Set in a drug study lab at Rauschen Pharmaceuticals, where volunteers are taking the experimental antidepressant RLU37; THE EFFECT, a new play by Lucy Prebble, examines two couples and the effects this new drug has on them. The play is not only a powerful and darkly funny indictment of Big Pharma, this ultimately deeply moving play examines such topics as sanity and neurology while also looking into such ideas as fate, and touching on the inevitability of physical attraction in a closed environment. The final question you are left with is who is really in charge of your destiny. Is it you or is it your brain? Prebble has written a very intelligent play that manages quite successfully to walk the thin line between comic and tragic. She is looking squarely at the question of what makes us who we are. This is black comedy of the highest order which requires skilled performers and a skilled director to pull off successfully. Happily, this production has those necessities in spades.
One of the most popular and longest running performance events in the country, FronteraFest, returns for its 24th year. A collaboration between Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks, the Fest runs from January 17th through February 18th (Short Fringe, featuring pieces 25 minutes or less) at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 West 43rd Street, (B.Y.O.V., Bring Your Own Venue) January 25th - February 5th, held at multiple locations and Mi Casa es Su Teatro for one day only on February 11th primarily in private homes (see website to purchase tickets, view full schedule and location details www.hydeparktheatre.org). The Long Fringe, which traditionally hosted pieces over 45 minutes has been canceled for the first time, due to the theatrical venue crisis in Austin.
FAHRENHEIT 451 is a play based on the 1953 dystopian novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury. The novel is regarded as one of his best works. It presents a future society where books are outlawed and 'firemen' burn any that are found. The title comes from the temperature at which paper becomes combustible. There was a 1966 film adaptation of the novel and Bradbury himself developed it into this play in the late 70s. Bradbury has stated that he wrote it to address his concerns about the McCarthy era and the threat of book burning. In later years, he stated it was a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature. The story is set in an unspecified city at an unspecified time in the future somewhere after the year 1960.
SONG ABOUT HIMSELF is Mickle Maher's latest play which is set in a dystopian future where viruses and malware have effectively destroyed the Internet. The populace had been so obsessed with social media that this destruction has left a world of people who communicate in little more than mumbles and broken descriptions of emojis. This fascinating piece would work quite perfectly as an episode of Black Mirror in that it is a look at a technical future gone horribly awry. It also is a clever use of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, widely considered to be the first 'Poem of Chaos'. The world of Maher's play is clearly a world in chaos, and identity is a central theme of both works. SONG ABOUT HIMSELF uses extremely minimalist staging and Maher has created an original language that is part broken description of social media actions and part corruption of Walt Whitman's poetry. While familiarity with Whitman will enrich your experience, it is in no way necessary to the experience.
Austin Shakespeare is kicking off the 2016-2017 season with a staged reading of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (Part I only), running September 22 - 25, 2016 at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Mantel's best-selling novel, which was adapted for stage by Michael Poulton, is a thrilling reimagining of life under Henry VIII with an unlikely hero at the center, Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who rose to become one of the most powerful men in England. After a sold-out Broadway run and rave reviews, Austin Shakespeare is thrilled to produce the Southwest premiere of Wolf Hall with a fully costumed staged reading directed by Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella.
This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in South Bend, Austin, Sacramento and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include THE TEMPEST at The Shakespeare Festival at Notre Dame, the regional premiere of HAND TO GOD in Austin, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in Sacramento, just to name a few.
HAND TO GOD is a fiendishly funny black comedy about the divided human soul written by Robert Askins. It was originally produced Off-Broadway in 2011 and 2014 and made it's Broadway debut in 2015, receiving five Tony Award nominations, including for Best New Play. Described by Askins as an 'irreverent puppet comedy...about a possessed Christian-ministry puppet,' the play takes it's title comes from a Southern expression about honesty. Capital T is currently presenting the regional premiere of the play in a production that is as good as theatre gets.
Using true events as source material, TREVOR by Orange is the New Black writer Nick Jones, is at once witty, hilarious and gut-wrenching. The story is about former show biz chimp Trevor (Jason Newman), a 200-pound chimpanzee, and his owner Sandra (Rebecca Robinson), who has an almost maternal attachment to him. At the core, the play is a look at misunderstood communication. Sandra thinks she knows what Trevor is thinking, but the audience is aware of how far off she actually is. Trevor is almost singularly focused on returning to his show biz existence when he worked with Morgan Fairchild (Rebecca Pearcy) in a 'commercial about water bottles or possibly paper'. It is this communication failure that leads to mounting tensions and the ultimately tragic ending. Consider just how frustrating it is not being able to truly communicate with the
person you depend on. Yes, this happens in human relationships all the time, but when you make one of the elements in the equation an animal with violent tendencies, both the tension and the very real chance for disaster rise exponentially.
FIELD GUIDE, a work-in-progress by Rude Mechs, is currently in a second draft performance at the Off Center. Rude Mechs creates new works collaboratively, and with FIELD GUIDE they are actively engaging their audience to get feed back on what works and what doesn't in order to help shape the piece. FIELD GUIDE, commissioned by the Yale Repertory Theatre, is a mash-up of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, stand-up comedy, dance and some frankly uncomfortable direct audience addressing confessions. How much of the direct confessions are fact or fiction we'll never really know. What we do know is this is an excitingly different evening of pure theatricality… an evening that you, as an audience member, are being asked to help define.
Along the way during your 90 minute journey the Mechs cover topics from the longest Russian novel written such as intellectualism, spiritualism, sensuality and hedonism. While it is ostensibly an adaptation of The Brothers Karamazov, it really just uses the characters in the briefest Cliff Notes sense. This approach allows the performers to riff on the underlying themes present. There is even an unaccredited moment by Tom Lehrer when Robert S. Fisher performs 'They're Rioting in Africa'. What you are treated to is highly experimental in nature and at moments what ensues is truly magical.
'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.
It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Austin Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!
Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Austin Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!
Industry Night is coming! It's an old-school variety show featuring the Austin Arts & Entertainment Industry. Every Monday in July (7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th) at the North Door in East Austin, local artists and entertainers will salute the community that supports them! Doors open at 6pm show starts at 7pm! Inspired by the great variety shows like The Dean Martin Show, Ed Sullivan, and the Muppets, Industry Night will showcase some of the best of the Austin Arts & Entertainment Industry and feature its own, locally created, original content. There will be Industry folks. There will be drinks (and drink SPECIALS). There will be sketches, music, film, dance, comedy and so much more!
Austin Playhouse is proud to present one of the funniest comedies ever written. Shy Englishman, Charlie Baker has a hard time speaking to strangers. To help him out, his gregarious friend 'Froggy' LeSeur tells the residents of a rural fishing lodge that Charlie is a foreigner who doesn't understand English. Assuming their secrets are safe, chaos ensues when Charlie overhears dastardly plots involving the residents of Betty Meeks' lodge! Hailed as 'a charming comedy about the magic of kindness' by Chicago Theater Beat, The Foreigner is chock full of hilarious slapstick and witty wordplay.
The Whole Foods Market flagship store has become a quintessential meeting and gathering place in downtown Austin with events ranging from yoga classes at sunset to family friendly film screenings, and now, live theatre. Whole Foods Market is partnering with local Austin nonprofit, Present Company, for 12 performances of Much Ado About Nothing running Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, April 18 through May 11.
