THE CRUEL CIRCUS, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, May 2 - 25, 2013

[workshopping and performing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

presents an original play:

The Cruel Circus
written and directed by Connor Hopkins

May 9 - 25, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m.

 A mysterious tinkerer brings to life an entire world of strange circus performers some polished and complete, some clumsy and misshapen then disappears, leaving them to make sense of who they are and what they are made for.

A new work of dark whimsy from the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, and most recently, Toil & Trouble.

Featuring performances by Zac Crofford, Travis Bedard, Seth White, Rob Jacques, Jose Villarreal, Gricelda Silva, Ellie McBride, Caroline Reck, and Brock England

Preshow music by Cami Alys; Music by Justin Sherburn; Sound Design by K. Eliot Haynes and Bernard Klinke; Lighting Design by Stephen Pruitt; Costume Design by Monica Gibson (with Lucie Cunningham)

ASL interpretation available for selected performances by Parker Dority and Shelby Mitchusson.

Made for adults. But children 10 and up, accompanied by adults, are welcome.
Tickets: Sliding scale, $10 - $50, available now through





(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

THE BROTHER'S MERLIN, Loaded Gun Theory at FronteraFest, January

Our 10th Frontera Fest Short Fringe entry is... it's that time of year and we've got a sneak peak of The Brother's Merlin Loaded Gun Theory is writing again. Feverishly. We meet every week. Sucking juices from the collective hive mind. Our new play "The Brother's Merlin and their Magnificent Menagerie of Mysteries" is heading your way this May. Carnival. Knives. Child Sacrifice. And a giant sentient reptile! Curiosity piqued? You're in luck. At Frontera Fest we're presenting a sneak preview of "The Brother's Merlin". In it the Third Reich is on the ropes. And now their last hope wants nothing but to run away and join the circus. Starring Brock England, Robert Deike, Andy Smith, and Stephen Reynolds. Tickets are going incredibly fast this year, and we share the evening with Zell Miller III who is never anything short of fantastic, so get your tickets today.    Price   Short Fringe $16.00    When   January 24th at 8:00pm   Where    Click to Buy Tickets!      Hyde Park Theatre

Loaded Gun Theory is a theatrical production company located in Austin, TX. We were founded in November of 1998 by 5 playwrights as a means to produce more original work. We are a sponsored project of the Austin Creative Alliance. Loaded Gun Theory is committed to developing artists. We prefer original works that comment on society and politics. We want to help playwrights, actors and technical designers build the practical background they need to grow. Follow on Twitter | Friend on Facebook | Forward to Friend Copyight © 2013 Loaded Gun Theory, All rights reserved.

The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, Austin Playhouse at Mueller Development, November 18 - December 18

Your medieval experience for Austin Playhouse's The Lion in Winter is unexpectedly complete, for in that almost unheated temporary tent structure on the windy plains of the Mueller Development you might just wish you were wearing castle-appropriate fur and wool like those of the period costumes put together for the actors by Diana Huckaby. Although I suspect that they might have been wearing high tech underwear for the long evening during which we sat motionless watching them.

The talkative lady from Chicago who settled next to us at the Sunday performance confided that she was there because high winds had prompted Austin Playhouse to cancel the Saturday staging. She went over to greet Artistic Director Don Toner as he was wrangling a space heater. The temperature fell during the first half of this two-act work, and she and her husband disappeared at the intermission, as did a number of other attendees.

That's the down side, but be of good cheer, for perhaps the cold will abate and you can come prepared. My wife and I were relatively comfortable because we put on hats and pulled out gloves stowed in coat pockets since last February.

The Lion in Winter, staged originally in New York in 1966, is a familiar title thanks largely to the 1968 film of the same name with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, which won Goldman an Academy Award for screenwriting. It's the year 1168, as the Queen reminds us in a memorably acerbic line, "and of course everyone is carrying knives." Vaguely based in English history, this piece has few of the complexities of Shakespeare's histories and none of the pageantry. King Henry married well, taking Eleanor and her Aquitaine, consolidating a reign of extent unmatched since the days of Charlemagne almost four centuries earlier. The royal pair had four sons but the first, Henry's namesake, died as a child. Now at the ripe old age of 50 -- ancient for the epoch -- Henry is canoodling with his 16-year-old female ward, he has kept his queen under house arrest in another palace for ten years, and he acknowledges the need to prepare for his succession.

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

Images by Gray G. Haddock for The Lion in Winter, Austin Playhouse, November 18 - December 18

Images by Gray G. Haddock for the production by

of

The Lion in Winter

by James Goldman

November 18 - December 18

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.
No performance on November 24th (Thanksgiving)
Tickets: $35 opening night, $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday
All student tickets are half-price. $5 discount for subscriber guests

Temporary Facility Location: 1800 1/2 Simond Avenue, Austin, Texas 78722
The temporary facility will be on the corner of Aldrich Street and Simond Avenue in the Mueller Austin Redevelopment. (Click for directions and map)
Austin Playhouse box office: (512) 476-0084 -- E-mail: austinplayhouse@aol.com -- Website: www.austinplayhouse.com
Blog: www.austinplayhouse.blogspot.com

Click 'Read more' to view additional images by Gray G. Haddock at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Lonestar, A Popcorn Throwing Rock Country Musical, Vestige Group at United States Art Authority, November 4 - 21

Wow, guys, this was a mess.

Melodrama meets country rock band and invites beer drinkers to interrupt the whole thing at will with popcorn, catcalls, and even, on one particularly wild night, someone's shoe thrown from the audience.

Dr. Dave my retired college professor friend and I paid for the Wednesday night VIP seats, only there weren't any. We were kindly removed from the high table next to the stage, which turned out to be the location for those long-legged cowgirls, but there was still time to nab our front row seats. We did get our complimentary beer glasses with logo and the two beer tickets each, so we had little cause to complain on that account.

Let's look at a couple of the key elements.

Melodrama: a theatrical art form performed in small towns, church halls, saloons and theatres across the country, particularly but not exclusively in the 19th century. Typically, a simple story with a beleaguered, right-thinking young hero, a virginal heroine with heart of gold regularly threatened by a black-hearted villain with loss of her maidenhead, loss of the family farm, and loss of everything else of value. The playing style is broad. The characters are stereotypes. Frequently, the actors turn to address the audience in character, exaggerating emotions with a complicit wink. Everyone knows that Virtue Will Triumph.

Country Rock: Amplified, very loud guitar-based up-tempo music, featuring a full and active drum set and perhaps an amplified fiddle. Thrumming base guitar is a must. Words and lyrics appear to be optional, because you cannot hear them over the roar of the music, anyway.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .