Upcoming: Picnic Plays, Sunday readings by Paper Chairs, May 13, 20, 27

Picnic Plays

readings by Paper Chairs

With great pleasure, paper chairs announce, THE PICNIC PLAYS: READINGS ON SUNDAYS IN MAY. We invite you give listen to some deft drafts of new work by local playwrights Elizabeth Doss, Sarah Saltwick, and Jason Tremblay. Join us these final spring Sundays to experience each play in a unique location accompanied by refreshing cocktails and snacks to complete an ideally idle Sunday afternoon.

This is a FREE event series. The paper chairs will bring the plays and some potluck libations to share, if you bring two open ears, a blanket, and any BYOP (Bring-Your-Own-Picnic) items you like. Family friendly (with a warning, the content may be PG-13 & White Horse is 21+) & dog friendly at Big Stacey only (sorry). Informal chats will follow each read.

Mark your calendars:
Sunday May 13th 4pm:
MAST by Elizabeth Doss at the historic home of Tammy Shaklee and Cliff Mitchell 712 W 16th Street

Sunday May 20th 3pm:
A Perfect Robot by Sarah Saltwick at Big Stacey Park (Between Annie St and Live Oak St.Park on East Side Drive)

Sunday May 27th 2pm:
Boom for Real by Jason Tremblay at the White Horse 500 Comal St

Upcoming: What A Stranger May Know, outdoor readings, University of Texas South Campus Mall, April 16

presents

What a Stranger May Know

A site-specific outdoors simultaneous reading of 27 plays to commemorate 32 lives lost in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting

by Erik Ehn

Monday, April 16, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

The outdoor performance takes place on The University of Texas at Austin’s South Mall at Inner Campus Drive, Austin, Texas 78712.

Students, faculty and staff of The University of Texas at Austin community will participate in a daybreak tribute to those who lost their lives in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings on April 16. What a Stranger May Know is a series of 32 plays, one for each victim, written by Erik Ehn, an internationally known artist-activist and the director of play writing at Brown University.

The University of Texas at Austin’s outdoor reading will follow Erik Ehn’s ambitious, plays-within-a-play format as a series of monologues. What a Stranger May Know is produced by Isaac Gomez, Michael Massey, Megan McQuaid and Sam Gorena, undergraduate students from the university’s Department of Theatre and Dance. The event will take place at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, April 16, on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, during the time of its occurrence in 2007.

Twenty-seven student actors will be scattered in different stations across the university’s South Mall leading up to the Tower, reading their 90-minute monologues simultaneously. Members of the audience are free to move about, wandering through the scenes as the stories unfold, or to stay with one selection throughout its entirety.

This community performance reaches beyond The University of Texas at Austin’s campus. What a Stranger May Know will be presented on April 16 at Santa Clara University, Brown University, City College of New York, Brandeis University, University of Ulster, The New School, The University of Texas at Arlington and Whittier College.

Join the conversation on facebook.

Upcoming: The Way of the Water by Caridad Svich, staged reading at the Hyde Park Theatre, April 3

Scriptworks and the Hyde Park Theatre

present a staged reading of

The Way of the Water

by Caridad Svich

Tuesday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.

Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. at Guadalupe (click for map)

Austin selected for reading of award-winning playwright's work marking two-year anniversary of Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill

Austin, along with several cities throughout the US and abroad will be the site of a multi-organization play reading of 2011 ATCA Francesca Primus Prize winning playwright Caridad Svich’s new play The Way of Water, marking the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill on Tuesday, April 3^rd at Hyde Park Theatre at 511 W. 43^rd Street. The reading is presented by Scriptworks and Hyde Park Theatre.

The project is spearheaded by the NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press, based out of Arizona, an unincorporated collective dedicated to the advocacy, production and publication of works expressive of cross-cultural and aesthetic diversity in the arts.

The Way of Water is a four character, two-act play that focuses on poverty in America and the devastation of the ongoing health and environmental crisis in the US Gulf region. The play was developed at the 2011 Winter Writers’ Retreat at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, after Svich’s extensive research.

The play, which deals with the aftermath of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects on human health and the environment in the US Gulf region, is being made available for local presentations during the month of April to mark the two-year anniversary of the spill and increase awareness of environmental concerns.

Among the theaters that will be presenting the play are American Stage Theatre Company in St. Petersburg, FL; ScriptWorks and Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX; California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA; Cornell University’s Teatrotaller and Theatre Incognita in Ithaca, NY; EAST LA REP in Los Angeles, CA; Emerson College & Atomic Age Theater Company in Boston, MA; ion theatre company in San Diego, CA; Main Street Theatre in Houston, TX; Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe, NM; Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque, NM; internationally at Aberystwyth University in Wales/UK, Leeds University Workshop Theatre and Rose Bruford College in England/UK, and Pat the Dog in Ontario, Canada, and venues in Berlin, Sao Paolo, Australia and Turkey, and more than twenty US universities including Carnegie Mellon and UC-Davis. Additional presenting venues will be announced in the near future.

Caridad Svich’s other plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia…a rave fable, and The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende. The dramaturgy team for the international reading scheme for The Way of Water are Philadelphia-based dramaturge Heather Helinsky and New York City-based dramatist & dramaturge R. Alex Davis. The play’s premiere has not yet been announced.

For more information about Caridad Svich’s The Way of Water, visit http://www.nopassport.org/thewayofthewater

About NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press

Upcoming: Digging Up the Dirt by Cherrie Moraga, ProArts at Mexican-American Cultural Center, February 11

Found on-line:

presents a staged reading of

Digging Up the Dirt

by Cherrie Moraga

February 11th, 2:00 PM

Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River Street Austin TX 78701 (click for map)

Admission is Free with the donation of a non-perishable item.

Post performance talk-back with Cherrie Moraga

Digging Up the Dirt takes place, as Moraga writes, “Inside The Poet’s head, somewhere in the fragmented Chicano nation of Aztlán.” Here, as in most Moraga plays, the playwright uses the imagined landscape of the Southwest to poignantly explore those censored questions that continue to impact Chicana lives. And, as in most Moraga plays, such depictions give all of us pause –regardless of race or gender or sexuality. This is especially the case in “Digging Up the Dirt” where the plot thematically interweaves two murder stories.

Upcoming: Beneath the Yellow Wallpaper, staged reading at Neill-Cochran House Museum, January 15

Found online:

presents

Beneath the Yellow Wallpaper:

Writers, Workers, & Freud Discover the Self,

staged reading with Pamela Christian & Ev Lunning, Jr.

January 15, 2012, 2 p.m.

Neill-Cochran House Museum, 2310 W. San Gabriel Street, 78705 (click for map)

The 1890s saw a shift in the way we see ourselves. Freud did his seminal work during this decade, publishing Studies on Hysteria (1895) and The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and Charlotte Perkins Gillman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), a beautifully crafted novel that critiqued the 19^th-century approach to the treatment of mental illness, along with Women and Economics (1898). Workers examined their individual situations and joined collectively to protest their conditions. The ‘90s’ transition from Victorian styles to modernity permeated literature, painting, music, politics. To explore the fin de siècle Equity actors Pamela Christian and Ev Lunning, Jr. make their second Modern Times appearance with their popular staged duet. Dr. Christian, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Voice and Speech for Performance in U.T.’s Department of Theatre and Dance, was recently voted Austin’s best actress for her role as Elizabeth I in Mary Stuart. Mr. Lunning, a veteran film actor and voiceover performer, is artistic director of the acclaimed Mary Moody Northen Theatre at St. Edwards University. Explore with them the new introspection that set the stage for the 20^th century.

Upcoming: René Auberjonis Reads Smut for the Harry Ransom Center, November 3

Received directly:

presents

A 'Smut' Sampler

A Light-Hearted Reading of Selections from Some Notorious Banned Books

by René Auberjonois and Kristen Vangsness

hosted by Isaiah Sheffer in connection with the exhibition 'Burned, Banned, Seized and Censored'

Thursday, November 3, 7 p.m. -- free admission

Jessen Auditorium, Homer Raney Hall, 21st St. (click for map)

VIEW A LIVE WEBCAST of this event starting at approximately 7 p.m. CST on Thursday, November 3.

The Ransom Center presents an evening with Isaiah Sheffer as he hosts readings from works featured in the exhibition Banned, Burned, Seized, and Censored in Jessen Auditorium at The University of Texas at Austin.

xA 'Smut' Sampler: A Light-Hearted Reading of Selections from Some Notorious Banned Books features actors René Auberjonois and Kristen Vangsness. They will read from works including Lady Chatterley's Lover, Ulysses, Jurgen, and Tropic of Cancer.

Heard on public radio stations across America, Sheffer is co-founder and artistic director of Symphony Space and director and host of Selected Shorts. Tony Award–winning actor Auberjonois has acted in a variety of theater productions, films, and television programs, including Benson, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Practice, Judging Amy, and Frasier. Vangsness currently stars in Criminal Minds and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.

The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Line forms upon arrival of the first patron, and doors open 30 minutes in advance. This program will be webcast live.

Upcoming: Antigone: Looking into the Sun by Ann Ciccolella, a staged reading, Saturday Afternoon, October 8

Received directly:

presents a staged reading of

Antigone: Looking Into the Sun

written and directed by Ann Ciccolella
3:30 p.m. til 5 p.m., Saturday, October 8
Long Center Rollins Theater, FREE. Donations accepted.

Creon: Discover the enemy and stop them…destroy the enemy of the state, no matter who they are. Creon

Antigone: I will die for the truth. Your kind believes that if you wish hard enough and print enough paper you can reverse gravity. Antigone

Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, wishes to bury the body of her fallen brother Polynices, but that means treason in the law of the land ruled by Creon. Is Antigone a woman of principle, or a political agitator? Austin Shakespeare presents Antigone: Looking Into the Sun, by Ann Ciccolella, Artistic Director. This script will be read for the public at 3:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Long Center's Rollins Theater.

Ann Ciccolella directs this beautiful and tragic tale weaving together themes of freedom and virtue into a dynamic contemporary look at the Antigone story. Helen Merino (Hamlet) plays Antigone, University of Minnisota profefssor Ray Schultz ("Claudius" in Hamlet) is Creon. Looking Into The Sun also features Michael Miller (Closer) as Haemon, Antigone's lover and Creon's son; Alison Stebbins (Hamlet ensemble) as Ismene, her sister; and Michael Dalmon ("Horatio" in Hamlet) as Stephanos, Creon's Chief of Staff.

Upcoming: Reading of New Text for Hedda Gabler, Palindrome Theatre at Hyde Park Theatre, December 6

Received directly from

ONE NIGHT ONLY- PUBLIC READING of

HENRIK IBSEN’S HEDDA GABLER

New adaptation by Palindrome Theatre’s Resident Playwright Nigel O’Hearn

Monday Dec. 6, 8 p.m., Hyde Park Theatr, Guadalupe & 43rd St.

Free. Donations accepted

www.palindrometheatre.com

Please join us for a preview of the first play of our second season- Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler with a new adaptation by Palindrome's resident playwright, Nigel O'Hearn- world premiere opening February 2011 at The Blue Theater.

The reading will be of the first two acts of the new material which has never before been seen in public.

Reading features Robin Grace Thompson, Chase Crossno, Bernadette Nason, Nathan Osburn, Gabe Luna, Kim Adams, and Harvey Guion (with playwright reading stage directions and scowling).

Drinks to be served, discussion to be had. Approx 2 hrs.

[image adapted from image at www.wfu.edu]

Upcoming: Steal Away, read by author John M. Lively, Austin Scriptworks at State Theatre, February 28

Found on-line:

SALON -- A Public Reading

STEAL AWAY
by John Lively
Sunday, Feb. 28 at 6:30 pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Steal Away tells the story of a young couple intrinsically connected but separated by East Texas race relations. Charlamaine and Tommy fall in love and live out their secret tryst under the cover of a hidden bayou. As the narrative unfolds, the outside world, with all their social mores encroaches upon their relationship with tragic consequences. Part Our Town and part Romeo and Juliet, Steal Away expresses fundamental truths measured beyond the known distinctions of race, color and creed.

Originally from Arlington, Texas, John Lively is a Texas Tech University Graduate with degrees in English and Theatre. His play Tear Down was featured in the 2009 FronteraFest Long Fringe.


The Salon

The backbone of Austin Script Works, the Salon provides a place for playwrights to hear their work in an informal setting. Monthly salons feature unrehearsed readings of finished plays or fragments from plays-in-progress by members and are followed by writer-driven discussions with ASW members. Salons usually occur on the last Sunday of the month at 6:30 PM. Members must have attended two salons before they can have on scheduled for their work. Prospective members are welcome to attend a Salon before joining.