(*) Deborah Martin: Overtime Theatre's 2014 Season, San Antonio

Overtime's 2014 season holds all-new material, including a weekly serial

By Deborah Martin : January 2, 2014

Overtime Artistic Director Kyle Gillette (via MySA.com)

SAN ANTONIO — When the folks at the Overtime Theater sat down to choose their 2014 lineup, they had a lot to choose from.

After their call for original work went viral, the company ended up getting around 300 scripts, a huge increase in the usual pool, said Kyle Gillette, the company's artistic director: “I'd say it was three or four times what we normally get.”

The scripts came from all over the country.

A total of 15 wide-ranging pieces — including a new serial — made the final cut. One piece, Overtime Executive Director Michael Burger's “The Beasts of Baverly Grove,” will take place in both of the Overtime's theaters.

To get the complete story, audiences will need to check out the show in each space. It plays Oct. 17-Nov. 15.

For the most part, the smaller, more experimental pieces this year can be seen in the Overtime's smaller space. That theater, which has been informally known as the Li'l OT, has been named The Stables. The name is a nod to the stables where director David Lynch shot some of his surreal 1977 classic “Eraserhead,” Gillette said.

Click to view Express-News listing of season by titles, dates and Overtime venues

(*) MOSTELLARIA (THE HAUNTED HOUSE) by Plautus, translated and adapted by Thomas E. Jenkins, Overtime Theatre

(Overtime Theatre Center, 1203 Camden Street, San Antonio, 78215 - click for map)

presents

Mostellaria (The Haunted House)

by Plautus
translated and adapted by Thomas E. Jenkins
directed by Kyle Gillette
September 20 - October 19, 2013
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Overtime Theatre, 1203 Camden Street, San Antonio - click for map

Hijinx and horror combine in this fresh adaptation of Plautus' Mostellaria (The Haunted House). Nominated for several Antonius awards in 190 BCE--including best Middle Republic comedy, and Most Promising Debut by an Umbrian Playwright--The Haunted House has received surprisingly few modern productions, probably owing to the death of Latin. But have no fear: Thomas E. Jenkins' moronic new translation precisely captures the idiocy of the original farce, which scrambles masters and slaves, prostitutes and poltergeists on a particularly hectic day in suburban Rome. So head over to the Overtime Theater to catch this local premiere of Plautus' gloriously goofy Mostellaria: it's the best little horror house in Texas.

"Ubertim flevi et copiose risi -- iterumque iterumque spectare volo! Hoc spectaculum melius Felibus est! Quattuor stellae!" -- Gaius Junius Marcellus, The Greater Tuscany Examiner

"Tragedy, then, is an imitation (mimesis) of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude. The Haunted House, by contrast, is complete garbage." -- Aristotle, Poetics 267E.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Auditions in San Antonio for 'The Haunted House' by Plautus, Overtime Theatre, August 3, 2013

The Haunted House by Plautus, adapted by Tom Jenkins, Directed by Kyle Gillette; Auditions at the Overtime Theater Saturday, Aug 3: 12-3; Callbacks Sunday, Aug 4: 12-4 -- at 1203 Camden, Near the Pearl Brewery Complex, San Antonio, Texas, 78215 - click for map


The Haunted House is a joyous, goofy farce by the Roman comic playwright Plautus (some of whose works became the basis for the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). All of the traditional stock elements of Roman comedy are here: the crafty slave (Tranio), the crabby old Father (Cantankerus), the buxom prostitute (Viagra), the lovesick young-man (Gluteus Maximus), etc. 

(cover art: Halcyon Press via bn.com)

The plot is this: Father departs on a business trip, and his son immediately buys a prostitute and parties non-stop. When Father unexpectedly returns, Tranio, the crafty slave, hides everyone in the house--and convinces Father than the house is, in fact, haunted. But Tranio's deception spawns even more lies, and eventually embroils the entire city in his deception, including an unsuspecting neighbor, and an avaricious money-lender. The beauty of Plautus' play is that it combines the lowest of comedy--slapstick and puns!--with keen social commentary, including criticism of real-estate housing bubbles (still a problem) as well as the pretensions and stupidity of the powerful. 

Tom Jenkins' modern adaptation sets the play in San Antonio, and is jammed with zippy and hopefully offensive wordplay.

Cast of characters (Except for Tranio and Cantankerus, some parts may be doubled):

Tranio: A tricky slave, any age. (Originally written as male, could be female.)
Grumio: A country slave, any age. (Originally written as male, could also be female.)
Cantankerus: A crabby old master. (Somewhere between 40 and 110 years old. Closer to 110.)
Gluteus (Maximus): Cantankerus's 18-year-old dissolute son. (Has one song to sing.)
Simo: Cantankerus's married neighbor. (Must be male; between 35 and 99.)
Inebrius: Gluteus's best friend. (Male, Early 20\'s.)
Viagra: Gluteus's girlfriend, and ex-prostitute. (Female, 20s or 30s)
Scapha: Viagra's hair-dresser, and a slave. (Female, 40s or older.)
Avaricius: a greedy money-lender. (Written as male, could be female.)
Xena: a female slave and a floozy. (Written as female, could conceivably be a male. Mid 20\'s.)
Phaniscus: a Good Slave. (Written as male, could be female. Any age.) 

For More Information: 210-557-7562 or info@theovertimetheater.org

(*) Overtime Theatre, San Antonio, Seeks Original Scripts by August 1, 2013

Overtime Theater 2014 - Call for Submissions!

Submission Deadline: August 1, 2013

1203 Camden, Near the Pearl Brewery Complex, San Antonio, Texas, 78215

The Overtime Theater is seeking play submissions for our 2014 season. Devoted to original work, we are particularly interested in new plays that are innovative in form and bold and moving in content. San Antonio's "Theater for the People" -- the Current readers' favorite theater for four years in a row -- creates a wide range of plays, from scrappy nerdcore to weird fringe, from heartwarming to hilarious, and has a loyal following. Located near the blossoming Pearl Brewery complex at 1203 Camden Street, we are at the heart of the city's most exciting arts district, right next to the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk, and the South Broadway renaissance.

We are seeking original experimental and devised work, film and novel adaptations, translations and adaptations of classics, musicals, genre parodies, political pieces, community-based plays, science-fiction and superhero epic adventures, broad comedy, gritty realism, and especially that which we haven't seen and can't be categorized. We are looking for unique local and national voices, visions, characters, and worlds that could only be live theatrical events, although they may (and are encouraged to) engage other media.

In all the plays we select, we are looking for work charged with a sense of now, pieces that wake the audience up to the present moment.

Please submit all completed plays or inquiries to BOTH the Literary Manager, Rachel Joseph at rjoseph@trinity.edu and the Artistic Director, Kyle Gillette at kgillett@trinity.edu no later than August 1, 2013. We only accept electronic submissions on a .pdf or .doc file. Please include contact information, cast requirements, and technical aspirations.

We will acknowledge receipt of work and inform playwrights of their submission status by the end of November 2013.

*Because all of the work at the Overtime is indeed created "overtime," artists receive compensation through our "love bucket"--audience donations split with the cast and crew. To be honest, it isn't a lot, but that has never stopped us from surviving and thriving as a truly unique independent theater.

We look forward to reading your work!  Sincerely,Kyle Gillette, Artistic Director; Rachel Joseph, Literary Manager; and The Overtime Theater

For More Information: info@theovertimetheater.org

(*) Invitation to Submit Original Scripts to Overtime Theatre, San Antonio

Overtime Theater 2014 - Call for Submissions!

Submission Deadline: August 1, 2013

The Overtime Theater is seeking play submissions for our 2014 season. Devoted to original work, we are particularly interested in new plays that are innovative in form and bold and moving in content. San Antonio’s “Theater for the People” -- the Current readers’ favorite theater for four years in a row -- creates a wide range of plays, from scrappy nerdcore to weird fringe, from heartwarming to hilarious, and has a loyal following. Located near the blossoming Pearl Brewery complex at 1203 Camden Street, we are at the heart of the city’s most exciting arts district, right next to the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk, and the South Broadway renaissance.

We are seeking original experimental and devised work, film and novel adaptations, translations and adaptations of classics, musicals, genre parodies, political pieces, community-based plays, science-fiction and superhero epic adventures, broad comedy, gritty realism, and especially that which we haven’t seen and can’t be categorized. We are looking for unique local and national voices, visions, characters, and worlds that could only be live theatrical events, although they may (and are encouraged to) engage other media.

In all the plays we select, we are looking for work charged with a sense of now, pieces that wake the audience up to the present moment.

Please submit all completed plays or inquiries to BOTH the Literary Manager, Rachel Joseph at rjoseph@trinity.edu and the Artistic Director, Kyle Gillette at kgillett@trinity.edu no later than August 1, 2013. We accept electronic submissions only on a .pdf or .doc file. Please include contact information, cast requirements, and technical aspirations. We will acknowledge receipt of work and inform playwrights of their submission status by the end of November 2013.

*Because all of the work at the Overtime is indeed created “overtime,” artists receive compensation through our “love bucket”--audience donations split with the cast and crew. To be honest, it isn’t a lot, but that has never stopped us from surviving and thriving as a truly unique independent theater.

We look forward to reading your work!

Sincerely, Kyle Gillette, Artistic Director; Rachel Joseph, Literary Manager; and The Overtime Theater

Auditions in San Antonio for 'Port Cove,' 8 -week supernatural soap at Overtime Theatre, April 7, 2013

Via SATCO:

Auditions for Port Cove, Overtime Theater, Sunday April 7 at 1 PM

Port Cove is an all new weekly series at the Overtime Theater. An 8 week series featuring a NEW supernatural mystery episode every week! This supernatural soap opera follows the characters of the hotel coffee shop at the center of a small New England town where mysterious murders have taken place. The FBI agents brought in discover that everyone is a suspect and something odd lurks out there in the cove...Featuring multiple directors: Kyle Gillette, Michael Burger, Matt Cassi, Bryan Ortiz, Chris Champlin and Scott McDowell!

We will be casting a wide variety or roles and will be looking for roughly 6 males, 6 females -- actors of any shape and size are welcome as they will be playing multiple characters in the town of 'Port Cove.'


The Overtime Theater is having auditions for a never before seen show in San Antonio. It is an 8 week run for a Supernatural Soap Opera in the vein of 'Twin Peaks'. Actors will be put in an intense rehearsal process and learn each 22-25 min episode in one weeks time, for a total of 8 episodes.

We will be having cold reads and asking actors/actresses to learn a provided monologue in a set amount of time to gauge memorization skills. If actors have a prepared monologue we will listen to them but it is not needed. Headshots are not needed. The show will begin rehearsal in April and run from June 7 to July 28.

Location: 1203 Camden, Near the Pearl Brewery Complex, San Antonio, Texas, 78215

For More Information: theovertimetheater@gmail.com

(*) THE CRAZY LOCOMOTIVE by Stanislaw Witkiewicz, Trinity University, April 12 - 20, 2013

presents

The Crazy Locomotive

by Stanislaw Witkiewicz

Directed by Kyle Gillette

Trinity University Dept of Human Communication and Theatre

Stanislaw Witkiewicz's 1923 play The Crazy Locomotive both parodies and embodies the artistic movement of futurism as well as Einstein's theory of relativity and the melodramatic conventions of silent film. Set aboard the engine room of a train hurtling toward its destruction, the play features a projected cinematic backdrop of the landscape hurtling by and the large frightening machinery of industrial modernity. As two international criminal masterminds hijack the train, they ponder the meaning of space, time, and modern art, all while driving the train toward unprecedented speeds and losing their minds in the process. Provocative, absurd, and hilarious, Witkiewicz's play asks big questions about the progress of industrial civilization and the fatal course of history.

Location: Trinity University Campus, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas, 78212
Times: April 12-14 and April 17-20, 2013 Friday and Saturday @ 8pm Sunday @ 2:30pm Wednesday & Thursday @ 7pm
Tickets: Adults: $10.00 Seniors: $ 8.00 Students/SATCO: $6.00

For More Information:

Reservations: 999-8515 Information: 999-8511

(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Video Profile of San Antonio's Overtime Theatre by Michael Valdes, Fox Channel 29

Profile by television journalist Michael Valdes with comments by Kyle Gillette of the Overtime Theatre, broadcast August 7:

For about five years, The Overtime Theater has promoted itself as "Theater for the People." And while they have received plenty of praise, they could always use, well... more people. A recent move out of the Blue Star Arts Complex to an old medical supply building on Camden is at least bringing the room for that. 

"We have more rehearsal space. We have more room to do larger shows," says Kyle Gillette, Artistic Director for The Overtime. There is also more lighting, better sound and, as a result, some new excitement about what can be done with local original theater that makes it accessible to a bigger audience. "At Overtime, we try to create work that anyone whether they have seen anything or read anything, they will come in and say, wow... that was awesome," says Gillette. 

He feels many local theater companies are doing the kind of work that pushes the group as a whole to another level. Gillette says, "It seems like now there are enough folks who have come here, who are creative types. Who want to see what it could be to go out on a Friday night and instead of going and drinking at a bar... or in addition to going and drinking at a bar...to see some work that moves them and helps them to connect to other people." 

 Gillette believes there is enough of an audience to go around... As long as everyone keeps doing things from the heart. " The enemy to theater is bad theater," according to Gillette. "You go and see a bad play and you are like, theater sucks. But if you see something interesting, then you want to go see other stuff."

(*) Upcoming: Open Sesame, a Bollywood pantomime by Rick Stemm, Overtime Theatre, San Antonio, October 5 - November 3

 
presents


OPEN SESAME!

A BOLLYWOOD PANTOMIME

by Rick Stemm

directed by Kyle Gillette

October 5 – November 3, 2012. 8 pm Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, plus one Sunday matinee at 2:30 on October 20 and an additional Sunday evening show at 7pm on October 27

Ticket Prices: $14 general admission, and $10 for teachers, students, seniors 65+, active military, and SATCO members. Tickets can be purchased online at www.theovertimetheater.org. 

Information: www.theovertimetheater.org, info@theovertimetheater.org, and (210) 557-7562.

Location: The Overtime Theater, 1203 Camden, San Antonio, TX 78215.

The amazing, musical, martial, colorful, audience-driven, Bollywood-style, anachronistic, fantasy adventure kung fu musical you've always been waiting for.

It’s the first musical to be presented at our new location! The Overtime Theater presents Open Sesame!: A Bollywood Pantomime.

Can true love prevail over troublesome family, scheming villains, meddling gods, and dancing pirates? Open Sesame! is a retelling of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the musical comedy form of pantomime. Set in beautiful India in a time when the world was small enough to find secrets around every corner, our story follows Ollie, a hopeful adventurer seeking his fortune with the British East India Company. He stumbles across a vast treasure and uses it to woo his love while beset by greedy family and deadly foes. India provides more than just a backdrop for the story, infusing the music too. All songs and dances are in the style of Bollywood, India’s most famous film industry. With fast, colorful Indian music and dance, perilous fight scenes, outrageous slapstick, and audience participation, Open Sesame! fuses British, Indian, and American theater into a delightful kaleidoscope of fun.

Open Sesame is the first Overtime Production to be written by Rick Stemm. Stemm is a transplanted Wisconsinite who caught a lot of attention with his offering in last year’s Theatre ASAP and has produced a truly unique musical vision. Working in collaboration with Jaime Ramirez, a great San Antonio musician and the composer and musical director of previous Overtime offerings Dr. S Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies: The Movie: The Musical and DOA: A Noir Musical, the production promises to be like nothing seen in San Antonio before. Open Sesame is directed by Kyle Gillette, the Overtime’s Artistic Director and an assistant professor at Trinity University as well as the director of 2011’s Ugly People.

The family friendly musical premieres at the Overtime’s new location at 1203 Camden in the Gregg Barrios Theater on October 5th.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Auditions in San Antonio for Open, Sesame!, Overtime Theatre, August 19 & 20

Come audition for the Overtime Theater's 2012 Musical! August 19 & 20 7-11 pm at the Overtime, 1203 Camden St, just south of the Pearl (click for map) for Open Sesame! A Bollywood Pantomime written by Rick Stemm, original music by Jaime Ramirez and Marcus Rubio, directed by Kyle Gillette. Runs October 5 – November 3, 2012

Can true love prevail over troublesome family, scheming villains, meddling gods, and dancing pirates? Open Sesame! is a retelling of the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the musical comedy form of pantomime. 

Set in beautiful India in a time when the world was small enough to find secrets around every corner, our story follows Ollie, a hopeful adventurer seeking his fortune with the East India Company. He stumbles across a vast treasure and uses it to woo his love while beset by greedy family and deadly foes. India provides more than just a backdrop for the story, infusing the musical numbers as well. 

All song and dance will be in the style of Bollywood, India’s most famous film industry. With fast, colorful Indian music and dance, flashy fight scenes, outrageous slapstick, and audience participation, Open Sesame! fuses British, Indian, and American theater into non-stop fun.

Click to view character list and descriptions at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Thomas Jenkins on Tragedy, including Will Eno's Play at Trinity University, September 29 - October 8

Link to the feature in the San Antonio Current, received directly:

The Wicked Stage on Tragedy, A Tragedy

September 28, 2011

By Thomas Jenkins

I’ve been thinking a lot about tragedy lately; partly, that’s because we—all of us—have just experienced the anniversary of 9/11, and it’s hard to separate that date, and those events, from the notion of tragedy, writ large. Partly, it’s because I’m considering the creation of an entire course on tragedy at Trinity: I already teach a combined Greek and Roman Drama course—in which tragedy naturally looms large—but to go from fart jokes in Aristophanes to infanticide in Seneca has always produced a bit of whiplash. (My students, to their credit, bravely soldier on.)

But, mostly, I’ve been pondering tragedy since I’m indirectly responsible for the show that’s going up at Trinity this weekend: Will Eno’s laconically-entitled Tragedy: A Tragedy. I first read the play a few years ago while burrowing my way through a number of modern tragedies, including Edward Albee’s wickedly subversive The Goat, which the author significantly subtitled “Notes towards a definition of tragedy.” (Trag-odos literally means ‘goat song’ in Greek, in commemoration of a sacrificed kid; and, to be frank, things look very bad for the goat in The Goat.) I didn’t actually see an animal slaughtered on stage (only mimetically, thanks) until Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s wonderful Hunter Gatherers (at the Hyde Park Theater in Austin): when dinner is preceded by the ritual dismemberment of a lamb, more than just comedy is on the table.

But Eno’s Tragedy: A Tragedy is another animal (so to speak) altogether. It’s less an investigation into ancient notions of communal taboo than a meditation on contemporary media: how we live, die, and grieve together as a news cycle.

Read more at the San Antonio Current . . . .

Read ALT's 'Upcoming' page on Will Eno's Tragedy: A Tragedy at Trinity University, San Antonio. . . .

Upcoming: Ugly People - A Political Comedy by James Venhaus , Overtime Theatre, San Antonio, August 19 - September 17

Found on-line:

in San Antonio

presents

Ugly People - A Political Comedy

by James Venhaus

directed by Kyle Gillette

August 19 - September 17, Thursdays - Saturdays except First Friday (September 2), 8 p.m.

Overtime Theatre, 1414 S. Alamo, San Antonio (click for map)

It has been said that “Politics is show business for ugly people.” And never have there been a more ugly time in politics than now. In this new comedy by James Venhaus, the author of "The Happy Couple" and "Broken Record," two candidates for office take wildly different approaches to their campaigns. Each has help from some of the ugliest people in Hollywood and Washington. "Ugly People" is the show that asks the question, “What if running for office was like a game show, or a reality show?” Maybe it already is. Directed by Kyle Gillette. Click Here to purchase tickets online.

Upcoming: The Bacchae, Trinity University, San Antonio, February 18 - 26

Found on-line:

presents

THE BACCHAE

by EURIPIDES

Directed by Kyle Gillette. Translated & adapted by David Greig.

February 18 - 26 at the Stieren Theatre, Trinity University

(click for Google map)(click for campus map)(click for driving directions to Stieren Theatre)

Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2:30 pm

Box office reservations at (210) 999-8515

It's high noon in Thebes and Dionysus is back in town, looking for followers and ready to settle a score. His arrival has driven the city's women from their homes in a mad frenzy. King Pentheus is determined to stop the riots, arrest Dionysus, and break the spell of this charismatic upstart god.

Musical Direction: Marcus Rubio - Scene Design: Steve Gilliam - Costume Design: Jodi Karjala
Lighting Design and Tecnical Direction: Tim France

Click to see additional scene designs by Steve Gilliam at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .