Auditions in Georgetown for Gypsy, community production sponsored by Southwestern University, January 14, 2014

(via chicagoonthetown.com)

AUDITIONS for GYPSY: A Musical Fable starring Meredith McCall & Scotty Roberts, directed by Rick Roemer on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 with callbacks Wednesday & Thursday. Opens March 26 .
Seeking men & women 35-70. Women - prepare one song and be prepared to move. Men - prepare a one-minute monologue and you may be asked to sing.
Rehearsals begin Jan 27. Contact Olivia Woodward at woodwaro@southwestern.edu to schedule an audition apt.

Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Austin Playhouse, September 6 - October 6, 2013

by Catherine Dribb

While the impossible dream of Austin Playhouse moving into Mueller Development may still be just that, they’ve finally released Man of La Mancha into the Austin art world. For two years it’s been slated as the opening production in their newly built theatre, but with no ground breaking yet, it seems Don Quixote will have to settle for Highland Mall instead.

Which seems appropriate really. For the man who battles windmills and sees the potential of the world instead of its hardships, would have walked into that all but abandoned mall, and raised his arms in agony. “To be or not to be?”

Rick Roemer, Jacob Trussell (photo: Christopher Loveless)

To be! Don Quixote would have undoubtedly decided. And with the final weekend approaching, the Playhouse has announced that this has been their highest earning musical in all their eleven years of existence.

And as the prisoners of the Inquisition turn their jail cell into an inn and then into a castle, so has Austin Playhouse turned an old Footlocker into an intimate live theatre space and that small stage into a daring dungeon housing victims of religious and political zealotry.

Man of La Mancha enters its final weekend tomorrow with Rick Roemer still giving a beautiful rendition of its protagonist, Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote. Roemer’s voice has never sounded so strong, and his Impossible Dream will bring you not to your feet, but to your knees with its tenderness. 

Despite some pitch issues in the cast, notable performances include that of chorus member Lara Wright, who doesn’t play the usual quirky, gregarious sidekick you’ve undoubtedly seen do at Zach Theatre and the Playhouse, but rather the roles of an understated kitchen wench and a seductive Gypsy dancer. In addition, Leslie R. Hethcox is delightful (as usual - did you see him in Little Shop this summer?!) with his barber cameo. And both sets of galloping horse legs (Hethcox and Stephen Mercantel) were indeed impressive.

The set is well crafted with a trap lowering dramatically into the dungeon, interrupting Miguel de Cervantes’ story and jarring the audience back to “reality” as well. We wonder, what world do we live in, and how do we choose to proceed? Is our story retold with hope and imagination as its greatest honors?

(photo: Christopher Loveless)

Only you can decide! So choose to indulge this weekend in Man of La Mancha at Austin Playhouse. It’s guaranteed to stir your soul and help you dream some of your own impossible dreams.

Tickets are available online at the AustinPlayhouse.com website or by calling the boxoffice at (512) 476-0084.

Photos by Christopher Loveless of 'Man of La Mancha' cast, Austin Playhouse, September 6 - October 6, 2013

A portfolio of seven cast photos by Christopher Loveless for the

Rick Roemer (photo: Christopher Loveless)

production of


Man of La Mancha


by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh

directed by Don Toner musical direction by Michael McKelvey

with Rick Roemer as Don Quijote

September 6 – October 6, 2013, Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.
Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752 - click for map
WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com
TICKETS: $34 Thursday/Friday, $36 Saturday/Sunday, $38 Opening Night with champagne reception: Friday, September 6, 2013 All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up.
BOX OFFICE: 512.476.0084 or online www.austinplayhouse.com

Boni Hester and cast (photo: Christopher Loveless)

Click to view additional photos by Christopher Loveless

MAN OF LA MANCHA, Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, September 6 - October 6, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents

 

by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh
directed by Don Toner musical direction by Michael McKelvey

September 6 – October 6, 2013, Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752 - click for map
WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com

TICKETS: $34 Thursday/Friday, $36 Saturday/Sunday, $38 Opening Night with champagne reception: Friday, September 6, 2013 All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up.

BOX OFFICE: 512.476.0084 or online www.austinplayhouse.com
Winner of five Tony Awards including that for Best Musical, Man of La Mancha has enchanted audiences for decades with the lyrical adventure of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Set during the Spanish Inquisition, Miguel Cervantes, writer and tax collector, is imprisoned for foreclosing on a church. In order to win favor with his fellow prisoners he tells the tale of Don Quixote, a would-be knight who sees only goodness in a world of darkness and despair. The musical shifts from the prison’s bleak reality to Quixote’s idealized world with prisoners becoming characters in Quixote’s story. Featuring a breathtaking score including “The Impossible Dream,” “Dulcinea,” and the title song, Man of La Mancha is powerful American musical theatre at its best.

Starring Rick Roemer as Cervantes/Quixote, Jacob Trussell as his manservant/Sancho Panza, Boni Hester as Aldonza (Dulcinea), Huck Huckaby as the Governor/Innkeeper, Ben Wolfe as the Duke/Dr. Carrasco, Josh Wechsler as the Padre, Wendy Zavaleta as the Housekeeper, Claire Grasso as Antonia, Brian Coughlin as Pedro, and Leslie Hethcox as the Barber, with Kimberly Barrow, Ann Richards, Stephen Mercantel, Paul Koudouris, Glenn DeVar, Brian Losoya, and Patrick Crowley.

Direction by Don Toner, musical direction by Michael McKelvey, choreography by Lisa del Rosario, costume design by Jessica Colley-Mitchell, set design by Don Toner and Patrick Crowley, lighting design by Don Day, and sound design by Joel Mercado-See.

Man of La Mancha will be produced in Austin Playhouse's temporary space at Highland Mall. The South Entrance (by the IBC bank) is closest to the theatre. Proceed down the escalator and turn right. Austin Playhouse will be on your right by the water feature. Detailed directions are available on our website: http://austinplayhouse.com/season/tempfac.html


Austin Playhouse 2013-2014 Season
Our Season opens with Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion, & Mitch Leigh, running September 6 - October 6, 2013, followed by the murder-mystery And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, November 22 - December 22, 2013, a new adaptation of Corneille’s 17th century farce The Liar by David Ives, February 7 - March 9, 2014, the world premiere of Roaring by Cyndi Williams, April 4 - May 4, 2014, and a TBA, May 23 - June 22, 2014.

In addition to our five-play season, Austin Playhouse will produce the popular comedy The Dead Presidents’ Club by Larry L. King, October 18 – November 3, 2013, and the provocative recent Broadway hit Venus in Fur by David Ives, January 3 – 26, 2013.

Austin Playhouse is a professional theatre currently performing its 13th season. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Don Toner and Artistic Director Lara Toner Haddock, Austin Playhouse has grown from a three-play season on the campus of Concordia University, to a year-round operation producing an average of eight plays a year. Austin Playhouse is currently building its own two-performance venue space in the heart of the new Mueller Redevelopment Town Center, adjacent to the new Austin Children’s Museum.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

TRIUMPH OF LOVE, musical, Austin Playhouse, June 7 - July 14, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents





Princess Leonide of Sparta has fallen hopelessly in love with Agis, the rightful heir to her kingdom. Unfortunately Agis has sworn to kill the Princess and reclaim his throne. In order to win his love Leonide takes on a series of increasingly absurd disguises and woos not only Agis, but also his over-protective aunt and uncle. But in the end she learns that true love means revealing her true self and hoping that love will indeed triumph.
 

Season Ticket holders, make reservations now, only 14 performances!

Box office: (512) 476-0084

Email: boxoffice@austinplayhouse.com

Purchase Online Here!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Mad Beat Hip & Gone by Steven Dietz, Zach Theatre, April 3 - 28, 2013

by Michael Meigs

At first I was disconcerted by the time-line.


Playwright-director Steven Dietz places his creations the Nebraska buddies Danny and Rich in 1949 and engineers an encounter with beat adventurers Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassady. We don't see it; as in ancient Greek theatre that event is reported to us, endowing it with distant mystery and epic sense.



But in the opening scenes of Mad Beat Hip & Gone, suddenly Jacob Trussell as Danny is ranting center stage in full Beat style, declaiming verse that has no rhyme, not much reason, a rush of disconnected jagged images. Now how did this smalltown boy start channeling the fullblown Kerouac style, when On the Road wasn't published until 1951?


But I got over that. Dietz made it clear before too long that he was taking us to fantasy land, where his two protagonists weren't really tracking or channeling the beats; they were engaged in their own shambolic adolescent plunge toward adulthood. It takes the entire first act to get Danny and his gregariously goofy buddy Rich (Jon Cook) into the front seat of the sedan that's going to be their literary vehicle.



 
They don't have much help growing up in that first act. Danny's father disappeared long ago, although Rick Roemer regularly appears in that role, always ineptly tangled up in something or other. No adult help there; he's long gone, another fantasy figure, wearing a suit but walking gnomically barefoot or appearing as a traveling salesman, always present but always absent. 


 Babs George as Danny's mom is equally unhelpful, a sort of spiritual weather vane spinning merrily in the winds of her own cheerfully unapologetic irresponsibility.


And The Girl -- doesn't every coming-of-age fable need A Girl? -- dominates the second act. First encountered in the company of Jack and Neal, Erin Barlow as Honey becomes real for us after the intermission when our protagonists, too, get to the land of dreams in San Francisco. Pale, hip, distracted, a beat hanger-on, she's with us just long enough to drive our boys wild and then to disappear into the fog of the Golden Gate. Then they learn that yet another jumper has thrown herself from that span down into the void.


Topaz McGarrigle hangs about the stage during much of this, working his melodious saxophone.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com

MAD BEAT HIP & GONE by Steven Dietz, Zach Theatre, April 3 - 28, 2013

(Zach Theatre, S. Lamar at Riverside (parking on Riverside and on Toomey Rd, one block south), 

presents the world premiere of

 A coming-of-age comedy about the beat generation

at ZACH’s Topfer Theatre, S. Lamar at Riverside

April 3-28, 2013, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Champagne Opening and Press Night is Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception with the stars of the show. Happy Hour Theatre is April 3 ($28 tickets for patrons under 30, plus a reception beginning at 6:45 p.m. and a post-show party). LGBT Wilde Party with pre-show mixer is Thursday, April 4. Performances continue through April 28, 2013. Four weeks only!

To order tickets call 512-476-0541 ext. 1 or visit www.zachtheatre.org. Tickets range from $25-$65. Student Rush Tickets: $18 one hour before showtime (with valid ID). ZACH’s full bar featuring signature cocktails and hors d’oeuvres opens 90 minutes prior to showtime and remains open for one hour post-show.

Free Balcony Play Festival also begins April 3

ZACH Theatre – Austin’s Theatre and Texas’ longest running theatre, in the first season its new Topfer Theatre, co-commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts, presents The World Premiere of MAD BEAT HIP & GONE written and directed by STEVEN DIETZ (Becky's New Car, Shooting Star)


Steven Dietz, one of the most-produced playwrights in America, who also calls Austin home, created this world premiere specifically for ZACH's first season in the new Topfer Theatre. MAD BEAT HIP &GONE is a coming-of-age comedy that chronicles our rich and elusive dreams, immersing audiences in the cultural phenomena of the beat generation.
In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady famously went "on the road." But what about Danny Fergus and Rich Rayburn — the young guys in the car right behind Jack and Neal, the guys whose history never ended up in books? What were these kids searching for in those "mad days" of "gone kids" trying so hard to be hip? Chock-full of smooth live jazz and exuberant theatricality, MAD BEAT HIP &GONE answers these questions and more as it takes audiences on a journey back in time.

ZACH’s Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley says: “I’m thrilled to produce the world premiere of Steven Dietz’s new coming-of-age comedy MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, which was commissioned by the University of Texas College of Fine Arts. Steven teaches playwriting at UT, and it’s no secret we are big fans of his work, having produced his plays Shooting Star, Fiction, and Becky’s New Car. I’m in love with his new play, which sings with the beat poetry style made famous by Jack Kerouac and possesses Steven’s sly sense of humor and gift for a turn of phrase. The play also involves a live saxophone player on stage who interacts with the actors, punctuating the comedy with jazz riffs in a clever call and response.”

Of his long-time relationship with ZACH, Steven Dietz says: “I need ZACH Theatre – it is because of their bold and populist artistic aesthetic that I was inspired to create this story.”

ZACH’s production of MAD BEAT HIP & GONE features an all-star cast including: JACOB TRUSSEL as Danny, JON COOK as Rich, ERIN BARLOW as Honey, BABS GEORGE as Mrs. Fergus and RICK ROEMER as The Alberts.

Scenic Design by MICHAEL RAIFORD · Lighting Design by MICHELLE HABECK · Costume Design by SUSAN MICKEY · Sound Design by CRAIG BROCK · Video Design by COLIN LOWRY · Properties Design by JUSTIN COX · Stage Management by CATE TUCKER·

MAD BEAT HIP & GONE Previews April 3-10.


ZACH’s production of MAD BEAT HIP & GONE is presented by 3M and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

NEW BALCONY PLAY FESTIVAL

In conjunction with MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, ZACH will launch the Balcony Play Festival – consisting of a series of 10-30 minute plays performed free for the public prior to mainstage productions. Drawing inspiration from the Juliet-style balcony overlooking the main entrance of ZACH’s new Topfer Theatre and from famous balcony scenes from plays and musicals, these new plays will invite a diverse audience of patrons and pedestrians alike to gather on ZACH’s People’s Plaza to enjoy this original, site-specific work. ZACH Associate Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen (Head of MFA Directing Program, UT Austin and Associate Director, Black Swan Lab, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), will build on ZACH’s partnership with UT, involving MFA students in both the design and direction of the plays.


About ZACH Theatre ZACH Theatre is Austin’s leading professional producing theatre, employing more than 600 actors, musicians, and designers annually. Founded in 1932, ZACH is the longest running theatre company in Texas, serving 95,000 adults and youth annually. ZACH creates its own nationally recognized plays and musicals that ignite the imagination, lift the spirit, and engage the community under the proven leadership of Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley and Managing Director Elisbeth Challener. Now in its 80th year, ZACH continues to expand and engage with Austin, adding the new 420-seat, 32,000-square-foot Topfer Theatre to its performing arts campus, nearly doubling ZACH’s capacity while retaining its hallmark intimate theatre-going experience. Visit www.zachtheatre.org for more information.



For real-time updates on ZACH Theatre news, events and happenings, visit http://www.zachtheatre.org/blog, like ZACH on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/zachtheatre, and follow ZACH on Twitter @zachtheatre http://www.twitter.com/zachtheatre.

ZACH Theatre is sponsored in part, by Applied Materials, Austin Catering, Four Hands Home, Holiday Inn-Lady Bird Lake, Kirk Tuck Photography, Marquee Event Group, OnRamp, Austin American-Statesman, KXAN TV 36, and Time Warner Cable; and by grants from Junior League of Austin, The Shubert Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, which believes an investment in the arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.



(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Other Desert Cities by Jon Robert Baitz, Austin Playhouse, January 25 - February 24, 2013

by Michael Meigs

In an age when 'dysfunctional' all too often is appended to 'American family' in the U.S. theatre, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities spends much of its two acts appearing to explore yet another meltdown.


Lyman and Polly Wyeth are prosperous California retirees with backgrounds in Hollywood and Republican politics. Their children are several sorts of messes. The older son got into drugs and then into political violence, getting implicated in a deadly firebombing before disappearing forever from a ferry in the waters outside Seattle. The daughter, Brooke, a promising writer, wound up in a psychiatric institution and is only now crawling back to reality. The younger son's a cynical survivor who produces a television show where small claims are decided by a retired judge and a jury of freaks.

Rick Roemer, Lara Toner (photo: C. Loveless)

Just your average California family, so to speak. And to add some zip, it's Christmas, and the recovering daughter has written a tell-all autobiography that she wants her parents to embrace.


Baitz's script is carefully crafted, loading us up with exposition over the first twenty minutes or so and only slightly stretching our creduility. We're helped by Toner's casting, for Babs George and Rick Roemer give their characters good solid Republican self-assurance. She comfortably inhabits the sharp-tongued, steadily bibulous mother, and Roemer radiates warmth and charisma, no doubt much like that of Ronald Reagan. 

Brooke the wayward daughter is annoying. She suffers from cognitive dissonance, determined to publish the exposé and yet wanting the victims of the revelations, her family, to approve the exercise. Lara Toner does the best she can with the character's whining intensity.


This is a spiritually amorphous California-American family, not anchored anywhere except in bourgeois comfort. Polly is from a Jewish family, but she's not in the least engaged in faith; Lyman's a man of bonhomie and appearances. That is, at least in part, what the play's about: what is really important to these characters, deep down, as Polly threatens to punish their daughter by refusing to speak to her ever again?

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

OTHER DESERT CITIES by Jon Robin Baitz, Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, January 25 - February 24, 2013

(performing in 2013 at Highland Malll -- click for instructions and map)

presents

Other Desert Cities

by Jon Robin Baitz

directed by Don Toner

January 25 – February 24, 2013

Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752

WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com

TICKETS: $28 Thursday/Friday, $30 Saturday/Sunday

$37 Opening Night with champagne reception: Friday, January 25

Box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

DISCOUNTS: All student tickets are half-price.

Austin Playhouse is proud to bring Austin audiences Baitz’ powerful family drama. In the award-winning Other Desert Cities, Baitz brings us an emotionally charged play about a family coming to terms with long-held secrets. “Baitz’ latest familial drama manages to be funny, cutting, and illuminating. Secrets, lies, and betrayals play out against a backdrop of Californian affluence and restraint. This is rich dysfunction – zingers are delivered with a whiskey chaser.” –The Huffington Post

Brooke Wyeth (Lara Toner) returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence and a mental breakdown to celebrate Christmas with her parents (Babs George and Rick Roemer), her brother (Jacob Trussell), and her aunt (Bernadette Nason). Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family's history—a wound they don't want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.

The play premiered Off-Broadway in January 2011 to critical acclaim and transferred to Broadway in November 2011, marking the Broadway debut of a Baitz play. The play was named Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. It was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (Click to view Wikipedia article)

Jon Robin Baitz’s plays include My Beautiful Goddamn City, Ten Unknowns, The Paris Letter, Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks, A Fair Country, The Substance of Fire, and an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. His television credits include The West Wing, Alias, and Brothers and Sisters, which he created.
Production Team Don Toner is the director. Buffy Manners is the costume designer. Don Day is the lighting designer. Set Design is by Don Toner and Patrick Crowley.
Critical Praise "The most richly enjoyable new play for grown-ups that New York has known in many seasons…In his most fully realized play to date, Mr. Baitz makes sure our sympathies keep shifting among the members of the wounded family portrayed here. Every one of them emerges as selfish, loving, cruel, compassionate, irritating, charming and just possibly heroic…leaves you feeling both moved and gratifyingly sated." —NY Times. "Astutely drawn…juicy and surprising." —NY Daily News. "Spending time with these messed-up, complicated people is a genuine pleasure." —NY Post. "Power, passion, and superbly crafted palaver stippled with blowdarts of wit—this is what Baitz does best." —New York Magazine.
Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall
Austin Playhouse is currently performing at Highland Mall. The mall’s South entrance is the most convenient to Austin Playhouse. Take the escalator down to the lower level and turn right. Austin Playhouse is on your right, across from the Express.

Austin Playhouse is a professional theatre currently performing its 13th season. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Don Toner and Associate Artistic Director Lara Toner, Austin Playhouse has grown from a three-play season on the campus of Concordia University, to a year-round operation producing an average of eight plays a year. Austin Playhouse is currently building its own two-performance venue space in the heart of the new Mueller Redevelopment Town Center, adjacent to the new Austin Children’s Museum.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Auditions for musical: Bittersuite, A.R.T. and Out of Context Productions, March 12

AUDITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Texas premiere of Bittersuite - Songs of Experience, music by Elliot Weiss, lyrics by Michael Champagne

On Monday, March 12 beginning at 7 p.m., director Rick Roemer will hold auditions for the musical song cycle BITTERSUITE – SONGS OF EXPERIENCE at the Salvage Vanguard Theater (2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX, 78722). The song cycle is a Cole Porter, Mike Nichols/Elaine May, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Lehrer-influenced song cycle with a history of long runs in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and requires strong singing actors from 35 to 60.

AEA and non-Equity male and female performers with significant experience and training should prepare a song that tells a story (e.g., from Sondheim, Weill, Brel), to sing in its entirety. They should also be prepared with one additional song to be sung at the director's request. An accompanist will be provided.

Those interested in auditioning should send a picture and resume to rdroemer@yahoo.com, as well as any potential conflicts with the evening of March 12. They will be contacted with an audition time. Callbacks are scheduled for Wednesday, March 14 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Any questions: 512-657-1314. Updated info will be posted to the BITTERSUITE audition Facebook page http://on.fb.me/BITTERSUITE.

The production will run at the Salvage Vanguard Theater for three weeks starting on September 14, 2012. The process will begin soon as a weekly workshop, and then conclude with a more traditional schedule of rehearsals as the run approaches. It will be produced by A.R.T. in association with Out of Context Productions.

Click for further information about the director and the musical at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Upcoming: The 1940s Radio Hour, Southwestern University, November 16 - 20

presents

The 1940s Radio Hour

By Walton Jones
Directed by Rick Roemer

Nov 16 - 20, 2011
7pm | Wednesday & Thursday
8pm | Friday & Saturday
3pm | Saturday & Sunday

Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Theater, Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Southwestern University, Georgetown (click for map)

Purchase Tickets

[image: Kristi Brawner, Nick Kellogg (photo by Rebecca Bennett for Southwestern University Theatre Department)]

It’s Christmas time in 1942. On a cold and snowy evening, a close-knit group of entertainers at a small New York City radio station-all heading somewhere else-are broadcasting the final holiday variety show for the troops overseas. Patriotic, sentimental, and overwhelmingly nostalgic, this holiday musical production is reminiscent of an era long since passed, but never completely forgotten.

Many local artists will be performing in this production.

Joey Banks is a Southwestern University 2007 alum. He has acted in Footloose, Zilker Summer Musical Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Austin Shakespeare, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Zach Theater, Hair! San Jose Repertory Theatre, Girlfriend, TheatreWorks, and The Madwoman of Chaillot, California Theatre Center.

Trumpet player Walter “Bud” Emmert resides in Sun City. In 1951-52 he was in charge of the Bergstrom Air Force Stage band. He has played in the Austin Symphony in 1951-52, the Lawrence Welk Show in 1948, and with Kay Kyser on a USO tour in 1945.

Clarinet player Pete Geiger resides in Sun City. He performed in many ensembles including, the United States Navy Band and Orchestra in Washington, D.C. from 1947-65, New York Queens Symphony, Paul LaValles Orchestra at Radio City Music Hall, and Sun City Texas Jazz Band. He has also performed on Broadway in Man of La Mancha and Fiddler on the Roof.

For information on our 2011-12 Season visit us at http://www.southwestern.edu/departments/theatre/productions/index.php

For tickets call the Box Office at 512.863.1378 or purchase online at www.southwestern.tix.com

Southwestern University is a selective, nationally recognized undergraduate liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,300 students. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas. For more information on Southwestern, visit www.southwestern.edu.

Upcoming: The 1940s Radio Hour, Southwestern University, November 16 - 20

presents

The 1940s Radio Hour

By Walton Jones
Directed by Rick Roemer

Nov 16 - 20, 2011
7pm | Wednesday & Thursday
8pm | Friday & Saturday
3pm | Saturday & Sunday

Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Theater, Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Southwestern University, Georgetown (click for map)

Purchase Tickets

It’s Christmas time in 1942. On a cold and snowy evening, a close-knit group of entertainers at a small New York City radio station-all heading somewhere else-are broadcasting the final holiday variety show for the troops overseas. Patriotic, sentimental, and overwhelmingly nostalgic, this holiday musical production is reminiscent of an era long since passed, but never completely forgotten.

Many local artists will be performing in this production.

Joey Banks is a Southwestern University 2007 alum. He has acted in Footloose, Zilker Summer Musical Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Austin Shakespeare, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Zach Theater, Hair! San Jose Repertory Theatre, Girlfriend, TheatreWorks, and The Madwoman of Chaillot, California Theatre Center.

Trumpet player Walter “Bud” Emmert resides in Sun City. In 1951-52 he was in charge of the Bergstrom Air Force Stage band. He has played in the Austin Symphony in 1951-52, the Lawrence Welk Show in 1948, and with Kay Kyser on a USO tour in 1945.

Clarinet player Pete Geiger resides in Sun City. He performed in many ensembles including, the United States Navy Band and Orchestra in Washington, D.C. from 1947-65, New York Queens Symphony, Paul LaValles Orchestra at Radio City Music Hall, and Sun City Texas Jazz Band. He has also performed on Broadway in Man of La Mancha and Fiddler on the Roof.

For information on our 2011-12 Season visit us at http://www.southwestern.edu/departments/theatre/productions/index.php

For tickets call the Box Office at 512.863.1378 or purchase online at www.southwestern.tix.com

Southwestern University is a selective, nationally recognized undergraduate liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,300 students. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas. For more information on Southwestern, visit www.southwestern.edu.

Open Auditions for Men, ages 20 - 40, for 1940s Radio Program, Southwestern University, August 25

Received directly from Dr. Rick Roemer:

Auditions for MEN only for Walton Jones 1940s Radio Hour, directed by Rick Roemer. MEN, ages 20-40, please prepare one song from the 1940s era. This does not have to be a song from a musical, but rather from the top popular hits of the time. Accompanist provided.

Date: Tuesday, August 23, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Jones Theater in the Sarofim School of Fine Arts on the campus of Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas

Callbacks will be on Wednesday, August 24 at 7pm.

For more information and to schedule an audition appointment, please contact Alexis Gette at gette2@southwestern.edu or 972-948-6766. A PDF of the script is also available.

Rehearsals begin October 3. There will be no rehearsals October 8-12. The production opens November 16 and runs through November 20.

Upcoming: Stop The World, I Want to Get Off, Austin Playhouse, April 22 - May 22

Received directly:

presents

Stop the World - I Want to Get Off!

by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
directed by Don Toner
musical direction by Oliver Worthington
choreography by Danny Herman & Rocker Verastique
April 22 - May 22, 2011
Austin Playhouse Main Stage, Penn Field, 3601 South Congress (click for map)
Tickets are $26 Thursday and Friday and $28 Saturday and Sunday. All student tickets are half price!

Call (512) 476-0084 for tickets or visit http://www.austinplayhouse.com.

Austin Playhouse is proud to present the classic musical: Stop the World – I Want to Get Off! A thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success, this beloved musical celebrates its 50th year in 2011.

Stop the World! - I Want to Get Off is set in a circus and tells the timeless tale of a Littlechap, played by Rick Roemer, who recently starred as Lady Bracknell in our production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The show is a musical classic—a boundless, humorously entertaining, and tender story about the choices we make and the opportunities we get during our lifetime.

"Stop the World" is directed by Don Toner with musical direction by Oliver Worthington and choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique. The show stars Rick Roemer as Littlechap and Angela Davis as Evie with an ensemble that includes Kimberly Barrow, Rachel Dendy, Hildreth England, Emily Everidge, Kasey Erin Kelly, Eedann McCord, Stephanie Ngo-Hatchie, Ann Pittman, Hannah Rose, and Jennifer Blakeney Young.

OPENING WEEKEND HALF-PRICE SPECIAL!!! We're offering 20 half-price tickets (that's only $14 each!) for our first Saturday and Sunday performances: April 23rd and 24th. Call 476-0084 and mention the opening weekend special or use discount code: "Littlechap" when you order tickets online at www.austinplayhouse.com. Not valid with any other discounts.

Main Stage Subscribers - Reserve your tickets by phone at 476-0084 or email austinplayhouse@aol.com.

Upcoming: Stop The World, I Want to Get Off, Austin Playhouse, April 22 - May 22

Received directly:

presents

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off!

by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

directed by Don Toner

April 22 – May 22; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, Penn Field (behind the water tower), 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C (click for map)

Tickets $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Available at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

Closing out the 2010-2011 Season, Austin Playhouse presents a Bricusse/Newley classic and multiple Tony Award nominated production, a thought-provoking tale about the fleeting nature of worldly success. This beloved musical celebrates its 50^th year in 2011.

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off! is set in a circus and tells the timeless tale of a Littlechap, a clown who conquers the world but loses himself. The story will be told through song, dance, drama, and the artistry of the Austin Playhouse acting company over a one-month run. The show is a boundless, shameless, and humorously entertaining production. Stop the World is about the responsibility we have for our own lives, and how it sometimes feels like the world is spinning out of control and you just want to get off.

Directed by Don Toner, musical direction by Oliver Worthington, and choreography by Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique. The Austin production stars Rick Roemer as Littlechap and Angela Davis as Evie, with an ensemble cast that includes Kimberly Barrow, Rachel Dendy, Hildreth England, Kasey Erin Eggleston, Eedann McCord, Stephanie Ngo-Hatchie, Ann Pittman, Hannah Rose, and Jennifer Blakeney Young.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Austin Playhouse, January 14 - February 13

This "Trivial Comedy for Serious People" opened in 1895 and it was the last shining moment for Wilde's career as writer and dramatist. Soon afterwards he found himself in court, accused of immoral behavior and then sentenced to gaol. Because of that scandal the original production closed after only 86 performances. Since then it has become one of the most dependable and regularly revived comic satires on the boards.

Wilde's earnest young men show themselves of strenuously conventional Victorian morality in society but entirely subversive in their private lives.

Both Algernon Moncrieff (Jason Newman) and Jack Worthing (Benjamin Summers) have secret identities. Algernon goes "Bunberrying," using the excuse of a mythical ailing relative to escape from unappealing social engagements and to sail off on devil-may-care exploits.

Jack uses the excuse of his mythical brother "Earnest" to get away from the tedium of the country and the responsibilities of his guardianship for the fetching but bubble-headed Cecily, his ward and the daughter of his deceased benefactor. Masquerading as "Earnest" while in London, Jack is courting Algy's cousin Gwendolen.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

A Samuel Beckett Cabaret with Rick Roemer, Fourthworld Theatre Projects, FronteraFest , January 19 - 30

With no particular fanfare, Rick Roemer is offering you the chance to understand the stretch and diversity of the art of the professional actor. But just for a brief shining moment, so check your agenda.

Roemer appears in these stark pieces by Samuel Beckett this afternoon, Tuesday evening the 25th and Sunday afternoon the 30th. As the complement, you can appreciate his appearance as the haughty, comic Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest four evenings a week at the Austin Playhouse, until February 20.

His colleague at Southwestern University in Georgetown Jared J. Stein directs Roemer in these three short pieces by Beckett, collected under the ironic banner title of A Samuel Beckett Cabaret. For the FronteraFest 2011 Long Fringe the production is sponsored by "Fourthworld Theatre Projects" and an informal company assembled from theatre students at Southwestern, including Becca Plunkett, Edward Coles, Kinsey Keck, Matthew A. Harper and others.

Samuel Beckett's 1949 piece Waiting for Godot is the most familiar of his texts, with the 1956 Endgame probably in second place. Notable productions of those longer pieces appeared in the Austin area over the last year -- a cheerfully comic version of Godot at the Sam Bass Community Theatre in Round Rock , a Classic Theatre production of Godot that won three of San Antonio's ATAC Globe awards, and a memorable staging of Endgame by the Palindrome Theatre Company at the Larry L. King Theatre of Austin Playhouse.

Beckett wrote intermittently for the theatre for 25 years after Endgame. His pieces became briefer, more concentrated and more engimatic. Of the 29 shorter theatre pieces collected in the Grove Press edition , the last ones are the shortest and most dense. Catastrophe from 1982, dedicated to Czech writer and political resistance leader Vaclav Havel, is only four pages long. Ohio Impromptu, first produced at Ohio State University in 1981 is three and a half pages and features a character reading aloud to a silent listener. In this Beckett cabaret, those pieces bracket Krapp's Last Tape from 1958, in which Roemer, the solo performer, has lengthy silent intervals of pantomime, including an exquisite sequence with bananas -- worthy of the best of Buster Keaton -- and interacts with his own insufferable self of 30 years earlier via a tape recording.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images from The Importance of Being Earnest, Austin Playhouse, January 14 - February 20

Austin Playhouse posts images by an uncredited photographer, January 20, for

Oscar Wilde’s

The Importance of Being Earnest:

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Directed by Don Toner

Featuring Rick Roemer as Lady Bracknell and Bernadette Nason as Miss Prism

January 14 – February 13; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

Tickets: $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Can be purchased at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

To become a subscriber: call 512.476.0084

Click to view larger versions and additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Click to view full album on Facebook. . . .

Upcoming: The Importance of Being Earnest, Austin Playhouse, January 14 - February 13

Received directly:

presents Oscar Wilde’s

The Importance of Being Earnest:

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Directed by Don Toner

Featuring Rick Roemer as Lady Bracknell and Bernadette Nason as Miss Prism

January 14 – February 13; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

TIX: $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Can be purchased at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

To become a subscriber: call 512.476.0084

Austin Playhouse produces Oscar Wilde’s light effervescent comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. Written in 1884 and first produced the following year, The Importance of Being Earnest is directly influenced by Great Britain’s late Victorian era. Wilde continuously makes light of the era’s mores, social customs, marriage, and particularly the pursuit of love.

The play features Jack, who is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man; but Jack leads a double life. At his country estate, Jack is known as Jack, but in the city, he is known as Ernest. Even Jack’s best friend Algernon who has known him for years, thinks he is Earnest. As Jack begins to fall in love with a woman who believes his name is Earnest, he finds himself in peculiar and amusing situations.

The Importance of Being Earnest has been considered Wilde’s artistic breakthrough—combining self-parody and a humorous commentary on the melodramatic genre in which he had already had so much success.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Beckett Cabaret,Salvage Vanguard Theatre, January 19 - 30

Fourthworld Theatre Projects presents its first Austin-grown production

A SAMUEL BECKETT CABARE:

Catastrophe, Krapp's Last Tape, and Ohio Impromptu by Samuel Beckett

with Rick Roemer, Kinsey Keck, Matthew A. Harper, and Sam Allen on bass; directed by Jared J. Stein; designed by Desiderio Roybal; produced by Fourthworld Theatre Projects and Edward Coles; associate producer & assistant director, Becca Plunkett.

At the Salvage Vanguard Theatre (2803 Manor Road, 78722) as part of FronteraFest: Wednesday, January 19^th at 7:00 PM; Saturday, January 22^nd at 3:15 PM; Tuesday, January 25^th at 9:15 PM; Sunday, January 30^th at 1:00 PM.

Reservations can be made online at www.hydeparktheatre.org or by calling 512-479-PLAY. All tickets are $14.

The production stars Rick Roemer (Austin acting credits include Amadeus, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Exits and Entrances, and A Man of No Importance) and is directed by Jared J. Stein (local credits include Lysistrata, Buried Child, and The Man Who Came to Dinner at Southwestern University). The piece will be presented as part of FronteraFest's Long Fringe (produced by Hyde Park Theatre in association with Austin Script Works) at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, starting January 19, 2011.

A SAMUEL BECKETT CABARET celebrates absurdity and rejects regret. Or rejects absurdity. Or celebrates regret, or even regretting regret. But most certainly it lambasts the triviality of the differences. Krapp's Last Tape, perhaps one of Beckett’s most accessible plays, is sandwiched between two of his most perplexing shorts, Catastrophe and Ohio Impromptu. A regrettable experience for the entire family!

Fourthworld Theatre Projects has been partnering with organizations throughout the world since 2004 in order to create work for the stage that transcends cultural boundaries. Fourthworld's international collaborations have resulted in pieces performed and further developed throughout North America and Europe (e.g. in the United States: La Mama E.T.C., the Chocolate Factory Theater, Lark Play Development Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, InterAct Theatre, The Playwrights Center, and numerous universities). Amongst its intensive workshop projects is the annual Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Smolyan, Bulgaria, which, since 2005, has allowed theatre artists, scholars, and students from six continents to work together each summer in the mythological birthplace of Orpheus, Eurydice, and the cult of Dionysus (www.rhodopi.org). In 2010, the company decided to make Austin its new United States base.