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 . . . .

An Austin Celebration of World Theatre Day, March 27 at the Butterfly Bar, Vortex Repertory

Posted by Rachel Wiese and Travis Bedard as a Facebook event:

Calling friends of theatre to party:

World Theatre Day, March 27th , falls on a Tuesday in 2012 and Austin’s Celebration will take place at 7pm at The Vortex’s Butterfly Bar, 2307 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722. [click for map]

World Theatre Day (WTD) was founded in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute to unify and empower theatre arts around the globe. Each year, a renowned theatre artist is asked to write a message to the global theatre community. This year, the WTD Message was written by John Malkovich and will be read aloud at 8pm by Austin’s Kathryn Rogers.

In honor of World Theatre Day’s 50th Anniversary, The Theatre Communications Group launched an online video series called I AM THEATRE, and requests that theatre artists participate by submitting three-minute videos sharing pivotal moments in their theatre-making experience. A capturing station will be set up at the Vortex for anyone wanting to create a submission. [Click to see Dave Steakley's video as an example.]

There will also be cake.

We hope to see you all at the Butterfly Bar on Tuesday, March 27th at 7pm to celebrate World Theatre Day.

Love,

Travis Bedard (Cambiare Productions)
Rachel Wiese (The Exchange Artists)

Upcoming: The Butterfly Bar at the Vortex (video included), opening February 19

Received directly from the Vortex Repertory, an announcement and a video done by Shanti Matulewski:

Happy Year of the Rabbit Everybody!!

I am teaming up with my cousin, Emily Fleming-Nash, to create a new bar on the grounds of The VORTEX. Some of you know Emily from her previous business, Emerald City Press. The metamorphosis of The VORTEX Café into The Butterfly Bar has begun, with our grand opening on February 19.

The Butterfly Bar is a green, eco-friendly, local business that will invest in a large amount of butterfly-oriented landscaping onsite. When finished, the goal is to have The Butterfly Bar @ The VORTEX recognized as an Official Butterfly Habitat and Sanctuary.

The Butterfly Bar remodel is coming along swiftly, and the space looks beautiful with a fresh paint job and gorgeous lighting. We need just a little help to push us through to completion. You will be enjoying new furniture, real glasses (Bye, bye plastic!), and a new menu featuring amazing desserts and savory treats including deluxe cheese plates and smoked curry hummus.

If you can and would like to donate to the opening of our new bar, in any way small or large, we would be forever grateful and appreciative. Donations are tax-deductible.

All donations can be made through The VORTEX Paypal account located at the bottom left-hand side of the website below. Just click on the little box that says “ DONATION” above The Butterfly Bar logo.

http://www.vortexrep.org/

Each of the first six people to donate $500 or more will have their name engraved on a small brass plaque to be placed on the back of one of the barstools for all to see!

Thank you in advance for any and all of your help on this exciting new project. If you have any questions, please let me know!

With love and great expectations--

Bonnie

vortex@vortexrep.org

www.thebutterflybaraustin.com

www.vortexrep.org