Adam Roberts' 10 Favorites for Austin Theatre in 2013

Top 10 Dramatic Turns of 2013

A look back at some of the year's most gripping performances

By Adam Roberts, Fri., Jan. 3, 2014

Jill Blackwood in 'Les Miserables,' Zach Theatre (photo: Kirk R. Tuck)

In reverse chronological order:

1) THE COMPANY OF 'LET IT BE CHRISTMAS' (World Vision & Gateway Church) The performers heralded Christ's birth with rafter-shaking vocals that soared on high.

2) THE COMPANY OF 'BLOOD WEDDING' (Mary Moody Northen Theatre) The air of rural Spain poured forth from the ensemble in a riveting production of Lorca's drama.

3) JILL BLACKWOOD IN 'LES MISERABLES' (Zach Theatre) As Fantine, Blackwood dreamed her dream center stage in arresting fashion.

4/5) RACHEL MCGINNIS MEISSNER AND LAURA ARTESI IN 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE' (City Theatre Company) Meissner's striking turn as Blanche provided both realism and magic, and Artesi delivered a stellar Stella.

6/7) MICHAEL STUART AND BENJAMIN SUMMERS IN 'A WALK IN THE WOODS' (Street Corner Arts) Summers' Honeyman was visceral and searing, and Stuart's Botvinnik drew one in to such a degree that it was difficult to glance away.

8) THE COMPANY OF 'TWELVE ANGRY MEN' (City Theatre Company) From 1 to 12, each juror contributed his own heft to this wonderfully weighty production.

9) THE COMPANY OF 'BEAUTY IS THE BEST PRIEST: SHORT PLAYS OF THE HAR­LEM RENAISSANCE' (Austin Commun­ity College Department of Drama) Like a living museum inside a more traditional one, the company granted new insight into a world of literature with which I'd had little acquaintance.

10) JACOB TRUSSELL IN 'OTHER DESERT CITIES' (Austin Playhouse) Trussell's turn as Trip was as captivating and multilayered as it was realistic and honest.

A MINISTER'S WIFE, Penfold Theatre at Trinity Street Theatre, March 28 - April 14, 2013,

presents

A Minister's Wife

Music by Joshua Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen, and book by Austin Pendleton
Directed by Michael McKelvey
Featuring Jill Blackwood, Andrew Cannata, Amy Downing, Greg Holt and Nathan Jerkins

March 28 - April 14, 2013
Playing at Trinity Street Theatre, 4th floor of First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, Austin

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm. Sundays at 5:00pm.
Opening night party following the show on Thursday, March 28th.
$25 Opening night, $20 Regular, $18 Students, $18 Seniors (age 60+).


For more information, email us at info@penfoldtheatre.org or dial (512) 850-4849. On performance days, we are available by phone from 1pm to the start of the performance.

In this regional premiere of a new American musical, George Bernard Shaw's riveting drama, Candida, is given an innovative and emotive score by the award-winning composers of Adding Machine. The piece whisks us away to 1890's London to experience the love triangle between the charismatic Reverend James Morell, his strong-willed and beautiful wife Candida, and the idealistic young poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who aims to win Candida's love.

In this regional premiere of a new American musical, George Bernard Shaw's riveting drama, Candida, is given an innovative and emotive score by the award-winning composers of Adding Machine. The piece whisks us away to 1890's London to experience the love triangle between the charismatic Reverend James Morell, his strong-willed and beautiful wife Candida, and the idealistic young poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who aims to win Candida's love.

Running time: About 1 hour 35 minutes, without intermission.

Recommended for ages high school and up.

In the news

"The most important new musical since The Light in the Piazza. To say that you mustn't miss it is to grossly understate the case." -The Wall Street Journal

Sponsors This production would not be possible without support from the City of Austin, the Creative Fund and Dramatists.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris with Martin Burke, Zach Theatre, November 24 - December 23

by Michael Meigs



The Zach says that this is the last time -- for a while -- they'll stage David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries. This is the 15th (!) season they've done it, so perhaps it's time for retirement, but if like me you've abstained from witnessing this Zach holiday ritual, it's time to swing on board before the caboose gets out of reach. Director Dave Steakley notes that Martin Burke has been doing his role as Crumpet the elf since the first production. Burke took a sabbatical of sorts in 2009 when African-American Espy Randolph did the show to appreciative reviews but the Austin originator was back again in 2010. For the 2012 run they're selling tickets only through the 23rd. On that Sunday Martin Burke does his last Crumpet the Elf at two shows, one at 2:30 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m.

Sedaris' text is smug and sarcastic, an appropriate antidote to all the sugar swirlilng in the air at this time of year, but Martin Burke himself is the reason to go see these sayanora performances. Burke has the fresh, guileless enthusiasm of a child, regardless of the scores -- no, hundreds -- of times that he has done this material. The contrast between that expressive, often beaming face and the cynical account of a season working as an elf-by-the-hour in Macy's Santland triggers your funny reflexes, and Burke has such happy charisma that he's instantly your friend. He's practically within reach, for the Zach's Whisenhut stage is a 150-seat theatre in the round.

Since the Macy's bit is intense but short, Zach and other companies that do this popular piece inevitably couple it with something else. The Zach production opens with a different Sedaris monologue, with Burke as an enthusiastic boy who discovers that his working class mother is friends through her job with a real, live workin' prostitute. The script is not so amusing in itself, but Burke's wide-eyed enthusiasm makes it pleasing. (The Playhouse in San Antonio is balancing its 'Santaland Diaries' featuring Jimmy Moore with 'Season's Greetings,' also by Sedaris, featuring Molly Cox -- slugging down booze from the bottle in the production promo photos.)

Zach's presentation is spiced up by some sly and somewhat naughty Christmas songs delivered femme fatale style by Amy Downing during the week and by Jill Blackwood on weekends, to the accompaniment of Jason Connor, the man with the accomplished fingers and unflappable presence of a lounge player who has smiled at it all.

I shared this experience with a friend from out of town, transplanted back to the United States after decades in Europe. He was particularly impressed by the warmth of Burke's performance and the man's ability to move our emotions in an instant from jolly mocking laughter to an unexpected pang of sympathy by capturing us with his actor's heart-catching sincerity. My friend vowed that this was a particularly American artistic characteristic and he found Burke marvelous at it.

Perhaps The Santaland Diaries has indeed arrived at the end of its useful life as a holiday chestnut and revenue raiser for 'Austin's theatre.' But we're blessed to have little big man Martin Burke still very much with us. He's scheduled to inhabit Elwood P. Dowd, friend of Harvey the rabbit, this coming May and June. You can be certain that the performance will be unique, perhaps with just the tiniest echo of Jimmy Stewart, but with a great deal of the charisma of Mr. Burke.

EXTRA

Click to view excerpts from the Zach's program for The Santaland Diaries with Martin Burke

Upcoming: The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris and Joe Mantiello, Zach Theatre, November 24 - December 23

presents


THE SANTALAND DIARIES

written by David Sedaris • Adapted for stage by JOE MANTELLO • Directed by DAVE STEAKLEY • Starring MARTIN BURKE, AMY DOWNING (for evening performances) and JILL BLACKWOOD (on matinees)

Musical Director and Arrangements by JASON  CONNOR
Original Set Design by HEYD FONTENOT • Lighting Design by JASON AMATO • Sound Design by CRAIG BROCK • Properties Design by BLAKE REEVES • Costume Design by BLAIR HURRY

THE SANTALAND DIARIES previews November 23 - Opening night is Saturday, November 24 (Press night) - Performances continue through December 23, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
To order tickets call 512-476-0541 ext. 1 or visit www.zachtheatre.org. Tickets range from $35-$65.

Student Rush Tickets: $18 one hour before showtime (with valid ID). 
 ZACH’s bar opens one hour before showtime.

ZACH’s intimate Whisenhunt Stage, 1510 Toomey Road, (Toomey intersects S. Lamar Blvd. between W. Cesar Chavez and Barton Springs Rd.)

ZACH’s production of THE SANTALAND DIARIES is sponsored in part by Lina’s Cocoa Couture.

Austin's favorite irreverent elf returns in the 15^th — and final — edition of Sedaris' hysterical tale of elfin woe. Enjoy the real-life story of Sedaris' tour of duty at Macy’s as Crumpet the elf, and what it takes to juggle tots and tottering Santas during a painfully festive time of the year. A laugh 'til you cry evening of merrily subversive entertainment to delight adult audiences! (Note: mature themes.)


For real-time updates on ZACH Theatre news, events and happenings, visit http://www.zachtheatre.org/blog, be a fan of ZACH Theatre on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/zachtheatre, and follow ZACH on Twitter @zachtheatre http://www.twitter.com/zachtheatre.


About ZACH Theatre ZACH Theatre is Austin’s leading professional producing theatre, employing more than 600 actors, musicians, and designers annually. Founded in 1932, ZACH is the longest running theatre company in Texas, serving 95,000 adults and youth annually. ZACH creates its own nationally recognized plays and musicals that ignite the imagination, lift the spirit, and engage the community under the proven leadership of Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley and Managing Director Elisbeth Challener. Launching its 80th season in 2012, ZACH continues to expand and engage with Austin, adding the new 420-seat, 32,000-square-foot Topfer Theatre to its performing arts campus, nearly doubling ZACH’s capacity while retaining its hallmark intimate theatre-going experience. Visit www.zachtheatre.org for more information.


ZACH Theatre is sponsored in part, by Applied Materials, Austin Catering, Four Hands Home, Holiday Inn-Lady Bird Lake, Kirk Tuck Photography, Marquee Event Group, OnRamp, Austin American-Statesman, KXAN TV 36, and Time Warner Cable; and by grants from Junior League of Austin, The Shubert Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, which believes an investment in the arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.


(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Ragtime, Zach Theatre, October 17 - November 18

by Michael Meigs

The Zach's Ragtime is a huge -- I mean HUGE -- and lavish production, inaugurating its state-of-the-art 425-seat Topfer theatre. The flair, finish and finesse of this production are simply breath-taking.


Ragtime is a fable of a faraway America, one that existed at the very opening of the twentieth century. In his 1975 novel E.L. Doctorow imagined a tangled story involving a prosperous bourgeois family in New Rochelle, an unmarried African-American couple and their child, and an impoverished Jewish immigrant peddler and his young daughter in the New York slums.


The story is told in an amusing faux-historical narrative with cameos by real figures notable and notorious, ranging from escape artist Harry Houdini to Henry Ford to polar explorer Robert Peary to Evelyn Nesbit, infamous in the love triangle that led to the murder of architect Stanford White.


Miloš Forman turned Ragtime into a 1981 film featuring Randy Newman's clever and gently nostalgic score. Although the story is set principally in a small town upstate and in New York City, somewhat ironically the 1996 musical was underwritten by Canadian empresario Garth Drabinsky and first produced in Toronto. The music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens sweep the audience away.


Ragtime is a dream epic, a late twentieth-century imagining of how it should have been possible to overcome the differences between races and ethnic groups. It's imbued with an optimism of America's possibilities, even as it depicts setbacks.


While the wealthy owner of a fireworks factory is away on a polar expedition, his wife discovers an abandoned black newborn child in the garden. She takes it in along with Sarah, its despondent mother; professional musician Coalhouse Walker, Jr., drives up from Harlem every week, trying to speak to Sarah, and the family accepts him. The courteous and well-dressed outsider even becomes a music tutor to Edgar, the son. In an unfortunate encounter, white thugs beat Coalhouse and trash his automobile. Police and courts deny him justice; police brutality causes a death; Coalhouse and his armed followers occupy the J.P. Morgan library in New York City. Conflicts are sharp; dilemmas are insoluble. The New Rochelle family becomes involved and members learn different, difficult lessons.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Kirk R. Tuck Celebrates Jill Blackwood and the Silliness of Zach's Xanadu

Kirk R. Tuck comments in his blog The Visual Science Lab (July 18) on Xanadu, the over-the-top musical, and provides a fine spread of photos of lead Jill Blackwood singing her heart out. Her are a couple; see Kirk's blog for more.

