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Company proudly announces the world premiere of Zeus in Therapy, an original theatrical experience adapted from the unpublished poetry of Douglass Stott Parker by the company, and directed by Gary Jaffe.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: Sam and Laura by Ron Powers, staged reading at the Blue Theatre, November 30

Found on-line:

presents a staged reading of

Sam and Laura

by Ron Powers

Wednesday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m.

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

The BLUE Theatre New Play Series continues its monthly, staged readings of new theatre works by emerging playwrights with Sam and Laura, by Pulitzer Prize-winning and Emmy Award-winning journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer, Ron Powers. Powers will be in attendance the night of the staged reading to speak about the play on Wednesday, November 30th.

An imaginative extension of a true relationship in the life of Mark Twain, Sam and Laura is set in the present, and the action takes place in Laura Wright’s threadbare Los Angeles apartment and a Hollywood speakeasy in 1925. The staging features performances by Justin Scalise and Kathy Rose Center.

The free reading begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception with the playwright and cast after the reading. The BLUE Theatre is located at 916 Springdale Road. For more information, visit www.BlueTheatre.org.

Falstaff Awards: Scalise, Jacobi Are Runners-Up to Al Pacino in 2010

Published February 17:

PlayShakespeare.com Falstaff Awards for 2010

Best Principal Performance, Male:

Winner: Al Pacino (Shylock, Merchant of Venice, Public Theater)

Nominees: Dan Donohue (Hamlet, Hamlet, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Derek Jacobi (King Lear, King Lear, Donmar), Roger Allam (Falstaff, Henry IV, Part 1, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre), Justin Scalise (Hamlet, Hamlet, Scottish Rite Theatre), Robert Foxworth (Lear, King Lear, The Old Globe), Reuben Santiago-Hudson (Leontes, The Winter's Tale, Public Theater), Harry Groener (Lear, King Lear, The Antaeus Company), Al Pacino (Shylock, Merchant of Venice, Public Theater)

See full list of nominations and awards at www.PlayShakespeare.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Feast of Fools, Shrewd Productions at the Off Center, December 16 - 18

Received directly:

Feast of Fools:

Merriment & Misrule

December 16-18
Thursday – Saturday, December 16 - 18 at 8 p.m.
Doors open at 7 p.m.
The Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo (click here for a map)

Tickets: $20-30* A limited number of tickets are onsale now for $15! Use the password "Misrule".)
Call 512-626-5901 or click here to buy online!

Taste the Cake of Reckoning! Win a chance at the Crown of Misrule!
Be Queen or King for a Night!

A feast for the senses and a delight for the soul, join the Company Shrewd for our Feast of Fools as we celebrate twelve magical days in just one night.

A festival of song, dance, comedy and games crowned by gourmet treats, fabulous prizes, live music and a fantastic silent auction, Feast of Fools is the holiday party you don't want to miss!

A portion of all proceeds will be donated to HAND (Helping the Aging, Needy and Disabled).

Featuring Aaron Alexander, Kristen Bennett, Jennifer Davis, Trey Deason, Ashley Edwards, Shannon Grounds, Jason Hays, Kimberley Mead, Alex McDonald Villareal, Marisa Pisano, Alejandro Rodriguez, Bryan Schneider, Justin Scalise, Sarah Skelton, Andrea Smith and Amelia Turner with guest artists The Confidence Men: Improvised Mamet.

SUPPORT OUR WORK!

Thanks to all of those who joined us last season for Shrewd Summer Nights and MilkMilkLemonade! For more information about our productions and company history, visit our website at www.shrewdproductions.com. Help Shrewd take The Long Now on the road in 2011! Support our work by making a donation though Paypal. All donations are tax deductible.

Fill out your e-mail address to receive our newsletter!

Upcoming: Lear Workshop Showcase, Austin Shakespeare, November 23

Found on-line:

Showcase: King Lear Workshop

directed by Ann Ciccolella

Austin Shakespeare presents a FREE Showcase of King Lear highlights at 8 pm Tues., Nov. 23 at Salvage Vanguard, 2803 Manor Rd.

Featuring Michael Costello, Justin Scalise, David Boss, Cyrus Cassells, Steve Cruz, Jennifer Davis, Lindsley Howard, Chelsea DuVall, Simon Day, Bridget Farias, Senait Fessahaye, Ciara Flynn, Stacey Glazer, Hanna Haide, Robert Stevens, Ashely McNerney, Lindsey McKenna, and Jason Phelps.

Meet Lear, and his fool, his daughters: Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia, the heroic Edgar, the devious Edmund, and experience the transformation of Gloucester!

Hamlet at Boggy Creek Cemetery, Black Swan Events, October 22 - November 6

Justin Scalise as Hamlet is intent and impressive. AustinLiveTheatre had that to say and more in the September 25 ALT review of essentially this same production as presented downtown at the Scottish Rite Theatre -- in all too short a run and with a curtailed final week.

This staging is by Black Swan Events. The swan is new hatched and because of the surprisingly poorly attendance at the Scottish Rite staging, it's new fledged, as well. Perhaps to their surprise, and certainly to mine, Hamlet turned out not to be an automatic break-down-the-doors success downtown, despite the impressive acting triple play Scalise-to-Babs George-to-Harvey Guion, supported by that canny and adept cast. Perhaps some folks see Hamlet was one of those "difficult" Shakespeare plays, unpleasantly full of brooding and plotting.

The swans have been working to counter that. Mike Lee at KUT-FM gave them his occasional two-minute slot at Arts Eclectic last week and Lisa Sheps at KOOP-FM had them on for twelve minutes on her weekly Off Stage and On the Air (see below for those embedded audio bits).

Director Andrew Matthews replaces Guion as the usurping Claudius, giving a slightly different flavor to that triple play. Matthews is visibly closer in age to Scalise's Hamlet, which is entirely plausible -- making him a much younger brother to the murdered king, with plenty of manly energy and lots of interesting possibilities for the back story. Ashley Edwards is an ageless Gertrude, sharp of profile and sharp of presence, highly aware of her own precarious position. Both Matthews and Edwards are confident and convincing in their roles.

Read more and listen to audio at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Ongoing: Hamlet at Boggy Creek Cemetery, Black Swan Events, October 21 - November 6

UPDATE: Review by Kate Blouke for the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, October 25

UPDATE: KUT's Mike Lee talks with Justin Scalise about the production, October 26 ( 2 min.)

Dale Flatt talks to KUT's Mike Lee about the Boggy Creek cemetery venue, October 26 (1 min. 30 sec.)

Received directly:

Black Swan Events is pleased to present
William Shakespeare’s

Hamlet

by torch light in Boggy Creek Cemetery
Oct. 21 – Nov. 6, Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Boggy Creek Cemetery, Circle S Rd. & Dittmar Rd. (Click for Google map)
TICKETS at www.NowPlayingAustin.com
$15 - $35 sliding scale admission; $12 for seniors, students, teachers, APD, AFD and military.
$10 each for groups of 15 or more. www.AusTix.com or 512-474-8497
*Tickets purchased at the event are cash only.

Black Swan Events brings Shakespeare’s most popular drama to the green space of Boggy Creek Cemetery. (Click 'Read more' for further information.)

Images by Kimberley Mead: Hamlet at Boggy Creek Cemetery, October 21 - November 6

Images by Kimberley Mead:

Black Swan Events presents
William Shakespeare’s

Hamlet

by torch light in Boggy Creek Cemetery
Oct. 21 – Nov. 6, Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Boggy Creek Cemetery, Circle S Rd. & Dittmar Rd. (Click for Google map)
TICKETS at www.NowPlayingAustin.com
$15 - $35 sliding scale admission; $12 for seniors, students, teachers, APD, AFD and military.
$10 each for groups of 15 or more. www.AusTix.com or 512-474-8497
*Tickets purchased at the event are cash only.

Click for additional information.

Click for the AustinLiveTheatre review of September 25

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

Upcoming: Hamlet at Boggy Creek Cemetery, Black Swan Events, October 21 - November 6

Received directly:

by torch light in Boggy Creek Cemetery
Oct. 21 – Nov. 6, Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Boggy Creek Cemetery, Circle S Rd. & Dittmar Rd. (Click for Google map)
TICKETS at www.NowPlayingAustin.com
$15 - $35 sliding scale admission; $12 for seniors, students, teachers, APD, AFD and military.
$10 each for groups of 15 or more. www.AusTix.com or 512-474-8497
*Ticket purchased at the event are cash only.

Black Swan Events brings Shakespeare’s most popular drama to the green space of Boggy Creek Cemetery. (Click for further information at AustinLiveTheatre.com.)

Hamlet, Scottish Rite Theatre, September 16 - October 3

Those lustrous eyes, that bony frame, that complexion sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought -- many of us believe that Justin Scalise was born to play Hamlet.

He has certainly trained for Shakespeare and for this role, in New Orleans, in England, and for the past three years in Austin. We have seen him as Bottom, Feste, Adam & Silvius, Don John, Mercutio and Lucio. And even Hamlet, freeze-dried, for Austin Shakespeare's 2008 and 2009 World's Fastest Hamlet.

This Hamlet drected by Andrew Matthews for the Scottish Rite Theatre is a keen, intelligent, entertaining and gripping production. Scalise has the principal role but this evening offers much more than just an outing for his fan club.

This cast knows how to speak the speech. Babs George as Gertrude, Harvey Guion as Claudius, Robert Deike as a whole suite of ordinaries, Brock England as Horatio, Chuck Ney as Polonius. . . the verse comes trippingly on those tongues. It's a thrill to hear it delivered articulately, with convincing scansion and appropriate targeting and emotion. The action is swift but unerringly certain. There are moments when one would like to see a bubble of silence as a character reflects or absorbs the meaning of something just said. But anyone who has studied the play, read it or seen any other version of Hamlet will follow the players all the way and will be on the edge of his seat.

Matthews has put them into contemporary costume but does not burden the play with unnecessary concept or gimmickry. No telephoning in performances, no AK-47s, no roller skates or cowboy hats. The familiar, haunting action develops immediately before us in the intimacy of the Scottish Rite Theatre, using a minimum of portable furniture placed as needed before various of its intricate trompe-l'oeuil 19th century painted backdrops. The striking, appropriate music before the play is recorded.

In this version, the play's the thing.

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

Upcoming: Hamlet, with Justin Scalise and Babs George, Scottish Rite Theatre, October 16 - November 3

Found on-line:

Scottish Rite Theatre presents

the greatest play of the English language:

William Shakespeare's

HAMLET

18th and LaVaca

September 16 - October 4

Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30, Sundays at 6 p.m.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark... The King has died, and Prince Hamlet abruptly leaves his studies at university to return home. Upon arriving, he is horrified to discover that his uncle has married his mother and taken the throne for himself. Thoughts of grief turn bloody when a midnight encounter with the ghost of the old king saddles Hamlet with a heavy task: revenge his father's murder. Not knowing what is true or whom to trust, Hamlet must fight for his soul, as he questions revenge, love, faith and mortality in this most modern of classical plays.

Also named "the greatest poem of the millennium," Shakespeare's most popular drama will finally be seen in the beautiful atmosphere of Austin's oldest and most majestic theatre! Starring Austin Shakespeare favorites Justin Scalise as Hamlet and Babs George as Gertrude, and featuring an ensemble of the city's finest talent, this production under the direction of Austin newcomer Andrew Matthews promises to be an unforgettable experience.

$15 ($7.50 Tickets are for the September 16 opening night performance only.)

$12 Tickets are available for Groups of 10 or more.

Click to view larger image at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Aiming High -- Theatre Education at Colee Studios, Austin Shakespeare and Tex-Arts

Waylon and Willie scored a big hit back in 1978 with the ballad "Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, " with the mournful advice, "Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such."

It's tempting to add, "Don't let 'em grow up to be actors, either," but that would be foolish, because it would go unheeded. There's a huge and ever renewing pool of talent out there, young persons of all ages with stars in their eyes, and we can only be grateful for the opportunities to watch them learn and grow.

Of all those theatre students in the universities, colleges, and high schools in and near Austin, perhaps one in a thousand will eventually be able to work full time in performance. Others will slide into different employment where from time to time they can astound with the assurance and the eloquence from theatre training. Some will choose education, either from the beginning or later on, with the recompense of regular if not spectacular earnings and a coterie of youngsters who want to understand what it's really like "out there."

Young persons in Central Texas have plenty of opportunities for quality theatre education, even outside the familiar paths of schoolwork. This past week I visited three of the best -- Lee Colée Atnip's annual "Broadway Bound" workshops, Austin Theatre's youth production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the reduced-scale Globe replica the Curtain Theatre, and Tex-Arts' three-week intensive academy production of Fame, the Musical.

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

Auditions: Hamlet, Scottish Rite Theatre

Received directly:

HAMLET Auditions

The Scottish Rite Theatre is seeking professional male and female actors for the upcoming production of Hamlet (Sep. 16 – Oct 3). Some Shakespeare training and/or experience required. To schedule an appointment, please email: gwenkelso@srct.org . No walk ups, please. Actors will need to prepare a 1-2 minute Shakespearean monologue preferably in verse (actors may use pieces from Hamlet). Please bring a headshot and resume to the audition. Actors should arrive a few minutes early to fill out paperwork. Please note the roles of Hamlet and Gertrude have been cast. All other roles are open. There is some pay.

AUDITIONS
Auditions June 1 and 2 will be held at the ZACH Theatre Education portables, 1510 Toomey Rd.
PLEASE DO NOT GO INTO THE ZACH THEATRE BUILDING. Portables are located in the ZACH parking lot across from the Softball Fields.

June 1, 7 - 10 p.m.: ZACH Theatre Education portables, 1510 Toomey Rd.
June 2, 7 - 10 p.m.: ZACH Theatre Education portables, 1510 Toomey Rd.
Callbacks will be held June 6, 6:30 - 10 p.m. at Scottish Rite Theatre (207 W. 18th St)
Please provide a phone number and email when scheduling your audition appointment.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The World's Fastest Hamlet, Austin Shakespeare at First Night Austin, December 31

Austin Shakespeare winked at the bard and happily laughed at itself with The World's Fastest Hamlet, a twenty-minute show given its second (annual?) staging at First Night Austin, the December 31 downtown festival.

Last year the same four-actor cast performed twice under the First Street Bridge during a bright, mild afternoon. This year they briefly took the music stage at City Hall Plaza at 6:15 p.m. as dark fell and the First Night parade unwound behind them along the lake front.

The joke is one of Ultimate Compression. When you take a great and renowned three-hour tragedy and metaphorically throw it into a car-crusher, only the crazy survives. The script is built of familiar patches of dialogue, all in their proper order, but without the emotional depth or imagery of the tragic. Those who know and love that vigorous meditation on treachery, guilt, responsibility, love, friendship, rank, decision and mortality are left with only the "vigorous" part of it. And what could be more absurd?

So this guy in a black beret is called up on the ramparts for a dialogue with a ghost, puts on an antic disposition, repudiates his girlfriend, threatens his uncle king and aunt mother, skewers a counselor, battles pirates, gets back to contemplate a skull and encounter the unexpected funeral of the girlfriend, accepts a friendly fencing match and winds up surrounded by corpses before becoming one himself. What?? And this, they say, is probably the greatest literature ever written in English??

Imagine doing all that at breakneck speed with four actors popping out from behind a flimsy screen, waving props like a flimsy "Casper the ghost" cut-out and using the wildest out-in-the-saloon melodramatic style.

It's a blast, and it's all the funnier when you recognize familiar Austin Shakespearians. ALT has reviewed most of them.

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

Upcoming: World's Fastest Hamlet!, Austin Shakespeare at First Night, CIty Hall Stage

Received directly:

Austin Shakespeare at FIRST NIGHT AUSTIN, City Hall Stage at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, December 31

The World's Fastest Hamlet FREE

Austin Shakespeare reprises its popular production of The World's Fastest Hamlet on New Year's Eve as part of Austin's First Night. We are honored to be presenting on the City Hall Stage at 6:15 pm. Don't miss this wonderful piece that turns Shakespeare's most famous tragedy into a delightful comedy for the whole family. starring Ted Meredith of Esther's Follies, Gwen Kelso, Robert Deike and Justin Scalise as Hamlet. Directed by Beth Burns.

Measure for Measure, Austin Shakespeare at the Rollins Theatre, Spetember 10 - 27

Austin Shakespeare's Measure for Measure can offer you a good time. It has a dramatic intrigue, lots of clowning, a clever time-warp setting in Savannah, Georgia of the 1920s and a cast that I'd be happy to put up against any other American Shakespeare company out there.

At the same time that he's entertaining us, Shakespeare is working some much deeper themes. These include the responsibility of authority; chastity, promiscuity, desire and disease; the role of the state in policing behavior; the arrogance of office and the equally reprehensible pride that may attend self-righteous virtue.

Summarizing all in a lengthy phrase, Measure for Measure deals with the folly of the pursuit of fleeting pleasure and the difficulty of making virtuous preparation for inevitable death.

Pretty crunchy stuff.

You don't have to take it that way, of course. The highly positive comments posted to date at NowPlayingAustin are all over the place, but each of the five ratings is for the maximum five stars.

Director Ann Ciccolella and the cast substitute Savannah for the Shakespeare's Vienna, which was imaginary, in any case, and their molasses Georgia accents give the words of this generally unfamiliar text further exotic tang. For that double distilled concoction -- Elizabethan text to Savannah speech -- you can expect your inner ear to take longer than usual to tune in. The clear diction of their wondrous speech helps.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

ALT PROFILE: Measure for Measure, Moving into the Rollins Theatre

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, September 15


UPDATE from the Asylum Street Spankers:
The Spankers will perform a set before this Friday's performance of Austin Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure." We play at 6:30 on Friday, September 18 at the Rollins Theater in the Long Center at South First and Riverside in Austin. This show is only for people going to the play, so if you've been wanting to see "Measure for Measure," this Friday is the night! For tickets, go to the Long Center box office on-line.






Friday, September 4

"Austin likes its comedy dark," Robert Matney told me. "As evidenced by the contemporary work that's being done here by Hyde Park Theatre and by Capital T, among others. And Measure for Measure is absolutely Shakespeare's darkest comedy."

"There are laughs, but the situation is stark. Shakespeare emphasizes polarity and conflicting views regarding ethics, authority and sexual conduct."

"Measure for Measure has gallows humor and a dramatic ending with identities revealed and justice meted out, but Shakespeare does not provide pat resolutions either for the conflicts or for the romance. It's not clear that anything has really changed."

Getting Ready

Austin Shakespeare took possession of the Rollins theatre two days ago, and last night's rehearsal was the first in which the cast was directly experiencing the space that they will be filling with Measure for Measure from September 17 until September 27.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

As You Like It, Scottish Rite Theatre, August 7 - 30

As You Like It is one of the gentlest and most whimsical of Shakespeare's works, a playful edifice built on oppositions.

The court versus the forest, autocratic older brothers excluding younger brothers; lovers vying in vain for their ladies and, inevitably, a fair maid cross-dressing as a fair youth.

An aged servant finances with his last savings the flight into the forest of his impetuous young master; that master braves a fight for the sake of his ancient retainer but instead of armed resistance meets open handed generosity.

A witty, carefree fool flings himself into lusty romance; a melancholy gentleman observes, philosophizes and abstains from the world.

"As you like it . . . ." Perhaps the enigmatic ad libertam title doesn't immediately conjur up the plot for you?

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: As You Like It, Scottish Rite Theatre, August 7 - 30

UPDATE: Click for ALT review




Received directly:

The Scottish Rite Theatre
presents

As You Like It

directed by Beth Burns
with music by Michael McKelvey

August 7 - 30
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
207 West 18th Street, Austin, at the corner of 18th and Lavaca, catercorner from the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.

As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden with her cousin Celia, court jester Touchstone, and many other love-sick characters. Charades and disguise lead to all manner of frolics in the forest, with the lively plot ultimately resulting in a “happily ever after“ finale.

Tickets: Friday and Saturday $12 in advance (online or at Box Office) and $15 at the door
tickets online

Sundays: $10 in advance (online or at Box Office) and $12 at the door

As You Like It is brought to you by the same team behind last year's sparkling Twelfth Night. Director Beth Burns, fresh from the run of her own play The Long Now, returns to direct Shakespeare's pastoral masterpiece, with the help of music director and composer Michael McKelvey, and some of Austin's most accomplished classical actors.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .