(*) San Antonio Current Theatre Reviewers Pick Top 5 for 2013

San Antonio

 

5 Top Local Plays and Musicals This Year 

By Joy-Marie Scott December 29, 2013

Paige Blend, Roy Bumgarner, Twyla Lamont in Roads Courageous (photo: Siggi Ragnar)

We asked our theater critics, Thomas Jenkins and Steven G. Kellman, for their top picks from the theater scene in 2013. Beyond the productions, Jenkins also noted the considerable movement—both physical and conceptual—at some of the city’s top companies, which started this year and will continue into 2014.


“The Playhouse mounted its first original main stage musical in recent memory—Roads Courageous—while populating its Cellar with recent New York hits (Red, Wittenberg),” said Jenkins, “and big changes are afoot at three of the city’s most established theaters: the Jump-Start and the Classic Theatre have found new homes—in Beacon Hill and the Deco District, respectively—while the AtticRep joins the new Tobin Center as its resident theater company in 2014.”


Click each image below for comments from a reviewer and link to the review in the San Antonio Current. 

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Klose/Seal Productions
(photo: Siggi Ragnar)

Sam Mandelbaum as Hamlet in Wittenberg by David G. Davalos, Playhouse San Antonio
(photo: Siggi Ragnar)

(link to Steven G. Kellerman's review)

The Book of Mormon touring company

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, adapted by Sophia Bolles, Overtime Theatre
(photo: Siggi Ragnar)

Hellcab by Will Kern, Attic Rep at Trinity University
(photo: Siggi Ragnar)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, Austin Playhouse, November 22 - December 22, 2013

(www.austinplayhouse.com)

by Michael Meigs

 

You've arrived at an estate on an otherwise uninhabited island somewhere off the English coast along with nine strangers. Your host hasn't shown up. The weather has been steadily deteriorating. You spend the first hours tentatively making the acquaintance of this odd collection of mostly upper middle class individuals. The polite tedium is shattered when a voice from the next room sternly names each of you and accuses each of homicide.

Ten lines of doggerel are framed above the fireplace, jovial descriptions of death. Ten little Indian figures sit on the mantlepiece. Unnerving, what?

Then the storm closes in over the wild seascape, isolating you for real. There's no telephone. And an unseen homicidal maniac begins killing. A poisoned drink; a hypodermic; an bloodied ax; a fall over a precipice into the sea. Who's next? And who's doing this?

Dame Agatha Christie built a huge following in the first half of the twentieth century for her murder mysteries -- not only those featuring Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, but also a series of cleverly plotted murder puzzles. She didn't invent the oh-so-British detective story, but she came close to perfecting that peculiar form.

You don't see many of her novels in the United States any more but she remains popular in Europe. I assume that the Brits are still devotees; I know that the paperback racks in Germany are full of translations of her books.

The typical Christie murder puzzle is a contest with the reader, a bit like a crossword puzzle -- of the sort that the New York Times used to feature and perhaps the Times of London still does. You curl up in your comfortable armchair by the fire with your text and your clues (oops, 'clews') and pick your favorite suspect. Or you get a ticket to the Austin Playhouse production playing at Highland Mall until December 22 and live Christie's menacing world through six scenes in three acts over one accelerating, menacing weekend.

Christie teases with threats of murder but she's really enticing you with comfort food. The cast is a familiar gallery of types and rogues: a careless playboy (Stephen Mercantel), a stern moralistic spinster (Bernadette Nason), a vigorous military officer with derring-do (Brian Coughlin) and a doddering old general (Dirk van Allen), a Harley Street physician (Craig Kanne), a stuffy judge (Steve Shearer), a working-class policeman (Michael Stuart), a secretary (Hildreth England) and a pair of serio-comic servants (Laura Walberg and Christopher Loveless). Familiar characters and familiar Austin Playhouse faces accompany you through the highly stylized plot.

Craig Kanne, Bernadette Nason, Steve Shearer, Brian Coughlin, Hildreth England, Michael Stuart, Stephen Mercantel, Christopher Loveless, Dirk van Allen, Laura Walberg (photo: Austin Playhouse) 

Director Laura Toner does a pretty good job of differentiating them and moving them around, even though with a cast of that size the relatively bare single set does feel a bit like the waiting room at Victoria station. Suddenly a voice of doom thunders from the next room, rapidly delivering a list of names and accusations. The characters freeze in place about the stage. This occurs before we've quite sorted out this menagerie, so we're initially confused by the charges that turn out to have been delivered by a platter on the grammophone.

How did they all get here in the first place? Exposition is ample and talky. Each was misled or enticed into accepting the invitation although the identity of the host (or employer) wasn't entirely clear. If we weren't willing to suspend belief and accept this variation of the old locked-room puzzle, we'd think them a flock of silly geese. And we happily swallow the convention that shortly before receiving the fatal dose/blow/shot/chop/push, each character is going to deliver a revelation, perhaps a confession, that elucidates the motivation of the invisible justicer.

Read more at Central Texas Live Theatre. . . .

Call for Scripts: Austin New Latino Play Festival 2014, Deadline January 17, 2014

Call for Scripts for the Austin Latino New Play Festival 

Submission Deadline Friday January 17, 2014

The 2014 Austin Latino New Play Festival (ALNPF) takes place May 8-10, 2014 8 pm 3 nights, 3 new plays at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Culture Center,  600 River Street, Austin TX.

The Austin Latino New Play Festival, produced annually by Teatro Vivo, brings together playwrights and audience members for staged readings of new works and rich conversation, each running just one night.  After each reading, the playwright, director and actors participate in moderated talkback sessions with the audience.

What is the process for Austin Latino New Play Festival (ALNPF)? The ALNPF provides an opportunity for Texas playwrights to hear, see, and receive feedback on their original works. The festival format brings together the playwright to work with a dramaturg, director, and actors to bring their play to life as a staged reading in front of an audience. The rehearsal process for each staged reading is approximately one week.

Guidelines for ALPNF scripts:

* The script is a work by a Latino(a) playwright or focused on the lives of Latino(a)s.

* The script is an original work.

*The script utilizes both the English and Spanish language.

* Scripts cannot have been produced or scheduled for full production before July 2014.

Playwrights selected will:

*be available and willing to collaborate with the dramaturg and the director that are selected to work with your play. 

*be available on  to attend the reading of their play, and participate in a facilitated talk back with the audience immediately after the reading. We encourage playwrights to attend all three readings of the festival, if possible.

Submission Information:

*Playwrights will submit their script in a pdf file via email by Friday January 17, 2014 by midnight, with the submission information requested below.

*Teatro Vivo will select scripts to be read in the play festival.

*No payment, fee, stipend, actual or implied will be paid to the playwrights. Selected playwrights incur their own travel expenses. Possible housing in the homes of Teatro Vivo company members.

*Plays will be announced on or before midnight Friday March 7, 2014

Submit in a separate word doc: a brief biographical sketch and playwright background, Email address, Phone Number and Home address.  Include a brief response to two questions in 200 words or less:

-What areas of your script are you still eager to explore and develop? What are your goals for this play festival process?

Submit to: joannreyes AT yahoo.com, rupertreyes AT yahoo.com

Upcoming: University of Texas New Theatre (UTNT), February 27 - March 9, 2014

UTNT (UT New Theatre), the annual showcase of new plays from The University of Texas at Austin M.F.A. Playwriting Program, returns this spring with five dynamic works by emerging playwrights. 

Now in its seventh iteration, UTNT 2014 presents the following:

 

 Preview Productions

Annie Jump
Written by Reina Hardy
Directed by Natalie Novacek

February 27, March 1, 7 at 8:00 p.m.
March 9 at 5:00 p.m.

Annie Jump is a 13-year-old science genius whose alien-obsessed father is the laughingstock of Strawberry, Kansas. One night in August, a meteor falls, and Annie meets Althea, an intergalactic supercomputer that manifests itself in the form of a mean girl with really nice hair. Althea’s here to help Annie take humanity from the earth to the stars, but being the Chosen One isn't all glory. What is Althea hiding? And what will Annie have to sacrifice to fulfill her destiny?

 Advance Man
Written by Abe Koogler
Directed by Will Davis

February 28, March 6, 8 at 8:00 p.m.
March 2 at 5:00 p.m.

Bear Creek is a small town. So when rumor spreads of an impending visit from the President himself, everyone gets very excited. There's just one problem – no one knows when he's coming, or why. And who's that mysterious man in a dark suit, asking all those questions? A dark comedy about the way we live now.

Individual tickets and ticket packages for these preview productions go on sale early January 2014.

Enhanced Readings/Presentations

‘ratio Visual Narrative by William Anderson
Text Narrative by David Turkel
Directed by Jess Hutchinson

March 1 at 11:00 a.m.
March 8 at 2:00 p.m.

In the weeks following Hamlet’s death, Horatio navigates a harrowing regime change at Elsinore under the rule of bloody-minded prince Fortinbras.

Still Now Written by Katie Bender
Directed by Rudy Ramirez

March 2, 9 at 2:00 p.m.

After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends and lovers that become her partners in movement, to ask the question: what can our bodies teach us that our minds cannot fathom?

Or, “The One with the Dogs” Written by Briandaniel Oglesby
Directed by Jeremy Lee Cudd

March 1 at 2:00 p.m.
March 8 at 11:00 a.m.

In a crappy house surrounded by a dead walnut orchard, brothers Boomer and Dirt struggle with each other, with themselves, and with their dog-breeding business. As their prized pregnant pooch swells, they seem on the way to strike it big. Their dreams are disrupted when Boomer brings home Marisol, who should be a one-night stand, and Dirt finds a boy who will never grow up.

 UTNT (UT New Theatre) is curated by Steven Dietz and Gia Marotta. Performances are February 27 through March 9 in the Lab Theatre. Ticketing information will be available in December 2013.

Join UT Austin for the 33rd Annual Madrigal Dinner, Nov. 21-23, 2013

Kings, queens, knights and... dragons?!? Join Campus Events + Entertainment Creative Arts + Theatre for Madrigal Dinner 2013, a grand Renaissance-themed dinner theatre experience in the Texas Union Ballroom on the UT Austin campus! Enjoy an original comedic play, choir concert, and a four-course meal, all for the price of entry.

Madrigal Dinner will be held on the nights of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 21st, November 22nd and November 23rd, 2013. A cash bar will be available starting at 5:30 pm. Show starts at 6:30 pm.


General Public Tickets: $32, $30, and $28 -- Discounted UT Austin Student Tickets: $18, $16, and $14. You must present your current University of Texas at Austin STUDENT I.D. at the door to enter with a discounted student ticket.

Tickets for this year's amazing Madrigal Dinner production are on sale through November 19th at www.TexasBoxOffice.com or in person at the Frank Erwin Center, 1701 Red River St. Tickets CANNOT be purchased through the Texas Union. Tickets are not refundable. Please select your main course dinner option at time of purchase. (Click here to view options.) Click to purchase your tickets online now! A very limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Purchase your tickets in advance for best seating!

Auditions for Spanish-Language Christmas Play La Pastorela, Austin Latino Theatre Alliance, October 21 and 23, 2013

Amigos y Amigas de Austin, 

Estamos buscando actores y actrizes de todos tamaños para que participen en la producción de La Pastorela 2013. Necesitamos niños y adultos con talento para preparar nuestra tradicional obra navideña que se exhibirá del 6 de diciembre al 22 de diciembre. Las audiciones seran el lunes 21 de octubre y miercoles 23 de octubre de las 6:30 p.m. a las 9 p.m. en el MACC (Mexican American Center for the Arts, 600 River St., Austin, TX 78701 (mapa aquí)). 

Si tu cantas, bailas o tocas algún instrumento ven preparado para enseñarnos tu talento. Este año sera una producción sensacional organizada por ALTA y dirigida por Patricio Villarreal. Esperamos verlos como parte del casting y equipo de ALTA esta navidad. Para mas información, favor de mandar un texto al 512-923-1448. 

Diego Villarreal Austin, TX (512) 923-1448 asestra@yahoo.com

Opening This Week in Central Texas, August 12 - 18, 2013

Opening This Week

in Central Texas

August 12 - 18, 2013

Click images for additional information

Click HERE for a list of all productions CONTINUING on stage

Opening around Austin . . .

Georgetown Palace Theatre, August 16 - September 8

===============================
IN SAN ANTONIO
===============================

Vexler Theatre, August 15 - September 8

Attic Rep at Trinity University with Aesthetic of Waste, August 15 - September 1

Call for Scripts and for Director Applications, Oh Dragon Theatre Company, Austin, Texas, Deadline of July 1, 2013

Oh Dragon Theatre Company is accepting directorial applications and script submissions for our next season starting in October 2013. We are a new theatre company with a small budget, but we are passionate about bringing great live theatre works to our community. We cannot offer compensation at this time for directors, actors, or crew. If Oh Dragon selects your submission, we will produce the full-length version of the show as part of our regular season.

You may submit:
• A script with no director selected.
• A script with a director selected.
• A director with no script selected.

Submitted scripts may be:
• An original work (not published, royalty-free).
• A royalty-free play
• A published play with a plan to raise funds to pay performance royalties

To include with your submission (if applicable):
• Date suggestions (does not guarantee dates will be chosen).
• Resume of directing experience *Directors only.
• Copy of submitted script (may mailed or emailed).
• Completed contact form
• Show elements (Set, lighting, sound design, etc). *Directors only.
• Fundraising plan *Published play submissions only


Submissions begin June 1st, 2013 and end July 1st, 2013 at midnight. We will notify all applicants by August 1st, 2013.

If you are interested in submitting a show, applying to be a director, or both, please contact Lacey Cannon at ohdragontheatrecompany@gmail.com.

Opportunity: Call for Tejano Plays for Anthology, Deadline June 26

Posted on Facebook by Rupert Reyes of Teatro Vivo:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE: JUNE 26, 2013

MADE IN TEJAS An Anthology of Texas-made Latino/a Plays and Performances

TEJAS Teatro companies and individual artists, this one is just for you!

CRITERIA FOR SUBMISSION:
1. Must be created and produced right herein TEXAS by Teatro companies or individuals who consider themselves Chicano/a or Latino/a playwrights or performance artists living and working in Texas.
2. Must be previously unpublished work produced since the year 2000.
3. The work can be in English, English/Spanish, or Spanish.
4. The play or performance must be cleanly typewritten and professionally edited for typos etc. Use MS Word.doc. FORMAT: flush left CHARACTER: talk talk talk. Single space, Times New Roman 12 points.
5. Include a 200 word Company Bio (or mission statement), or Brief Artist Bio with a brief production history of the piece, particularly where it premiered and if it was a commission. Provide website and other social media addresses.
6. Participants provide one image 300dpi format .jpg with release forms for all artists pictured.
7. Artist or company is responsible for procuring permission for the use of any copyrighted material used in the performance from the original source. (This holds true for adaptations.)
8. One submission per company/artist.
9. Companies will select ONE person within their organization as a liaison to communicate with the editors, please.
10. All email communication with the editors requires PROMPT response within 48 hours. We are on a FAST track here.
11. Be willing to participate in The Author Speaks (author/company interview). In the case of devised or collective work, be willing to share the process in written form.

We are looking for these FOUR TYPES of work:

Plays: Any one act or full length play by individual artist or companies.
Performances: Work by an individual artist or group of the spoken word
Theatre for Young Audiences: Plays or performances designed to be performed for audiences of children and/or adolescents.
Devised/Collective creation: Plays or performances created through a collective process by a company or group of artists for adults.

PLEASE SEND SUBMISSIONS TO ALL: Teresa Marrero (Marrero@unt.edu), Lorenzo Garcia (Garcia@unt,.edu) and Vanessa Mercado-Taylor (vanessamercadotaylor@gmail.com).

SUBJECT LINE: PLEASE STATE ONE OF THE FOUR TYPES OF WORKS LISTED ABOVE (PLAY, PERFORMANCE, YOUNG AUDIENCES, DEVISED/COLLECTIVE).

Invitation to Submit Letters on Hope and Regret for Play, by May 31, 2013

From Kate J:

Hey everyone! I'm developing a play and I need all of you to pitch in!

About the Project Currently titled Holding On, this play is about hope and regret--two things we all seem to hold onto. I want to integrate the voices of many people. What are you hoping for? What do you regret? Tell me in a couple letters (two, to be exact, but more if you wish).

Hope Write a letter of hope. Write it to someone or something who/that isn't a part of your life yet, but will be important to you. Something you're looking forward to. Something or someone big. Be honest!

Regret Similarly, write a letter of regret. Again, write someone or something that is no longer a part of your life and you regret how you (or the someone or something) left things.

These letters will be read by actors, so feel free to be as anonymous as you need to be. Remember to limit them to 350 words!

I need lots of letters, so please share this post! Due date: Please send these in to me by May 31

email these letters to holdingonto@gmail.com

Upcoming: Of Mice and Men, Vive Les Arts Theatre, Killeen, April 8 - 17

Found on line:

Vive Les Arts Theatre, Killeen

presents

John Steinbeck's

OF MICE AND MEN

Sponsored by Texas A&M Central Texas

April 8 - 17

Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

VLA Theatre, 3401 South W.S. Young Drive, Killeen

Tickets $15 and $20 available on-line here

Box office phone (254) 526-9090; fax (254) 526-6906

It's the story of best friends Lennie and George who find themselves unemployed in Depression-era, California, unable to maintain a stable working pattern for long because of Lennie's low mental capacity. They soon get hired at the Tyler Ranch, working under the strict supervision of Curley, the boss's mean-spirited son. But after settling in and making friends, their world is ripped apart by tragedy when Curley's beautiful but unhappy wife becomes the innocent victim of Lennie's compassion.

Auditons: Of Mice and Men, City Theatre, February 6-9

Received directly from City Theatre, Austin:

AUDITIONS – JOHN STEINBECK’S

OF MICE AND MEN

February 6, 7 and 9,

The City Theatre 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D (behind the Shell station - click for map)

Sunday, February 6, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Monday and Wednesday, February 7 and 9, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

If you are not able to make this audition time, please let us know.

Ten minute appointment slots. Show dates May 12 – June 5.

Bring headshot and resume. Please have a short monologue prepared for the audition. Casting all parts: Nine males, 25 – 60, one black actor needed; one female, 20 – 26.

This captivating tale of two traveling workers, George and Lennie, illuminates their unique friendship and quest for the American dream as they travel the countryside. But as all too often happens, "the best laid schemes o' mice and men" go awry in this timeless literary masterpiece. Call 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org for an audition time. For more details, go to www.citytheatreaustin.org

Upcoming: Secret Identity by Scott Matthew Harris, Texas State University, January 27 - 30

Received directly:

presents

Secret Identity

by Scott Matthew Harris

directed by Robert Wighs

January 27^th – 29^th at 7:30 p.m. and January 30^th at 2:00 p.m.

PSH Foundation Studio Theatre, Texas State Theatre Center

430 Moon St., San Marcos (click for map)

Tickets $8 general admission and $5 for students with a valid Texas State ID.

For reservations, call the Texas State Box Office as (512) 245-2204.

Tickets will go on sale Monday January 24^th at 10:00 a.m.

In Scott Matthew Harris’s new play Secret Identity, Arthur Daniels owns an auto parts store in Brooklyn. He leads a normal life, but he has a secret that has cost him his marriage and his relationship with his son. And now, a visit from an old acquaintance may force him to give up what he holds most dear: his true identity.

Upcoming: Fiction by Steven Dietz, Zach Theatre, February 10 - April 10

Found on-line:

presents

Fiction

by Steven Dietz

directed by Charlie Otte

February 10 - April 10

Whisenhut Stage, Zach Theatre, 1510 Toomey St. near Lamar

Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

The only thing harder than dying with a secret is living with one in this gasp-out-loud adventure.

After cheering the wit, charm, and romance of Shooting Star and Becky’s New Car, ZACH audiences are in for a thrilling story of intrigue as Austin playwright Steven Dietz returns to ZACH with his razor-sharp play. Two married writers live a life whose very profession places them on edge of fact and fiction. When Linda faces a fatal diagnosis, she and husband Michael are forced to confront the notion that the only thing harder than dying with a secret is living with one. Dietz, the most produced playwright in the country, directs this gasp-out-loud comedic drama with his trademark and irresistible blend of humor, heart and precision.

MEDIA LINKS:

• The Austin Chronicle profiles Steven Dietz.
• Steven Dietz at the University of Texas' Theatre & Dance Department

Upcoming: The Civil War, Vive les Arts Theatre, Killeen, February 4 - 20

Found on-line:

presents

THE CIVIL WAR

Vive les Arts Theatre, Killeen
3401 S W S Young Dr, Killeen, TX 76542-2832 (click for map)
Feb. 4-5, 11-13, 18-20, 7 p.m. except Sundays at 2 p.m.
Buy tickets on-line
Sponsored by Ross Caviness State Farm Insurance

The Civil War focuses not only on issues of the unity of the nation and the abolition of slavery, but also on the impact of the war on individual families. The show includes memorable songs, and also incorporates letters, diaries, historical documents and Walt Whitman's poetry as it explores the brutal civil war that claimed the lives of 620,000 Americans

Upcoming: Fight by Kimber Lee, world premiere, University of Texas, November 12 -21

Found on-line:

The University of Texas presents the world premiere of

Fight

Written by Kimber Lee
Directed by Charles Otte and Kimber Lee

November 12*, 14, 17, 18, 19 at 8:00 PM
November 14, 21 at 2:00 PM
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

*Join us November 12 for an Opening Night Reception immediately following the performance. Guests will be able to mingle with the cast, crew, and director of Fight while enjoying an assortment of light snacks and desserts.

Tickets: $20 adults, $17 UT faculty & staff, $15 students available online at www.texasperformingarts.org or by phone at 477-6060.

What does it take to be a fighter? Dani Perez is about to find out. On the run from the oppressive silence of her aunt's apartment, Dani starts training at the boxing gym where her estranged father once reigned supreme. Day after day she works to learn the sweet science of boxing, and finds that true victory in the ring comes not only through strength and speed, but also through persistence, hard work, and having the heart to stand, face your own worst fears and never give up.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .