(*) Jump-Start Performance Company Moves to Smaller Space in Beacon Hill, San Antonio

Booted from Blue Star, Jump-Start lands in Beacon Hill

By Deborah Martin : November 14, 2013

(photo: Helen L. Montoya)

Jump-Start Performance Co. has found in Beacon Hill its new home. 


The theater company learned in April that its lease at the Blue Star Arts Complex in Southtown would not be renewed. After looking at about 10 spaces, it has landed at a one-time artist's studio at 710 Fredericksburg Road, and are renting it from artist Rolando Briseño.


Jump-Start plans to announce its new home at a press conference Friday. The company also will announce changes to its programming approach and in its leadership structure.


“We're really happy to be in the neighborhood, because it's a revitalized neighborhood,” said Felice Garcia, the company's technical director, who will be overseeing much of the move into the new space.


Jump-Start has been based at the Blue Star Arts Complex for nearly 20 years. It plans to have its administrative offices moved out completely by Christmas. Its final performance in the space will be “Performance Party,” its annual New Year's show/party/fundraiser, on Jan. 11.


The company has a one-year commitment to the new space, said Erik Bosse, who handles the company's public relations.


“I'm very excited that Jump-Start is moving there,” Briseño said.


The company's new neighbors include a ceramics studio, Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery and the Uptown Studio, which offers dance classes and other arts-oriented activities.

Read more at Arts Beat, MySanAntonio.com

San Antonio Remembers Mary Denman, Obit by Jeanne Jakle, San Antonio Express-News, May 9, 2013

Local broadcast and stage figure Mary Denman dies at 90

Mary Denman, 1971 (CLICK TO VIEW SLIDESHOW)

by Jeanne Jakle, Staff Writer

Thursday, May 9, 2013

San Antonio radio, television and stage legend Mary Denman died Wednesday in a local private care facility. She was 90.



“Alzheimer's is a living hell,” her eldest daughter, Daryl Ann Denman, said Thursday. “Her dementia had started in the last few years. She finally just lapsed into an unresponsive coma.”

However, Denman, a pioneer of women in broadcasting and an ardent supporter of local theater, continues to burn brightly in the hearts and memories of many in news and entertainment here.

“It seemed Mary sort of floated through life effortlessly. Amazingly, she continued voice acting even into her 80s,” said Eileen Pace, reporter/host at Texas Public Radio's KSTX-FM.

“She was a trailblazer, and game for anything,” KENS-TV anchorwoman Deborah Knapp said.

“She even televised her own facelift,” Knapp recalled. “And when I was doing a story about sex over 60, Mary was more than happy to be interviewed.”

Denman's media career spanned some five decades, from the 1950s into the 21st century. She received numerous awards, including the National Achievement Award from the American Women in Radio and Television in 1995.

She was born June 28, 1922, spending her childhood and young adult years in Canton, Ohio. She earned a degree in English and music from Miami University there.

She started her TV career in Corpus Christi, hosting the city's first children's show, “Toyland Time,” as “The Song Lady” on KVDO in the early 1950s.

When she and husband Dick Denman moved to San Antonio, she was hired as the host-producer of “Our Town,” a weekday interview program on KENS-TV. Eventually, she became the station's first female co-anchor of a newscast.

Later, she moved to WOAI radio as the producer and co-host of “Morning Magazine” Monday through Friday.

After leaving radio, Denman and her husband formed their own ad agency, Mary Denman Inc., and ran it together until his death in 1991.

She then developed a radio program for seniors called “Prime Plus.” For the next 13 years, it aired every Sunday morning, first on WOAI, then KENS-AM and finally on KLUP.

Denman's passion for performing went beyond broadcasting, however. She's also remembered as a dynamo on the stage, playing everything from chorus parts to leads in local productions.

“She was amazing,” said Diane Malone, co-founder of the Classic Theatre of San Antonio, who served on the Alamo Theatre Arts Council board with Denman. “Always good-natured and gracious and generous and charming and sexy — even into her 80s.”

Behind the scenes, Denman also did a lot for local theater, chairing the capital campaign committee which renovated and restored The Playhouse, formerly the San Pedro Playhouse, raising more than $1 million.

There will be no burial.

“She donated her body to University of Texas Health Science Center,” daughter Daryl explained. “Mother felt that this was the way to go. It doesn't cost a dime and serves a purpose.”

Asia Ciaravino, president and CEO of The Playhouse, is asking local theaters to dim their lights at 8 p.m. Friday in honor of Denman.

Staff Writer Deborah Martin and directorsresource.com contributed to this report.

jjakle@express-news.net

Read and view slideshow at www.mysanantonio.com

Arts Reporting: Classic Theatre Explores Potential New Homes, by Deborah Martin of the San Antonio Express-News, April 23

from the paper's Art beat page at www.mysanantonio.com:

Brendan Spieth, Dru Baucus (photo: Dwayne Green)

 

Classic Theatre explores potential new homes

Posted on 04/23/2013 by Deborah Martin

In the short time since they learned they’ll have to move, the folks at Classic Theatre have looked at potential new homes at the Woodlawn Theatre, the Josephine Theatre, Performing Arts San Antonio and Fox Tech High School.


The big take-away so far? “There’s a lot of unused space in San Antonio,” said Diane Malone, a co-founder of the company.


The company currently shares space with Jump-Start Performance Co. at the Blue Star Arts Complex. Jump-Start learned nearly two weeks ago that their lease on the building will not be renewed. The company was able to negotiate an extension that allows them to stay through January.


Classic closes its fifth season with the farce “Scapin,” slated to open May 10 at the Sterling Houston Theater at Jump-Start. The company has not yet decided whether they’ll begin their sixth season there and then move, or if they’ll do their entire season at a new space, Malone said.


Ideally, Classic’s new space will include room for an office, storage and rehearsal space.


“We’re asking for the moon,” Malone said.


A lot of other theaters have stepped up and offered to house the company, she said.


“A lot of people are talking about, it giving us suggestions: There’s a place here, a place there, museums and theaters and storefronts,” she said.


There is also a possibility that Jump-Start will go in together on a new space.

At this point, nothing is off the table: “We’re not eliminating any options,” Malone said.

(*) Another Two Theatre Companies Evicted from Blue Star Arts Complex, report by Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News, April 17

Jump-Start getting the Blue Star boot

By Deborah Martin, Staff Writer

Updated 6:14 pm, Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Jump-Start Performance Co., which has been based at the Blue Star Arts Complex for nearly 20 years, is losing its lease there.

The group will be moving in January, said Producing Director Lisa Suarez. Jump-Start's lease ends in September, but company members were able to negotiate a four-month extension.

Jump-Start is the latest arts group to leave the complex as owner James Lifshutz carries out renovations to add more retail.

Lifshutz did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

The news that Jump-Start will have to move came as a surprise, said Dino Foxx, the theater's public relations director. The company had met with Lifshutz last year as renovations moved forward, Foxx said, and had been told they could rest easy.

“At that time, they assured us that we were definitely a tenant they wanted to keep,” Foxx said.

They received a phone call April 10 informing them otherwise.

The move also will leave Classic Theatre, which shares Jump-Start's space, homeless.

Classic is slated to open the farce “Scapin” May 10. That show's run will take place as planned.

Both companies are determining how to move forward.

“Many options are being brought to the table,” Suarez said. “I was continuing to remind everyone, we are not about this facility necessarily. We are about the creativeness that comes from the company.”

The possibility of the two theater troupes finding a new space together has been floated, Foxx said, but it's too early to say how likely that is to happen.

“There are so many question marks,” said Renee Garvens, who handles publicity and oversees the education program for Classic. “At this point, we want to make sure that we contact all of our big donors and let them know we're full steam ahead.”

The Overtime Theater left Blue Star last year, also as a result of the renovation. The company found a new home near the Pearl Brewery.

Leaving Blue Star turned out well for them, said Artistic Director Kyle Gillette.

“The Pearl is the area right now that is promoting exciting new work and where things are happening,” he said. “And Blue Star, unfortunately, has decided to shun its artists. It's a real shame what they're doing.”

Click to go to on-line article

(*) 2013 Season for The Playhouse, San Antonio, via Deborah Martin in the San Antonio Express-News

Playhouse to open season with 'Les Misérables'

By Deborah Martin, January 18, 2013

Playhouse President and CEO Asia Ciaravino read a lot of plays before hitting on what she thinks is the best lineup for the 2013-14 season.

She was looking for pieces that lent themselves to community outreach for the theater, including talk-backs and performances outside the space. And she looked for works that would stretch the artists.

“It's a really good opportunity for our talent to shine,” she said.

To that end, the Russell Hill Rogers stage upstairs will offer:

“Les Misérables”: The sprawling musical, which spawned the current big-buzz movie, spins a tale of redemption, romance and revolution. The Playhouse will be the first non-school in the city to produce the piece; the North East School of the Arts staged the school edition in 2011.

“Guys and Dolls”: The 1950 musical offers up the lively story of gamblers trying to keep a game going and the women who exasperate and enchant them. The score includes such classics as “Adelaide's Lament,” “Luck be a Lady,” “Sue Me” and “Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat.”

“Company”: Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical drama follows a man as he reflects on his relationships and the fact that he's never married. The score includes “Another Hundred People” and “The Ladies Who Lunch.”

“Funny Girl”: The musical digs into the life of performer Fanny Brice. The score includes “People,” “Don't Rain on My Parade” and “The Music That Makes Me Dance.”

“Tommy”: The rock opera brings The Who's 1969 double album about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who “sure plays a mean pinball” to the stage. The score includes “See Me, Feel Me,” “Listening to You” and “I'm Free.”

As for the Cellar season, it holds:

“Wittenberg”: David Davalos' comedic drama brings together Hamlet, Faustus and Martin Luther for a piece exploring philosophical concepts.

“The Waiting Room”: Lisa Loomer's comedic drama explores shifting ideas of female beauty and the cost of that pursuit.

“Venus in Fur”: David Ives' drama is set at an audition for a theatrical adaptation of the erotic novel “Venus in Fur.” The playwright/director and an unlikely contender for the role find themselves drawn to each other, and lines between the play and reality begin to blur.

“Dead Man's Cell Phone”: Sarah Ruhl's exploration of technology and metaphysics begins with a woman snatching up an incessantly ringing cellphone that turns out to belong to a dead man. She starts taking messages and, eventually, sets out to try to make things right on that stranger's behalf.

“Clyborne Park”: Bruce Norris' 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner updates “A Raisin in the Sun,” exploring race and gentrification in both 1959 and in the 21st century.

dlmartin@express-news.net

Overtime Theatre San Antonio Signs Lease on New Locale with Two Theatre Spaces

Deborah Martin of the San Antonio Express-News lets the cat out of the bag:

Overtime Theatre has a new home

Posted on 05/23/2012 by Deborah Martin

 

On Wednesday afternoon, the Overtime Theater folks signed a five-year lease for a new home at 1203 Camden, just off the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk and close to the Pearl Brewery. [ALT note: click to view map]

 

It’s right in the nick of time, too: The theater has to leave its current home in the Blue Star Arts Complex by the end of the month.

The spacious building will allow the troupe to have two theater spaces, as well as a roomy lobby gallery and classroom space for Andrew Thornton’s acting studio. The smaller space will, among other things, allow the theater to help out other companies and theater artists in need of a home; Proxy Theatre will present its 2012-’13 season there, said Overtime Artistic Director Kyle Gillette.

The larger space will be named for playwright Gregg Barrios, who donated $7,500 to the company.

The first full Overtime production in the theater will be Barrios’ “i-DJ,” slated to open in July.

Scott McDowell, the theater’s technical director, hopes to have the theater in good enough shape for an improv show in two weeks.

Arts Reporting: San Pedro Playhouse Trades 'Streetcar' for 'My Fair Lady', by Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News

Found on-line at

San Pedro’s ‘Streetcar’ jumps the tracks

Posted on 12/19/2011 by Deborah Martin

The San Pedro Playhouse has made a change to its spring lineup.

“A Streetcar Named Desire,” slated to open in March, has been pulled from the schedule. The show was to be directed by Carol Lee Klose, who had cast Sam Gilliam, Rick Frederick and Susanna Morrow in the leads.

In a statement, Artistic Director Frank Latson explained that “The move comes in the interest of continued economic growth and a move closer to family friendly programming in its Russell Hill Rogers Theater.

“Replacing Streetcar was a very difficult decision, particularly with the stellar Director and Cast which had been assembled for it. However, the Playhouse is at a crossroads, and many tough choices are being made in order that we enter our second century with a strong and steady foundation.”

In its place, the theater will stage “My Fair Lady,” which Latson is planning to direct.

Click to see article at www.mysanantonio.com . . . .

Arts Reporting: Attic Theatre San Antonio Re-Purposes Sculptor's Pieces for 'Smudge' (August 18 - September 4)

Found on-line, an article by Deborah Martin and a photo-essay by Robert Jerstad, Jennifer Whitney and the McNay Museum on the Attic RepertoryTheatre's incorporation of pieces by sculptor Jade Townsend into its production of Smudge by Rachel Axler (August 18 - September 4), San Antonio Express-News, August 13:

AtticRep repurposes art installation for set of new show 'Smudge''

by Deborah Martin
dlmartin@express-news.net

AtticRep's set for Smudge, the final show in its fifth season, is a real piece of art.

Literally.

The set was drawn from New York artist Jade Townsend's “An Allegory of Taste: Between Here and There,” a large installation commissioned by the McNay Art Museum for the “New Image Sculpture” exhibit earlier this year.

“It's definitely exciting that it gets this whole other life,” Townsend said.

Using an art installation as a set feeds into one of AtticRep's missions as the company prepares to launch its sixth season this fall. Producing artistic director Roberto Prestigiacomo and interim managing director Rick Frederick want to find ways to collaborate extensively with artists from other disciplines — to bring in visual artists more often, for example, and to bring in musicians and work with galleries and other arts groups, as well. The idea is to bring in other perspectives and fresh eyes from beyond the world of theater, they said.

“It's quite exciting,” Prestigiacomo said.

For “Smudge,” which opens Thursday, a few visual artists were brought into the mix, starting with Townsend and his installation.

The most visible section of the piece when it was on display at the McNay was a small, white house bursting at the seams. The house's insides, visible through the windows and bulging gaps in the walls, were crammed with all sorts of furniture and other clutter. Plywood lamps, dressers, televisions, a piano and a guitar, among other things, were piled high; a crowned figure sat atop the heap.

Read more at www.mysanantonio.com . . . .

Arts Reporting: Renovation of Seguin's Texas Theatre, San Antonio Express-News, May 25

Found on-line:

Renovation progresses at Seguin's Texas Theatre

By Vincent T. Davis - San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted: 05/25/2010

The main sounds stirring these days in Seguin's Texas Theatre are saws buzzing, hammers banging and drills drilling.

Light fixtures that once burned an amber glow are coated with a thick film of construction dust that has been accumulating since October 2009. That's when work began on a $2.5 million renovation project — dubbed “A Star Is Reborn” — at the historic downtown structure that opened in 1931.

Architect Milton Babbitt, who restored the Majestic and Empire theaters in San Antonio, developed the expansion plans carried out by the Koehler Co.

The theater is scheduled to reopen in March on its 80th anniversary as the Stephen and Mary Birch Texas Theatre, in honor of the foundation that made the largest donation, $1 million, during a decadelong fund-raising drive.

The Seguin Conservation Society bought the Spanish Colonial-style theater at 425 N. Austin St. in 1996. It also bought the adjoining building in 2007, to add a concession lobby, dressing rooms and restrooms that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Once the expansion is completed, the society estimates an annual audience of 24,600 people for symphonies, community plays, recitals, films and concerts. The site also will be a venue for Teatro de Arts de Juan Seguin, Troupe Texas, Mid-Texas Symphony, Seguin Performing Arts Company, Seguin Independent School District, Texas Lutheran University, Cinema for All and other local arts groups.

Read more at www.mysanantonio.com . . . .