Eggheads by Joseph Skibell, Tongue and Groove Theatre at Center Stage on Real, September 6 - 14, 2013

presents

Eggheads

by Joseph Skibell
September 6 - 14, 2013
Fridays - Sundays at 8 p.m.
Center Stage at 2628 Real, 8 p.m. - click for map

Tongue and Groove Theatre is proud to present award-winning author Joseph Skibell’s screwball comedy, EGGHEADS! for a limited 2-week engagement.

Running only two weekends: September 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, and 14 at 8 p.m. at Center Stage, 2826 Real Street, Austin, 78722. 

Tickets can be purchased at the box office or in advance through brownpapertickets.com. $15.00 opening weekend; Thursday September 12 is paywhat-you-can, and the closing 2 performances on September 13 and 14 are $20.00.







Directed by artistic director David Yeakle, this zany play conjures Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka and Sigmund Freud as brilliant comedy-writers for their “nephews”, the Marx Brothers and features Mark Stewart and Courtney Hopkin with a cast of 18 portraying more than 60 prohibition-era characters. With period-costume design by Walter Young; art-deco graphic design by Wendy Mitchell; lighting design by Amy Lewis; sound design by Mark Stewart. Stage managed by Carli Werner.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Seven Wonders of the World (Plus One), Tongue and Groove Theatre at Rollins Theatre, August 16 - 26

SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (PLUS ONE), Tongue and Groove Theatre Company at Rollins Theatre, Long Center, August 16 - 26
Click for additional information

The source material for this original comedy, directed and adapted by Tongue and Groove Artistic Director, David Yeakle, is a 1940s-era suite of songs by the late record producer, Robert Scherman. The story follows a dreamer across time and space to various landmarks of both the ancient world and modern U.S., bouncing from then to now, from temple to skyscraper, classical drama to screwball romance. This is the 10th anniversary of Tongue and Groove’s original staging; the 2002 Austin Critic’s Table awarded the production “Most Unique Theatrical Experience”. This new production stars Mark Stewart, who originated the role of Richard ten years ago, and Courtney Hopkin as Martha, and features lighting design by Jason Amato, costumes by Pam Friday, and settings by Wendy Mitchell. The show is designed to be enjoyed by the entire family! Tickets for general admission are $20, with discounts for students and seniors, and can be purchased through the Long Center Box Office. The production will run for only two weeks, opening on Thursday, August 16, continuing through Sunday, August 19th, resuming Wednesday, August 22 through Sunday August 26. All performances are at 8:00p.m. For more information, please visit our website: www.tongueandgroovetheatre.com

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: The Head, Hands and Toes Tango Show by Tongue & Groove Theatre, September 9 - 18

Received directly:

presents

The Head, Hands, and Toe Tango Show!

directed by David Yeakle

September 9 - 18, Fridays - Sundays at 8 p.m.

Kenny Dorham's Back Yard, 1106 E. 11th Street (click for map)

Tickets are available at the door. $10/adults, $5/children 12 and under.

Opening September 9, The Head, Hands, and Toe Tango Show! is a delightful, family-friendly series of vignettes performed to tango tunes. Directed by David Yeakle, this unique production features the on-stage talents of Greg Griffin, Miranda Guillory, Matthew Barrera, Roxanne Rohmann, Zach Pettichord, Blake Addyson, Gricelda Silva, Adrienne Mishler, and Harmony Zambrano. Performances are Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, September 9-18. All shows are at 8:00pm at Kenny Dorham’s Back Yard, 1106 East 11^th Street (3 blocks east of I-35, next to the Victory Grill) near downtown Austin.

Live theatre under the Texas sky! Free parking! Lawn seating and concessions available.

This original production is made with the cooperation and generous support of DiverseArts culture works.

[Image by Wendy Mitchell]

Love's Labor's Lost, Austin Shakespeare at Hillside Theatre, Zilker Park, May 5 - 29

Robert Faires' imaginative staging of Love's Labor's Lost takes place at the Sheffield Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park, literally a stone's throw away from Barton Springs pool. Spectators spread out blankets or set up lawn chairs in the sloped meadow above the playing area and settle in for the pleasures of free entertainment for a Texas evening in May.

