Upcoming: Don't Stop Me Now by Maggie Gallant, City Theatre, July 11 - 19

Received directly:

DON’T STOP ME NOW

premieres at Summer Acts! Festival

New comedy explores one fan’s obsession with Queen front man Freddie Mercury.

Summer Acts! at The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Don’t Stop Me Now runs 60 minutes.

Performance Dates:
Saturday July 11 at 10pm
Sunday July 12 at 6pm
Tuesday July 14 at 7pm
Friday July 17 at 7pm
Saturday July 18 at 4pm
Sunday July 19 at 12pm T

ickets $10. For reservations, call 512 585-5698 or go to www.maggiegallant.com/wwfd

What’s the soundtrack to your life? That’s the question posed by Don’t Stop Me Now, premiering at the Summer Acts! theatre festival in Austin (July 9-19). For super-fan Sonya Moore, the answer has always been Queen. When faced with dilemmas in fashion, work, or relationships, Sonya seeks advice from the man she is sure has all the answers: Freddie Mercury. WWFD (What Would Freddie Do)? The answers steer Sonya in new directions with unexpected and funny results.


Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Summer Acts! Festival, City Theatre, July 9 - 19

From the City Theatre website:

Summer Acts! festival
at the City Theatre
3823 Airport Road


2009 Participating Shows

The Odyssey – A Rock Musical
Freddy Carnes Productions
TH9@9, SA11@12, SA11@8, SU12@4, MO13@9, SA18@6
A retelling of the classic story by Homer of Odysseus’ journey home to his family. His son Telemachus and wife Penelope have their own journey and they fend off evil suitors hell-bent on killing the son and marrying the wife.
The new musical has a rock score and ancient story.
512-891-8387/freddycarnes@yahoo.com


Home(less) Economics
Austin New Music Workshop
FR10@7, SA11@2, SU12@12, TU14@9, SA18@8, SU19@2
Three marketing students. One homeless man. Two worlds collide in this musical comedic drama.
512-567-8202/austinnmw@gmail.com/www.austinnewmusicworkshop.com


All’s Well That Ends Well
The Polish Thespian Workshop
TH9@7, SA11@6, SU12@8, TH16@9, SA18@12, SU19@4
This Shakespearean comedy that reveals no matter how pitch black the darkness, love always triumphs and conquers all.
512-740-9839/kkarwoski8288@yahoo.com


Don’t Stop Me Now
Maggie Gallant
SA11@10, SU12@6, TU14@7, FR17@7, SA18@4, SU19@12
WWFD (What Would Freddie Do)? Sonya’s choices in fashion, jobs, and boyfriends revolve around her obsession with Queen lead singer, Freddie Mercury. Sonya is in for some surprises.
512-585-5698/maggie@2badmice.com/www.maggiegallant.com



A Different Kind of Sketch Show
Laugh Pack Productions
MO13@7, WE15@9, TH16@7, FR17@9, SA18@10, SU19@8
Original sketch comedy show featuring the internet sensation “3 Guys Watching TV”.
512-617-1983/daniel.sawtelle@gmail.com


Rabbit Hole
Dancing Cat Circle
FR10@9, SA11@4, SU12@2, WE15@7, SA18@2, SU19@6
Austin premier and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for drama, David Lindsay-Abaire’s critically acclaimed play about loss, heartbreak and forgiveness. Becca and Howie have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down. This masterpiece is an honest look at domestic tragedy and the healing power of love, laughter, and life affirming testament to the endurance of the human spirit.
352-871-8224/info@citytheatreaustin.org

Our Angle in Heaven by Maggie Gallant, FronteraFest at Salvage Vanguard, January 24, 25, 28, February 1

The title of Maggie Gallant's solo show is an apt under- statement, suggestive of the portraits she offers us.

What angle do we take on heaven and the richness of its offerings for us? And where is that heaven? Who goes there?

That's a lot of message for a simple misspelling.

Maggie gives us eight characters in the twelve monologues she presents in about 45 minutes at the Salvage Vortex. It is perhaps telling that the one who ties the evening together bears the name "Maggie" in the program - - a Maggie called back from France to attend her father's funeral and whom the Eurostar train crew favored with an unscheduled stop near her home. That Maggie tries to make sense of a personal loss and memorial while all of the UK is obsessed by the mythic Diana and the attendant ceremonies. Diana's funeral becomes a tourist event, replacing the temporarily closed wax museum at Madame Tussaud's -- and a family from the north of England leaves the bouquet and poster meant to celebrate "our angel in heaven."

This is a gentle, thoughtful piece, with no notion of self- promotion. Maggie begins as Jane, a simple-minded professional Diana imitator suddenly faced with lots of cancellations; then she offers us Dee, an enterprising souvenir saleslady who cheerfully takes practical advantage of her huge stock of previously unsold Royal Wedding memorabilia.

Later she transforms into Catherine, an early teenager who would really rather be a boy. As unwelcome puberty arrives during the Diana disaster, she is ignored by her family.


The character closest to American-style improv comedy is Barry, hatted and clad in a white rain slicker, lecturing the public at the Speakers Corner at Hyde Park. He provides confident explanations of conspiracies, aliens, and how the royal family gets together in the basements of Balmoral Castle to resume their real alien shapes. Gallant doesn't excessively send Barry up. One has the feeling that Barry's certainty may have been observed rather than simply invented.

My favorite is Mrs. Meena Khan. This Muslim woman of immense dignity unexpectedly finds herself a celebrity because of a photo published in the Daily Mirror. Walking past the mounds of flowers along the fences in central London, she experienced a sudden allergic reaction that brought tears to her eyes. A passerby misread the reaction and planted a kiss on her cheek, just as the Mirror's man hit the shutter. Meena has trenchant, dismissive comments to make about the newspaper, the national frenzy, and Diana herself.

There was a good turnout for this presentation and the audience was receptive. These are rich, intelligent portraits. Maggie Gallant gives them entire respect and welcome humanity. Recommended!

Review by Elizabeth Cobbe in Austin Chronicle of January 30

Upcoming: Our Angle in Heaven by Maggie Gallant, Frontera Fest at Salvage Vanguard, January 24 - February 1

Received January 10:

'Our Angle in Heaven' premieres at FronteraFest Long Fringe

New solo show tackles themes of celebrity obsession, media manipulation and public versus private mourning. Princess Diana’s death is the catalyst for lives both interrupted and dramatically changed.

To the outside world, we were a nation in mourning, a country united in its grief. Sensational media headlines obscured the reality of ordinary Brits faced with Princess Diana’s death. Some reacted with anger, others ambivalence and even apathy.

“Our Angle in Heaven” portrays 8 people in the week following Diana’s death. In a series of monologues, by turns painfully honest and darkly funny, the lives of this cross-section of Brits are interrupted by the news. Among them, an entrepreneur responds to accusations of profiteering. A teenager struggles with gender identity. A Muslim woman refuses to fit the media stereotype. A conspiracy theorist makes startling and traitorous revelations about the Royal Family.

Writer and performer Maggie Gallant also portrays herself and her battle with public versus private mourning amidst the frenzy.

“Britain’s streets were not stained with our tears,” says Gallant. “The media’s reaction ignored the fact that for some it was just an unexpected blip in their busy lives.”

The play gives an insight into the British psyche of September 1997, but also draws on many themes that are just as relevant today, from anti-Muslim bigotry to class divisions, celebrity obsession, and media exploitation.

Maggie Gallant, a British-born writer and actor living in Austin, previously performed an excerpt of the play, titled ‘That Diana Look’ at the FronteraFest Short Fringe 2008.

All 4 performances will be at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Road, Austin.

Show runs approx 60 minutes.

Saturday 24 January @ 6:00pm

Sunday 25 January @ 12:00pm

Wednesday 28 January @ 9:15pm

Sunday 1 February @ 4:00pm

Reservations: 512 479-7529 or www.hydeparktheatre.org

For more information: www.ourangleinheaven.com