Auditions for The Odd Couple by Neil Simon, City Theatre, December 8 and 9, 2013

From Karen Sneed, director:

Hey, talented friends o' mine!

We're doing Neil Simon's The Odd Couple at City Theatre this spring, and getting auditions out of the way before the Christmas holidays. Auditions are Sunday December 8 from 12:30 - 3:30 and Monday Dec 9 from 6:00 - 9:30 at the theatre (3823 Airport Blvd. -- click for map). Request an appointment for a 10-min slot by e-mail to info@citytheatreaustin.org, but please be aware that you may be asked to stay longer as we will be doing readings from the script. If you cannot make these times/dates, let me know. If you cannot make these times/dates, let me know.

6 men - approx ages 38 - 55 and 2 women - approx early 30's


K Sneed

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 24 - June 9, 2013

by Jessica M. Helmke and Michael Meigs


A View Inside Deciding

Decisions. We make them everyday. City Theatre's production of 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose gravely invited audience members to search for truth, as if they were jurors in the murder case.

Vividly depicted characters organized around a long wooden table wore their back stories on their sleeves, and actors balanced their portrayals against one another with the guarded cordiality of an intense game of poker.

This closed and sequestered group of twelve jurors touched on the diversity of all humanity, cornered into making a decision that could end a life. The cast answers an audience silently searching for reasons to establish reason for belief. 'Tell me why,' we star gazers ask when we fill the house. Watching events develop, we get our response, and the conclusion is satisfying and a job well done.

(photo: www.citytheatreaustin.org)

Presented simply, humbly and truthfully, this production is a celebration of Rose's script. Something powerful happens as this ensemble explores its relationship with the text, opening a door for the audience. This is lean, stripped-down acting, theatrical work that's basically artistic commentary about a script and a world that still merits performance today. Nearly 60 years after its first presentations as a 1954 teleplay, a 1955 play and a 1957 feature film, the dialogue is still creating an impact with the artists and the audience.

Rose's characters are so sharply differentiated that the exposition of these twelve personalities seemed like presentations by actors working in chosen styles or disciplines.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Video: Austin Live Theatre Talks with Half of the Jury, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 16 - June 11

for

City Theatre's



Twelve Angry Men
by Reginald Rose

directed by Karen Sneed
May 16 - June 9, 2013
Thursdays - Sunday

City Theatre, 3823 Airport Rd. (behind the Shell station) -- (click for map).

Click for additional show info and tickets, via www.citytheatreaustin.org

Austin Live Theatre interviews half the jury - Rick Felkins and Jim Lindsay, Michael Raines and Johnny Stewart, Brian Miller and Freddy Carnes - and asks them to describe the characters portrayed by the other actors. With some May 7 rehearsal scenes from Act 1. (8 min.)

Cabaret by Kander & Ebb, City Theatre, August 16 - September 9

by Michael Meigs

It's enticingly easy to imagine yourself away to 1930's Berlin in this staging of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, for the City Theatre's space creates exactly the right dynamic. There are rules-of-thumb for successful parties. The first involves adequate supplies of liquor, but the second one, in fact the more important, requires fitting the numbers of guests to the space. The City's 85-seat intimate space is exactly right, both as a cabaret world where performers will joke, wink and jiggle just for you and as a combustible concentration of expectations.

Why Cabaret? It's a warhorse of the American stage, of course, packed with thrills, pleasures and very familiar music. In part it's a coming-of-age story, both for our naïve protagonist Cliff the aspiring novelist and for the naïve United States that he represents. There's a Freudian sting to it as well, for Cabaret balances the pleasure principle and coyly concealed visions of violence and death -- and incarnates them in the character of the EmCee. In that role, relative newcomer to Austin Johann Robert Wood is absolutely terrific -- an enticing guide to the hells of temptation. Charismatic, muscular, graceful and mocking, he dominates that stage even when it's filled up with quivering pink pulchritude.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Medea by Euripides, with Suzanne Balling, City Theatre, June 7 - July 1

The City Theatre

presents

Medea

by Euripides

with Suzanne Balling

directed by Karen Sneed

June 7 – July 1, Thursdays – Saturdays 8:00 p.m. Sundays 5:30 p.m.
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd. 78757 – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street. (click for map)

General Seating $15. Guaranteed Front/2nd Row Reserved $25.
Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are available.
Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

The City Theatre Company turns up the heat to present Euripides’ famous Greek tale, Medea. In this masterly written drama of passion, suffering and the sensitivity of injured love are strongly drawn, until they culminate in the awful deed of vengeance. The production is directed by Karen Sneed and plays June 7 – July 1, Thursday – Saturday 8 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.
"I'll teach these people not to laugh at me. What's stopping me? I've nothing to live for." - Medea

Alone; Medea is the ancient Greek tragedy based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband, for whom she sacrificed everything.

Medea unleashes a vengeance on her enemies, making both assassins and victims of all those around her. Euripides produced Medea at the City Dionysian festival along with the lost plays Philoctetes, Dictys and the satyr play Theristai. So much like today’s writers, Euripides made a splendid effort to maintain the place of drama in the spiritual life of the society by modifying its interests, topics and themes in the sense which his own generation required. Heroic persons could still excite interest if they were made more real, - if, in them, the passions and sorrows of every-day life were portrayed with greater vividness and directness. In that, Euripides became the virtual founder of the romantic drama and he continued to write well-known works including Electra, The Bacchae and The Trojan Women.  Read more on Euripides.

Featuring one of the most powerful female roles in the history of drama, Medea is an intense story fuelled by passion, hatred and deadly rage. Heroic yet deadly, sympathetic yet appalling, Medea’s barbaric actions will stir your emotions as you find yourself irresistibly drawn into the nightmare world of this spectacularly vengeful woman. Award-winning Austin actress Suzanne Balling leads the cast in the role of Medea, who will stop at nothing to repay Jason for the ultimate betrayal of his family and the woman he promised to love forever.  

Joining her in the starring roles are Robert Lee Berry (Creon), Trevor Bissell (Jason) and Terri Lynne Hudson (Nurse). Also featured are Lauren Hayes, Leigh Hegedus, Craig Kanne, Becky Musser, Rachel Redig, Molly Sapp, Andreas Stein, Don Sneed, John Redig, James Holder, Bethany Bissell and Brooklyn Bissell. The production is directed by Karen Sneed (CTC’s The Imaginary Invalid) and is choreographed by Courtney Poole, with costume design by Kendi Erickson and set design by Andy Berkovsky.
The City Theatre Company is an Austin-based not for profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance, the Austin Cultural Arts Division and the AMD Foundation. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards and was twice voted “Best Theatre Company” by Austin- American Statesman’s Austin 360. CTC is dedicated in providing quality theatre experience and entertainment for Austin artists and its community.

Auditions for Medea by Euripides, City Theatre, March 18 - 19

The City Theatre Company conducts auditions on March 18 and 19 for Media by Euripides, Karen Sneed directing. Ten-minute appointment slots at the City Theatre 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D Austin, TX 78722 (click for map). Sunday 1 – 4 p.m. and Monday 6 –9 p.m. Callbacks Tuesday, March 20. Show dates June 7 – July 1.

Men & boys 7 - 70; women 20 – 70, all with a strong command in voice, presence and emotional range. All roles open. Actors of color are encouraged to audition. Bring head shot and resume. Readings from the show will be performed.

Surviving almost 2500 years, Medea remains one of the most controversial plays of all time and still an actor favorite. Jealousy, sex, revenge, magic and murder in a Greek masterpiece that disturbs, confounds and perplexes audiences and generates controversy wherever it is performed - that's the Medea by Euripides. This dramatically demanding play, in a recent translation preserving the poetry and power of the original, is still a challenge and test for actors today. Click for more information about the play and the characters at Wikipedia.

The Imaginary Invalid by Molière, City Theatre, July 21 - August 14

The 85-seat house at the City Theatre was agreeably full on the opening Friday of Karen Sneed's staging of Molière's The Imaginary Invalid. A full house of attentive spectators is always a boost to the cast. Amusement is amplified and reactions build. The natural curiosity of the audience becomes rapport with actors and characters. Comedy, by provoking shared laughter, binds the members of each evening's audience indefinably, in a fashion that differs from night to nigh

That positive crowd effect may have been linked to the fact that 16 actors inhabit this farce, portraying 31 characters. The City Theatre deserves to enjoy a setting similar to that initial "family and friends" effect for the upcoming three weekends of its run.

Effective stage comedies snare us with quirks and jokes, then elaborate and build the fun with absurdities and unexpected turns of plot. That's Molière's method here. Grumpy, stingy hypochondriac Argan bemoans his miseries and the pile of bills from physicians and pharmacists for hair-raising and trouser-dropping treatments, directed mostly via the opening of his lower colon. (During our years abroad we discovered to our discomfort that contemporary French medicine retains an affection for just that therapeutic channel.)

Argan initially rails out loud to himself and at his irreverent serving girl Toinette. We then see him exercise his arbitrary petty tyrannies over his marriageble daughter Angélique, at the same time that he's a witless dupe of his gold-digging young wife and a procession of quacks. Just about everyone onstage is intriguing against everyone else, and we the audience have the cheerful feelling that we're at least two steps ahead of each of them.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Imaginary Invalid, City Theatre, July 21 - August 14

Found on-line:

presents

The Imaginary Invalid

by Molière

directed by Karen Sneed

July 21 - August 14
Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.
The City Theatre. 3823 Airport Blvd, behind the Shell station (click for map)
Tickets $15 - $20. Guaranteed Front/2nd Row Reserved $25.
Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are available.
Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

Quick-tongued, lively, fast-paced Moliere at his best. A merry-go-round of misplaced desires and hidden agendas in this fresh new take on skewering of the health care crisis. In this hilarious satire on the world of medicine the the wealthy, yet housebound hypochondriac Argan has every disease in the book and will go to any length to marry his daughter off to a doctor, Of course, she has other ideas. Lurking around are quacks only too happy to (mis)treat him, a money-grubbing wife and servants longing to carry on his miseries. A narcotic cocktail of romantic triangles, double entendres and mistaken identities ensues, promising to leave you gasping, giggling and possibly…in stitches.

Directed by Karen Sneed and featuring Richard Craig,Suzanne Balling, Alexandra Russo, Mick D’Arcy, Laura Cannon, Scot Friedman, Kirk Kelso, Cason Longley, Mario Silva, Kate Clark, Robert Frazier, Brian Brown, Ariel Atlas, Danielle Ruth, Elena Weinberg and Jessica Smith

Auditions for Molière's The Imaginary Invalid, City Theatre, May 2 - 3

Found at AustinActors.net:

The City Theatre is casting Molière's Outrageous Comedy

The Imaginary Invalid

When: May 2 - 3
The City Theatre 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D Austin, TX 78722
Monday and Tuesday, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Ten minute appointment slots.
Callbacks Wednesday, May 4. Show dates July 21 – August 14.
Needed: Bring headshot and resume. Readings from the show will be performed. Have a song prepared if trying for a singing role.

The newest and most hilarious modern adaptation of Molière's famous play with music, music, and lots of music including vaudeville shticks, romantic cowboy and blues ballads and a lot of bump and grind. It's wild ride!

ROLES FOR EVERYONE! Legit singers, non-singing comedic actors, sexy guys, showgirls, musicians, no fear, energetic chorus folk willing to commit to a crazy ensemble and, of course, Hillary Clinton. Directed by Karen Sneed for the City Theatre summer season. Call or email for an audition time. Info at www.citytheatreaustin.org.

Contact: The City Theatre info@citytheatreaustin.org 512-524-2870
Website: www.citytheatreaustin.org

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