Lara Toner News

Austin Playhouse announces their 20th Anniversary Season celebrating the human connections at the heart of live theatre.

The mission statement of Austin Playhouse is to "Provide opportunities for both Austinite performers and audiences to celebrate the human experience". COPENHAGEN, now playing at their temporary home in the ACC Highland Campus, examines a highly debated meeting between Quantum Mechanics pioneer Werner Heisenberg (played by David Stahl), and his mentor, the "Pope" of Quantum Mechanics, Niels Bohr (play by Ev Lunning Jr.). Also attended by Bohr's wife Margrethe Bohr (played by Babs George), this meeting of the minds takes place years after their first skiing vacations together, in which they collaborated to prove Albert Einstein wrong on atomic theory. The examined reunion took place in September 1941, when Heisenberg was working in Nazi Germany as part of their atomic program. Travelling to Denmark to meet with Bohr, a Danish Jew, tensions ran high as the time for the meeting came closer. Within the polarizing political climate of the time, the show displays the current debate and inherently speculative narrative of what was discussed during this visit and how it may have changed human history.

On Wednesday, April 3, 2019, Austin Playhouse closed on a 2.8 acre site at 1717 E. Anderson Lane, along the 183 frontage road in Northeast Austin. The building site will be developed into a home for the veteran professional theatre as well as serving as a rental facility for other arts organizations. The purchase price of $1,280,664 was primarily funded by a $1 million anonymous contribution and a bridge loan from Comerica Bank.

Austin Playhouse announces a $1,000,000 lead contribution to their newly relaunched Building Campaign.

MONROE, a world premiere production, directed by Lara Toner Haddock, is the latest play by Lisa B. Thompson. The script is a heart warming and funny look at a Southern family. What makes it a remarkable evening of theatre is that it also shows how racial terror affects the minds and lives of these African Americans and their great strength that allows them to maintain their faith in a better tomorrow.Thompson has created some wonderful characters in this new play and shows that she has a deft hand at creating dialogue that leaps off the page. There's great wit here as well as heart. The scenes between the three women in the cast are absolutely delightful and the three actresses wring every possible laugh out of the audience with ease. MONROE reveals Thompson be a writer of great range as this new work is worlds away from her award winning play Underground, which won the 2017 Austin Critics' Table David Mark Cohen New Play Award.

Lisa B. Thompson burst onto the Austin theatre scene in a big way last season with her play UNDERGROUND, which was not only nominated for most of the awards given in Austin, but also managed to walk away with a few. She capped off the season by winning the New Play award from Austin Playhouse's annual playwrighting contest. The contest winning play, MONROE, is opening at Austin Playhouse on September 7th in a World Premiere production. Thompson, besides these two plays, is also the author of the book Beyond The Black Lady: Sexuality And The New African American Middle Class (University of Illinois Press, 2009) which received Honorable Mention in competition for the Gloria E. Anzaldua Book Prize from the National Women's Studies Association. Her work has appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Finding A Way Home: A Critical Assessment Of Walter Mosley's Fiction (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), and From Bourgeois to Boojie: Black Middle-Class Performances (Wayne State University Press, 2011). Her plays include Single Black Female (Samuel French, Inc., 2012) which has been produced throughout the U.S. and Canada. BroadwayWorld recently had the opportunity to sit down with Thompson to talk, in depth, about her new play MONROE, right before it makes its World Premiere at Austin Playhouse to open their season.

Austin Playhouse is thrilled to open its 2018 - 2019 season with the world premiere of Monroe by local playwright Dr. Lisa B. Thompson. The play was a winner of the Austin Playhouse Festival of New Texas Plays, receiving a staged reading in April 2018.

Austin Playhouse recently produced staged readings of the three winning plays from their Festival of New Texas Plays. EIDOPHUSIKON by Reina Hardy kicked off the festival on Friday, April 27, NUTSHELL by C. Denby Swanson was on Saturday, April 28, and MONROE by Lisa B. Thompson concluded the lineup on Sunday, April 29. Along with the professional staged reading, which featured Austin Playhouse directors and company members, each of the winning playwrights received a $500 prize.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a 2014 stage adaptation by Lee Hall of the 1998 Academy Award winning film by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard of the same name. It was first created under the auspices of Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions. The story concerns an imaginary love affair involving Viola de Lesseps (Claire Grasso) and playwright William Shakespeare (Stephen Mercantel) while he was writing Romeo and Juliet. Many of the characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays. The production, now playing at Austin Playhouse, is one of their biggest productions to date. This script has become one of the most produced plays in America this season, and rightfully so, as it as entertaining as the 1998 film was.

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Austin Playhouse's production of MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY, continues the season of holiday-themed entertainment in Austin. Written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, but taking the characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, this play endeavours to be a potential sequel to the beloved classic. This time, however, the focus is shifted from previous heroine, Elizabeth to her sister, Mary.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is well executed, entertaining, and quite worthy of attention.

SILENT SKY rises above the rest to create a unique little slice of heaven right here in Austin.

At the dawn of modern astronomy, Henrietta Leavitt leaves her home and beloved sister to work in Harvard's male-driven observatory and map the night sky. She forms a new sisterhood with her fellow star "computers," Annie and Williamina, and begins to fall in love with her supervisor, Peter Shaw. As Henrietta makes a revolutionary discovery about where the Earth is in time and space, she must fight to be heard in a world where women's ideas are dismissed until men take credit for them. A celestial romance and a true story of determination, Silent Sky invites you to revel in the magic of the universe on this historic journey of love, family, feminism and science.

At the dawn of modern astronomy, Henrietta Leavitt leaves her home and beloved sister to work in Harvard's male-driven observatory and map the night sky. She forms a new sisterhood with her fellow star "computers," Annie and Williamina, and begins to fall in love with her supervisor, Peter Shaw. As Henrietta makes a revolutionary discovery about where the Earth is in time and space, she must fight to be heard in a world where women's ideas are dismissed until men take credit for them. A celestial romance and a true story of determination, Silent Sky invites you to revel in the magic of the universe on this historic journey of love, family, feminism and science.

Austin Playhouse's 16th season opens this September with two classics: Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and the beloved romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story. They're joined by four regional premieres, including Austin Playwright C. Denby Swanson's The Norwegians, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced, a moving, jazz-infused play about baseball legend Satchel Paige, and a hilarious spoof on Victorian adventurers, The Explorers Club.

Austin Playhouse presents Chicago by Fred Ebb and John Kander, directed by Michael McKelvey, May 29 - June 28, 2015. Performances are: Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. at Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752.

Austin Playhouse will present She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, directed by Don Toner and Lara Toner-Haddock, tonight, February 13th - March 8, 2015.

This boisterous and charming comedy of mistaken identities has delighted audiences for over two centuries. Two well-bred young men arrive at the country estate of Mr. Hardcastle, intending to court his daughter Kate and her cousin Constance, but when local mischief-maker Tony Lumpkin plays a practical joke on the two urbanites, the Hardcastle household is launched into a dizzying, deliciously frothy romp that examines romance and social manners as well as the art of love. Our production will be a sumptuous celebration of the gorgeous language, elegant costumes, and outright hilarity of Goldsmith's classic.

Austin Playhouse will present She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, directed by Don Toner and Lara Toner-Haddock, February 13th - March 8, 2015.