(*) Profile by Deborah Martin: Chet Walker Directs Pippin at Trinity University

Quick on his feet for 'Pippin'

By Deborah Martin : November 7, 2013

Jonathan Moore, Chet Walker, Alberto Moore (photo: Robin Jerstad, Express-News)

Broadway director and choreographer Chet Walker is all about saying yes.

Would he be willing to come to Serbia to work with autistic kids? Yes. Would he like to come to Tel Aviv to choreograph “The Producers”? Absolutely. How about spending a few weeks at Trinity University as part of the Stieren Arts Enrichment Series, directing and choreographing a student production of “Pippin”? Why not?


The musical, which follows a young man's quest for fulfillment, opens Friday at Trinity.


Directing and choreographing weren't the only tasks Walker fulfilled during his stay here. He also gave a lecture about his career, and saying yes to things was the big take-away from it.


“I told them how (whether) you're coming up, you're coming down, you just don't know where you're going to be,” said Walker, 59. “So you kind of have to be open to anything.”


Saying yes has worked out pretty well for Walker. He started dancing on Broadway when he was a teenager; the original run of “Pippin” was his second professional credit. Most recently, he choreographed the circus-themed revival of “Pippin” on Broadway, a big-buzz show for which he received a Tony nomination and a slew of other awards. (His favorite is the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Choreography “because that's why you do the things you do, is because of that man.”)



His decision to come to Trinity while “Pippin” is still wowing crowds on Broadway owes something to serendipity. The university's theater department had lined up someone else as part of the Stieren series this fall; when that deal fell apart in May, there was some scrambling to find a replacement.

Click to read full article at MySanAntonio.com

Profile: Two Beards Theatre Company by Donna Marie Miller, Austin Fusion Magazine, October 2013

Two Beards Theatre: Young Friends to Co-Producers

by Donna Marie Miller
www.austinfusionmagazine.com, October 16, 2013

Jacob Henry, Andrew Robinson (photo: Embree Weaver)

A boyhood friendship that began more than a decade ago ignited a business partnership between the co-producers of Austin’s newest artistic troupe, Two Beards Theatre Company.


The founders, Andrew Robinson and Jacob Henry, teamed up to create Two Beards this fall and their first show, “Mr. Marmalade,” opened Oct. 4-5 at the hip East Austin Salvage Vanguard Theatre. The performances, which ran through Oct. 12, impressed the local community, according to comments left on the theatre company’s website. [Click for review by AustinLiveTheatre.com]


The 2006 play, written by Noah Haidle, combines humor with shock appeal – a 20-year-old actress played Lucy, the articulate four-year-old who dreams up an imaginary friend, an abusive businessman plagued by anger issues and addictions to pornography and cocaine.


With the production, Robinson says he and Henry vowed to “wow” their audiences. To do this, Henry narrowed his set design color choices to just two from the Crayola 100-crayon box selection — red and blue. Lighting designer Dylan Rocamora added profound hues to the stage’s ethereal scenes. This created a deeper and richer “out-of-this-world” experience for theatregoers.


“Since both Andrew and I were raised here, we knew that we wanted a show that was kind of edgy and weird,” Henry says. “It’s a great script and a great story that fits Austin.”

Robinson and Henry have worked together since attending Westview Middle School and John B. Connally High School in Northwest Austin. Henry, who is a year older than Robinson, was enrolled in seventh grade when Robinson started sixth grade at Westview.

Click to read more and view production photos be Embree Weaver at Austin Fusion magazine

Profile by participating artist Dr. David Glen Robinson: Art Show/Model Show, Paper Chairs at the Off-Shoot, August 29 - September 14, 2013

(www.paperchairs.com)

by Dr. David Glen Robinson


A Participating Artist's Impressions

The artists stood at easels or sat at drawing tables in the well of the theatre, downstage center, or more aptly, house center. The stage was multilevel, rising before us and offering sightlines better than in most figurative art workshops. The lighting on the models was also much better than in any workshop. My choice of oil on canvas as the medium ensured no relaxation on my part. I sweated and labored continually, and my brushes and charcoals hummed throughout the show; I panted through the entire five-minute break the artists were given in the middle of the performance. But my earnest efforts had actually begun before the show, with hauling four loads of art equipment and supplies from my pickup into the theatre. And I thought I had a minimal setup! Lesson: Oil painting never allows a minimal setup.

