Showing posts with label Ken Webster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Webster. Show all posts
Monday, January 13, 2014
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Robert Faires Profiles Mark Pickell and Capital T Theatre's 'There Is A Happiness That Morning Is' by Mickle Maher, October 31, 2013
Excerpt from Robert Faires' feature:
He Happy Is
For Mark Pickell, Capital T Theatre is a source of joy
By Robert Faires, October 31, 2013
 |
| Mark Pickell (photo: Bret Brookshire) |
Pickell himself breaks it down even more simply: "One constant throughout all the plays that I produce is that they're smart, that they challenge the audience to use their brains a little bit. And they're entertaining. If you had to nail me down for the two things that I really enjoy, it's being smart and entertaining at the same time." That's led him most often to works that can't be labeled with either a frowning or a smiling mask, "plays that don't say, 'I'm just a comedy,' or 'I'm just a drama.' That in-between ground of dark comedies is one I really appreciate. And so far, I think our audiences have appreciated that mix."
Webster, who's helped Pickell's company create its artistic home at Hyde Park Theatre, will testify to that, as he's had to squeeze more and more patrons – including many of his regulars – into Cap T's shows. "Capital T has been a good fit at HPT for several reasons," he writes. "Number one is probably that Mark's taste in plays and my taste in plays are very similar. Similar but not identical. The shows he produces appeal to HPT audiences, and the number of our regular audience members who have become Capital T regulars has grown steadily over the past six years. Capital T and Mark have also been great for HPT. HPT audiences have come to expect smart scripts, excellent direction, and strong performances from Mark and Capital T. And HPT productions have gotten new audience members from Mark's regular patrons."
Pickell recognizes that his company's success likely wouldn't have come as quickly or steadily as it did without Webster's support and the symbiosis between Cap T and HPT. "I owe tons of gratitude and mentorship to Ken," he says. "Hyde Park, which is, in all actuality, this terrible little space, is amazing and great, and people love to see theatre there. They associate it with quality work and newer plays, newer playwrights, newer thoughts and ideas. Ken comes across as this gruff guy, but he's been a very loving mentor to my company and me."
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Tragedy: A Tragedy by Will Eno, Hyde Park Theatre, September 12 - October 12, 2013
by Jess Helmke
Much To Say About Nothing
The sun has set. The theatre is quiet. And a play begins. Just another normal Thursday night in the Austin Hyde Park neighborhood.
But maybe it’s more than that, suggests playwright Will Eno. His play Tragedy: a Tragedy is now running at Hyde Park Theatre, engaging audiences with ironic perceptions of mundane, everyday life. Eno’s repetitious cyclone of humor entertains the audience with threads of thematic action, roccoco rythmic storytelling, glimmers of conflict, lyric poetics, and the occasional element of surprise.
The mere fact that Will Eno uses television as his theatrical setting is unexpected. The play of gives us four main characters: Frank the anchor, John the weatherman, Constance the elated and naive reporter, and Michael the global reporter . Tragedy begins as a straightforward newscast, typical in speech pattern and line delivery, butr a little disappointing since there seems to be a lack of events to report. Characters speak directly to the audience as if we were sitting in the comfort of own homes, and their stage business is humorously appropriate with index fingers to the eapieces and sips of coffee by the anchor. I totally bought it.
The power and versatiity of the tool of theatre is exploited in most of Will Eno’s work, and the comedy Tragedy: a Tragedy is no different. Its discussions about darkness remind us of a bare stage. Its painful nostalgic childhood stories almost make us nervous all over again. And the play’s still, quiet moments lie glimmering like the stars. Begging observers to think. To try. To understand. To comment. To DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING in this existential awareness report from Action 7 News.
Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Video: Tragedy: A Tragedy by Will Eno, Hyde Park Theatre, September 12 - October 12, 2013
Video by Eric Graham for the
presentation of
September 12 - October 12, 2013
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Hyde Park Theatre 511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map
Will the sun rise again? It's looking unlikely, but no worries: our crack news team is on the story. Featuring Nathan Brockett, Michael Ferstenfeld, Molly Karrasch, Benjamin Summers, and Ken Webster. Directed by Ken Webster.
Click to buy tickets via BuyPlayTix ($20 general admission, students/seniors/Austin Creative Alliance $18)
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Theatre Feature: 'Golden Age of the Playwright' by John Demers, artsandculturetx.com
From a new on-line magazine aiming to cover all major metropolitan areas in Texas:
Playwrights Given a Big Voice on Texas Stages
by John Demers August 29, 2013
For lovers of Shakespeare and Molière, Ibsen and Chekhov, Miller and Williams, declaring our time a new Golden Age of the playwright might seem delusional, or at best, a flourish of hyperbole from some theater’s marketing department. But if you ask the artistic directors of some of the most respected ensembles in Texas, they’ll assure you such claims are hardly ridiculous.
“This is absolutely true,” offers Ken Webster of Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, one of the Texas companies that has enjoyed the greatest success staging new works by playwrights like Will Eno, Martin McDonagh and Annie Baker. “The proof is in the great work being put out by playwrights. The last eight years have been a glorious time for artistic directors in search of great new plays.”
Though no one announced the start of an official golden age eight years ago, the signs have certainly been there in front of audiences across the state, especially in Austin, Houston and Dallas. For one thing, printed show programs have granted more and more space to the man or woman who created the plays, in addition to the men and women directing or performing in them. For another, plays are increasingly marketed and seasons are increasingly built around new works by this or that playwright with a following in New York or Los Angeles, here in Texas, or of course, in all of the above.
“Golden Age of the playwright? Bring it on!” responds Houston’s Philip Lehl, a veteran actor with Broadway credits who, with his actor-wife Kim Tobin, has founded not one but two innovative stage troupes. “The theater is becoming one of the few places where audiences can have a communal experience. As TV and movie audiences splinter and head to the Internet, people wanting to gather around a fire with the tribe to hear stories that shape their lives, head back to the theater. The playwright, of course, benefits from this and becomes what he was at the beginning: the high priest – the great tribal storyteller.”
On any given evening, if you go looking for this “great tribal storyteller,” mathematics dictates that you’ll find him (or her!) more often on small stages, among the less-known, more militantly-thoughtful actors, rather than in the major houses as nothing is more likely to fill lots of seats than the safe, the established, the predictable. And that would hardly be the realm of most playwrights attracting attention these days.Today the deepest, darkest visions of human existence – delivered with a laugh as well as a groan – are making their way onto Texas stages: Not because everyone embraces the message of the play, but because more and more of us embrace the playwright.
In Austin, for instance, Hyde Park has produced three plays by McDonagh (The Pillowman in 2007, The Lonesome West in 2008 and A Behanding in Spokane in 2011), along with three by Annie Baker (Body Awareness and Circle Mirror Transformation in 2010, plus The Aliens in 2012). Eno, certainly a darling everywhere, has found a special place at Hyde Park, thanks to his Thom Pain (produced twice in 2007 and again in 2013), along with his Middletown in 2012.
“We are the sort of Off-Broadway of Austin,” says Webster. “The fact that we have such a small seating capacity allows us to bring Austin audiences the work of new playwrights the audience might not be familiar with yet. We think it is important that Austin audiences have the opportunity to see these new works.”
Read more at artsandculturetx.com . . . .
Saturday, August 17, 2013
TRAGEDY: A TRAGEDY by Will Eno, Hyde Park Theatre, September 12 - October 12
[511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map ]
presents
Will the sun rise again? It's looking unlikely, but no worries: our crack news team is on the story.
"A charming display of witty satire in the face of Armageddon. . . . this 75-minute play serves as a big ol' poke in the eye to media in an age of geopolitical uncertainty, pending disaster, and a preoccupation with ratings." - Theatermania.
Starring Nathan Brockett, Michael Ferstenfeld, Molly Karrasch, Benjamin Summers, and Ken Webster. Directed by Ken Webster.
Click to buy tickets via BuyPlayTix ($20 general admission, students/seniors/Austin Creative Alliance $18)
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Video: Mical Trejo in 'Confessions of a Mexpatriate' by Raul Garza, Teatro Vivo at the SVT, August 8 - 24, 2013
Posted by JoAnn Carreon Reyes for the
presentation of
Confessions of a Mexpatriate
by Raul Garza
directed by Ken Webster
August 8 - 24, 2013
Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd.
Monday, July 8, 2013
CONFESSIONS OF A MEXPATRIATE by Raul Garza, Teatro Vivo at Salvage VanguardTheatre, August 8 - 24, 2013
presents
directed by Ken Webster
featuring Mical Trejo
Teatro Vivo at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd., - click for map
Walk a Mile in His Zapatos.
Confessions of a Mexpatriate Debuts at Salvage Vanguard Theater Aug. 8-24
New Teatro Vivo production from playwright Raul Garza, directed by Ken Webster,
Portrays struggle of straddling two homelands
Teatro Vivo presents Confessions of a Mexpatriate, an original one-man performance. Mexpatriate depicts the misadventures of a man who embarks on a journey across Mexico in search of his life’s meaning, and in a discovery of what it truly means to be Mexican-American.
Mexpatriate takes the audience on the adventure of one heavily-American-media-saturated man, embarking on a passage across Mexico, in which he comes to embrace the beauty of the culture and what Mexico means to Mexican-Americans. A memory and a fantasy, scary and welcoming … these are just a few of the aspects of this comedic look at a soul-searching experience. Mexpatriate is portrayed by actor Mical Trejo and is directed by Ken Webster. Both Trejo and Webster are award-winning theater artists.
“We want the audience to view the struggles, discoveries and beauty that come with being Mexican-American in both the U.S. and Mexico,” says JoAnn Reyes, executive director of Teatro Vivo. “Confessions of a Mexpatriate offers exactly that.”
Mexpatriate runs Aug. 8-24, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road
Austin, 78722. Admission is $15 for students and seniors; general admission is $20. Thursday performances are “pay as you wish.”
The opening night gala event, Noche Oaxaqueña — A Taste of Oaxaca is Saturday, Aug. 10. The 6-8 p.m. reception includes Oaxacan-inspired hors d’oeuvres and drinks, followed by the 8 p.m. performance of the play. Tickets for opening night reception and show are $40 per person.
For tickets and information about all performances visit teatrovivo.org
This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division, believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future.
About Raul Garza: Raul Garza’s first full-length play, “Fantasmaville,” received the 2007 National Latino Playwriting Award. As a writer for Austin’s Latino Comedy Project, Raul contributed to numerous stage and touring shows. When not writing plays, Raul teaches yoga, fills up on pop culture and serves as co-founder and creative director of TKO Advertising. He received his degree in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin. Raul is an adjunct professor of Communications at St. Edward’s University. Raul wrote Confessions of a Mexpatriate during a writing residency at Arquetopia in Oaxaca, Mexico, fall 2012.
About Teatro Vivo: Teatro Vivo (Spanish for “live theater”) has produced more than 25 bilingual plays since JoAnn Reyes and Rupert Reyes founded the company in 2000. For more information visit teatrovivo.org or contact JoAnn Reyes for information, images and interviews: 512-413-6791 or joannreyes@yahoo.com.
Facebook: teatrovivoaustintx
Twitter: @teatrovivotx
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)Sunday, July 7, 2013
Profile: Ken Webster and His House of Letters, Austin Statesman, July 6, 2013
Ken Webster and his house of letters
A story about theater, freedom, language … and the beauty of smallness
By Brad Buchholz, American-Statesman Staff
Ken Webster spends most of his days in a Hyde Park playhouse — theater space, daydream space, a creative hideaway, where he immerses himself in the beauty of language, the genius of playwright Harold Pinter, an ocean of baseball trivia, the art of a well-placed comma. It is a serious place. It is a silly place. And for Webster: It is a place of independence.
