Video: Cast and Director Discuss Big Love by Charles Mee, Shrewd Productions, November 10 - 27

Video by Lydia Nelson via link provided by Shrewd Productions:

presents

Big Love

a comedy by Charles Mee

directed by Robert Faires

November 10 - 27, Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.
Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Riverside at S. First (click for map)

Buy Tickets through The Long Center -- Thursdays & Sundays: $20; Fridays & Saturdays: $25
Students: $15; Special industry night peformance: Wednesday, November 16 - $17

50 runaway brides seek refuge in a villa on the Italian coast in this hilarious and heartbreaking comedy by Charles Mee. When 50 determined grooms drop out of the sky, the villa erupts in a clash of wills, song and dance, romantic reverie, violent fits, satin ribbon, and one final, unforgettable showdown.

[Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube]

Robert Faires directs this tulle covered, rice throwing, dangerous confection of a play. Big Love features some of Austin's finest theatrical talent, including Aaron Alexander, Lana Dieterich, Shannon Grounds, Anne Hulsman, Rob Matney, Nathan Osburn, Michael Slefinger, Andrea Smith, Rommel Sulit and Julianna Elizabeth Wright with lighting design by Patrick Anthony, set by Ia Enstara, costumes by Pam Friday, choreography by Toby Minor and sound by Buzz Moran.

Sharing the Love...
Shrewd Productions has set aside a small number of discounted tickets offered via Austix.

[11 left as of 2:45 p.m., Wednesday, November 9]

Click the heart below to purchase from Austix

Buy Tickets through Austix

Upcoming: The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonaugh, McCallum Fine Arts Academy, September 8 - 11

Found on-line:

presents

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

by Martin McDonaugh

directed by Julianna Wright
Thursday, September 8 - Saturday, September 10 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, September 11 at 2 p.m.
McCallum Black Box Theatre, 5600 Sunshine Drive (click for map)

The play centers on the life of Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster who takes care of her 70 year-old, selfish and manipulative mother Mag. Sisters of Maureen have escaped into marriage and family life, but Maureen, with a history of mental illness, is trapped in a seriously dysfunctional relationship with her mother. In the course of the play, the Folan cottage is visited by Pato Dooley and his younger brother Ray. Pato is a middle-aged construction worker fed up with having to live and work in England, disappointed by the limitations and loneliness of his life. The sameness of its day-to-day is tedious also for his brother, a non-threatening “bad boy” Ray. The glimmer of a last-chance romance between Maureen and Pato sparks up in the first act, and continues in the second one with a notable monologue of Pato. The plot, full of deceptions, secrets and betrayalsinterspersed with turnabouts keeps surprising the audience. Hopes are raised only to be dashed. Rated PG-13

Upcoming: The Experiment, staged reading by Generic Ensemble Company at theVortex Repertory, August 11

Found on-line:

Generic Ensemble Company

presents

The Experiment

an in-progress reading of the work

written by Ana-Maurine Lara and kt shorb

featuring: Krysta Gonzales, Saray De Jesus Rosales, and Julianna Wright

Thursday, August 11 at 7 p.m.

at The Vortex Repertory Company, 2307 Manor Rd. (click for map)

What does it mean to be human? The imaginations and desires of Dolly the Cyborg and Lucy the Mutant come together in a laboratory ruled over by Dora the Attendant. The Experiment explores historical legacies of colonialism, world's fairs, and scientific inquiry by drawing from personalized stories of queer and racialized resistance. This staged reading will showcase an in-progress script written by co-founders of the critically acclaimed Stamp Lab, Ana-Maurine Lara and kt shorb.

Donations encouraged, but none turned away for lack of funds.

Evita, McCallum Fine Arts Academy, February 25 - March 7

McCallum Fine Arts Academy's production of Evita, playing last weekend and next, is a bravado performance, a challenging musical act carried out on the tight wire between two languages.

Technical director Scott Tatum greeted the opening night audience with the news that this is not only a bilingual performance; it is the first bilingual performance of the 1978 piece by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Time Rice. The McCallum staff spliced together the scores and libretti used for the performances on Broadway in 1978 and in Madrid in 1979. Titles projected above the stage provide the translation into the alternate language.

Upping the theatrical ante, they've double-cast the leading roles in this strenuous, cynical musical version of the life of Evita Perón. That may well encourage supporters to attend more than once -- for example, I happened to sit next to the grandmother of the alt-Evita, Aline Mayagoitia , who served as part of the undifferentiated chorus that evening.

A theatre reporter already hard pressed to cover the hellzapoppin Austin theatre scene can't help but feel a pang of regret at missing that alternate performance, with a fully bilingual leading singer.

Read more at 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