Zeus in Therapy by Douglass Stott Parker, Tutto Theatre at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, August 16 - 25, 2013

(Tutto Theatre)

by Michael Meigs

Tutto Theatre's Zeus in Therapy by the late UT classics professor Douglass Stott Parker is dazzling, and at times, as his brilliant wordplay coincides with the gesturing and capering of the astonishing Greek chorus, it is simply stunning.

'Stunning' is a word thrown about lightly in the casual talk of our day. But I mean it literally. The brilliance, complexity and sheer entertainment value of this staging and this cast is sufficient to blow your circuits, if you're trying to absorb everything this production is offering you.

Perhaps only literature geeks and poetry lovers stand in danger of that. You may be happy simply to settle back in your seat in the Rollins Theatre and ride with this lengthy evening on any of its several levels.

Set design by Chris Cox

Most of us have at least a rudimentary recall of Greek mythology, perhaps from storybooks in middle school. You can enjoy the revelation of the stories of this quirky, cranky bunch of deities: Zeus himself, the all-powerful principal god with that rampant lust; Hera his demanding wife and sister ("wifster"); the Titans who pre-dated the Greek gods and old Cronus, Zeus's father; trident-brandishing Neptune and hammer-swinging Hephaestus; Dionysus, god of wine, born from the thigh of Zeus; cup-bearer Ganymede; the incarnations of all the lovely maidens who gave Zeus's life its zest; and a vast additional number of mortals and immortals.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

ZEUS IN THERAPY by Douglass Stott Parker, Tutto Theatre at Rollins Theatre, Long Center, August 18 - 25, 2013

presents
Zeus in Therapy
by Douglass Stott Parker
directed by Gary Jaffe
August 16 - 25, 2013
Rollins Theatre, Long Center, 701 Riverside at South First, Austin, TX - click for map

Tutto Theatre Company proudly announces the world premiere of Zeus in Therapy, an original theatrical experience adapted from the unpublished poetry of Douglass Stott Parker by the company, and directed by Gary Jaffe. 

When a god has questions, you know those really big questions…life or death…slave or free…savagery or civilization…fair or cloudy…her or her sister…, where does he go? And will there be cashews?

A long-time Austin resident, Parker was an improvisational jazz trombonist, a renowned translator of ancient comedy, an explorer of fictitious landscapes, and a profess of ancient languages and creativity at UT-Austin. He is best known for his work in Greek and Roman comedy, particularly his translations of Aristophanes’ plays Lysistrata (1964), The Wasps (1962), and The Congresswomen (1967). His Lysistrata has had over two hundred productions and is currently the translation published in the Signet Classics series. His The Congresswomen (Ecclesiazusae) was among the Finalists for The National Book Award in the category of Translation in 1968.

In 1979, he began writing Zeus in Therapy, a cycle of 52 poems which imagines Zeus on the therapist’s couch. Parker did not ‘finish’ it, though he stopped writing in about 1993, and left it unpublished during his lifetime. Every new poem in the cycle was shared both on his office door and with his classes on a weekly basis for some 25 years. Parker’s poetry is whimsical and profound, cosmic and quotidian, thoughtful and irreverent, but always heartfelt and true. Our translation of Zeus in Therapy into a theatrical experience will bring the power of his words to an even larger audience.

In our adaptation, a diverse ensemble of eleven performers play Zeus, giving Parker’s words a dynamic range of expression. Beginning with the classic binary image of therapy: therapist in chair, patient on couch, we expand as Zeus’s fracturing mind becomes a multitude of bodies and voices. As Parker’s words reverberate, and as actors scramble about the stage to perform the various travails of his life, we come to understand that Zeus, just like the rest of us, finds himself overwhelmed by expectations. 

The production features the award-winning acting talents of Aaron D. Alexander, Karen Alvarado, John Austin, Suzanne Balling, Joe Hartman, Court Hoang, Chris Humphrey, Annamarie Kasper, Julie Linnard, Nathan Osburn, and Justin Scalise; with Scenic Design by Justin Cox; Lighting Design by Natalie George; Costume and Hair & Make-Up Design by Austin M. Rausch; Choreography by Lynn Raridon; Video Design by Kakii Keenan; and Music by Chris Humphrey & Court Hoang.

Zeus in Therapy runs August 16th through 25th at the Rollins Studio Theater in The Long Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets available via The Long Center for the Performing Arts.

In the last six years, Tutto’s seven most recent productions: The Twelfth Labor (Summer 2012), The Alien Baby Play (Winter 2012), The Dudleys!: A Family Game (Spring 2011), I Witness (Summer 2010), Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (Fall 2009), Black Snow (Summer 2009), and Ophelia (Fall 2008) together have collected 64 nominations, garnered 27 awards, and appeared on 11 annual top listings from local media.


Founded in 2002, Tutto Theatre Company set out to elevate cross-disciplinary communication in the Austin artistic community. In 2008, we fused to our original purpose the artistic ambition to enhance, imaginatively, the expanding arts community in Austin. Imagination is the engine of the impossible, and ours is an Impossible Theatre. Embracing the theatre—a realm where impossibilities interpenetrate—we access the deeper meaning that lies beneath human experience. We create a space to carve into the unexpected, to dissect its viscera, and to lay bare its provocative sinews in ever more impossible ways. Ours is a theatre of dreams and of fantasies, of memory and of nostalgia, of desire and of disorientation, of imagination and of contradiction, an arena where the mundane grapples with the sublime. Thus, we commit tutto (everything) to the exploration of new forms and of new works that inscribe their fearful symmetries and incalculable geometries within our hearts, minds, and bodies.


We feel a profound responsibility both to new and timeless theatre. Our work, therefore, consists in: (1) producing experiences of high-quality both small and large; (2) developing new work and production opportunities for up-and-coming playwrights; and (3) helping our community to nurture its place as a world-class arts destination, providing local educational opportunities, and bringing artists from around the world to develop their work in our city. Thus we defy the grim reality of theatre making in the 21st century, declaring: Everything is possible in this our Impossible Theatre!

This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Quills by Doug Wright, Different Stages at the City Theatre, January 4 - 26

presents

Quills

by Doug Wright

City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd, Ste D map
January 4 – 26, 2013
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 5:30pm

Purchase Advance Tickets: https://secure.buyplaytix.com/diffstages/

Pick-Your-Price Tickets: $15, $20, $25, or $30
Tickets purchased by credit card online or at the theatre may be subject to a small service charge.

Different Stages continues its 2011-2012 season with Doug Wright's Quills. Sex. Perversion. Violence. These are the themes of the tales that drip from the ink-laden quills of the notoriously irreverent Marquis de Sade in this Obie Award winning play. Confined to the Charenton Asylum for the Insane for the outlandish escapades he'd committed during the Napoleonic Era, the Marquis continues to pen his stories to the delight of the young seamstress, Madeleine, and to the scorn of Charenton's devout Abbe de Coulmeir. When the Abbe attempts to silence the Marquis by taking his quills, his ink, and his paper, something intriguing occurs: the Marquis still finds a way to voice his scandalous yarns. As the Abbe's religious devotion clashes with the Marquis's dedication to freedom of expression, the audience is treated to a tale of wit, irony, blasphemy, philosophy, and the struggle for power told partly as a blend of comedy of manners and Grand Guignol with a dash of grotesque exaggeration and a soupcon of gore.

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (Is Life Worth Living?) Quills features Craig Kanne (You Can't Take it with You) as the Marquis de Sade and Jean Budney (Is Life Worth Living?) as his wife Renee Pelagie. Travis Bedard (Doctor Faustus) plays the director of Charenton Asylum. Joe Hartman (Vampire Lesbians of Sodom) plays the Abbe de Coulmier, a priest at the asylum. Melissa Vogt-Patterson (Humpty) plays the seamstress, Madeleine. Tony Salinas (You Can't Take it with You) plays the architect.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch, City Theatre, late nights October 26 - November 17

by Steve Meigs

All politics is local, they say. Is all theater local, too? And can theater be politics? Find out. Go see Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Even better, phone your right-wing conservative religious uncle and invite him to go with you to see it at the City Theater where it's now playing. Don't tell Uncle the name of the show, don't give the game away. Just say “Gee, Uncle, it's a comedy and the first scene is set in a famous Biblical city!” 


First scene, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom: A sweet, innocent 14-year-old flaxen-haired Vestal Virgin is chosen as a sacrifice for a blood sucking lesbian demon, the Succubus. The virgin played by Joe Hartman in a long blonde Rapunzel wig, red lipstick and mascara struggles to escape, gets grabbed by the palace guards, and with flailing arms and legs screams "Break my hymen! Break my hymen!" Too late, virgin babe. The Succubus, Kirk Kelso with an evil sneer and a hellish red page boy wig, bites her on the neck and she swoons.


Is she dead? Not exactly.


All theater is local politics. Your uncle may bolt out of the theater and your life forever.


Or maybe he'll rip his Romney button off and try to stab you with the pin?


Or surprise, surprise. He could giggle and change in ways your aunt will never understand.

Most people see Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and laugh their asses off. It's just so damn ridiculous. It's got action faster than a speeding improv. It's weirder than an op-ed page in a free weekly. It cold cocks you with its purse and then makes you beg for it again.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Bret Brookshire: Too Many Husbands by W. Somerset Maugham, Different Stages at the Vortex Repertory, June 24 - July 16

Images by Bret Brookshire for

presentation of

W. Somerset Maugham’s

Too Many Husbands

June 24 – July 16
The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd (click for map)
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.
“Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30
Call 478-5282

Different Stages closes its 2010–2011 season with W. Somerset Maugham’s comedy Too Many Husbands. A fast, frivolous, comedy the plot focuses on Victoria, a delectably pretty but ruthlessly self-centered young woman whose husband; William was reported killed three years earlier in World War I. But William is not dead; he is on his way to London for a reunion with his wife, unaware that she is now married to his best friend, Freddie.

The situation is complicated further by the discovery that the avaricious Victoria already has a third husband in view, a rich entrepreneur, for who she plans to dump both Freddie and William, feeling she has made sacrifice enough for the war effort. Through their ingenuity the two friends finally win their freedom and Victoria her wealthy third husband.

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (The Night of the Iguana), Too Many Husbands features Martina Ohlhauser (Hay Fever) as Victoria, Joe Hartman (MilkMilkLeomnade) as Freddie and Brian Villalobos (The Crucible) as William. Tony Salinas (The Night of the Iguana) plays the rich entrepreneur. Paula Gilbert (An Inspector Calls) plays the cook and Phoebe Greene plays the parlor maid and Ashley McNerney plays the nanny. Phil Cole (The Skin of Our Teeth) and Julie Winston-Thomas (Spider’s Web) play the divorce lawyer and his assistant.

Click to view additional images by Bret Brookshire at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Hay Fever by Noël Coward, North by Northwest Theatre Company at the City Theatre, May 22 - June 7

Bernadette Nason sparkles like pink champagne in this amusing, silly piece written by "the master" Noël Coward when he was a mere boy of 25.

Hay Fever lightly chronicles the start of a weekend at a country house near London, property of the Bliss family -- David is a novelist, Judith is an actress who recently said her adieux to the London stage and their children Simon and Sorel have no identifiable professions or preoccupations.

They all have artistic temperaments and a cheerful disregard for social niceties. As Sorel says to her brother in the first scene, "You're right about us being slapdash, Simon. I wish we weren't." His reply: "It's not our fault -- it's the way we've been brought up."

That impulsiveness and disregard applies to relations within the family, as well.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Hay Fever by Noel Coward, North by Northwest Theatre, May 22 - June 7

UPDATE: Click for ALT review




From the NxNW Theatre Company website:


Hay Fever
by Noel Coward

When each eccentric member of the self absorbed, artsy, pithy and dramatic member of the Bliss family invites an admiring guest to their country house for a quiet weekend, no one winds up with who they invited and theatrical antics ensue, in this classic drawing room comedy by Noel Coward.

Hay Fever is directed by Karen Sneed and features Austin’s award winning, “terribly British” Bernadette Nason as Judith Bliss, the matriarch of this brash and impetuous family. The Hay Fever cast includes Martina Ohlhauser, Tyler Jones, Eric Porter, Joe Hartman, Julianna Wright, Johnny Stewart, Marsha Sray, and Joni McClain.

Location: The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd.
Admission: General: $20, Seniors/Students/Military: $18, Groups: $15
Dates: Friday, May 22 through Sunday June 7, 2009.
Please Note: We are unable accept credit cards at the door. Cash & checks only please.

Make reservations at NxNW website