Thanks to Trouble Puppet Theatre Company for the link to this video posted by KLRU at 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.
Everyone knows how Dorothy Gale came to Oz and killed the Wicked Witch of the West. Judy Garland and pals in the 1939 film by MGM dwell deep in American cultural consciousness, none of them more so than Margaret Hamilton as the vengeful Wicked Witch of the West.
In the Oz depicted by the touring company of Wicked currently at UT's Bass Concert Hall we get to hear another side of the story, adapted from the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire. The script, lyrics, and score by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman are clever. I have read the novel, and I liked the show. Their extreme care with their source material shows through.
Wicked runs through February 12 and appeared to be playing to a nearly complete house on the first Thursday evening. At the opening a beautiful map of Oz covers the stage and the stage action begins as the Munchkins are celebrating the death of the Witch. Glinda the Good enters via bubble, mechanically suspended from the flies. The bubble floats all the way down and Glinda steps off as with words she takes the audience back in time to earlier years.The Good Witch explains that she knew Elphaba, the bright green deceased, from their college days.
I thought that actress Tiffany Haas was safely strapped in to that bubble, so I was shocked when she stepped off, apparently unsecured. Even though I was ardently suspending my disbelief, I was genuinely afraid for Haas, who of course made it look just like magic. The special effects were expertly done by Chic Silber.
No one-trick pony, that bubble reappears later in the show.
Bethany appeared first to the Austin public and to friends of Tutto Theatre in the warm and supporting setting of a private home in Westlake, last weekend. About twenty persons gathered in a living room comfortably furnished with artwork, masks and handicraft from across the world. Bethany was pleased to see all these friends at her "mom's house." She hurried about, offered us cookies, disappeared momentarily and then came back, rubbing the arc of her belly from time to time and taking a moment to decorate it with a Post-It™ note: "Alien on board."
There was no fourth wall in this staging and in fact there were no walls at all, unless you count those enclosing the house. Kathleen Fletcher as the massively pregnant Bethany was hyped, self-hypnotized, eager to talk and to please. She told us that she was fifteen months pregnant with her alien baby, ready to deliver and confidently expecting the arrival of her lover at any moment. She invited questions, and one or another of us in the gathering hazarded a carefully neutral inquiry. Eventually someone asked how she knew, exactly, that the being in her womb was an alien, and Bethany eagerly shared her impressions of that late night alone when she found herself in the presence of the unknown, telepathically and corporally uniting with a being articulating with incomprehensible but perfectly understandable speech.
I thought momentarily of asking our hostess if this was an "illegal alien" but I refrained. That would have been rude, almost disbelieving, and Bethany was so eager to please us and to share her transformation. Kathleen the actress behind those owlish spectacles and beneath all that additional volume would certainly have responded with grace and probably with wit.
Posted at the Facebook page (though not so specified there, venue for auditions appears to be in Austin):
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Doctuh Mistuh Productions will be holding a special audition taping on Sunday, February 12 from 6 pm-10:30 pm.
Auditioners will need to have a 16-32 bar cut of a rock song or a song from a rock musical. You will also need a one-minute "political rant" to act as a monologue. An accompanist will be provided. Please have sheet music in the proper key with your cuts marked accordingly.
To make an appointment, please send your request to
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. You will be notified of your time and the location via email.
Rehearsals will run from May 18-June 6 with the show running June 7-July 1 at the Blue Theatre.
If you are unable to make this call, you may still submit a video post of your audition. For information on submitting your video post, please email
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The Penfold Theater Company, a young and ambitious theater serving North Austin and Round Rock, has been making waves in the Austin community since its formation in 2008. [. . .] Now the theater is launching a new education program, Penfold Players, and it is already going global.
Penfold Players has been selected by the American High School Theater Festival (AHSTF) to present a student production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2013. The invitation is an exciting kick-off to Penfold's “Carpe Aestatem” (Seize the Summer) program, which aims to give high school students a theater travel experience every other summer.
The mischievous Don Nigro puts the Cinderella fairy tale into a humorous trailer-park context and sends it spinning around so unpredictably that you're never quite sure whether the sweet, mistreated Rosie Snow is going to turn up roses or not.
Shannon Tipton directed a one-act version of the story last week as her inaugural outing with the Austin High School Red Dragons with their 401st stage production. It was a "novice" production with a cast of faces mostly new to me, for I missed their Jungle Book earlier this year.
The core story is there, of course, with the sweetly downcast Louise Root as the titular character, afflicted by her garish, dim and horrible stepmother (Samantha Melomo) and stepsisters wearing names from Shakespeare's King Lear -- booted, grumpy Goth-style Goneril (Layla Gilliland) and Barbie-esque Reagan (Abby Lewis). Dull-witted Dad (Oliver Davis), sort of like Jed Clampett, spends most of his time in the trailer behind the playing area, hollering for help in finding his pants.
Nigro plants a troll in the well at center stage. Or rather, an affably confused royal flunky named "Troll," who fell in while wandering around the countryside, delivering invitations to the ball on behalf of the prince. Zach Completo makes his trollish footman (or perhaps footmanish troll) entirely likeable, abashed but eager to please, quite baffled by the determination of Mama Snow to get herself and her two favored girls into the palace.
Add McCoy Johnston as the village idiot, touseled, dirty and moaning in inarticulate frustration, prototype of the "barefoot boy with cheek of tan" and prime material for a potential makeover -- he is at turns silly and touching. Riley Ryan-Wood as Mother Maggie pops out of the wishing well when needed, an ironic fairy godmother who'd be entirely at ease in an afterhours lush life bar.
Auditions for Welcome to America: There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This Crap
Saturday, January 28, 1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. St. Edward's University -- Woodward Office Building, Rm. 146, 3001 South Congress Ave., Austin, TX (click for campus map)
Welcome to America: There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This Crap is an original multimedia production about social justice and equality in the American economy. It will explore the effects that capitalism and corporate greed have on the United States from an impoverished and homeless perspective, and promote a more socialist approach as an alternative.
CALL FOR Performers 18 years of age or older. Some experience is necessary. *Dancers of all races, shapes and sizes. Do a 1-2 min. piece/routine that shows off your best dance style -- Modern, Jazz, Hip-Hop and African dance. *Singers should choose a 1-2 min. song that demonstrates their best vocal range in a Soul or R&B style. Bring your own CD or MP3 accompaniment, or musical instrument, and try to stay away from singing Acappella unless it's a popular well-known song. *Actors should do a 1-2 min. memorized monologue or personal story relating to economic hardship. *Poets should read 1-2 min. of their own original work. Looking for poets who are passionate about social issues that involve unemployment, low wages, hunger, poverty, etc. in the U.S. Additional singing, acting and dancing skills are a plus. Please, bring a resume and a headshot if you have one available.
Seeking actor for role of “David” in the Long Fringe production Four Square, to be performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, August 2-30, with other potential performances earlier during spring or summer in Austin, Texas. Paid position, $207/week for Equity/Non-Equity actors. Written and directed by Manuel Zarate, Four Square features Douglas Taylor and Ann Pittman, with Andy Perry as stage manager.
This is a very physical three-person show. FronteraFest description:"What is love? It's everything and nothing. It's funny and awful. It's the "till death do us part" and the one night stand. For three strangers in Austin, Texas, one night will change their lives forever. Each will face the myth of their past and the reality of their present. Love is not what we thought it was."
To audition: please attend a performance of Four Square playing at Austin’s Frontera Fest and thenspeak with Manuel, Andy, Doug, or Ann after the performance. You may also email your resume & headshot to Manuel at
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. Four Square will be performed Jan 27th at 7pm, Jan 29th at 4:15pm, Feb. 1st at 7pm and Feb. 4th at 9:15pm at the Blue Theater. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door or on-line. After the company gauges interest, formal auditions will start in February with rehearsals in July for the Edinburgh performances in August.
Trinity University Dept of Human Communication and Theatre
presents
a lecture by playwright Will Kern
Monday, January 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cafe Theatre located in the Ruth Taylor Theatre Building (#3 and #31 -- click for map)
Trinity University Campus, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas, 78212
Admission free -- no reserved places
Internationally known and produced playwright Will Kern will present a lecture at Trinity University on The Art of Playwriting. Mr. Kern's most famous work is the play Hellcab (1992). First produced as a late-night show by Famous Door Theatre in Chicago, the play, which was originally scheduled for twelve performances, ran for over nine years and is one of the longest running shows in Chicago theatre history. Hellcab has been performed all over the U.S. and abroad, including Scotland, Israel, Singapore, and Ireland. The play was adapted for the screen by Mr. Kern in 1998 and the film starred Gillian Anderson, John Cusak, Jullianne Morre, Laurie Metcalf, Harry Lennix and John C. Reilly.
Internationally known and produced playwright Will Kern will present a lecture at Trinity University on The Art of Playwriting. Mr. Kern's most famous work is the playHellcab (1992). First produced as a late-night show by Famous Door Theatre in Chicago, the play, which was originally scheduled for twelve performances, ran for over nine years and is one of the longest running shows in Chicago theatre history. Hellcabhas been performed all over the US and worldwide, including Scotland, Israel, Singapore, and Ireland. The play was adapted for the screen by Mr. Kern in 1998 staring Gillian Anderson, John Cusak, Jullianne Morre, Laurie Metcalf, Harry Lennix and John C. Rilly.
Admission for all shows is $25. For reservations, call the box office at 254-947-3456 or LRTS at 254-947-5722. Checks with order details also can be mailed to LRTS, P. O. Box 1023, Salado, TX 76571. For directions or more info, visit www.saladosilverspur.com.
Ghost story is Playwright-Director Ramon Carver’s ‘swan song’ after 17 years with the Living Room Theatre of Saldo
“The Village,” a new production premiering at the Salado Silver Spur Theatre on Friday, Feb. 3, is a full-length comedy with “a smattering of serious scenes,” according to Dr. Ramon Carver, its 79-year-old author-director and producer.
In truth, however, the play, which “takes place in a fictional village located somewhere between Heaven, Hell and Austin,” may well be Carver’s own “swan song” to Salado and a celebrated theatrical career.
The unconventional ghost story-cum-play, staged by Living Room Theatre of Salado (LRTS), will have three performances at the Salado Silver Spur Theater (108 Royal St.) -- two at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4, and a matinee at 2 p.m. that Saturday. The play has adult themes and language. Parental discretion is advised.
The play’s action involves ghosts who haunt a small Texas village coffee shop where they observe live persons witnessing an accidental murder. As one character observes: “Real murders and accidental murders are pretty much the same thing.”
The Electronic Planet Ensemble are magic men -- I can say that since percussionist Rachel Fuhrer apparently has disappeared this year, leaving poet David Jewell, keyboardist Chad Salvata and bassist/video artist Sergio R. Samayoa to deliver this piece assisted by drummer Doug Marcis. I had to identify Marcis from the poster legend, since there was no program available at the Vortex this year.
Even the mail art display in the Vortex's Butterfly Bar was much smaller and less imaginative than in earlier years, hung in the semi-darkness and literally overshadowed by the Betty Boop cartoon projected on the wall by the bar.
The EPE's strength has been projecting a sci-fi universe of mythic figures before our minds' eyes, using powered rhythms and David Jewell's hallucinatory lyrics. Samayoa's imaginative video creations served as springboards into that trippy world.
Not so this year.
Their music still rocks, but Viper Vixens of 2012 pretty much abandons Jewell, even though he's still right there out front, wearing a fine voluminous shiny gray polyester suit and wearing a red tie, working his fingertips over a laptop fuzzbox. During most of the hour's adventure you can't really hear what he's saying.
The Penfold Theater Company
