Upcoming: All About A Boy by Mariah McCarthy, Cambiare Productions at FronteraFest, January 17

 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Cambiare Productions Seeks Scripts by Women Playwrights

From Travis Bedard via the blog of Cambiare Productions, Austin:

Ladies, we want to read your plays.

Now understand that there’s nothing on the table. Maybe not even a staged reading. We’re not in a position to make any promises. Our goal is to 1.) be in a more education position when we get to a such a point 2.) be in a position to advocate for capable women writers when friends ask about texts the way I brag about Marisela Orta and Callie Kimball now.

I understand if that’s not enough payoff for you. I wish you well. But if you like smart folks reading your work even if they’re not going to risk ten thousand dollars and a year of their life on it we’d love to hear from you.

We’re going to cap submissions at 50. We all have jobs and we don’t want a dead pile. We will read everything we get.

The Call:

• We are looking for completed scripts from women of any age.
• Make it a .pdf (be platform agnostic)
• No character limit
• No style limit.
• No length limit.
• Send it to Submissions [at] cambiareproductions.com
• We make no commitment and neither do you, we won’t do anything other than read your script (and talk about it at Trudy’s) without your permission.

I know this is sort of weird call but.. well.. it can’t hurt to ask.

Messenger No. 4, Cambiare Productions at the Blue Theatre, February 17 - March 4

And here's the other fraternal twin of the Paper Moon Rep/Cambiare collaboration. ALT always regrets writing 'after the fact' pieces. There's something laudable about setting things down for the historical record, but a theatre friend used regularly to disparage such essays as 'useless reviews.'

Perhaps less so in this case. These compatible personalities and theatre companies carried out a new and successful strategy of production. At a time when others are talking about cooperation -- as with the nascent Scenery Co-op that's under study and partly underwritten by the generosity of the MetLife Foundation -- they teamed up for some of their fundraising and they shared a venue, an ingenious set by Ia Enstera, and a performance calendar. Paper Moon took the first shift; Cambiare hit the boards afterward, about 9 p.m.

Not everyone was able to attend the double-header. Will Hollis Snider's jaunty Messenger No. 4 ran until almost 11 p.m. Although there was a pause of 15 minutes or so for resetting the scene, each piece played without interruption. I, for one, was a bit punch drunk by the end of Messenger -- so much so that I managed to lose the program sheets for both of the performances.

Rachel's Phineas was a carnival of caring while Will's script for Messenger No. 4 was a scrappy, all-boy imaginng. He pulled apart dramatic conventions with happy audacity, rewriting Greek tragedies with a 21st-century corporate spin. This Monty Pythonesque deconstruction of dramatic art had a good dose of Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future -- and in fact of much of the extensive sci-fi literature about the risks of time travel.

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

Cambiare's Kickstarter Appeal for the Final Push for Messenger No. 4, February 29

As of 4:30 p.m. on February 29, with five days left before the deadline friends of Cambiare Productions including Austin Live Theatre had pledged 88.9 percent of the company's Kickstarter goal of $4000 in support for Messenger No. 4. Here's Travis Bedard's thank-you video at the half-way mark. Below that is the company's explanation and further appeal for help in completing the funding (everything goes away if the $4000 goal isn't reached by the deadline). Click here or on the Kickstarter logo to go to the Messenger No. 4 project page.

Friends,

After more than a year of work we are down to the final weekend of Messenger No. 4 (or... How to Survive a Greek Tragedy) at the Blue Theatre.
If you are in the Austin area we hope you've been able to visit us (you still have a chance!). if you're not, we're sorry that you haven't been able to share this with us. It really is something.

As many of you are aware we've been running a Kickstarter fundraiser to cover the non-discretionary portion of our budget and ensure that Cambiare Productions lives to fight another day.

I don't know of a single artist who likes asking for help in any way, but asking for financial help in particular feels like failing.

We haven't asked for personal donations since our first production Transformations and are only asking now because the economic climate has reduced City of Austin funding to the bare minimums.

Cambiare was one of 16 itinerant theatre companies in the City of Austin to be awarded grants in this fiscal cycle, but the grant funding was so slight that we declined it.

We decided instead to ask for a grant from our own advocates. From the folks who have supported us from the beginning, who've sat with us in diners and listened to our crazy ideas, or sewed costumes freshman year of high school. From the folks who share in our joys when we succeed, lend an ear when we fail, and hold us accountable when we're not sure.

Many of you have already given and I can't thank you enough for your support. The outpouring has been humbling. With 5 days remaining we have reached just over 80% of our goal. If we don't reach the 100% threshold we don't recieve any of the pledged money so we are reaching out more specifically to ask for help.

We are aware that many of you aren't in a position to give, if that's the case we ask that you tell your friends. If you can only give a little consider this:
One backer has already ensured that if we reach our goal Travis will have to get their name tattooed on his leg.

You want to help make that happen.

Thank you all for everything you have done for us over the years, thank you for the help already given on this project, and thank you for the help you will provide in the future.

Travis, Will, and Amanda

P.S. don't forget to check out Travis' celebratory performance of the Hanson song Mmmmbop.

P.P.S. Bowties are cool.

Reviews from Elsewhere: Phineas and Messenger No. 4, Cambiare & Paper Moon Productions, February 17 - March 4, reviewed by David Glen Robinson

Posted at the Tutto Theatre blog, February 26, by David Glen Robinson:

These full-length plays were presented as a double feature (although one could choose to buy a ticket for a single play only), and this arrangement gave Dr. Dave a huge theatre night. Fortunately, the productions were spectacular and well-matched and left their audiences energized and satisfied. Unfortunately, these shows will soon be competing head-to-head for numerous awards in the upcoming award nominating and granting season—Dr. Dave predicts.

The 27 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm is a full-production premiere of an original play by its director, Rachel Maginnis. The set, costumes and props have a nineteenth century European feel to them, inspecific as to place. Speaking accents were not used or attempted by the cast. The title character inherits a device from his inventor father, that, when used, kills him and reincarnates him in a new life. [. . .]

Messenger #4 hails from the classically obsessed imagination of Will Hollis Snider of Cambiare Productions. A literary agency has proprietary technology, which allows it to send the Messengers into every Classical and Elizabethan play—to manage their common literary devices of messengers coming on stage telling the characters and audiences what has just happened off stage. That way a playwright doesn’t actually have to stage the sea-battle of Actium or anything else enormous that wouldn’t fit onto the stage. Hilarity ensues. Messages to different plays get switched; technology goes haywire; and characters fall in love. Yes, this is farce comedy.

Read more at the Tutto Theatre blog . . . .

Cambiare Productions Kickstarter Appeal for Messenger No. 4

Travis Bedard addresses the citizens via Kickstarter, appealing for funds to raise $4000 for the production.

Click on image to go to video at Kickstarter.

Cambiare Productions is Travis Bedard, Will Hollis Snider and Amanda Gass. Teaming together for the last five years to bring a variety of projects to life including Elektra, Intermission, The Nina Variations, and Orestes, while also serving as Austin facilitators for World Theatre Day.

Back from a break (wherein Will opened his own photography business, Travis dug into social media with both hands and Amanda went and got a 37th degree (this time in math)) Cambaire is trying Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed Something Blue.

Something Old: We're back with the Greeks...We will have our revenge on Euripides

Something New: This is Will's very first full length show (that isn't an adaptation).

Something Borrowed: Will has two cups full of references to and lines from classics jammed into this one text... .

Something Blue: is of course the theatre where we're performing it here in Austin

The STORY? Messenger No. 4 longs for something grander than message delivery, so one day he takes it upon himself to SHOW and not TELL. While fiddling with messenger speeches leads to streamlined plot points and dynamic scenes, it also unfortunately leads to the accidental erasure of history's greatest plays and --quite possibly--reality itself. Complete with sword fights, alternate universes, and an epic dance break, Messenger No. 4 is a high energy tour of love, fate and the Western Cannon.

Messenger No. 4 is propelled by an award-winning ensemble portraying over 50 characters from the Greek classics and Shakespeare’s masterpieces featuring Jessica Allen, Karina Dominguez, Camille Latour, Vanessa Marroquin, Joey Melcher, Megan Minto, Daniel Sawtelle, Philip Olson, Elena Weinberg, Rachel Wiese and Andrew Rodgers in the title role.

And we need your help. Click to go to the Kickstarter page.

Upcoming: Messenger No. 4 and The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm, Cambiare Productions & Paper Moon Rep, Feb. 17 - March 4ertory

Received directly:

jointly present

Messenger No. 4 (or How to Survive a Greek Tragedy)

by Will Hollis Snider

and

The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm

by Rachel McGinnis

February 17 - March 4

Performances Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. (Phineas) and 9:30 p.m. (Messenger);

Sundays at 6 p.m. (Phineas) and 8 p.m. (Messenger)

Monday performances on February 20 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. (Phineas) and 9:30 p.m. (Messenger)

at the BLUE Theatre, 916 Springdale (click for map)

Austin’s Cambiare Productions and Paper Moon Rep are proud to announce a double feature of full-length world premieres featuring Will Hollis Snider’s comedy Messenger No. 4 (or How to Survive a Greek Tragedy) and Rachel McGinnis’ The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm.

Directed by Austin Critics’ Table nominee Will Hollis Snider (Intermission, Elektra, The Nina Variations, Orestes), Messenger No. 4 would be just another rollicking workplace comedy, except that the workplace in question is history’s greatest plays. This high energy tour of love, fate, and the Western Canon raises the stakes on workplace frustration to cosmic heights as Messenger No. 4’s job dissatisfaction transcends water cooler grousing, leaping directly to erasing our greatest literature and maybe even reality itself.


Directed by B. Iden Payne and Austin Critic’s Table winner and nominee Rachel McGinnis (The Laramie Project, The Dudleys, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Rabbit Hole, The Nina Variations, The Heidi Chronicles), The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm is a sideshow whirlwind of folly, danger and the missteps of youth. When a powerful invention lands in the hands of impulsive Phineas Hamm on his 25th birthday, he’s faced with the possibility of altering his reality with the single pull of a lever. What happens when desires and abandon trump resilience and loyalty? Set to music with choreography by Ballet Austin’s Kaitlyn Moise, Phineas is an exploration of tempting fortunes and their immediate outcomes.

The Cambiare Productions / Paper Moon Rep partnership began simply as a means to offset the single largest expense of any production--rent; but the collaboration has grown into what promises to be a captivating evening at the theatre. The shows remain their singular selves, but the evening will reward those who buy the Double Feature ticket with reduced admission, a complimentary cocktail and an end-to-end experience. The companies are also sharing production staff. The artistic team for Messenger No., 4 and The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm includes B. Iden Payne Award Winners Ia Enstera (Production Scenic Design) and Megan Reilly (Production Lighting Design), B. Iden Payne nominee Glenda Barnes (Costume Design, Messenger No. 4), Amanda Gass (Production Manager/Dramaturg, Messenger No. 4), and Elizabeth Cobbe (Dramaturg, Phineas).


Messenger No. 4 and The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm will be presented as a full evening of theatre at the Blue Theatre (916 Springdale Rd., Austin) from February 17th to March 4th. Tickets will be available for the entire night of theatre or for individual performances at www.PhineasAnd4.com

About Cambiare Productions: Founded in the fall of 2007, Cambiare Productions seeks a laboratory for new and devised works. Cambiare Productions continually reaches out to the Austin and global theatre community in person and via social media to find new partners in the creation of theatre. For more information on Messenger No. 4 or Cambiare Productions please visit CambiareProductions.com.

About Paper Moon Repertory: Founded in 2010, Paper Moon Rep is dedicated to the fine art of theatrical production and education. Our mission is to provide high quality productions that capture the imaginations of theatregoers through inventive scenery and props, one-of-a-kind costumes, innovative music and fantastical storytelling. For more information about The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm or Paper Moon, please visit www.PaperMoonRep.com.

Auditions for Messenger No. 4, Cambiare Productions at FronteraFest, December 12

Found via link tweeted by Travis Bedard of Cambiare Productions:

Cambiare Productions announces auditions for their next production: Will Hollis Snider's Messenger No. 4 (or... How to Survive a Greek Tragedy)

On December 12th, Cambiare Productions will hold open auditions for the stage production "Messenger No. 4". Auditions will be held from 7-10pm.Auditions will be at: Ridgetop, 304 E 33rd St. #1 Austin, TX 78705. (It is a brick two story building on the top of a little rise on the north side of 33rd St. between Grooms and Tom Green. Number 1 faces 33rd Street, it's the first door on the front of the building. White Christmas lights around the door.) (Click for map) Follow the Signs.

A high-energy ensemble show, "Messenger No. 4" is a love story written across time, space, and much of the classical western canon. Tired of his workaday life delivering exposition to royals, Messenger No. 4 decides to break a few rules to liven up his job but ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

Oh... and there's a sword fight and quite possibly a dance break.

Messenger No.4, written and directed by Will Hollis Snider, with set by Ia Enstera, lights by Megan Reilly and costumes by Glenda Barnes will be presented in tandem with Paper Moon Rep's The 21 Would-Be Lives of Phineas Hamm from February 17th to March 4th at the Blue Theatre in Austin, TX. Limited rehearsals will begin prior to the holidays with a full 4-5 day rehearsal schedule beginning after the New Year.

