Prize-Winner: Mud Offerings by Nathalie Goodnow, RAW: Austin Interactive at Venue 222, June 16

Received directly and followed up on-line:

Natalie Marlena Goodnow's Mud Offerings has just been awarded the the JANE CHAMBERS AWARD for feminist plays & performance texts created by women writers, presenting significant opportunities for female performers.

From the prize notification:

"We were struck with the feminist Chicana themes, the theatrical poetry, and the complex storytelling that you wove in this solo play. Kudos! And Thank You for sharing this work. Typically the Contest weights toward plays with more roles for female performers in them, so take it as testament to our vivid, shared excitement about your play that it won. We were compelled by this exquisite short work, so embodied and complex in its sense of character, history, sexuality, place, and religion. We are eager to share it with others (theaters and feminists)."

From the committee: Given in memory of lesbian playwright Jane Chambers, who through her plays such as My Blue Heaven, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove and Kudzu became a major feminist voice in American theater, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Contest welcomes experimentations in form as well as subject matter. Feminism is understood variously, and may cross diverse class, sex, race, national, ethnic, theatrical, and/or geographic perspectives. The Jane Chambers Contest winner receives $500 & a rehearsed reading of the winning play at ATHE’s annual mid-summer conference. First given in 1984, the award is sponsored by the Women and Theater Program (WTP) with generous support from the Association for Theater in Higher Education (ATHE), private donors, and university friends.

Mud Offerings

by Natalie Marlena Goodnow

Thursday, June 16, 2011 @ 8:00PM
Venue 222 | 222 East 6th Street | Austin, TX 78701
21+ event. Cocktail attire. Tickets are $10 via presale.

Purchase tickets here.

RAW events are multi-faceted artistic showcases. Each event features a film screening, musical performance, fashion show, art gallery, performance art and a featured hairstylist and makeup artist. These artists are all local, hand-picked talent who have been chosen to feature at RAW.

RAW events feature a cash bar for cocktails while you enjoy the night. Dress code is cocktail attire, so dress the occasion and get ready for an artistic circus of creativity!

And check out the award-winning "Mud Offerings"!

Natalie's blog: http://makinggoodnow.blogspot.com/

Upcoming: It All Began with a Little Blue Spot on His Forehead by Alex Garza, City Theatre, April 23

Received directly:

Alex Garza’s award-winning family show about nine-year old Trevor and how his world turns upside down when his skin starts turning blue. A funny and touching story about family, friends, forgiveness and who we are, spots and all. Fun stage entertainment for all ages. April 23. 2:00 p.m. The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D. – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street. For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or e-mail starlextheatre@yahoo.com. Tickets $7. www.citytheatreaustin.org

Upcoming: Mud Offerings by Nathalie Goodnow, Black Box Theatre, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center, April 16

Received directly:

(click for map to the Mexican-American Cultural Center, 600 River Street)

Upcoming: Aralyn's Home Economics, March 25 - 27

Found on-line:

at an undisclosed location in Austin

March 25 & 26 at 7 p.m., March 27 at 2 p.m.

Tickets for $20 available through www.aralynshomeeconomics.com

Contacts: (512) 698-6800 or aralyn@aralyn.com

Aralyn Hughes is one of Austin’s favorite “Keep Austin Weird” characters, featured on HGTV, Discovery Channel, both national and local CBS networks, various radio stations, and local venues like Zachary Scott Theater. She is co-author of IN THE WEST, one of the longest running monologue shows in Austin, which also played the Kennedy Center and was later adapted into the movie DEEP IN THE HEART.

(APPLE users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube)

Her latest work, ARALYN'S HOME ECONOMICS, is a series of solo performance pieces based on various autobiographical topics, beginning with MOVING DAY which she premiered in August 2010 as hired movers and long-time friends assisted her relocation to a new downtown high-rise. BIRTH Day in October had standing ovations. Men Ding Day on November 20, 21, Saturday and Sunday, will feature Aralyn with her first blind date on stage followed by tales of the men she had to mend in her life, plus the mending she had to do to herself when the relationships were over. Stay turned for COLORING DAY, VALENTINE'S DAY and other exciting performance pieces. She has the hand embroidered MENDING DAY dish towel her mother made which inspired this show topic.

Museum quality memorabilia, which includes her tricycle along with the $7.00 check that paid for it, among other relics, serve as the backdrop to her tales about a lifestyle long past but ever present. With a lifetime of experience, combined with the Home Economics degree which she received in the 1960s, Aralyn presents stories and insights about life transitions, family, love lost & found, how to remove a stain expertly and the roads not taken that get you where you never thought you'd end up. Come enjoy the lively, slanted opinions of a small town girl who could see Route 66, Tornado Alley, Oklahoma, from her backyard, which inspired her to become the world traveler, fine artist and now solo performer she's grown up to be.