Auditions in Wimberley for the summer musical The Sound of Music, EmilyAnn Theatre, January 19

Auditions for the 2013 Summer Musical THE SOUND OF MUSIC will be held on Saturday, January 19th. Please have a prepared and memorized one-minute monologue and 12-16 measures of a song to sing with an accompanist or with a karaoke-style CD. All auditioners must sign up for an audition time slot.

Callbacks will be on Monday evening, the 21st. The show runs all weekends in June 2013. The role of Maria is cast. All other roles are available. For more information or to schedule an audition appointment, contact Bridget Farias at bridget@emilyann.org .

EmilyAnn Theatre, 1101 FM 2325, Wimberley (click for map)

2013-2014 Theatre and Dance Season, University of Texas

Catch a Glimpse of Our 2013-2014 Season

The Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin announces a special sneak preview of its 2013-2014 season!  Keep an eye out in the next few months for a complete season announcement featuring dates, directors, and venues.

Fall 2013

Dial M for Murder By Frederick Knott
Set in 1950s London, Tony Wendice concocts a plot to murder his wealthy wife Margot. When the scheme goes awry, he devises a sinister backup plan to get her out of the picture for good.

Salt and Pepper By José Cruz González
In this heartwarming story about friendship and family, Salt is a 10 year old boy who can barely read. Pepper, a young migrant worker and voracious reader, comes to town and teaches him the value of reading and storytelling.

Our Country’s Good By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Royal Marines and convicts in an 18th century Australian penal colony work together to produce a comedic stage play.

Fall For Dance Artistic Directors David Justin and Charles O. Anderson
The annual showcase presents breathtaking dance pieces from renowned choreographers.

The Fault By Katie Bender
A small ragged house stands perched on a fault, pressed between the redwoods and Pacific Ocean. The Davies family resides within, holding together and splitting apart.

Spring 2014

Dead Man’s Cell Phone By Sarah Ruhl
When a woman answers the cell phone of a recently deceased café patron, she holds on to the device to keep the man alive in a strange yet significant way.

Dance Repertory Theatre Concert
Dance Repertory Theatre, the celebrated student ensemble, returns to the stage, presenting new dance works and re-staged masterpieces by nationally and internationally acclaimed guest artists and faculty.

UTNT (UT New Theatre) Curated by Steven Dietz
UTNT presents newly developed work of emerging playwrights from the Department of Theatre and Dance and Michener Center for Writers. Now in its seventh season, many plays produced in UTNT have since been professionally produced across the country.

In the Heights Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes
This four-time Tony Award winning musical shows life in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York amongst the tight-knit community of Dominican-American residents.

Ears, Eyes + Feet
Collaborative works by student and faculty composers, choreographers, and video artists from the College of Fine Arts.

All titles are subject to change.

(*) Video Promo from Playhouse San Antonio: Jimmy Moore interviews Molly Cox of Season's Greetings, extended to December 23

  Jimmy Moore of the Playhouse's Santaland Diaries interviews Molly Cox, appearing as a double bill in Sedaris's Seasons Greetings (both extended to December 23 at Playhouse San Antonio, 800 West Ashby at San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio):

The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris with Martin Burke, Zach Theatre, November 24 - December 23

by Michael Meigs



The Zach says that this is the last time -- for a while -- they'll stage David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries. This is the 15th (!) season they've done it, so perhaps it's time for retirement, but if like me you've abstained from witnessing this Zach holiday ritual, it's time to swing on board before the caboose gets out of reach. Director Dave Steakley notes that Martin Burke has been doing his role as Crumpet the elf since the first production. Burke took a sabbatical of sorts in 2009 when African-American Espy Randolph did the show to appreciative reviews but the Austin originator was back again in 2010. For the 2012 run they're selling tickets only through the 23rd. On that Sunday Martin Burke does his last Crumpet the Elf at two shows, one at 2:30 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m.

Sedaris' text is smug and sarcastic, an appropriate antidote to all the sugar swirlilng in the air at this time of year, but Martin Burke himself is the reason to go see these sayanora performances. Burke has the fresh, guileless enthusiasm of a child, regardless of the scores -- no, hundreds -- of times that he has done this material. The contrast between that expressive, often beaming face and the cynical account of a season working as an elf-by-the-hour in Macy's Santland triggers your funny reflexes, and Burke has such happy charisma that he's instantly your friend. He's practically within reach, for the Zach's Whisenhut stage is a 150-seat theatre in the round.

Since the Macy's bit is intense but short, Zach and other companies that do this popular piece inevitably couple it with something else. The Zach production opens with a different Sedaris monologue, with Burke as an enthusiastic boy who discovers that his working class mother is friends through her job with a real, live workin' prostitute. The script is not so amusing in itself, but Burke's wide-eyed enthusiasm makes it pleasing. (The Playhouse in San Antonio is balancing its 'Santaland Diaries' featuring Jimmy Moore with 'Season's Greetings,' also by Sedaris, featuring Molly Cox -- slugging down booze from the bottle in the production promo photos.)

Zach's presentation is spiced up by some sly and somewhat naughty Christmas songs delivered femme fatale style by Amy Downing during the week and by Jill Blackwood on weekends, to the accompaniment of Jason Connor, the man with the accomplished fingers and unflappable presence of a lounge player who has smiled at it all.

I shared this experience with a friend from out of town, transplanted back to the United States after decades in Europe. He was particularly impressed by the warmth of Burke's performance and the man's ability to move our emotions in an instant from jolly mocking laughter to an unexpected pang of sympathy by capturing us with his actor's heart-catching sincerity. My friend vowed that this was a particularly American artistic characteristic and he found Burke marvelous at it.

Perhaps The Santaland Diaries has indeed arrived at the end of its useful life as a holiday chestnut and revenue raiser for 'Austin's theatre.' But we're blessed to have little big man Martin Burke still very much with us. He's scheduled to inhabit Elwood P. Dowd, friend of Harvey the rabbit, this coming May and June. You can be certain that the performance will be unique, perhaps with just the tiniest echo of Jimmy Stewart, but with a great deal of the charisma of Mr. Burke.

EXTRA

Click to view excerpts from the Zach's program for The Santaland Diaries with Martin Burke

UT New Theatre plays announced for April, 2013, University of Texas

UTNT (UT New Theatre), the annual showcase of new plays from the UT M.F.A. Playwriting Program, returns this spring April 18 - 28 in the Lab Theatre with four dynamic works by emerging playwrights. UTNT (UT New Theatre) is curated by Steven Dietz and Brian Kettler. Specific dates, times and ticketing information will be available in January 2013. For additional information, call 512-471-5793.


Now in its sixth iteration, UTNT 2013 presents the following:


Staged Works:
 
70 Secrets of Marmalade Kittens by Gabrielle Reisman

Seduced by a pair of ceramic figurines, Quinn wrestles with abandoning her husband, her young children, and their lonely life on an Iowa hog confinement farm. Ten years later her now grown children - with the counsel of an aging pet goose - must choose between selling off their father's business, and tracking down the ghosts of their mother's desires.
 
Dream of Perfect Sleep by Kevin Kautzman
Mary and Gene are old. Mary suffers from severe vertigo and just wants to watch her show, gosh-darn-it. Gene has some big news for their middle-aged kids. When new-ager Melissa and recovering-addict Robert return to a home decorated for the holidays (when it's not the holidays), the family must make a hard decision about what it means to exit this world with grace.
 
The Kingdom by Andrew Hinderaker
A Catholic priest of 22 years has stopped taking confession. He has stopped delivering mass. Hiding out in the basement of his church, he seeks to perform miracles of his own making. What becomes of a priest who has lost his faith in us all?

Reading:
 
A Perfect Robot by Sarah Saltwick
Believe Alan Turin - that girl is really a robot. It's just that Mollybot's face is uncannily human. She hasn't been so perfect since her creator went missing and there's only one chance to convince the investors of her worth. One far away woman holds the key to unlocking it all.

Upcoming: 33 VARIATIONS featuring pianist Anton Nel, Zach Theatre, January 23 - February 17

(Zach Theatre, S. Lamar at Riverside (parking on Riverside and on Toomey Rd, one block south)


presents

 
33 Variations

By Moisés Kaufman
Directed by Dave Steakley

January 23, 2013 - February 17, 2013

Topfer Theatre, S. Lamar at Riverside (parking on Riverside and on Toomey Rd, one block south)

Please arrive early for parking. Bar opens 1 hour before showtime. Drinks welcome inside the theatre.

In a major coup for ZACH, Anton Nel, one of the world’s greatest concert pianists, brings Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations to brilliant life in this regional premiere. 

 A mother, music scholar Katherine Brandt, is coming to terms with her daughter. Beethoven is coming to terms with his genius. And even though separated by 200 years, these two people share an obsession that makes time stand still in this extraordinary Broadway play about passion, ferocious tenacity and moments of beauty that transform our lives. 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Tru by Jay Presson Allen with Jaston Williams, Zach Theatre, January 10 - March 10, 2013

(Zach Theatre, S. Lamar at Riverside (parking on Riverside and on Toomey Rd, one block south),


presents


Tru

By JAY PRESSON ALLEN

January 10, 2013 - March 10, 2013

Zach Theatre Weisenhut Stage (off Toomey Rd.)

Please arrive early for parking. Bar opens 1 hour before showtime. Drinks welcome inside the theatre.

Greater Tuna star Jaston Williams inhabits Truman Capote in a virtuoso performance of the charming, acerbic, fragile and enigmatic writer. In this one-man tour de force, Williams' astonishing portrayal of the In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's author is by turns hilarious, vulnerable and confessional. The audience becomes confidants to Tru's trademark wit and honesty. Packed houses, standing ovations and waves of laughter characterized this show in its initial run 12 years ago when it became the hottest ticket in town. This production promises to be even more fun!


Make it Dinner and a Show: Click here for Dining Discounts.

"A man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat: he stores up a lot of poison."
— Truman Capote

Please Note: Ticket price is not refundable. Late-comers are seated at the discretion of the House Manager. Unclaimed seats at curtain time are subject to release to patrons on standby. 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)