Humble Boy, Different Stages at the City Theatre, January 7 - 29

Tom Stephan is a revelation in Different Stages' Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones, playing through the end of the month at the City Theatre.

In Austin Shakespeare's production of The Tempest last September he was a dismayed and battered King Alonso of Naples, cast ashore in the opening scene and awkwardly penitent in Act V. Here, as Felix Humble, the title character of Jones' sardonic social comedy, Stephan is vividly alive, so inventive and subtle of gesture and emotion that one can hardly take one's eyes from him. That's a greater achievement that you might at first suppose, for he plays against the redoubtable Jennifer Underwood, one of Austin's most sharply etched character actresses.

The opening scene, played motionless in the half dark for what seemed an eternity, gave us a bulky figure standing like a great lump in the back yard, next to the stacked supers of a beehive gone mad. An erratic flickering emanated from the hive as the audience was battered with the Trans Siberian Orchestra's manic version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.

Only after the last discordant rock 'n' roll flourish did the lights rise to introduce into some semblance of stage reality. Stephan stood there, revealed as Felix Humble.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Bret Brookshire: Humble Boy, Different Stages at City Theatre, January 7 - 29

Images by Bret Brooksire, found on-line:

Different Stages presents

Humble Boy

by Charlotte Jones

January 7 – January 29, 2011
City Theater, 3823 Airport Suite D ^map
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Pick your Price Tickets: $15, $20, $25, $30
** Reservations: 474–8497 **

Different Stages continues its 2010 – 2011 season with the Austin premier of Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award and the People's Choice Best New Play Award.

Felix Humble, theoretical physicist, has left Cambridge and his search for a unified "Theory of Everything", to attend his beekeeper father's funeral –– but finds himself in the middle of a hornet's nest instead. His overbearing mother Flora has exiled the bees, and taken the boorish next–door neighbor as her lover. Add a mousy family friend, a dutiful gardener, and a visitor from his own romantic past, and like the bees, Felix bumbles to find order amid the chaos.

Directed by Jonathan Urso (Butterflies Are Free) Humble Boy features Jennifer Underwood (Morning's at Seven) as Flora and Tom Stephan (Mary Stuart) as Felix. Playing Flora's long suffering friend Mercy is Susan Roberts (Shards). George Pye and his daughter Rosie are played by Mike Gerecke (The Laramie Project) and Suzanne Balling (Dead White Males) And playing the gardener is Norman Blumensaadt (Eurydice).

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

Auditions: Different Stages: Humble Boy, October 18 & 19

Received directly:

AUDITIONS on October 18 & 19 by

for

Humble Boy

by Charlotte Jones

to be presented January 7 – 29, 2011 at the City Theater, 3823 Airport Blvd., Ste. D

Felix Humble, theoretical physicist, has left Cambridge and his search for a unified “Theory of Everything” to attend his beekeeper father's funeral–but finds himself in the middle of a hornet's nest instead. His overbearing mother Flora has exiled the bees, and taken the boorish next-door neighbor as her lover. Add a mousey family friend, a dutiful gardener, and a visitor from his own romantic past, and like the bees, Felix bumbles to find order amid the chaos. Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award and the People's Choice Best New Play Award.

Auditions Monday, October 18 and Tuesday, October 19

Times: 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Location: Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road

Plot Description: Humble Boy is a comedy about broken vows, failed hopes and the joys of bee keeping. All is not well in the Humble hive. 35-year old Felix Humble is a Cambridge astrophysicist in search of a unified field theory. Following the sudden death of his father, Felix returns home to be with his difficult and demanding mother. He soon realizes that his search for unity must be expanded to include his own chaotic life.

Roles 3 women ages 35 – 60, 3 men ages 35 - 65

Director Jonathan Urso

To make an appointment or for information call Carol Ginn at 444-3303

The script can be checked out at the office of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance at 701 Tillery Street, Suite 8-A. There is a $10 deposit (exact change or check only) for a 24 hour check out. G.A.C.A. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. Call 512.247.2531 with any script check out questions.

Actors are strongly urged to read the script before auditions.