PINKOLANDIA by Andrea Thome, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, October 17 - November 2, 2013

presents


 
by Andrea Thome
directed by Jenny Larson

Performances run October 17th through November 2nd, 2013 at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd, Austin TX 78722 -- click for map

October 17th-18th 8pm
October 20th 6pm
October 24th-26th at 8pm
October 30th 8pm
November 1st-2nd at 8pm

Tickets $10 online, and $15 at the door. All tickets are BY DONATION for STUDENTS (at the door only, or email jenny@salvagevanguard.org for group/class reservations). www.salvagevanguard.org
“I always thought it was solid, the ground I walked on.”

When two young sisters are exiled with their family from Chile to a bizarre Reagan-era Wisconsin, they are forced to retreat to an imaginary world to help uncover their family’s past.

To guard herself from the unknown, 8-year old Gaby uses imagination and innocence to create her own identity in a fantasyland of talking polar bears and melting ice caps. While her 12-year old sister Beny desperately seeks answers from her parents about who she is and what happened in their past. But she is met with icy silence and growing distance as her parents arm themselves with anger and the will to forget. When Uncle Ignacio arrives, the entire family starts to feel the ice cracking beneath their feet and the truth bubbling to the top.

Traversing through a fantasy world of glaciers, talking bears and Nazi-fighting revolutionaries, Pinkolandia shows us that when you lose your country and your past, you have to invent your own.

“I want to keep my soul.
I want to remember how to run
I want to remember that I am a bear.”

“Ambitious and often beautiful new play. With a script by Andrea Thome that’s both dreamlike and dramatic… The payoffs are abundant here; the excitements and confusions of youth are palpable” –The New York Times


COMMUNITY TALK BACK EVENTS (following the performances): October 18th– Featuring playwright Andrea Thome and Paloma Diaz, from the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. October 25th – Speakers to be announced.

CAST Gricelda Silva, Elizabeth Bigger, Jude Hickey, Martinique Duchene-Phillips, Rupert Reyes, and Robert Pierson

DESIGN TEAM Graham Reynolds- Original Score, Erin Meyer– Shadow and Video, Leilah Stewart- Set, Steven Shirey- Lights, Jessica Gilzow- Costumes

About Andrea Thome Andrea Thome's plays, theatrical translations and multimedia satires have been presented both nationally and abroad. A Chilean-Costa Rican, Wisconsin-born mutt, Andrea grew up navigating the multiple landscapes and languages that inhabit her plays. She became a playwright by necessity in San Francisco, where her Red Rocket Theater Company paid their theater's rent by creating and producing a new play each month. Andrea also co-directs FULANA, a New York-based satire collective that creates cutting-edge political & cultural parodies (www.fulana.org). She has received fellowships from NYFA, New Voices/New York (Lark), the City of Oakland, INTAR, New York University (MFA Fellow), and the Women’s Project. Andrea has taught at various universities, schools and cultural centers nationwide. She helped create the Lark’s U.S.-México Playwright Exchange, which she has directed since 2006. Andrea has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2009.

PINKOLANDIA is part of the Lark Play Development Center’s Launching New Plays into the Repertoire Fellowship. As part of the LNP initiative the piece premiered at INTAR in NY and will have productions at Two River Theatre, NJ and 16th Street Theater, Chicago. This initiative is made possible with leadership support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information visit www.larktheatre.org.

MADE IN THE SVT are theater works created, produced, or presented by Salvage Vanguard Theater company members.

Salvage Vanguard Theater (SVT) is a theater company and performance hub located in East Austin. SVT creates and presents transformative high-quality artistic experiences that foster experimentation and conversation.

Visit www.salvagevanguard.org or contact Jenny Larson for more information: 512-474-7886 or jenny@salvagevanguard.org

Salvage Vanguard Theater is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Three or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

(poster design by JennyMarie Jemison)

by Brian Paul Scipione

What Philosophers Call It

A pause button: many wish for it and none achieve it.

Many of life’s moments skyrocket past us with meteor-like frenzy. Some we miss altogether, because we were simply too wrapped up in, well, what we consider to be life. Vonnegut fantasizes about something similar in Slaughterhouse Five: the ability to stretch time out like taffy, look at each and every important moment from our past, and understand how they brought us to the present. Because, honestly, we know all along as it’s happening. One thing does lead to another,r and while nothing was actually our fault, if we could do it all over again differently-- we probably would.

