion, and Elytra as well as Pythia Dust, Pink Sun, and The Dragonfly Queen. Additionally, CyberFest presents a sneak preview of three new songs from ethos’ upcoming film Octia of the Pink Ocean, the long-awaited sequel to Elytra and even a rocking new version of a Salvata classic, Invisible House. Over the past 20 years, ethos has received many B. Iden Payne Awards and Austin Critics’ Table Awards for Outstanding Original Scores, Costume Design, Performance, and Multi-media Excellence.
CyberFest features a cast of ethos all-stars including Melissa Vogt-Paterson, Anderson Dear, Betsy McCann, Eryn Gettys, JoBeth Henderson, Mick D’arcy, Justin LaVergne, Emerald Mystiek, Trey Deason, Gabriel Maldonado, Aisha Melhem, and Chad Salvata. With Tyler Mabry on Keyboards and Matthew Patterson on Percussion.
Directed by Bonnie Cullum. Lighting Design by Jason Amato. Video Design by Sergio R. Samayoa. Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Costume Coordination by Talena Martinez. Sound Design by Roy Talyor. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley.
Tickets and more information www.vortexrep.org
CyberFest is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company and by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division, believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin's future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

EARTH, conceived by Bonnie Cullum, Vortex Repertory, March 22 - April 20, 2013

(Vortex Repertory Company, 2307 Manor Rd.)
presents

Earth

Conceived and Directed by Bonnie Cullum. Original Music by Chad Salvata and Chris Humprey

March 22 - April 20, 2013

Vortex Repertory Company, 2307 Manor Rd., Thursdays - Sundays, 8 p.m.

VORTEX Repertory Company presents the world premiere of EARTH, a new multi-disciplinary show performed in a mountain of dirt. The audience surrounds an actual mound of moist earth that engages the senses as performers sing, dance, play, and tell stories of the Earth from diverse global mythologies.

Conceived and directed by Bonnie Cullum, EARTH is the next in VORTEX’s The Elementals, a series of devised works with sacred intention. As we embrace the power and magic of the elemental forces of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit, we intertwine ritual and environmental action with our theatrical art.

Tickets:

$30-$25 Priority Seating, $15-$20 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists

2-for-1 admission on Thursdays and Sundays with donation of 2 canned goods for SafePlace.

ASL Interpreted April 5


EARTH features a stellar cast of VORTEX Repertory Company members-- Mick D’arcy, Anderson Dear, Gabriel Maldonado, Betsy McCann, Emerald Mystiek, Mindy Rast-Keenan, and Melissa Vogt-Patterson with the VORTEX debut of Aisha Melhem.

Conceived and Directed by Bonnie Cullum. 

Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Jason Amato. Costume Design by Talena Martinez. Choreography by Toni Bravo. Original Music by Chad Salvata and Chris Humphrey. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley. Production photography by Kimberley Mead.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Water (the elementals series), Vortex Repertory, September 1 - 29

Vortex Repertory Company

presents the world premier of

  

WATER

Get Ready to Be Wet!

September 1-29, 2012 Thursdasy-Sundays 8 pm
The VORTEX, 2307 Manor Rd. Austin, TX 78722 (click for map)

Tickets: $30-$25 Priority Seating, $15-$20 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists
Available at www.vortexrep.org or call 512-478-5282

Limited seating. Advanced Purchase Recommended.

Free Parking. Bus Route. The Butterfly Bar @ The VORTEX (open nightly at 5pm)

[image posted on Facebook by Vortex Repertory]

Splash Zone!

WATER is next in The Elementals series that Bonnie Cullum has been crafting with VORTEX Repertory Company for several years (AIR and FIRE). In September, VORTEX artists flood the stage with actual water and shimmering effects. The actors dance through water-- swimming the depths, relishing life force, honoring Water in many forms, and engaging the audience in a visceral journey of cleansing, healing, and heart. Devised in collaboration with the ensemble and designers and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, WATER teams Cullum with long-time collaborator Toni Bravo to create a show unlike anything ever seen at The VORTEX.

WATER features a stellar cast of ShapeShifters including VORTEX veterans Andy Agne, Anderson Dear, Krysta Gonzales, Gabriel Maldonado, Chelsea Manasseri, Betsy McCann, Emerald Mystiek, Minerva Villa, and Joanna Wright with the VORTEX debuts of Rebecca Goldstein, Monza Lui, and Caleb Perkins.

Conceived and Directed by Bonnie Cullum. Choreography by Toni Bravo. Original Music by Chad Salvata. Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Jason Amato. Costume Design by Talena Martinez. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley. Photography by Kimberley Mead.

WATER is funded and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin's future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

Vortex Repertory Company announces

the world premier of

WATER

Get Ready to Be Wet!

When: September 1-29, 2012 Thursday-Sunday 8pm

Where: The VORTEX, 2307 Manor Rd. Austin, TX 78722

Free Parking. Bus Route.

The Butterfly Bar @ The VORTEX (open nightly at 5pm)

Tickets: $30-$10

$30-$25 Priority Seating, $15-$20 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists

Available at www.vortexrep.org or call 512-478-5282

Limited seating. Advanced Purchase Recommended.

Splash Zone!

WATER is next in The Elementals series that Bonnie Cullum has been crafting with VORTEX Repertory Company for several years (AIR and FIRE). In September, VORTEX artists flood the stage with actual water and shimmering effects. The actors dance through water-- swimming the depths, relishing life force, honoring Water in many forms, and engaging the audience in a visceral journey of cleansing, healing, and heart. Devised in collaboration with the ensemble and designers and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, WATER teams Cullum with long-time collaborator Toni Bravo to create a show unlike anything ever seen at The VORTEX.

WATER features a stellar cast of ShapeShifters including VORTEX veterans Andy Agne, Anderson Dear, Krysta Gonzales, Gabriel Maldonado, Chelsea Manasseri, Betsy McCann, Emerald Mystiek, Minerva Villa, and Joanna Wright with the VORTEX debuts of Rebecca Goldstein, Monza Lui, and Caleb Perkins.

Conceived and Directed by Bonnie Cullum. Choreography by Toni Bravo. Original Music by Chad Salvata. Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Jason Amato. Costume Design by Talena Martinez. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley. Photography by Kimberley Mead.

WATER is funded and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin's future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

Upcoming: Sarah Silver Hands by Chad Salvata, Vortex Repertory Theatre, October 8 - 30

Found on-line:

VORTEX Theatre stages world premiere of faery tale opera

Sarah Silver Hands

by Chad Salvata

Vortex Repertory Theatre, 2307 Manor Rd. (click for map)

October 8 - 30, Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $30 to $25 for priority seating, $20 to $15 for general admission and $10 for starving artists and students.

Click to purchase on-line at the Vortex

Performances on Thursdays and Sundays are "2-for-1" with the donation of two non-perishable food items for the SafePlace Pantry.

For reservations and more information, call (512) 478-LAVA (5282) or visit www.VortexRep.org.

In the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, the VORTEX Theatre unleashes a dark faery tale world for the world premiere of Sarah Silver Hands. Revolving around the Cornucopia Tree and telling the story of Princess Sarah of the Autumn Kingdom, the original operatic work takes the stage from October 8th through 30th.

Sarah Silver Hands continues the long line of original operas with fantasy themes and magical realism by award-winning artist Chad Salvata. The creator, composer, and orchestrator of the music and libretto, Salvata has been recognized with many awards for artistic excellence including B. Iden Payne Awards for "Outstanding Original Score" for Vampyress and The Dragonfly Princess and an Austin Critics' Table Award for "Outstanding Original Score" for Pythia Dust.

Directed by award-winning VORTEX Producing Artistic Director Bonnie Cullum, Sarah Silver Hands stars award-winning actress Betsy McCann as "Spyril" and introduces Christine Achico as "Sarah." The original cast will also feature Melissa Vogt-Patterson, Rudy Ramirez, Anderson Dear, Hayley Armstrong, Justin LaVergne, Christina Leidel, Andy Agne and Joanna Wright.

The lavish fantasy designs feature a multi-dimensional Cornucopia Tree by Ann Marie Gordon, lighting designs by Jason Amato, sound design by Sergio R. Samayoa, fantasy costumes by Talena Martinez and Chad Salvata, and mask creations by Melissa Vogt-Patterson. The performances also feature percussion by Matthew Patterson, makeup design by Helen Hutka and prop design by Helen Parish.

Sarah Silver Hands is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The award is The VORTEX Theatre's second award from the NEA.

The world premiere performances will be staged on Saturday, October 8th, with performances continuing on Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. through October 30th.

Upcoming: The Elementals: Air, Vortex Repertory, February 18 - March 20

Found on-line:

presents the world premiere of

The Elementals: AIR

Sacred Dance Theatre
conceived andd irected by Bonnie Cullum, music by Chris Humphrey
Feb.18-Mar.20, 2011; Thursdays-Sundays @ 8 p.m.

Tickets: $30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists
Thursdays and Sundays 2-for-1 admission with donation of 2 non-perishable food items for SafePlace Pantry.

Limited seating. Advanced purchase recommended.

[image: "Towering Clouds," Shi Yali, www.stockphoto.com

Fresh Breezes. Heavenly Song. Fearless Flying.
Storm Winds. Gentle Floating. Sweet Scent.
Pulsating Didgeridoo. Glowing Sunrise.
Soaring Eagle. Starfinder.

The Elementals: AIR celebrates the gifts and stories of Air through dance, song, poetry, and sacred intention. AIR features aerial dance, live music, poetic narrative, and illuminating imagery on a multi-level playground. Environmental themes focus on the precious Elemental Forces of Air. Spirits of the Air include Eagle, Butterfly, Sylph, Dragon, Phoenix, Harpy, Angel, and Airbender. AIR is the first in a unique series of five sacred elemental explorations (Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Spirit) to be created collaboratively with performers and designers over the next several years at The Vortex.

The Elementals: AIR features VORTEX veteran performers Gabriel Maldonado, Betsy McCann, Andy Agne, Jennifer Coy, Krysta Gonzales, Justin LaVergne, and Alejandro Rodriguez. Making their VORTEX debuts with AIR: Celeste Bliss, Bethany Summersizzle, Courtney Brock, Joanna Wright, Kylie Baker, Jenny Lavery, and Carole Metellus.

Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony and Jason Amato. Costume Design by Talena Martinez.

The Elementals: AIR is funded in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Planet of the Mermaids, Electronic Planet Ensemble at the Vortex Repertory, January 14 - 29

Electronic Planet Ensemble is the group of Austin cool rockers who invented the "music of the spheres" genre.

Like the earth itself, they come orbiting through the Vortex once a year with another adventure in space and time. In January 2009 it was Spaceman Dada Robot; in January 2010 it was Surfin' UFO. In October 2009, breaking that pattern with a bit of space-time insouciance, they sailed by in a reprise of their In.Car.Nation, a rumbling hymn to classic cars with spaceship shapes.

For Planet of the Mermaids, Saga-man David Jewel and cyber-man Sergio R. Samayoa look to be generating the concepts and pushing the envelopes, while composer/bassist Chad Salvata and wild woman percussionist Rachel Fuhrer give the stories and the melodies waves to sail upon.

It's invigorating, subtly comic, ironic stuff. The crowd last Thursday in the Vortex at Planet of the Mermaids was doing a lively theatre-seat boogy of its own, calling out encouragement and adoring the hot pastel big screen images for the newest modulation.

The magic for me of EPE's previous creations was the melding of word images, melody and rhythm. David Jewell's laconic verse and wryly reflective spoken images open your mind up the way a mild dose of psylocbin might do, while your autonomous nervous system grasps that rock 'n' roll sound track. Jewell's photos and Samayoa's images paint the background.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Ongoing: Vampyress by Chad Salvata, Ethos Productions at Vortex Repertory, october 15 - November 13

Found on-line:

Ethos
in association with VORTEX Repertory Company
announces the long-awaited revival of

Vampyress

an opera by Chad Salvata
directed by Bonnie Cullum

October 15 - November 13
at the Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd.

Free Parking. Bus Route. Café & Bar with beer, wine, and food.

Tickets available at 512-478-LAVA (5282) or www.vortexrep.org

$30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists

Thursdays and Sundays 2-for-1 admission with donation of 2 non-perishable food items. Limited seating. Advance purchase recommended.

Based on the true story of The Bloody Countess, Erzsebet Bathori, this original opera is a tale of horror, murder, and magic created by award-winning Ethos composer and designer Chad Salvata. Vampyress received accolades when it debuted at The Vortex in 2005, including winning B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Original Score (Chad Salvata), Outstanding Lead Actress (Melissa Vogt-Patterson), and Outstanding Supporting Actress (Betsy McCann).

Born in 16th-century Hungary, this Bloody Countess, Bathori, murdered hundreds of young women and bathed in their blood in order to sustain her youth and beauty. This historical figure has been both vilified and honored over the centuries. Salvata’s embellishment of her notorious downfall produces a powerful and mysterious work of storytelling.

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

Upcoming: Sleeping Beauty, Vortex Repertory, April 2 - May 9

UPDATE: The Vortex has extended Sleeping Beauty to May 9

Click for ALT review, April 11

UPDATE: Review by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin Statesman's "Seeing Things" blog, April 8

UPDATE: Jeanne Claire van Ryzin interviews Bonnie Cullum about Sleeping Beauty, April 1

UPDATE: Lisa Schepps on KOOP-FM interviews leading singer-actors Jonathan Itchon and Julia Lorenz, as well as creators Bonnie Cullum and Content Love Knowles on her program "Off Stage and On the Air," March 29

Received directly:

Vortex Repertory Company
presents

Sleeping Beauty

A new musical faery tale
by Bonnie Cullum and Content Love Knowles
April 2 - May 9 Thursdays-Sundays 8 p.m.
ASL-Interpreted Saturday, May 10, 2010
Audio Description Saturday, May 17, 2010
Faery Masque Ball on Saturday, May 1
The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd. Austin 78722. Free Parking. Bus Route. Lovely café.

Tickets: $30-$10 Available at 512-478-LAVA (5282) or www.vortexrep.org
$30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists. Thursdays and Sundays 2-for-1 admission with donation of 2 non-perishable food items. Limited seating.

VORTEX Repertory Company proudly presents Sleeping Beauty, a magical new musical by Bonnie Cullum and Content Love Knowles. Loosely based on the Grimm Brothers’ faery tale, this dynamic production joins the musical theatre cannon with a feminist, revisionist re-telling of a well-beloved faery tale. While this production is not designed for children (scary faeries), we welcome audiences of all ages (PG-13 with no nudity or foul language). This is not your mama’s faery tale.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, Different Stages at the City Theatre, January 8 - 30

Sarah Ruhl's version of the Eurydice myth begins as a fable. Nicole Swahn, the childishly enthusiastic and simple-minded Eurydice, frolics at the beach with Bastion Carboni as her beau, the music geek Orpheus. They're on their way to an unreflecting storybook wedding. Little matter that she has no comprehension of the music in his head and apparently no head for her own history.

In part, because she's not getting the mail. We learn that Eurydice's father, a deceased man without a name, has been writing letters to her from the underworld. A bit of a simple dreamer himself, he has somehow proven resistant to the anesthetic properties of the River Lethe. Dad remembers her; he remembers and enacts his dreams of squiring her to her wedding. He even remembers how to read and to write, aptitudes that are supposed to drop away in the shades. His epistles, trusted to the worms for delivery, are regularly intercepted by a smirking, swaggering Marc Balester.

This is an imaginative turn on the ancient myth. By tradition, Orpheus with his musical gift is the protagonist of the story, charming his way into the afterlife and almost retrieving his wife. Ruhl's reformulation is a curious mash-up of myth, coming-of-age fable and naive Christian tale-telling. Concentrating on the father-daughter relation, she is exploring the persistence of memory and of human attachment in the face of death.

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

Images: Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, Different Stages at the City Theatre, January 8 - 30

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, January 11

Received directly from Different Stages:
images by Brett Brookshire

for

Eurydice
a dramatic comedy by Sarah Ruhl

performances January 8 – 30, 2009

Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
The City Theater, 3823 Airport Blvd., Ste. D. (map)

Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30

Experience the fantastic and hallucinatory myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine, Eurydice. Eurydice journeys through the jaws of death into the Underworld where she happily reunites with her father who teaches her about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory. There, washed in the river of forgetfulness, she struggles to remember her lost love.

When Orpheus returns to rescue her, she must decide whether to stay with her beloved father or return to the land of the living.

Things become more complicated when the malevolent Lord of the Underworld wants Eurydice for his bride, and a chorus of stones try to coerce her into conforming to the rigid rules of the Underworld. With humor, contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

Directed by Karen Jambon (Miss Witherspoon) Eurydice features Nicole Swahn (An Inspector Calls) as the title character. Bastion Carboni (Poison Apple Initiative) plays the musician Orpheus. Norman Blumensaadt (A Number) is Eurydice’s father, and Marc Balester (A Number) is the Lord of the Underworld. Betsy McCann (Oceana), Jonathan Blackwell (Oceana), and Miriam Rubin (The Shadow Box) are the chorus of stones.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.. Tickets are Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, and $30.

For tickets and information call 474-8497

View more images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, Different Stages, January 8 - 30

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, January 11

Received directly:

Different Stages
presents

Sarah Ruhl’s
Eurydice

January 8 - 30, 2010
at City Theater, 3823 Airport, Suite D
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

“Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30
Call 474-8497

Different Stages continues its 2009–2010 season with the dramatic comedy Eurydice. Sarah Ruhl reinvents the fantastic and hallucinatory myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine, Eurydice. Eurydice journeys through the jaws of death into the Underworld where she happily reunites with her father who teaches her about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory.

There she washed in the river of forgetfulness, struggles to remember her lost love. When Orpheus returns to rescue her, she must decide whether to leave her beloved father to return to the land of the living. Things become more complicated when the malevolent Lord of the Underworld wants Eurydice for his bride and a chorus of stones try to coerce her into conforming to the rigid rules of the Underworld. With humor, contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

Directed by Karen Jambon (Miss Witherspoon) Eurydice features Nicole Swahn (An Inspector Calls) as the title character. Bastion Carboni (Poison Apple Initiative) plays the musician Orpheus. Norman Blumensaadt (A Number) is Eurydice’s father and Marc Balester (A Number) is the Lord of the Underworld. Betsy McCann (Oceana), Jonathan Blackwell (Oceana) and Miriam Rubin (The Shadow Box) are the chorus of stones.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p..m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.. Tickets are Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, and $30.

The Dragonfly Queen, Vortex Repertory, September 5 - 27

The Vortex production of The Dragonfly Queen is a triumph for costume designer Lauren Matesic and for makeup & hair designer Helen Hutka, who also appears onstage.

This is a manga world of eerie creatures locked in mortal combat. The program gives the background about the quest of Princess Mala. It includes a summary of the 2007 Vortex/Ethos production of The Dragonfly Princess, an outline of the 11 years elapsed since then in story time, and a synopsis of the events that you're about to witness.

Let me boil that synopsis down a bit further, avoiding most of the names, drawn from incomprehensible etymologies. (If you need the names to complete your mental history, click on the .pdf of the program at the end of this piece.)

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Dragonfly Queen, Ethos at the Vortex Repertory,

Click for ALT review, September 10

UPDATE: Robert Faires interviews director Bonnie Cullum about story and staging of upcoming The Dragonfly Queen, Austin Chronicle, August 28

Found on-line:

Ethos at Vortex Repertory
presents the World Premiere of

The Dragonfly Queen

A Fantasy Faery Opera
by Chad Salvata
Directed by Bonnie Cullum
Sept.04-27, 2009
Thursdays-Sundays at 8 p.m.

Ethos roars back with its signature impressive spectacle in the world premiere of a new opera, The Dragonfly Queen. “The Queen” is the sequel to the critically acclaimed opera, The Dragonfly Princess, which received the 2008 B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Original Score. [Photo: Melissa Vogt-Patterson as Mala the Dragonfly Princess in the 2007 production.]

Immerse yourself in the dark fantasy antics of Mala, Joji, Qlye and their Faery warriors as they journey on the great White Shell Ship. Join them as they uncover the ruthless outcome of the faery wars and the spiritual mysteries of the Orca.

Ethos Artistic Director, Chad Salvata, assembles another award-winning team of artists to bring his new opera to the stage at The Vortex in September.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Oceana, A Musical, Vortex Repertory, May 9 - June 3

There is, indeed, an oceanic feel to the staging of this production. Arriving spectators are welcomed by undulant costumed young persons bathed in blue and green lights designed by Jason Amato. The actors are welcoming, slithery, playful and exotically costumed. Director/author Bonnie Cullum extends the compact playing space of the Vortex vertically, transforming it at times into the visual equivalent of an aquarium. She stations her three singing sirens on a high shelf across the back, with the band mostly out of sight in the grotto below them.

Steel gym rings hang just out of reach of the front rows on either side of that V-thrust stage, and the sleekly muscular merpeople regularly hoist themselves fluidly up and around those swaying fixtures. Anyone with scuba diving experience recognizes at once the promise of liquid flight and freedom from gravity that they evoke. As well as the surprise and satisfaction of coming face to face with schools of fishy creatures -- the cast numbers 14, and most of them are somewhere on that compact stage throughout the presentation.

Cheerful mischief marks these goings-on. For example, I had placed myself in the front row; one of those swinging mer-guys reached down, and with a flick, untied my shoelace. While the characters spoke with mythic seriousness, they often moved in poses, prances, and postures, emphasizing their otherworldliness.

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

The Secret Lives of the InBetweeners, Vortex Repertory, February 6 - March 7

Aaron Brown's musical at the Vortex benefits from a strong cast, Bonnie Cullum's assured direction, and a bouncy score, well executed by a five-piece band including piano, keyboard, guitar/bass, drums and a cello. You can relax and laugh, sympathize with the dilemmas of poor Joe (Jonathan G. Itchon, below) and his acquaintances, and generally have a good time.

But as for those Inbetweeners -- they seem to be the target audience for this piece, folks of university age or just beyond, who are likely to sympathize with an aspiring artist suffocated by the selfish embrace of his horrible mother (Jennifer Coy, seen only in silhouette, even during the curtain call).

This is plotting by the numbers. Central character Joe is frustrated artist who flees vulnerable woman photographer Tina (Sarah Gay) who's powerfully attracted to him ; comic relief is hairy geek Waldo (!) (Trey Deason) who lives in a computer game dream world but falls for a sassy, self-assured blonde, Charlotte (Jo Beth Henderson). Joe is putting on a play featuring Charlotte, so geek Waldo insinuates himself into rehearsals as the prop manager. Tender Tina obsesses over Joe, asks Charlotte for advice, has her telephone messages to Joe erased by the wicked Mom.

Okay, we could probably work with that. But what comes along then? A mephistophelian figure Fear (Rudy Ramirez) in black clothing, mascara, and black lipstick, balanced by Hope, a sort of happy urban gypsy played by Betsy McCann.

Let's review the Greatest Writing Clichés once again: #1, "It Was All Just A Dream"; #2, "He Dies and Goes to the Afterlife and Gets Another Chance"; and now this one: #3, "Indecisive Human Has a Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other, and the Supernatural Guys Make A Bet on Temptation and Salvation."

In all this mess, the most interesting character is None of the Above.

Errich Petersen (right) as Harry is probably meant to be the real-life devil. In a coffee shop he overhears the girls dramatizing Tina's plight and he intrudes, coming on to Tina with the casual assertion that she should pay attention to a real man. They expostulate and leave, but Tina comes back for her forgotten cell phone, and she's hooked. Harry is rich, or he pretends to be; he is out for a good time; and when Tina gets knocked up, bad old Harry urges her to turn to "a doctor that my parents have."

One problem with this stereotype is the actor. Errich Petersen is simply too credible for the character. He doesn't camp it up, so we can hiss him; he has good control over himself, his emotions, and his singing. I wound up thinking that the whole musical would have been a lot more interesting if it had been written about Harry. Oh, sure, give him a tough love lesson; but that would be a better dénouement than the one we get -- Joe finally storms out of Mommy's house to seek his fortune and Tina finds him for Instant Happiness.

Okay, maybe that's too cranky a summary of these goings on. I will confess that I'm far beyond the age of the Inbetweeners, so maybe that's why a predator is more attractive than a martyr.

Every one of these actors is talented and they give their all. Never mind me. Go and have a good time, cut 'em some slack. Especially if you're an Inbetweener!

Joey Seiler's review on the Statesman Austin360 blog, February 9.

Pre-production interviews by Priscilla Totiyapungprasert of the Daily Texan, published February 12

KUT.org audio piece published February 16

Review by Ryan E. Johnson on Austin.com, February 18

The School for Scandal, Vortex Summer Youth Theatre

Summer theatre programs for young persons are wonderful. I got my own start treading the boards in just such an enterprise. The Vortex Repertory in east Austin has run its tuition-free program for 13- to 17-year-old actors since 1991. The theatre has racked up awards and the participating students have gotten their own rewards, intrinsic and experiential. For this production of Sheridan’s School for Scandal the company of 14 actors worked with Vortex resident artists Betsy McCann and Gabriel Maldonado (directors) and Stephen Fay, as well as a full technical team of Vortex regulars. I attended the Thursday, July 31 performance of their second and final weekend, for which the 150-seat theatre was two-thirds full.

The School for Scandal was staged in May, 1777, at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, which Sheridan had purchased from the famous David Garrick.


The text is a challenging read and even more challenging in presentation. Sheridan creates for us the glittering world of London aristocratic society, peopled with bejeweled gossips, the idle, and the profligate. In the first scene we meet the conniving Lady Sneerwell (Brenna Pritchard, left), who is adroitly planting gossip around town with the assistance of her conniving assistant Snake (Hayley Armstrong, right).

A dual intrigue develops. It involves, first, the foolish knight Sir Peter Teazle (Fay), married late in life to a country girl (Anjelica Jewell) who has fallen for the glamour of city ways, tattling, spending and flirting.

Secondly, acquainted with Teazle and Sneerwell’s gossips are two brothers, Joseph the hypocrite and Charles the wastrel, whom we see exposed when their long-distant benefactor Sir Oliver (Jonathan Blackwell) returns incognito from India. To assess their characters, he interviews them, separately, in assumed identities as an impoverished distant relative and as a moneylender willing to bid for family portraits, the last assets of the house.

Theatre historians report that the idea of a "scandalous college" of gossips had occurred to Sheridan five years earlier in connection with his own experiences in Bath:

“His difficulty was to find a story sufficiently dramatic in its incidents to form a subject for the machinations of the character-slayers. He seems to have tried more than one plot, and in the end to have desperately forced two separate conceptions together. The dialogue is so brilliant throughout, and the auction scene and the screen scene so effective, that the construction of the comedy meets with little criticism. . . . “

[from Encyclopedia Britanica, 1911, quoted at http://www.theatrehistory.com/irish/sheridan001.html]

The wit and brilliance of the dialogue are the attraction of the play but they are also the greatest challenge for the actors. Irretrievably set in the raillery of the London salon, the play gives every character the same arch phrasing, elaborate sententiousness, and wit – as one 19th century commentator noted, “Their wit is Sheridan's wit, which is very good wit indeed; but it is Sheridan's own, and not Sir Peter Teazle's, or Backbite's, or Careless's, or Lady Sneerwell's.”

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_for_Scandal#Appraisal]

So how do young 21st century actors handle this beautifully archaic mode of expression? The cast is, after all, dealing not only with the sense of the text but also seeking to emulate the orotund sing-song of upper-class British speech -- while delivering lines with appropriate comic timing.

Director McCann’s choice to set the play in the 1920s helps somewhat, and some speak their words very well, ‘fore God.

The two women in the image above, Brenna Pritchard and Hayley Armstrong, combine eloquence of speech with apposite appearance. Pritchard, also a talented song-writer, has an animated valentine-shaped face framed with a flapper’s short bob. Armstrong, with ingenious expression and mime, slithers herself into an entirely convincing snakey malevolence.

Another standout is young Alexander Slay-Tamkin, who out-Fauntleroys Little Lord Fauntleroy. The diminutive Slay-Tamkin confidently plays the fop, and his presence and diction are as remarkable as his plaid stockings and gold kerchief.

Anjelica Jewell as Lady Teazle is bubbly and wide-eyed, as befits a rapidly urbanizing lass, and she is particularly affecting in her duo scenes with old Sir Peter (Fay), both early, when she teases him, and later, after she is discovered by her husband to be hiding in Joseph Surface’s quarters. Joseph (Wyndham Shortt) offers a mendacious explanation; with her long, deliberate pause before admantly contradicting him, Jewell shows that she and director McCann know how to ride the audience’s expectations.

Kristen Crane as Rowley, steward to Sir Peter, is assured and not in the least intimidated by a role originally written for a man. The rival brothers – Shortt as the sanctimonious Joseph and Romeo Joy as Charles the n’er-do-well – are cast to type and deliver their characters clearly.

Jonathan Blackwell as Sir Oliver has fun fooling his nephews in the characters of the fey moneylender Premium and the doddering relative Stanley. He plays them broadly, but no one seemed to mind that!

Vortex staff and cast deal with the challenges of multiple locales by simply announcing them away – no change of furnishings was required, because actors promenading through the playing space announced the change of locale and the attendant maid and butler scrolled up a different portrait in the frame at stage left.

At the curtain call the cast surprised the enthusiastically applauding audience by plopping themselves down on the set. Members Chance Parmley and Anissa L. McVea stepped forward for a brief, humorous appeal for support for the Vortex summer program (“For this program, which is tuition-free, we’ll take your cash, your car, your house, your children – and put them all to good use for the theatre.”)

Smiling, these two stationed themselves with a fishbowl at the exit of the theatre.

I couldn’t resist. I gave them my thanks and dropped in a double sawbuck.

Keye-TV Channel 42 on the Summer Threatre Program

Brenna Pritchard's MySpace Profile and YouTube presentation of her song "Can Believe"