Please RSVP Amanda Gass at Amanda@CambiareProductions.com for a time slot. Please indicate your first and second preference: 7:00 - 7:30; 7:30 - 8:00; 8:00 - 8:30; 8:30 - 9:00; 9:00 - 9:30; 9:30 - 10:00. If you are unavailable Monday between 7-10, but would still like to be considered, please email Will Hollis Snider at: will@cambiareproductions.com

No roles are precast. All ages and ethnicities are encouraged to audition. Please bring a headshot and resume if you can. All roles will be stipended.

Sides will be provided. Click 'Read more' for capsule descriptions of the ten roles.

Upcoming: Dark Monday Fundraiser, Cambiare Productions and Paper Moon Productions, November 28

Found on-line:

Monday, November 28, 6:30 - 11 p.m

at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale (click for map)

Tickets $5 at the door

Proceeds benefit Cambiare Productions and Paper Moon Repertory

Inflatable Boxing Ring

Alright, so maybe it’s not a good idea for an actor to send a right hook to a director’s mug, but perhaps this is your chance to let a director sock you for not being off book on time or taking liberties with blocking. We’ve got some celebs in the ring for this special event, or you can duke it out with buddies and/or visiting relatives who just won’t realize Thanksgiving is over.

FEATURING: Andy Berkovsky, Gary Jaffe, Mark Pickell, Ken Webster

The Red Badge of Encourage

Pick five words. Give those words to an Austin theatre critic. Let him/her spin it into a custom review for you emblazoned on a delightful, wearable badge. Hey, space in the paper is a hot commodity--you gotta take a good review when you can get it.

FEATURING: Michael Meigs & Elizabeth Cobbe

Tent of Frivolities and Intrigue

Find out what experience awaits you when you enter this tent. Each visitor will have a totally different 30-second experience that will be the talk of the night.

Click 'Read more' for much, much more information!

Orestes, Cambiare Productions at the Off Center, July 31 - August 15

Hidden Treasures from Afghanistan's National Museum are now on exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the last of several stops in a 15-month tour of the United States. I caught the exhibit in Washington DC last year, but you may have seen it this spring in Houston.

A haunting diorama of a barren Afghan plain shows how the unimaginable golden treasures were preserved in hidden subterranean vaults for thousands of years, even as the fabulous palaces of antiquity above them were torn down for re-use as construction material.

I had hoped that Will Hollis Snider's Orestes would offer us reworked antique treasures, but he provides instead an empty, echoing structure constructed from the pulled-down palaces of Greek myth.

The structure is not entirely barren. One clever touch is to convert the ravaging Erinyes or Furies from avenging spirits to fantasms of Orestes' mind, embodying the murdered -- his sister Iphigenia, sacrificed at Aulis by their father Agamemnon; Agamemnon himself, murdered by his wife, their mother Clytemnestra, upon his return from Troy; and Clytemnestra, whom Orestes has just killed, on instructions from the god Apollo.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Orestes, adapted & directed by Will Hollis Snider, Cambiare Productions at Dougherty Arts Center, July 30 - August 15

Click for ALT review, August 3



UPDATE: Insite magazine interview by Brian Paul Scipione of adapter/director Will Hollis Schneider, August 2009 edition

UPDATE: Robert Faires of the Austin Chronicle interviews adapter/director Will Hollis Schneider, July 30

UPDATE: Statesman's Jeanne Claire van Ryzin interviews adapter/director Will Hollis Schneider, July 30

UPDATE: KUT-FM's John Aielli interviews Orestes cast, July 14

Received directly:

Orestes

Austin’s Cambiare Productions is proud to present a darker, more intimate vision of Euripides' classic Orestes.

Adapted and directed by Austin Critics’ Table nominee Will Hollis Snider (Sonata Escondida, Intermission, Elektra, The Nina Variations), Orestes will be performed at the Off Center (2211-A Hidalgo, Austin) Thursday through Saturday, July 30th through August 15th at 8 PM.

Tickets are priced at $15, $12 for students, and will be available at the door. Thursdays will be pay-what-you-can nights. Reservations can be made at reservations@cambiareproductions.com or at (512) 524-3761.

Snider’s adaptation takes Euripides classic, strips away the presentational storytelling of three millennia ago and reinforces the story with other classic texts including Iphigenia at Aulis, Elektra, The Libation Bearers, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Agamemnon, and The Eumenides.

The production places the title character squarely at the center of his own story. It is set days after Orestes’ murder of his own mother, Klytaimnestra, in retribution for the assassination of his father. The dark fevered hallways of Orestes' mind are explored as he seeks absolution and release from the curse of the House of Atreus.

Sprinting backwards through the events leading up to Klytaimnestra's bloody death, the production unravels before Orestes' eyes the deceit and duplicity of the last generation of the House of Atreus as the black and white of zealous revenge recedes to the greys of politics and treacherous love. Confronted with the truth, haunted by Furies and hunted by his own people, Orestes makes one last desperate stand against God and man.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

World Theatre Day Observance: Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill, Cambiare Productions and Austin Circle of Theatres, March 27

The speech for World Theatre Day written by Brazilian author Augusto Boal was read by Robert Faires of the Austin Chronicle. Boal's comments are brief, but they sum up a lifetime of theatre, political activism and teaching, following his arrest by the Brazilian military government in 1972 and twelve years in exile. Boal's principal concept is expressed immediately in the opening:

All human societies are “spectacular” in their daily life and produce “spectacles” at special moments. They are “spectacular” as a form of social organization and produce “spectacles” like the one you have come to see.

Even if one is unaware of it, human relationships are structured in a theatrical way. The use of space, body language, choice of words and voice modulation, the confrontation of ideas and passions, everything that we demonstrate on the stage, we live in our lives. We are theatre! . . . .

One of the main functions of our art is to make people sensitive to the “spectacles” of daily life in which the actors are their own spectators, performances in which the stage and the stalls coincide. We are all artists. By doing theatre, we learn to see what is obvious but what we usually can’t see because we are only used to looking at it. What is familiar to us becomes unseen: doing theatre throws light on the stage of daily life.

About 30 persons came to the Dougherty Arts Center for the Theatre Day commemoration, the staged reading of Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children, and the discussion of the play. The group was diverse. By the end of the event we'd encountered students, actors, a playwright, the organizers, a Jewish couple in their late 60s, a Palestinian man, a Frenchwoman and two women from Palestine.

Seven Jewish Children is a stark piece of only about 170 lines, divided into seven sections of unequal length. Playing time is hardly ten minutes, and one can scan the text in far less than that. The version available on-line from the Royal Court Theatre contains no stage directions, other than the comment that the piece may be read or performed without fee anywhere, by any number of people.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Upcoming for World Theatre Day: Seven Jewish Children, staged reading by Cambiare Productions, March 27

UPDATE: Review of Seven Jewish Children, published by Austin Live Theatre on March 29

Received March 20:














Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children to Premiere in Austin
To celebrate World Theatre Day, Austin Circle of Theaters teams with Cambiare Productions to present a staged reading of Churchill’s controversial new work, Seven Jewish Children. Free.

As part of the global celebration of World Theatre Day, Austin Circle of Theaters in collaboration with Cambiare Productions will present a staged reading and discussion of Caryl Churchill's controversial new work, Seven Jewish Children, at the Dougherty Arts Center (1110 Barton Springs Road, Austin) on March 27, 2009 at 8PM.

In the aftermath of the Israel/Gaza war in January of this year, noted playwright Caryl Churchill crafted this emotional response. Structured to reflect seven key moments in Israel’s history, Churchill's short piece asks how parents would explain these complex events to their child. The February premiere at the Royal Court Theatre created a firestorm in the London press as editorials and columns debated whether or the play was inherently anti-Semitic.

This Austin premiere, read by a cast of Austin luminaries, with a discussion to follow facilitated by Robert Faires and C. Denby Swanson, is the perfect way to celebrate the power of live theater to move us and to stimulate conversation even on the most delicate of topics.

The program will begin at 8:00 PM; admission is free.

The performance will be streamed live at CambiareProductions.com

The author requests donations to the UK charity, Medical Aid for Palestinians, which can be given online at www.map-uk.org/ or at the performance.

World Theatre Day was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on the 27th March by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. The first World Theatre Day International Message was written by Jean Cocteau (France) in 1962. The 2009 International message was written by Augusto Boal.

Boal’s message, together with Churchill’s provocative work and Travis Bedard’s passion to engage Austin in World Theatre Day inspired ACoT to get behind Cambiare Productions’ effort. Helping emerging artists and theatre groups do their thing has long been part of what ACoT is about.

About Austin Circle of Theaters (ACoT): ACoT is a not-for-profit performing arts service organization working to create greater public awareness, participation, and support for our local performing arts community. Founded in 1974, ACoT membership includes more than 130 large and small arts organizations in Central Texas as well as their practitioners and enthusiasts. Its website, NowPlayingAustin.com, is a portal for all arts and cultural activities in Austin.

Austin Circle of Theaters is funded in part by City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from Texas Commission on the Arts.


About Cambiare Productions: Cambiare Productions is committed to stories in all forms with a focus on collaborative creation, and the use of technology in live performance. For more information on Cambiare Productions please visit www.CambiareProductions.com.


TEXT of Churchill's play, published by the Royal Court Theatre, London (.pdf)

Wikipedia on the piece and the controversy