I was a guest artist for one evening performance of Paper Chairs’ Art Show/Model Show at the Offshoot Theatre in East Austin, where creativity seemsy always to find new and brilliant expression. This show simulated in its setting an art class or workshop, where artists actually strive for, well, something in the realm of figurative art. The workshop setting gave rise to the need for working artists in the show, and so I signed up. But it was the art models/actors who controlled the action and gave all the lines and spoke all the texts in the show. The only artists who spoke were those who did so in projected video interviews on a screen above the stage.

(photo from Paper Chairs)

The art models, you may surmise, showed some attitude, i.e., ‘tude, and with good reason. Artists and art models exist in an archetypical relationship. They have left their traces on Paleolithic cave walls and in every succeeding stage of world art since that time, with the possible exceptions of Hebraic and Islamic art. In all those eras, expression and communication were the province of the artists, while the fully exposed models remained silent, ultimately and ironically invisible in terms of their identities, female or male. The model merely provided a useful form for the visual telling of allegories and mythic adventures. The exception of portrait art proves the rule: there, the dominance of the artist fell away when painting a fully empowered and clothed king, queen or aristocrat as portrait subject, not model. The portrait titles are the names of those depicted.

The models who created Art Show/Model Show raged against all of that. They spoke and the artists remained silent. Art instruction videos contextualized their world, and then the models offered commentary on it all, never more hilariously than when model Kelli Bland walked among the artists in faux art teacher mode giving ironic, almost snide, instructions in how to draw body parts, mostly by making impersonal and insensitive comments about “the model.” (“You can’t see that bone on that model, but it is there under all her fat.”) All models have heard such brutally clinical and basically rude comments in the course of their modeling careers.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Video Profile (2): Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock and 'The Red Velvet Cake War,' September 27 - October 19, 2013, by John Speasmaker at YourLocalColor.com

John Speasmaker hears from Lynn Beaver about the membership drive and the history of the Sam Bass Theatre in Round Rock and provides glimpses of the ongoing rehearsals for the production of The Red Velvet Cake War by Jones, Hope and Wooten. (7 min., 33 sec.)

 

What's Going on at Sam Bass Community Theatre

by John Speasmaker, August 27, 2013

Sam Bass Community Theater has a lot going on for the next few weeks. For starters, they are getting close to the opening of their next production which will be The Red Velvet Cake War, directed by Lynn Beaver, and created by the famous comedy writing trio of Jones, Hope, and Wooten. This laugh fest of a show will be starting its run on Friday September 27th and it will run through Saturday October 19th. Please watch the attached video for hilarious clips from Sam Bass’s most recent reading. You will really enjoy yourself.

Jones, Hope and Wooten are well known for their ability to capture the unique flavor of small town southern life. and The Red Velvet Cake War is that and so much more. The play is situated in the fictional town of Sweetgum, Texas, and is centered on the antics of the Verdeen family, their family reunion, and a hotly contested bake-off. I attended a reading rehearsal, and I laughed the whole way through. Watch the video.

Also on the Sam Bass Community Theatre agenda is their membership drive, a season ticket drive and fundraising for a new annex. Membership opportunities with SBCT are available at many levels, and depending on the level you choose, memberships come with very attractive perks that really sweeten the deal. Memberships start at a modest $15 and go as high as you want. Some of the perks include complementary tickets, complementary season tickets, invitations to gala events, and of course, you get to support a local, Round Rock organization that is working hard to enrich our lives through superb entertainment.

Read more at YourLocalColor.com . . .

(*) Profile of Playhouse San Antonio and 'Ragtime' by Leezia Dahlain, The Rivard Report, August 9, 2013

 
For The San Pedro Playhouse, The Show Must Go On

Posted on August 9th, 2013
By Leezia Dhalla

(Photo: Gregg Eckhardt)

In San Antonio, theater is thriving. With more than a dozen venues dedicated to the performing arts, the city is steadily becoming known as one of Texas’s most colorful havens for the premier theatrical experience.

Responsibility for boosting the local arts reputation belongs in part to The San Pedro Playhouse, the oldest municipally built theater in the United States.

Situated in picturesque San Pedro Springs Park, The Playhouse opened its doors just 90 days after the 1929 crash of the stock market with a performance of Ferenc Molnar’s “The Swan.” It continues to be an important piece of the performing arts puzzle in San Antonio more than 90 years later, with a slew of educational programs that offer hands-on internships and on-site training classes in auditioning, stage combat, choreography and improv, among others.

