THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL by Horton Foote, Hope Church at Monument Cafe, Georgetown September 12 - 14, 2013

Hope United Church, Agape Actors Co-Op and the legendary Monument Café of Georgetown
are joining forces to produce a dinner theatre production of the classic play

The Trip to Bountiful
by Horton Foote

September 12-14, 2013
as a benefit for Hope United Church and the Caring Place in Georgetown TX. 
Monument Cafe, 510 S. Austin St., Georgetown - click for map
Tickets are on sale now.

The Trip to Bountiful is staged by veteran director Olin Meadows who has directed recent productions of Steel Magnolias, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. The Production features Joan Baker as Mrs. Carrie Watts, the role that recently won Cicelll Tyson a Tony Award. Nicholas Mani, an alumnus of St. Edwards University and Summer Stock Austin joins in as Ludie Watts, the Son who is worried about his older mother. Rounding out the family is Ivah Marie Sorber, who was recently seen in her 7th production of the Vagina Monologues. Joining the cast is Austin theatre veterans Mindy Rast Keenan and R. Michael Clinkscales, along with Sun City actors Patrick McElhinney, and Chuck Schlewitt.

The production is being presented as dinner theatre featuring a fantastic and delicious buffet of home cooked food from The Monument café, the Gold winner of “Best of Georgetown” and has been featured on the Food Network and in Texas Monthly magazine. Monument Café features mostly organic vegetables which are locally grown, Kobe beef, and free range eggs.

Tickets range from 40.00 for VIP seating, 35.00 for General Admission and 30.00 for students and seniors, tickets are on sale now and are available online at






www.brownpapertickets.com/triptobountiful. 

For those who are uncomfortable with online purchasing they may contact Olin Meadows at 512-468-0610 or by email olin.meadows@gmail.com.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

AVENUE Q, Austin Theatre Project at the Dougherty Arts Center, May 30 - June 16, 2013

[Austin Theatre Project, performing at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd. - click for map]

presents


















    
Tickets $15 - $30 plus service fee at





 The Tony-winning musical AVENUE Q is the hilarious and heartfelt story of a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York with big dreams and little money. He can only afford to live on Avenue Q but (good news!) his neighbors turn out to be a remarkably funny bunch of characters.

Imagine an adult version of "Sesame Street," with the preschool banter replaced with irreverent songs such as "It Sucks to Be Me," "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "The Internet Is For Porn," and "If You Were Gay." But don't let the light-hearted melodies and adorable puppets fool you... This is NOT your child's favorite street!

STARRING: Michelle Alexander, Isaac Arrieta, Matthew Burnett, R. Michael Clinkscales, Marett Hanes, Rachel Hoovler, June Julian, Ashley Laverty, Eric Meo

DIRECTED BY: Marco Bazan
MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR: David Blackburn
LIGHTING DESIGN: Taylor Whitmire
SOUND DESIGN: Sam Kokojko
SET DESIGN: David Blackburn

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Event AVENUE Q The Tony-winning musical AVENUE Q is the hilarious and heartfelt story of a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York with big dreams and little money. He can only afford to live on Avenue Q but (good news!) his neighbors turn out to be a remarkably funny bunch of characters. Imagine an adult version of "Sesame Street," with the preschool banter replaced with irreverent songs such as "It Sucks to Be Me," "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "The Internet Is For Porn," and "If You Were Gay." But don't let the light-hearted melodies and adorable puppets fool you... This is NOT your child's favorite street! STARRING: Michelle Alexander Isaac Arrieta Matthew Burnett Rmichael Clinkscales Marett Hanes Rachel Hoovler June Julian Ashley Laverty Eric Meo DIRECTED BY: Marco Bazan MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR: David Blackburn LIGHTING DESIGN: Taylor Whitmire SOUND DESIGN: Sam Kokojko SET DESIGN: David Blackburn

Into The Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lepine, City Theatre, August 19 - September 17

This energetic and clever staging of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods confirms for me once again my belief that Austin's City Theatre offers the best entertainment value for money available in the area today.

Ours is an age of disclaimers, so let me be explicit, with a "claimer": I have been a fan of the City Theatre for more than two years. Andy Berkovsky and the artists working with him at the tidy little 85-seat theatre behind the Shell station at Airport Road and 38 1/2 street offer a season that is unmatched for its scope, variety and prices. The City Theatre offers a nine-play season ticket for two for only $150. You couldn't go to the movies for that.

I had acquired the CD of the 1987 original Broadway cast recording of Into The Woods, but this past weekend at the City Theatre I realized that only through performance can one appreciate the richness and complexity of the piece. The City's space gives Into The Woods the cozy intimacy appropriate for a work written as a chamber musical. Come early, so as to secure your seat in the closer rows, or pay a couple of dollars extra to reserve at second-row, center. You will be delighted by the proximity and vivid action.

The 18-member cast features both faces well known in regional musical theatre and newcomers. In Act I they weave for us a tapestry drawn from the familiar tales of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and Little Red Ridinghood. Librettist James Lapine uses the additional characters of a childless baker and his wife, figures drawn directly from the tradition of German folktales or Märchen, to bring all those stories together in the magic space of "the woods," where each is bent on an individual quest. They carom off one another in unexpected ways but by the end of Act I they've all achieved their Happily Ever Afters.

In Act II Sondheim and Lapine turn that tapestry over. Life goes on, to the characters' consternation. They face discoveries, unexpected consequences, delights, ennui, losses and disappointments. Fairy tale outcomes are undone, dissolved or turned rich and strange.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Laughter on the 23rd Floor, City Theatre, November 21 - December 20

There's no assembly more live-wire, unpredictable and funny than a room full of comedy writers. In Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, director Andy Berkovsky and a wild, accomplished cast mint anew the eccentrics of the early days of television.

Word has gotten around about this show, which opened in November, took a long weekend's break for Thanksgiving, and will now be on the boards until just before Christmas. I planned to slip in on a Thursday night, usually a quieter time for theatre venues. The parking lot was full, and so was the theatre. They might have benefited from holiday spirits, but word of mouth and favorable reviews probably had a lot to do with it.

This is Simon's tribute to the wild clan that wrote Sid Caesar's Show of Shows, the variety and sketch show that had a huge following in the early days of television. Caesar hired Simon and his brother Danny on the strength of comedy sketches they staged at Camp Tamiment, an adult summer camp in the Poconos. In the play the young writer Lucas Brickman, played by the affably sincere Keith Yawn, serves as narrator, chorus and stand-in for Simon.

Simon presents the eight writers as magnificent New York eccentrics, mostly Jewish and mostly with recent ties to Europe -- principally to Russia and Poland. The show program provides Simon's one-paragraph sketch of each. Wikipedia matches them to the real-life writers Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, playwright Michael Stewart, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Selma Diamond and Woody Allen and Dave Caesar, Sid's brother.

Read more, view images & videos at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, City Theatre, November 19 - December 20

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, December 13

UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at Austinist.com, December 10

UPDATE: Review by Barry Pineo in Austin Chronicle, December 10

UPDATE: Review by Rob Faubion at AustinOnStage, December 3

UPDATE: View production images received November 19

Received directly:

Ring in the holiday season
at City Theatre
with Neil Simon’s comedy of high jinks, good times and

Laughter on the 23rd Floor
directed by Andy Berkovsky

November 19 – December 20
Thursdays – Saturdays 8:00 p.m., Sundays 5:30 p.m.
City Theatre, Austin
Tickets $15 - $20. Guaranteed front row reserved seats $25. Students $12. Discounts available for groups and seniors. Thursdays, all seats $10.

If Broadway ever erects a monument to the patron saint of laughter, Neil Simon would have to be it. And The City Theatre Company is thrilled to announce the holiday run of his hilarious comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor, an autobiographical farce inspired by Simon’s own career churning out jokes for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he worked alongside of Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Larry Gelbart.

The comedy plays November 19 – December 20, Thursday through Sunday at The City Theatre.

Laughter introduces an assortment of zany and oddball writers, many based upon actual personalities, including Simon himself. The play chronicles the outrageous antics of The Max Prince Show, a 1953 variety show under the pressure of McCarthyism, censorship, and, of course, the egos and individuality of the writers themselves.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .