Saturdays, March 24th-May 5th*, at Central Presbyterian Church, 10-2 pm, $275. *Matinee performance May 5th at Rain Lily Farm, 1pm. Payment plans available, 10% discount when you sign up with a buddy/sibling. Email presentcompanyaustin@gmail.com for info. Space is limited so register early! Click here to download the flyer in .pdf.
Received notice on line of the following
appeal for $3250 by October 21:
The Hidden Room has been invited to present a staging session at the world famous American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Conference. We will be performing scenes from last year's Taming of the Shrew - Original Practices and discussing Original Practices techniques. This is our big chance to have our amazing Austin actors perform for some of the world's most renowned Shakesperean scholars.
But, first we need to get to Staunton, VA.
And preferably survive while we're there.
Plus it would be nice to return to Austin when we're done. We're fond of it.
Your donation of any amount will help fly our Hidden Room team to Staunton and provide accommodations while we are there. All our folks have already taken care of their own conference fees, but additional moneys raised will go to reimbursing those and other costs incurred on the road. Like food and other such niceties.
Throughout our week in Staunton, the Hidden Room will have the opportunity to learn from and meet with some real academic heroes in the world of Renaissance Drama. Then on Thursday October 27th, we will perform and present on the Blackfriars stage - an exquisite recreation of Shakespeare's original indoor playing house. You can help make a dream come true for our band of players, and allow us the chance to bring Austin to the American Shakespeare Center.
Take us to the ASC. They're waiting for us.
We are grateful for your support - more than you know.
[image by Kimberly Mead: Judd Farris as Petrucio, Ryan Crowder as Kate]
Received directly:
Camp Shakespeare:
The Taming of the Shrew, June 17 & 18
The Winter's Tale, July 8-9
(and next summer, a third session!)
The first summer session of Camp Shakespeare which began on June 5 will conclude with public performances of Shakespeare’s early farcical comedy, The Taming of the Shrew at the Sanford Schmid amphitheater on the La Grange fairgrounds on Friday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m., and at the Winedale Historical Center’s Theater Barn on Saturday, June 18, at 1:00 p.m.
Admission for the performances is $5.00. Youth under 12 are free. Reservations for the Winedale performance are encouraged. Please e-mail jayres@cvctx for information and reservations. Tickets are available through the Shakespeare at Winedale website.
Participating are campers from Dallas, Houston, Mineola, Gonzales, Austin, and Brenham. La Grange is represented by Bea Burton, daughter of Lori-Learned Burton and George Burton. The campers were selected for the two two-week residential experience from a field of 83 applicants from around Texas and beyond.
Since arriving, they have not only been confronting the challenges offered by the demands of the play and the daily routines of physical and vocal exercise, music and singing, cabin-cleaning, improvisations, journal-writing, textual and character analysis, and scene work, but also the ever-present Texas heat. Hourly Gatorade is an essential part of the routine.
Camp Shakespeare director, Jim (Doc) Ayres, reports that he and his staff are very pleased with the progress. “We have great kids in the program, a great staff, and a great play,“ he said.
The second session begins on June 26 with students from various Texas cities as well as Brooklyn, Hong Kong, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Ontario. Victoria Borgstedte, daughter of Drs Allyson and Thomas Borgstedte, will represent La Grange. These campers will explore Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
The site of Camp Shakespeare is Briarfield B & B, near Round Top. Ayres will expand the program to three sessions next year to accommodate the increasing interest in Camp Shakespeare.
Received directly, news from the Hidden Room, Austin, Texas:
You Wouldn't Know Her, She Lives in London will turn audiences in the US and the UK into the friends and family of two lovers: one living in Austin, the other in London. Both actors and audience will be linked via video teleconferencing, interacting with one another to determine the future of the couple in question, as well as have a lot of fun together. The show will run Saturdays and Sundays, March 5th - 27th, at 2 p.m. in Austin and 8 p.m. in London. Upon reserving a seat, audience members will receive links to befriend the character couple through social media, and begin their introduction into this interactive world.
You Wouldn't Know Her, She Lives in London will also be represented at this year's SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas. The panel "Theatre Collaborations Via Skype: Turning Distance into Drama" is confirmed and scheduled for Saturday March 12th at 9:30am, and will be led by The Hidden Room Theatre and Look Left Look Right. This panel will also include a demonstration of the rehearsal process for "You Wouldn't Know Her" featuring the show's stars, London actress Molly Taylor and Austin actor Judd Farris.
Tour for 'Original Practices'
The Hidden Room is scheduling a tour of the Southwest for its The Taming of the Shrew, Original Practices, winding up in Los Angeles. Artistic Director Beth Burns has been giving sold-out workshops to actors on both improvisation and Shakespeare in London while working on this current production. She is planning to bring some of the Hidden Room's actors to the American Shakespeare Center for a staging session on Original Practices at the Blackfriars Conference in October 2011.
Partner company in London
Look Left Look Right is a documentary theatre company based in London. Their productions have won awards and sold out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Royal Court Theatre. Their current production Counted is touring "unusual political spaces" around the UK. Artistic Director Mimi Poskitt is currently interviewing people in the United States for an upcoming project which has yet to be announced formally.
The excitement and cameraderie were palpable on the opening night of the Hidden Room Theatre's "original practices" staging of The Taming of the Shrew. This was a gathering of Austin's acting fellowship, in the audience as well as among the company. Director Beth Burns and assistant director Stephanie Delk greeted familiar faces; storyteller-actress Bernadette Nason served the refreshments; musician Jennifer Fielding of the Baron's Men offered masks for sale at the concession stand. After the house was opened, the animation and anticipation were so great that one of the town's most appreciated Shakespearian actors managed to spill his white wine in front of the seats on the south side. Director Beth Burns took the mishap in good humor and went down on her knees with a towel, scrubbing to make sure the playing space was dry and safe.
One fellowship was assembled within the meeting hall of another, for Burns had obtained the gracious permission of a masonic order to use its space to create a court theatre like that of Shakespeare's royals.
A consort of ten musicians led by Jennifer Davis provided enchanting period music with voice, recorder, stringed instruments and percussion, both before the play and at intervals throughout.
The Taming of the Shrew opens with an Induction or prologue, often abandoned today. An aristocrat returning from the hunt discovers the drunkard Christopher Sly passed out in the street. The lord and his serving men bring Sly into comfortable quarters. They fool him into believing that he himself is a great lord and they offer him the company of a wench, impersonated by Bartholomew, a male page. Sly wants to go to bed with his new lady but agrees to the diversion of a pleasant comedy -- the story of Katerina Minola and Petrucio.
Much of the comedy in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew arises from farcical transformation. Lucentio changes places with his servant Tranio; both suitors to the fair Bianca disguise themselves as tutors; an aged traveler is intimidated into playing the part of wealthy old Vincentio, Lucentio's father. And of course, the titular shrew of the piece, "Kate the curs't," is a woman seeking to assert her rights to autonomy, choice and respect, as if she had all the rights of a man!
The Elizabethans had no problem with that. In the post-show discussion on opening night, University of Texas prof Dr. Emily Richmond-Garza, head of the comp lit department, reminded actors and audience that in the theatre of Shakespeare's time there were two sure-fire crowd-pleasing delights: fights and wife-beatings.
Our own time finds it difficult to swallow the basic premise of The Taming of The Shrew, which is Petruccio's macho conquering, abasement and subjugation of Kate. Earnest apologia or exculpations appear in director's notes for some productions. Some directors emphasize Kate's intelligence and wiliness, providing interpretations and stage business indicating that rather than capitulating to Petruccio, she has in fact outsmarted him and everyone else.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Susie Gidseg of NowPlayingAustin interviews Beth Burns, Ryan Crowder and David Boss about this production, April 30 (15 min.)
"Original Practices or 'OP' productions strive to recreate the playing circumstances that existed when a play was first performed. We have found that using original practice solves textual problems and clarifies audience understanding far more than the ever-popular modernization approach. We are grateful for the revolutionary OP work undertaken by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre under artistic director Mark Rylance. Globe Education has been extremely generous in sharing knowledge, successes, and stumbles from those years. We are also relying upon the renowned scholarship of Andrew Gurr and current work by the American Shakespeare Center." 
The Hidden Room presents:
The Taming of the Shrew - Original Practices
Auditions: Jan 16th
directed by Beth Burns
April 30th - May 23rd, 2010
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm
York Rite Temple
This is an all-male cast. All roles are open except Petruchio. Most parts will be doubled, and sometimes tripled.
Initial auditions are being held January 16th at the Dougherty Arts Center. 5-minute slots are available between 10am and noon. Please bring a one minute monologue from Shrew, a headshot and resume.
For questions, or to schedule an audition, please contact the Matriarch, hiddenroomtheatre@yahoo.com
