Upcoming: The Collection by Harold Pinter, Hyde Park Theatre, September 10 - October 10

UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at Examiner.com, September 17

UPDATE: Review by Javier Sanchez at the Daily Texan, September 17

UPDATE: Review by Spike Gillespie at austinist.com, September 14

UPDATE: Review by Avimaan Syam at the Austin Chronicle, September 17

KUT's Mike Lee talks to Ken Webster about The Collection, September 15 (audio, 2 min.)

Found on-line:






presents

The Collection
by Harold Pinter

Directed by Ken Webster
Featuring Joey Hood, Kelsey Kling, Ian Manners, and Ken Webster

September 10 - October 10, 2009
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $18 and $16

Hyde Park Theatre presents Harold Pinter's darkly-comic jewel of a play The Collection, September 10 - October 10, 2009.

The Collection sizzles with sexual tension as three men and one woman fall into shifting, overlapping triangles of desire and menace. One of Harold Pinter's funniest and most erotically charged works, The Collection was called “one of the best plays of the twentieth century” by Laurence Olivier.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Dragonfly Queen, Ethos at the Vortex Repertory,

Click for ALT review, September 10

UPDATE: Robert Faires interviews director Bonnie Cullum about story and staging of upcoming The Dragonfly Queen, Austin Chronicle, August 28

Found on-line:

Ethos at Vortex Repertory
presents the World Premiere of

The Dragonfly Queen

A Fantasy Faery Opera
by Chad Salvata
Directed by Bonnie Cullum
Sept.04-27, 2009
Thursdays-Sundays at 8 p.m.

Ethos roars back with its signature impressive spectacle in the world premiere of a new opera, The Dragonfly Queen. “The Queen” is the sequel to the critically acclaimed opera, The Dragonfly Princess, which received the 2008 B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Original Score. [Photo: Melissa Vogt-Patterson as Mala the Dragonfly Princess in the 2007 production.]

Immerse yourself in the dark fantasy antics of Mala, Joji, Qlye and their Faery warriors as they journey on the great White Shell Ship. Join them as they uncover the ruthless outcome of the faery wars and the spiritual mysteries of the Orca.

Ethos Artistic Director, Chad Salvata, assembles another award-winning team of artists to bring his new opera to the stage at The Vortex in September.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Opportunity: Capital T Seeks Director for FronteraFest

Received directly:






Call for Promising Young Directors

What is New Directions?
The New Directions program offers a young director with no professional credit the opportunity to direct a full-length play and bring a fresh new voice to Austin theatre while getting paid. The show will be fully produced by Capital T Theatre, and the director will have the opportunity to develop a piece of theatre that both reflects and contributes to the diversity of the Austin/Central Texas arts scene.

As part of the New Directions program, Capital T is currently searching for a promising young director for the company’s contribution to the “Long Fringe” of FronteraFest 2010: Theatre on the Edge. The Austin American Statesman calls this festival “the fringe theater event of the Southwest!”

All applicants need to be available in the Austin area during the rehearsal and performance processes (early December through early February). The company currently has several exciting scripts under consideration for FronteraFest, but welcomes suggestions from applicants as well. Plays must meet the following criteria: newer, edgy, and engaging full-length scripts (90 minutes or less); up to approximately 3-4 characters; minimal technical requirements; ability to be produced in six weeks or less.

When is the deadline?
Application must be received 8am September 15th 2009

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Frost/Nixon, Austin Playhouse, September 11 - October 11

Click for ALT review of October 4

UPDATE: Review by Olin Meadows at AustinOnStage.com, October 1

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

Frost/Nixon
by Peter Morgan
September 11 - October 11, 2009

Austin Playhouse proudly opens their 10th anniversary season with the Austin premiere of Peter Morgan’s Tony Award-winning play, Frost/Nixon.

Frost/Nixon is set three years after Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency in disgrace. Throughout those three years Nixon remained silent. But in the summer of 1977 the former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for an interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency.

Nixon selected David Frost as his interviewer, confident that he would outwit the lightweight British talk show host. But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted. Would Nixon evade questions of his role in one of the nation's greatest disgraces? Or would Frost confound critics and elicit a confession from the man who'd built a career out of stonewalling?

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Driving Miss Daisy, Georgetown Palace Theatre, August 28 - September 20

Update: Click for ALT review, September 2

Found on-line:

Georgetown Palace Theatre
presents

Driving Miss Daisy

By Alfred Uhry
Aug. 28 - Sept. 20
Fri & Sat at 7:30 PM, Sun at 2:00 PM

A warm-hearted, humorous, and affecting study of the unlikely relationship between an aging, crotchety White Southern lady, and a proud, soft-spoken African American man. In a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other, until, eventually, they become almost a couple. Slowly and steadily the dignified, good-natured man breaks down the stern defenses of the ornery old lady.

Prices: General: $20; Senior(55+): $18; Student: $12
We accept Visa and Mastercard over the web & phone

Georgetown Palace Theatre, Inc., a non-profit performing arts facility 810 S. Austin Avenue P.O. Box 1516 Georgetown, TX 78627 512-869-7469 georgetownpalace@verizon.net

Upcoming: Three Days of Rain, Penfold Theatre at Hideout Theatre, September 17 - October 3

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, September 22

UPDATE: Profile of Penfold Theatre by Rob Heidrick for Round Rock area edition of Community Impact, September 4 newspaper

UPDATE: Penfold Theatre blogs about move-in at Hideout Theatre and preparing the opening, featured at NowPlayingAustin blog, September 17

Found on line:

Penfold Theatre presents

Three Days of Rain

by Richard Greenberg
playing at the Hideout Theatre
September 17 - October 3

This Pulitzer-nominated play by Tony Award winning author Richard Greenberg centers on Walker, his sister Nan, and their childhood friend Pip, who all meet in an unoccupied loft in lower Manhattan in 1995 to divide the legacy of their late fathers, who were partners in a renowned architecture firm. In an effort to bring some peace to their own lives, the three search for clues that might explain what had gone on between their fathers, and the women in their lives, decades before. The story then shifts to that earlier time, with the same three actors portraying members of the previous generation in the same loft, during the fateful 1960 "three days of rain," which gives the play its title.

Tickets go on sale in September. For more information call (512) 850-4849.

Upcoming: The 2009 - 2010 Theatre Season

As of today, more than 100 titles have been announced or otherwise disclosed for the 2009 - 2010 theatre season in Austin and nearby.

It's a rich mix of classic and modern theatre, dramas and comedies, new works and familiar ones.

There are a few entertaining overlaps. For example, productions of Our Town by Thornton Wilder will play in succession at the University of Texas and at the Zach Scott Theatre in April-May, 2010, probably responding in part to the success of the New York revival of that show. Different Stages will do Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth in late 2009.

The perennial Nunsense continues its trail through the region, debuting at Tex-Arts Lakeway this September-October, to offer a comparison with recent productions at the Georgetown Palace and at the City Theatre. Going one better, the Georgetown Palace will mount Nunsense II (The Second Coming) in January-February 2010, reportedly with the same cast that played in Nunsense (I).

The ALT compendium list published below covers September 2009 through the end of 2010. Productions announced include Shakespeare (Measure for Measure, Hamlet, and King Lear), Arthur Miller (After the Fall and All My Sons), Agatha Christie (The Mousetrap and The Spider's Web), Sarah Ruhl (Eurydice and Dead Man's Cell Phone), Beckett, Brecht, Chekhov, Goldoni, Pinter, Shaw, Strindberg, Tennessee Williams, and Steven Dietz's Becky's New Car. And lots more.

Two musicals by Stephen Sondheim are scheduled -- A Little Night Music and Into The Woods. Sondheim himself will appear at the Long Center on November 12 to engage in an unscripted conversation with Austin actor and writer Robert Faires.

AustinLiveTheatre.com expects to continue publishing a detailed Theatre Calendar with production information, venues and times for current offerings and those for the upcoming 30 - 60 days. Click on the ALT calendar icon to see what's available now.

ALT will keep updating its listing in calendar format of the full 2009 - 2010 season.


Click for ALT's A-Z LISTING OF PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCED TO DATE FOR AUSTIN AND NEARBY