Love's Labor's Lost is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies and not one of the world's favorites. The language is rich and strange, certainly to a contemporary ear, with lots of quibbles, puns, and references that might have knocked 'em over back in the late 1500's but today come across as dense and obscure.

The concept seemed to be a stretch. How were director Faires and that energetic young cast going to fit the King of Navarre, the Princess of France, fantastical Spaniard Don Adriano de Armado and sundry counselors and ladies in waiting into an Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon 1963 beach blanket bingo world?

Having made his reputation with the histories of Henry VI and Richard III, Shakespeare was drawing on events of recent history for this lighthearted comedy. He was parodying Henri of Navarre, a contemporary and an English ally in the religious wars until Henri abruptly converted to Catholicism in 1593, shortly before Shakespeare wrote this piece. Henri was reported to be of an intellectual turn of mind and he had received visits from a French princess and the French queen, celebrated with festivities and entertainments. References to other current topics and events are frequent. Shakespeare's characters both noble and common obsess with words and elaborate wordplay.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Rough Magic, Austin Community College, February 25 - March 6

Received directly:

Austin Community College Drama Department

presents

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's

ROUGH MAGIC

directed by David Yeakle

ACC Rio Grande Main Stage Theatre

2nd floor, 1212 Rio Grande

February 25-27 and March 4-6, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

Suggested donation is $5 for students, $10 for general audience.

For reservations and info, contact dramabox@austincc.edu., 223.3345

In this action-adventure-fantasy, a vengeful Prospero steps out of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and threatens death and destruction in modern Manhattan, sending a female dramaturg with magical powers, and a team of motley misfits scrambling to save the world.

Reviews from Elsewhere: The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tongue and Groove Theatre at FronteraFest

Comment of Barry Pineo, published at the Austin Chronicle, January 27 (252 words):

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., 479-7529

www.hydeparktheatre.org Jan. 28, 7pm; Jan. 29, 4:15pm Running time: 45 min.

Almost every Tongue and Groove Theatre production presents an opportunity for great fun, and this, the company's latest effort produced for the FronteraFest Long Fringe, is no exception.

Click to read full text (252 words) at the Austin Chronicle . . . .

Reviews from Elsewhere: Salome by David Yeakle & Justin Sherburn, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, September 4

Link received from Tongue & Groove Theatre:

Hip Pocket Theatre walks tightrope with 'Salome'
Posted Saturday, Sep. 04, 2010
By Mark Lowry
Special to the Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH -- A band of circus performers can be an odd lot, a mix of attention-hungry clowns, demanding bosses, ego-driven daredevils and aerialists whose moves blend precision and sensuality. But they all have one big thing in common: They're all misfits in a world that places so much emphasis on normalcy.

Put all those elements in one performance, and it can be thrilling one minute and creepy the next, peppered with amusing and erotic interludes.

All those aspects work for Oscar Wilde's most scandalous play, Salome.

It comes together magically in David Yeakle's adaptation of the 1891 script, set in a circus milieu, for Hip Pocket Theatre.

In Yeakle's vision, the virginal temptress Salome is an aerialist (Mimi Kayl-Vaughan), her stepfather, Herod, is Ringmaster (Thad Isbell), mom Herodias a retired aerialist (Susan Austin), and Jokanaan, the character based on John the Baptist (Richard Rangel), is a caged wild man. Narraboth is an animal trainer (Paul Logsdon), and Naaman, the executioner, is a knife thrower, sharpening his blades throughout the show (and played by Grover Coulson).

Around them, strongmen, contortionists and clowns create that sense of whimsy and awe that can best be captured under the big top.

The show uses original music (by keyboardist Justin Sherburn), and oddly, a foursome of readers who speak the lines of the play, while most of the actors mime the action.

Read more at the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram on-line . . .

The Red Balloon, Tongue and Groove Theatre, Rollins Theatre, May 20 - 30

In 1956 the 34-year-old French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse wrote and filmed the slim, imaginative, 34-minute fantasyThe Red Balloon. His son Pascal played the central role, that of a quiet, lonely schoolboy who discovers a magical red balloon -- one that recognizes him, follows him with the simplicity and loyalty of a pet dog, and provides an escape from the emptiness of barren city life. Lamorisse's daughter Sabine plays the little girl who has found a similar but blue balloon. The film is a lyrical meditation on the imagination of childhood. It won award after award, including a U.S. Academy Award for best original screenplay -- the only time in the history of the Oscars that a short film received a major Academy victory outside the short film category.

It's a wonderful piece, largely without dialogue and scored to a whimsical score by Maurice Leroux. It was widely distributed and admired; copies of the 16 mm film resided in many school libraries in the United States, where successive generations were surprised and enchanted by it.

David Yeakle, animator Leah Lovise and composer Justin Sherburn have taken that elegantly minimalist film, inflated it, expanded it, decorated it and rescored it. Their production of The Red Balloon, "adapted freely from the film 'Le Ballon Rouge,'" is equally captivating but in a different way.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Red Balloon, reprised, Tongue and Groove Theatre, Rollins Theatre at the Long Center, May 20 - 30

Click for ALT review, May 24

Received directly:

Tongue and Groove Theatre re-inflates

The Red Balloon

Directed by David Yeakle.
Original music composed and conducted by Justin Sherburn.
Original animation by Leah Lovise.
Lighting Design by Jason Amato.

Wednesdays – Sundays, May 20 – 30, 2010
The Rollins Theatre at the Long Center

Tongue and Groove Theatre's The Red Balloon from Leah Sharpe on Vimeo.

KUT's Michael Lee interviews director David Yeakle and composer Justin Sherburne, May 16 (2 min.)

Tongue and Groove Theatre will remount its award-winning production The Red Balloon for a limited engagement in the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. The winner of five 2008 B. Iden Payne Awards and two Austin Critics’ Table Awards, this family-friendly whimsical play will open Thursday, May 20 at 8 p.m. with subsequent performances Friday – Sunday, May 21-23, and Wednesday – Sunday, May 26 – 30, 8 p.m., and 3 p.m. matinee performances on Saturday, May 22, Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Under the Gaslight, Austin Community College, October 30 - November 8

Ever wonder about the melodrama scene where the dastardly villain ties his victim to the railroad tracks? No, it didn't originate with Snidley Whiplash and Dudley Dooright, though that may be where you first saw it. Jay Ward was copying it out of a long tradition of silent movie serials that drew on saloon theatricals.

Credit for the notion goes to New York theatre empresario Augustin Daly, in his 1867 production of this play, Under The Gaslight, which he wrote. And the railway scene is a bonafide thrilling moment in that sentimental drama, especially when the cast directed by Shelby Brammer plays it all absolutely straight, without a whisper of irony. Perhaps you'll be surprised to find that the victim is not the innocent maiden -- in fact, the innocent maiden is clever and plucky enough to free the prisoner just before the express train comes tearing through for New York City.

Austin Community College students step back 140 years for this one, mightily aided by pro actors David Yeakle, Paul Mitchell Wright and Arthur Adair.

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

The Flu Season, Austin Community College, February 27 - March 8

It took a while, but I finally found the word that describes Will Eno's The Flu Season, produced February 27- March 8 by Austin Community College.

That word is "aggravating."

Maybe y'all don't use it here in Texas, but I heard it regularly from my mother, who came from a small town in Georgia. "Aggravating" describes behavior that is egotistical, rudely mischievous and intentionally provocative. Since she raised six sons, my Mom had occasion to use that word fairly often.

The Flu Season is set in an unidentified psychiatric institute somewhere with cold weather. We witness the initial interviews of two new patients, who appear to be involuntarily committed inmates. A white-coated doctor receives a bewildered young man; then on the opposite side of the stage a nurse brings on board a quiet young woman.

We don't know or really learn the histories of the young people. We quickly see that each of the members of the helping profession is perfunctory in filling out the forms. Each is far more interested in talking about his or her own feelings. For no good reason, the doctor relates impressions of a visit to Amsterdam. The nurse babbles along cheerfully about a girlhood experience in the countryside, centering around the sight of a horse.

Playwright Eno brings on "Prologue," a dapper fairy of a man who confidently and optimistically comments upon the action but does not successfully elucidate it. Shortly thereafter we meet "Epilogue," a discontented, cynical commentator consistently countering the chirpy "Prologue." Grumpy "Epilogue" demonstrates that "Prologue" is unable to see him, and one is pushed to assume that the sour, nearly angry words of "Epilogue" are in fact those of the author. He appears to despise what he has written, the effort of writing, and the attempt to explain any human reality in words.

Yes, there is a story of sorts, as the young woman and the young man become aware of one another in group therapy and in the television lounge. Inevitably, woman needs man and man must have his mate, but intimacy does not thrive or last in the madhouse. In parallel, the doctor and the nurse gradually develop a cordial mutual accommodation that appears less fatal. And throughout this, chipper "Prologue" gradually loses his cool and "Epilogue" as the author's voice makes it clear that he wishes he had never been involved in any of this garbage.

There's much of the Theatre of the Absurd in this concoction -- for example, one puzzles to understand the terms prologue and epilogue -- which, in customary parlance, would indicate, respectively, a speaker at the opening of the piece and a speaker following the conclusion of the action. Perhaps Eno used his prologue in an early draft of the opening scenes and just couldn't get shut of him? The notional author's mouthpiece might be dubbed epilogue because the character was grafted onto a nearly finished script that the author found appalling?

These quibbles and this bare description of the plot do not do justice to the theatrical experience. There's a strong and important message here: that each individual struggles to find meaning in existence through words, describing and defining feelings and experience, an effort that seldom succeeds. Eno further implies that for the most part we are sealed up in our individuality, fated either to isolation or to facile social accommodation that is trivial or essentially meaningless.

But he wraps that bleakness in language that flashes like diamonds in the darkness. These characters are dolts or disturbed or wrapped up in themselves, but they use images and describe experiences that are profound.

Only we, the audience, are listening to them, however, and for this play to succeed, each of the actors must convey that language and those underlying emotions with great clarity.

Bobbie Oliver as the nurse is a small marvel, connecting all those dots and turning them into a tightrope stretched across the void. Every word counts. She builds a subtext and a life view for her appealing-but-not-so-smart character. Larry Oliver as the doctor comes across as a bit wooden at first, but as he opens his random thoughts and his history to us, we can accept that as a valid portrayal of this man: not a great doctor, not even certain of his capabilities, but fundamentally decent in a distracted sort of way. David Yeakle as Prologue is ingratiating in his cluelessness and he aptly, slowly falls apart as his role in the play loses meaning. Curiously, there are two actors named in the program as Epilogue, the voice of the author, even though only one appeared on stage at the Saturday performance -- a tall, squared-off young man in glasses, with an appropriately abrupt manner and impatience both with characters and with the audience.

Avery Ferguson as the young woman and James Leach as the young man fit their roles. She blooms from stolid frustration to happy warmth as their relationship develops; he is staccatto, wild-haired and blinking in phobic desperation throughout. Neither entirely masters the language with which Eno has gifted them. Although they appear to hit every syllable of the text, meaning and emotion usually fly past them. One might see that as a valid interpretation, since they have, after all, been committed to this institute because they're psychologically incompetent. But Eno's greater message about language as our last refuge for meaning is diminished thereby.

Thanks to the ACC Drama Department and director Jodi Jinks for challenging the audience with this intense and -- yes -- aggravating play. Jinks takes on the Big Question, after all, which is The Meaning of Life. That's a task a lot bigger than providing casual amusement for the college students. It was too much of a stretch for some. The blond poppet seated next to me in the front row disappeared at the intermission.

And special appreciation, again, to Peter Sukovaty for superb set design and lighting. His use of glass brick and stark white wall sections was modern and attractive while still retaining the icy institutional feel of a psychiatric institution.

Fantasmaville, Teatro Vivo at Rollins Theatre, November 5 - 16

Raul Garza’s Fantasmaville won last year’s Latin Playwrights award even before it had been produced.

I’ve been anticipating the show for months, because I read the play last August. In fact, I auditioned for the “cranky old man” role of Akers, which seemed to be the best fit for my age, if not for my temperament.

"Fantasmaville" ("Haunted City") is here. Garza sets it in east Austin, complete with references to César Chavez Avenue, local schools, Capital Metro, Wheatsville Co-op, and even to a recent project to establish a dog park.

As I read the script I was charmed by the magical realism of the piece, in which an enigmatic spirit in the shape of a gigantic raccoon has been watching over the middle-aged party lady Flor, frequenter of beer halls who hasn’t lost a single dice game in the past 18 years.

And by the humor -- Flor’s daughter Celeste is an ambitious, underemployed idealist who, without informing her husband, jumps at the chance to offer foster care – only to discover that their new ward is in fact the cheeky local paperboy, Joaquín.

The chorus for this confusion is a pair of muddle-brained beer drinking buddies, Gustavo (Donato Rodríguez III) and Freddy (Rupert Reyes), operating on the principle in Tecate veritas.

Teatro Vivo has given the piece a beautiful production in the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center. The scene looks bleak when you arrive – a couple of couches and a bed, no more – but the panels behind each of these furnishings transform into video screens. With a click of the back projectors the scene switches from a bus in motion across an animé landscape to a living room to the interior of a tavern. Actors still have to tote a bit of furniture between scenes from time to time, and the faint glow of the screens silhouettes such moves – in fact, after one beloved character collapses and dies under a magical hex, that actor then has to scuttle backstage across that dimly glowing background. But such minor visual giveaways can certainly be forgiven.

Patricia Arredondo as the prancing, partying Flor has great gusto and a pack of juicy put-downs for some of the other dubious ladies of the neighborhood. Arredondo may just be herself, for her blurb in the program could accurately be applied to the character: “Patricia Arredondo is a versatile and energetic actor, delivering performances that teem with physicality, comedy and sheer reckless abandon. . . She is every bit as crazy as she looks.”

As I watched the action unwind, I realized that this is not, in fact, a happy story at all. The real protagonists of this play, Flor’s daughter Celeste (Karinna Pérez) and her Anglo husband Martin (Chase Wooldridge) are in serious conflict both with one another and within themselves.

In the opening scene on the bus Martin tells us a rambling story about middle school, twenty-two years ago, when he turned his back on his Tejano friends because they weren't “cool.” He is still looking for one of them, to re-establish that contact.

Celeste is angry at her irresponsible mother, frustrated with the lack of political engagement of her Latino neighbors, and unsuccessful in her search for full time work. Celeste tells the phlegmatic, pragmatic social worker Sonia that since she can’t get a real job, she is thinking of starting a family.


But Celeste never voices that desire to her husband Martin. Never. She speaks harshly to him, rejects his bumbling efforts to reason with her or console her, and insists on being left alone. Not even in a final, maybe hopeful scene on the bus do we hear a word of reconciliation between them -- earlier, Sonia coached Martin to put his arm around the despairing Celeste, but the gap between them persists.

Akers, the scrawny, resentful white man on the block is so spiteful and dismissive of "mojados and the rest of those people," including specifically Celeste, that he goads Martin into punching him out. David Blackwell in this role has a reptilian stillness and flat Texas accent that makes him scarily real -- all the more so when we learn of the cross-cultural scarring that made him that way.

Garza works to balance the two visions of Latino experience -- the magical, imaginative celebration of pleasures on one hand, and the tight-lipped lower-middle-class dealing with daily difficulties, on the other. But the melding of those two traditions is a brittle and not entirely successful one. Garza gives Celeste insight and information, but he has to resort to the "deus ex machina" of the raccoon spirit accompanied by a visitor from the afterworld to do so. The scene is entertaining, but we are not convinced that it provides any lasting spiritual solace to Celeste.

Erica Saenz as Sonia the friend and social worker is a solid, sympathetic presence, and Mario Ramírez as the newspaper boy Joaquín gives us a portrait of a Tejano who is disadvantaged but confident about his own abilities and future. They are the middle ground, really, representing Latinos who have faced economic and social realities and applied themselves to capture the possibilities.

In the end, Fantasmaville is a gentle, insistent admonition to the audience that real people populate east Austin. This is no brownface comic show; it is a reminder that while cultural differences persist, Tejanos face the same dilemmas as the rest of us.

Fantasmaville page on Facebook, including performance photos

Click for Jeanne Claire van Ryzin's pre-opening piece in the Statesman's XL, November 6

Click for thoughtful review in Austin Chronicle of November 13 by Avimaan Syam

Click for review by Joey Seiler on Austin Chronicle website

Click for review on Decider.com and interview with playwright Raul Garza

KUT "Arts Eclectic" audio feature (2 minutes)

KUT audio feature "A Funny Take on Gentrification," including dialogue from Fantasmaville, commented by Julie Moody, with interviews (4 minutes)