Upcoming: View Live On-Line trans-Atlantic Rehearsal of Rose Rage, Hidden Room Theatre, May 15

From www.howlround.com (with a tip of the hat to Travis Bedard):

Blog

A Risky Experiment Live on #NEWPLAY TV Tuesday, May 15

 

:

Hidden Room’s Transatlantic #RoseRage Rehearsal

on Tuesday, May 15 at 9 a.m. Austin time

May 13, 2012 | BY HowlRound 

Austin’s Hidden Room Theatre, Brisbane, Australia’s Anywhere Festival in partnership with #NEWPLAY TV invite you to enjoy a backstage sneak peek of the very first transatlantic rehearsal of Rose Rage. 

Simply click here to be whisked to a split screen of rehearsal originating from London and from Austin. Watch the Shakespeare sparks fly between actors who are working together for the first time. Then, stick around for a chat where the artistic team elaborates on the pitfalls and benefits of international collaboration—online and off. Use the Twitter hashtag #RoseRage to tweet your questions and say hello to the artists, and to your fellow worldwide viewers. 

Rose Rage, Edward Hall and Roger Warren’s thrilling adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy marks the inauguration of the Hidden Room’s Foreign Actor Exchange Program. Actors from the UK rehearse with actors in Austin via video teleconferencing before traveling to Texas to complete the international team.

The Hidden Room is taking an Original Practices approach to Rose Rage, employing period costumes, live musicians on period instruments, an all-male cast, and a bawdy, muscular delivery. Their last Original Practices Shakespeare production was honored with Austin Critic’s Table awards for Best Production of a Comedy, Best Leading Actor, and Best Director.

To watch, tune in on Tuesday, May 15 at 9am CDT (Austin, Texas) / 10am EDT (New York) / 2pm GMT / 3pm (London) / 4pm (Berlin) / 12am Wednesday, May 16 (Brisbane) or calculate your own timezone here.

Video from Gilbert & Sullivan of Austin: A Look at the New Theatre and Opening of Ticket Sales for Patience, June 7 - 17

In this video released last week Libby Weed, president of the board of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, showed G&S members the Brentwood Christian School Performing Arts Center, the location of the grand production of Patience, June 7 - 17. Through a partnership with Long Center ticketing, all seats at the spacious 400-seat facility will be reserved. Ticket prices range from $7 to $25 plus service fees. Special rates are available for groups of ten or more (contact: michael@gilbertsullivan.org).

Information about Patience is available at the G&S website; tickets are now available on-line via this link.

Video: Director and Cast Discuss The Dragon Play by Jenny Conell, Shrewd Productions, March 22 - April 14

presents

The Dragon Play

by Jenny Connell
directed by Shannon Grounds
March 22 through April 14
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 pm
at The Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale (click for map)
Tickets $16.52 including service fee via

Shrewd Productions is proud to present the first-ever production of Jenny Connell‘s The Dragon Play. On a lonely farm in northern Minnesota, a husband and wife's peaceful existence is shattered by the appearance of an unexpected visitor. On a hot stretch of highway in central Texas, a boy befriends a wounded dragon. Spanning two moments in time and space and blurring the lines between each, The Dragon Play explores what happens when reality and fantasy converge, when desire and duty conflict, and when our deepest secrets show up breathing fire.

About the Playwright Jenny Connell is a Brooklyn-based playwright and teacher, a member of Austin Script Works, Ars Nova's Play Group, The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, and a graduate of UT's MFA Theater program. Her plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Austin, and have been finalists for BAPF, the Heideman, Seven Devils, and the O'Neill conference.

About the Cast & Crew Directed by Shrewd Artistic Director, Shannon Grounds, The Dragon Play stars Liz Fisher (Uncle Vanya), Rommel Sulit (Big Love), Joseph Garlock (Servant of Two Masters), Amelia Turner (LEAR) and Xander Slay-Tamkin (The Physicists), with set design by Shrewd company member and Trouble Puppet Artistic Director, Connor Hopkins (Civilization), lights by Patrick Anthony (Big Love) and original compositions by founding Shrewd T. Lynn Mikeska (The Long Now).

The Dragon Play is presented with the assistance of Script Works through their Finer Point Fund for New Play Production. Shrewd Productions is a sponsored project of VORTEX repertory and a member of the Austin Creative Alliance and the Austin New Works community. This project funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

Cambiare's Kickstarter Appeal for the Final Push for Messenger No. 4, February 29

As of 4:30 p.m. on February 29, with five days left before the deadline friends of Cambiare Productions including Austin Live Theatre had pledged 88.9 percent of the company's Kickstarter goal of $4000 in support for Messenger No. 4. Here's Travis Bedard's thank-you video at the half-way mark. Below that is the company's explanation and further appeal for help in completing the funding (everything goes away if the $4000 goal isn't reached by the deadline). Click here or on the Kickstarter logo to go to the Messenger No. 4 project page.

Friends,

After more than a year of work we are down to the final weekend of Messenger No. 4 (or... How to Survive a Greek Tragedy) at the Blue Theatre.
If you are in the Austin area we hope you've been able to visit us (you still have a chance!). if you're not, we're sorry that you haven't been able to share this with us. It really is something.

As many of you are aware we've been running a Kickstarter fundraiser to cover the non-discretionary portion of our budget and ensure that Cambiare Productions lives to fight another day.

I don't know of a single artist who likes asking for help in any way, but asking for financial help in particular feels like failing.

We haven't asked for personal donations since our first production Transformations and are only asking now because the economic climate has reduced City of Austin funding to the bare minimums.

Cambiare was one of 16 itinerant theatre companies in the City of Austin to be awarded grants in this fiscal cycle, but the grant funding was so slight that we declined it.

We decided instead to ask for a grant from our own advocates. From the folks who have supported us from the beginning, who've sat with us in diners and listened to our crazy ideas, or sewed costumes freshman year of high school. From the folks who share in our joys when we succeed, lend an ear when we fail, and hold us accountable when we're not sure.

Many of you have already given and I can't thank you enough for your support. The outpouring has been humbling. With 5 days remaining we have reached just over 80% of our goal. If we don't reach the 100% threshold we don't recieve any of the pledged money so we are reaching out more specifically to ask for help.

We are aware that many of you aren't in a position to give, if that's the case we ask that you tell your friends. If you can only give a little consider this:
One backer has already ensured that if we reach our goal Travis will have to get their name tattooed on his leg.

You want to help make that happen.

Thank you all for everything you have done for us over the years, thank you for the help already given on this project, and thank you for the help you will provide in the future.

Travis, Will, and Amanda

P.S. don't forget to check out Travis' celebratory performance of the Hanson song Mmmmbop.

P.P.S. Bowties are cool.

VIdeo: KLRU Profiles Trouble Puppet's staging of Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, adapted by Connor Hopkins

Thanks to Trouble Puppet Theatre Company for the link to this video posted by KLRU at its website and on its Vimeo web page; the 28-minute program about the puppet adaptation of Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker by Connor Hopkins was first broadcast in mid-January. Additional airings on KLRU television scheduled for January 29 at 2:00 pm, February 16 at 7:30 pm, February 19 at 2:00 pm.

Trouble Puppet Theater takes Arts In Context on a journey into the art of puppetry as the company produces one of their unique plays led by creative director and master puppeteer Connor Hopkins. Trouble Puppet Theater, a small arts organization in East Austin, has been able to achieve critical success and growth, while taking their cutting edge puppetry to levels never seen before in Texas. Their unique artistry literally transcends the fourth wall and connects audience and performer. Arts In Context follows them as they put on the play Riddley Walker, based on the novel by Russell Hoban and featuring music by Austin composer Justin Sherburn.

Trouble Puppet - Full Show from KLRU-TV on Vimeo.

[Can't see the video? Click to go to Vimeo.]

Video Teaser for The Method Gun by the Rude Mechanicals on OnTheBoards.tv

Found via Tweet from the Rude Mechanicals:

[Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to Vimeo.com]

Vimeo legend: Rude Mechs' The Method Gun filmed as part of OntheBoards.tv, a contemporary performance on-demand site.

The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, the actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s and creator of “The Approach” (referred to as “the most dangerous acting technique in the world”), which fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals to infuse even the smallest role with sex, death, and violence. Using found text from the journals and performance reports of Burden’s company,The Method Gun reenacts the final months of her company’s rehearsals for their nine-years-in-the-making production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The Method Gun addresses the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life.

Since 1995, Rude Mechs has created a mercurial slate of 23 theatrical productions that represent a genre-defying cocktail of big ideas, cheap laughs, and dizzying spectacle. What these works hold in common is the use of play to make performance, the use of theaters as meeting places for audiences and artists, and the use of humor as a tool for intellectual investigation. The company tours these performances nationally and abroad; maintains The Off Center, a performance venue in Austin for arts groups of every discipline; and operates a year-round arts mentoring program for teenage girls.

This performance was filmed at Imago Theater as part of Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's Time Based Art Festival.

Jeremy M. Barker comments on CultureBOt.net, "OtB.tv uses multiple high-quality digital video cameras and quality editing to present video documentations that’s several steps above what most of us are used to. It’s $5 to watch or $15 to download and own; other subscription options are available."

Upcoming: The Story of Jacob Murakami, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Realized Sacred Cows Make the Finest Cheeseburgers, SVT, November 20

With a tip of the hat to @travisbedard:

presents a workshop production of

The Story of Jacob Murakami, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Realized Sacred Cows Make the Finest Cheeseburgers

by Timothy Braun
directed by Aaron Saunders
Cast: Travis Bedard, Wayne Alan Brenner, Jeanne Harris, Jeff Mills
Sunday, November 20, 8 p.m.
Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Road (click for map)

Admission is a 'pay-what-you-wish' donation to the Salvage Vanguard. The in-house event will include food (pizza), beverages, and potential audience participation. The event will be broadcast via #NEWPLAY TV (http://www.livestream.com/newplay)

After a blow to the head Jacob Murakami is unfixed in time and space, fighting a whale made of cement and attempting to remember what he has chosen to forget. A workshop presentation of a new play broadcast simultaneously over the internet via #NEWPLAY TV of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage.

#NEWPLAY TV's mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Produce with us by contacting @NewPlayTV on Twitter or by calling Vijay Mathew at 202-600-4072.

Follow and use hashtag #newplay on Twitter to participate in a communityrevolutionizing the flow of information and knowledge in our field.
We're fans of the Creative Commons Licenses "CC BY-SA" and "CC BY".

Images by Jeff Heimsath and Video of Director's Comments: 360 (Round Dance) by Steven Dietz, University of Texas, November 11 - 20

Images by Jeff Heimath and video from Texas Performing Arts for

production of

360 (Round Dance)

by Steven Dietz
based on the 1900 play Reigen by Arthur Schnitzler
drected by Courtney Sales at Oscar G. Brockett Theatre, Winship Drama Building, near 23rd and San Jacinto (click for map)

November 11 - 13, 16 - 18, 20 weekdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

This production includes mature content.

Tickets $10 - $20 through Texas Peforming Arts; purchase on-line

Over a century ago, Arthur Schnitzler’s play Reigen ignited conversation, prompting both public outrage and support. Steven Dietz’s adaptation of Schnitzler’s story continues to hold today’s audience rapt as the narrative intertwines pairs of lovers and their encounters.

Comments from director Courtney Sales:

[Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube]

Click to go to AustinLiveTheatre.com to view additional images from Jeff Heimsath of performers in360 Round Dance . . . .

Video and Images: Twelfth Night, Trinity University, November 11 - 19

Notified on-line of video and images by Kauveh Khozein Carrera:

Trinity University Theatre, San Antonio

presents

Twelfth Night

A comedy by William Shakespeare

directed by Susanna Morrow

November 11 - 13 and 16 - 19

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm; Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 pm
Tickets:Adults $10.00; Seniors/Faculty/Alumni $8.00; Students/SATCO $6.00

The Stieren Theater, Trinity University Campus, One Trinity Place (click for campus map)

[Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube.com]

"If music be the food of love, play on," and so begins this classic comedy about love and its excesses. When shipwrecked Viola disguises herself as a young boy to serve the Duke Orsino on the foreign soil of Illyria, the twisted plot unfurls. Love triangles are made, letters forged, identities mistaken, duels fought and marriages sealed. With a masterful blend of hilarity and heartache, Shakespeare portrays how love makes fools of us all.

Click to view cast photos by Kauveh Khozein Carrera at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Austin Shakespeare: A Video Presentation by Ann Ciccolella and Alex Alford

Found at www.austinshakespeare.org, November 5:

[Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube]

Arts Reporting: Digital Theatre Offers New Arabic Theatre for Free

Excerpts from The Guardian newspaper by Lyn Gardner, via ArtsJournal.com:

Theatre needs windows on the world

Gulf Stage gives theatre an invaluable opportunity to look outwards

posted by Lyn Gardner at Guardian.uk, January 31

As we know, nowadays all the world's a stage. [. . . ] Today it's being broadened further, as the British Council launches Gulf Stage, a new project made in association with Digital Theatre, who have previously worked with the Almeida and Young Vic among others. For those of us unable to hop on a plane to research Arab theatre, Gulf Stage allows audiences around the world to access filmed recordings of six productions from young companies hailing from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. All the productions have English subtitles and, unlike Digital Theatre's other productions, will be free to download for the first year.

This project is useful for several reasons. We often talk about the world becoming a smaller place, but too often companies visiting from abroad here find themselves up against restrictive visa rules, and with the British Council sending so much UK theatre abroad, it's good to see them building two-way relationships. Although the UK, and particularly London, now sees a wide range of work from abroad, there are still entire areas of the globe about whose theatre we're ignorant, and which – if it does manage to find its way here – is presented like a piece of cultural exotica. In the past, the only way to get a taste of Arab theatre would be to travel. While these downloads are no substitute for experiencing a live performance, they offer a chance for artists, audiences and producers to make cultural links across geographical borders. In the longer term this online project may have an offline life through many different social media platforms. A Younger Theatre is involved with the project, to try and encourage engagement by young artists and audiences across the world. Maybe, as a result of Gulf Stage, we may see some of this work on our stages or UK companies will forge relationships that lead to collaboration.

Click to read full text of Lyn Gardner's article. . . .

Click 'to view posters for the six Gulf Theatre project productions