Kirk Lynn's Cherrywood, done in Austin by the Rude Mechs in 2004, will have its Midwest premiere next June, directed by David Cromer at Chicago's Mary-Arrchie Theatre, according to an announcement forwarded by Chicago theatre blogger Rob Koslawski.
On November 7, 2008, New York Times writer Charles Isherwood began a profile of long-time Chicago resident Cromer with the question, "Is David Cromer the most talented director Americans have never heard of?"
UPDATE: Zach Theatre will hold over The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee through November 8
This show is a charmer. It has the zing of a small scale musical, the familiarity of all those school auditoriums you endured while growing up, the uncertainties of a tournament, the highs of competition, the quips and laughs of improv comedy, and -- unexpectedly -- a second act that resonates with drama and tenderness.
Michael Raiford's set is bright, functional and simple, using the Kleberg Stage's thrust stage as a "cafetorium" in an anonymous middle school in the equally anonymous Putnam County. The unobtrusive background music dates back mostly to the 50's and 60's. Musicians are tucked back in the center alcove and the stage is provided with the appropriately sparse furnishing of folding tables and folding chairs.
The lights don't go down when the show starts. Instead, Jill Blackwood as Rona Lisa Peretti strides around with her impossibly angelic smile and authoritatively friendly manner, speaking in turn to various sections of the audience. We are part of this spectacle. This is a spelling bee finale and we are the friends, family and supporters of a collection of six bright or simply lucky kids. They all have the smarts or at least the unusual mental wiring to be spelling whizzes.
Yes, in the first half of the show four or five audience members will be recruited as contestants to sit with the kids and spell against them. But don't worry -- they've volunteered for the job. You won't be pulled out of your seat and into the spotlight without your consent. Jill Blackwood gives a chirpy introduction each time a speller comes forward and the audience volunteers are subjected to some gentle razzing ("Bill is devoted to the concept that casual Fridays really should be casual!").
Bell, Book and Candle opens October 9 at Silver Spur Theater, Salado
Halloween-related play features Spuradicals, Newcomers
Whether you're looking for thrills or chills, magic or mayhem this month, the Salado Silver Spur Theater (108 Royal St., downtown) will serve up generous helpings with an "autumn chestnut," playwright John Van Druten’s Bell, Book and Candle.
The enchantingly funny, romantic comedy, directed by K.D. Sperling, runs Oct. 9 – Nov. 7. The life of a pretty New York City witch is turned upside-down when she casts a love spell on her handsome neighbor, a publisher. Meanwhile, her nefarious brother and eccentric aunt practice their own spells, knowing that true love typically terminates a witch's powers.
"Auditions for Pyewacket, witch Gillian's cat (and "familiar") are still ongoing," Grainger Esch, Co-founder of the Spur, noted. “The cat is central to the storyline, and we've had some very interesting felines apply, but we're still not sure if that character will be live or a look-alike."
Show times are at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Evening shows are $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens, military personnel and students with ID; and $8 for children aged 12 and under. For matinees, admission is $10, $8 and $8, respectively. Group rates also are available. For reservations, call the Silver Spur box office at 254-947-3456. For more info or directions, visit http://www.saladosilverspurtheater.com/.
Boyd Vance Theatre, George Washington Carver Museum, 1155 Angelina St.
Friday, October 9, 8 p.m. Saturday, October 10, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, October 11, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets $18 at the door, $15 for students and military Box office open 90 minutes before performance
Joan of Arc, The Night Before . . .is a monologue in one act, written and interpreted by Daniela Paluselli and directed by Marno Enidos, about Joan's last night before she was burned at the stake.
The monologue gives voice to the Joan of Arc that is deep within every human being, the indomitable soul that is capable of believing to the point of accomplishing the impossible, and of dying for her belief in a supreme truth.
There are times when we all feel trapped, abandoned, alone, betrayed, dejected and scared of the future. Joan of Arc, The Night Before . . . portrays the journey of a soul from despair, fear and doubt, to faith, hope and courage through the appreciation of the miracle of life and the perception of an absolute truth that is indisputably real.
The production crew of Joan of Arc, The Night Before... made two trips from Hawai’i to France, traveling more than 30,000 miles to visit the places where Joan of Arc lived, fought and died. To capture a glimmer of her undying spirit, Daniela reverently retraced the steps of the great heroine. In Orleans she stood at the point where Joan crossed the Loire river with her armies. In Rouen, she touched the walls of the tower where Joan was held captive and then knelt at the site where Joan’s sublime courage met with her cruel executioners. Daniela incorporated the experiences of her journey into her interpretation of Joan of Arc, The Night Before...
Ann-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet is a lighthearted little romp that sends up both Shakespeare and the academic ivory tower with a mischievous feminist sense of humor
Our heroine Constance Ledbelly is an undistinguished worker bee in the literature department of an unidentified university, where she has worked ably without recognition for her pompous supervisor Professor Claude Night. Her devotion to him is absolute but irrational, for he's a caricature of self-centered male vanity, interested principally in attractive female undergraduates and in getting his full professorship.
Connie has her own wild thesis about Shakespeare, one that will make or more likely break her already flattened career. She thinks that someone, somewhere, rewrote Romeo and Juliet and Othello to turn them into tragedies. All those deaths could have been avoided, if only there had been a truth-telling Fool to clear up the misunderstandings. She is toting around a copy of an undeciphered 300-year-old manuscript that she hopes will confirm her hypothesis.
That is, until the good Prof. Night dumps her and heads off to a well-paid post at Oxford with one of his bimbos. At that point either Connie has a serious psychotic episode or else she really does travel to the mystical worlds of Othello in Cyprus and then to the Capulets and Montagues in Verona. Plopped down into each intrigue at the crucial moment, Connie promptly clears up the misunderstandings, putting Iago into the doghouse and forestalling the duel in the piazza that triggers tragedy in Verona.
From INSITE Magazine Austin, October 2009, now available around town:
Blood, Chainsaws, and Zombies: Not Your Average Musical By Brian Paul Scipione
THERE WILL BE BLOOD. And it will be zombie blood. Salvage Vanguard Theater and Doctuh Mistuh Productions are teaming up to bring the slash hit, wait that’s, smash hit musical version of Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead Trilogy” to Austin this October. Debuting in Toronto in 2003, the show has enjoyed successful runs worldwide in New York City, Seoul,Tokyo, Cleveland, and Louisville. The play combines the plots of all three movies with a few liberties taken here and there to keep it both streamlined for performance and fresh for fanatics.
[ . . . ] McKelvey has chosen David Gallagher for the part [of Ash], whom he calls, “the most versatile actor in Austin.”
One particular stand out from the auditions was Corley Pillsbury, who landed the part of Ash’s girlfriend, Cheryl. “Corley is a dynamo. We did a lot of improv work during auditions,” McKelvey explains, “and she just tore it up. I never saw someone go so over the top in an audition.” Her efforts became all the more impressive in retrospect when he learned that she was actually sick during auditions.
And if zealous acting and top notch musical direction is not enough to draw in the crowds, this show also has a live three piece band, late night parties with food and drink, and an beguilingly appropriate closing date of Halloween complete with yet another party. But most of all it has blood. As soon as the play was announced the first question on everyone’s lips was “will there be a splash zone.” And there will be. Right in front of the stage, a special cordoned area for those who want to take their interactive theater home with them… on their faces.
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Evil Dead: The Musical runs October 9-31 at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. with performances at 7:30pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 5pm on Sundays.
Tickets: Thursday and Sunday: $18 general/$12 students and seniors; Friday and Saturday: $22 general/$15 students and seniors. Opening and Closing Night: $25 general/ $20 student and seniors. See www.salvagevanguard.org for additional information and online ticket sales.
Condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and former students of Sara Medina-Pape, who died Friday, Sept. 18. The longtime costume designer and assistant professor at St. Edward's University passed away in California while undergoing treatment for her third bout with pancreatic cancer. She was 56.
Though born in Milan, Italy, Medina-Pape was very much a Texas girl, growing up here, obtaining a master's in theatre arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and spending 19 years at St. Ed's, where she taught and designed costumes for many Mary Moody Northen Theatre productions, contributing award-nominated work to Fallen Angels, Fuente Ovejuna, and Twelfth Night. She also holds a notable credit in film: designing costumes for the Coen brothers' Austin-shot Blood Simple in 1984.
But though her roots were in the Lone Star State, Medina-Pape was not rooted here. At various times, she made her home in London, England; Lima, Peru; and Kenya. She also spent three summers in Uganda assisting the Sisters of the Holy Cross in educating women there, an experience that led her to organize an annual sale of Ugandan crafts at St. Ed's, the proceeds of which went to villagers in the country where they were made.
Medina-Pape is survived by her husband, Brian Pape; children, Ian and Natalie; mother, Johnnie Medina; sister, Amy Repp; brother, Paul Bounds; and legions of students who admired not only her talents as a designer and teacher but her vivacity, optimism, and compassion as a human being.
A memorial service was held Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel on the St. Edward's campus. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lazarex Cancer Foundation (www.lazarex.org) and/or the SEUganda project (www.stedwards.edu/SE_Uganda).
