Ann Pittman's Austin Theatre Favorites in 2013

From her blog aNNpITTMAN, posted January 12:

Top Ten Twenty-Thirteen Theatre

Ann Pittman (via Blogspot)

Everyone has their favorites. And everyone's weighing in (Chronicle critics: AdamRoberts, Robert Faires ... a cat).

Of course, I have my own opinions :)

So here's my credential-free pick for Austin's Top Ten 2013 Theatre Experiences (p.s. I don't include national tours or shows I was in on this list... tours obvs. aren't Austin, and despite my first girl-on-girl kiss this year, its probably biased to nominate performances I was a part of). Of the over twenty shows I saw this year, here's some moments, people and experiences that I loved (in no particular order)...

1. Barbara Chisholm in Fixing King John. This was a fun, smart show by the Rude Mechs, and pulling her hair out in the middle of it was a brilliant Barbara Chisholm.

2. The amazing set of Nursery Crimes (the DAC has never been better utilized) and the supporting characters trio of Travis Bedard, Bobby DiPasquale, and Heath Thompson. Kudos to Last Act's Will Snider for some great choices.

3. Ryan Crowder's big fat crocodile tears (in addition to the rest of his performance) in Penfold Theatre's Red.

4. Martin Burke's final monologue in Harvey. Lovely.

5. Kristi Brawner in general. From Sally in Reefer Madness to Lucy in Charlie Brown, she is quickly becoming Austin's most versatile 20 Something (sorry guys, she's taken).

6. HPT's Ken Webster as Thom Pain. Again.

7. Mad Beat Hip & Gone. I cannot understand why this didn't get more critical attention. Whatev. You guys, it was great. And those lightbulbs...

8. The Drawbridge/Gangplank lowering and raising set piece thing in Austin Playhouse's Man of La Mancha. Awesome and daunting. Broke up the play and the mood perfectly appropriately.

9. Little Shop of Horrors' colorful costumes at Zilker Park.

10. ZACH's A Christmas Story set. You'll shoot your eye out.

AND what I really, really wanted to see (which might have influenced the above list), but, alas, life had other exciting adventures...

1. Mical Trejo in Teatro Vivo's Confessions of a Mexpatriate

2. And Then There Were None by Austin Playhouse

3. Tongues (in the swimming pool!) by Theatre at the J

4. Fat Pig by Theatre En Bloc

So there you have it! Of the Austin theatre events I saw, these were the most super-duper. Maybe next year I'll be brave enough to give you The Worst Of... who knows! In the meantime, here's looking forward to more great, funny, meaningful, important, silly theatre in the heart of Texas in 2014!

You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Wimberley Players, November 15 - December 8, 2013

by Michael Meigs


As fresh as the ink of the morning paper on a bright fall day, the Wimberley Players' staging of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown is big, bold and beautiful. And so is the cast; director Jim Lindsay has handpicked some of the most attractive talent from the region.

Did you know that this musical by Clark Gesner is approaching its 50th birthday? You'd never know it from this production. The original version was done in 1967, and in 1998 performers using the revised script presented in this Wimberley production took two Tony awards. And Charlie Brown himself, if he weren't ageless, would be almost ready to qualify for Social Security, for Charles Schultz's first four-panel strip featuring him was published on October 2, 1950.

Ryley Wilson (photo: Leanne Brawner Photography)

A musical for six players, presented as a series of lively songs and skits featuring some of the most memorable tropes and plights of the Peanuts gang, the work is a favorite of high schools and amateur groups. Director Lindsay chose to expand the cast by two women to to calibrate the choreography, so Wimberley's augmented edition includes both that little red-headed girl (the fetching Lindsay Katherine Powell) and Kate Clark (Frieda, a fine singer and captain of the dance ensemble).

Schultz drew the comic strip for fifty years, so that tiny community of primary schoolers has a rich and diverse history of incident. The situations onstage are instantly recognizable and bring smiles to faces in the audience. 

 Ryley Wilson in the title role has Charlie's yellow shirt with the zig-zag, a fugitive kite, and that mild, yearning and baffled presence. Kristi Brawner as Lucy van Pelt is adorably heedless, loud and self-certain -- comically capturing childish speech and emphasis with her frequent prolongation of initial consonants ("You're a Buh-LOCKHEAD!")

Part of the pleasure of seeing mature but young actors in these roles is the irony of age difference: grown men are returned to the tentative innocents they once were, while the actresses giving Schultz's girls their endearing brashness are at the same time very attractive young women.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre. . . .

Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle, Two Beards Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard, October 4 - 12, 2013

by Michael Meigs

On my way to Mr. Marmalade, the first production staged by the Two Beards Theatre Company, I was momentarily disconcerted to find the parking lot overflowing already at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. Then I remembered that Trouble Puppet was doing Connor Hopkins' The Head at the same venue.

Mr. Marmalade occupied the small studio theatre just to the right of the entrance, and when they didn't find my name among the reservations, they asked which show I was going to. I confirmed that I wasn't aiming at Connor's eerie puppet adventure into the limbic system, so they happily sold me a $10 ticket to their own weird and wondrous world. I hit the 8 o'clock show -- good thing, too, because the 10 p.m. performance with the free beer was sold out, probably in part to the celebratory Trouble Puppet after-show crowd.