Three or the Sound of Existential Nothingness is not science fiction or a playful modern fantasy. It’s a modern adaption of Chekov’s masterpiece Three Sisters. The play portrays the titular trio plus one lover and one brother. No special effects or time travel involved; yet while watching the play, the spectator is whisked back and forth, through a thousand moments: many seem insignificant but all matter.

Allow me to explain, if I can (avoiding spoilers and misdirection, of course).

Jeff Mills (photo: Will Hollis Snider)

Within the first three minutes of the evening the fourth wall is shattered. No objection to that; many people know that playwright Timothy Braun is adapting 113-year-old material for a modern audience: why not take a casual approach to the format? Alas, this is only the least of the changes to this inter-dimensional story. 

The crux of the drama lies not in what Andres the brother (Jeff Mills) says directly to the audience as the de facto narrator. Rather, it consists of every little thing the characters don’t say. Here, the five players of Three truly explode the parameters of Ia Enstera’s theatre-in-the-round set-up.

Wait, let’s pause and rewind. . . .

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . . 

Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

by Dr. David Glen Robinson


Brother Andre’s cell ringtone is Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, and that’s everything, right up front, for Three, or, The Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun. Each and every character on stage goes down, down, down in a burning ring of fire, seemingly without redemption.

Breaking String Theater produces the play at the Off Center, possibly the east side’s most prestigious venue. In marketing material, the play is described as a modern reworking of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. After having seen the show, I’m glad I decided to drink the play neat. Put down your Chekhov and go to the show.

Andre and his three sisters have been settled in an unbelievably small and provincial town distinguished by its nothingness. The town is located by the characters by spinning a globe and jamming their fingers onto it at random. Nothing could say every-nowhere better than that. The siblings’ doctor father did this to his four children when the town pleaded for a general practitioner. The doctor took the job and then died, leaving the children to attain adulthood and stumble through the wreckage of their lives, featuring advanced alcoholism, profligacy and gambling addiction. The play makes no mention of their mother.

The action takes place on the 21st birthday of the youngest daughter, Irina, and although Brother Andre bribes several of the townspeople to come to the weekend-long bash, only two show up, but these two are straight out of the family’s past. They are The Captain, played by Chris Gibson, and Officer in Training, played by David Higgins. Under the solvent of alcohol, the layers of denial slowly wash away, and the characters and their histories lie exposed and raw. We all have a little somethin’ to hide; but these people have to deal with icebergs, strip mines, nuclear waste dumps, and Cambodian minefields of the inner landscape-- with fracking in progress.

Director Schmidt leads us deftly through the carnage with an excellent cast. Cami Alys is notable as Masha, threatening, black-garbed; a Miss Attitude who, when not running with her scissors, holsters them prominently in her boot. She also scissors pictures out of library books as her sole prerogative as the town’s English teacher. Later, Andre says she is getting worse. We believe it. Ms Alys performs with supreme physicality, matched in the cast only by the gracile Gricelda Silva as Irina.

Jeff Mills as Andre and Dawn Youngs as Olga play with greater restraint than the others, as their characters require. With Andre this is due to a profound emotional weakness that leads him to trifle with the town punch and gamble with everything from the dog to the deed to the ranch. He talks smartass, even as a frame bending narrator, but his heart is in nothing but ennui. Mills’s accomplishment in erforming with this low intensity for all but a few minutes of the play is a credit to his skills. Olga, as the oldest sister, is bound by conventionality and the imperative to do the right thing. Youngs plays her with glimpses of Olga’s bottled rage and shows her physicality in games of jump-rope late in the play. This sequence, along with the party scene, adds creative dimension and relieves the audience after an hour of sturm and drang.

Click to read more of David Glen Robinson's review at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Video Promo by Robert Moncrieff: Three, or the or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

Robert Moncrieff's second promo video for the

presentation of

Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness

by Timothy Braun

directed by Graham Schmidt

July 26, 27 - August 1, 2, 3, 5 - August 8, 9, 10 - August 14, 15, 16, 17

at The Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th Street and Robert Martinez (behind Joe's Bakery) - click for map

In Timothy Braun's fantastical re-interpretation, five characters from Chekhov's 1901 masterpiece live highly circumscribed lives in a small town somewhere in present-day America. Breaking String presented an early draft at Hyde Park Theatre in December of 2012, and recruited an elite creative team comprising veterans of Austin's new works community, for a development process. The result is a highly playful and theatrical piece in which Mr. Braun explores themes central to Chekhov's work: loneliness, the yearning for a better life, and the struggle to connect. 

Photos by Will Hollis Snider for Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Timothy Braun, Breaking String Theatre at the Off Center, July 26 - August 17, 2013

A photo spread by Will Hollis Snider with costumes by Jamie Urban for the

presentation of

Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness

by Timothy Braun

directed by Graham Schmidt

July 26, 27 - August 1, 2, 3, 5 - August 8, 9, 10 - August 14, 15, 16, 17 

at The Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th Street and Robert Martinez (behind Joe's Bakery) - click for map

In Timothy Braun's fantastical re-interpretation, five characters from Chekhov's 1901 masterpiece live highly circumscribed lives in a small town somewhere in present-day America. Breaking String presented an early draft at Hyde Park Theatre in December of 2012, and recruited an elite creative team comprising veterans of Austin's new works community, for a development process. The result is a highly playful and theatrical piece in which Mr. Braun explores themes central to Chekhov's work: loneliness, the yearning for a better life, and the struggle to connect.

Cami Alys, Dawn Youngs, Gricelda Silva, Jeff Mills (image: Will Hollis Snider)

Gricelda Silva (image: Will Hollis Snider)

David Higgins, Chris Gibson (photo: Will Hollis Snider)

Click to view additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Video Promo: THE CIRCUS, Sky Candy Aerial Arts at Scottish Rite Theatre, June 21 - 29, 2013

Video promo (1:08) for the upcoming production:




Sky Candy aerial arts collective proudly presents its next theatrical production

THE CIRCUS, a one-of-a-kind circus theater tale, is running June 21 - 29, 2013, at the Scottish Rite Theater.

THE CIRCUS, Sky Candy’s fifth theatrical production, explores the struggles of a turn-of-the-century American circus. 

Written by acclaimed poet and Austin Poetry Slammaster, Danny Strack and directed by Sky Candy co-founder, Winnie Hsia, THE CIRCUS is set in 1890 and follows the story of young girl who gets more than she bargains for when she runs away to join the struggling Piccolo’s Acrobatic Circus Review of the South, featuring the Sideshow and Animal Extravaganza. 

(Note: THE CIRCUS has an all-human cast.)

Photos by Stephen Pruitt for The Cruel Circus by Connor Hopkins, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard, May 8 - 25, 2013

Performance photos by Stephen Pruitt for the








production of

The Cruel Circus
by Connor Hopkins
May 9–May 25, 2013 (8 pm Thursdays – Saturdays, 6pm Sundays.)
Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722 - click for map
Arrive early (at least 15 min. before showtime) for preshow music by Cami Alys!

Tickets: $10-$20 at at the door or on-line via

(photo: Stephen Pruitt)

(photo: Stephen Pruitt)

 Frankenstein meets the island of misfit toys . . . and goes to the circus. A mysterious tinkerer brings to life an entire world of strange circus performers — some polished and complete, some clumsy and misshapen — then disappears, leaving them to make sense of who they are and what they are made for.

A new work of dark whimsy from the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, and most recently, Toil & Trouble. Trouble Puppet deploys bunraku-style tabletop puppets to create graceful, lifelike, compelling drama for adults. This production features beautiful, complex puppets of remarkable design, by Connor Hopkins. Come see the handwalker, unicyclist, lion-tamer, acrobats, human cannonball, and fuselier!


Click to view additional performance photos by Stephen Pruitt at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

THE CRUEL CIRCUS, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, May 2 - 25, 2013

[workshopping and performing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

presents an original play:

The Cruel Circus
written and directed by Connor Hopkins

May 9 - 25, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m.

 A mysterious tinkerer brings to life an entire world of strange circus performers some polished and complete, some clumsy and misshapen then disappears, leaving them to make sense of who they are and what they are made for.

A new work of dark whimsy from the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, and most recently, Toil & Trouble.

Featuring performances by Zac Crofford, Travis Bedard, Seth White, Rob Jacques, Jose Villarreal, Gricelda Silva, Ellie McBride, Caroline Reck, and Brock England

Preshow music by Cami Alys; Music by Justin Sherburn; Sound Design by K. Eliot Haynes and Bernard Klinke; Lighting Design by Stephen Pruitt; Costume Design by Monica Gibson (with Lucie Cunningham)

ASL interpretation available for selected performances by Parker Dority and Shelby Mitchusson.

Made for adults. But children 10 and up, accompanied by adults, are welcome.
Tickets: Sliding scale, $10 - $50, available now through





(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Video: Pollyanna Theatre Company Funding Appeal

A charming, clever and very low pressure appeal by Pollyanna Theatre Company for support for their ingenious original theatre for children:

Video by Dannie Snyder: Rehearsing Once There Were Six Seasons, Glass Half Full Theatre workshop running February 21 - March 3, 2013

A video by Dannie Snyder and LIV Creations for






and its upcoming workshop production of environmental puppetry

 

 

Once There Were Six Seasons 

Feb. 21^st – March 3^rd. Thursdays-Saturdays @ 8 PM, Sundays @ 6 PM.

 

Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 E. Manor Road, Austin, TX, 78722 - click for map  

Tickets: Sliding scale $12-$20. 
Pay-what-you-can: Sunday February 24^th. 
Some ASL interpreted performances (see ticketing site for details). 
The two-weekend workshop performance will include opportunities for audience feedback and interaction, including talkbacks hosted by Rudy Ramirez and In.gredients.



Once There Were Six Seasons from LIV creations on Vimeo.

Glass Half Full Theatre presents a workshop production of Once There Were Six Seasons, an original work of environmental puppetry. Puppeteers manipulate vast miniature landscapes to address the impact of climate change on subsistence societies around the world. From the Arctic to the Philippines to the high plains of Texas, this work highlights how the accelerating pace of human-caused climate change has outstripped the ability of traditional cultures to adapt their lifestyles. From B. Iden Payne award-winning director and writer Caroline Reck, with an award winning cast of puppeteer/performers: Connor Hopkins, Rommel Sulit, Noel Gaulin, Gricelda Silva, and Parker Dority, and award-wining designers Eliot Haynes and Stephen Pruitt.

ONCE THERE WERE SIX SEASONS, environmental puppetry by Glass Half Full Theatre, February 21 - March, 2013

(performing at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. - click for map)

presents

Once There Were Six Seasons

opening February 21, 2013

We’ve leaped into full pre-production mode for Once There Were Six Seasons, a new work focusing on the effects of climate change on traditional societies which will open on February 21st, 2013. The title comes from a true story Caroline heard in Orissa, India, from a story passed down to a man from his grandmother:

In earlier times, in this grandmother’s lifetime, there used to be six seasons in that part of the world. The farmers still used an ancient method of observing animal behavior to determine when and what to plant. Now, that region only has two seasons (Summer, and Rains), and the animal behaviors that farmers counted on to grow their crops have been distorted by the rapidly changing planet. Farmers can no longer rely on their traditional methods, and communities are slowly collapsing as people move on to settle in the city slums.

Stories like this are happening all over the world, and we’d like to invite you to learn more of them with us in February.

The performance will make use of very small puppets existing in vast landscapes on the SVT Mainstage, with visible puppeteers affecting changes in the landscapes and on the puppets themselves. This is a genre of puppetry we have been gradually crafting, which we are calling “Environmental Puppetry.” In this style, the focus is on the changing landscapes rather than the articulations of the puppet’s body. If you are familiar with our piece, “Bob's Hardware” performed in the 2010 Winter Austin Puppet Incident, it’s in that genre.

Donate

Glass Half Full has received a very small amount of City of Austin funding for this project, which will have a workshop performance for two weeks only in February 2013. If you are interested in donating to this project, or learning more about our process of creation, please get in touch at info@glasshalffulltheatre.com or click on our donate button below:



Otherwise, we hope to see you when we present Part One in February.

Thank you from myself and on the behalf of the collaborating team on this show:
Parker Dority, Gricelda Silva, Noel Gaulin, Rommel Sulit, Connor Hopkins,
Kyle Zamcheck, Ia Ensterä, Stephen Pruitt, Zac Crofford, and Eliot Haynes.


Caroline Reck
Producing Artistic Director
Glass Half Full Theatre
caroline@glasshalffulltheatre.com
 
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

2012-2013 Season of Puppetry and Performance, Glass Half Full Theatre

celebrates its 13 B. Iden Payne Award nominations this year, with double nods in Comedy and Drama to both FupDuck and The Orchid Flotilla for Production, Acting, Script, Score, and Puppetry, as well as Direction for FupDuck and Sound & Scenic Design for Orchid

and announces its 2013 season:


Once There Were Six Seasons

February 2013 @ Salvage Vanguard

This new work uses puppetry and physical theatre to addresses the impact of climate change on traditional farming societies around the world. This project will show, through puppetry, narrative and imagery, how farming systems used for hundreds of years across the globe have been drastically affected by the rapidly changing global climate, and how communities and families are undone when their cultures are irrevocably altered by these external environmental changes. Tiny puppet figures exist in vast spaces onstage, and visible puppeteers move the figures through a changing environmental landscape. Emphasis is placed on the shifting landscapes around the puppets, and on the puppeteers’ role as the “cause” of those changes. There will be lots of sand and water. Featuring the performance and design work of Ia Instera, Eliot Haynes, Connor Hopkins, Rommel Sulit, Gricelda Silva, Parker Dority, Noel Gaulin and Caroline Reck.



The fourth Austin Puppet Incident

an evening of short works of puppetry from a variety of local and visiting artists
June 2013 @ Salvage Vanguard 

The Austin Puppet Incident is a joint creation of Glass Half Full Theatre and Trouble Puppet Theater Company, with the goal of highlighting short works of puppetry for adults, we encourage artists to participate in our reciprocal model, in which artists work with and for each other in a variety of pieces. 



The Boston/Austin Project

December 2013 at the Salvage Vanguard (Austin) and at the Charlestown Working Theater (Boston) 
 

A physical theatre performance crafted and devised by Caroline Reck and guest artist Bonnie Duncan, whose Poste Restante won the Austin Critics' Table award for Outstanding Touring Show. Bonnie and Caroline met in 2008 at the National Puppetry Conference, and are crafting their performance via Pintrest*, phone calls, and residencies. They got tired of their cohorts saying, "You two have a similar vision. You should work together." So now they are. Find it on Pintrest as "The Show We Will one Day Make Together."

spacestation 1985 by Natalie George, Jeff Mills and Friends, September 14 - 28

by Dr. David Glen Robinson


The Off-Center is the homeland of the Rude Mechanicals theatre company, where that storied group has ridden their great performances to theatrical glory. So it is a little intimidating to walk in there with performance on one’s mind. Natalie George and Jeffrey Mills showed no sign of intimidation whatsoever when they rented the space from the Rudes and installed Spacestation 1985 in it. The piece is a laugh riot at its core, and it is a send-up of 1980s TV sci-fi, a send-up of the 1980s as a whole and a demonstration piece of alternative performance forms.




The story is light, but it is a surprisingly flexible vehicle for comedy. Two NASA rejects are hired by the private corporation, Dedalus, Inc, to pilot a private spaceship to Halley’s Comet to mine minerals from the tail of the comet—a typically flimsy, improbable 1980spremise, but who cares when the laughs start and seem not to end? The neatest trick of the play is that the producers fly past us a story that contains 1980s sci-fi futuristic technology and the story takes place in the 1980s. Now wait a second…hmm…


Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: spacestation1985 by Natalie George at the Off Center, September 13 - 22

by Natalie George

playing at the Off-Center 2211-A Hidalgo St., near E. 7th and Robert Martinez (click for map)

September 13 - 28, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturday late shows at 10:30 p.m.; matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 16

Click to purchase tickets via Eventbrite: $12 general admission; $19.85 'mission control' premium seating

Click for additional information at the website

spacestation1985 is a live action science fiction psychological roller coaster coming to austin texas in september of 2012. it is the story of two down and out nasa cast-offs, dr. richard gergen and lieutenant norman james kilroy, who are blasted into space in the year 1985 by a mysterious privately-funded space exploration group.

their mission?

to be the first men to mine the tail of halley's comet. however, while working 30 day alternating shifts, the mission begins to take a turn...into not only the deepest corners of our solar system, but the very darkest corners of the human mind.

from the minds of the award-winning sketch comedy team THINK TANK,comes an 8 bit kubrickian dramedy unlike anything you have seen live on stage before. (unless you saw their run of the show in New York City, then it will be a lot like that....only with new exciting twists and a reloaded amazing design team, don't believe me? see for yourself...)

live puppetry!

oringinal score by graham reynolds!

sound design by buzz moran!

scenic design by ia enstera!

lighting design by natalie george!

costume design by benjamin taylor-ridgeway!

the acting chops of jason newman & bradley carlin!!

and

directed by jeffery mills!

still not convinced...
what about the talents of Jennymarie Jemison, Gricelda Silva, David Higgins, Dallas Tate, Noel Gaulin, Kelly Hassandras, Dani Pruitt, & Christopher Shea

and did we mention SPACE PUPPETS?
SPACE PUPPETS!

join us aboard spacestation1985...

www.spacestation1985.com

(Poster art by Duncan Gillis)

(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: The Three Little Pigs, Scottish Rite Theatre, April 26 - May 19

presents

The Three Little Pigs

April 26 - May 19

Scottish Rite Theatre, 207 W. 18th St. at LaVaca (click for map)

Come see this newly updated, musical version of The Three Little Pigs. This kid-friendly show modernizes the classic tale. Featuring rock songs, fat suits, and house building. Don't miss this tasty treat!

Featuring the talents of directors Susan Todd and Madge Darlington. Music by Emily Marks. And a cast including: Jessica Brooks Allen, Laurie Coker, Megan Minto, and Gricelda Silva.

Showtimes:

4/26: 10:30am and 12:30pm
4/28: 10:30am and 12:30pm
4/29: 2pm and 4pm

5/5: 10:30am and 12:30pm
5/6: 2pm and 4pm

5/12: 10:30am and 12:30am
5/13: 2pm and 4pm

5/19: 10:30 and 12:30pm

Civilization (All You Can Eat) by Jason Grote, Salvage Vanguard Theatre,

By Catherine Dribb

It’s strange. The concept is great, but the play is strange.

Just a warning.

The show opens with actors engaged in movement who quickly scatter when the initial dialogue begins, and the audience meets the first character, a hog, played by the talented Jude Hickey. And the rest is, well, an unveiling not only of hogs but also of porn stars, bigots, directors, hippies, self-help-book authors and (of course) actors.

It’s a strange show. But what was I expecting?

Under the direction of Jenny Larson, Salvage Vanguard Theater presents Civilization (All You Can Eat) by Jason Grote, a playwright simultaneously watching two productions of his show go up in Washington DC and, you guessed it, Austin. While I can’t speak to the D.C. show, the Austin cast is strong, rivaled only perhaps by the set designed by Connor Hopkins and the visual concept for the show, which I found compelling and effective, if under used.

From George Washington eating Twix bars to a giant man-hog strangling a runaway porn-star teenager, the show will surprise and shock you with both laughter and poignant disillusionment.

That’s not to say the writing is brilliant. It isn’t. The script appeared to be the weakest part of this production. Scenes dragged not because of boring actors or bad directing but because the dialogue isn’t engaging. Like I said, the concept is great. The writing wasn’t.

Civilization is described as a “parable of the Obama age,” where “desperation, desire, and existential dread connect the lives” of the characters. Hilarity mixes with overwhelming disillusionment as the audience empathizes with the characters trying to make a small difference in the world, to embody the change they long to see. They want to be effective and good at something, however obscure or shunned by society. They want to felt, noticed, loved, successful: these are basic longings of most of the angsty offspring of baby boomers.

Barack Obama said change was on the horizon. But is it, really, when compared to the stars staring down on us from millions of miles away? Is it, when a thousand or a million butterflies can change the course of history without any rhythm or warning? What really drives this world? What really matters?

Pertinent questions. I can’t say Civilization (All You Can Eat) adequately expressed or, for that matter, answered them (but wasn’t that the point?). But the concept was there. The disjointed chaos emphasized by the apparent links among these characters’ lives reminds us where the playwrightwanted to go, despite the fact that he never took us there.

Got a free night next weekend? Go see Civilization. It’s fresh, creative and different. And funny as hell. Disjointed, but amusing. Featuring Florinda Bryant, Michael Joplin, Heather Hanna, Griçelda Silva, Mical Trejo, Annie La Ganga and Jude Hickey. The set is brilliant, the acting is fresh and the play is short… under an hour and a half with no intermission.

Hey, George Washington… is that a Twix bar you’ve got hidden under that Declaration of Independence?

Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Civilization (All You Can Eat). And then some.

Upcoming: The Orchard Flotilla by Caroline Reck and other pieces, Glass Half Full Theatre at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, March 23 - April 6

presents

The Orchid Flotilla:

Gestural Theater & Shadow Puppetry

Puppetry & Performance by Caroline Reck & Gricelda Silva
Found Object Shadow Puppetry & Costumes by Erin Meyer

March 23- April 6, performance times TBA

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd. (click for map)

The flotilla is a tiny floating island of rubbish, adrift on a sea of blue plastic. Characters arise out of the depths in the form of human performers, manipulated objects, plastic junk masquerading as organic material, and human limbs manipulated as puppets. These characters are unified in their search for meaning in a solitary existence. From the depths of lonely imagination arises a sensual and poetic narrative about the transformative power of companionship and a witty examination of disposable packaging.

Original Sound & Music by Eliot Haynes & Adam Sultan
Scenic Design by Connor Hopkins -- Lights by Megan Reilly

History of the Production Inspired by a trip to the sinking Sunderban Islands in India and Bengladesh, work began in 2008 on The Orchid Flotilla. A gestural theatre and shadow puppetry performance, which also incorporates body puppetry, object manipulation, and live sound amplification, it explores several convergent themes: the human capacity to overcome ecological disaster; the transformative power of companionship (real or imagined); and the usefulness and uselessness of the manufactured objects we depend upon.

First presented in 2010 at Salisbury University for the International Association for Environmental Philosophy's conference "Geo-Aesthetics in the Anthropocene", The Orchid Flotilla is a deeply meditative piece, punctuated by humorous moments that acknowledge the universal struggle inherent in the human condition. The story unfolds over five "days" from sunrise to sunset and spans 13 years of the woman's life. During the "nighttime" sequences, shadow puppets and human shadows in the canopy of the flotilla reveal further details about the inner workings of the woman's mind, heart, memory, and hopes.

Click to view additional image at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Erica Nix for Upcoming Civilization - All You Can Eat by Jason Grote, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, February 16 - March 3

Found on-line, cast portraits by Erica Nix for

presents

CIVILIZATION (All You Can Eat)

by Jason Grote

directed by Jenny Larson

Set design by Connor Hopkins

February 16- March 3rd

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 E Manor Rd (click for map)
Tickets $15, available at

Thursdays are Pay-What-You-Can
www.salvagevanguard.org

You can have a life that means something. Ignore the rage. Fight the desperation. Forget the existential fear and rise up. Embrace the violence. Spout bullshit. Masturbate too much. Get rich and famous. Star in your own reality show. Just stop wallowing in the muck and get a fucking job. Be more than you are and commit to staying alive.
CIVILIZATION (all you can eat).

Set against the 2008 Obama campaign, this dark comedy explores the lives of seven city dwellers looking for more. A frustrated filmmaker, a suicidal comic, a career waitress, an amateur porn star, a failed academic, a fame-hungry actress, and a feral factory hog all pass under the gaze of an indifferent universe.

Originally commissioned by OBIE award-wining Clubbed Thumb, CIVILIZATION (all you can eat) was produced as part of Summerworks 2011 and is simultaneously premiering in Washington, DC at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Austin, TX at Salvage Vanguard. The playwright, Jason Grote, saw national success with his play 1001, and his play Hamilton Township had its world premiere at Salvage Vanguard in 2008.

Featuring Florinda Bryant, Michael Joplin, Heather Hanna, Gricelda Silva, Mical Trejo, Annie La Ganga, and Jude Hickey. Lights by Stephen Pruitt; Costumes by Pam Fletcher-Friday; Video by Lee Webster; Sound design by Jeff Mills; Movement by Adriene Mishler.

Pictured below: Mical Trejo and Griçelda Silva (images: Erica Nix)

Click to view additional cast portraits by Erica Nix . . . .