The Schooling of Bento Bonchev by Maxsym Kurochkin, Breaking String Theatre Company at the Off Center, March 9 - 31

A style begins to manifest itself in Graham Schmidt's staging of contemporary Russian drama, distinct from his graceful voyages through Chekhov. As in last year's Flying by Olga Mukhina, The Schooling of Bento Bonchev by Maxsym Kurochkin features an ensemble of attractive young persons. Schmidt and choreographer/fightmaster Sergio Alvarado move them smartly about Ia Enstera's starkly functional set at a lively, balletic pace.

Props are minimal and suggestive -- for example, some bicycles are suggested solely by front wheels, cast members tote plastic chairs on stage and clap them down in unison on the stark white stage to establish a classroom. There's a circus-like flourish in the hand offs of props and the changes of scenes.

Beyond the action at deep center stage the playing surface curves smoothly upward to establish a topography used alternately as a rear wall and as a surface for projected images.

Design by Enster, the near kaleidoscopic movement and Steven Shirey's impressive lighting combine to make the piece a visual feast.

Kurochkin's piece is a satire, one that audaciously mocks the enigma of physical love and human attraction. He places his story in some future period when humankind has transcended the urge of hormones and the messy mechanics of procreation. The curious social structures of love in our antique times no longer serve for anything but academic inquiry.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Schooling of Bento Bonchev by Maxsym Kurochkin, Breaking String Theatre Company at the Off Center, March 9 - 31

presents

The Schooling of Bento Bonchev

by Maxsym Kurochkin

translated by John Freedman

directed by Graham Schmidt

March 9 - 31, Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.

The Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo Street, behind Joe's Bakery and near 7th St. and Robert Martinez

Tickets: $15 - $25 General Admission
Get Your Seats

Somewhere in the not-too-distant future, a grad student named Bento runs out of patience at his typical American university. He no longer wants to study that ancient relic of human behavior called love. He no longer believes it even ever existed. It was just a myth someone dreamed up to market useless products. As Bento breaks with his mentor-professor, shuns the attentions of a young student named Sandy and feels his life falling apart, he sees the world engulfed in a furious sexual revolution and falls into happily married life - all as he strives to just connect.

Bento's opening weekend coincides with the 2012 Breaking String New Russian Drama Festival, produced in association with Austin's Fusebox Festival and the Center For International Theatre Development's New Voice and attend the 2012 Breaking String New Russian Drama Festival, produced in association with the Center for International Theatre Development through its New Visions/New Voices initiative.

NRDFest 2012 is free and open to the public, and features staged readings of new Russian plays, panel discussions including expert UT commentators Tom Garza and Elizabeth Richmond-Garza and Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires, plus opportunities to meet and interact with one of Russia's most popular, important and innovative playwrights (Maksym Kurochkin himself!) as well as Bento translator and Moscow-based critic, scholar and theater-maker John Freedman - considered one of the world's leading authorities on contemporary Russian theater.

Click to view cast and crew information at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Precious Little Talent, Capital T Theatre at the Blue Theatre, January 25 - February 11

Found on-line:

presents the US premiere of

Precious Little Talent

by Ella Hickson

Directed by Scott Tipton

for FronteraFest at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale (click for map)

January 25th-February 11th

Wed January 25th 7pm
Fri January 27th 9:15pm
Sun January 29th 2pm
Fri February 3rd 7pm
Wed February 8th 8pm
Thurs February 9th 8pm
Fri February 10th 8pm
Sat February 11th 8pm

“Weigh your present against the dreams you had as a child – woe betide the man that falls short”

Joey, a recent grad who is buried in a mountain of student debt, travels from England only to turn up jobless and unannounced at her estranged father’s flat in New York. In the flat she is more than surprised to find Sam, a quirky and idealistic young American with whom she has just had shared an intense and spontaneous experience the previous evening. She soon learns that his arrival in her life is much more than a simple coincidence. As one part of her life deteriorates a very unlikely transatlantic love story emerges.

Precious Little Talent is a refreshing story of love’s triumph over loss and what it means to arrive at adulthood during a time when the rules seem to be shifting and the ground is unsteady. Capital T is proud to present the US Premiere of the latest breakout hit from London penned by Britain’s hottest young playwright Ella Hickson starring Joey Banks, Melissa Drew, and Joe Penrod directed by Scott Tipton.

Images for Upcoming: Men of Tortuga, Street Corner Arts at Hyde Park Theatre, December 1 - 18

Images and information found on-line:

Street Corner Arts presents

Men of Tortuga

by Jason Wells

December 1 - 17, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m.

Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe (click for map)

Tickets are $15; Thursdays are 'pay what you can' nights. For reservations please contact Hyde Park Theatre at 479-PLAY.

A group of powerful men formulate plans to assassinate a member of the opposition (cannonballs or missiles?). They could be corporate titans, intelligence agents or perhaps even politicians. As the scheme spins wildly into complication, the plotters descend into suspicion, bloodlust and raucous infighting. This pitch dark & provocative, gut-check comedy by Jason Wells demands: Do the ends justify the means?

The Men of Tortuga cast includes Kenneth Wayne Bradley, Garry Peters, Joe Penrod, Rommel Sulit and Benjamin Summers.

Word on the street:

"If ever a play demonstrated that most men conduct business the way they once plotted schoolyard warfare, it’s Men of Tortuga...once the laughter has died away one recognizes with chilling clarity how close our culture has really come to such madness."
– Leigh Kennicott, StageHappenings.com

Click to view additional images from Street Corner Arts at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Guest Artist by Jeff Daniels, Paradox Players, October 14 - 30

Steubenville, Ohio -- with all respect due to the inhabitants of that town of 19,000, it sounds about as far away from theatre civilization as one could get. It's in those rough hills of east Ohio, forty miles west of Pittsburgh and facing east into West Virginia. Playwright Daniels uses the Steubenville bus station as the run-down unlikely setting for the encounter of a famous playwright on his way down and an awestruck aspiring writer dreaming of a future not centered in the wing-nut and fastener factory that's the family business.

Steubenville's the birthplace of Dean Martin, a point of local pride commemorated by a poster next to the doors to the toilets. Further background, not communicated: it was also the birthplace of porn and B-film actress Traci Lords and of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Hatcher's Wikipedia entry calls it "a gritty Ohio River town better known for its mob connections, houses of ill repute and industrial detritus than for its literary sons and daughters"). Steubenville's downtown Grand Theater movie alace has been closed since 1979 and only just escaped demolition in 2010 due to the efforts of a community group.

Tyler Jones as the earnest young writer Kenneth Waters assures visiting playwright Joseph Harris that the Steubenville community theatre group is really quite good; their director won a 'Steubie' last season. "A what?" snaps Joe Penrod as the visitor, who has been sleeping on a bus station bench because Waters had dozed off while waiting for the arrival of his 1:30 a.m. bus.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images and Audio: Guest Artist by Jeff Daniels, Paradox Players, October 14 - 30

KUT's Michael Lee interviews director Karen Jambon and plays dialogue between Joe Penrod and Tyler Jones, October 10:

Images received directly:

present

Guest Artist

by Jeff Daniels
directed by Karen Jambon

October 14 - 30 Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm • Sundays at 3 pm
HOWSON HALL THEATER , Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue
Map to First UU Church

TICKETS $20 Opening Night Gala, Friday, Oct 14 (includes a special reception with refreshments)
$15 all other performances ($10 for seniors and groups of 10 or more)

Free childcare Oct 16 Matinee if reserved by Oct 9. Email childcare@austinuu.org or call 452-6168, ext. 313

Reservations by web, phone 744-1495 or Purchase via Paypal

Starring: Joe Penrod - Harris; Tyler Jones - Kenneth; Craig Kanne - Ticketmaster

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

Upcoming: Guest Artist by Jeff Daniels, Paradox Players at Unitarian Universalist Church, October 14 - 30

