Upcoming: Reading/Lecture by Playwright Sherry Kramer, Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas, March 22

The Michener Center for Writers of the University of Texas

presents

Sherry Kramer

reading from a work in progress

7:30 pm • Thursday • March 22, 2012
Avaya Auditorium, ACE 2.302
southeast corner of 24th & Speedway on campus
MICHENER CENTER FOR WRITERS • THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
www.utexas.edu/academic/mcw • 512-471-1601

Sherry Kramer's readings are always wildly entertaining, like her work—a fearless melding of humor, pathos, and intellect. Kramer’s plays have been produced in theaters across the country and abroad. She is a recipient of fellowships from the NEA, the NY Foundation for the Arts and McKnight Foundation. Her other honors include the Weissberger Playwriting Award and a NY Drama League Award (WHAT A MAN WEIGHS), the LA Women in Theater New Play Award (THE WALL OF WATER), and the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (DAVID'S REDHAIRED DEATH). She was the first national member of New Dramatists, former head of the Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, and is on the permanent faculty at Bennington College.

Upcoming: Shop Talk with Maria Goyanes of the NY Public Theatre, November 19

Received via Twitter:

University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance presents

Shoptalk with Maria Goyanes, Associate Producer of New York’s Public Theatre

November 19, 3:00 PM, B. Iden Payne Theatre (WIN), 23rd and San Jacinto, University of Texas. Free admission.

Maria Goyanes is at UT to serve as the professional respondent to the premiere of Kimber Lee’s FIGHT. Maria will conduct a Shoptalk, moderated by Steven Dietz. Ms. Goyanes is brought here through the generous support of the Michener Center for Writers and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

MARIA GOYANES is currently the Public Theater's Associate Producer. Previously she served as the Director of Special Projects, where she worked on the development and cultivation of new plays and initiatives that supported the work of a wide range of artists. She helped launch the theater's successful Public LAB, a series now in its fourth year that brings productions in development to audiences for only $10.

Both The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman transferred to The Public's mainstage subscription season after successful runs in Public LAB.

She spearheaded the Suzan-Lori Parks' yearlong "365 Days/365 Plays" festival for New York City, working with 70 theater companies and over a thousand artists. She is also the Executive Producer of the OBIE Award-winning 13P. She is the recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women.

Theatre and Dance Info Line- inquiry@uts.cc.utexas.edu or 512-471-5793
Directions: The Winship building is located on the East Mall circle near the intersection of San Jacinto and 23rd streets. Parking is available in the San Jacinto Garage on San Jacinto near Dean Keeton.

Upcoming: No Snakes in this Grass, street theatre piece by James Magnusson, LBJ Library Plaza, November 18

Found on-line:

No Snakes in This Grass

Harlem Street Theater piece revived
by James Magnusson
presented by University of Texas at Austin Graduate School
patio of the Lyndon B . Johnson School, 2313 Red River Street
November 18, 6 p.m. no charge

followed by panel discussion in the LBJ School Lecture Hall.


A classic one-act of street theater from the Civil Rights Movement. Set in the Garden of Eden, an all-American Adam has read the script and is going to send Cain and Abel to separate schools and have the boats ready for the flood. All his dreams are thrown into a cocked hat when he has to confront a black Eve. A hilarious and moving comedy about race and the Fall, then and now.

Written by James Magnuson, directed by Mical Whitaker, produced by Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art (RACCA)

This classic one act by James Magnuson, director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers, was first staged in Harlem in 1965. In summer 2010 it was revived at Lincoln Center, 45 years after its original production, sparked by a remarkable performance by a recent UT alumnus. The Graduate School is delighted to be able to bring the Lincoln Center cast to Austin in a performance of "No Snakes in This Grass."

Upcoming: Reading of The Happy Ones by playwright Julie Marie Myatt, University of Texas, October 28

Received directly:

THE MICHENER CENTER FOR WRITERS
at the University of Texas at Austin

presents a reading of

The Happy Ones

by Julie Marie Myatt, Fall 2010 Michener Residency Author

Thursday, October 28, 7 p.m.

Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302, southeast corner of 24th & Speedway on theUT Campus

Orange County, California, 1975. For appliance salesman Walter Wells, it’s the happiest place on earth. He has a beautiful wife. Two great kids. A house with a pool. Contentment. Until fate strikes a devastating blow, leaving Walter with no reason to put the pieces of his life back together. He resists attempts to help, especially the unexpected — and unwanted — o er from a Vietnamese refugee named Bao Ngo, who bears his own sorrows. Across a cultural divide, Walter and Bao each look to the other for a way back, if not to happiness, then at least to peace.

Julie Marie Myatt’s The Happy Ones is the winner of the Ted Schmitt Award from the L.A. Drama Critics’ Circle honoring an outstanding new play . Her other recent work includes Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before being performed at the Kennedy Center in DC; My Wandering Boy; Sex Habits of American Women; and Boats on a River. Her plays The Joy of Having a Body, Zealot, and Mr. and Mrs. are all published by Playscripts,Inc.

A member of New Dramatists, Myatt lives in Los Angeles.

Arts Reporting: American Theatre Profiles Austin's "Offbeat Ethos," October 2009

reproduced with the kind permission of American Theatre magazine:

Theatre Communications Group publishes in the October 2009 issue of American Theatre magazine an extensive profile of Austin theatre. Writer Justin Boyd opens the five-page spread by differentiating our theatre town from others:

"Most U.S. cities of a certain size have an experimental theatre scene -- one that's young, adventurous, low-budget and . . . small. That's because in most cities, 'experimental' is synonymous with alternative, alternative is usually the little brother of a much larger 'traditional' theatre scene.

Not so in Austin, Tex. In Austin, experimentation is the standard -- and if there's a tradition, it's an offbeat, do-it-yourself aproach to theatre making that dates back all of about 20 years."

Discussing the MFA Theatre program at the University of Texas and the playwriting program at the Michener Center, he writes,

"If one considers the work of the playwrights who've emerged from the center -- Lisa D'Amour, Kirk Lynn, Carson Kreitzer, Dan Dietz and Colin Denby Swanson among them -- it's easy to see that the center's writers aren't afraid to experiment.

"What are they afraid of? 'My first year here, I had a playwirght come into my office and sit down, and I said, "What's the matter?" Steven Dietz relates. 'This playwright said to me, "I don't know how to tell you this, but I think I'm writing a realistic play." There are probably a lot of other cities and departments that are working hard to break their writers out of a certain mode and expand their world. I'm the lucky recipient -- as are our students -- of an ethos of a scene that has experimentation not as a sidebar to the conversation. It just might be the conversation.' "

Boyd explores the ties between music and theatre, the role of financing from the City of Austin, loyalty to homegrown work, the audiences eager to experience eclectic, often whimsical theatricals, UT's increasing involvement in new works, and the challenge of re-invention as Austin grows. Among those he quotes are UT's Dan Dietz, Katie Pearl, Brad Carlin of the Salvage Vanguard, C. Denby Swanson, Kirk Lynn of the Rudes, Graham Reynolds, Christi Moore of Austin Scriptworks, Josh Meyer of Rubber Repertory, Jason neulander, UT's Susan Zeder, Steven Dietz, and Bonnie Cullum of the Vortex Repertory.

Click to read Justin Boyd's article "The Offbeat Ethos of Austin," © 2009 American Theatre magazine, reproduced by permission.

[Subscription information: American Theatre magazine is published monthly except for double issues in May/June and July/August and is available through membership in the Theatre Communications Group, $39.95 per year in the United States. Website: www.tcg.org; subscription e-mail: custserv@tcg.org.]