Noah Haidle's little fable about the four-year-old with some very strange imaginary friends is a young grownup's nightmare or perhaps an acid trip version of the awakening fantasy life of childhood. Big-eyed, expressive and vulnerable, Cassie Petersen as Lucy is onstage virtually every moment, and she embodies the cunning device of the work: her character is simultaneously a child and an aching, confused woman-child struggling to enter adulthood. Lucy's is a childhood without the grace of innocence. Grownups neglect and patronize her, and she knows entirely too much about the horrible side of human relationships. Petersen makes you want to give her a great big hug.

Lucy's single mother Sookie (Adriane Showne) leaves her alone at home, going off on a date before the babysitter arrives. Emily the babysitter (Kristi Brawner) has no patience for the very verbal Lucy and mocks her imaginary playmates. The peripheral adult males (Tim Stiefler) are callous, distracted and predatory, qualities directly reflected by Mr. Marmalade (David Nguyen as the distant imaginary father/lover figure, certainly the object of this desperately talkative four-year-old's Electra complex).

The child's only confidant is also imaginary -- gentle, mistreated Bradley (Ronnie Williams), the employee and personal assistant to the imperious Mr. Marmalade. Though they could hardly be more different in physical aspect, he and Lucy are alter egos. Bradley has the sweet nature and desire to please that one would expect of an unabused child. Williams plays the character with a light step and ardent attention to Lucy.

Into this messy, unhappy world comes Larry the preschooler (Johnny Bender), who's even more depressed and tormented than Lucy. She talks through her anxieties and expresses them in play; Larry has turned inward and bears bandaged wrists from a suicide attempt. Bender gives Larry intensity but also a perpetual air of surprise. Their brief but charming encounter falls apart, exposing both of them once more to the very grown-up miseries inflicted by others, both imaginary and real.

David Nguyen as Marmalade has a contained power and concentration that makes him all that more terrifying when he's angered. Playwright, director and actor give this character a sociopathic charm, rousing Lucy's hopes and dashing them, courting her and then spurning her, fathering a child and then rejecting it. One feels a profound satisfaction when he gets his come-uppance, which is both gruesome and hilarious, twice over.

Sounds like a downer, perhaps, but in fact it's anything but. Director Andrew Robinson and the cast take advantage of all the paradox and whimsey, moving the action quickly and taking advantage of Hadle's adroit manipulation of the contradictions of the apparently real and the apparently imagined. There are many amusements here, arising directly from the characters, and one of the biggest laughs of the show comes toward the end when Lucy declares adamantly to her mother, "I've had a very difficult evening!"

Sets are minimal, as they must be in a studio shared with many other activities. The cutaway door at the center seems unnecessary and a bit precarious. This tale is one of imagination, however, and Petersen's earnest, honest performance brings us effortlessly along with her without the need of external support.


The eponymous two beards are director Andrew Robinson and Jacob Henry, graduates of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Their undertaking is at least the third theatre venture in Austin that seems to have had its origins down there on the coast. For that we're fortunate; and this first presentation of the beards promises additional satisfactions and delights.

EXTRA

Click to view program for Mr. Marmalade by Two Beards Theatre Company

REEFER MADNESS, THE MUSICAL, Doctuh Mistuh Productions at Spider House Ballroom and Dougherty Arts Center, June 7 - 30, 2013

presents


REEFER MADNESS THE MUSICAL

June 7-30, 2013

Ticket Information:
$22 Adults & $15
 Students/Seniors at the Door$20 

Advance Sales through brownpapertickets.com (800) 838-3006 or click BPTkts logo (as of May 1)




Locations in Austin, Texas:
Spider House Ballroom, 2908 Fruth Street, Austin, Tx http://spiderhousecafe.com June 7-16, June 23 - 30
Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Tx June 20 - 22



Performance Schedule

Friday, June 7 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 8 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 8 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 9 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 16 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Thursday, June 20 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center
Friday, June 21 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center
Saturday, June 22 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center Sunday, June 23 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Friday, June 28 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Friday, June 28 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 29 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 29 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 30 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom

Reefer Madness is Doctuh Mistuh's 4th production and promises to be the craziest one yet with two venues, an insanely talented cast...and it's about REEFER. We hope you will check it out. To reserve tickets, please click to go to our Purchase Tickets link on the Home Page.

Meet The REEFER MADNESS CAST

Jose Villareal (Lecturer)
Joey Banks (Jimmy)
Sarah Marie Curry (Mary Lane)
Libby Dees-Detling (Mae)
Nathan Brocket (Jack)
Kristi Brawner (Sally)
Chase Brewer (Ralph)
Paul Koudaris (Jesus)
David Ponton (Ensemble)
Brian Loyosa (Ensemble)
Stephen Mercantel (Ensemble)
Sarah Konkel (Ensemble)
Kimberly Wilson (Ensemble)
Kaitlyn Moise (Ensemble)
Lisa Wright (Ensemble)


Meet The Production Team
Michael McKelvey (Stage & Musical Director)
Joe Carpenter (Set Designer)
Glenda Barnes (Costume Designer)
Cameron Allen (Technical Director)
Sam Chesney (Lighting Designer)
Angelica Manez (Production Stage Manager)
Rebecca Robinson (Publicity)
Jennymarie Jemison (Graphics)

The Band
Kyle Sigrest (Keyboard & Conductor)
Trevor Detling (Drums)

Ryan Beavers (Guitar)

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

CABEZA DE VACA: SHIPWRECKED IN TEXAS, Crank Collective at the Rollins Theatre, April 3 - 5, 2013

presents

Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecked in Texas

A Rock Musical Expedition – the first of two Texas History Operettas

directed by John Cecil

Adapted from “Naufragios” by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
April 3, 4, and 5 only, 8 p.m.
Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W Riverside (click for map)

TIX: $20 for adults, $14 for 12 & under, $14: seniors 65+ at 512/569-6155 and www.texshows.com

As the first of two upcoming Texas history operettas, Crank Collective presents Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecked in Texas— a musical tribute to the extraordinary journey of Cabeza de Vaca, the 16th century Spanish Explorer who shipwrecked on Galveston island in 1527 and struggled to survive in a Native American land. Cabeza de Vaca survived as a slave, a trader and a medicine man, Cabeza narrates a multitude of barbaric and enlightening experiences such as surviving on cactus, roots and raw meat, bargained for his life and gained a mysterious ability to heal the sick and raise the dead. Cecil has turned it into an enchanting, and even light-hearted rock musical expedition—for all ages—for Crank’s Long Center debut. The production follows last year’s Antarctica and Drone (2011).

Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecked in Texas is a one-hour rock musical dramatization about survival and the challenges faces when being stripped of familiarity —almost beginning again, naked as a new born. Crank Collective reenacts Cabeza de Vaca’s countless adventures: from exploring under the command of Spanish government; to starving on unknown land; to being captured and enslaved; to learning Native American culture and customs; to escaping for good. This narrative-meets-musical gives exceptional insight with a upbeat twist into the outrageous life of Alvar Nuñez Cabezade Vaca.

Director John Cecil has again assembled a gifted team or performers to carry out his impressive vision with distinctive flair: and a cast of nine, a group of dancers, and a four-person band.

This one-hour show is part of Crank Collective’s Texas History Operetta series. Audiences will be treated with live musical numbers and witty performances by talented cast members. The production mixes de Vaca's engaging narrative with contemporary music and abstract costuming and set design. In November, Crank Collective will premiere the Alamo Operetta.

Cecil and Crank Collective have a history of producing edgy, satirical musicals. In 2011, their production Drone was nominated for an Austin Critics Table Award for Best Musical Production. Their first large production in 2009, the H1N1-themed Epidemic of Fear: The Influenzical, was performed to packed houses of national and international audiences. Insomnia followed with the idea of an Insomnia Patch, which would eliminate the need for sleep. Most recently in 2012, the sold-out Antarctica recreated a crew’s failed attempt to cross the barren arctic and gave an ironic tribute to Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Cast and Ensembles  The cast includes Spanish explorers Carl Guthrie, Phil Rodriguez, Dan Dalbout, Christian Huey, and Kristi Brawner. The Karankawa tribe members are played by Alexandra Russo, Douglas Rensi, Laura Burgess, Josh Meindertsma. The band is Mikey Walters, Jonathan Hoyle, Chris La Cava, and John Cecil.

About Alvar Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca  Excited by rumors of gold, the 1527 Narváez Expedition set out prematurely and quickly fell apart. As means of escape, the fleet crafted primitive boats which later wrecked near Galveston island or “Malhado: The Isle of Misfortune.” One of four survivors, officer Alvar Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca was captured by tribes of the upper Gulf Coast including the famous Karankawa. Over the course of eight years, Nunez traveled through the Southwest and assumed many roles: a slave, a trader, a shaman and leader of a successful escape to Northern Mexico. After reconnecting with Spanish Colonial forces and returning to Spain, Cabeza De Vaca published Naufragios in 1537, which gave a detailed accounts of the “shipwrecks” and experiences thereafter. Due to his truthful details and personal encounters with several Native American tribes, ae is recognized today as a noteworthy proto-anthropologist and historical writer.

ABOUT CRANK COLLECTIVE  Crank Collective is a sponsored project of the Austin Creative Alliance, a non-profit arts service organization, working to advance, connect, and celebrate Austin’s creative life. Cabeza De Vaca is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

JOHN CECIL: PRODUCER, PLAYWRIGHT, AND COMPOSER  John has produced original work in New York, Prague, and even Bucharest, Romania. Working with Crank Collective, he brought the show Epidemic of Fear: An Influenzical to Austin in 2009 and then Drone in 2011 (nominated for an Austin critic's Table Award for Best Musical Production. John came to musical theater from the band perspective: he wanted more going on onstage than four guys holding instruments. The New York theater scene, not surprisingly, was a great place to create satirical rock musical comedies, always with a live band on stage. He later produced and directed original shows in Prague, Czech Republic and Bucharest, Romania.

 
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)