Upcoming: Morning's at Seven by Paul Osborne, Different Stages at the Vortex Repertory, November 19 - December 11

Received directly:

Different Stages opens its 2010–2011 season with Paul Osborn’s comedy

Morning’s at Seven

November 19 - December 11
at the Vortex Repertory, 2307 Manor Road

This story is about the intertwined relationships and long standing sibling rivalries of the four aging Gibbs sisters. Three of them have lived next door to one another for fifty years and the eldest sister lives only a few blocks away. Living so close has taken its toll. The quiet lives these women share with their husbands start to come unhinged when some of them begin to question what to do with their remaining years. Tensions rise when Ida’s 40–year–old son brings his fiancé of 12 years to the house for the first time. A story about growing old, growing up, and letting go.

Directed by Karen Jambon (Eurydice), Morning’s at Seven features Jennifer Underwood (The Carpetbagger’s Children), Lana Dieterich (Vigil), Bobbie Oliver (Spider’s Web) and Kathleen Lawson (On Golden Pond) as the four Gibb sisters. Playing the three husbands are Michael Hankin (The Skin of Our Teeth), Richard Craig (Lettice and Lovage), and San Damon (Spider’s Web). Playing Ida’s son and his fiancé are Jonathan Urso (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and Anne Hulsman (The Carpetbagger’ss Children).

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. There is no performance on Thanksgiving, Thursday November 25. Added performance on Wednesday December 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, and $30. For tickets and information call 478-5282.

New Images for Ongoing: The Skin of Our Teeth, Different Stages at the Vortex Repertory, November 13 - December 5

Images by Brett Brookshire, received directly.

AustinLiveTheatre recommends The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, playing Thursdays - Sundays at the Vortex until December 5.

Shown: Andrew Matthews, Chloe Edmonson and Bobbie Oliver as the Antrobus family.

Click for ALT review.

View more images at
AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, Different Stages at the Vortex, November 13 - December 5

Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth is 67 years old but it plays as if it had been written and workshopped last week by one of those Austin indie arts groups of which we are so proud.

It's wild stuff --a history of humankind as embodied by the Antrobus family, with a mad mix-up of times, epic figures, surreal settings and primal myths. Refract that story through the lens of a dramatic structure that the author and actors keep yanking out from under you, dress it up with Lowell Bartholomee's videos, and live with the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

Wilder wasn't shy about announcing the epic proportions of this tragicomedy. The family's last name is "Antrobus" -- a label that shouts "human being" or "humankind," derived from the Greek άνθρωπος ("anthropos" -- as in, for example, "anthropology").

Your first act is located in an apparently modern New Jersey, except that it's not modern -- the Ice Age is encroaching.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, Different Stages at Vortex Repertory, November 13 - December 5

Received directly:

Different Stages presents
Thornton Wilder’s

The Skin of Our Teeth

November 13 – December 5, 2009
The Vortex, 2307 Manor Road (map)

Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.
No Performance on Thanksgiving Day, November 26
Added performance Wednesday, December 2

Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30

Different Stages opens its 2009–2010 season with Thornton Wilder’s comedy The Skin of Our Teeth. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this is the satiric story of the extraordinary Antrobus family down through the ages from the time of the war – any war. They have survived flood, fire, pestilence, the seven year locusts, the ice age, the pox and the double feature, a dozen wars and as many depressions. Ultimately bewitched, befuddled and becalmed, they are the stuff of which heroes and buffoons are made. Their survival is a wacky testament of faith in humanity.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Good Things by Liz Lochhead, Renaissance Austin at the Vortex Repertory

Scottish toffee comes to mind when thinking of this U.S. premiere of Good Things by contemporary Scottish dramatist Liz Lochhead. Sweet, chewy, rich and surprising, made with sugar, butter, Tate & Lyle's golden syrup and just a dash of vinegar. You can find recipes on line.

Unlike English toffee, Good Things has no nuts. The characters are ordinary folk, for the most part, except maybe for Scottish Doris who haunts the "Good Things" thrift shop in search of the perfect bargain.

The shop resembles an OXFAM thrift shop, a British institution similar to our own Good Will stores, accepting donations for re-sale, to benefit charity. Pert young manageress Marjorie (Angela Loftus) enforces the rules, admonishing her volunteers Susan and Fraser that no donation, however attractive, may be purchased by staff members until it has sat on the shelf for six weeks.

This rule is the basis for one of the show's running jokes. Red-haired, 51-year-old recently divorced Susan, played by Lorella Loftus, falls in love with a pair of extravagant red shoes. She and Fraser plot at length to keep the shoes away from potential buyers, going so far as to hide one of the pair.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Good Things by Liz Lochhead, Renaissance Austin at the Vortex, June 12 - 27

UPDATE: Click for ALT review of Good Things, June 18



Found at NowPlayinginAustin.com:


Renaissance Austin and Vortex Repertory Company present

Good Things

by Liz Lochhead
June 12 - June 27

Renaissance Austin Theatre in association with VORTEX Repertory Company presents the U.S. Premiere of Liz Lochhead's romantic comedy, Good Things, directed by Karen Jambon.

“Liz Lochhead’s delightful new play is as funny, as touching, and yet as emotionally true as anything this supremely humane writer has yet produced” ---London Times

Good Things is a deliciously light romantic comedy recently penned by one of Scotland's finest literary award-winning female playwrights, Liz Lochhead (Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Medea).

Newly-divorced 40-something Oxfam volunteer Susan has finally settled on life as a single parent when a series of chance encounters and a procession of colorful characters turn her quiet life upside down . . . Witty, whimsical, funny and poignant, there is someone for everyone in this delightfully humane play.

Good Things stars Lorella Loftus, Craig Kanne, Michael Hankin, and Angela Loftus. The design team includes David DeMaris, Elaine Jacobs, Patrick Anthony, Andy Agne, Jonathan Urso, and Adam Gunderson.

Tickets: $10-$30
Info Phone: 512-478-LAVA
June 12-June 27, 2009, 8 p.m.
The VORTEX
2307 Manor Road Austin, TX 78722