Auditions at City Theatre for Wit by Margaret Edson, December 18 and 19

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Auditions - WIT by Margaret Edson. December 18 and 19
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D. Austin, TX 78722 (click for map)
Times:December 18, 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. December 19, 6 – 10 p.m. Ten minute slots by appointment.

Show dates: March 15 – April 8 with rehearsals starting January 9.
Casting all roles. If you are not able to make this audition time, please let us know.

Wit by Margaret Edson won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the metaphysical sonnets of John Donne has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. During her illness as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program, she struggles with doctors and family, ultimately reassessing her life with such profundity, grace and humor that she transforms herself and all those around her.

"A dazzling and humane play that you will remember till your dying day." —NY Magazine.

Bring headshot, resume, and a one minute prepared monologue. Scenes may also be performed. Telephone 512-524-2870 or email info@citytheatreaustin.org to set up an appt. For more audition details, go to www.citytheatreaustin.org

Doubling Your Fun: Two Cats, Two Romeos and Two Juliets

With so many companies and productions busy in Austin and nearby, some duplications are inevitable. The familiar musicals, of course -- Annie seems to come around in some form about every four or five months. The huge and joyful production at the Georgetown Palace ran through the holiday season, Lee Colee's Broadway Bound boot camp in Wimberley did a fine short version, Tex-Arts has just done a junior production, and now SummerStock Austin has settled in -- "for the duration," as they used to say during World War II. Their Annie, free of charge to the public camping on the hillside in Zilker Park, runs almost a month and a half, until August 14.

For Christmastime 2008 one could attend no fewer than four productions of Christmas Belles. I took my spouse to the one in Wimberley and she thought I was nuts to insist on taking in two more. I passed up the version that played at the Harlequin Dinner Theatre in San Antonio.

But sometimes you'll have an unusual opportunity to see versions of a notable piece of theatre, opportunities to glimpse just how great the differences of interpretation and impact can be. Theatre is, after all, a live art. Though texts may be standard or closely aligned, the real life and blood of a piece comes in the staging. Austin, you now have the chance to examine Tennessee Williams and Shakespeare as examples of the powerful transformations of dramatic art.

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

The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, City Theatre, June 10 - July 4

Paul Rudnick's play is cleverer and better crafted than you might suspect, given all the no-neck scandal over his playful recasting of biblical stories in goofy, unabashedly gay terms. The company plays the first act hysterically over the top, with flamingly naughty versions of the creation story and of the tale of Moses and the pharaoh, and almost -- almost -- a lesbian immaculate conception.

Adam and Eve become Adam and Steve, for example. In the paradise created progressively by that disengaged female stage manager ("Cue third day!"), they find one another dressed only in green jockstraps with fig leaves, and they explore the unexplained deights of the body like a couple of unsupervised kindergartners. The stage manager calls a timely blackout when the boys check out one another's little things, but we do get an eyebrow-raising simulacrum of anal intercourse.

Adam (Austin Rausch) follows his tempted curiosity out of the garden, plunging them all into the harsh world. Two women, firmly attached to one another, turn up -- Jane and Mabel (cf., Cain and Able, though the only close resemblance is in the names).Through their comic trials, flouncing Adam and sweet-natured Mabel (Chrissy Shackleford) intuit something more, something spiritual, but they're never quite able to express it. Neither matter-of-fact Steve (Marco Bazan) nor grumpy Jane (Katie Blacksmith)is buying that idea. Adam catches his breath, stunned with the happiness of the present moment and yearning to celebrate and to express thanks to someone - something. God? "Not in my house," returns Steve, his mouth tight and dismissive.

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

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

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, January 11

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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.

Upcoming: Hamlet, City Theatre, October 22 -

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, October 26

UPDATE: Article by Sara Pressley in the Daily Texan, October 21: Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' Gets Modern Twist at Local Venue

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Hamlet

City Theatre, October 22 - November 15
After show talk-backs October 25 and November 8.

A murdered king. A usurped kingdom. A promise of revenge. Returning to court to find his father murdered and his mother remarried, the young and melancholy Dane faces his most terrible dilemma between duty and doubt, madness and mistrust, and “murder most foul.”

[photo by Jordy Wagoner, Daily Texan]
An undisputed masterpiece of world theatre, William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy of passion, corruption and revenge has captivated audiences for more than four hundred years and remains as relevant and urgent as ever.

With Aaron Black, Collin Bjork, McArthur Moore, Christy Smith, and Tim Brown and featuring the live music ensemble orchestra of Mother Falcon.

Tickets $15 - $20. Guaranteed reserve $25. Thursdays pay what you can. Group and student discounts. www.citytheatreaustin.org

For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or e-mail info@citytheatreaustin.org.

The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D. – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38½ Street.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Rabbit Hole, City Theatre, September 16 - October 4

UPDATE: City Theatre is bringing back Rabbit Hole, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize, for its pre-season. The play opens on Thursday-Friday September 16 -17 at 8 p.m. each evening; it runs September 24-27 and then on Thursday, October 1 and Sunday, October 4.

Following is the text of the ALT review published on July 14:

Rabbit Hole by David Linday-Abaires is a quiet play about loss. Becca and Howie were young parents six months ago when a swift series of random events sent their four-year-old son Danny running after his dog, just as a teenager drove down the street going maybe just a tiny bit too fast.

That back story is not shoved into your face. The action opens as Becca's loud, impulsive sister Izzy is sitting at Becca's kitchen table, telling a comic-horrible story about a confrontation that she had in a bar. Becca is folding laundry, tiny boys' garments, as she listens, fascinated to Izzy crowing.

"You punched her?" Becca gasps, "Izzy, you mean that you were in a bar fight?"

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Rabbit Hole, Dancing Cat Circle at City Theatre, July 9 - 19

Rabbit Hole by David Linday-Abaires is a quiet play about loss. Becca and Howie were young parents six months ago when a swift series of random events sent their four-year-old son Danny running after his dog, just as a teenager drove down the street going maybe just a tiny bit too fast.

That back story is not shoved into your face. The action opens as Becca's loud, impulsive sister Izzy is sitting at Becca's kitchen table, telling a comic-horrible story about a confrontation that she had in a bar. Becca is folding laundry, tiny boys' garments, as she listens, fascinated to Izzy crowing. "You punched her?" Becca gasps, "Izzy, you mean that you were in a bar fight?"

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Don't Stop Me Now by Maggie Gallant, City Theatre, July 11 - 19

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DON’T STOP ME NOW

premieres at Summer Acts! Festival

New comedy explores one fan’s obsession with Queen front man Freddie Mercury.

Summer Acts! at The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Don’t Stop Me Now runs 60 minutes.

Performance Dates:
Saturday July 11 at 10pm
Sunday July 12 at 6pm
Tuesday July 14 at 7pm
Friday July 17 at 7pm
Saturday July 18 at 4pm
Sunday July 19 at 12pm T

ickets $10. For reservations, call 512 585-5698 or go to www.maggiegallant.com/wwfd

What’s the soundtrack to your life? That’s the question posed by Don’t Stop Me Now, premiering at the Summer Acts! theatre festival in Austin (July 9-19). For super-fan Sonya Moore, the answer has always been Queen. When faced with dilemmas in fashion, work, or relationships, Sonya seeks advice from the man she is sure has all the answers: Freddie Mercury. WWFD (What Would Freddie Do)? The answers steer Sonya in new directions with unexpected and funny results.


Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Incantations of August Wilson and "Fences" (City Theatre, February 26 - March 22)

You can find individual plays by August Wilson just about anywhere that dramatic literature is on offer. Half Price Books or Bookpeople, of course; and this combined edition is available at the Austin Public Library (Faulk Central Library). I spent a good deal of time with it over the past few weeks, preparing to review the City Theatre production of Wilson's Fences, which opens tomorrow, February 26, for a four week run (February 26 - March 22).

I didn't know Wilson, in large part because I'd spent a lot of the last three decades outside the United States. The press, the Kennedy Center, Wikipedia, and other sources call him one of the greatest American playwrights.

One account says that as he faced his imminent death from liver cancer at the age of 60, in 2005, Wilson teased his drama colleagues, asking them to make sure that his plays got produced "not just in February. I want them to be produced all year round." February, of course, is Black History Month.

Director Lisa Jordan and the Fences cast just about complied with Wilson's wishes. The scheduling hardly matters, though. Prince Camp, cast as one of two sons of the stolid former pro baseball player Troy Maxson, told me, "I read this play when I was just eighteen. I've always wanted to do it. I'm too young to play Troy and too old to play Cory [the other son]. But that doesn't matter. I would have swept the floor to be involved in this production."

The cast was running a full dress rehearsal this past Tuesday, happy to be at last in possession of the theatre and the set. They had been working since January in one temporary venue after another while North by Northwest Theatre Company had been doing The Shadow Box in the small but well appointed City Theatre. The theatre is tucked in a modest office building behind the Shell Station at Airport Road and 38 1/2 street. I met the cast in the semi-dark of backstage as they readied themselves for the opening scene, and some had the time to talk outside in the parking lot before they went onstage.

McArthur Moore plays Maxson's brother Gabriel, an invalided veteran of World War II, affable but slightly loony as a result of shrapnel wounds. A drama graduate from San Angelo State, Moore grinned when I compared Fences to Miller's Death of A Salesman. "In school I had to write an essay about that. Yes, they are a lot alike -- but there are lots of differences." Both plays center on a deep conflict between a father and a son; in each, the father's infidelity has a devastating effect on the marriage and the family.

In his preface to Three Plays, Wilson says that he was inspired to attempt play writing at the age of twenty when he first heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. Moore commented, "There's a lot of the blues in his plays -- in this one Troy sings about his 'Old Dog Blue.' But what I hear is jazz -- rhythms and changes, like Miles Davis or John Coltrane. And poetry. This is special language. Especially when you listen to the monologues -- some of them are structured like iambic pentameter."

Richard Romeo, who plays Cory, the younger son, agreed. "It's full of surprises, and sudden turns, both in the language and in the plot. And a lot of us can see ourselves in the relationship between Troy and Cory." Troy Maxson, retired baseball player from the Negro League, works on a garbage truck; he fiercely opposes son Corey's opportunity to earn a football scholarship, insisting instead that the boy should learn a trade -- something nobody can take away. "Cory is only 18," said Romeo, who is 21, an alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studying drama at Texas State. "He wants to be like his father -- over and over, you see him swinging a bat. But Troy rejects that and finally throws Cory out of the house."

"It's tough love," said Camp (shown here, left, with Robert Pellette, Jr., playing Troy Maxson). "My father was just like that when I was offered a scholarship to study drama. He and my mother had six other kids, and they couldn't understand why I would do that -- even with a full ride." Camp, now 39, works for an Austin high tech company. He has appeared in film and in his own one-man show, presented at the Dougherty Arts Center. He's enrolled in the Dallas Theological Seminary, working on a master's degree in media arts and communications. "Another thing that's exciting is the amount of acting talent that's here in Austin," he said. "We didn't need to bring in anyone from the outside to play these roles. You could have had five times as many actors, and all of them qualified."

As the action continued, they returned to their places backstage. I sat for a while on an old sofa in the dimness, a silent observer. Backstage, one hears the play rather than sees it. Wilson's language is hypnotic, and I listened to Pellette as the dogged, self-confident Maxson teasing his wife Rose (Gina Houston), badgering Corey, and bantering with his brother Gabriel and his friend Jim Bono (Rod Crain).

Chicago actor/producer Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who worked with Wilson, commented for an AP piece on Wilson, ''August's language is the natural rhythm and language of Southern black folk - what I call 'Northern colored people' - people who came from the South to the North but brought all their colored ways and colored style in the beauty, the nuance and the integrity that they always had down South. It's very warm, very vivid, very passionate.'' And Derrick Sanders, who has also directed Wilson's works, was succinct but direct: "Wilson is a lot like Shakespeare."

August Wilson was prolific. He wrote a cycle of ten plays, setting one in each decade of the 20th century, locating them mostly in his own hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He won a long list of awards. Fences, for example, received a Pulitzer prize, the New York Drama Critics Award and the Tony Award for Best Play. In 2005 the Virginia Theatre on Broadway was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. Last year the Kennedy Center sponsored staged readings of the full ten-cycle series. This year, a revival of Fences will open on Broadway, taking Wilson's work back to where he had his great successes.

NPR interview with August Wilson, with links to extensive additional audio material

"August Wilson" on Wikipedia