“This is my second home,” says Webster, the 55-year-old executive director of Austin’s literary-minded Hyde Park Theatre and one of the most well-known actors and directors in the city. “It’s not just a place I work; it’s a place where I hang out, where I see friends. I met my wife (the actress and author Katherine Catmull) here. It’s been a big part of my life for 30 years.”
 |
| Ken Webster (photo: Jay Janner, Austin Statesman) |
Ken Webster spends most of his days in a Hyde Park playhouse — theater space, daydream space, a creative hideaway, where he immerses himself in the beauty of language, the genius of playwright Harold Pinter, an ocean of baseball trivia, the art of a well-placed comma. It is a serious place. It is a silly place. And for Webster: It is a place of independence.
“This is my second home,” says Webster, the 55-year-old executive director of Austin’s literary-minded Hyde Park Theatre and one of the most well-known actors and directors in the city. “It’s not just a place I work; it’s a place where I hang out, where I see friends. I met my wife (the actress and author Katherine Catmull) here. It’s been a big part of my life for 30 years.”
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Video Preview: Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno, featuring Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre, July 11 - August 3, 2013
Eric Graham's video preview of the
presentation of
 |
written by Will Eno and performed by Ken Webster
July 11 - August 3, 2013
July 11 - August 3, 2013
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529). The show runs at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, July 11 - August 3, 2013. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night. For the first three weeks (July 11-27) Friday and Saturday tickets are $20 ($18 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). For the final weekend (August 1-3) tickets are $22 ($20 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529) for reservations.
Thom Pain is hilarious, curious, heartbreaking, astonishing. The New York Times called playwright Will Eno "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation."
An encore of the one-man piece that won raves from Austin critics and audiences in 2007 (Click to read the review of December 14, 2007 by Avimaan Syam in the Austin Chronicle). The play the New York Times called "astonishing in its impact" returns in an award-winning performance by HPT Artistic Director Ken Webster. The Austin Critics' Table named Ken Webster Outstanding Lead Actor for his 2007 performance in this role, and the show was nominated for Outstanding Production.
Monday, May 13, 2013
THOM PAIN (based on nothing) by Will Eno, with Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre, July 11 - August 3, 2013
[511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map ]
presents
Thom Pain
(based on nothing)
written by Will Eno
performed by Ken Webster
July 11 - August 3, 2013
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
An encore of the one-man piece that won raves from Austin critics and audiences in 2007. The play the New York Times called "astonishing in its impact" returns in an award-winning performance by HPT Artistic Director Ken Webster.
The Austin Critics' Table named Ken Webster Outstanding Lead Actor for his 2007 performance in this role, and the show was nominated for Outstanding Production. The Austin Chronicle called Webster's performance "sensational . . . a certain economy of motion that I consistently see in great actors, wherein every step, smile, and hand gesture is made with a purpose."
Thom Pain is hilarious, curious, heartbreaking, astonishing. The New York Times called playwright Will Eno "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation."
The show runs at 8:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, July 11 - August 3, 2013. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night. For the first three weeks (July 11-27) Friday and Saturday tickets are $20 ($18 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). For the final weekend (August 1-3) tickets are $22 ($20 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529) for reservations.
Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available during performances in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at Kenneth's Hair Salon, just south of HPT, and at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them all for their generosity.
Follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Video by Eric Graham: Slowgirl by Greg Pierce at Hyde Park Theatre, March 21 - April 27, 2013
Eric Graham's two-minute video promo for the production at
[511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map ]
of
Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce
directed by Ken Webster
March 21 - April 27, 2012
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
NOTE! Some strong language in video dialogue. . . .
Click for Austin Live Theatre review, March 25
Review by Lola and Zoe at blogspot.com, March 18
Review by Spike Gillespie at her blog Spike Speaks, March 25
[511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map ]
of
Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce
directed by Ken Webster
March 21 - April 27, 2012
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
NOTE! Some strong language in video dialogue. . . .
Click for Austin Live Theatre review, March 25
Review by Lola and Zoe at blogspot.com, March 18
Review by Spike Gillespie at her blog Spike Speaks, March 25
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
SLOWGIRL by Greg Pierce, Hyde Park Theatre, March 22 - April 27, 2013
[511 W. 43rd Street at Guadalupe - click for map ]
presents
 |
| 'Night Window' by Rich Evenhouse (via Flickr) |
Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce
directed by Ken Webster
March 21 - April 27, 2012 Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
A hilariously chatty teenage girl visits her withdrawn, soft-spoken uncle in the Costa Rican jungle where he retreated nine years before. As the week unfolds, the true reason behind her visit, as well as the reasons for his long self-exile, begin to emerge. An exquisitely written and extraordinary play.
"Engrossing and impressive. A beautifully crafted play" (Theatermania).
"Superb . . . Excellent and subtle new play" (New York Observer).
The HPT production is directed by Ken Webster and stars Molly Karrasch (Tigers Be Still, Exit Pursued by a Bear) and Ken Webster (Vigil, St. Nicholas, A Behanding in Spokane.)
The show runs at 8:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, March 21 - April 27, 2013. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night. For the first four weeks (March 21 - April 13) Friday and Saturday tickets are $20 ($18 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). For the final two weekends (April 18 - 27) tickets are $22 ($20 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available during performances in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at Kenneth's Hair Salon, just south of HPT, and at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them all for their generosity.
Follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Saturday, January 12, 2013
MY 1967 AND 1968 SEASONS WITH THE ASTROS, Ken Webster at FronteraFest, Hyde Park Theatre, January 15
My 1966 and 1967 Seasons With The Houston Astros
written and performed by Ken Webster
FronteraFest 2013 at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. at Guadalupe
Tuesday, January 15 at 8:00 PM
Award-winning actor/director Ken Webster explains his strange obsession with the 1966 & 1967 Astros. Webster's Twitter Feed @1968Astros started as a diary of the 1966 Houston Astros season as seen through the eyes of Webster's favorite player from childhood, John Bateman. The diary, part fact and part fiction, has been featured in several stories by sportswriters. Webster describes how he became an amateur historian chronicling his favorite team and the years 1966 and 1967.
(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)
Friday, January 11, 2013
Poster for Upcoming: FronteraFest 2013 at the Hyde Park Theatre and Salvage Vanguard Theatre, January 15 - February 3
Hyde Park Theatre in collaboration with ScriptWorks and the Salvage Vanguard Theatre
presents
The 20th Annual FronteraFest
January 15 – February 16, 2013
Over the course of two decades, FronteraFest stages have been host to more than 2,000 performances and well over 8,000 participants from Central Texas and beyond. The month-long Festival, now an institution, features three separate components; the Short Fringe which runs the entirety of the Festival showcasing pieces 25 minutes or less, and the Long Fringe, with longer pieces between 45-90 minutes. The final and most unique component, 'Mi Casa es Su Teatro' consists of one day of performances hosted primarily at private homes.
The festival was created in 1993 by Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre Artistic Director Vicky Boone. Boone resigned in 2001 and Ken Webster became Artistic Director of the organization, which changed its name to Hyde Park Theatre. In 2002 Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks' began a partnership to produce the storied festival with Christina J. Moore of ScriptWorks serving as festival producer.
To commemorate two decades of exciting, moving, sometimes weird and delightfully unexpected performance, former FronteraFest ‘Best of Fest’ winners and long-time participants have been invited to return to the stage for special appearances on Thursday evenings, including Steven Tomlinson, Emily Fordyce, Cyndi Williams, Zell Miller, III and Keira McDonald. Past notables include nationally recognized playwrights Kirk Lynn, John Walch, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D'Amour, who presented some of their earliest work at the festival.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Upcoming 21013 FronteraFest: Short Finge at the Hyde Park Theatre, Long Fringe at the Salvage Vanguard, January 15 - February 16 Long Fringe at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, January 15 - February 3
Hyde Park Theatre in collaboration with ScriptWorks and the Salvage Vanguard Theatre
presents
The 20th Annual FronteraFest
January 15 – February 16, 2013
Over the course of two decades, FronteraFest stages have been host to more than 2,000 performances and well over 8,000 participants from Central Texas and beyond. The month-long Festival, now an institution, features three separate components; the Short Fringe which runs the entirety of the Festival showcasing pieces 25 minutes or less, and the Long Fringe, with longer pieces between 45-90 minutes. The final and most unique component, 'Mi Casa es Su Teatro' consists of one day of performances hosted primarily at private homes.
FronteraFest is a collaboration between two of Austin’s foremost arts organizations, Hyde Park Theatre, an award-winning professional theatre in Central Austin and ScriptWorks, a statewide playwright development and service organization. The Salvage Vanguard Theatre at 2803 Manor Rd. hosts the Long Fringe productions.
The festival was created in 1993 by Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre Artistic Director Vicky Boone. Boone resigned in 2001 and Ken Webster became Artistic Director of the organization, which changed its name to Hyde Park Theatre. In 2002 Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks' began a partnership to produce the storied festival with Christina J. Moore of ScriptWorks serving as festival producer.
To commemorate two decades of exciting, moving, sometimes weird and delightfully unexpected performance, former FronteraFest ‘Best of Fest’ winners and long-time participants have been invited to return to the stage for special appearances on Thursday evenings, including Steven Tomlinson, Emily Fordyce, Cyndi Williams, Zell Miller, III and Keira McDonald. Past notables include nationally recognized playwrights Kirk Lynn, John Walch, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D'Amour, who presented some of their earliest work at the festival.
Tickets available from BuyPlayTix via www.hydeparktheatre.com
All FronteraFest performances are listed on Austin Live Theatre's Central Texas theatre calendar and at the HPT website.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Upcoming: Middletown by Will Eno, Hyde Park Theatre, September 20 - October 18
MIDDLETOWN by Will Eno, Hyde Park Theatre, September 20 - October 18
directed by Ken Webster September 20 - October 20, 2012
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
A hilarious, moving, Our Town-inspired take on 21st century life from Will Eno, author of HPT's award-winning production of Thom Pain (based on nothing). The New York Times praised the play's "screwball lyricism. . . delicate, moving and wry."
The HPT production is directed by Ken Webster and stars Marc Balester, Emily Erington, Molly Fonseca, Tom Green, Jessica Hughes, Dane Krager, Rebecca Robinson, Benjamin Summers, Katy Taylor, Mical Trejo, and Ken Webster.
The show runs at 8:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, September 20 - October 20, 2012. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night; Friday, and Saturday tickets are $20 ($18 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members), except for the final weekend (October 18-20), when ticket are $22 ($20 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY.
Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at Kenneth's Hair Salon, just south of HPT, and at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them all for their generosity.
Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY (7529).
A hilarious, moving, Our Town-inspired take on 21st century life from Will Eno, author of HPT's award-winning production of Thom Pain (based on nothing). The New York Times praised the play's "screwball lyricism. . . delicate, moving and wry."
The HPT production is directed by Ken Webster and stars Marc Balester, Emily Erington, Molly Fonseca, Tom Green, Jessica Hughes, Dane Krager, Rebecca Robinson, Benjamin Summers, Katy Taylor, Mical Trejo, and Ken Webster.
The show runs at 8:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, September 20 - October 20, 2012. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night; Friday, and Saturday tickets are $20 ($18 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members), except for the final weekend (October 18-20), when ticket are $22 ($20 for students, seniors, military, and Austin Creative Alliance members). Purchase tickets online or call 479-PLAY.
Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at Kenneth's Hair Salon, just south of HPT, and at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them all for their generosity.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock, Hyde Park Theatre, July 12 - August 11
 |
| (image: www.hydeparktheatre.com) |
by Catherine Dribb
Kim Rosenstock’s play Tigers Be Still is a well-woven, touching narrative about family triumph (thread that needle!), tragedy (Bette Midler karaoke is never okay) and of course, tigers. And it will have you falling out of those new comfy chairs at the Hyde Park Theater.
It’s that good.
With a sick mother upstairs and two sisters trying to get their sh*t together, Tigers Be Still seemed an unusual pick for Hyde Park Theatre after Marion Bridge (a play about a sick mother residing upstairs and three screwed up sisters figuring out life down below) earlier this season. But Tigers Be Still is hilarious and poignant and will literally take your breath away (I need a price check on a box of extra-large, deodorized…)
Wow. Raunchy and redemptive.
Director Ken Webster delivers another masterpiece especially considering during the 95-minute show, the characters move from one house to another to a school to the lake in addition to both Walgreens and CVS. How did he and set designer Paul Davis do it? Very carefully. But it worked, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the Hyde Park stage look so… spacious.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Profile: Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre, by the B. Iden Payne Awards Council
Ken is featured artist of the month for July at the 'Artist Profile' page of the reformulated B. Iden Payne Awards Council:
JULY PROFILE:
KEN WEBSTER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, HYDE PARK THEATRE
 |
| Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre |
Early career: After I graduated, I had a job offer to be a disc jockey in Baton Rouge, but I got the itch to do theatre again, so I came to Austin, with no job prospects. I came to Austin for a woman who I never wound up dating. I was interested in this woman, and I thought that since I was in the same city, we might strike up a relationship. That didn’t work out [laughs].
Multi-talented: Some people think I’m a better actor than a director; some people might think I’m a better director than actor. I don’t know which is true. I’ve been acting longer than I’ve been directing. I started acting in Austin in 1979; I started directing out of necessity in 1982. I was producing a show and I lost my director, so I wound up directing Little Murders. Mary Louise Parker was in that cast.
Strengths: I think I have pretty good taste in scripts and pretty good taste in actors. Even people who think I’m not the greatest director in the world will tell you I’m pretty good at casting [laughs]. There’s a common misperception that I cast the same people in my shows. I’ve been directing [in Austin] now for 30 years, and I’ve cast over 200 actors, and any time I [re]cast one of those 200 actors, people go, “Aha! You see? He casts the same actors!” In the show I’m doing now [Tigers Be Still], there are two actors I’ve never worked with before.
What he looks for in actors: Sanity is a very valued commodity – who is the most sane and pleasant and seemingly easy to work with. I look for people who are open to trying different things and aren’t totally set in their ways.
Challenges: We tend to do smaller cast shows for economic reasons and space issues. We don’t have the most luxurious or spacious dressing rooms. Middletown will be really challenging because I have 11 actors playing 23 roles.
Influential Figures: I met my wife, Katherine Catmull, at an audition at Hyde Park Theatre in 1984. I was having auditions for Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. Katherine was the roommate of an actor who I wanted to cast in the role of Danny Shapiro; and I mistakenly thought they were a couple, because they were living together, and she read really well. I thought it would be neat to cast these real-life lovers in the roles of the lovers in the play. I came to find out they weren’t dating; they were just platonic friends. My wife has been really supportive all these years. She turned me on to Harold Pinter, which really changed my professional career. Jim Fritzler, who was head of Big State Productions, is probably the best director I’ve ever worked with and he taught me a lot about directing. He had great instincts, was really great at working with actors, and he also had excellent taste in scripts. He was kind of a curmudgeon at times, but he such a sweet and gentle man when he’s directing.
Coming up: Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock – a wonderful comedy with some serious bits thrown in; Middletown by Will Eno in September and October; and the 20th anniversary of Fronterafest.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Video Promo for Upcoming: Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock, Hyde Park Theatre, July 12 - August 11
"Tigers Be Still" at Hyde Park Theatre from Eric Graham on Vimeo.
The San Francisco Chronicle called Tigers Be Still "an uproar of laughs." The New York Times called Kim Rosenstock's off-Broadway hit "an endearing new play . . a heartfelt comedy" in which a big cat on the loose from a local zoo fits right in with the anxiety and depression of modern life.
The HPT production is directed by Ken Webster and stars Molly Karrasch, Jon Cook, Jay Fraley, and Kelsey Kling.
The show runs at 8:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, July 12 - August 11, 2011. Every Thursday is Pay What You Can Night; Friday, and Saturday tickets are $19 ($17 for students, seniors, and ACOT members), except for the final weekend (April 19-21), when ticket are $21 ($19 for students, seniors, and ACOT members). For reservations, call 479-PLAY or purchase tickets online.
Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at Kenneth's Hair Salon, just south of HPT, and at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them all for their generosity.
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