TRIUMPH OF LOVE, musical, Austin Playhouse, June 7 - July 14, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents





Princess Leonide of Sparta has fallen hopelessly in love with Agis, the rightful heir to her kingdom. Unfortunately Agis has sworn to kill the Princess and reclaim his throne. In order to win his love Leonide takes on a series of increasingly absurd disguises and woos not only Agis, but also his over-protective aunt and uncle. But in the end she learns that true love means revealing her true self and hoping that love will indeed triumph.
 

Season Ticket holders, make reservations now, only 14 performances!

Box office: (512) 476-0084

Email: boxoffice@austinplayhouse.com

Purchase Online Here!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Zach Theatre, December 5 - 30

in the first-ever season in its new Topfer Theatre, presents the Austin premiere of 

WHITE CHRISTMAS

Based on the Paramount Pictures film written for the screen by NORMAN KRASNA, NORMAN PANAMA, and MELVIN FRANK

Music and Lyrics by IRVING BERLIN, Book by DAVID IVES and PAUL BLAKE


Musical Direction by Allen Robertson
Directed and Choreographed by NICK DEMOS

Original Set Design by CLIFF SIMON • Lighting Design by JASON AMATO • Sound Design by CRAIG BROCK • Properties Design by BLAKE REEVES • Costume Design by DEBORAH ROBERTS

Previews December 5-12 - Champagne Opening and Press Night is Thursday, December 13 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception with the stars of show
GLBT Wilde Party pre-show mixer is Thursday, December 6

Performances continue through December 30, 2012, Tuesdays - Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

in ZACH’s new Topfer Theatre, 202 South Lamar Blvd. (corner of Riverside Drive and South Lamar Blvd.)

To order tickets call 512-476-0541 ext. 1 or visit www.zachtheatre.org. Tickets range from $25-$75. Student Rush Tickets: $18 one hour before showtime (with valid ID). ZACH’s new, full bar opens one and half hours prior to showtime and remains open for one hour post-show.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin, Austin Playhouse, May 6 - June 3

presents

Born Yesterday

by Garson Kanin

May 4 - June 3

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse temporary facility, 1801 1/2 Simond Street, Mueller Development (click for map)

Starring Andrea Osborn, Michael Stuart, Benjamin Summers, Brian Coughlin, Hans Venable, Dirk van Allen, and Mary Agen Cox

Upcoming: Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Austin Playhouse, February 25 - March 27

Received directly:

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

by Neil Simon

directed by Don Toner

Feb. 25 - March 27

Austin Playhouse Main Stage, Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress (click for map)

Tickets are $26 Thursday and Friday and $28 Saturday and Sunday.

All student tickets are half price!

For Tickets, Call (512) 476-0084 or click here to order tickets online.

Hot on the heels of our most successful show ever, we're thrilled to bring theatrical legend Neil Simon's nostalgic comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor to the stage! Set in 1953, Laughter recalls Simon's days as a young writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. The play is a fast-paced and very fun comic romp through the behind-the-scenes antics in the writers' room.

Laughter features an all star cast including Kimberly Barrow, Brian Coughlin,Huck Huckaby, Jenny Larson, Jason Newman, Steve Shearer, Blake Adam Smith, David Stahl, and David Stokey!

For more information, visit our website!

The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, Austin Playhouse, November 19 - December 18

This is a memory play, an exercise in yearning -- not only for the principal character Carrie Watts, but also for playwright Horton Foote and for the audience. Where are they, those vanished earlier times, and what were they really like? Depending entirely on her son and her daughter-in-law in their apartment somewhere in the Houston of 1953, Carrie Watts longs to return to her home, a house somewhere in rural Texas at a crossroads with the melancholy, ironic name of "Bountiful."

The place still exists, as we learn while following Carrie's great escape, but as she inevitably discovers, there's no longer much of "home" about it, other than the sagging structure of the homestead.

Christopher Loveless's images make the point powerfully. In the publicity photo Carrie and her bags sit before a light-filled rural road -- as out-of-place and as photo-shopped as a 19th century portrait taken before a painted backdrop. In performance all that light and liberty disappears, for director Toner situates these actors in a virtually featureless black box, provided with minimal props and simple furnishings. The concept is so stark and featureless that the Playhouse lists no credit for stage design.

The story is intimately tied to the simple human ity of the characters and the authenticity of the voices given to them by the cast. The accents, rhythms and the perceptive costuming by Buffy Manners situate them in that specific moment in urbanizing Texas as director Toner and the cast deliver Foote's simple, powerful parable.

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

The Mousetrap, Austin Playhouse, November 20 - December 20

Theatre journalism has a half-life of perhaps two weeks, a fact that prompts me to strive to see a production as soon as possible. After all, a theatre review published only 48 hours before closing has not much more than archival interest.

One would prefer to deliver the report and comments hot off the first-night griddle, particularly when the show's an interesting or engaging one. Perhaps, just perhaps, the review might contribute to increasing the turnout for deserving productions.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to The Mousetrap until its final weekend, due to family visits, a surging December theatre season, and my own return to the boards in mid-December.

We're subscribers and modest contributors to the Austin Playhouse, in part because it's the first theatre we discovered in Austin after relocating here in 2007. I have an affection and respect for Don Toner and the Playhouse's company of about two dozen actors. Now mid-way through their tenth season behind the Penn Field water tower at 3601 South Congress, they have increased their core season to five plays and they operate an intriguing side space, the Larry L. King Theatre.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, Austin Playhouse, November 20 - December 20

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, December 30

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

The Mousetrap
by Agatha Christie

November 20 – December 20, 2009
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm
(No performance on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26)

Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery takes the stage!

Giles and Mollie Ralston have just completed renovating the imposing Monkswell Manor into a charming country inn. The first night the inn is open for business they’re quickly snowed in with four guests and a stranded motorist. A detective arrives on skis to warn the group that he believes a murderer may be on the way, but when one of the guests is found dead, it becomes clear that the murderer may already be at Monkswell Manor. As the detective attempts to discover the truth, everyone becomes a suspect and long-hidden secrets are revealed.

[graphic based on HarperCollins' UK 50th anniversary edition, 1995]

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Fantasticks, Austin Playhouse, May 22 - June 28

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, May 29





Received from Austin Playhouse:

Austin Playhouse presents

The Fantasticks

music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones
May 22 – June 28, 2009
Thursday – Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm

The world’s longest running musical is back!

The Fantasticks has enchanted audiences for almost fifty years with its timeless story, memorable music, and delightful characters. Songs like “Try to Remember,” “Much More,” and “Soon it’s Gonna Rain” frame the simple fable of a boy and a girl who find the path to true love (and learn that it never does run smooth).

Matt and Luisa have lived next door to each other their whole lives. Their fathers, Hucklebee and Bellomy, know that children only want what’s forbidden, so they build a wall between the two houses and pretend to feud. Matt and Luisa instantly fall in love. To seal the deal and end the fake feud the fathers employ the mysterious El Gallo to “kidnap” Luisa so Matt can rescue her and they can have a Happy Ending. But the young lovers must discover the real world for themselves and face true disappointments and heartbreaks before they can live happily ever after.

The Fantasticks stars Brian Coughlin as El Gallo, Tom Parker as Bellomy, Huck Huckaby as Hucklebee, David Stahl as Henry, Michael Stuart as Mortimer, Jacob Trussell as Matt, Steffanie Ngo-Hatchie as Luisa, and Kasey Eggleston as the Mute.

The Fantasticks is directed by Don Toner with musical direction by Michael McKelvey, costume design by Diana Huckaby, and lighting design by Don Day. Austin Playhouse produced a successful production of The Fantasticks in 2001. The Fantasticks opened in New York on May 3, 1960 and played 17,162 performances before closing January 13, 2002. A revival is currently running at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City.

Austin Playhouse at Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

Prices: $28 Thursday and Friday, $30 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night, Friday May 22nd
All student tickets are half-price.
Info/Reservations: (512) 476-0084
Website: www.austinplayhouse.com

Age of Arousal, Austin Playhouse Larry L. King Theatre, April 10 - May 10

Age of Arousal is a strange, febrile comedy. It's like Dickens on drugs, if Dickens were to write about a closed circle of odd women.

These women are "odd" both in the numerical meaning of "not in a pair" and in the metaphorical meaning of "singular" or "remarkable." They are not "unique," because playwright Linda Griffiths intends them to represent for us the plight of women in late 19th century England, where by demographic quirk women outnumbered men by 25%. The sentimental Victorian ideal of cozy, obedient matrimony was an impossibility for many women.

Canadian playwright Linda Griffiths took as her point of departure the 1893 novel The Odd Women by British author George Gissing.
Gissing was ranked by some contemporary British critics alongside Thomas Hardy and George Meredith. A brilliant student from working-class origins, Gissing was expelled from university for stealing from better-off classmates and briefly imprisoned. He spent a year in Chicago and then went back to England in 1877. He churned out a total of 23 novels before his death from emphysema in 1903.

Gissing's social themes were well ahead of his time. He wrote about exploitation of the poor, hypocrisy in religion, the injustices for women in conventional matrimony, and unscrupulous commercial practices.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Upcoming: The Age of Arousal, Austin Playhouse Larry L. King Theatre,

UPDATE: ALT review of Age of Arousal




Received from Austin Playhouse, March 30:

Age
of
Arousal
by Linda Griffiths
April 10 - May 10, 2009
Austin Playhouse Larry L. King Theatre

Austin Playhouse proudly presents one of the first U.S. productions of Linda Griffiths’ witty, wild, and stunning new play, Age of Arousal.

In Age of Arousal, Griffiths’ has created a fantasy-filled re-working of George Gissing’s 19th century novel, The Odd Women. In late 19th century England, a population imbalance had almost twice as many women as men running around London. This meant that many women would never find husbands, would never be paired; they would be odd.

Fusing the political battle of the 19th century suffragettes with the personal battles of the sexes, Age of Arousal creates a unique world to explore love, desire, and the cost of equality. Populating this world are six compelling characters brought to life by some of Austin’s most accomplished actors.

Read More. . . .

Dancing at Lughnasa, Austin Playhouse, January 23 - March 1

Ah, sweet Jesu, the Irish! A gifted lot, you know, close to the earth; fine women and, o' course, those charmin' but useless men of theirs. Think back with me, now, to the early days, and by that I mean, say, 1936, when the Mundy sisters had just gotten their radio, which back then they called a "Marconi. . . "

An ensemble piece for five women actors, Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa gives us an Ireland that is now mythic. Inside the memory space of the Playhouse stage and under the influence of the now-grown narrator Michael, played with soothing persuasiveness by Huck Huckaby, the five unmarried Mundy sisters live a simple but rich existence in their rural cottage.

We do not really know why none of these women ever married. The visible male characters cannot match them in character, intelligence or dedication. In the moment of this telling, Michael is just a boy, their indulged young man child. Father Jack, their uncle, has returned, bewildered and mildly heretical after 30 years of missionary work in Uganda, and he wanders through the cottage not always recognizing them. Gerry, the useless twinkling-eyed perpetual suitor to Chrissie, got young Michael upon her six years earlier but has no thought of them in his dreams of traveling salesman success and service in the International Brigade in Spain.

The warm, safe space of cottage and family is threatened and will eventually be destroyed by outside forces, narrator Michael reveals to us. The market for the handicrafts made by youngest sisters Agnes and Rose disappears when a glove factory opens nearby. The school dismisses Kate, the principal breadwinner, on the pretense that the school population is waning, but almost certainly because of the scandal wafting after Father Jack. That useless Gerry disappears, eventually, back to his native Wales, with ne'er a thought for the Mundy sisters.

But within that threatened household, what a vivid, emotional and supportive circle those sisters make! Babs George as Kate (rightmost, below) is the voice of propriety, bastion against the heathen carrying on of the semi-pagan Irish and their dance over bonfires on the ancient rite of Lughnasa. The Marconi fitfully erupts in a fiddle tune that enchants the sisters including Kate into stepping, whirling and jigs, until Kate with effort shuts down that celebration.

Michael's mother Chrissie (Lara Toner, in gray sweater) dotes upon him, as does his brash aunt Maggie (Cyndi Williams, far left). Chrissie's heart remains with gallant, useless Gerry although her conscience resolutely says "no" to his flattering and dancin'; her sister Agnes (Rebecca Robinson, in brown sweater) is plainly pining away for the same man, or any man, or any hope of love. And sister Rose (Margaret Hoard, in checked sweater), perhaps the youngest, certainly the simplest and most headstrong, just will not give up going out in the countryside with that married man.

The grown Michael recounts the fates of each of his aunts -- except, unless memory fails me, that of Aunt Maggie, the liveliest and most solid of them all. Cyndi Williams in this role gives us a woman of good appetite and great humor, with an emblematic moment in which a deep puff on a cigarette transforms her, says she, from sadness to happiness.

This is the melancholy, nostalgic side of the Irish -- not the wake, but the dirge. Director Don Toner and the female principals have created the feel of a continuous rapport among the sisters. The women reveal their vulnerabilities in words, subtle gesture and body language, and in their scrupulous attention to one another onstage. The unselfconscious Father Jack (right) is the sacred fool for this bunch - - Steve Shearer plays him with both openness and restraint, the calm voice of a reason unimaginable and unacceptable in this milieu. Brian Coughlin as Gerry is the bane of Irish womankind -- sunny, plausible and confidently attractive.

Set design by Don Toner, costumes by Buffy Manners, Irish dance choreographed by the impressively Gaelic Eimer Ni Mhaoiledidigh-Donnellan, and lighting by the Gunn brothers -- all contribute strongly to the creation of the protected space of memory.

Toner directed Dancing at Lughnasa at Austin's Live Oak Theatre in 1993 with Babs George as Kate, the same role. There is another point of continuity -- Steve Shearer was the merry Gerry in that production and he has now become Father Jack. Those facts offer the opportunity to speculate about theatre, memory, and transformation, just as the Playhouse is moving into its 2009 campaign in hopes of raising capital for a new home.

Robert Faires' review in the Austin Chronicle of January 29: ". . .Don Toner's staging here . . .did make me appreciate anew Friel's lyrical, stirring script and the preciousness and power of memory."