Upcoming: Our Town, Zach Theatre, April 15 - May 23

UPDATE: Review by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin at Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, April 19

Received directly:

presents

OUR TOWN

by Thornton Wilder

April 15 - May 23, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. , Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Kleberg Stage , 1421 W. Riverside Dr. (corner of Riverside and South Lamar.)
Tickets range from $20 to $50, with $15 tickets available to students starting 1 hour prior to curtain time. Charge tickets by phone at 476-0541, ext. 1 or visit the Zach website to purchase on-line

Zach Theatre Re-Envisions “Our Town” in Our Town with all-star, all-Austin cast starring “Greater Tuna’s” Jaston Williams as the Stage Manager

Austin’s finest actors join together to tell the intimate, heartfelt story of America’s best loved play. Zach’s contemporary interpretation transports the audience to a chapel of love that will linger in your memory. Our Town audiences will watch the story unfold in several settings, including the wedding scene, which will be fully realized in its setting, costumes, environment with music by Austin area choral choirs. Directed by Dave Steakley, ZACH’s production is more than a play: it’s an experience as unique as Austin!

Jaston Williams, star of ZACH’s The Laramie Project and Austin‘s Greater Tuna will star as the iconic Stage Manager in Grover’s Corners. ZACH’s production also stars well-known, Austin favorites Michael Amendola, Michael Bryce, Janelle Bucahanan, Barbara Chisholm, Lana Dieterich, Christian Guerra, Harvey Guion, Billy Harden, Jordan McRae, Michael Mendoza, Crystal Odom, Don Own, Marco Perella, Scotty Robertson, Donelvan Thigpen, and Evan Underbrink,

ZACH Theatre is sponsored in part by Applied Materials, Austin American-Statesman, Time Warner Cable, Austin News TV 36, The Dell Foundation, Vollmer Public Relations, SOL Marketing Concepts, IKEA, The Shubert Foundation, The City of Austinunder the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission, The Texas Commission on the Arts, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

[Click for information on $5 discount offer]

Upcoming: Farm to Market, for children at Zach Scott Theatre, Saturdays, October 10 - November 7

Found at Zach Scott Theatre website:



New Saturday Play Series at ZACH!

Farm to Market

Celebrate the fall harvest with your family
October 10, 17, 24 at 11:00 a.m. and October 31 & November 7 at 11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.

Written by Shaun Wainwright-Branigan and Cindy Wood.
Stars Ted Meredith, Shaun Wainwright-Branigan and Cindy Wood.

Ladybugs, earthworms and butterflies explore the freshest vegetables from the community garden and travel together to the farmer's market! Join them as they learn about healthy eating, community gardening and sustainability. Beginning October 10th, Farm to Market plays at the Whisenhunt Stage and is perfect for families with children ages 3 to 7. Tickets are just $8 per person.

Call ZACH's Box Office to reserve great seats today: (512) 476-0541 x1

*This production is also offered for school field trips on weekday mornings. See Playspace below.*

Playspace at ZACH

Playspace at ZACH is a series of interactive plays created for children ages 3-10 and offered at the theatre on select weekday mornings. Perfect for school field trips, daycare centers, and playgroups. Click header for details.

Upcoming: The Laramie Project Epilogue: 10 Years Later, Zach Scott Theatre, October 12

Received directly:

Zach Theatre presents the Austin staging of

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, Epilogue

premiering in more than 100 cities on October 12, 2009

Cast for the event in Austin: Janelle Buchanan, Martin Burke,Harvey Guion, Jenny Larson, Meredith McCall, Sarah Richardson, Zach Thompson, Jaston Williams

There will be a live video feed from the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The evening will feature a pre-show that will be webcast live to the more than 150 other theatres across the country that are also presenting the epilogue. Guest host is Glenn Close, welcoming remarks are by Judy Shepard and a post-production Q and A will be moderated by National Public Radio Arts and Culture correspondent Neda Ulabay.

The creators of the highly acclaimed play The Laramie Project, which since 2000 has been one of the most performed plays in America, will premiere a compelling and groundbreaking epilogue to the original piece. Entitled The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, Epilogue, the play will be performed in New York at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and in more than 100 other theaters in all fifty states, Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia on October 12, 2009. The writers of this play are Tectonic Theater Project members Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris, and Stephen Belber.

ZACH Theatre, which produced the Austin premiere of The Laramie Project in 2002, will represent Austin in this national theatre project by staging The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later on its Kleberg Stage on Oct. 12, 2009. Tickets are $20, with all proceeds benefiting the Austin non-profit GLBT organization Out Youth. The performance starts at 7 pm. Seating is limited to this one night only event. Tickets are now available by phone or web: (512) 476-0541, x1 or http://www.zachtheatre.org .

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Zach Scott Theatre Kleberg Stage, September 17 - October 25

UPDATE: Zach Theatre will hold over The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee through November 8

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, October 3

UPDATE: Review by Elizabeth Cobbe in the Austin Statesman, October 1

UPDATE: Uncredited review by AustinOnStage.com, September 22

UPDATE: Review by Clare Croft at the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, September 21

Found on-line:

At Zach Scott's Kleberg Stage:

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
September 17-October 25

Book by Rachael Sheinkin
Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Directed by Dave Steakley
Featuring Jill Blackwood
Music Direction and Choreography by Adam Roberts

"Spelling Bee is riotously funny and remarkably ingenious.
Gold stars all around!" -The New York Times

Can you spell H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S? Nominated for six Broadway Tony Awards, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a tuneful, offbeat and smart musical. Each night, the witty cast challenges audience members and Austin celebrities to a bona fide spell-off, but be prepared: this bee is anything but typical! Great fun for all ages, this show is a unique performance filled with surprising improvisations every single night!

EXTRAS

Wikipedia entry on The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Video of the Spelling Bee cast with Cong. Al Sharpton at the Tony awards,2005:

Promo: Zach Scott Theatre's new video

As the season ticket sales press forward, Zach has made available a video highlighting scenes from recent seasons:

Arts Reporting: New Zach Theatre in Your Future

From the Austin Chronicle of August 6:

Zach Theatre
New stages for new stages
BY ROBERT FAIRES

What's the first rule of the stage? No matter what disasters may rain upon the theatre or your own head, the show must go on. And so it goes at Zach Theatre with regard to the company's long a-borning building expansion plans. The economic collapse may have put the kibosh on dream projects at other arts organizations, but the folks at Zach, like true troupers, are marching forward with theirs, with the results already in evidence [. . . .]

In tandem with that, Zach has selected an architect for its third theatre, the 500-seat venue to be situated on the open land at the corner of South Lamar and Riverside. Doing the honors will be Andersson-Wise Architects, lead firm in the design of Block 21 and designers of the Trustee Hall Academic Building and Fleck Hall at St. Edward's University.

Read more at AustinChronicle.com . . . .

Reviews: Love, Janis, Zach Scott Theatre, May 28 - July 12

UPDATE: Hannah Kenah's review for the Austin Chronicle, July 9

UPDATE: KUT's John Aielli and the Janis crew on "Aielli Unleashed," posted June 22


Review by Clare Croft for Austin Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, published June 11

Love, Janis
Zach Scott Theatre
May 28 - July 12

Directed and adapted by Tony Award-nominated playwright Randal Myler, Love, Janis combines Janis' own words -- taken from real-life interviews and heartfelt letters home to her family in Port Arthur, Texas -- with her brilliant breed of rock-n-soul music that revolutionized 1960's America.

Watch stars Andra Mitrovich and Mary Bridget Davies rock out ZACH's intimate Kleberg stage with spot-on performances of "Piece of My Heart," "Try," "Me and Bobby McGee," "Mercedes Benz" and other classics in this inspiring, feel-good play. Love, Janis traces the life of a legendary artist who refused to compromise her love -- for music, life and equality -- during her voyage from Texas to the world stage. Step into the Summer of Love: Love, Janis is Janis Joplin like you've never seen her before!

Photo Gallery: New Images from ZACH's Love, Janis Production
Video: Andra Mitrovich sings Janis Joplin

About Randal Myler

Randal Myler conceived and adapted Love, Janis from the biography by Janis Joplin’s sister Laura that features letters Janis wrote home to Port Arthur, Texas. Mr. Myler received two Tony Award nominations and a Drama Desk nomination for the musical It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, and a nomination for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction for Hank Williams: Lost Highway. He is a 17-season veteran of the renowned Denver Center Theatre Company.

Let Me Down Easy, Anna Deavere Smith at the Zach Scott Theatre, April 15 - May 10

We go to the theatre to be delighted or to be moved.

On rare occasions we are both delighted and moved. And on even rarer occasions, an artist of exceptional intelligence and ability delights, moves and educates us. This evening with Anna Deavere Smith, intimate and often amusing, reaches deep into the common humanity of Americans.

Her performance is a portrait album, recreating for us conversations or interviews with individuals as widely different as super model Lauren Hutton and a 16-year-old girl in small town Texas struck with cancer. Some of the names we recognize -- theatre historian and critic John Lahr, for example, and Lance Armstrong, and former Texas governor Ann Richards, a portrayal that galvanized and delighted the audience. Some stories are wildly comic, such as that of the choreographer who recalls messing up a spectacular trick with flames. Other subjects are remarkable for their unusual stories or for their solemnly informative observations about American society, particularly about medicine and health care.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

The Grapes of Wrath, Zach Scott Theatre, March 12 - May 10

A brooding orange light dominates the empty central space at the Zach Theatre's Kleberg Stage. A haze roils fitfully against a panorama of emptiness. A man in overalls, wearing a slouch cap and heavy work boots, holds a saw between his knees. He gently applies a bow to it, bends the saw, and an eerie, keening melody begins The Grapes of Wrath.




John Steinbeck's story follows the Joad family from the 1930s Oklahoma Dustbowl, driven by implacable weather and unforgiving bankers to abandon everything except a grim hope of finding work and land in California.


Read More . . . .