Upcoming: Searching for Eden by James Still, after Mark Twain, Paradox Players, February 10 - 26

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present

Searching for Eden

Written by James Still, after Mark Twain
Directed by Joni McClain

February 10 - 26
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm • Sundays at 3 pm
HOWSON HALL THEATER, Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue (click for map)
Tickets -- $20 Opening Night Gala, Friday, Feb 10th (includes a special reception with refreshments)
$15 all other performances ($10 for seniors and groups of 10 or more)
Reservations by web , phone 744-1495 or Purchase via Paypal
Free childcare Feb 12 Matinee if reserved by Feb 5. Email childcare@austinuu.org or call 452-6168, ext. 313

Adam and Eve meet in paradise and embark on an epic, exuberant battle of the sexes. Several thousand years and a fall from grace later, the middle-aged couple returns to present-day Eden, now an upscale resort. Searching for Eden is a fresh, funny new look at the question of how to make the magic last, and a tender testament to enduring love.

The play is inspired by and adapted from a pair of short stories by Mark Twain. Says director Joni McClain, “Several thousand years after Adam and Eve meet in paradise, they return to a very different Eden. It’s a comic testament to enduring love; a fresh look at how to make the magic last.”

Variety Magazine called Searching for Eden “An engaging blend of wit and whimsy.” The Indianapolis Star wrote, "Eden is a paradise of a play, a captivating romantic comedy that captures the wit and warmth of Mark Twain's timeless paeans to love and marriage and updates them for today.”

Searching for Eden will be presented at the Howson Hall Theater, located in the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover Road, Austin, TX 78756. Performances are February 10 – 26, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 3:00 pm.

Tickets for the Opening Night Gala are $20, and for all other performances $15 General Admission and $10 for Seniors and groups of 10 or more. Purchase tickets online at www.paradoxplayers.org or phone 512-744-1495 for reservations.

Searching for Eden features actors Matt Gauck as Adam and Marsha Sray as Eve.

Annie, Plum & Blueberry Casts, Georgetown Palace Theatre, December 23

I brought six family members to see Annie on December 23 and all were delighted.

This wasn't the same show that ALT reviewed on November 28. Director Mary Ellen Butler and the Georgetown Palace team chose to maximize participation and presentation for their end-of-2009 holiday production. Leading roles were double- or triple-cast and ensemble roles were double-cast, resulting in a complicated mosaic for the 106 actors and the 40+ support staff. Rehearsals, tech runs and coordination must have required logistics approaching those of the launch of the space shuttle.

On opening weekend I saw Principal Cast Mango led by Lana Roff as Annie and Dana Barnes as Oliver Warbucks, supported by Ensemble Cast Strawberry. Two days before Christmas we saw Principal Cast Plum led by Adele Simms and Jerry Garrett, supported by Ensemble Cast Blueberry.

My regret is that due to family events and other December happenings I didn't get to see Principal Cast Kiwi, led by Brittany Macy as Annie.

The December 23 Plum/Blueberry performance had lots of zing. The cast presented the story, song and musical numbers with the assurance born of winning the hearts of previous audiences. They were having a good time and we were having a good time with them.

Sixth grader Adele Simms gave us an Annie with bounce, sincerity and just the right amount of sass. Simms knew her laugh lines and set them up precisely, acting with confidence with players three times her age or older. Jerry Garett's Warbucks was a bit sterner than that of his counterpart Dana Barnes and crafted the musical component of the role with greater precision.

A favorite among the supporting roles was Diego A. Flores doing smarmy radio announcer Bert Healy and FDR's Secretary of State Cordell Hull -- can we see this exuberantly self-confident performer again sometime in the future? Marsha Sray played the droll villainess Mrs. Hannigan with fine New York accent and the swagger and smirk of a Jean Harlow. William Diamond as the tap-dancing butler Drake had the flair and comedy of a nose-in-the-air character out of Dr. Seuss. He got a good laugh with his audibly disgusted announcement to Warbucks of the mendacious couple "Mr. and Mrs. M-u-d-g-e" but couldn't resist running the gag again a minute later.

Seeing Annie for a second time I was struck by the imagination and flair of its design elements. Those included the striking quasi-Art-Deco projections in black and yellow of New York cityscapes, certainly by season graphic designer Barb Jernigan; the convincing contrast between the prison-like orphanage set played on the apron and the two-story Warbucks mansion revealed behind it; and, particularly, the sweep and flourish of the costumes, done in multiple changes for the 106 actors by Ramona Haass and Ronni Prior of A Cut Above costumes in Round Rock.

In sum, Annie succeeded in grand style. This many-shows-in-one production extended participation of artists, technicians and audience, sent us away happy for the holidays, and anchored the Georgetown Palace yet again as a community service and leading Austin-area production house.

Talking With by Jane Martin, North by Northwest Theatre Company at the City Theatre, October 9 - 18

The solo monologue is one of the purest demonstrations of the art. These six women come individually to you in the intimacy and immediacy of the City Theatre's small house. In each scene the actress takes that text with your complicity and, before your eyes, becomes the character.

"Jane Martin" is probably a pseudonym for Jon Jory, who has directed all of her ten plays. The mysterious Jane has never been seen. She twice won the American Theatre Critics' award for a new play and was nominated for a Pulitzer prize. Jory simply declines to discuss the matter -- perhaps a ploy, perhaps an artist's staking out the liberty to explore his feminine side.

Because each of these characters is vividly, irrevocably female. Michelle Cheney as the actress finishing her makeup as "fifteen minutes!" to curtain time is called; Renee Brown as the housewife who escapes daily reality; Wendy Zavaleta as a daughter grieving the death of her otherwise indomitable mother; Jennifer Coy as a brash auditioner perfectly willing to use blackmail; B.J. Machalicek as a dreamer at McDonald's; and Marsha Sray as a girl explaining the meaning of baton twirling.

That's just the first act.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Talking With, North by Northwest Theatre Company at City Theatre, October 9 - 18

Click for ALT review, October 13

From NxNW Theatre Company:

Talking With

by Jane Martin
directed by Joni McClain
October 9 - 18

A young woman tests her faith by handling poisonous snakes. A destitute woman longs to live in McDonald’s where the sick are cured by Big Macs. A housewife makes a daily escape to the magical land of Oz. Pulitzer nominated playwright Jane Martin gives us the provocative and heartfelt stories of these and other women who are ostracized by the American dream. Talking With is a powerful show, both funny and sad, that examines courage, awaking from complacency and the value of eccentricity. Starring Renee Brown, Michelle Cheney, Jennifer Coy, BJ Machalicek, Marsha Sray and Wendy Zavaleta.

October 9 - 18
Eight Performances Only!
Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat at 8:00, Sun at 2:00
Tickets $20, $18 students/seniors
The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd

Hay Fever by Noël Coward, North by Northwest Theatre Company at the City Theatre, May 22 - June 7

Bernadette Nason sparkles like pink champagne in this amusing, silly piece written by "the master" Noël Coward when he was a mere boy of 25.

Hay Fever lightly chronicles the start of a weekend at a country house near London, property of the Bliss family -- David is a novelist, Judith is an actress who recently said her adieux to the London stage and their children Simon and Sorel have no identifiable professions or preoccupations.

They all have artistic temperaments and a cheerful disregard for social niceties. As Sorel says to her brother in the first scene, "You're right about us being slapdash, Simon. I wish we weren't." His reply: "It's not our fault -- it's the way we've been brought up."

That impulsiveness and disregard applies to relations within the family, as well.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

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