The theater has grown to serve more than 50,000 people through various educational outreach programs, performances, events and classes.

In her first year as president and CEO, Asia Ciaravino has breathed new life into the venue. In addition to updating the theater’s social media and branding efforts, Ciaravino retooled the education programming into the likes of a conservatory, where students can learn the practicalities of equity, contracts and cattle-call auditions as professional actors in the working world.

The Playhouse also continues to donate production tickets to thousands of students each year, especially at schools where theater programs are being eliminated due to budget constraints.

“Our thrust is in building communities and education. I feel like we’re at the point of exploding because there’s so much happening and so many good things going on in the community,” Ciaravino said. “(I’m glad) we’re able to do so much outreach. On a community level we really impact children and adults, and that’s what theater, in my mind, is supposed to do.”

Read more at The Rivard Report . . . .

Leaving It All on Stage: A Profile of Bastion Carboni by Jonathan Coker, L Style G Style magazine

Leaving It All On Stage

By Jonathan Coker 

Bastion Carboni (photo: L Style G Style)

I had seen Bastion Carboni around town quite often, but we’d never actually officially met. That being said, Carboni and I have mutual friends, so I wasn’t too nervous about asking to interview him for our newest RISING profile.

Carboni is a playwright, director, and Artistic Director of local theatre collective, Poison Apple Initiative. Admittedly, I had never seen one of Carboni’s plays, I had only heard sparkling reviews from reliable sources. Thus, I came into this conversation as neither admirer nor critic, but rather an interviewer intrigued by the hype surrounding a young, gay artist in Austin.

At ten years old, Carboni discovered his love for the stage while performing in “Hansel &Gretel” with the Dallas Opera’s Children’s Chorus.

“Once the giant gingerbread cutouts slide away from us and I saw 2,000 people in the audience, I knew that this was the only thing I wanted to do,” Carboni said.

After acting for an extended period of time, Carboni started writing plays, not only to bring to life the stories in his mind, but also to make himself more of a marketable artist.

Carboni was so in love with the romance of the stage that he didn’t care in what capacity he was involved with theatre; it’s the artforms that he’s madly in love with. He just turned 29 and already Carboni has directed several successful plays including “An Obviously Foggot” and “Holier Than Thou,” and started a theatre company, Poison Apple Initiative.

At the moment, Carboni is trying to get “Holier Than Thou” published; he wants to be published by the time he’s 30.

Read more at L Style G Style magazine on-line. . . .

Video Profile: Sam Bass Community Theatre, Round Rock, by John Speasmaker at YourLocalColor.com

John Speasmaker hears from Frank Benge about the history and youth program of the Sam Bass Theatre in Round Rock and provides glimpses of the ongoing rehearsals for the production of Bugsy Malone (July 26 - August 17, 2013) (10 min. video)











by John Speasmaker

[. . .] at the Sam Bass Community Theatre here in Round Rock[ . . .] I saw motivated, relaxed and happy children who treated each other with kindness and respect, and they treated the adults who supervised and instructed them with the same level of care. It was wonderful. After my experience substituting in Austin, this really was one of the most uplifting experiences I have ever had. I left with a new appreciation for the adults who take time to work with children. On top of that, all of the adults who were there were not getting paid a penny for their time. This really was a labor of love. [. . .]

I started with Frank Benge who has been giving his time to the Sam Bass Community Theatre since 1994. Frank is now the Publicity Director for SBCT and is also on the board, and he allowed me to drop by rehearsals for their upcoming kid’s production of Bugsy Malone, Jr. He brought me up to date on the group’s history and also talked a lot about Sam Bass’s Youth Guild (moms you really should watch this). It is the membership of the Youth Guild that you will see rehearsing Bugsy Malone, Jr. on the attached video. Please take some time to watch so that you can really appreciate the great work being done.

Read more at YourLocalColor.com . . .

Prakash Mohandas Prepares 'Om Shanti Om' for Dell Hall, Long Center - Austin Statesman, July 7, 2013

Uncredited feature published July 7 in the Statesman's 'Love My Job' feature

Click to go to the Statesman's video interview of Prakash Mohandas





 Love My Job: Prakhash Mohandas

(photo: Austin Statesman)

 Watching Prakash Mohandas direct cast members for his upcoming production, “Om Shanti — Once upon a Time in Bollywood,” it is hard to believe engineering was his mainstay up until a few months ago. [CLICK to view 'Upcoming' announcement page at AustinLiveTheatre.com]

The actor, dancer, musician and filmmaker is obviously in his realm on the stage, but Mohandas is also a successful entrepreneur. He is founder and CEO of Agni Entertainment, the burgeoning film and theater company which produces, promotes and distributes independent film and theater projects with a South Asian focus.

“Coming from India, I never thought that all of my artistic interests could be translated into a profession,” he said. “I think one of the things the U.S. has taught me is that anything can be a profession if you are really passionate about it, provided that you put in some thought about how you can make that passion of yours monetarily viable.”

Mohandas’ passion for the arts came at an early age. He began learning hip hop and jazz in India at age 6. When he was 11, he took up Indian classical music. He also participated in theater throughout school and continued to pursue dance, theater and music during his undergraduate studies.

“Most of my artistic abilities came from my early education in India,” he said. “But culturally, the community has a stigma against artistic careers; they aren’t considered lucrative enough to make a living. Culturally, I was raised to go toward a path of engineering, medicine, law or an MBA.”

Mohandas left India to attend graduate school in engineering at The University of Texas. Engineering was never something Mohandas questioned; instead, he said he followed suit with many of his peers and moved to the U.S. to pursue his graduate studies.

“Over there, all my artistic interests were considered hobbies — even through I was really passionate about them, I never thought of them as a career path,” he said.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . . 

Click to view article at Austin Statesman. . . .

Video: University of Texas Profiles Isaac Gomez and 'The Women of Juarez' (Cohen New Works Festival, 2013)

from its feature on nine 2013 graduates:

For Isaac Gomez, theatre is not merely entertainment, it’s a life-changing event.

I believe through theatre you can change the world.”

The El Paso native created a new work called “The Women of Juarez,” which debuted during the Cohen New Works Festival this year. The play, which incorporates music and dance along with different kinds of storytelling methodologies, shares stories about women who have firsthand experience with the violence and murder of women in the border city of Juarez.

“Our goal is to give a space for the stories to be told, uninterrupted and unaltered,” says Gomez, who recently won a George H. Mitchell Award for Academic Excellence.


The first person in his immediate family to leave El Paso for college, Gomez was drawn to theatre at the age of 10. He acted in community theatre and school plays in El Paso and did some playwriting, but his perspective about theatre has evolved over time. One of his goals is to apply theatre studies to accomplish positive social change and activate a sense of civic duty in people.


“[We want] for people to leave the space and continue to tell the stories” of the women of Juarez. “That’s how you spread awareness,” he says.


Gomez, a double major in theatre and dance and journalism, plans to move to Chicago or New York and continue his work as a “theatre practitioner and scholar.”

Shakespeare at Winedale Profile by Willa Young in the Daily Texan, March 4, 2013

Shakespeare at Winedale Offers Students One-of-a-Kind Learning Experience through Performance

by Willa Young

A much-needed cool breeze flows through the three open sides of a dilapidated German hay barn on a warm Texas night. The barn is miles from city life, far enough from streetlights that the Milky Way can clearly be seen each night, but the inside is packed with a cramped and sweaty audience. The dull hum of the crowd hushes as the lights dim, and a group of young men and women clad in Elizabethan garb take the stage. This is not a conventional theater, nor is it a conventional experience. But Shakespeare at Winedale does not try to be conventional.

“Performing in the barn setting is unforgettable”, said Alexander Fischer, Plan II senior and seasoned “Winedaler”. “It’s surrounded by just absolutely gorgeous Texas countryside, unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

It may sound like a vacation, but being a cast member of the University of Texas’ 43-year-old tradition is far from a breeze. Between 15 and 20 students are selected and cast in four classic Shakespeare plays in the spring. At the beginning of summer the group is shipped off to Winedale, a completely isolated area near Round Top, where they spend nine grueling weeks preparing to perform three plays, eight times each, in the barn-turned-theater. Each cast member works seven days a week, 18 hours a day, completely shut off from the outside world.

“It’s just a really good, in-depth study of Shakespeare, particularly his language,” Plan II junior Lucy Junkersaid. “It shows how easily acting comes when you’re just given a script.”

Professor James Loehlin from the University of Texas’s English Department has been directing the Shakespeare at Winedale program for 13 years. He took over for Professor James B. Ayres, who started the program and solely directed for 30 years. Loehlin was a “Winedaler” himself in the 1980s.

“I found it, as many students have, to be a transformative experience, and it made me love Renaissance and Shakespeare drama very deeply,” Loehlin said, “I have tried to carry on in the essentials [of] what Dr. Ayres wanted the program to be — total Shakespeare immersion.”

Loehlin compared the Winedale learning experience to learning a foreign language. People generally learn a language much faster and better when they are in the country itself and become a part of the culture. By performing the works, instead of just reading them, each cast member retains a deeper and more complex understanding of Shakespeare, according to Loehlin.

“Dr. Loehlin’s expertise is just outstanding,” said Liz Fisher, Shakespeare at Winedale program coordinator and another Winedale alumna. “You need only be in a few minutes of rehearsal with him to know exactly what’s going on in his head.”

Shakespeare at Winedale has two separate sections. The first is the full-immersion, completely isolated and highly selective summer program. The second is a spring course taught by Loehlin. The class analyzes between five and seven texts throughout the semester, prepares one full play and visits Winedale for three weekends, culminating in a final performance in the barn. This semester, the spring class is performing “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Both sections of the course are open to all students, regardless of Shakespeare or acting experience.

“Part of what’s useful about coming from a non-theatre background is having a different perspective,” said Fisher. "You’re able to see things that Shakespeare pros don’t see, and that is so valuable and important.”

During the summer program, cast members eat, sleep, work and play together 24 hours a day for over 65 days. This close proximity, complete isolation and high- stress environment, combined with the intense summer heat in Texas, creates a familial relationship among the class members.

“It is impossible to spend that much time with a small group of people and not get incredibly close,” Fisher said. “On the flip side, there comes a time when you get really irritated with each other.”

Through the mentorship of Ayres, Loehlin has fostered a Shakespeare program rooted in tradition.

“You’ll have to forgive me, but there are just some parts of being at Winedale that words won’t help describe it,” Fisher said “You just have to be there.”

Theatre Thinker - Profile of Travis Bedard by Dan Solomon, Austin Chronicle

Theatre Thinker


In the online dialogue about the art of the stage, Travis Bedard is a star

By Dan Solomon, Fri., Jan. 18, 2013

If you're reading this at two o'clock in the morning, there's a good chance that Travis Bedard is awake and on the Internet.


He's probably poring over a vast assortment of theatre blogs from around the world, but he might be on Twitter. If he is, he's either telling the more than 2,500 theatremakers who follow @TravisBedard about the best things he's read on those blogs or treating them to cranky, pithy bon mots framed as advice. ("Approaching what you do as though it's holy can be the beginnings of beauty. Forcing others to do the same never is.") Or he could be preparing a post for 2amtheatre.com, the theatre discussion blog for which he serves as managing editor. But it's a safe bet that, if it's the middle of the night, Travis Bedard is awake, online, and thinking about theatre.


The amount of time that Bedard spends thinking – and talking – about theatre has built him a not-insubstantial international following.


Read more at the Austin Chronicle on-line. . . .

Profile: Marlane Barnes, MFA '10: Interview with A Vampire, The Alcalde

From the website for Texas Exes, the alumni organization of the University of Texas:







 
Interview With the Vampire

By Rose Cahalan in Nov | Dec 2012, TXEX on November 5, 2012

 
Marlane Barnes, MFA ’10, plays the Irish vampire Maggie in the new Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. She told us how UT prepared her for Hollywood—and what happened when she forgot she was wearing her creepy get-up.


Have you always wanted to act?

I always loved theater, but I’m from Arkansas, where no one makes a living as an actor. So I got an English degree and planned on law school, but then I realized I didn’t want to be a lawyer—I just wanted to play one. As an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas, I looked for an MFA program with a lot of support and resources. That’s how I came to UT.

How was your UT experience?

It was three years of immersion in the acting world. At the end, there’s a showcase in New York where you get to meet industry professionals—casting agents, managers, other actors. That’s where I met my current manager. Relationships are everything in this industry.

How did you get the Twilight part?

I did a 30-second audition, and not long after, my manager called to say I got the part. It was very shocking, because you can go to 30, 40 auditions and not book anything.

What don’t people know about Hollywood?

It’s not just that there are so many aspiring actors—it’s that messing up as an actor is really expensive. Movies cost millions of dollars, and if you make a mistake, it’s going to cost a lot of money. That’s why producers want to cast actors with a reputation for showing up on time and being professional. So it’s hard to break in because you don’t have anyone to vouch for you.

Tell us about shooting the film.

It was wonderfully fun and challenging. We shot in Baton Rouge, La., and I was on set for almost three months. I got really homesick and missed my family and friends so much. But it was an unforgettable experience.

What’s your character like?

She’s an Irish vampire named Maggie, and her gift is that she can tell when people are lying. I studied an Irish accent at UT, so that came in handy.

Does playing a vampire bring any unique challenges?

Actors work with their breath a lot, but vampires aren’t supposed to be breathing, because they’re dead. I was very conscious of that—it was tough to hide when I was out of breath. The vampire makeup was the same color as my regular foundation, which was kind of embarrassing. I also wore crazy blood-red contact lenses. I’d forget I was wearing them, and then I’d terrify the crew members with my crazy eyes! Mine and the other Irish vampires’ contacts were extra red to show that we were definitely people-eaters.

What’s the appeal of vampires?

I love that vampires are like humans, but they have all the capabilities of animals. They combine death, immortality, and sex, all in this impossibly beautiful way—they’re the ultimate predators.
Click to view article at the Alcalde on-line . . . .

Video Profile of San Antonio's Overtime Theatre by Michael Valdes, Fox Channel 29

Profile by television journalist Michael Valdes with comments by Kyle Gillette of the Overtime Theatre, broadcast August 7:

For about five years, The Overtime Theater has promoted itself as "Theater for the People." And while they have received plenty of praise, they could always use, well... more people. A recent move out of the Blue Star Arts Complex to an old medical supply building on Camden is at least bringing the room for that. 

"We have more rehearsal space. We have more room to do larger shows," says Kyle Gillette, Artistic Director for The Overtime. There is also more lighting, better sound and, as a result, some new excitement about what can be done with local original theater that makes it accessible to a bigger audience. "At Overtime, we try to create work that anyone whether they have seen anything or read anything, they will come in and say, wow... that was awesome," says Gillette. 

He feels many local theater companies are doing the kind of work that pushes the group as a whole to another level. Gillette says, "It seems like now there are enough folks who have come here, who are creative types. Who want to see what it could be to go out on a Friday night and instead of going and drinking at a bar... or in addition to going and drinking at a bar...to see some work that moves them and helps them to connect to other people." 

 Gillette believes there is enough of an audience to go around... As long as everyone keeps doing things from the heart. " The enemy to theater is bad theater," according to Gillette. "You go and see a bad play and you are like, theater sucks. But if you see something interesting, then you want to go see other stuff."

Robert Faires Profiles the Zach's New Topfer Theatre, Austin Chronicle, October 4

Wheels of a Dream

With the long-awaited Topfer Theatre, Zach races full-throttle into the future

by Robert Faires, October 4, 2012

(image: Sandy Carson for the Austin Chronicle)

Yes, that's a car on the Karen Kuykendall Stage inside Zach Theatre's new Topfer Theatre: a full-size automobile (albeit one built from the scraps of early 20th century Model Ts). And in a town dominated by postage-stamp stages that'd be hard-pressed to accommodate a soap box derby racer, that might seem an impressive enough signifier for this $22 million addition to Austin's performing arts venues. But it isn't like Zach hasn't put a car onstage before – remember Aralyn Hughes' pink, pig-encrusted sedan rolling onto the Kleberg's thrust in Keepin' It Weird a few years back?

 

No, the remarkable thing here is not the machine, which is just the vehicle for understanding what this new facility means for Zach, but the space around it – the space between those 21-foot tall proscenium sides, expansive enough to hold four dozen actors, comfortably spread out, to ooh and aah over the auto; space beyond the proscenium's frame – 20 feet on either side – into which said auto may be moved and stored without crowding out cast, crew, or scenic pieces; space above it – 70 feet above – into which the car, were Zach mounting Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, could be flown out, and out of which all manner of set-pieces can be flown in; space below it, a basement's worth, into which parts of the stage may be lowered for the exits and entrances of actors (or cars) or for creating an orchestra pit; and, far from least important, the space in front of it, large enough that 420 people may peer at the auto from their seats in the auditorium yet with even those most distant from the stage's edge no more than 10 feet farther from it than the back-row patrons in the Kleberg. It's a theatre that allows Zach to do so much that it never could in that 40-year-old mainstage, or the Whisenhunt Arena Stage built 20 years ago, to produce shows of a size and technical complexity comparable to those in major resident theatres across the country and even in Broadway houses. The Topfer represents possibilities.


Read full profile at the Austin Chronicle . . . .

See also
Zach Unveils New $22 million Topfer Theatre by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin Statesman, September 29

Profile of Joshua Denning: Defying Labels by Christian Carbone, L Style G Style Magazine, Austin

Defying Labels

by Christian Carbone

When Joshua Denning was earning his stripes as a young actor at Jeffersonville High School in Indiana, he was the lead in many productions—Peter Pan, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Fame—but the production of a show with a message of inclusivity, called School Colors, was by far his favorite.

The premise was straightforward, yet rather groundbreaking: Each actor improvised scenes out of his or her own experiences on the topic of racism. His vignette—at that time, his knowledge about his ancestors was not what it is now—involved the sketches of his Uncle Preston, an artist whom his relatives said he resembled.

“People think that a mixed-race person needs to choose sides or needs to connect with their White side or represent themselves as culturally Black, and my whole scene was about how I’m mixed,” said Denning. “I claim both and I’m just as White as I am Black—and that’s how it is and you need to deal with it.”

The production resonated because the cast members were honestly invoking their ancestors: In fact, they were later invited to perform at various corporate diversity seminars. “Everything about it was real,” he added. “It wasn’t staged or canned or prerecorded.”

As a child in southern Indiana, Denning would follow his older sister, who took dance classes, and hang out backstage when she performed. He developed a fascination with the mystery of theatrical spaces, with their spiral staircases, weird sets, and nooks and crannies. His parents allowed his burgeoning creativity to flourish, encouraging him to take things apart, paint them and even construct an actual theater, complete with lights and orchestra pit, in their garage. Was he more driven than the average theater-loving child? Most definitely: voice lessons, dance classes, and performing in every single play he could squeeze into his schedule.

“You come up on all these different styles with these roles, and they really make you self-reflect. That part was difficult for me, to be taken apart and prodded,” said Denning. “What are you? Who are you? Especially when you’re young and you don’t know all the answers to those questions yet.”

After earning his BFA on a full scholarship to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Denning moved to New York City, where he lived and worked in his field both inside the city and abroad. He appeared in many shows, including a German production of Disney’s The Lion King, in which he played Simba for two years in Hamburg.

Read more at L Style G Style. . . .

Profile: Philip Kreyche and Freedom Fighter

by Michael Meigs

Philip Kreyche is the first person to appear for the curtain call of Freedom Fighter, playing at the Dougherty Arts Center Thursdays through Saturdays until September 8. Not because he wrote the play and directed it and produced it -- but because he plays several minor roles, each of them sharply contrasted to those of the two leading actors Samson Pleasant and Austen Simien. Kreyche plays a Florida overseer; he's a jovially unscrupulous army recruiter; he's a sergeant unsympathetic to the two hard-working privates; and he's an Army captain who first gets chewed out by President William McKinley and then gets captured by the Philippine troops commanded by the deserter/renegade/freedom fighter David Fagen.

Kreyche's Freedom Fighter is an ingenious script, powerfully Brechtian, occasionally anachronistic, an articulate drama leavened with occasional farce as it examines the United States thrust onto the world stage in the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the subsequent War of the Philippines of 1898 to 1902.

Mark Twain is a prominent character, narrator and commentator -- Michael Sisemore in that role is the voice of caustic reason, opposed to the suppression of the Philippines. Sisemore is distantly related to Twain professionalist Hal Holbrook, and he is granted unusual latitude in his intermission speech to choose his own Twainian zingers.

Ryan Manning plays an eager but not too bright Teddy Roosevelt, and Ethan Taylor has the courage to do a musical-hall Jim Crow number, though thank God he is spared from doing it in blackface. The words are powerful enough; in fact, words are powerful throughout this piece, and Kreyche's dialogue is quick, vivid and character-building. His word choices and expressions are vintage to the period, and his scenes often take unexpected turns.

Kreyche looks closely at America's racial attitudes, both against African-Americans and against Asians. Protagonist David Fagen was a black soldier from Tampa Bay, Florida, who defected to the Philippine forces and used his experience from combat in Cuba to wage guerrilla war against the occupying U.S. forces for more than two years. Samson Pleasant as Fagen is intelligent, resolute and eventually driven by the U.S. tactics of violent suppression to question his loyalties . Austen Simien as his friend Ezekiel breaks down -- post traumatic stress syndrome before anyone thought to name it -- and intensifies his own desperate loyalties, serving as a foil to Fagen throughout. Language and attitude are those of the late 19th century, and you'll hear that "n-word" wielded powerfully by both races as the audience identifies strongly with the two African-American soldiers.

The production is supported by the John L. Warfield Center for African and African-American studies at the University of Texas.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Profile: Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre, by the B. Iden Payne Awards Council

Ken is featured artist of the month for July at the 'Artist Profile' page of the reformulated B. Iden Payne Awards Council:

JULY PROFILE:

KEN WEBSTER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, HYDE PARK THEATRE

Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre

Youthful aspirations: I wanted to be a baseball player when I was a kid, but I was a terrible  baseball player, so that wasn’t going to happen. I went to the  University of Houston, where I started out as a drama major, but then I  panicked and decided I would never be able to make a living doing  theatre, so I became a radio, television and film major.

Early career: After I graduated, I had a job offer to be a disc jockey in Baton  Rouge, but I got the itch to do theatre again, so I came to Austin, with  no job prospects. I came to Austin for a woman who I never wound up  dating. I was interested in this woman, and I thought that since I was  in the same city, we might strike up a relationship. That didn’t work  out [laughs].

Multi-talented: Some people think I’m a better actor than a director; some people might  think I’m a better director than actor. I don’t know which is true.  I’ve been acting longer than I’ve been directing. I started acting in  Austin in 1979; I started directing out of necessity in 1982. I was  producing a show and I lost my director, so I wound up directing Little Murders. Mary Louise Parker was in that cast.

Strengths: I think I have pretty good taste in scripts and pretty good taste in  actors. Even people who think I’m not the greatest director in the world  will tell you I’m pretty good at casting [laughs]. There’s a common  misperception that I cast the same people in my shows. I’ve been  directing [in Austin] now for 30 years, and I’ve cast over 200 actors,  and any time I [re]cast one of those 200 actors, people go, “Aha! You  see? He casts the same actors!” In the show I’m doing now [Tigers Be Still], there are two actors I’ve never worked with before.

What he looks for in actors: Sanity is a very valued commodity – who is the most sane and pleasant  and seemingly easy to work with. I look for people who are open to  trying different things and aren’t totally set in their ways.

Challenges: We tend to do smaller cast shows for economic reasons and space issues.  We don’t have the most luxurious or spacious dressing rooms. Middletown will be really challenging because I have 11 actors playing 23 roles.

Influential Figures: I met my wife, Katherine Catmull, at an audition at Hyde Park Theatre in 1984. I was having auditions for Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. Katherine was the roommate of an actor who I wanted to  cast in the role of Danny Shapiro; and I mistakenly thought they were a  couple, because they were living together, and she read really well. I  thought it would be neat to cast these real-life lovers in the roles of  the lovers in the play. I came to find out they weren’t dating; they  were just platonic friends. My wife has been really supportive all these  years. She turned me on to Harold Pinter, which really changed my  professional career. Jim Fritzler, who was head of Big State  Productions, is probably the best director I’ve ever worked with and he  taught me a lot about directing. He had great instincts, was really  great at working with actors, and he also had excellent taste in  scripts. He was kind of a curmudgeon at times, but he such a sweet and  gentle man when he’s directing.

Coming up: Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock – a wonderful comedy with some serious bits thrown in; Middletown by Will Eno in September and October; and the 20^th anniversary of Fronterafest.

Arts Reporting by Texas Public Radio: Attic Rep Celebrates Five Years

Found on-line, thanks to Attic Rep at Trinity University, San Antonio:

AtticRep Theatre Celebrates Five Years

June 30, 2011 · In 2006, a small professional theatre ensemble took up residence at Trinity University. AtticRep produces some of the most entertaining and thought provoking work in the Alamo City. Terry Gildea sits down with Artistic Director Roberto Prestigiacomo and Managing Director Rick Frederick to talk about the life of the company.

[photo: Rick Frederick and Rodman Boleck in 'The Irish Curse' ( by Siggi Ragnar)]

Click to go to The Source on-line

Click below to listen to the program (25 min.)