Norman Blume News

Different Stages closes its 2013-2014 season with Pygmalion, Shaw's most popular modern masterpiece, perhaps best known as the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady. The poor flower-seller Eliza Doolittle is in the right place at the right time, just as speech professor Henry Higgins makes a friendly wager that he can change her accent and pass her off as the epitome of English society. But will she survive Higgins' bullying? PYGMALION is the funny, touching, unforgettable battle of wits between two of the theatre's most iconic characters.

Different Stages closes its 2013-2014 season with Pygmalion, Shaw's most popular modern masterpiece, perhaps best known as the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady. The poor flower-seller Eliza Doolittle is in the right place at the right time, just as speech professor Henry Higgins makes a friendly wager that he can change her accent and pass her off as the epitome of English society. But will she survive Higgins' bullying? PYGMALION is the funny, touching, unforgettable battle of wits between two of the theatre's most iconic characters.

Different Stages closes its 2013-2014 season with Pygmalion, Shaw's most popular modern masterpiece, perhaps best known as the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady. The poor flower-seller Eliza Doolittle is in the right place at the right time, just as speech professor Henry Higgins makes a friendly wager that he can change her accent and pass her off as the epitome of English society. But will she survive Higgins' bullying? PYGMALION is the funny, touching, unforgettable battle of wits between two of the theatre's most iconic characters.

After months of thought, debate and conversation, the staff and writers of Austin Entertainment Weekly with much assistance from Broadway World Austin's Editor Jeff Davis, have announced a new award system for the Central Texas Theatre Community.

At the top of the second act of The Language Archive, a skilled linguist named George (Trevor Bissell) gives the audience a lesson in Esperanto, a universal language created in the late 1800s. In the span of about 2 minutes, we learn the Esperanto translations of 'I am loved,' 'I was loved,' and 'I have been loved,' among others.

When December rolls around, it's customary for theater companies to scramble around for Holiday-themed fare. As beloved as Holiday shows are, it's refreshing when companies like Different Stages mount something decidedly in opposition of the trend. With its strong and hysterically funny production of Arsenic and Old Lace, Different Stages essentially defines how to successfully pull off counter-Holiday programming in Austin.

Different Stages continues its 2013 - 2014 season with Julia Cho's prize winning play The Language Archive. George is a man consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of far-flung cultures. Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He doesn't know what to say to his wife, Mary to keep her from leaving him, and he doesn't recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma has for him. Language and love are the twin themes of this loopy excursion into the difficulty of finding words for what lies in our hearts. A Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner, this lyrical, quirky comedy offers a gorgeous look at the power of words and the private languages that love inspires.

Different Stages' Arsenic and Old Lace will run tonight, Nov 22 - Dec 14, 2013, playing Thu - Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm at The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd (map).

Different Stages' Arsenic and Old Lace will run Nov 22 - Dec 14, 2013, playing Thu - Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm at The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd (map).

Different Stages opens its 2013-2014 season with the classic comedy by Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to relieving the loneliness of old men by inviting them in for a nice glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and just a pinch of cyanide. Add to the mix his two brothers - one who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, and one who is a serial killer. Toss in a police officer who thinks he's a playwright, sprinkle in a few corpses, and you have one of the most hilarious and enduring comedies in American theater. The New York Times called Arsenic and Old Lace so funny that none of us will ever forget it!

Different Stages continues its 2012 - 2013 season with Emlyn Williams's classic mystery Night Must Fall. BroadwayWorld is pleased to share the following video preview of this thrilling new production.

Different Stages continues its 2012 - 2013 season with Emlyn Williams's classic mystery Night Must Fall. In a bungalow in a forest in Essex lives Mrs. Bramson, a fussy hypochondriac. She pays her niece Olivia a small salary to act as her companion and the household also includes her cook, Mrs. Terence, and her maid Dora. When Dora gets pregnant, Mrs. Bramson is determined to get the boyfriend to marry her. At the same time, a woman disappears from a nearby hotel. The police begin investigations and, when Dora brings home her boyfriend Dan, Olivia immediately notices that his behavior is not quite normal. He is perpetually putting on an act and soon he worms his way into the affections of Mrs. Bramson, leaves his job as pageboy at the hotel and moves in. Then the woman's body is found - headless...

Different Stages continues its 2012 - 2013 season with Emlyn Williams's classic mystery Night Must Fall. In a bungalow in a forest in Essex lives Mrs. Bramson, a fussy hypochondriac. She pays her niece Olivia a small salary to act as her companion and the household also includes her cook, Mrs. Terence, and her maid Dora. When Dora gets pregnant, Mrs. Bramson is determined to get the boyfriend to marry her. At the same time, a woman disappears from a nearby hotel. The police begin investigations and, when Dora brings home her boyfriend Dan, Olivia immediately notices that his behavior is not quite normal. He is perpetually putting on an act and soon he worms his way into the affections of Mrs. Bramson, leaves his job as pageboy at the hotel and moves in. Then the woman's body is found - headless...

Different Stages continues its 2012 - 2013 season with Emlyn Williams's classic mystery Night Must Fall. In a bungalow in a forest in Essex lives Mrs. Bramson, a fussy hypochondriac. She pays her niece Olivia a small salary to act as her companion and the household also includes her cook, Mrs. Terence, and her maid Dora. When Dora gets pregnant, Mrs. Bramson is determined to get the boyfriend to marry her. At the same time, a woman disappears from a nearby hotel. The police begin investigations and, when Dora brings home her boyfriend Dan, Olivia immediately notices that his behavior is not quite normal. He is perpetually putting on an act and soon he worms his way into the affections of Mrs. Bramson, leaves his job as pageboy at the hotel and moves in. Then the woman's body is found - headless...

While this week's tragic Boston Marathon Bombing definitely changes the effect the story and characters have on the audience, the cast and crew at Different Stages make no apologies for doing a play about Boston at such a critical time in the city's history. Instead, they celebrate the city and the people in it, turning Good People into an unashamedly honest celebration of the Bostonian spirit.

Oscar Wilde once said, "A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament." Indeed, it is the "unique temperament" of the Marquis de Sade which is on display in Different Stages' outstanding production of Quills, written by Doug Wright. With its hysterical text, its magnificent cast, and its wonderful creative team, Quills is a fantastic start to Austin's 2013 theater scene. This is one show that knows how to shock and delight audiences. I doubt the Marquis is smiling upon Different Stages from heaven, but if you look a bit further south you may find him smirking...