Tent Revival fundraiser for Robert Matney at the Off Center, July 17, 2013

 

Tent Revival

Performance Benefit for Robert Matney

Robert Matney

 Weds July 17th,
doors open at 8 p.m., kick-off at 8:30 p.m.
The Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo, Austin TX 78702 - click for map
Join us at the Off Center for a healing crusade by the power of awesomeness in honor of Robert Matney. Stand beside this linchpin of the Austin theatre community, this excellent human, and help him he-yal from the evils of a malignant melanoma.

Scheduled guests currently include:

 

Steven Tomlinson
Manateeman
Cami Alys
Shoulders

 

special guest deejays Graham Reynolds, Michael Joplin, and Peter Stopschinski
a prayer by Kirk Lynn
hosted by the Rev Lowell Bartholomee
more to come...

And be ready to bid on the best silent auction items you've ever seen!

Sponsored by Tequila 512, Pluckers, Ruby's BBQ, Don't Panic Hispanic, Real Ale, Live Oak, Tito's Vodka

Hosted by the Rude Mechs
Co-produced by the Hidden Room Theatre, Street Corner Arts, A Chick and A Dude, Palindrome

Want to join our host committee? Starting at just $250 write or raise, you can support the Fishneys and join us for a private pre-show champagne party. Comment below or PM for more information. Can I get an AMEN?

DONATE HERE:
www.youcaring.com/matneyvscancer

CLICK HERE to view the video by Lowell Bartholomee

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Tent Revival fundraiser for Robert Matney at the Off Center, July 17, 2013

Join us at the Off Center for a healing crusade by the power of awesomeness in honor of Robert Matney.
Weds July 17th, 8PM - 11PM
The Off Center
2211 Hidalgo, Austin TX 78702
Scheduled guests currently include:
Steven Tomlinson
Manateeman
Cami Alys
special guest deejays Graham Reynolds, Michael Joplin, and Peter Stopschinski
a prayer by Kirk Lynn
hosted by the Rev Lowell Bartholomee
more to come...
And be ready to bid on the best silent auction items you've ever seen!
Sponsored by Tequila 512, Pluckers, Ruby's BBQ, Don't Panic Hispanic, Real Ale
Hosted by the Rude Mechs
Co-produced by the Hidden Room Theatre, Street Corner Arts, A Chick and A Dude, Palindrome
Want to join our host committee? Starting at just $250 write or raise, you can support the Fishneys and join us for a private pre-show champagne party. Comment below or PM for more information. Can I get an AMEN?
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Video Appeal: Support Robert Matney's Fight Against Cancer, via YouCaring

A few weeks ago, Robert Matney- actor, technology designer, and all-around extraordinary person was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma that had spread to his lymphatic system. In 2008, Rob was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Rob beat it. Last year, a pulmonary embolism tried to do its worst. But Rob beat that, too.

Rob started his new fight the day after Lowell Bartholomee and Beth Burns of Hidden Room Theatre shot this. We want to help get some of his medical bills out the way so he can win this one, too. Any contribution means the world to Rob, his family, his friends, and his future friends family family. Because he's awesome. Please click on the YouCaring image to go to the contribution page.

There will be a benefit performance of Hidden Room's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW at York Rite Theatre (311 West 7th Street 78701) on June 30 and a "tent revival" benefit at The Off Center (2211 Hidalgo 78702) in late July. Go to youcaring.com/matneyvscancer for benefit details and to make a contribution to the medical bill fund.

Rob constantly proves himself to be a treasure among people. We want to make sure that stays true for many years to come. Thank you!

Video by Lowell Bartholomee: Celebrating 29 Years of Austin Shakespeare by Lowell Batholomee

Video by Lowell Bartholomee for Austin Shakespeare, with performance views, posted on Vimeo June 12 --

Celebrate Austin Shakespeare: The Best Within Us from Lowell Bartholomee on Vimeo.

Austin Shakespeare enters its 29th season as a showcase of some of Austin's best talent and the timeless words of Shakespeare and some of our greatest playwrights. This is going to be an exciting season full of challenges and achievements.

TAMING OF THE SHREW, benefit for Robert Matney, staged reading by Hidden Room Theatre at York Masonic Hall, June 30, 2013

The Hidden Room Theatre
[performing at the York Masonic Hall 311 W. 7th St., Austin - click for map]

presents
a staged reading and benefit for Robert Matney:
the original practices staging of
The Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare
June 30, 2013
at the York Masonic Hall, 311 W. 7th Street - click for map
Please join us as we band together to support our very own and much beloved Robert Matney. We are proud to announce that the launch event of the Matney vs Cancer: Fight! benefit is a reunion staged reading of our award-winning Taming of the Shrew Original Practices, Sunday June 30th at the York Rite Masonic Hall. Tickets go one sale shortly. What a wonderful way to show the love for Matney and stand with him in this fight!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Opinion: Robert Matney on Hacking Theatre in a Networked World, Howlround.com

Hacking Theatre in a Networked World

by Robert Matney
April 15, 2013

Robert Matney

We come to the theater to satisfy a Luddite urge for something more visceral, more live and less mediated, more unpredictable than a two-dimensional screen provides. It is, then, no surprise that the theater selects for, and cultivates, in its practitioners a reticence to integrate new technology. Let's own up: collectively we are late adopters.

As theater artists, we have an obligation, I think, to remedy this, or we find ourselves sprinting (faster) toward our obsolescence and abdicating our duty to hold a “mirror to nature” in an increasingly technological culture. Let us hack theater for a networked world, using the Internet's numerical, geographical, and temporal scalability to interact with new audiences, insist on an ongoing and authentic relevance for our work, test new forms, and propagate new possibilities while preserving what is essential about our discipline. Let us trust that theater is resilient enough to make this leap as it has made many others, and that it will survive a modest but important re-programming. And of course, in the pursuit of this remedial integration, let us seek methods that integrate deeply into the art and the aesthetic, rather than yield to the easy seduction of bolt-on and gimmicky technical appendages.


Austin, a bubbling cauldron of new works for theater and a world-class center of hi-tech startups should be a focus of this work, and yet its marvelous potential as a capital of innovation for digital integration with performing art remains largely unrealized. There are virtually no dedicated performance spaces with a functional wired internet connection with proximity to the tech booth/performance space, and only one, to my knowledge, offering a connection greater than low-end residential speeds (>15 Mbps down & 1.5 Mbps up). 

So our work is cut out for us in making good on these extraordinary possibilities in Austin.
I've been collaborating with Beth Burns at Hidden Room Theatre, Graham Schmidt at Breaking String Theater, Ron Berry at Fusebox Festival, Paul Menzer and Matt Davies at Mary Baldwin College (Staunton, VA), and Philip Arnoult at the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD; Baltimore, MD) to work on disparate pieces of hi-tech integration into the work of theater on stage and off.

Our world is networked, and our theater need no longer be wholly defined by a proscenium arch, a black box, or any physical space (empty or otherwise).

For Mary Baldwin College, we are currently working with the Shakespeare and Performance faculty and graduate students to co-create actorscholar.com as an experimental platform for digital dramaturgy (or "digiturgy," a term recently introduced to me by Cassidy Browning during the Cohen New Works Festival). We seek here more than a simple web publishing site (with fair use and copyright sensitive access-control that attends to professional and academic contexts, of course), but also a means of integrating open APIs and freely available web-based data streams to open up new possibilities for dramaturgical content and analysis (such as the ability to easily plot a plays locations in an interactive map so artist and audience can pull the kind of data they desire about the play's location(s)).

With the CITD, Mr. Arnoult, Susan Stroupe, and I are preparing to digitize and live stream for real-time interaction many of the events of Beyond the Capitals II, an international exchange project funded by the Bilateral Presidential Commission: American Seasons in Russia, a program of the US Embassy in Moscow, and which will travel throughout Russia this May. Our goal is to ensure that all of the American participants in the Beyond The Capitals I project can take the journey with us, engage digitally, and interact with the artists we will be visiting in Russia.

At Fusebox, we are in the early stages of building an Art+Technology platform to feature and sustain exploratory work, education, and presentations that innovate in the area of art and technology integration. This year's festival features a number of exciting works, including Motion Bank and Ant Hampton's Cue China.


In the Hidden Room, we seek to solve a distinct art/technology challenge with each project. The first challenge we undertook was to patch together two disparate geographical locations into one contiguous aural and visual performance space. In You Wouldn't Know Her, She Lives In London (named so in Austin) / You Wouldn't Know Him, He Lives In Texas (named so in London), we teamed up with Mimi Poskitt and Look Left Look Right theater, and tethered a site-specific venue in Austin with the Roundhouse in London, with each venue containing a portion of the cast and a full in-location public audience. We picked up video in each location and cross-displayed it, "lining up" the people and equipment for mutual visibility for all participants. Additionally, we microphoned and cross-amplified the spaces such that if an Austinite opened a candy wrapper during the performance he could successfully annoy the audience in Austin and London. We then used a separate computer in London to encode the video conversation between the Austin and London locations, streaming the results to the web for a third, online audience. In all locations, a Twitter-hashtag- delimited text stream was presented, and all audiences were encouraged to interact with each other and the performers for shared textual visibility.

Hidden Room's next project was to tune our technical process to enable transcontinental rehearsal. With Rose Rage, we conducted our rehearsals with actors located in London, Cornwall, Virginia, and Austin. This process took us through 75% of the rehearsal period before all gathered in Austin to present a run of this six-hour production.
 
Click 'Read more' to continue or click HERE to go to the article at www.howlround.com

THE GIRL WITH TIME IN HER EYES, Hidden Room Theatre at SXSW, March 10, 2013

The Hidden Room Theatre is proud to present

Robin Jones’ and Beth Burns' mind-bending interactive time-travel pulp play

THE GIRL WITH TIME IN HER EYES

March 10 at SXSW

Become a volunteer test subject for an emerging technology that allows you to witness and document a mystery that happened sixty years ago. Change the fabric of history as you untangle clues and avoid deceptions. Running time 40 minutes, Next Stage Austin Convention Center, SXSW Interactive. Come back with us as we travel through crime!

Starring Judd Farris, Julia Lorenz-Olson, Toby Minor, Ryan Hamilton, and Robert Matney. Directed by Beth Burns. Story by Robin Jones and Beth Burns.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Invisible, Inc. by Paul Menzer, Hidden Room Theatre at Rolllins Theatre, Long Center, January 11 - 20, 2013

by Dr. David Glen Robinson and Michael Meigs

Outside the Austin skyline was bright and magical as ever while enthusiastic crowds gathered for last Thursday’s preview and Saturday’s performance of Invisible, Inc. The Hidden Room Theatre created a delicious, dark and intriguing world in the Rollins black box theatre at the Long Center, emerging from the secret shadows of the historic York Rite Masonic Temple on W. 7th Street and going big time. It's too bad that the company and its director and proprietary matriarch Beth Burns can't occupy that venue for a longer term, because Invisible, Inc. is an elegant and witty entertainment. It’s their first theatre outing since last year’s multiple-award-winning Rose Rage.


One special appeal is that its leads are Robert Matney and Liz Fisher, a young husband and wife pair who enjoy the sort of respect and affection in Austin that Alfred Lunt and Margot Fontanne had on Broadway from the 1930's through the 1960's. Noël Coward wrote his 1933 Design for Living for that famous couple; coincidentally, Austin Shakespeare will be doing that work in this same venue in just a few weeks. Now, there's a thought experiment: substituting Matney and Fisher for Miller and Merino.


Burns presents a gorgeously designed package. Ia Ensterä's set makes the black box into a Manhattan highrise living room with a broad window at deep center stage, decorated in Art Deco via Bela Lugosi. At the audience's far left stands an upright piano that's part of the same playing space; at the far right there's a tumble of furniture representing a garret somewhere far downtown. With furniture shifts the central playing space can belong to either of these. With a shift in lighting, the flare of a spotlight and a change in the image at deep center stage, the space becomes a theatre complete with proscenium.


Patrons desiring premium seating can pay a bit extra to settle at one of the four-person nightclub tables on the floor with the performing space, where they'll be handsomely welcomed and entertained by an amiable professional magician who does up-close illusions and prestidigitation. On Saturday evening the company's Master of Magic (coach) J.D. Stewart was resplendent, gregarious and astonishing. He left us dumbfounded with his skills. We have no idea how those playing cards flew invisibly through the air or those coins appeared impossibly at his bidding.


Invisible, Inc. is soaked with atmosphere and its spookiness is boosted when the lights first go down and that upright piano erupts into lengthy evocative passes of the keys by the invisible Graham Reynolds. His score for MIDI-assisted player piano punctuates the action with the same dexterity as the big Wurlitzer organs at the cinema palaces of the 1930's.


Menzer’s play offers us the world of vaudeville magic acts and magicians in the 1930’s. The potential for a peek behind the magician’s cabinet is immense, and the playwright gives us several such peeks on our way through the story. The characters present magic turns in every scene, their very gestures accented with flash paper. Handcuffs fall off wrists; cards appear and disappear; straitjackets and cabinets cannot contain them. The disappearance of objects, people and reality raises the tension and the ante, and the onslaught of illusions challenges the audience’s perceptions and certitudes.


Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

INVISIBLE INC. by Paul Menzer, Hidden Room Theatre at Rolllins Theatre, Long Center, January 11 - 20, 2013

The Hidden Room

presents

 


January 11 - 20, 2013
January 11-20 at the Long Center, every night except on Tuesday 15th.
Mondays - Saturdays 8 pm, Sundays 5pm
Click to purchase TICKETS

The Hidden Room is proud to present the world premiere of this stylish and crackling noir mystery by Paul Menzer (author of The Brats of Clarence). This fantastical event swirls around feuding magicians in New York: one in the ritzy theatres of Manhattan, the other in back alley speakeasies, both knee-deep in danger.

Starring Robert Matney, Liz Fisher, Joseph Garlock, Laurence Pears, Todd Kassens, and Julia Lorenz-Olson.

Original music by Graham Reynolds, set by Ia Enstera, lights by Megan Reilly, props by Justin Cox, and magic consultation by JD Stewart.


Purchase a general admission ticket, or enjoy the magic close up at table seating!

SPECIAL TALK BACK WITH PLAYWRIGHT MENZER post-show Friday the 11th and Saturday 12th.

There will be no extensions! 10 performances only!

Running time 90 mins.

Proudly supported by the Redd Carpet Fund
Presented at the Joe R. and Teresa Long Center for the Performing Arts

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Big Love by Charles Mee, Shrewd Productions at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center, November 10 - 27

Received directly:

presents

Big Love

a comedy by Charles Mee

directed by Robert Faires

November 10 - 27, 2011
Thursdays - Sundays at 8 p.m.
Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts

50 runaway brides seek refuge in a villa on the Italian coast in this hilarious and heartbreaking comedy by Charles Mee. When 50 determined grooms drop out of the sky, the villa erupts in a clash of wills, song and dance, romantic reverie, violent fits, satin ribbon, and one final, unforgettable showdown.

Based on the oldest play in the western world, The Suppliants by Aeschylus, Mee's modern take is at once an unflinching look at the themes of justice and revenge, and an ode to the enduring power of love.

Robert Faires directs this tulle covered, rice throwing, dangerous confection of a play. Big Love features some of Austin's finest theatrical talent, including Aaron Alexander, Lana Dieterich, Shannon Grounds, Anne Hulsman, Rob Matney, Nathan Osburn, Michael Slefinger, Andrea Smith, Rommel Sulit and Julianna Elizabeth Wright with lighting design by Patrick Anthony, set by Ia Enstara, costumes by Pam Friday, choreography by Toby Minor and sound by Buzz Moran.

Presented by special arrangement with International Creative Management, Inc.

Upcoming: Skype and Performance, a discussion, Salvage Vanguard, July 7

Found on-line:

Skype in Performance

a discussion facilitated by Robert Matney and Kelli Bland

organized by the Exchange Artists

Thursday, July 7, 7 - 9 p.m.

Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. (click for map)

[Click image to view Facebook event page]

You are cordially invited to attend a sweet little affair highlighting the role of Skype in Performance. We will begin with introductions from two local groups engaged in international performance via Skype. Robert Matney, of The Hidden Room's production of "You Wouldn't Know her she lives in London", and
Kelli Bland, of the U.S. contribution to Imploding Fictions "You are Invited" will share their experiences in the creation and performance of theatrical productions utilizing Skype to connect to international audiences.

This free to the public event will include refreshments and an opportunity for questions and discussion about this new vehicle for performance.

Hope to see you there!

Images by Will Hollis Snider: Uncle Vanya, Breaking String Theatre Company, June - July 3

Performance photos taken by Will Hollis Snider for

Anton Chekhov’s

Uncle Vanya

directed by Graham Schmidt

June 16th - July 2nd

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m., Monday, June 27 at 8 p.m.

at the Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street (click for map)

Chekhov's meditation on hope and environmental stewardship speaks with increasing urgency a century after its first performance.

Tickets available at breakingstring.com/tickets and 512-784-1465

General Admission: $15 - 25, Sliding scale;Monday, July 27th is a Pay-What-You-Will Industry Night

Click to view additional images by Will Hollis Snider at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Uncle Vanya, Breaking String Theatre Company at the Off-Center, June 23 - July 2

ALTcom welcomes Brian Paul Scipione as a contributor to its coverage of live theatre in Austin. Scipione went to the Rude Mechs' Off Center on Friday night for the second performance of Breaking String Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, but the failure of an Austin Energy transformer shut off power to the neighborhood just at curtain time. Nothing daunted, he returned for the Saturday performance.

by Brian Paul Scipione

The Tragedy of the Individual

“Why am I old?” shouts Uncle Vanya about mid-way through the play bearing his name. He doesn’t ask anyone in particular and he doesn’t expect an answer. It is a statement, a question, an interjection as well as a plea. Perhaps he’s speaking to himself, perhaps to his family and perhaps to God. He is forlorn, lost, meandering and, at best, seeking answers to questions he’s always wanted to ask.

Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya is as timeless as anything by Shakespeare or Homer and it is the latest venture of Austin’s own Breaking String theater troupe. The group led by Co-Producing Artistic Directors Liz Fisher, Robert Matney, Matt Radford, and Graham Schmidt, concentrates on Russian drama both classic and contemporary. They have already tackled Chekov’s The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard. Director Graham Schmidt crafted a new translation into English for each of the three.

Why re-translate works that have been translated many times before? Schmidt believes retranslating during the performance process lends a certain immediacy to the actor’s performance. “In this way, they feel they can take a new work approach to a classic play.”

Allow me to illustrate. An earlier translation contains the following line:

“This wonderful feeling of mine will be wasted and lost as a ray of sunlight is lost that falls into a dark chasm, and my life will go with it.”

In the Breaking String production, the same line is fired off with greater clarity and poignancy:

“My feelings are fading away like sunbeams into a pit.”

The emotive plea of the character rings out quickly and sharply, stripping away unnecessary diction and poetic prose.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Uncle Vanya, Breaking String Theatre Company at the Off-Center, June 23 - July 2

Received directly:

presents

Anton Chekhov’s

Uncle Vanya

directed by Graham Schmidt

June 16th - July 2nd

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m., Monday, June 27 at 8 p.m.

at the Off-Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street (click for map)

Chekhov's meditation on hope and environmental stewardship speaks with increasing urgency a century after its first performance.

Tickets available at breakingstring.com/tickets and 512-784-1465

General Admission: $15 - 25, Sliding scale;

Monday, July 27th is a Pay-What-You-Will Industry Night

Student rush tickets released 10 minutes before curtain for all performances: $10

Breaking String revisits the Russian canon with a production of Chekhov’s 1899 masterpiece, Uncle Vanya. Ironically sub-titled “Scenes From Country Life,” the play chronicle a climactic moment of rural Russian life. Uncle Vanya is about finding meaning, hope, and conservation in a life that seems to promise little. Chekhov revised his early play Wood Demon (1889) into the triumphant Uncle Vanya.

Uncle Vanya’s theme of ecology speaks to the world's ever-more urgent discussions of conservation and sustainability. Chekhov's insight that the fate of humankind is tied to the fate of the environment now seems prophetic: "In all of you there’s a demon of destruction. You spare neither forests, nor women, nor one another…." (Yelena speaking to Vanya)

Breaking String’s Uncle Vanya features direction and an original translation by Graham Schmidt. The ensemble cast of actors includes Robert Deike, Emily Everidge, Liz Fisher, Harvey Guion, Anne Hulsman, Chris Humphrey, Robert Matney, and Matt Radford. The production also features sound design by Adam Hilton, scenic design by Ia Layadi, costume design by Julia Howze, and lighting design by Steven Shirey.

This is the fourth work for which Breaking String Theater has commissioned an original translation from resident translator Graham Schmidt. Of the practice Schmidt observed, “It is integral to our process, our identity, and is a reflection of our desire for direct contact with Chekhov's words, tailored for this moment and for our work.”

BREAKING STRING THEATER is a sponsored project of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance, a non-profit organization. Breaking String presents drama important to Russian history and exposes Austin audiences developing Russian theater. We seek to connect people across time and culture. Our mission is threefold: We create excellent productions of Russian traditional and avant-garde plays; we provide artists with a creative, respectful and professional work environment; we pursue collaboration with Russian theater artists through our partnerships with the Center for International Theatre Development’s Philip Arnoult, and Moscow-based critic/translator John Freedman.

A Most Unsettling and Possibly Haunted Evening in the Parlour of the Brothers Grimm, Hidden Room Theatre and Trouble Puppet Theatre, October 28-30

We had a lovely evening at the Hidden Room last weekend in the company of some of Austin's more whimsical and talented theatre artists. That impossibly long title might suggest more whimsy than one could stomach, but in fact the Evening in the Parlour of the Brothers Grimm was something of a Halloween valentine. Or more precisely, perhaps, a delicate, exciting dark chocolate delight, laced with spices and bitter almonds.

Sweet enough to make you giddy with the fetching, subtle taste of cyanide. . . .

Imagination was rife. This collaboration must have been a labor of love, done for three nights only. Guiding forces were Beth Burns of Hidden Theatre, that gifted refugee from Los Angeles who has become thoroughly Austin; the genial Robert Matney, so familiar in character roles in this town; puppet wizards Connor Hopkins, Caroline Reck and theTrouble Puppet team; musicians masked and led by Jennifer Davis, sorcerer of period music; and the slim, mysterious and exotic Djahari Clark, a bicoastal dancer who leads her own group Desert Sin.

Spectator participants gathered with their passwords at the historic Masonic building on West 7th Street. Those who know Austin theatre received a special shiver of anticipation when they realized that Bernadette Nason was the prim receptionist downstairs. Nason is a clever and personable actress in her own right -- her presence in the downstairs antechamber in itself promised astonishing events upstairs.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Most Unsettling (. . . [with the]) Brothers Grimm, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company and The Hidden Room, October 28-30

Received directly:

AND

extend an invitation for you to view

A Most Unsettling and Possibly Haunted Evening

in the Parlour of the Brothers Grimm

October 28, 8 p.m.

October 29, 8 p.m.

October 30, 8:00 p.m.& 10 p.m.

In a hidden room somewhere within 311 W. 7th Street,

the Brothers Grimm are entertaining for Hallowe'en...

A sinister co-production from Trouble Puppet Theatre Company (Frankenstein, The Jungle) and The Hidden Room (Taming of the Shrew - Original Practices),

A Most Unsettling and Possibly Haunted Evening in the Parlour of the Brothers Grimm features thrillingly gruesome (and therefore rarely told) tales, accompanied by live musicians and of course the amazing creations of Trouble Puppet.

While in the parlour, you may also:

• Thrill to the forbidden dances of Desert Sin!
• Dare to see your future revealed in the hands of a wandering gypsy!
• Revel with Wilheim Grimm as he leads the lighthearted in parlour games!
• Delight in caramel apples, and other traditional treats!
• Brave the tales that have for hundreds of years terrified and taught the invaluable lesson - "TRUST NO ONE."

Click for more images by Kimberley Mead, posted by ALT on October 9

This evening promises to be highly disquieting, and is certainly not recommended for patrons under the age of 13, or those with delicate sensibilities. Ladies should consider a mild loosening of the corset to avoid hyperventilation.

Reservations & Password: hiddenroomtheatre@yahoo.com

Tickets & Information: AusTIX at 512-474-TIXS (8497) or at www.nowplayingaustin.com/Austix

Queries to the Matriarch: (310) 243-6426 or hiddenroomtheatre@yahoo.com

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Austin Playhouse, March 27 - May 2

Kimberly Barrow as the enamored Suzanne comes to the "Lapin Agile" -- the "Nimble Rabbit" -- bar-bistro, looking for Pablo Picasso, the man who enraptured her by drawing a dove on the back of her hand and then having his way with her. She learns, eventually, that maybe the second time is not as good as the first.

I can share that feeling. I reviewed Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile last year as done by the Sam Bass Community Theatre in Round Rock. Theirs was, I reported, "a charming production of a quirky play by America's quirky funnyman Steve Martin." My review tracked through the plot and had a tone of satisfied amusement.

On viewing this Austin Playhouse staging, the thrill was gone, It seemed to me that Steve Martin, like his character Picasso, was seeking too hard to amaze.

Martin sets us in a Paris bistro in 1904, when the young Albert Einstein worked as a clerk in the patent office and the young Pablo Picasso, hungry and unknown, was seeking artistic expression, money, fame and women. His premise is that their encounter at the "Nimble Rabbit" bistro-bar was a defining moment for the twentieth century.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Christopher Loveless: Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Austin Playhouse, March 26 - May 2

Click for ALT review, April 22

Images of Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Christopher Loveless, courtesy of Austin Playhouse:

This production plays March 26 - May 2 at
Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m .
Prices: $26 Thursdays, Fridays, $28 Saturdays, Sundays
$35 Opening Night, March 26, 2010
All student tickets are half-price
Tickets/Information at (512) 476-0084

[photo: Robert Matney as Einstein, with Kimberly Barrow]

It’s 1904 in Paris and a young Albert Einstein is working on a very famous theory. At the same time, a young Pablo Picasso is almost ready to “leave Blue behind.” At the Lapin Agile, a cabaret bar in Montmartre, Paris,frequented by artists, anarchists, and dreamers, these two young visionaries meet and engage in a lively debate on the creative process and the true nature of genius.

View additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin, Austin Playhouse, March 26 - May 2

Click for ALT review, April 22

UPDATE: Review by Olin Meadows for AustinOnStage.com, April 12

UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at examiner.com, April 8

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

Picasso at the Lapin Agile
by Steve Martin

March 26 - May 2, 2010
Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m .
Prices: $26 Thursdays, Fridays, $28 Saturdays, Sundays
$35 Opening Night, March 26, 2010
All student tickets are half-price
Tickets/Information at (512) 476-0084

It’s 1904 in Paris and a young Albert Einstein is working on a very famous theory. At the same time, a young Pablo Picasso is almost ready to “leave Blue behind.” At the Lapin Agile, a cabaret bar in Montmartre, Paris,frequented by artists, anarchists, and dreamers, these two young visionaries meet and engage in a lively debate on the creative process and the true nature of genius.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile was written in 1993 by famed comedian and actor Steve Martin. It is set on October 8, 1904, a time when Einstein and Picasso were both on the verge of executing a tremendous act of genius. Einstein will publish his theory of relativity in 1905 and Picasso will paint 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' in 1907.

Martin has written, "Focusing on Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Picasso’s master painting 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,' the play attempts to explain, in a light-hearted way, the similarity of the creative process involved in great leaps of imagination in art and science."

Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a playful, witty, incredibly funny look at how artists, scientists, and other inventors bound past society’s norms to enhance and advance humanity’s understanding of itself. Bringing the play to life is an incredible ensemble including Ben Wolfe as Picasso, Robert Matney as Einstein, Huck Huckaby as Freddy, Cyndi Williams as Germaine, Tom Parker as Gaston, David Stahl as Sagot, Kimberly Barrow as Suzanne and The Countess, Barry Miller as Schmendiman, and Jason Newman as The Singer.

The play is directed by Austin Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Lara Toner (Age of Arousal, The Turn of the Screw), with set design by Jessica Colley-Mitchell (Misalliance, A Flea in Her Ear), costume design by Buffy Manners (Misalliance, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and lighting design by Don Day (Misalliance, Frost/Nixon).

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Breaking String Theatre at the Blue Theatre, October 5 - 21

What is this quiet exhilaration I feel in the presence of Chekhov? Especially when the piece is as well played as this one?

For opening night at the Blue Theatre many of the seats were taken by young persons who might well have been undergraduates. Directly opposite me, across the three-quarter thrust of the playing space, one or two had spiral notebooks and pencils in hand.

I cannot recall if the vision of this end-of-the-19th-century Russian physician and author moved me so much at their age. Perhaps I was impressed principally by the exotic setting; the great but impoverished families of the Russian countryside were certainly alien to me. I probably liked the foolishness of some of the characters and admired Chekhov's women, who are simultaneously fragile and enduring.

But at university age I probably had a good deal of the unselfconscious arrogance that Mme Ranyevskaya so simply reproaches of Peter Trofimov, the eternal student who six years earlier was tutor to her son Grisha, before the boy drowned in the river:

"What truth? You can see what's true or untrue, but I seem to have lost my sight, I see nothing. You solve the most serious problems so confidently, but tell me, dear boy, isn't that because you're young -- not old enough for any of your problems to have caused you real suffering? You face the future so bravely, but then you can't imagine anything terrible happening, can you? And isn't that because you're still too young to see what life's really like?"

Now, several decades later, I am amused, perhaps a bit dismayed, to find myself resembling more closely Mme Ranyevskaya's brother Leonid Gaev, played by Ev Lunning, Jr. He's an idle but well-meaning billiards enthusiast easily tempted to pontificate over the trivial, including, for example, the hundred-year anniversary of the cabinet in the nursery. At least Leonid Gaev has the good sense to feel abashed when his nieces beg him, "Oh, do please, stop, Uncle!"

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .