Are You Alive?, Debutantes and Vagabonds at the Rollins Theatre, May 14 - 16

This evening was a predictable success for music and a huge disappointment for theatre.

Debutantes and Vagabonds, active since 2007 according to the history posted on MySpace, got a nice shout-out in March on Austin.com for their piece "A Brilliant Revolution." Ryan E. Johnson called it "hands down the funniest piece I've seen at FronteraFest."

So I was expecting something special for this "collection of macabre theatre."

D&V secured the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for a three-night run made possible in part by a rental subsidy. The slickly printed 16-page program featured 7 full-color pages and an impressive cluster of ads and sponsors. D&V persuaded some notable Austin musicians to provide the entr'acte entertainment music for their program of six short plays -- the White Ghost Shivers on Thursday, The Georgian Company on Friday, and Scott H. Biram on Saturday.

Logistics and promotion were curiously out of whack. I scan theatre listings and postings regularly, yet the first I heard of this production was an e-mail from the Shivers just 48 hours ahead of the opening.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

Time Steps, Austin Scriptworks at the Blue Theatre, March 26 - April 4

The gathering for Time Steps at the Blue Theatre last Thursday felt like skit night at the close of summer camp. Friendly excitement, lots of young adults, and a program based on games, brainstorming and collaborative action, intended to amuse and astound us over the course of a short evening. The Blue Theatre itself, tucked away behind the Goodwill warehouses in East Austin, is a found venue of sorts, redolent of much earnest make believe.

Austin Scriptworks stirred the pot and furnished the ingredients. At its annual Weekend Fling earlier this season, participating writers were given two days and three "ingredients" with which to build a ten-minute play:

- - The play must move backward, from end to beginning;
- - The play must include a dance break which causes a shift in the action;
and
- - The play must include three things your mother told you not to do.

The harvest was eight winning scripts, presented by Austin directors and actors in six performances. By my subjective taxonomy, these included two relationship dramas, two stories of misfortunes or crimes, one fantasy drama, and three nutsy pieces. Dialogue was strong in all of them. Available actors were parceled out so that almost every face showed up in two roles during the event.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .