Video: Helen Merino as Emily Dickinson in 'The Belle of Amherst' by William Luce Austin Shakespeare, November 16 - December 1, 2013

Posted by Austin Shakespeare:

The Belle of Amherst by William Luce, featuring Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, November 14 - December 1, 2013

by Jess Helmke

(poster design: Alex Alford)

At Home with Emily Dickinson

I told myself, "I should have brought my favorite pen. Or maybe my secret stash of amateur poems? Some decorated stationary perhaps? Then again, freshly baked sugar cookies are sure to do the trick. . . ."

I was finally going to meet her. The dark, secluded and intriguing poetic genius herself, Ms. Emily Dickinson. I waited patiently and quietly in my chair for over an hour, but she never showed.

Instead, a woman dressed in white, full of tenacity, vigor and passion coyly offered me a pastry.

"I thought she was depressed?" I wanted to ask the usher, as I double checked the program.

Helen Merino (photo: Austin Shakespeare)

But vivacious Helen Merino continued to speak there on the stage before us, occasionally sipping tea, ever so properly, almost childlike. She drifted from one setting to another like a cloud, holding one prop then another, grounding herself and beaming familiarity. 

Her attention engagingly hopped through a series of delightful stories with never a threatening intention, and I could almost smell Massachusetts in the fall. Amherst was her menagerie, her home, her paradise. I felt so thoughtfully selected by Ms. Emily that by the time she told me I was a poem and she loved me, I believed her.

How is it she could express her thoughts with such precision and diction that her writings blended into the monologue with the ease of tempera color into water? 

When the time came, Emily addressed the issue of her eccentricity. Some would call it wit, but to me it seemed to be simple honesty, truth during a time when society was more aware of the likeness of men than of its own expectations of gracious womanhood. She spoke mainly of how she always different.

But what insanity it was to imagine she was ever awkward or unbeautiful in any way! She was set her apart from the others by her respect for precision in thought, an acknowledgment of surroundings, and her belief in the delicacy of life. It wasn't the all-white clothing or anonymous poetry in her journals. Emily Dickinson was intensely in love with words.

By intermission, I was ready to put a ring on her finger. Where had she been all my life? Could all the critics and literary analysts of the past of been wrong? It appeared so. With The Belle of Amherst Austin Shakespeare gave me my holiday blessing in disguise. The world on the stage and the places she spoke of became intensely real. I instantly recognized not the loneliness but instead the aloneness of great writers. I remembered the yearning and urgency of the artist to tell a story. And I basked in the happiness of a woman living in the merriment of her poetry.

Someone once stopped by the Dickinson homestead how to get to a certain address. Emily directed her to the town cemetery.

As for as the hermit, the shadow of a woman I was expecting to meet? A tide must have stolen her, because thanks to Helen Merino the actress, William Luce the playwright, and Austin Shakespeare, I met the most glowing soul in the theatre yesterday. And to think, she'd been there all along.

Good one, Ms. Emily. Definitely worth writing about.

THE BELLE OF AMHERST, with Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, November 14 -24, 2013

   presents

by William Luce
a one-woman performance by Helen Merino

November 14-24, 2013
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.
Rollins Theatre, Long Center, 701 Riverside at S. First -- click for map


Season subscription tickets for this production and for Othello now available on-line at the Long Center


Helen Merino returns to portray innovative American poet Emily Dickinson in this solo turn by celebrated playwright William Luce. With a wicked sense of humor, she defied the conventions of the time and was seldom published during her lifetime. Julie Harris won a Tony Award for her performance on Broadway in the 1970’s and appeared in a popular TV adaptation of the play. 

Dickinson’s unique style of writing has had a profound influence on the future of American poetry. Known as an eccentric in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, she withdrew increasingly from society, relishing her local notoriety and becoming an accomplished baker as well as poet. Eventually, she wrote 1,800 poems, moving from the sentimentality of her early work to more emotional poems.

About Austin Shakespeare We strive to find the best classical actors in the Austin area; usually half of our casts have worked with Austin Shakespeare before and occasionally we bring in guest artists. We value designers. Our resident lighting designer, Jason Amato, transforms our stage world by taking us on a journey with his unique creativity. Artistic director Ann Ciccolella takes pride in casting a strong ensemble team from leads to character actors. Austin Shakespeare’s board of directors supports the company’s theater of ideas and emotions. At our core, we love glorious language. Our motto is to “celebrate the best within us.” Later in the season, we will continue our 30th anniversary of FREE Shakespeare in Zilker Park with the most romantic of comedies: As You Like It, the month of May at the Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theatre. In late June, our Young Shakespeare teen actors will stage a professionally designed and directed production of The Tempest at Richard Garriott de Cayeux’ Curtain Theatre, a replica of an Elizabethan theater on the shores of Lake Austin.

Questions? Call the 3M Box Office at (512) 474-LONG (5664), TTY (800) 735-2989.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

2013-2014 Austin Shakespeare Season

2013 - 2014 Season

The Belle of Amherst by William Luce

November 13 - December 1, 2013

Othello by William Shakespeare

February 12 - March 2, 2014

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

May 1 - 25, 2014

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Young Shakespeare Troupe at the Curtain Theatre

June 19 - 29, 2014

Celebrating its 30^th year in 2014, Austin Shakespeare announces its new season starting with the acclaimed solo portrait of Emily Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst, starring Helen Merino (Hamlet) Nov. 14-Dec. 1, 2013; and Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Othello, Feb. 12-Mar. 2, 2014; both performed at The Long Center’s Rollins Theater, where Austin Shakespeare is a resident company. The season ends May 1-25, 2014 with Shakespeare’s perfect romantic comedy, As You Like It. The company will return to Zilker Park for the 30^th anniversary of “FREE Shakespeare in the Park.”


The season kicks off with a delightful evening’s entertainment of the now-famous poet, Emily Dickinson: The Belle of Amherst by William Luce. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella comments: “Join Emily Dickinson in her home and share her incandescent gaiety and touching sadness as this New England recluse lives to innovate poetry with her new style of writing.” November 14 – December 1, 2013, with a low-priced preview on November 13.


Austin Shakespeare invites audiences to a new experience of Shakespeare’s great tale of jealousy and passion in a new production of Othello, February 13-March 2, 2014 at the Long Center’s Rollins Theater, with a low-priced preview on February 12.


In the spring, teens are invited to open auditions (March 22 & 29, 2014) for Austin Shakespeare’s “Young Shakespeare” company to perform in the comic romance of magic and mayhem, The Tempest, to be staged at Richard Garriott de Cayeux’ replica of an Elizabethan stage, The Curtain Theater, June 19-29, 2014. Now in its sixth year, Young Shakespeare is a company of teen actors who will be directed by Austin Shakespeare professional actor and teaching artist, Nancy Eyermann (Love’s Labours Lost, The Winter’s Tale).


For its “FREE Shakespeare in the Park” show, Austin Shakespeare will bring the sexy, cross-dressing romp in the green world to Zilker Hillside Theater with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, May 1-25, 2014. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella will direct and describes it as: “In the city and in the country, Rosalind, the smartest girl in the world, falls in love with the most desirable man in the world! Hear the famous “Seven Ages of Man” speech and meet Touchstone, the jester! The show culminates in a RenFaire fun fest while we all sing – ‘With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino!’”


Alongside the 2013-14 season in three locations with four Austin productions, Austin Shakespeare will be performing Off-Broadway in New York City for the first time in its history with Ayn Rand’s Anthem, adapted by Jeff Britting, Sept. 25-Dec. 1, 2013 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater. Austin Shakespeare experienced sold-out success for Anthem at the Long Center’s Rollins Theater in 2011.



AUSTIN SHAKESPEARE Austin Shakespeare’s mission is to present professional theatre of the highest quality with an emphasis on the plays of William Shakespeare, bringing to the public performances that are fresh, imaginative, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible, connecting the truths of the past with the challenges and possibilities of today. Founded in 1984 Austin Shakespeare is the only professional classic theater company in Central Texas. Austin Shakespeare also brings professional actors and directors directly into the classroom throughout Central Texas. For more information, contact Austin Shakespeare Managing Director Alex Alford at alex@austinshakespeare.org.

Austin Shakespeare is a member of the Austin Creative Alliance, and is funded in part by the City of Austin through The Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Video by Lowell Bartholomee: Celebrating 29 Years of Austin Shakespeare by Lowell Batholomee

Video by Lowell Bartholomee for Austin Shakespeare, with performance views, posted on Vimeo June 12 --

Celebrate Austin Shakespeare: The Best Within Us from Lowell Bartholomee on Vimeo.

Austin Shakespeare enters its 29th season as a showcase of some of Austin's best talent and the timeless words of Shakespeare and some of our greatest playwrights. This is going to be an exciting season full of challenges and achievements.

Promo Video: Design for Living, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, February 6 - 24, 2013

Jonny Pascoe's video for the

 

presentation of

Design for Living

by Noel Coward

February 6 - 24, 2013
Rollins Theatre of The Long Center for the Performing Arts

Tickets on sale now at thelongcenter.org or (512) 474-5664.

Join us in this merry dance of three friends who begin as Bohemian artists and rise to high society, as they discover that real love and true friendship often collide. Delight in Noel Coward songs, too! Featuring Martin Burke, Helen Merino and Michael Miller in the lead roles.

Design for Living by Noël Coward, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 6 - 24, 2013

by Christine El-Tawil and Michael Meigs

Kara Bliss greets you with song as you enter the Rollins Studio Theater at the Long Center for Austin Shakespeare’s production of Design for Living by Noël Coward. Jason Connor accompanies her on the upright piano. 


 Bliss’s soulful delivery of witty and fun compositions by Coward and by Cole Porter instantly transports you to the 1920’s. The puns and clever humor set the audience laughing even before the action began, particularly with references to “gay” behavior. In Coward’s time, “gay” usually meant “loose” or “sexually libertarian” rather than “homosexual,” but our 21^st-century audience took the modern meaning. Director Ann Ciccolella’s interpretation of the progressive partnering within this free-thinking trio was exactly in line with that modern understanding.


Bliss and Connor perform before the show and at each of two intermissions in this three-hour production. They function as a cheerful and attractive chorus, for the songs allude to themes and social issues explored throughout the play. Their final offering is Coward’s “Marvelous Party,” an account of lovely drunken frivolity foreshadowing the happy ending.

Michael Miller, Martin Burke, Helen Merino (photo: Austin Shakespeare)

Coward wrote the play in 1932 for his friends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and the three of them appeared in it in New York to great acclaim. London audiences didn’t get to see it until much later because the ménage-à-trois and sexual innuendo were judged inappropriate by British authorities.


Design for Living tells the story of three young aspiring artists struggling up from poverty. They’re firm friends who first met in bohemian Paris. At the opening, Helen Merino as Gilda the designer is in a terrible flutter, and we soon discover why. Living unmarried with one of her male friends, she has just spent the night with the other. 


The dilemmas of sentiment and coupling are the heart of the play; these spirits scorn convention but jealousies upset and bewilder them. The three protagonists portrayed this drama and comedy so powerfully and effortlessly that the audience found itself gasping one moment and then laughing in the same breath.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Quick Comment: Design for Living, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 6 - 24

 
by Michael Meigs

The songs performed by chanteuse Kara Bliss highlight Noël Coward's sly wit, but Ann Ciccolella's staging of Design for Living proves he was no mere champagne dandy. Marvelously articulate dialogue pops and snaps, and it's full of emotion. Michael Miller, Martin Burke and Helen Merino deliver the most exuberant, mischievous and riveting ensemble work I've seen in many a day.

Design for Living by Noël Coward, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 6 - 24. Tickets via thelongcenter.org or at (512) 474-5664.

Design for Living by Noel Coward, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 6 - 24, 2013

presents

by Noel Coward

Savor the wit of Noel Coward's provocative comedy Design for Living!

February 6 - 24, 2013
Rollins Theatre of The Long Center for the Performing Arts

Tickets on sale now at thelongcenter.org or (512) 474-5664.

Join us in this merry dance of three friends who begin as Bohemian artists and rise to high society, as they discover that real love and true friendship often collide. Delight in Noel Coward songs, too!

Featuring Martin Burke, Helen Merino and Michael Miller in the lead roles. This will be Martin Burke's first time with Austin Shakespeare. Martin has been drawing crowds at ZACH for more than a decade. Local audiences can see him currently in The Santaland Diaries at ZACH. Austin Shakespeare audiences are familiar with Helen Merino for her performances in Mary Stuart, Anthem and Hamlet. Our audiences will remember Michael Miller as Mr. Darcy in our recent production of Pride and Prejudice.

FULL CAST

Otto - Michael Miller

Gilda - Helen Merino

Leo - Martin Burke

Ernest - Michael Dalmon

Miss Hodge - Kathy Lagaza

Mrs. Helen Carver - Sara Cormier

Mr. Henry Carver/Mr. Birbeck - Ben McLemore

Chanteuse - Kara Bliss McGregor

Introducing Martin Burke to Austin Shakespeare: ZACH: The Santaland Diaries (1998-2012), Fully Committed (2003 & 2012), The Laramie Project (2002 & 2012), The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Drowsy Chaperone, Take Me Out, Shakespeare’s R&J, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Angels in America. Imagine That Productions: House of Several Stories, A Writer's Vision(s), Down the Drain. Other: Celebrity Autobiography (The Long Center), Greater Tuna with Joe Sears, Twelfth Night (Sneck Up!, Vortex), Richard III/2 Actors (Public Domain), Shopping and F**king and Fur (Vortex).


Awards: Austin Critics' Table Award "Best Actor in a Leading Role" forThe Drowsy Chaperone, B. Iden Payne Award “Outstanding Ensemble” for The Drowsy Chaperone, The Laramie Project, and Shakespeare’s R&J; B. Iden Payne Award “Outstanding Lead Actor, Comedy” for House of Several Stories; B. Iden Payne Award “Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama” for Take Me Out; Austin Critics’ Table Award “Best Actor, Drama” and B. Iden Payne Award “Outstanding Lead Actor, Comedy” for Circumference of a Squirrel; Austin Critic’s Table Award “Best Actor, Comedy” for The Santaland Diaries; B. Iden Payne Award “Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play” for Twelfth Night, Angels in America: Perestroika and Family Affair; Austin Critic’s Table special citation, “Show Savior” for Richard III/2 Actors, Family Affair, and Lucifa. Martin holds a B.F.A. in Acting from UT.

Join us in this merry dance of three friends who begin as Bohemian artists and rise to high society, as they discover that real love and true friendship often collide. Delight in Noel Coward songs, too!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Antigone: Looking into the Sun by Ann Ciccolella, a staged reading, Saturday Afternoon, October 8

Received directly:

presents a staged reading of

Antigone: Looking Into the Sun

written and directed by Ann Ciccolella
3:30 p.m. til 5 p.m., Saturday, October 8
Long Center Rollins Theater, FREE. Donations accepted.

Creon: Discover the enemy and stop them…destroy the enemy of the state, no matter who they are. Creon

Antigone: I will die for the truth. Your kind believes that if you wish hard enough and print enough paper you can reverse gravity. Antigone

Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, wishes to bury the body of her fallen brother Polynices, but that means treason in the law of the land ruled by Creon. Is Antigone a woman of principle, or a political agitator? Austin Shakespeare presents Antigone: Looking Into the Sun, by Ann Ciccolella, Artistic Director. This script will be read for the public at 3:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Long Center's Rollins Theater.

Ann Ciccolella directs this beautiful and tragic tale weaving together themes of freedom and virtue into a dynamic contemporary look at the Antigone story. Helen Merino (Hamlet) plays Antigone, University of Minnisota profefssor Ray Schultz ("Claudius" in Hamlet) is Creon. Looking Into The Sun also features Michael Miller (Closer) as Haemon, Antigone's lover and Creon's son; Alison Stebbins (Hamlet ensemble) as Ismene, her sister; and Michael Dalmon ("Horatio" in Hamlet) as Stephanos, Creon's Chief of Staff.

Hamlet with Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, September 22 - October 9

The question that must be addressed when discussing this Hamlet staged by Austin Shakespeare is not "Why cast Helen Merino for the title role?" but rather "What does casting Helen Merino as Hamlet do to the play?"

Merino played Hamlet ten years ago for the same organization, then known as the Austin Shakespeare Festival, at free performances in Zilker Park downtown. She was an Austin favorite at that time; a 2001 article in the weekly Austin Chronicle identified her as one of the 40 "most valuable players" on Austin stages. Merino returned to Austin to play the title role in Schiller's Mary Stuart in February, 2010, and won a B. Iden Payne award for it, the highest recognition voted by members of the Austin theatre community. We know that she's a pro, and the prospect of seeing her in Shakespeare is a draw. But what happens to the play?

Director Ann Ciccolella crafts a vigorous, professional production, as always, with highly talented actors, many of whom we've seen before in Austin Shakespeare productions. She gives Merino the straightforward task of portraying a man, a prince, a would-be sovereign haunted by the questionable ghost of his father -- represented here with the ingenuity of puppetry as a 15-foot-tall spectre with a voice like that of Darth Vader. The puppetry is credited to Gary Jaffe.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Kimberley Mead: Hamlet, with Helen Merino, Austin Shakespeare, September 22 - October 9

Images by Kimberley Mead for Austin Shakespeare's

Hamlet

with Helen Merino in the title role

directed by Ann Ciccolella

Rollins Theatre, Long Center, South First at Riverside (click for map)

Sept 22 - Oct 9 (Th - Sat at 7:30pm; Sun at 2pm)

No performance on Thursday, September 29

Light Design by Jason Amato; Set Design by Kevin Beltz; Music by John Van Vander Gheynst

Tickets $19–$33, $15 for students. Tickets available on-line or by tel. 512-474-LONG or at the door.

Click to view additional images by Kimberley Mead at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Opinion: Robert Faires' Reflections on the Collective Nature of the Theatre Experience, Austin Chronicle, September 22

Published by the Austin Chronicle:

All Over Creation: Come Together

You're not alone in the theatre, and there's power in that

by Robert Faires

Having Helen Merino return to the role of Hamlet for Austin Shakespeare now – the production runs Sept. 22-Oct. 9 at the Long Center's Rollins Theatre – isn't in itself unusual. A few dozen blocks away, Emily Erington, Kelsey Kling, and Rebecca Robinson are back together as the sisters in Marion Bridge (see Exhibitionism for Elizabeth Cobbe's review), a play they first performed at Hyde Park Theatre in 2002 under director Ken Webster, who revisits past parts himself fairly often. Actors reprise roles all the time. What's curious about Merino slipping back into the inky cloak of the melancholy Dane is the timing: It's 10 years to the month of her initial stab at the role (a point chronicled on our Sept. 28, 2001, cover). Given all the recent remembrances of the tragic events of that September, Merino's return to Denmark sounds a strange echo of the first.

To my ears, anyway – I was in that earlier production of Hamlet, along with my wife, Barbara Chisholm, and our daughter, Rosalind, then just 8. My memories of it will be forever linked to 9/11 because the tragedy occurred two days before our Hamlet was to open. That day and the next, those of us in the show had no idea if people would want to see any play, much less one trafficking in as much blood and misery as Hamlet. Still, we were show folk, so we did what show folk do: rehearse and trust that somebody would show up on opening night. And much to our amazement, somebody did. Not in great numbers, but people came, and they seemed not only to want to be there but to need to be there – to be with others, sharing the pain they felt in a public place. Moreover, they needed to share a healing experience that would balance that shattering experience the entire country had shared. Hamlet may seem a curious choice for a balm, but its exploration of murder, of revenge, of grief, of our fragile mortality, all treated with such humanity, made it a cleansing drama in that moment.

Read full text at the Austin Chronicle on-line . . . .

Auditions for Hamlet, Austin Shakespeare, May 28

Posted on Facebook:

“Hamlet” Auditions

Saturday May 28

TO SCHEDULE AN APPT TIME: auditions@austinshakespeare.org.

Performances Sep 13- Oct. 16

Rehearsals start Aug. 18.

NOTE: the roles of “Hamlet” and “Claudius” are already cast [ALT note: Helen Merino will play the title role, as she did in Mary Stuart last year] .

Auditioners are asked to prepare a 1- 2 min piece from “Hamlet” or another Shakespeare play.

Equity and non-Equity contracts. Some pay. Opportunity to join Equity Membership Candidate program.

Upcoming: Anthem by Ayn Rand, Austin Shakespeare at Rollins Theatre, January 19 - 23

Found on-line:

presents Ayn Rand's

Anthem

In a dark totalitarian future, one individual reignites the world with the rediscovery of one word...

Austin Shakespeare presents the premiere of a new stage adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Anthem with words, music and projections by Jeff Britting at The Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre Wed.-Sat. 8 pm; Sun. 3 pm & 7:30 pm January 19 – 23. There will be a post-show discussion after every show.

There will be a special student "informance" on Fri. Jan 21: Student-friendly scene presentation and discussion at 11 a.m. (teachers, please contact alex@austinshakespeare.org for more information). Also, check out the Anthem essay contest for 8th 9th and 10th graders with $2,000 first prize at http://essaycontest.aynrandnovels.com/Anthem.aspx?theme=blue.

On Saturday January 22 at 6:30 there will be a special pre-show party with playwright Jeff Britting and Yaron Brook, President of the Ayn Rand Institute at the Long Center’s AT&T room. Price includes show and Sterling catering and beverages.

Tickets are on sale now at TheLongCenter.Frontgatesolutions.com or by calling 512-474-LONG.

View images of cast at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Mary Stuart, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 11 - 28

Mary Stuart in Austin Shakespeare's staging at the Rollins Theatre provides a powerful, cathartic experience for the spectator. Schiller's drama gives us two sixteenth-century queens, each with a claim to the English throne, wrapped in tangled interests of state and church, trapped together like scorpions in a bottle and surrounded by plotters, counselors, and mendacity.

This Mary Stuart plays like Shakespeare, with actors in stylized Elizabethan garb moving in a long court laid between ranks of spectators. Director Ann Ciccolella assembled a cast worthy of the aim, none more so than Helen Merino as the imprisoned Mary Stuart and Pamela Christian as Elizabeth I. The confrontation between them in the mid-point of the action is epic, a careful duet of encounter, reason, flaring passion and, ultimately, disaster for the prisoner, disguised as triumph .

The images and intrigues suggest that Shakespeare could have written this text.

Except, of course, he could never have touched this subject. These events were hot, recent realities in Shakespeare's time. He wrote and performed his first plays five years or less after Mary Stuart's execution in 1587, which occurred the same year as the publication of Holinshed's Chronicles, a major source for his plays. Shakespeare flourished under Elizabeth's reign, but the second half of his career was under the reign of James I, the son of of Mary Stuart.

There's a lot of background and history in this piece, virtually all of which takes place off stage. Schiller is remarkably adept in giving you a sense of it, including the scandals and sins of Mary's youth, Catholic plots against Elizabeth the Protestant queen, the formal hearing and trial of Mary Stuart by 42 peers of the realm, the machinations and courting of Elizabeth by the French royal family, the conflicting advice to Elizabeth once Mary had been convicted, and Elizabeth's ambiguous instructions once she had signed the death warrant.

You could study all that. Or you could go with the action, which alternates between Mary in her prison and Elizabeth at the court, equally a prison.

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

Seminar: Helen Merino ("Mary Stuart") on Auditioning, February 27 at the Blue Theatre

Announcement from the program for Austin Shakespeare's Mary Stuart:

Join us for a workshop on Auditioning in Austin and in New York City

Helen Merino on Auditioning
Saturday, February 27, 1:30 - 4 P.M.
at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale Road

Austin Shakespeare guest artist for Mary Stuart, Helen Merino, will lead a workshop in audition monologue and cold reading. Helen Merino has studied in New York with Atlantic Theatre School's Karen Kohlhaas, author of The Monologue Audition and How to Choose A Monologue for Any Audition.

Workshop topics include: choosing material; the monologue list; headshots; slating; "EPAs"; Actors' Equity; casting agents, directors and audition etiquette.

Austin Shakespeare Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella will join Merino in Q&A and feedback. You can perform your audition monologue, and col reading sides will be provided.
$25/$15 alums. To register email: alex@austinshakespeare.org.

[photo by Kimberley Mead]

Helen Merino, a member of Actors' Equity Association, is currently playing the title role in Mary Stuart for Austin Shakespeare at the Long Center. OFF-BROADWAY in New York: Eye of God (Kirk Theatre), Taboos (Soho Playhouse). She also played the title role in Hamlet for Austin Shakespeare. ZACH THEATRE: Present Laughter, Bad Dates, Omnium Gatherum, Pride's Crossing, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Vagina Monologues, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. STATE THEATRE: Anton in Show Business. FILM: Fast Food Nation, Cassidy Kids, Gretchen, The Interview.

Images: Mary Stuart, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 10 - 28

Click for ALT review, February 15

Received directly: photos by Kimberley Mead of Austin Shakespeare's Mary Stuart, playing until February 28 at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center.

The confrontation. Queen Elizabeth condescends to meet her imprisoned half-sister Mary Stuart, deposed queen of Scotland and unwilling inspiration for Catholic anti-Elizabethan plotters. (Pamela Christian, Helen Merino.)

In a brief, deceptive moment of liberation, Mary Stuart and her nurse Hanna Kennedy find themselves free to walk about the gardens of Castle Fotheringhay. (Helen Merino, Karen Jambon)






Lord Mortimer, plotter to free Mary by violence, seizes her in a fit of passion. (Sean Martin, behind Helen Merino.)




See additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . .

Upcoming: Mary Stuart by Schiller, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 11 - 28

Click for ALT review, February 15

UPDATE: Review by Clare Carnavan at Statesman A360 "Seeing Things" blog, February 11

UPDATE: Unsigned review at AustinOnStage, February 11

Received directly:







is the first company in the Southwest to stage the new adaptation of

Mary Stuart

a dramatic portrait of royal rivalry between
Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth of England

February 11 - 28 at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center
Tickets available now online or by telephone at (512) 474 - LONG

Now in its 25th anniversary season, Austin Shakespeare is proud to be the first theater in the Southwest to be awarded the rights to produce the new suspenseful adaptation of Schiller's Mary Stuart by British poet/playwright Peter Oswald, nominated in 2009 for 7 Tony Awards for the Broadway production.

Austin Shakespeare will transform the Long Center's Rollins Theater into a runway with audience on two sides, designed for a modern-day take on the Elizabethan era as they perform history’s illustrious high-stakes Tudor love triangle opening on Valentine’s Day weekend.

“This new version brings the clash between these charismatic women to life on the stage with language that is true to Schiller's emotional romantic play,” said Ann Ciccolella, artistic director of Austin Shakespeare. “The masterwork drives to reach a confrontation scene that never took place in history.”

The play is based on the story of Mary Stuart, the passionate and beautiful Queen of Scotland, as she struggles to gain freedom from her rival cousin, Elizabeth, the powerful Queen of England. Each woman uses the same man as lover and protector. Peter Oswald's new, energetic adaptation draws striking parallels to contemporary society.

As in the real-life story, Mary Queen of Scots has quite a resume. She murders her husband, marries his murderer, gets thrown out by the Scots as their Queen and conspires to bring about several murders. Schiller brilliantly condensed her story, beginning the action in the days before her execution.

[photo by Kimberley Mead]

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .