The Phoenix Theatre Company in association with The Salt Theatre Company presents
Tape
by Stephen Bilber directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs March 26 & 27 at 8 p.m., March 27 & 28 at 2 p.m. The University of Texas at Austin, Room 2.180 Winship Drama Building, 300 East 23rd Street
Admission is free w/ suggested donation.
Tape, a modern morality tale, will keep you guessing until the end. Who’s right? What’s wrong? In a hotel room, in the course of an evening, secrets are revealed, alliances altered and the truth is illusive … even when it’s on tape.
Vince, a dope dealer and volunteer fireman, and Jon, his best friend from high school, have come to town to see Jon’s movie screening at the local film festival. The two friends meet in Vince’s motel room and things heat up when they start talking about Amy Randall, Vince’s high school sweetheart, who now works in town as a prosecution attorney and is planning to meet Vince that night. Accusations fly, surrounding an encounter between Jon and Amy, and a confession is caught on tape. Tension rises as the three old friends battle over the details of an event that has haunted them all for the past ten years.
Cast includes Blade Healey, Lauren Jacobs, and Bishan Jones. Stage Managed by Cate Eby.
Elizabeth Cobbe combines an advance piece on Warpstar Sexysquad by Yellow Tape Construction Company with comments from others. Ken Webster of Hyde Park Theatre is cautiously optimistic about the fiscal year but uncertain about the calendar year; Ryan Crowder of the new Penfold Theatre is looking to establish a venue in Round Rock.
Warpstar Sexysquad Playing February 19 to March 7 at the Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo St., just off 7th Street behind Joe's Bakery, East Austin.
Humanity's fate rests in the hands of the Warpstar Sexysquad-- a superstar squadron of time-travelin' mavericks, committed to defending the Intergalactic Alliance and preserving the sanctity of Unborn Time! But when a rogue crew member breaks ranks and starts attacking the past, can this band of battle-hardened hard asses preserve the timeline and save the future? Or will the universe be horrifically destroyed?
Drawing inspiration from Star Wars to Flash Gordon to Back from the Future and every classic in between, the Yellow Tape crew imagines a world where evil talking cats and Lezzer Beams are no match for maniliness, one-liners and musical theatre!
$5 discount for any patron who arrives dressed in a totally excellent costume.
This short spectacle at the Salvage Vortex is a lot of fun.
Masonic, a foursome of indie rockers from Austin, cut loose and six young women dancers gambol through a happy, energetic evocation of childhood fun.
When the lights come up, each is perched on a round cross-cut plaque of wood. To the driving sounds of the band, they mime dizzy capers, initially as if they were at the top of a pinnacle and then as if they were on a firm spot in a liquid world.
As the band segues from one piece to another, the six young women caper onstage in a fluid but meticulously choreographed series of scenes that call forth the wonders and delights of young girls.
There is a refreshing innocence here and a sense of play throughout. They wear simple shifts and they resemble one another in age, in demeanor and in flexibility. Over our hour with them we can pick up clues to personalities and capture faces, but they remain very much alike.
One girl teases another; another intervenes; someone shoves, someone twists, someone hides, turning the minimalist space of the Salvage Vanguard into a playground. Girls try to carry the wooden plaques across the stage and other girls mischievously block them.
The dancers show us impressive energy, much like young children who burn away at high speed until they drop.
There are amusing interludes – for example, all six sprawl on their backs at the front of the stage, pumping away with their legs as if on recumbent bicycles. They accelerate, slow, veer from one side to another, puff as they climb imaginary hills and shriek as they descend imaginary slopes.
Again and again they do lifts or tumbles or somersaults.
Theirs is an autumn playground, and the girls discover handfuls, then armfuls of dry leaves. They frolic in showers of them, making patterns, pelting one another and clambering up a ladder to bring down leaves hanging above the dance space.
At the finale, the red-headed girl with a sly smile brings out a large fan. When she sets it going, all of the children take turns savoring its blast and glorying in the novelty of it.
Amanda Butterfieldcreated a thumping(. . . etc.) and appears in it along with Brazie Adamez, Lisa del Rosario, Hannah Kenah, Erin Molson, and Holly Wissman.
I enjoyed the music by Masonic, a tight group with a lithe red-headed woman singer who except for the fact she was in jeans could have been one of the dancers.
It was loud, though – the Yellow Tape house staff offered foam earplugs to any of us who looked like candidates for them. And I wish I could have followed the lyrics, in addition to rocking with the rhythms. Wylie Maercklein has done a colorful series of photographs of the dress rehearsal, which the Yellow Tape Construction Company has posted on their Flickr site [Click here for the photos]. Some of his images are reproduced here. Others were taken from the front row during the Saturday night performance.
Received directly:
