Madelyn Geyer - Page 2

I walk into the Romy Suskin Photography Studio serving as the venue for The Filigree Theatre's THE TURN OF THE SCREW. A darkened room and dimly lit candles greet me while classical music playing from a small speaker in the corner blankets the space with paranoia-tinged peacefulness. With just two actors and chairs for only ten audience members, director Elizabeth V. Newman creates an intimate atmosphere that still manages to transport the audience to the drafty halls of a Victorian mansion where THE TURN OF THE SCREW takes place.

Pull out your best butcher knife, pour yourself a steaming cup of coffee, and prance over to the Hyde Park Theatre to experience Street Corner Arts' production of THE BUTCHER OF BARABOO. Playwright Marisa Wegrzyn fashions a world where the snow is white, the blood is red, and the humor is as black as the coffee brewing in the pot.

This winter, Austin's Different Stages theatre company takes on one of the most famous novels of the 19th century: FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley. Different Stages performs Patrick Sanford's 2-act adaptation of the novel, showing at the Vortex Repertory Theatre.

Well, they've done it again. The students of Austin have delivered another knockout production of SPRING AWAKENING. First was Saint Edward's University and now the University of Texas at Austin. After reviewing SPRING AWAKENING back in April, I jumped at the chance to see it again. I was moved, enraptured, and utterly delighted by UT's production and I was not alone. As the audience shuffled from their seats in a buzzing post-show daze, I smiled at the effusive praise tumbling from their lips.

The Butterfly Bar at The Vortex theatre buzzes with anticipation. A TSA agent quietly moves through the space. Suddenly women in white gowns appear, focusing their attention on a figure now standing on the bar. This figure is Dionysus. He regales the crowd with the circumstances of his birth, unrecognized divinity, liberation, and his mother's deportation. The bartender serves patrons as if Dionysus's verbose diatribe is nothing but a hushed conversation.

There's a Hopi Indian proverb that goes: a?oeThose who tell the stories will rule the worlda??. If that's true, how is Maggie Gallant not queen of the universe by now? This masterful storyteller takes the Hyde Park Theatre by storm with HOT DOGS AT THE EIFFEL TOWER; written by Gallant and directed by Ken Webster.

It's #savage season at MacTheatre, the Fine Arts Academy of McCallum High School. #Savage feels firmly planted in 2019 as that word, as every day vernacular, feels like new-fangled millennial vocabulary. But savage essentially means impossibly confident, self-actualized, and fearless disregard for societal norms. There's plenty of savagery in JEKYLL & HYDE.

Seven women. Seven unflinching stories. Last Act Theatre Company powerfully stages SEVEN, a documentary play. Seven actresses command the stage representing real-life woman who, after enduring unspeakable hardships, devoted their entire lives to empowering fellow women and enacting positive change in their communities. As I experienced it, I realized this isn't a play to entertain but to inspire and bring awareness to these women and their causes; what they've done and what they continue to do.

Some of the most talented students in Austin tear up the stage in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, a Summer Stock Austin musical production you won't want to miss this August. They'll overwhelm you with talent, make you laugh until your sides hurt, and astonish you with show stopping musical numbers. This production not only boasts top-tier young talent but quality in all elements merging together to create the final product. Walking into the theater, you're immediately struck by the strength of the production value, most prominently featured by the impressive wrap around set that was sadly underutilized.

You can't write about a work of Shakespeare or about a work about Shakespeare without quoting one of his most famous (and theatrically appropriate) lines: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." But on the stage of the Austin Playhouse, the men and women aren't merely players. They are the driving force behind bringing THE BOOK OF WILL to life with vivacious enthusiasm and well-honed skill.

The City Theatre's production of PARALLEL LIVES eschews elaborate sets, costumes, and production design in favor of highlighting its varied characters and the stories they bring to life. Sadly, the show suffers from a lack of dynamic entertainment value and holds a run time that will have you checking your watch surprised that it's not over yet.

What do clownish costumes and biblical parables have in common? Subversive Broadway staple, GODSPELL of course! Austin's Trinity Street Players take on the classic Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak rock musical with an effervescent production fitting for Easter weekend.

St. Edward's University's choice for their spring musical is aptly named. While the words 'spring awakening' invoke images of beautiful flowers or a warm spring day, this musical contains everything but, with central themes of sexuality, religion, abuse, suicide, guilt and repression. I'll be blunt: go see this production. The cast of St. Edwards University blesses the audience with their talent, capturing the heartbreak, hope, and surprising humor that's integral to SPRING AWAKENING, based on the 1891 German play of the same name by Frank Wedekind.

John Lowell's THE LETTERS, in its regional premiere courtesy of Street Corner Arts, is a two person, one act play. It begins in one place, takes us on a journey, and ends up in a place unrecognizable from where it started, all without leaving one governmental archives office in 1930s Stalinist Russia. Through one seventy-five minute long interaction, Lowell's dialogue and Michael Stuart's direction captures the utter paranoia and perpetual fear felt by citizens and leaders alike living in the Soviet Regime.

Like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, ANTIGONICK reveals the fate of the characters immediately. ANTIGONICK is award winning poet and Classics professor Anne Carson's reinterpretation of Sophocles' Antigone, part three in his famous Theban plays. Antigone continues the story of eye-gouging tragedy Oedipus Rex, perhaps the most well-known in the Theben plays. Carson's deep knowledge of ancient Greek literature, culture, and history makes her the ideal person to translate and reimagine Sophocles' revered work. She gives the story modernity but holds fast to its universal and still relevant themes of tragedy, grief, and fate. Director Diana Small of Salvage Vanguard Theater puts an experimental spin on Carson's play to make for a truly unique theatrical experience in ANTIGONICK.

'This is a story of kings.' The opening line of playwright Ayad Akhtar's JUNK gives the audience an epic summary of what they're about to experience. Kings not determined by the biggest crown or most expansive army, but by the fullest pockets. Robert Merkin, played by Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, is one such king, though unconventional in that the lead character of Akhtar's longest work sees debt as an asset. Robert sits proudly on the cover Time Magazine, and he's ready to capitalize on his role as 'America's Alchemist'. Performer Garcia revels in all the teeth sucking, furtive gesticulating, and slick talking of a classic 1980's Wall Street yuppie.

JANE EYRE, THE MUSICAL began workshops in 1995 before moving to the La Jolla Playhouse in 1999 for pre-Broadway try-out performances. The musical premiered on Broadway in December of 2000 and closed in June of 2001, scoring 5 Tony Award nominations along the way. And deservedly so. Paul Gordon's elegant music and moving lyrics reveal the simmering passions and inner struggles the main characters face. 

MacTheatre's production of 42ND STREET exudes pure Broadway bliss from the moment a massive line of energetic tap dancers greets the audience from behind a rising curtain. Come along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway…only it won't lull you to sleep.