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(Paradox Players, performing at Howson Hall, Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue - click for map )
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| (Paradox Players) |
present
New Jerusalem
by David Ives
October 11 - 27
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.
Paradox Players presents New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656, by renowned playwright David Ives, at the Howson Hall Theater, October 11 - 27.
In 17th Century Amsterdam, members of the Jewish community were tolerated by the town council on the condition that they maintained a low profile, kept radical beliefs to themselves and refrained from discussing religion with Christians. Into this world comes Baruch de Spinoza, a brilliant young philosopher who openly questions the nature of God and reality.
New Jerusalem opens the temple doors and chronicles the playwright's take on Spinoza’s interrogation by representatives of the synagogue and a Christian leader. He is accused of atheism and, if he will not agree to reform his beliefs, will be excommunicated from the Jewish community.
But according to Paradox Artistic Director Gary Payne, "The play is by no means just a religious treatise. It’s a courtroom drama that will have you on the edge of your seat, rooting for intellectual freedom."
Spinoza, of course, went on to write the books (most notably "Ethics,") that have had a profound influence on religious philosophy for the past 350 years. In fact, Albert Einstein, asked if he believed in God, responded, “I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.”
Adds Payne, “Spinoza’s beliefs were certainly outside of the Jewish and Christian mainstream. But they mesh beautifully with my own and those of a number of ‘liberal’ religions, such as Unitarian Universalists.”
David Ives, the playwright of New Jerusalem, is best known as the writer of All in the Timing, which is probably the world’s most produced series of short plays over the past 20 years.
The Howson Hall Theater is located in the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover Avenue, Austin, TX 78756.
Performances are October 11 – 27, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm.
Tickets for the Opening Night Gala, which includes a special reception with refreshments, and for which all tickets are $25. For all other performances, tickets are $20 General Admission, $15 for Seniors, and $10 for Students.
Purchase tickets online at www.paradoxplayers.org, or phone 512-744-1495 for reservations.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Paradox Players will hold auditions for New Jerusalem by David Ives at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 1, in the Howson Hall Theater at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover (click for mao). Production dates are October 11 to October 27. Rehearsals will start in mid to late August.
This engrossing historical drama is about the interrogation of the young but brilliant Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation, in Amsterdam on July 27, 1656, by both the Jewish and Christian hierarchy of Amsterdam, regarding his unorthodox beliefs.
Looking for two women, 20-30, two men, 20-30, three men 40+. Contact the director, Gary Payne, at 512 799-5872 or capcitymystery@swbell.net to schedule an audition.
present
The Best Man
By Gore Vidal
Directed by Gary Payne
October 5-21, 2012
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm - Sundays at 3 pm
HOWSON HALL THEATER
Map to First UU Church
TICKETS
$20 Opening Night Gala, Friday, October 5th
(includes special reception with refreshments)
Thursdays - pay what you can
$15 for all other performances
$10 for seniors (65+), students (with ID) and groups of 10 or more
RESERVATIONS
By phone (512) 744-1495
Online , or Purchase via Paypal
FREE CHILDCARE
on Sun Oct 7th Matinee if reserved by Sept 30th.
Email childcare@austinuu.org or call (512) 452-6168, ext. 313
Gore Vidal's The Best Man is about the race to the presidency, as two front-runners vie for their party's nomination in the midst of back stabbing, double-crossing, dirty-dealing and all the games politicians play. The political intrigues rampant in this mid 20th century setting may seem strangely similar to the political intrigues of the present day. Vidal's insights still resonate, whether in Tea Party true-believer pressure or birth control controversies. It's a vivid snapshot of American political life a half-century ago that shows both how much and how little has changed. A roller coaster ride of twists and turns which make for a most entertaining and fun night of theater.
"Timeless, exciting and archly delicious." - Associated Press
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
This piece is a curious blend of memoir and fiction, drawn directly from the playwright's year as personal secretary to the patrician Francis Biddle in 1967-1968, the last year of Biddle's life.
Biddle had clerked for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes but had abandoned his Republic background to rally to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. FDR appointed him Solicitor General and then Attorney General of the United States throughout World War II. In that position Biddle approved the FBI proposal for internment camps for Japanese-American citizens.
Harry Truman removed him from the Cabinet, the first of Truman's changes to the FDR team. Truman tried to appoint Biddle to the UN Economic and Social Council but was blocked by Senate Republicans. Truman then appointed Biddle as U.S. judge for the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals.
Biddle had experienced from the inside the world-shaking events of U.S. history of the first half of the twentieth century. Judging from this text, he had fierce and dismissive opinions about most of them, expressed in 1968 to his respectful but plucky little 25-year-old secretary from Saskatoon. Judge Biddle was 81 years old and considered himself to be in the last year of his life. He admonished her that he had no time for training a new secretary, for changing his ways or for paying any attention whatsoever to her personal life. "When you feel the need to cry, the bathroom is behind that door."Unseen but very much present is Biddle's wife Katherine, a person of equally strong character. Katherine chose the new secretary -- "Sarah-with-an-h" --and advises her by telephone as needed. Whenever the physically frail Judge has faced a clash with his wife over breakfast -- a "tune-up," as he terms it -- he is aggrieved and unable to work even during the modest three hours appointed weekdays.Playwright Joanna McClelland Glass works a remarkable amount of Biddle's biography into the piece and creates him with a querulous, erudite voice that must mirror the man himself. Dear "Sarah-with-an-h" bears up to his moods with serenity and equanimity through six scenes unfolding his gradual acceptance of her. They feature his dictation of correspondence providing his final thoughts on history, his country and himself. Most vivid are comments written to a Japanese-American scholar, in which Biddle bitterly regrets the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese origin.The clever poster image is misleading. This piece is not a wrestling match between the two characters, not even metaphorically. It's a portrait of Biddle in his own words, or close to them, and a witness to the author's growing affection for that abrasive but ethical old codger. Don Owen inhabits Biddle with ease. If anything, he makes the man a good deal gentler than the text would suggest. For with carefully shaded business he makes us particularly aware of Biddle's frustrations with his failing health and with his mind, which at times goes inexplicably absent. Nancy Eyermann as Sarah Schorr is confident, courteous and self-contained, a far more attractive young woman than is suggested by Paradox poster. She puts up with the short end of a script which requires her all too often to content herself with simply, "Yes, sir," or "Yes, Judge Biddle." There is, of course, a moment of crisis, necessary for the dramatic tension in the second act. She struggles to suppress an emotional crisis. This moment inconveniences the acerbic Biddle, who request in peremptory fashion that she "describe in a single sentence" the reason for her emotional state. He falls into his own small panic when he realizes that he may be obliged to console her for non-work-related concerns.The title "Trying" is a clever play on words, evoking both Biddle's judicial background and his difficult mannerisms. Given the relatively static relation between the characters, the amount of anecdote and the dominance of Biddle's commentary, it occurred to me afterward that this piece would serve very effectively as a script for a radio play. Director Gary Payne generally overcomes the limitations of the set, the set-up and the difficult sight lines, and there's a telling shift in Act II as Sarah takes possession of the desk.The playwright gives Biddle several snaps about Sarah's tendency to split infinitives, rejoinders that will warm the heart of any grammarian, but Biddle fails to reprove Sarah's misuse of the adverb "thankfully." Describing Biddle's miserable private school days amidst a mêlée (rowdy scuffle) of schoolboys, Owen does not use the correct French pronunciation of the term. But that blue-blooded American aristocrat probably had damn little patience for those foreign niceties.
UPDATE: ALT review of Trying, June 18
Found at the website:Paradox Players presentsTryingby Joanna McClelland Glass, directed by Gary Payne.
June 12 - 28
The play tells the story of the volatile, yet warm relationship between Francis Biddle, who had been Attorney General under Franklin Roosevelt (among other achievements) and his young, spunky personal secretary. The play is set in 1968.
Based on the author’s own experience, this compelling, comic drama pairs an outspoken young woman and a cantankerous Philadelphia aristocrat who served as FDR’s Attorney General and presided at Nuremberg,in a project to complete his memoirs. It is humorous and touching how they are “trying” to understand each other.
Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
