Upcoming: 2012 Red Hot Party, Oil Can Harry's, July 20

21st Annual

RED HOT Party 

to benefit Project Transitions

July 20

Oilcan Harry's is located at 214 West 4th Street in the downtown Warehouse District.

Admission is a suggested $5 donation at the door.

For more information, call (512) 320-8823 or visit www.OilcanHarrys.com.

The 21st annual RED HOT Party returns the Warehouse District when Oilcan Harry's hosts the evening of entertainment on Friday, July 20th, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The summer social event is sponsored by Red Stag from Jim Beam and benefits Project Transitions to support AIDS and HIV education and prevention in Central Texas.

Each year, more than 600 Central Texans attend the RED HOT Party to experience four hours of live entertainment, great food from downtown restaurants and caterers, specialty cocktails and a huge silent auction. Guests will enjoy cuisine from Sushi Zushi, Mansion at Judge's Hill, Catering by Rose and Aesops Tables Catering, among others. 

The huge silent auction includes autographed Broadway posters, weekend get-aways, dinner and performing arts ticket combos, a Public D8 city touring bicycle from Mellow Johnny's and much, much more.

This year, guests will be entertained by the cast of Cabaret from City Theatre, along with performances by the Austin Babtist Women, Austin City Showgirls, Julie Nelson and her band and Grrlz Will Be Bois - along with surprise special guests. And for the first time this year, the event will include the "RED HOT Fashion Show," presented by Joie De Vie Salon & Spa, Bumble and Bumble, SHi Productions, You Do You Photography and Package Menswear.

For the past 21 years, Oilcan Harry's has hosted the annual RED HOT Party each July. To date, the community has helped raised more than $250,000 at the RED HOT Party to benefit Project Transitions.

Actors' Intensive Workshops, AustinOnStage at Gemini Playhouse, monthly, March 11 - May

Received directly from Rob Faubion at AustinOnStage.com:

Austin On Stage Magazine launches

Saturday, March 12th - Saturday, April 9 - plus one Saturday in May

at the Gemini Playhouse, 5214 Burleson Road, Suite 209 (click for map)

Austin On Stage Magazine will launch the new Austin Actors Intensives series - a monthly session of affordable and professional workshops for Central Texas actors – beginning on March 12th. The workshop series continue on the second Saturday of each month at the Gemini Playhouse.

The monthly, rotating series of workshops is designed to provide Central Texas actors the knowledge, tools, and skills that will take their acting careers to the next level. The one-hour sessions will be taught by the top professionals in the business, with curriculum designed to deliver resources that participants can use immediately after the workshops to enhance and further their craft.

The inaugural workshops include:

• “How to Land and Keep a Talent Agent” - Erin Franklin of Agence Talent will share all the information an actor needs to know in order to sign with talent agency. Franklin has repeatedly been named the top talent agent in Austin by the Austin Advertising Federation.

• “Secrets from the Audition Room”- Feature film director John McLean (The Perfect Man Contest, Z: The Zombie Musical) will share his experience and teach the secrets that casting directors are using when casting for film and television.

Marketing Yourself in the Electronic Age” – Marketing expert Scot Maitland will teach participants how to effectively promote their talent and skills with an online presence and reap the most benefits from the Internet, social marketing, and e-marketing.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Where in the World is ALT? -- Austin, July 10

In July and August, 2010 I will be traveling, first to Chicago and then to Europe. This is a vacation in the sense that I'm "vacating" my activities as reviewer for made-in-Austin theatre productions during that time. Thanks to digital technology and the birthday gift from K of a new laptop computer, I'll be maintaining the site, including the Austin Live Theatre calendar, notices of upcoming theatre events and arts reporting.

(image: tropic diver at flickriver.com)

July 10, Saturday

Chicago is a great theatre town, with well-established, classy and innovative companies such as Steppenwolf and the Goodman in the loop, a generous helping of semi-pro theatres mostly in the north of the town, and a variety of suburb and university theatres.

Both of our children chose to go to Chicago for university, so we've had an intimate but long-distance relationship with that town since 2003. We still do, for our son L, just graduated, is sharing an apartment in Hyde Park, working and thinking about next steps, including graduate school.

First N and then L learned that a visit from dad was probably going to mean an excursion to the theatre. In this Internet age you can pick over the theatre offerings at leisure -- the Chicago Tribune's metromix.com provided me hours of dreamy trip-planning as we sat in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, on assignment from 2003 through 2007.

On-line entertainment information in Austin

Metromix has pushed into 63 other urban markets. Their beta site for Austin is laughable, by comparison with the meaty buffet available for Chicago. The new Austin start-up focuses on restaurants and bars and mentions a single current stage performance, misnaming it as "The Hat" (and, to boot, the Austin Lyric Opera's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" was sold out within hours, long ago).

Maybe I should contact them.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Arts News: Connor Hopkins and Trouble Puppet Company Honored

Posted by Rob Faubion at AustinOnStage.com, May 29:

Trouble Puppet Theatre Company Founder Honored as Emerging Artist at National Conference

Connor Hopkins, Founding Artistic Director of Austin's Trouble Puppet Theater Company, has been invited to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Puppetry Conference this summer as an Emerging Artist. Hopkins will workshop segments from his company's upcoming production of The Jungle, based on the book by Upton Sinclair.

Additionally, Trouble Puppet was recently awarded a seed grant from the Jim Henson Foundation in support of The Jungle. Trouble Puppet’s grant was the only one awarded to a company in the entire Southwest. [. . . .]

Trouble Puppet’s production of The Jungle will premiere in Austin at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre in September 2009. For more information, visit www.TroublePuppet.com.

Click to read more at AustinOnStage.com . . . .

Auditions May 27 for SPIDERMAN, the Musical (from AustinOnStage.com)

A scoop, generously passed along by Rob Faubion and AustinOnStage.com:

The new musical SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark, featuring direction by Julie Taymor (Across the Universe, Frida, The Lion King on Broadway) with music and lyrics by 22-time Grammy Award-winners Bono and The Edge, and written by Taymore and Glen Berger (Underneath The Lintel) will be holding open casting calls at major cities across the country starting next week. The creative team comes to Austin on Wednesday, May 27, to scout Texas talent for the production.

Click to read full story on AustinOnStage.com . . . .

Interviews: Paul Beutel, Managing Director of the Long Center

Paul Beutel, managing director of the Long Center since mid-2008, recently told Rob Faubion of austinonstage.com,

"Like any new organization, The Long Center has faced the challenges of achieving operating efficiencies. The challenge has been compounded, of course, by the current economic climate. As we have learned more about what it takes to operate the Center on a daily basis, we have confronted the economic challenges and managed to trim our operating budget by an amazing 20%. "The budget trimming did involve the elimination of eight staff positions and job re-ordering. Client and audience services, however, have not been compromised."

Click for full text of Faubion's exclusive interview

Austin Business Journal profile of Beutel by A.J. Mistretta with Qs and As, February 13, 2009

Austin Chronicle article by Robert Faires about Beutel's appointment, September 5, 2008