Found on-line:

present

Guest Artist

by Jeff Daniels
directed by Karen Jambon

October 14 - 30 Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm • Sundays at 3 pm
HOWSON HALL THEATER , Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue
Map to First UU Church

TICKETS $20 Opening Night Gala, Friday, Oct 14 (includes a special reception with refreshments)
$15 all other performances ($10 for seniors and groups of 10 or more)

Free childcare Oct 16 Matinee if reserved by Oct 9. Email childcare@austinuu.org or call 452-6168, ext. 313

Reservations by web, phone 744-1495 or Purchase via Paypal

Starring: Joe Penrod - Harris; Tyler Jones - Kenneth; Craig Kanne - Ticketmaster

A funny and touching drama about what happens when a young man meets his washed-up idol in a small town bus station. Truth happens as each stumbles upon his own profound self-discovery. A semi-autobiographical drama by the much-acclaimed film and TV actor, Jeff Daniels.

Upcoming: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, State Theatre, August 17 - 28

Found on-line:

Georgetown Palace Theatre

remounts

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

at the State Theatre, 719 Congress Avenue (click for map)

August 17 - 28, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Following its hit run in Georgetown, the Georgetown Palace Theatre will remount its production of the Broadway musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels for a two weekend staging at Austin's newly reopened State Theatre. The production runs August 18th through 28th.

Click to read the ALT review of the original production, April, 2011, at the Georgetown Palace.

Based on the 1988 movie of the same name and written by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning, the Broadway musical features music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Jeffrey Lane. The story follows two competing con men living on the French Riviera.

After meeting on a train, they attempt to work together - only to find that the small French town isn't big enough for both of them. The duo settle on a winner-take-all wager over the fortunes of a naïve American soap heiress - the first one to "clean her out" can make the other clear out and keep the Riviera and its unsuspecting tourists to himself.

Palace Theatre production stars Joe Penrod, Andrew Cannata, Patty Rowell, Michelle Cheney and Rick Felkins will recreate their roles for the remounted production. Mary Ellen Butler will again direct, with musical direction by Cliff Butler and choreographed by Danny

Herman and Rocker Verastique.

Performances will run Thursday and Friday evenings at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. A discounted preview will be offered on Thursday, August 17th.

Tickets will be available online, beginning the middle of July, by phone at (512) 474-1221, online at www.AustinTheatre.org, and in person at the State Theater box office. The State Theatre is located at 713 Congress Avenue, next door to the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin.

(Photos courtesy Palace Theatre, from top:

- Michelle Cheney

- Joe Penrod and Andrew Cannata)

Upcoming: Side by Side by Sondheim, Actors Coop at Dougherty Arts Center, July 8 - 10

Found on-line:

presents

Side by Side by Sondheim

July 8 @ 7:30pm, July 9 @ 7:30 pm and July 10 @ 2 pm

Dougherty Arts Center , 1100 Barton Springs Road Austin, TX

The sophistication, wit, insight, heart and genius of Broadway’s most innovative and influential artist is at the center of this tribute to composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

This dazzling array of some of Sondheim’s best-known songs features numbers from landmark shows that revolutionized the musical theatre with their masterful craft and astounding creativity: COMPANY, FOLLIES, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and PACIFIC OVERTURES, not to mention the classics written with musical theatre giants Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers, WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY, and DO I HEAR A WALTZ? Also included are delectable rarities from the television musical Evening Primrose, the film The Seven Percent Solution and the hit revue The Mad Show.

Tickets are $20 for general admission and are available on-line at Brown Paper Tickets or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

Starring Joe Penrod, Cathie Sheridan, Angela Davis, Rodnesha Green, Daryn Eslinger, Glenn Bagley and Melita McAtee. Directed by Barbara Schuler. Music direction by David Blackburn. Choreography by Michelle Stuckey.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Georgetown Palace, April 1 - May 1

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is set in a mythic French Riviera, a delirious paradise that seems to be populated only by rich Americans, a couple of rival American con artists, and one charmingly corrupt French police chief. It's a concept that would make the French laugh out loud. Not that they don't have their own share of nutty cinematic visions, including le vieux Far West, but because this is Cannes as the returned GIs imagined it. Or Monte Carlo as described by Ian Fleming.

This story started out as the 1964 film Bedtime Story with David Niven as Lawrence, the urbane seducer who fooled American heiresses with his false identity as a displaced royal from eastern Europe, and with Marlon Brando as a younger hustler. Brando was willing to take Niven's tutelage, then competed with him in a bet to seduce a vulnerable looking sweet thing. The 1988 remake by Frank Oz Dirty Rotten Scoundrels featured Michael Caine and Steve Martin and followed the same lines. In 2005 Lane and Yazbek turned it into a musical with John Lithgow as the more sophisticated seducer. Oh, and that's not all -- back in 2008, Hollywood actor-writer-director Steve Pink announced that he was developing a treatment with MGM for a new version. That one may come out in 2012. The scoundrels will presumably be using i-Phones, tweeting and all that.

Why keep running this tale again and again?

Because it's an American male fantasy, for one thing -- living without a care, adored for one's sophistication, looks and title, enjoying wine, women and song, the decadent best of exotic Old Europe. Plus the fact that we enjoy seeing lightweight cons succeed, thanks to their wits, and we like it even more when the pair of rascals duel with one anonther.

The publicity and the poster label Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as being "for MATURE audiences," but those are code words for the fact that there will be some sexual innuendos and bathroom jokes that will make you giggle. The music keeps it lively and there's a movie-style twist and comeuppance at the end.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Scrooge, The Musical, by Leslie Bricusse, Georgetown Palace Theatre, November 19 - December 30

The Palace has once again put a gigantic effort into the casting, preparation and playing of its holiday musical. As with Annie last year , Scrooge the Musical by Leslie Bricusse has a big cast -- 24 bio'd players plus 23 charmers in the three children's casts (designated Nickleby, Copperfield and Pickwick, recalling characters from Dickens). Except for six principals, the roles are double- or triple-cast, a policy of sharing out that must have made coordination of the 26 performances akin to writing up a railway timetable. Plus there's a live five-musician orchestra playing somewhere backstage.

Director Ron Watson cast some of my favorites -- the engaging and talented Joe Penrod as Scrooge; Justin Langford doubling as both young Ebenezer and as Scrooge's nephew; and Dale Schultz as the roundly epicurean Ghost of Christmas Past. These three played together in Watson's staging of Man of La Mancha on the same stage just over a year ago, and the most moving sequence in Scrooge the Musical features them. Penrod the baritone sings about Happiness and Langford the tenor replies; shortly afterward, Schultz the bass adds his reflections.

The audience had a fine time, and inevitably they rose to applaud when Penrod appeared at the curtain call.

From me, a couple of words for Leslie Bricusse, composer & librettist of this 1992 musicale, adapted from the 1970 Albert Finney film that Bricusse scored (and for which he won an Academy award):

Bah. Humbug.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Fantasticks, Trinity Street Players at First Baptist Church, August 12 - 22

The Trinity Street Players call the third-floor theatre space at the First Baptist Church "the black box theatre." Now that I've attended three performances in that space, it seems to me that the appellation is a bit too generic.

"Black box" suggests a void, perhaps one that's wrapped in mystery. A better reference for this long-running Theatre Ministry might be "jewel box."

When we were living in Geneva, Switzerland, in the opening years of this 21st century, I took my adolescent daughter N with me for some special Christmas shopping. We went to Gobelins, the discreet high-priced dealer in jewelry and horlogerie at the Rue de Rive. In addition to their displays of the newest and most sparkling, Gobelins maintains a binder describing "heritage jewelry" for sale. With an appointment and a few days of advance notice, one can view a chosen assortment of previously-owned pieces. In that seance in early December, with my daughter's approval, in a heart-stopping moment I picked out a beautiful, classic Christmas present for my wife K.

That, approximately, is what the Trinity Street Players are about. In their third-floor space at the First Baptist Church on Trinity Street, they have been preparing and performing with discernment, discretion and style a selection of some of the best, most solid, traditional, high-value items of English language theatre. Assistant director David McCullars enticed me to their Steel Magnolias last year; I reveled in their You Can't Take It With You earlier this year; they are holding auditions on August 28 for the November production of Shadowlands, the play by William Nicholson based on the marriage of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. McCullars will direct.

The Fantasticks fits solidly into that tradition. The show written by UT alumni celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and it is the longest-running musical in New York. In fact, UT is holding a two-day conference on October 15-16 to celebrate the anniversary, as well as staging its own production of The Fantasticks from October 15 - 24. From an earlier conversation with Trinity Street player the Rev. Ann Pittman, I had the impression that the players hadn't been aware that UT was planning the bash.

Director Cathy Jones rose to the occasion in her pre-curtain remarks, marking the 50th anniversary. That was diplomatic but unnecessary, because Trinity Street's attractive, gripping and musically sophisticated production of the show will stand up to any other that may come along.

Part of the appeal of The Fantasticks is the simplicity of its concept. Boy and girl fall in love; their fathers pretend to oppose the match and hire "El Gallo," a bandit and merchant of dreams to give the boy his chance to be a hero. Romance triumphs but gives way to unease. In the second act the boy ventures forth to explore the cruel world while the girl dallies with the mendacious El Gallo. An eventual happy ending is tinged with the melancholy feel that life is more earnest and more difficult that the dreams of romance. This action is wrapped in tunes that have become key in the musical theatre canon: Try to Remember, Soon It's Gonna Rain, and I Can See It, to name only the most evident.

Cathy Jones recruited experienced, charismatic players for this show. Joe Penrod, playing the cynical El Gallo, is one of my favorites on the Austin musical stage. Justin Langford, playing the earnest, naive young man, appeared with Penrod in Man of La Mancha at the Georgetown Palace, capturing our attention with his pure tenor.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Master Class: Auditioning for Musicals, Joe Penrod and Jonathan Borden, Georgetown Palace, April 5

Tucked into programs at the Palace:

Master Class:

Singing for Auditions

Monday, April 5, 7 p.m.

Georgetown Palace Stage

Would you like to be able to sing with greater confidence at an audition? Do you ever wonder what makes a good audition song? Are you interested in learning how to bring a song to life? Then join us for an exciting evening of singing on Monday, April 5. Instructors Jonathan Borden and Joe Penrod will work with a number of singers, demonstrating techniques that you can use to make your next audition the best it can be.

The cost for non-Guild Members is $20, and Guild Members pay $10. If you would like to sign up for the Master Class, please email, Guild.GeorgetownPalace@gmail.com. Payment is due the day of the class.

All levels of experience are welcome. Only a set number of singers will be selected to actually sing during the class. Those individuals will be notified by March 29 that they have been selected to sing. Whether you sing or not, there will be a great deal to learn. Hope to see you there!

A Little Night Music, Georgetown Palace Theatre, February 19 - March 14

A Little Night Music at the Georgetown Palace theatre is a giddy delight. Stephen Sondheim’s elegant fable has the magic of a midsummer night in far northern Sweden. The sun never fully disappears, time is in suspension and the world hums with yearning and expectation.

In this gentle world of lovers and fools the story is attractively simple . Sondheim’s music and lyrics lift in subtle fashion the sentimental dilemmas of the cast of vivid, idle upper class characters, transmuting a Feydeau-style farce into something far more touching and poignant.

On opening night Palace Artistic Director Mary Ellen Butler reminded us that for this 1973 piece Sondheim and librettist Hugh Wheeler had been inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of A Summer Night. Bergman attended and appreciated the musical but commented simply, “These are not my characters.”

Perhaps that’s just as well, for there's little of Bergman's darkness about this glittering tale. These elegant people are all fools for love, each in his or her fashion. Central to the story are a married pair: Frederik Egerman, a gentleman of middle age and considerable gravitas, and his blonde 18-year-old Anne, a breathless young thing who might more properly be his ward than his wife. Alas for Frederik, his young bride is skittish of the pleasures of the flesh. In their 18 months of marriage she has never admitted him to her bed.

Ah, the flesh, its delights and temptations, and the keen edge of time! Love in a summer night “smiles three times,” we hear from the elderly grande dame Mme Armfeldt. A Little Night Music accordingly gives us the innocent intensity of ardent youth, the knowledgeable longing of middle age and the wry wisdom of age.

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

Upcoming: A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim, Georgetown Palace, February 19 - March 14

UPDATE: KOOP's Lisa Schepps interviews director Cliff Butler, leading actors Joe Penrod and Wendy Zavaleta, and musical director Jonathan Borden, February 8

Found on-line:

The Georgetown Palace Theatre
presents

A Little Night Music
a musical
by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
based on Ingmar Bergman's film
February 19 - March 14
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets available through the website or by telephone at 512-869-7469

One of Broadway’s most neglected masterpieces, the romantic and achingly beautiful A Little Night Music deals with the universal subject of love, in all its wondrous, humorous and ironic forms.

In early twentieth-century Sweden, middle-aged Fredrik Egerman brings his 18-year-old bride Anne to a play starring his former mistress, Desirée Armfeldt. Soon, Fredrik and Desirée resume their romance, incurring the wrath of her current lover, a pompous Count. The situation culminates in a weekend at a country estate, with Fredrik, Anne, Desirée and the Count in attendance, as well as Fredrik’s son (who is hopelessly in love with Anne), Desirée’s illegitimate daughter, the Count’s manic-depressive wife and the Egerman’s lusty maid. And there, under the summer night, things are set right.

General admission: $22 Seniors(55+): $20 Student(16+)/Active Duty Military (with ID): $12
Children(15 or younger): $8

Man of La Mancha, Georgetown Palace, October 2 - November 1

The Georgetown Palace production of Man of La Mancha starts out moody, atmospheric and harsh, and it comes surging beautifully through that dark, difficult second act.

The Inquisition is awaiting in the darkness above, and Cervantes is storytelling to save his life and possessions from the thieves and murderers who surround him. In Cervantes' fantastical tale of the deranged Alonso Quijana, that Knight of the Woeful Countenance has lost it. The knight's beloved Dulcinea--Aldonza the prostitute and scullery maid--has been gang raped, and he doesn't know it.

Dulcinea curses Quijana for his foolishness and his misguided belief that life contains any hope at all.

Then, in the filth and stink both of the prison before us and of the misadventures of his quest, Joe Penrod as Cervantes/Quijana/Quijote replies with The Impossible Dream:

To dream the impossible dream;
To fight the unbeatable foe;
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong;
To be better far than you are;
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star . . . .

It's an exalting and inspired moment, one that squeezes the heart and puts into you the dizzy hope of beauty, meaning and peace.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Man of La Mancha, Georgetown Palace Theatre, October 2 - November 1

Click for ALT review of October 7

Found on-line:

Man of La Mancha

Georgetown Palace Theatre
October 2 - November 1

The Palace Theatre in Historic Georgetown invites you to “Dream the Impossible Dream” as they open the musical Man of La Mancha on Friday, October 2nd, for a five-weekend run. In this quest for adventure and music the storyteller Cervantes portrays the ultimate Knight Errant, Don Quixote!

Written by Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh, and Joe Darian and directed by Ron Watson, Man of La Mancha is generously sponsored by James Avery.

The wild winds of fortune have swept Cervantes into the Spanish Inquisition where he sits in jail awaiting trial. There he entertains his fellow prisoners as Don Quixote with tales of chivalry and battles with evil (and windmills). We meet his sidekick Sancho and the serving girl, Aldonza, whom Don Quixote imagines is the beautiful Lady Dulcinea. Both the prisoners and the audience will be deeply affected by the sweeping story and the soaring music of this timeless tale of adventure and love in unexpected places.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Odd Couple, Georgetown Palace Theatre, June 12 - July 5

Touchstone themes for the Georgetown Palace Theatre are "fun" and "familiar." Probably the most affectionately remembered piece of Neil Simon's 40-year career, The Odd Couple fits both themes exactly.

Slobby Oscar Madison and meticulous Felix Ungar are seated firmly in the American consciousness. Simon's play opened on Broadway in 1965 and appeared as a film in 1968. It ran for five years as a television show, 1970-1975. ABC cancelled it at the end of every season but then brought it back because of the high Nielsen ratings for the summer reruns. Simon rewrote the play for a female cast in 1985 and in 2004 he produced an updated version, Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple.

The Georgetown version is the original script, set in the mid-60s. You can tell that immediately when the guys talk about prices. A New York cab ride is $1.30. A pack of cigarettes is 38 cents. The butcher's bill for London broil for four persons is $9.64. And Felix's half of the monthly rent for the eight-room apartment in metropolitan New York City is $120 (rent-controlled, for sure, but still!).

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Night on the Red Carpet, Georgetown Palace Theatre, June 6

Received by e-mail:

The Georgetown Palace Theatre Events

A Night on the Red Carpet
The Georgetown Palace Theatre
Saturday June 6, 7:30 p.m

The Palace Theatre Guild announces a Gala show featuring Palace fan favorites performing various musical numbers from Oscar winners to numbers from past Palace productions. This is a special event not to be missed!

Including Performances by Rick Felkins, Joe Penrod, Patty Rowell, Cathie Sheridan, Wendy Zavaleta, Cliff Butler and Matthew Burnett.
And enjoy a special sneak preview of The Odd Couple.

Tickets are $10 each for this special event! Log on to www.thegeorgetownpalace.org to buy tickets online or call 512-869-7469 to order over the phone. Walk-up tickets may also be available.

The Georgetown Palace Theatre
810 South Austin Avenue
Georgetown, Texas 78626
512-869-7469

God's Man in Texas, Georgetown Palace Theatre, February 22 - March 8

With her decision to stage God's Man in Texas at the Georgetown Palace Theatre, artistic director Mary Ellen Butler has taken a risk. She acknowledges in the program that she has waited seven years to put it on -- "as the Palace grew . . . in depth of audience, attendance, and actor availability."

The Palace is now a highly successful non-profit venture, depending on a local audience including a big percentage of retirees -- folks you might assume to be relatively conservative in their outlook. It specializes in high quality light fare (sometimes 'lite' fare). For example, this season features two comedies, three musical comedies, a musical, and God's Man in Texas.

God's Man in Texas premiered at a festival in Kentucky in 1999. It has been regularly produced since then, and companies have tended to emphasize the humor in it ("an entertaining drama"; "a harsh though sometimes humorous look at organized religion"; "intelligent, thought-provoking and funny"; "with gentle humor and great respect, [it] brings to light issues common to any corporate or religious environment. . . "; etc.). Mary Ellen Butler opens her program comments with the notice, "God's Man in Texas is not a spoof or a skewering but a thoughtful, probing comedy about succession, the reach of church power and the quest for redemption that never ends, even for authentic men of God."

What I saw was a drama of scope and penetration, one that was dealing principally with the egregious sins of pride and ambition. Playwright Rambo adroitly uses the forms of evangelistic oratory and carefully exaggerates the peculiarly American characteristics of mass religion.

For example, the audience enters and finds itself facing an enormous cross, a pulpit and some fussy, mannered flower arrangements in front of a curtain of shimmering lavender. After the opening scene, we realize that the church set, stretching the entire width of the stage, is built on a huge turntable. Stagehands push it around to reveal the ample, comfortably furnished wood-paneled formal office of the church pastor. The set itself, which revolves perhaps ten times during the evening suggests the enormous scale of a megachurch.

We meet the young, modest pastor Dr. Jeremiah "Jerry" Mears, who has been invited as guest preacher. He is pleased and flattered to be appearing in this historic pulpit. Derek Jones as Mears is earnest, respectful and contained. He is attended by the church's audio-visual technician Hugo Taney (Andy Brown). Cheerful and talkative, Taney is unabashed about confiding that Rock Baptist Church and its pastor turned his life around.

Enter the pastor, Dr. Phillip Gottschall, played with wily élan and orotund assurance by Joe Penrod. He's a pastor for the ages, on the level with Billy Graham and equally at home with presidents of the United States ("except Clinton, of course"). He's 82 years old, the founder and pastor of the Rock Baptist Church, a mega-institution in Houston so big that the young adult program has 6,000 members. Gottschall is vigorous, in full possession of his faculties, charming, authoritative and the very picture of a successful CEO. We learn that without consulting him the church board has decided to invite guest preachers over a succession of Sundays, with the evident intention of acquainting the congregation with possible candidates to replace him.

Though the playwright doesn't tell us this, "Gottschall" in German suggests "resounding call of God."


The first half of the piece features excerpts from Mears' series of sermons, which evolve under helpful coaching from A-V tech Hugo Taney from cerebral meditations to folksy homilies, though always with conviction and fine preacherly presentation. There's a clever set of jokes about broccoli and the first President Bush.



Gottschall thwarts the "disloyal" initiative of the committee by blocking a rival and announces that Mears will be co-pastor of Rock Baptist. The first act ends with a fierce sermon by Gottschall on the theme, "The time is not yet!" One could play this piece for laughs, highlighting Gottschall's implicit comparison of himself with Jesus or the Deity; but Joe Penrod's delivery is instead so monumental, a perfectly pitched representation of the Mosaic certainty of an erudite man of God, that one involuntarily begins to search one's own soul, instead. The man's adamant warnings are chilling.

Jerry Mears wins the position, and in the second act he quickly picks up the jargon of "the numbers" (of baptized, of contributions, of membership -- all the quantification of Big Business). Gottschall sets him an unending series of trivial tasks -- for example, we get to hear him bless the new bowling alley at Rock Baptist, and we hear him address AA and other backsliders, where he runs across A-V tech Hugo. Some woman has been insistently calling Mears, trying to get into contact with Hugo. . . .

Gottschall becomes more and more threatened by Jerry, while Hugo is pursued by the unknown woman from his past. She tells Jerry that Hugo has a son from their liaison 13 years earlier. When Jerry passes this on, Hugo is completely taken aback. Dismissal becomes denial becomes uncertainty as Jerry counsels him.

Andy Brown has established Hugo for us as simple man who is happy to have found home and a salvation at Rock Baptist -- in effect, he represents for us all those thousands who are faithful clients of this huge enterprise. We identify with him as we see him hesitate, apprehensive about this new development, about these new people, and about the uncertainty of Gottschall's reaction to the unwelcome news.

With good reason. The Great Man misreads their counseling session as conspiracy, and the piece builds to a climax.

God's Man in Texas sails very close to the wind, raising issues that some of us might wish to avoid. Rambo uses the theatrical rituals of church to great effect -- the symbols and evangelical language, confession and counseling, and the public side of pastoral communication. Religious faith is never questioned, for all three men are firm believers.

In the last analysis, it's a parable. We have three sinners in this piece: a great man who is blind to his own shortcomings, a simple man who tries to keep his own sins from destroying him, and a young pastor who struggles with the illusions of worldly authority and power. There are some moments of humor and caricature, but in the main this play is as serious as a Sunday school lesson. Judging from the comments I heard about me in the audience, the Georgetown public received it with appreciation.

Dramaurgy: A conversation with David Rambo about the play

David Rambo's comments to Actors theatre, with his biography