(*) 2014-2015 Theatre Season at Playhouse San Antonio

Playhouse season focuses on women

By Deborah Martin : January 9, 2014

The Playhouse San Antonio is starting the new year by looking ahead to next season.

The theater's 2014-'15 season focuses heavily on women, featuring several pieces written by female playwrights, including a world premiere, and a number of juicy roles for actresses.


Here's the lineup for the Russell Hill Rogers stage upstairs:

The Wizard of Oz, Oct. 3-Nov. 2: Odds are, you know the story — tornado-displaced Dorothy tries to make her way home — as well as the music, including “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” and “Over the Rainbow.”

Fiddler on the Roof, Dec. 5-22: Patrons frequently request the musical, said Playhouse President and CEO Asia Ciaravino. It follows a family in a time of transition, as the parents cleave to tradition and their daughters start to venture into a changing world.

Gypsy, Feb. 13-March 15: The musical is based on the childhood of burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, who was raised by a stage parent who went by the handle Mama Rose.

Drood (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), May 29-June 21: The musical is based on Charles Dickens' unfinished novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” The audience determines the ending.

Grease, July 17-Aug. 16: The final audience fave of the upstairs season looks at the greasers and their gals at Rydell High in 1959.

Sheila Rinear (via Express-News)

And here's what the Cellar Theater lineup holds:

End of the Rainbow, Oct. 10-Nov. 2: The piece, which looks at Judy Garland's final days, will run concurrently with “Wizard of Oz,” Ciaravino said. The film version of “Wizard” helped establish Garland's place as a pop culture superstar, so offering the two shows will allow audiences to explore her work from two perspectives.

Merry Gentlemen, Dec. 11-14: San Antonio-based playwright Sheila Rinear will spend this year working with students and community members to develop this piece, a holiday-themed work that will premiere in the Cellar.

The Last Five Years, Jan. 30-Feb. 22: Jason Robert Brown's musical about the end of a relationship is built around a nifty gimmick: The wife tells her version of events beginning at the end and moving backward through time, while her soon-to-be-ex-husband tells things in chronological order.

Crime and Punishment, March 13-April 5: Marilyn Campbell's and Curt Columbus' script boils the Dostoyevsky novel into a taut 90 minutes.

4000 Miles, May 15-June 7: Amy Herzog's play is about a young man who suffers a loss and recovers by moving in with his 91-year-old grandmother.

Water by the Spoonful, July 3-26: Quiara Alegría Hudes's Pulitzer Prize winning drama is about an Iraqi war veteran trying to forge a life for himself stateside.

In addition, plans are afoot for Motherhood Out Loud, a Vagina Monologues-like look at parenting; it's slated to run May 8-10. Ciaravino is making plans to present it away from The Playhouse. The production will be a fundraiser for the theater's education programs.


dlmartin@express-news.net

Auditions in San Antonio for Funny Girl, musical by Jule Style, Playhouse San Antonio, February 10 and 11, 2014

Auditions for Funny Girl, the musical by Jule Styne, Bob Merrill and Isobel Lennart, from an original story by Miss Lennart

Directed by Rick Sanchez, Music Directed by Andrew Hendley, Choreographed by Carla Sankey

Ziegfeld Follies girl Fanny Brice reflects on her rise from being Henry Street’s beloved girl next door to an American vaudeville legend.

Auditions by appointment only at Russell Hill Rogers Theater (click for map) Monday, February 10, 2014, 6:00-10:00 p.m. OR Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 6:00-10:00 p.m.

Click HERE to request an audition appointment.

(via Playhouse San Antonio)

Actors should prepare a comedic/character monologue and 32 bars of a song (preferably from a musical, pre-1980s). Please bring 1 copy each of your headshot and resume.

Callbacks by invitation only on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

All roles available. Looking for strong character actors that can sing and move well. Looking for actors that are 18 or older.
Rehearsals will begin in April and continue through tech week, last rehearsal on June 5. No conflicts will be allowed two weeks before opening. There will be some rehearsal breaks for Fiesta and Easter.

Performances at Russell Hill Rogers Theater, June 6-29, 2014, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m.; Sunday, June 29 at 3:00 & 8:00 p.m.

Click to view character descriptions and voice ranges at CTXLT.com

Texas Public Radio feature: Venus in Fur by David Ives, Playhouse San Antonio, January 24 - February 9, 2014

in San Antonio

'Venus In Fur,' The Playhouse's Sexy And Cerebral Show That's Not For The Kids


by Jack Morgan

Click to listen to audio version at Texas Public Radio

The Playhouse is about to begin a play that is raising a few eyebrows because of what the play is about.


"'Venus in Fur' is a play adaptation by David Ives of the novel published first in German in 1870 by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch," said John O’Neil, who directs the production.


But there’s no getting around it, the show is about sex.


"Sexy, erotic, sensuous, but not trashy, if that makes any sense," O’Neil said.


And while eros plays a real role here, there’s no nudity in the play. But O'Neil did say there is plenty of humor.


"I think it’s incredibly funny," he said. "So you have this modern comedy set within the confines of this 1870 very serious, very, almost melodramatic novel. I think the play asks has that much really changed in sexual politics or how we wield power in any two-person relationship."


It’s a play-within-a-play, wherein its two cast members play a total of six characters. O'Neil raves about his actors.


"I’m sorry if I can’t rave enough about Michael Holly and Kaycie Griffin," he said. "I fell in love with both of them at auditions and I love them even more now because they are two excellent actors who really get the essence."


From his description, there’s a lot going on and a much of that isn’t so much physical as mental. And O’Neil’s throws in this tantalizing tidbit of info:


"And at the end of the play there is a victor…but I think I’ll withhold that."


That and Lou Reed’s connection to the play will only be revealed by going.

(*) Video Promo: Venus in Fur by David Ives, Playhouse San Antonio, January 24 - February 9, 2014

Posted at the Playhouse San Antonio YouTube channel:

(photo by Siggi Ragnar, video by Rick Sanchez)

Click to go to Playhouse San Antonio website for tickets

(*) Playhouse San Antonio Invites Applications for Unpaid Internships

Madeleine Garcia and Gabriella Melendez (Playhouse San Antonio)

Our interns are going to take over the world! Want to be a Playhouse intern? Apply today for the Spring! www.theplayhousesa.org/internship-application.

(*) Guys and Dolls, musical by Swerling, Burrows and Loesser, Playhouse San Antonio, December 6 - 22, 2013

(www.theplayhousesa.org)

by Michael Meigs

Broadway! The 1930's! Folks like Arthur Freed and Busby Berkley portrayed that fairytale sophistication in the black-and-white films they cranked out of Hollywood, but an even more magical version came from the typewriter of Damon Runyon, the sportswriter, gambler, drunk and divinely gifted portraitist of the demi-monde of Broadway. 

Runyon knew those people intimately and his colorful prose was laden with slang and surprising turns of phrase often inherited from Yiddish. His writing portrayed a gallery of hustling lowlifes with hearts of gold and a stubborn attachment to their own odd notions of honor. He specialized in short stories with unexpected endings, a bit like those of O. Henry, but his were all written in the immediacy of the present tense, like anecdotes told over a couple of beers. Few read Runyon these days, and that's their loss.

His semi-fictitious creations live on in movies -- twenty films have retold his stories -- and plays, including Guys and Dolls. This light-hearted musical brings together two extremes of New York life: the crap-shooting, horse-betting gamblers and the uniformed Salvation Army staff with drum, trombone, kettle and their message of reform and a better life. Nathan Detroit is the small-potatoes organizer of the "longest established floating crap game in the City of New York," and Miss Sarah Brown is the uniformed Salvation Army sergeant heading the scarcely attended 49th Street Mission.