A celebration of silliness.
Jill Blackwood stars in Zach Scott's Presentation of Xanadu

by Kirk R. Tuck, July 18 


Zachary Scott Theatre never does anything halfway. When they do a campy musical they pull out all the stops and rev up the camp. This week the Theatre opens their version of Xanadu. This isn't your 1980's movie version either. This is a magnificent spoof-musical that made me laugh so much the image stabilization in my cameras was working overtime.



Last night my trusty video producer, Ben Tuck, and I headed over to Zachary Scott Theatre to do some work. Ben was there scouting locations for a video project. He was also shooting some general "B" roll during the dress rehearsal. I was there to shoot images for the local newspaper and for Zach Scott's marketing department. I ended up with about 1855 images but many of those are similar shots with different gestures and expressions. 



That's why shooting people, portraits and events is so frame intensive...you might like one sort of expression and the art director might prefer another. You shoot both. And while you're shooting you get the expression in front of you because it might be the best one, until the next one happens and you get that one because it's even better (and on and on).




While I covered all the actors in the show I decided I'd show only Jill Blackwood in this set of blog selections. Jill is wonderful on stage and her singing and incredible action made the show for me. In this role she is the team leader of the original Greek muses who ends up falling in love with a mortal artist. A big, Mount Olympus No-No. I love the way Zach's Xanadu is propped, lit and costumed.



Click to read more and see more and larger images Kirk R. Tuck's The Visual Science Lab

The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, September 29 - October 9

by Michael Meigs

The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler by Jeff Whitty has an abundance of clever and not much of depth or heart. Director David M. Long does a bang-up job of making it a whizzing entertainment, having recruited three gifted Equity professionals to work with the six St. Ed's Equity-candidate actors relegated to secondary roles.

Playwright Whitty starts with an intriguing hypothetical: what happens to Ibsen's Hedda Gabler after she so famously commits suicide in the last scene of the 1890 play of the same name? We watch Hedda awake in an afterlife, confused, looking around to decipher the only partly familiar world around her. She rises from the 19th century sofa and discovers that her pillow is drenched with blood but she is apparently unharmed. Then her worst nightmare appears: her husband George Tesman, pained and concerned for her. Won't that man ever go away? Not even beyond the grave?

Whitty gives us a literary limbo, populated with an arbitrary assortment of fictional characters embraced by the popular imagination. Hedda learns that she has been committing suicide over and over again for more that a century. She and others in this limbo survive, deathless and ever the same -- until the moment in which they disappear from living memory.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Words by Shakespeare, Austin Shakespeare, Curtain Theatre, April 21 - 22

Received directly from

Mark your calendar for
Words by Shakespeare, Music by Austin
April 21-22 at The Curtain Theatre

Mark your calendars now. Enjoy the words of Shakespeare set to jazz, classical and rock music for two special nights at The Curtain.
Featuring: Austin Chamber Music's Michelle Schumann and her toy piano, Jill Blackwood, Susan Lubin, Michael McKelvey, Kara Bliss, Dustin Struhall and more.

Contact (512) 470-4505 or alex@austinshakespeare.org for more information.

Upcoming: Shakespeare, Politics and Shylock: A Political Forum, Austin Shakespeare, March 24 and 26

Received directly from www.austinshakespeare.org:

Shakespeare, Politics, and Shylock: A Political Forum

Directed by Ann Ciccolella.

Austin Shakespeare will offer scenes and discussion about “Shakespeare, Politics & Shyock”; speakers include: UT professor Dr. Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and on Thursday only: Dr. James Loehlin, Shakespeare at Winedale Regents Professor.

Jewish Community Center, 7300 Hart Lane (click for map), 8 p.m. Thurs., March 24 and

Curtain Theater, 7400 Coldwater Canyon Dr. (click for directions and map), 8 p.m., Sat., March 26

Jewish Community Center of Austin, 7300 Hart Lane, Austin, 78731

TICKETS: $35–$15; $15 for students, all performances. $10 seniors JCC.

Tickets are on sale now at nowplayingaustin.com or by calling (512) 474-8497.

Delicious Kosher treats and refreshments will be on sale at the JCC.

For Sat. March 26, Special pre-show champagne reception with speakers and actors at 7 pm.

or follow on Twitter: @austinshakes

Austin Shakespeare will offer scenes and discussion about “Shakespeare, Politics & Shyock” at both the Austin Jewish Community Center and at Richard Garriott’s Curtain Theater, which is a replica of an Elizabethan theater. Speakers include UT professor Dr. Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and, on Thursday only, Dr. James Loehlin, Shakespeare at Winedale Regents Professor.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw, Austin Shakespeare at Rollins Theatre, Long Center, February 17 - March 6

Austin Shakespeare's staging of Shaw's Man and Superman at the Rollins Theatre has the pleasures of a long agreeable evening with toffee and cigars. No game of whist or bridge, for the contest here is between Man and Woman, or, to wax a bit more Shavian, between Man the Romantic and Intellectual on one hand and Woman the Life Force on the other.

Man doesn't stand a chance, of course.

You may well ponder -- where's the Superman? Shaw's play took the stage in 1903, less than ten years after the first translation into English of Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. That book presented the notion of the Übermensch, the human being who transcends conventional morality and the deceptive controls imposed by tradition and society. Treating the concept in this play, GBS disdained the awkward term "Beyond-Man" used in the first translation and coined the term "Superman." With his characteristic cheerful, waspish verbosity Shaw thoroughly explored this relatively new notion and used it as a club to wallop the conventions of English bourgeois society.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Kimberley Mead for Austin Shakespeare's Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw

Images by Kimberley Mead for

George Bernard Shaw's

Man and Superman

February 17 - March 6, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. & Sundays at 3 p.m.
The Rollins Theatre at The Long Center, Riverside Drive at South First Street

(click for map)

Tickets are on sale now at http://thelongcenter.frontgatesolutions.com or call 512-474-5664.

Austin Shakespeare presents a delightful comedy of topsy-turvy romantic pursuit, George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, a timely look at the perennial clash between the past and the future, the reactionary and the progressive, and questions of what the proper roles of men and women really are.

Man and Superman stars Kimbery Adams, Jill Blackwood*, Janelle Buchanan*, Michael Dalmon, Shelby Davenport*, Jenny Gravenstein, Philip Kreyche, Ev Lunning Jr.*, Barry Pineo, and Mark Stewart (* Member of Actor's Equity Association).

As a special addition, there will be a staged reading of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell with Babs George* and Harvey Guion at the Rollins at 7:30PM, Sunday February 27.

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

Upcoming: Man and Superman by G.B. Shaw, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, February 17 - March 6

Found on-line:

presents

George Bernard Shaw's

Man and Superman

February 17 - March 6, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. & Sundays at 3 p.m.
The Rollins Theatre at The Long Center, Riverside Drive at South First Street

(click for map)

Tickets are on sale now at http://thelongcenter.frontgatesolutions.com or call 512-474-5664.

Austin Shakespeare presents a delightful comedy of topsy-turvy romantic pursuit, George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, a timely look at the perennial clash between the past and the future, the reactionary and the progressive, and questions of what the proper roles of men and women really are.

Man and Superman stars Kimbery Adams, Jill Blackwood*, Janelle Buchanan*, Michael Dalmon, Shelby Davenport*, Jenny Gravenstein, Philip Kreyche, Ev Lunning Jr.*, Barry Pineo, and Mark Stewart (* Member of Actor's Equity Association).

As a special addition, there will be a staged reading of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell with Babs George* and Harvey Guion at the Rollins at 7:30PM, Sunday February 27.

Review from Elsewhere: Ba

Quoted in its entirety, from Austinist.com:

FronteraFest Long Fringe 2011 Review:

A Writers Vision(s) at Salvage Vanguard Theater

John Boulanger knows American absurdism. His precedent-setting House of Several Stories, which garnered the ACTF National Student Playwrighting Award in 2008, presented a refreshing reminder of the genre's ability to stun and strike a deep, resonating cord. Viewers expecting something like a repeat of this stylistic acrobatics show be forewarned: despite typical elements like negligent mothers, incompetent therapists, and general confusion about reality, this show is only absurdist-ish. It's straight-up zany. This show simply won't allow you to take it seriously. Don't bother trying.

It's not just mad-cap and unleashed; there's technically a through-line narrated Seuss-style about a struggling writer visited a la Christmas Carol by three representations of his sub-conscious in his efforts to unclog unclear-to-him blockages in his latest creative process. It hardly matters though; the ridiculousness effervescing through the piece suffices in the place of any real meaning (though admission of this at the end of the piece comes across as unnecessarily defiant). It's a rambunctious pastiche of farce, absurdism, and pop cultural weirdness stuffed with appearances of local theatrical luminaries like Babs George, Jill Blackwood, Martin Burke, and Laura Lane that, in lieu of receiving Equity-scale pay, revel in enjoying themselves on-stage. Most successfully, it’s masturbatory and thoroughly self-amusing without being alienating. Like its lead character in the end, it simply refuses to take the process of writing "seriously" and is all the better for it.

By Bastion Carboni in Arts and Entertainment on January 25, 2011

The Drowsy Chaperone, Zach Theatre, June 24 - August 1

When I got home, still bubbling from Zach's The Drowsy Chaperone, I was ready to write, "Run, don't walk, to the Zach box office to get your first set of tickets for this sparkling evening of music, comedy and light-hearted fooling, a clever reincarnation of Broadway at its wonderful beginnings."

That's hyperbole, of course. Because you don't need to run anywhere. You just tap zachtheatre.org into your browser, click a couple of times and give them your payment details.

I must have been hearing Walter Winchell or Hedda Hopper in my head, even though I'm far too young ever to have listened to the Broadway gossip on a crystal radio set or on a cabinet-sized Philco in the living room. Though I can remember, just barely, the advent of the first color television broadcasts.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a zinger because Lambert, Morrison, Martin and McKellar lovingly spoof those energetic, naive and amazing beginnings of what became American musical theatre, admired across the world, while giving us a contemporary moderator and chorus -- in the Greek sense. Martin Burke as the anonymous Man in the Chair hosts us for an evening alone in his apartment with LP recordings of that mythical 1928 musical.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: An All-Female Staged Reading of The Taming of The Shrew, Austin Shakespeare at the Curtain Theatre, March 25 - 27

Click for ALT review, March 26


Received directly:

Austin Shakespeare presents an all female cast in

The Taming of the Shrew

A Slapstick Comedy for the Lighthearted
written by William Shakespeare, directed by Ann Ciccolella
Friday, March 25 – Sunday, March 27 at 8 p.m.
at Richard Garriott’s Curtain Theater on the shores of Lake Austin, 7400 Coldwater Canyon Dr. (click to view Google map)
Tickets $24, available at www.nowplayingaustin.com or at the door.
Discount tickets available.
or follow Austin Shakespeare on Twitter: @austinshakes

After the success of packed houses during the run of Mary Stuart, Austin Shakespeare continues its 25th anniversary season with an all-female cast in a staged reading of the classic Shakespeare comedy. The Taming of the Shrew will play at Richard Garriott’s own Curtain Theater, a scaled replica of an Elizabethan outdoor theater nestled along the banks of Lake Austin, March 25 through 27 at 8 p.m.

“In Shakespeare’s time, only men were allowed on stage, even to play the female roles,” said Ann Ciccolella, artistic director of Austin Shakespeare. “We wanted to turn the tables and see a full cast of charismatic women to bring this comedy to life on a stage that resembles one of Shakespeare’s own.”

The story is based on the beautiful merchant’s daughter Bianca, and her admirers Lucentio, Gremio and Hortensio. Her father insists that she will not marry until her after her older, shrewish sister, Kate does, so Bianca's suitors persuade fortune-seeker Petruchio to court her. Bianca's suitors pay for any costs involved, even Kate's dowry, but Kate shows in no uncertain terms how opposed she is to marrying anyone.

The Taming of the Shrew is among one of Shakespeare’s earlier comedies and it shares characteristics with his other romantic comedies such as Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play is lighthearted, with slapstick humor, disguises and deception, replete with a happy ending.

The Curtain Theater is located in the heart of Garriott’s Castleton Village that is tucked away in a pecan grove along Lake Austin and features a fort, ship, lighthouse and jail. The Curtain Theatre is off City Park Rd., near Rts. 2222 and 360. (click for Google map)

THE CAST for TAMING OF THE SHREW

Jill Swanson as Petruchio, Gwen Kelso as Kate; with Babs George, Jill Blackwood, Linda Nenno, Karen Jambon, Kara Bliss Galbraith, Bernadette Nason, Jenny Larson, and Mary Alice Carnes.

ABOUT AUSTIN SHAKESPEARE

Now in its 25th anniversary season, Austin Shakespeare (formerly Austin Shakespeare Festival) presents professional theater of the highest quality with an emphasis on the plays of William Shakespeare to Central Texas. Bringing to the public performances that are fresh, bold, imaginative, thought- provoking, and eminently accessible, Austin Shakespeare connects the truths of the past with the challenges and possibilities of today. Founded in 1984, Austin Shakespeare offers fall and spring sessions of "Shakespeare Studio," the organization’s professional actor training courses. In addition, actors, teachers, parents and students are welcome at the "Shakespeare Aloud" year-round weekly reading group. Austin Shakespeare also offers summer camps for high school students at St. Edward's University, and camps for children at Scottish Rite Children's Theatre, downtown. Austin Shakespeare is a member of the Austin Circle of Theatres, 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.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Zach Scott Theatre, September 17 - October 25

UPDATE: Zach Theatre will hold over The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee through November 8





This show is a charmer. It has the zing of a small scale musical, the familiarity of all those school auditoriums you endured while growing up, the uncertainties of a tournament, the highs of competition, the quips and laughs of improv comedy, and -- unexpectedly -- a second act that resonates with drama and tenderness.

Michael Raiford's set is bright, functional and simple, using the Kleberg Stage's thrust stage as a "cafetorium" in an anonymous middle school in the equally anonymous Putnam County. The unobtrusive background music dates back mostly to the 50's and 60's. Musicians are tucked back in the center alcove and the stage is provided with the appropriately sparse furnishing of folding tables and folding chairs.

The lights don't go down when the show starts. Instead, Jill Blackwood as Rona Lisa Peretti strides around with her impossibly angelic smile and authoritatively friendly manner, speaking in turn to various sections of the audience. We are part of this spectacle. This is a spelling bee finale and we are the friends, family and supporters of a collection of six bright or simply lucky kids. They all have the smarts or at least the unusual mental wiring to be spelling whizzes.

Yes, in the first half of the show four or five audience members will be recruited as contestants to sit with the kids and spell against them. But don't worry -- they've volunteered for the job. You won't be pulled out of your seat and into the spotlight without your consent. Jill Blackwood gives a chirpy introduction each time a speller comes forward and the audience volunteers are subjected to some gentle razzing ("Bill is devoted to the concept that casual Fridays really should be casual!").

Read more and see video at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Zach Scott Theatre Kleberg Stage, September 17 - October 25

UPDATE: Zach Theatre will hold over The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee through November 8

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, October 3

UPDATE: Review by Elizabeth Cobbe in the Austin Statesman, October 1

UPDATE: Uncredited review by AustinOnStage.com, September 22

UPDATE: Review by Clare Croft at the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, September 21

Found on-line:

At Zach Scott's Kleberg Stage:

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
September 17-October 25

Book by Rachael Sheinkin
Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Directed by Dave Steakley
Featuring Jill Blackwood
Music Direction and Choreography by Adam Roberts

"Spelling Bee is riotously funny and remarkably ingenious.
Gold stars all around!" -The New York Times

Can you spell H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S? Nominated for six Broadway Tony Awards, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a tuneful, offbeat and smart musical. Each night, the witty cast challenges audience members and Austin celebrities to a bona fide spell-off, but be prepared: this bee is anything but typical! Great fun for all ages, this show is a unique performance filled with surprising improvisations every single night!

EXTRAS

Wikipedia entry on The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Video of the Spelling Bee cast with Cong. Al Sharpton at the Tony awards,2005: