Coriolanus by William Shakespeare, Trinity Street Players, November 2 - 18

by Michael Meigs


In his March 2010 profile of Austin theatre for World Theatre Day, Austin Chronicle arts editor and theatre artist Robert Faires noted that certain works, including Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' and A Midsummer Night's Dream, "circle round again and again like pop songs in heavy rotation. In fact, Austin theatre companies have a curious tendency to remount all kinds of plays that were staged in the area within the past 10 or so years, as if it were part of the city’s recycling effort."

That hasn't changed, as least as far as those Shakespeare stalwarts are concerned. Since that time Austin Live Theatre has noted stagings of Macbeth and Macbeth take-offs by Philip Kreyche, the Sam Bass Youth Guild, a 20-minute version by Robert Deike for the 2012 FronteraFest, the Proxy Theatre in San Antonio, a 1930's gangster style version at the EmilyAnn Theatre in Wimberley and -- now entering its final weekend -- Trouble Puppet Theatre company's Toil and Trouble in which Zac Crofford speaks for the Macbeth puppet as he animates the bloody thane.

In like wise, there's been a surfeit of cavorting of the original rude mechanicals on their midsummer nights: following those of the Baron's Men at the Curtain Theatre in September, 2010, in 2011 there came Shakespeare in Winedale, Playhouse Smithville, the Weird Sisters Theatre Collective, and Actors from the London Stage. This year has seen the rudes riffed in Will Hollis Snider's Messenger #4 and a wheeled outdoor production by the Austin Bike Zoo; San Antonio's Woodlawn Theatre will do it next year. High school productions were offered in Dripping Springs and Cedar Park, and Austin High School's Red Dragon Players are doing A Midsummer Night's Dream this week.

 

But now we're seeing a more adventurous exploration of the Shakespeare canon, thanks to Kevin Gates and a determined band of relatively young Austin Shakespearians. Gates has the lead as Caius Marcus Coriolanus in a vigorous modern dress production about to wind up a three-weekend run at the black box theatre at the First Baptist Church used by the Trinity Street Players. 

And auditions have just been held for the equally infrequently performed Richard II, to be staged at the Elizabethan-style outdoor Curtain Theatre in February-March, 2013. Gates and Aaron Black will both play protagonist Richard and antagonist Bolingbroke, with each night's assignment of roles to be determined by a coin toss. The ad hoc company calls itself The Poor Shadows of Elysium -- from the epithet used in Act V of Cymbeline by Jupiter as he descends from the heavens, seated on an eagle and throwing a thunderbolt.

Does this all sound a bit too obscure and brainy for the Austin public? Perhaps -- but given the evidence provided with Coriolanus, directed by Bridget Farias, the Gates/Black head-to-head promises to be thrilling, both for the plebes seeking entertainment and the patricians enamored of Shakespeare's language and vast inventiveness. 

Directing Richard II will be Christina Gutierrez, Ph.D candidate at UT who has done dramaturgy for Austin Shakespeare and others, including this production, and who directed the late Elizabethan revenge tragedy 'Tis Pity She's A Whore by John Ford, staged last year at the Cathedral of Junk. Gates, seeing the writing on his personal wall, has begun a Ph.D. program at Texas State University, commuting for classes but working in Austin, where he just directed Marlowe's Doctor Faustus for the Last Act Theatre Company. These are serious and capable folks, people who know how to interpret and deliver classic drama.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare, November 3 - 18

William Shakespeare’s

Coriolanus

William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus - Opens November 2^nd at Black Box Theatre!

War is hell, but politics may be worse. And when one becomes the other, no one walks away unscathed.

In this season of political warfare and warring politics, experience Trinity Street Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus starting November 2^nd at Blackbox Theatre at Ninth and Trinity in downtown Austin. 

Believed to be written by Shakespeare between 1605 and 1610, the play’s themes of class privileges and general unhappiness with government remains relevant today in our own sound-bite society as they were in the riotous streets of the Roman Republic.

The play begins with Coriolanus, a respected and feared general who is at odds with his City and his people. Pushed by his highly determined and calculating mother to seek the prestigious position of Consul, Coriolanus gives into his mother’s wishes but ultimately finds himself banished and raging with vengeance.

Coriolanus is directed by Bridget Farias, an award-winning actress and director, who is currently the full-time Artistic Director at the EmilyAnn Theatre in Wimberley, Texas. Farias holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Acting and Directing and has recently played Catherine in Proof with Trinity Street Players and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the EmilyAnn Theatre.

The brilliant cast features Kevin Gates as “Coriolanus.” Gates is a Master of Fine Arts theatre student at Texas State University. He recently played Giovanni in Tis Pity She's a Whore and is directing Dr. Faustus for Last Act Theatre. Sam Mercer will play “Aufidius.” Mercer was recently nominated for two B.Iden Payne Awards, having played in Austin Shakespeare and Two Towers. Austin favorite Charles Stites will play “Menenius.” Stites is a past B.Iden Payne Award Nominee and a well-known and respected local actor and director.

A show with important societal themes, Coriolanus will leave you asking, “Who is worthy to lead? What role do we all have in the success or failure of our government? What is the price of power? And how far, really, are we willing to go to get what we want?”

Opening night is Friday, November 2^nd at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free to the public, but reservations may be made at http://trinitystreetplayers.com/reservations or by calling 512-402-3086. Donations are appreciated.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Statesman and Chronicle Arts Writers Announce Their Favorites in the Critics' Table 2012-2012 Awards

from the Statesman's Austin360.com Seeing Things blog, June 4

2011-2012 Austin Critics’ Table Awards: The winners

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin | Monday, June 4, 2012, 08:00 PM

Austin actors Liz Beckham, Jude Hickey, Eugene Lee, Nikki Zook and Sam Mercer won Austin Critics’ Table Awards for Outstanding Acting in Leading Role.

The awards — presented by an informal group arts critics from the American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle — were presented Monday night at a ceremony at Cap City Comedy Club.

Daniel Ching, first violinist with the Miró Quartet, won for Oustanding Instrumentalist for his performance of “Credo” by the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts.

Conspirare won Outstanding Choral Performance for its concert “Samuel Barber: American Romantic” and Conspirare singer David Farwig won for Outstanding Singer.

The award for Outstanding Original Composition was tie with Steven Snowden winning for his chamber piece “For So Long It’s Not True” and Ian Dicke winning for “Musa.”

Among the visual artist netting kudos, Laurie Frick and Miguel Aragon both won the outstanding artist of the year award. Colby Bird received the Outstanding Solo Gallery Exhibition for his show at Lora Reynolds Gallery.

[AustinLiveTheatre note:  ALT expects to list its own 'Applause' recognition for artists in live narrative theatre for the period 5/2011-7/2012 around August 1]

Click to view the full list of artists recognized by writers for the Statesman and the Chronicle for 2011-2012

Upon A Midnight Dreary, Last Act Theatre Company, July 14 - 23

Edgar Allan Poe is a deceptively attractive figure for theatre makers. We've all read with a delicious shiver his best-known short stories. His themes of death, madness and mystery are so very elemental that they have never gone out of style. The elaborate early 19th century style of his poetry may be a challenge, but the simple sardonics of his short stories, often in first person, appeal to our desire for intensity.

As long as you're doing your own adaptation or interpretation, you don't have any royalties to pay, either, since the dissolute Mr. Poe collapsed on the streets of Baltimore in 1849 and died shortly thereafter.

The newly established Last Act Theatre Company has a genesis typical of ambitious young theatre groups in Austin. Five of the six members of the board are theatre graduates of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. They got started in Austin last October with Theatre de Grand Guignol at the Hideout Theatre and they have announced three more works for 2011-2012: a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and original scripts by Gary Jaffe and by Bretton B. Holmes.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .