12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 24 - June 9, 2013

by Jessica M. Helmke and Michael Meigs


A View Inside Deciding

Decisions. We make them everyday. City Theatre's production of 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose gravely invited audience members to search for truth, as if they were jurors in the murder case.

Vividly depicted characters organized around a long wooden table wore their back stories on their sleeves, and actors balanced their portrayals against one another with the guarded cordiality of an intense game of poker.

This closed and sequestered group of twelve jurors touched on the diversity of all humanity, cornered into making a decision that could end a life. The cast answers an audience silently searching for reasons to establish reason for belief. 'Tell me why,' we star gazers ask when we fill the house. Watching events develop, we get our response, and the conclusion is satisfying and a job well done.

(photo: www.citytheatreaustin.org)

Presented simply, humbly and truthfully, this production is a celebration of Rose's script. Something powerful happens as this ensemble explores its relationship with the text, opening a door for the audience. This is lean, stripped-down acting, theatrical work that's basically artistic commentary about a script and a world that still merits performance today. Nearly 60 years after its first presentations as a 1954 teleplay, a 1955 play and a 1957 feature film, the dialogue is still creating an impact with the artists and the audience.

Rose's characters are so sharply differentiated that the exposition of these twelve personalities seemed like presentations by actors working in chosen styles or disciplines.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Video: Austin Live Theatre Talks with Half of the Jury, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 16 - June 11

for

City Theatre's



Twelve Angry Men
by Reginald Rose

directed by Karen Sneed
May 16 - June 9, 2013
Thursdays - Sunday

City Theatre, 3823 Airport Rd. (behind the Shell station) -- (click for map).

Click for additional show info and tickets, via www.citytheatreaustin.org

Austin Live Theatre interviews half the jury - Rick Felkins and Jim Lindsay, Michael Raines and Johnny Stewart, Brian Miller and Freddy Carnes - and asks them to describe the characters portrayed by the other actors. With some May 7 rehearsal scenes from Act 1. (8 min.)

TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose, City Theatre, May 16 - June 9, 2013

(3823 Airport Rd. at 38 1/2 St., behind the Shell station)



presents

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Georgetown Palace, April 1 - May 1

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is set in a mythic French Riviera, a delirious paradise that seems to be populated only by rich Americans, a couple of rival American con artists, and one charmingly corrupt French police chief. It's a concept that would make the French laugh out loud. Not that they don't have their own share of nutty cinematic visions, including le vieux Far West, but because this is Cannes as the returned GIs imagined it. Or Monte Carlo as described by Ian Fleming.

This story started out as the 1964 film Bedtime Story with David Niven as Lawrence, the urbane seducer who fooled American heiresses with his false identity as a displaced royal from eastern Europe, and with Marlon Brando as a younger hustler. Brando was willing to take Niven's tutelage, then competed with him in a bet to seduce a vulnerable looking sweet thing. The 1988 remake by Frank Oz Dirty Rotten Scoundrels featured Michael Caine and Steve Martin and followed the same lines. In 2005 Lane and Yazbek turned it into a musical with John Lithgow as the more sophisticated seducer. Oh, and that's not all -- back in 2008, Hollywood actor-writer-director Steve Pink announced that he was developing a treatment with MGM for a new version. That one may come out in 2012. The scoundrels will presumably be using i-Phones, tweeting and all that.

Why keep running this tale again and again?

Because it's an American male fantasy, for one thing -- living without a care, adored for one's sophistication, looks and title, enjoying wine, women and song, the decadent best of exotic Old Europe. Plus the fact that we enjoy seeing lightweight cons succeed, thanks to their wits, and we like it even more when the pair of rascals duel with one anonther.

The publicity and the poster label Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as being "for MATURE audiences," but those are code words for the fact that there will be some sexual innuendos and bathroom jokes that will make you giggle. The music keeps it lively and there's a movie-style twist and comeuppance at the end.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Night on the Red Carpet, Georgetown Palace Theatre, June 6

Received by e-mail:

The Georgetown Palace Theatre Events

A Night on the Red Carpet
The Georgetown Palace Theatre
Saturday June 6, 7:30 p.m

The Palace Theatre Guild announces a Gala show featuring Palace fan favorites performing various musical numbers from Oscar winners to numbers from past Palace productions. This is a special event not to be missed!

Including Performances by Rick Felkins, Joe Penrod, Patty Rowell, Cathie Sheridan, Wendy Zavaleta, Cliff Butler and Matthew Burnett.
And enjoy a special sneak preview of The Odd Couple.

Tickets are $10 each for this special event! Log on to www.thegeorgetownpalace.org to buy tickets online or call 512-869-7469 to order over the phone. Walk-up tickets may also be available.

The Georgetown Palace Theatre
810 South Austin Avenue
Georgetown, Texas 78626
512-869-7469