As in Runyon's fiction, these gamblers aren't real criminals; they're dreamers and grifters, perhaps with a inclination to a simple con, but I am telling you that they are in all ways sincere. Their markers -- should you be uninformed, those are their promises to pay, upon their honor -- are regarded with a seriousness not to be neglected or surpassed.

I am quick to say that the Playhouse production of Guys and Dolls does not entirely stick to the 1930s view of these denizens of the metropolis, but director and choreographer Michelle Pietri puts a robust and very masculine set of guys before you to scheme, avoid John Law and pitch the woo to dolls who are in my estimation most acceptable representatives of the female of the species.

Paige Blend as Miss Adelaide (photo: Siggi Ragnar)Putting aside the Runyonisms for the moment, there are two absolute standouts in this large cast, performers with total concentration and the gift of delivering their characters with special grace and style. 

 Paige Blend is Miss Adelaide, the woeful nightclub songstress left waiting for the altar for 14 years while Nathan Detroit attends to business. She has presence, voice, quickness in detail and the vivacity of a true comedienne. She's got some of best numbers in the show -- "Adelaide's Lament" about allergies caused by a continuing lack of matrimony, her duos "Sue Me" with Nathan Detroit (Miguel Ochoa) and "Marry the Man Today" with Miss Sarah Brown (Caroline Kittrell). She completely inhabits the persona of that not-too-bright but ever-so-sincere character. Her two nightclub numbers with the Hot Box Girls -- "A Bushel and a Peck" and "Take Back Your Mink" -- are adorable.

J.J. Gonzalez as Bennie Southstreet, a minor adjunct to Nicely-Nicely Johnson (chunky comedian Gerardo Vallejo) is the other. Bennie is written as a simple foil to a second banana, a handy harmonizer and straight man. But Gonzalez is intent every second we see him, reacting subtly to events around him. In a way, he represents us, the audience to the events of the play. In the key scene of the second act where the gamblers reluctantly attend a Salvation Army all-night revival meeting Director Pietri made the right choice to put him at center stage on the bench end closest to the audience.

 Robert Nauman, Gerardo Vallejo, J.J. Gonzalez (photo: Siggi Ragnar)

Read more at Central Texas Live Theatre. . . .

Wittenberg by David Davalos, black box at Playhouse San Antonio, November 1 - 17, 2013

by Michael Meigs

There's some wickedly clever entertainment taking place down in the cellar of Playhouse San Antonio, where playwright-actor David Davalos is doing saucy stand-up comedy set in early 16th century Germany.

In the second scene of Hamlet, Claudius the new king informs the prince, "For your intent in going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire." That university in Saxony, nearly a century old when Shakespeare was writing, was reputed in Elizabeth's Protestant England both for learning and for the years of dramatic controversies that began there with Martin Luther's public challenge to the Pope Leo X's approval of the practice of selling forgiveness. The Holy Father's indulgence in indulgences was a funding mechanism for rebuilding St. Peter's in Rome.

David Davalos (photo: Siggi Ragnar)

Davalos takes that rich set of circumstances and adds another element. What if that other great symbolic figure Dr. Faustus was on the Wittenberg faculty at the same time?

Imagining Wittenberg as a late medieval version of an American-style university, Davalos puts Faustus on the philosophy faculty, devoted to independent inquiry, presents Martin Luther as a somber senior lecturer in theology, and portrays the undergraduate Hamlet as indecisive, moody, and something of a slacker. And so the fun begins.

Read more at CTXLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Video Promo: Guys and Dolls by Loesser and Lowe, Playhouse San Antonio, December 6 - 22, 2013

Video promo for Guys and Dolls at Playhouse San Antonio, December 6 - 22, 2013, from Grande Communications (30 sec.)

Guys and Dolls
Directed by Michelle Pietri
Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
December 6 – 22, 2013
Shows Thursday (December 12 & 19), Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. & Sundays at 3 p.m. & 8 p.m.(December 22).

The Playhouse SA | 800 West Ashby, San Antonio, TX 78212 (click for map)

Tickets: Adults - $25, Seniors (60 plus), Emergency Services, and Military w/ ID - $20, Students w/ ID - $15, Children (12 and under) - $10.

The stakes are high in this vibrant family classic as two gamblers bet their way toward the oldest established, permanent floating crap game in town… and love.

Call 210-733-7258 or visit www.ThePlayhouseSA.org for tickets

This talented cast includes:

Sky Masterson- Chris Berry -- Sarah Brown- Caroline Kittrell -- Nathan Detroit- Miguel Ochoa -- Miss Adelaide- Paige Blend

Video: Director Bill Gundry discusses Wittenberg by David Davalos, Playhouse San Antonio, November 1 - 17, 2013

Video: Conversation with director Bill Gundry about

production of

Wittenberg

by David Davalos

November 1 - 17, 2013

This witty, anachronistic whirlwind, beautifully penned by local playwright David Davalos, tackles weighty subjects such as religion, philosophy, and literature. Wittenberg is a delightfully irreverent text which introduces audiences to just what (and whom!) made Hamlet the man he is today.

Auditions in San Antonio for Venus in Fur by David Ives, Playhouse San Antonio, November 4, 2013

Auditions for Venus in Fur by David Ives, directed by John O'Neill, BY APPOINTMENT ONLY on Monday, November 4, 2013 at the Cellar Theater, Playhouse San Antonio. Appoints available beginning at 6:00 p.m. Click Here to request an audition appointment. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to appointment to check in.Call backs BY INVITATION ONLY Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.


No prepared material is required. Actors should expect cold readings in pairs or small groups. Sides provided. Bring 1 headshot and resume.

Actors are stongly advised to read the play prior to auditions. The Playhouse will not provide copies for perusal. Ladies: Vanda will be wearing nothing but bra, panties, and garter belt on stage at times during this production. By auditioning, you are consenting to these costume requirements.

Performances at Cellar Theater, January 24-February 9, 2014, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m. AND 8:00 p.m.

Characters

Thomas: Male, 30-ish, up-and-coming writer/director with high standards for himself and his work. Very intelligent, entitled, tortured, and masculine. Must be able to portray the character in the play he is directing (a 19th century Austrian aristocrat obsessed with his maid).

Vanda: Female, mid-20s, actress who seems ditzy but is actually very intelligent and manipulative. Highly charismatic and sexual. Must be able to switch from “flighty actress” to seductive goddess on a dime.

(*) LES MISERABLES, Playhouse San Antonio, October 3 - November 3, 2013

 
 presents

Les Misérables

Book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

directed by Tim Hedgepeth

Choreographed by Lizel Sandoval

Music Direction by Andrew Hendley

Sponsored in part by HEB

October 3 – November 3, 2013 | Shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 P.M. & Sunday at 3:00 P.M.

The Playhouse SA | 800 West Ashby, San Antonio, TX 78212 - CLICK FOR MAP

TICKETS: Adults - $25, Seniors (60 plus), Emergency Services, and Military w/ ID - $20, Students w/ ID - $15, Children (12 and under) - $10.

The Playhouse will be presenting Les Misérables, Victor Hugo’s epic tale of redemption masterfully told through the robust and moving score of one of the world’s most acclaimed musicals.
“More than its epic sweep and pageantry, more than its glorious musical score and colorful characters, I love Les Miserables because it remains true to Victor Hugo’s novel by reminding me of our capacity for love, courage, and redemption.” – Director Tim Hedgepeth

Call 210-733-7258 or visit www.ThePlayhouseSA.org for tickets

This talented cast includes:
Jean Valjean – Jason Mosher
Javert – Jesse Enderle
Marius– Trevor Chauvin
Cosette – Constanza Eileen
Eponine – Carlye Gossen


(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Jobs & Opportunities in San Antonio at the Playhouse

Join our Playhouse San Antonio team!

Box Office Attendant/House Manager: The Playhouse San Antonio is seeking 2 friendly, outgoing individuals to join our Front of House team as Box Office Attendants and House Managers. Candidates will have customer service experience, a professional demeanor (both in person and on the phone), and excellent organizational skills as well as a keen attention to detail and a passion for making every patron’s experience pleasant, convenient, and efficient.

Experience & Requirements

• Computer proficiency required including an intimate working knowledge of all applications in the Microsoft Office Suite
• Background in theatre or performing arts highly preferred but not required
• Box office experience including box office software experience preferred but not required
• Must be able to maintain a professional demeanor in a fast-paced work environment
• Must be able to communicate effectively with patrons and colleagues in order to answer patron questions, problem solve, and continue to create a pleasant environment.
• Experience completing financial transactions and inventory tracking highly preferred.
• Hours vary with performance schedule. Evenings and weekends required.

Apply today! Email your résumé with cover letter to Box Office Manager Shannon Bishop at sbishop@theplayhousesa.org. No phone calls, please.

Designers: Set, Lighting, and Costume Designers are needed for shows in the The Playhouse Russell Hill Rogers and Cellar Theaters for shows this season and next. Designers are contracted on a show-by-show basis. Please submit resume and photographic samples of your work or drawings to info@theplayhousesa.org or mail to The Playhouse San Antonio, P.O. Box 12356, San Antonio, TX 78212. No phone calls please.

Music Directors: Music Directors are needed at The Playhouse for upcoming and future shows. Music directors are contracted for each individual show. Please submit a resume to info@theplayhousesa.org or mail to The Playhouse San Antonio, P.O. Box 12356, San Antonio, TX 78212. No phone calls please.

800 West Ashby | P.O. Box 12356 San Antonio, TX 78212 | Office: 210-733-7258 | Fax: 210-734-2651 | Box Office: 210-733-7258

Auditions in San Antonio for Wittenberg by David Davalos, Playhouse San Antonio, September 9, 2013

Playhouse San Antonio auditions for Wittenbergby David Davalos,Directed by Tony Ciaravino



Auditions BY APPOINTMENT ONLY at the Cellar Theater, Playhouse San Antonio, 800 West Ashby at San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio, (click for map) on Monday, September 9, 2013, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to appointment to check in.



Prepared Material Required: Monologue, classical or contemporary, Expect cold readings; Bring 1 copy of headshot and resume to audition.



Performances will be at the Cellar Theater, November 1-17, 2013, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.




This witty, anachronistic whirlwind, beautifully penned by local playwright David Davalos, tackles weighty subjects such as religion, philosophy, and literature. Wittenberg is a delightfully irreverent text which introduces audiences to just what (and whom!) made Hamlet the man he is today.




The following roles are available:
 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a senior, major undecided -male, age 20-30 and  
The Eternal Feminine (Gretchen-a working girl, Helen-a lady of pleasure, Mary the Mother of God, Lady Voltemand-an ambassador) -female, age 20-30

Auditions in San Antonio for Guys and Dolls, Playhouse San Antonio, September 7 and 8, 2013

Playhouse San Antonio auditions for Guys & Dolls, Book by Jo Swerline andAbe Burrows,Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser,Based on The Idyll of Sarah Brown and charactersby Damon Runyon, 

Directed and Choreographed by Michelle Pietri, Music Directed by Joshua Pepper

Auditions MUST SUBMIT AUDITION FORM BY 6:00 P.M. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

 Auditions at Russell Hill Rogers Theater - click for map Saturday, September 7, 2013 -- Required Dance Call at 12:00 p.m. with individual vocal auditions to follow
OR Sunday, September 8, 2013, Required Dance Call at 1:00 p.m., with individual vocal auditions to follow

Please arrive 15 minutes early to check in. Audition numbers assigned in order of form submission. Individuals will not be seen if they have not submitted audition form and materials by 6:00 p.m. on September 6, 2013. PLEASE NOTE: It is at the Director's discretion to invite individuals directly to callbacks.

Prepared Material Required: 16 bars of a song, preferably from a musical PLEASE NO MUSIC FROM GUYS & DOLLS. Dance attire needed for dance call.. Bring 1 copy of headshot and resume to audition

Callbacks BY INVITATION ONLY, Saturday, September 14, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

Rehearsals may begin as early as October 6, 2013, and typically run Sunday-Thursday

Performances at Russell Hill Rogers Theater, December 6-22, 2013, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Thursdays, December 12 & 19 at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, December 22 at 3:00 & 8:00 p.m.

The stakes are high in this vibrant family classic as two gamblers bet their way toward the oldest established, permanent floating crap game in town...and love.. All roles available.

Character descriptions and details may be found here.

(*) LES MISERABLES, Playhouse San Antonio, October 3 - November 3, 2013

(Playhouse San Antonio, 800 West Ashby at San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio)

presents

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

(*) Profile of Playhouse San Antonio and 'Ragtime' by Leezia Dahlain, The Rivard Report, August 9, 2013

 
For The San Pedro Playhouse, The Show Must Go On

Posted on August 9th, 2013
By Leezia Dhalla

(Photo: Gregg Eckhardt)

In San Antonio, theater is thriving. With more than a dozen venues dedicated to the performing arts, the city is steadily becoming known as one of Texas’s most colorful havens for the premier theatrical experience.

Responsibility for boosting the local arts reputation belongs in part to The San Pedro Playhouse, the oldest municipally built theater in the United States.

Situated in picturesque San Pedro Springs Park, The Playhouse opened its doors just 90 days after the 1929 crash of the stock market with a performance of Ferenc Molnar’s “The Swan.” It continues to be an important piece of the performing arts puzzle in San Antonio more than 90 years later, with a slew of educational programs that offer hands-on internships and on-site training classes in auditioning, stage combat, choreography and improv, among others.

The theater has grown to serve more than 50,000 people through various educational outreach programs, performances, events and classes.

In her first year as president and CEO, Asia Ciaravino has breathed new life into the venue. In addition to updating the theater’s social media and branding efforts, Ciaravino retooled the education programming into the likes of a conservatory, where students can learn the practicalities of equity, contracts and cattle-call auditions as professional actors in the working world.

The Playhouse also continues to donate production tickets to thousands of students each year, especially at schools where theater programs are being eliminated due to budget constraints.

“Our thrust is in building communities and education. I feel like we’re at the point of exploding because there’s so much happening and so many good things going on in the community,” Ciaravino said. “(I’m glad) we’re able to do so much outreach. On a community level we really impact children and adults, and that’s what theater, in my mind, is supposed to do.”

Read more at The Rivard Report . . . .

(*) Ragtime Cast Offers Student Talk-back, Playhouse San Antonio, July 28, 2013

Following the Playhouse San Antonio performance on Sunday afternoon, July 28:

Click image for more information and tickets

(*) PLAYHOUSE SAN ANTONIO BALL, September 20, 2013

(Playhouse San Antonio, 800 West Ashby at San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio)

presents

September 20, 2013 at 6:00pm
Russell Hill Rogers Theater

Black-tie optional

Come kick off our 2013-2014 Season with the premier event in San Antonio theatre! With a surprise sneak-peek at the upcoming season, lobby entertainment, and drinks provided by some of San Antonio’s hottest bars, The Playhouse Ball is not to be missed.

Tickets start at just $125! Purchase yours here!

Sponsor the Ball! Click here to select your level of sponsorship online or email sponsortheball@theplayhousesa.org!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

(*)Deobrah Martin Reports: Storm Damage at Playhouse San Antonio Forces Friday Cancellation, San Antonio Express-News

Report by Deborah Martin on her arts blog at the San Antonio Express-News:

 

Storm damage claims another ‘Spring Awakening’ performance

Posted on 05/29/2013 by Deborah Martin

Days after last weekend’s storm, the Playhouse is still drying out and coping with the damage. It has also had to cancel a third performance of “Spring Awakening.”


The storm sent chunks of plaster from the ceiling plummeting to the seats in the Russell Hill Rogers theater upstairs sometime late Friday or early Saturday (May 24 or 25), said Playhouse CEO and President Asia Ciaravino.


“The plaster that’s on the ceiling has been saturated with water,” Ciaravino said. “When that plaster is wet, it dissolves. ”

Chunks of plaster fell onto seats in the Russell Hill Rogers theater at the Playhouse. Photo courtesy of Asia Ciaravino

There was also standing water in the theater. And so, every piece of electrical equipment in the space — and it’s a lot of stuff, given that “Spring Awakening” is a high-tech show — had to be unplugged and stashed in the lobby. That included everything in the orchestra pit.

“We had a structural engineer come in from the city — we had a lot of people come today (May 29) to assess it. And we are structurally sound,” Ciaravino said.

Hot air is being pumped into the Russell Hill Rogers theater to dry it out after last weekend’s storm. Photo courtesy of Asia Ciaravino

But it will take a few more days to dry out the space, clean everything up and re-install all of that equipment, she said. And she doesn’t expect to get the “all clear” from the city until sometime Friday afternoon.

And so, Friday’s (May 31) performance had to be cancelled. Instead, once the theater gets the OK that the space is useable, the cast, crew and musicians will use that night as a rehearsal. They will have been away from the show for a week — all but one of last weekend’s shows were cancelled due to the storm damage. They’ll also use that time to make sure that all of the tech equipment is ship-shape.


“The city (which owns the building) is going to be working on funding the repairs for this, which we are so grateful for,” Ciaravino said.


The situation does illustrate the need for an endowment fund to cover maintenance for the building, she said.

“This is an old building; there’s always going to be a need for repairs,” she said. “Lets say the air conditioning goes out. We don’t have the reserve that we need to be able to pay for those things.


“It’s constantly a struggle. But it’s worth it.”


The theater is creating a fund — called (what else?) Can’t Rain on Our Parade — to help offset costs of the storm damage, including clean-up. Information will be posted on the Playhouse Web site.

(*) A Celebration of the Life of Mary Denman, Playhouse San Antonio, June 1 at 1:30 p.m.

A Musical Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Mary Denman June 1st at 1:30 p.m. The Playhouse –Russell Hill Rogers Theater 800 West Ashby Place, San Antonio, TX 78212 Call 210-733-7258 with questions Please join us as we pay tribute to theatre advocate, radio legend, and beloved community member Mary Denman, in a musical celebration. Mary will be much missed at The Playhouse, where she served as President of the Board and Chair of the Restoration Committee. Without her tireless efforts, The Playhouse would not exist today. Although she loved The Playhouse, Mary truly belonged to the all of San Antonio’s theater community, having earned both the Alamo Theater Arts Council’s Jasmina Wellinghoff Award and the SATCO Living Legends Award for her work as actress, advocate, and fundraiser all over the city. We ask everyone whose life has been touched by this extraordinary woman to please celebrate her life and legacy with us on June 1st. Performers include Anna Gangai, Sherry Gibbs Houston, William Moll, Kimberly Bianco, Steven Bull, Elise Lopez, RC Thor, David Stone, Hon. Bonnie Reed Emcee: Byrd Bonner Stage Manager: Susan Breidenbach Music Director: Jane Haas MISSION: The Playhouse produces high quality live theatre that inspires, educates, and entertains audiences of all ages. Our passion is to connect our community to the world by telling stories that reveal the truth of the human experience.