Frank Benge - Page 12

Frank Benge

A Kansas native, Frank Benge has been involved in the Austin area theatre scene as a Director, Designer, Writer and Performer for the past 20 years. He holds a double BA in Theatre and English from Washburn University.






BWW Interview: Lisa Scheps of Ground Floor Theatre
BWW Interview: Lisa Scheps of Ground Floor Theatre
November 9, 2015

In what is planned to be a series of articles about Austin theatre companies, we start by talking with Lisa Scheps who in January of this year opened a brand new theatre space in Austin. Although they did have a first performance in December of 2014, Ground Floor Theatre did not officially open until January.

BWW Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW is a Great Fun Evening
BWW Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW is a Great Fun Evening
November 2, 2015

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW is a musical with music, lyrics and a book by Richard O'Brien. A camp tribute to the drive-in science fiction and horror B movie double features of the late 40's through early 70's, it tells the story of newly engaged couple Brad Majors (Daniel Cline) and Janet Weiss (Becca Seferian) who get caught in a storm and come to the castle of mad transvestite scientist Frank N. Furter (Kirk Kelso) on the night he unveils his new creation. That creation is an artificially made, physically perfect muscle man named Rocky (Alejandro Rodriguez), complete 'with long hair and a tan'. The musical was later adapted into the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has the longest-running release in film history after bombing at the box office on its initial release. The musical has been ranked eighth in the BBC Radio listener poll of the 'Nation's Number One Essential Musicals'.

BWW Review: Palace Cast Works Hard to Make the Most of So-So Material in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
BWW Review: Palace Cast Works Hard to Make the Most of So-So Material in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
October 26, 2015

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, whose full official title is The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. Based on the 1974 film of the same name by Brooks and Gene Wilder, it is a parody of the horror film genre, specifically the 1931 Universal Pictures adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its 1939 sequel, Son of Frankenstein.

BWW Review: Tex-ARTS Presents Entertaining Version of STEEL MAGNOLIAS
BWW Review: Tex-ARTS Presents Entertaining Version of STEEL MAGNOLIAS
October 20, 2015

STEEL MAGNOLIAS is a comedic drama written by Robert Harling, based on his experience with his sister's death. It is about the friendships and families of a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. The title references how these women are both delicate and strong. One of the most produced plays in America, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who has never seen at least the film version.

BWW Review: Impressive Young Talent on Display in SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM
BWW Review: Impressive Young Talent on Display in SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM
October 20, 2015

SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM is a multi-media musical revue consisting entirely of the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. It was conceived by James Lapine and had a limited run on Broadway in 2010. It is based on a show produced in 2000 called Moving On that was created by David Kernan. Kernan also created another review of Sondheim material called Side By Side By Sondheim. The show featured narration recorded by Sondheim and had several performances in New York at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in 2004, under the title Opening Doors.

BWW Review: PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS is a Brilliant Deconstruction of Shakespeare
BWW Review: PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS is a Brilliant Deconstruction of Shakespeare
October 12, 2015

PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS takes a scene from William Shakespeare's RICHARD III (Act I, Scene IV to be precise) and proceeds to give you twenty variations on that scene. The result, ranging from funny to striking, is perhaps one of the most brilliant deconstructions of the Bard of Avon I have ever seen. It doesn't matter if you aren't familiar with the source material, although there are some masterfully clever word plays that those unfamiliar will miss… trust me when I tell you this work is so rich with entertainment that you'll never miss what you, well, missed.

BWW Review: LOVE ALONE is a Beautiful Story Masterfully Presented
BWW Review: LOVE ALONE is a Beautiful Story Masterfully Presented
October 12, 2015

LOVE ALONE, a new play by Deborah Salem Smith opens City Theatre's 10th season. In 2014, she was awarded a New Play Commission by Trinity Repertory. LOVE ALONE received the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and an Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. It was also a finalist for the Independent Reviewers of New England Award for Best New Play of 2013. This is a beautifully written script that has been given a masterful presentation in its Texas premiere. While, on the surface, this is the tale of a medical mistake that causes the death of a patient and the aftermath of that event on two families; it really is about the consequences of what one character refers to as 'editing'.

BWW Review: THE QUARRY is Surreal, Charming and Deeply Touching
BWW Review: THE QUARRY is Surreal, Charming and Deeply Touching
October 5, 2015

THE QUARRY, a new play by Greg Pierce, now in the work's second staging at Hyde Park Theatre, uses an unusual and surrealistic narrative style for what is basically a detective story to an effectively provocative effect. A series of puzzling events in the marble quarry in an unnamed town in Vermont cause Jean (Katherine Catmull), an antisocial widow, to start her own investigation. As the play begins, Jean talks about how she enjoys staring into the quarry beside her house, how the sound of the machines soothes her, and how much she misses her husband, Sammy (Ken Webster). Jean has packed up her house because she was planning to 'off herself.' Her reason for this is much more pragmatic than one would expect. Her reason to end her life is because she believes that every life has a "main story" and hers is complete. However, she's decided to stick around because of the mystery in the quarry...the discovery of three marble steps leading to nowhere. Jean's opening monologue only hints at what is to come. We learn the story in fragments as the other characters speak.

BWW Review: Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID Visually Stunning Family Fun
BWW Review: Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID Visually Stunning Family Fun
October 1, 2015

Ever since the success of Disney's The Lion King, Disney Theatricals have been trying to catch lightning in a bottle a second time. After the original production of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID closed on Broadway in 2009 (after a run of 685 performances), it underwent two years of intensive work to fine-tune and re-think the production. In 2014, Theatre Under The Stars produced this current revised version which includes new scenery and new costumes as well as flying.

BWW Review: MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY is Pure Theatrical Magic
BWW Review: MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY is Pure Theatrical Magic
September 28, 2015

MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY was originally produced as a full-length, site-specific show at the VORTEX Theatre in 2009; and since then, paper chairs has been condensing the piece into the current gem now on display for three nights only in East Austin.

BWW Review: STALKING JOHN BARROWMAN Plagued By Technical Problems
BWW Review: STALKING JOHN BARROWMAN Plagued By Technical Problems
September 28, 2015

John Barrowman is a Scottish-American actor, singer, dancer, host and writer who has both British and American citizenship. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1975. His first big break was as Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes on London's West End. His most recent West End credit was in the 2009 production of La Cage aux Folles. To American audiences, he is primarily known for his TV work playing Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood. He is also openly gay.

BWW Review: THE REAL THING is Not Real Entertaining
BWW Review: THE REAL THING is Not Real Entertaining
September 21, 2015

Tom Stoppard's THE REAL THING is a structurally complex play that uses the gimmick of the play-within-a-play to examine the concepts of marriage and infidelity. It debuted in London in 1982 and two years later was on Broadway.

BWW Review: THE 39 STEPS is a Zany Parody of Hitchcock
BWW Review: THE 39 STEPS is a Zany Parody of Hitchcock
September 13, 2015

THE 39 STEPS is a parody of the works of Alfred Hitchcock. It is adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept of a four actor version was by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Patrick Barlow rewrote their adaptation in 2005. The play's concept calls for the entirety of Hitchcock's 1935 film to be performed with a cast of only four. One actor plays the hero, Richard Hannay, an actress (or sometimes actor) plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements, and two other actors play every other character in the show: men, women, children, animals and even the occasional inanimate object. This approach to the film's serious spy story plays entirely for laughs. The script is chock full of allusions to (or puns on the titles of) the canon of Hitchcock films, including The Birds, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest. In a way, THE 39 STEPS is like the love child of Mel Brooks' High Anxiety and Monty Python. The production now playing in Wimberley is a great piece of theatrical fun.

BWW Review: City Theatre Presents Furiously Funny FORUM
BWW Review: City Theatre Presents Furiously Funny FORUM
September 7, 2015

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart.

BWW Review: YEAR OF THE ROOSTER is a Riotous Funny Black Comedy
BWW Review: YEAR OF THE ROOSTER is a Riotous Funny Black Comedy
August 31, 2015

'One day I will destroy the sun' says the angry 8-month-old gamecock of the title in Capital T Theatre's current production of Eric Dufault's riotously funny black comedy, YEAR OF THE ROOSTER, now playing at the Hyde Park Theatre. 'I think I could kill a cow if I put my mind to it,' Odysseus Rex rages. 'I think I could kill a car. A house.' Now there's ambition. As a matter of fact, ambition is an underlying theme of Dufault's play. Loser Gil Pepper's ambition to finally succeed at something, Odysseus Rex's ambition to one day destroy the sun, local tycoon Dickie Thimble's ambition to stay on top of the cockfighting championship and Gil's teenage manager's ambition to someday run all the McDonald's in America. Without ever becoming preachy, Dufault has a lot to say about what we do to each other and to animals as well as a good deal to say about bullying.

BWW Review: FOREVER PLAID is a Joyous Blast From the Past
BWW Review: FOREVER PLAID is a Joyous Blast From the Past
August 17, 2015

FOREVER PLAID, a musical revue written by Stuart Ross in 1990 has been performed internationally. The show is about those close-harmony groups like The Four Aces and The Four Freshmen that were popular during the 50s. These groups personified the clean-cut genre. The Plaids are a quartet of high-school friends with dreams of recording an album who come to their untimely end in a collision with a bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls on their way to see the Beatles' American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Plaids have been given a final chance from the afterlife for musical glory.

BWW Reviews: PICNIC Intriguing Look at the Power of Social Expectations
BWW Reviews: PICNIC Intriguing Look at the Power of Social Expectations
August 10, 2015

PICNIC by William Inge is a 1963 play that explores the themes of loneliness, desperation, beauty and youth. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play. In this play, Inge focuses on what happens when characters are pitted against cultural and social expectations.

BWW Reviews: The City Theatre Presents Moving and Memorable LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!
BWW Reviews: The City Theatre Presents Moving and Memorable LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!
August 9, 2015

LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! is a play by Terrence McNally. Opening Off-Broadway in 1994 and transferring to Broadway in 1995, it won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.

BWW Reviews: Summer Stock Austin Presents Charming INTO THE WOODS
BWW Reviews: Summer Stock Austin Presents Charming INTO THE WOODS
August 3, 2015

Summer Stock Austin has been a part of the Austin theatre scene since 2005. Annually, college and high school students from across Texas meet to mount several productions with professionals from Austin and around the country in a one-of-a-kind experience. They work as a traditional 'stock' company; each member performs, designs, builds, and assists on the various aspects of theatrical productions. Similar programs charge high school students tuition, but Summer Stock Austin not only offers the experience to all participants free of charge, many of the college students work as mentors throughout the process. Led by a host of professionals with experience ranging from Austin to Broadway, students begin making invaluable connections as they embark on their professional careers and gain firsthand knowledge of working in a professional setting.

BWW Reviews: MAST is a Nightmarish Memory Play You Will Long Be Discussing
BWW Reviews: MAST is a Nightmarish Memory Play You Will Long Be Discussing
July 27, 2015

MAST, now playing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, is a new play by paper chairs co-founder and local playwright Elizabeth Doss. In its World Premiere staging, MAST tells the story of Ann (Katie Bender), a rancher's daughter working on an Air Force base outside Abilene, TX, where she meets Walter (Jesse Bertron), a journalist, and ends up unexpectedly conceiving a child, Michael (Sean Francis Moran), in the heat of wartime frenzy. They elope to the Dominican Republic, which is under the oppressive rule of Trujillo (Noel Gaulin). This is the place where Michael is born and where everything begins to unravel. Based on stories of her own mid-century Texas relatives that have been with playwright Elizabeth Doss for most of her life, MAST spans the decades of this family's life.



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