Rebecca Greene Udden News

Main Street Theater (MST) soon opens the ultimate British farce, Alan Ayckbourn's brilliantly constructed Relatively Speaking.

Longtime Main Street Theater (MST) staff member Andrew Ruthven has been named Associate Artistic Director of Main Street Theater.

Main Street Theater brings back its holiday hit, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon.  MST Founder and Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden has long been a champion of Jane Austen's work, even adapting Pride and Prejudice for the stage herself, which the company produced in 1988 and 1996.  It seems only fitting, then, that MST would select Miss Bennet, the sequel to Pride and Prejudice, for its holiday offering. 

Main Street Theater (MST) is bringing Canadia theater company La Fille Du Laitier and its production of Macbeth Muet to Houston November 1 - 11.  MST Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden first saw La Fille Du Laitier's Macbeth Muet in New York last fall and was captivated by their innovation and ingenuity.  "You've just never seen anything quite like it!" says Udden.  "And the show is hilarious!" 

On Saturday night, September 22, Main Street Theater (MST) opened its 43rd Season with the Regional Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will.  This compelling play tells the tale of how Shakespeare's First Folio came into existence thanks to the loyalty and love of his dear friends, particularly John Heminges and Henry Condell. 

Main Street Theater (MST) will open its 43rd Season with the Regional Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will.  This compelling play tells the tale of how Shakespeare's First Folio came into existence thanks to the loyalty and love of his dear friends, particularly John Heminges and Henry Condell.  "As the Folger Shakespeare Library put it, the First Folio is 'the book that gave us Shakespeare,'" shares Book of Will director and MST Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden.  "That being so, it can then be said that Heminges and Condell gave us the book that gave us Shakespeare."  "[THE BOOK OF WILL] serves as homage to those who sacrificed to make the first folio happen and to Shakespeare's magnificent words." - Westword (Denver, CO). 

Main Street Theater (MST) will open its 43rd Season with the Regional Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will.  This compelling play tells the tale of how Shakespeare's First Folio came into existence thanks to the loyalty and love of his dear friends, particularly John Heminges and Henry Condell.  "As the Folger Shakespeare Library put it, the First Folio is 'the book that gave us Shakespeare,'" shares Book of Will director and MST Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden.  "That being so, it can then be said that Heminges and Condell gave us the book that gave us Shakespeare."  "[THE BOOK OF WILL] serves as homage to those who sacrificed to make the first folio happen and to Shakespeare's magnificent words." - Westword (Denver, CO). 

Main Street Theater is announcing a change in the line-up of its 43rd MainStage season, beginning September 2018.  The previously announced Trojan War Project, a three-play collaboration with Prague Shakespeare company, will be postponed to a later season.  Conor McPherson's The Weir will now open March 16, 2019, and the season will close with a title TBA, pending availability of rights.  "After much reflection, we are postponing the Trojan War Project until sometime in the future," shared Rebecca Greene Udden, Executive Artistic Director and Founder of Main Street Theater.  "The production represented an enormous financial undertaking, and as we, like so many other arts organizations struggling to recover from this Harvey-cursed year, have to focus on financial sustainability."  Additionally, The Book of Will is now set to open a bit later, September 22, 2018.  MST will still bring in Canada's La Fille du Laitier and their production of Macbeth Muet.

Main Street Theater presents the hilarious play Buyer & Cellar  by Jonathan Tolins.  This show is 'an irresistible one-man play from the most peculiar of fictitious premises... This seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy creates the illusion of a stage filled with multiple people, all of them with their own droll point of view,' said the New York Times.  Doug Atkins, who has done the show once before Ft. Worth, will bring it to life for Houston.

Thanks to a Jamail Innovation Grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Houston now has a centralized theater costume storage and rental facility, the Costume Connection. 

Main Street Theater (MST) announces its 43rd Season which includes eight productions on the MainStage and seven at its Theater for Youth for 2018-2019.

The Trojan War: Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare, Modern English verse translation by Lillian Groag; The Trojan Women by Euripides, new English translation by Guy Roberts and Rebecca Greene Udden. Directed by Guy Roberts and Rebecca Green Udden.

Main Street Theater continues its 42nd Season with Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus - and it's played by all women.  Men on Boats tells the story of Major John Wesley Powell's actual expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869.  The play depicts the amazing journey of these 10 explorers with all its humor and wonder and danger and excitement.  It's an extraordinary adventure.

Main Street Theater continues its 42nd Season with MEN ON BOATS by Jaclyn Backhaus - and it's played by all women.  MEN ON BOATS tells the story of Major John Wesley Powell's actual expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869.  The play depicts the amazing journey of these 10 explorers with all its humor and wonder and danger and excitement.  It's an extraordinary adventure.

Main Street Theater continues its 42nd Season with Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus - and it's played by all women. Men on Boats tells the story of Major John Wesley Powell's actual expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869. The play depicts the amazing journey of these 10 explorers with all its humor and wonder and danger and excitement. It's an extraordinary adventure.

Main Street Theater (MST) presents the beloved modern classic Holes by Louis Sachar (who resides in Austin). Children and adults alike love the book Holes, the now-iconic movie of Holes, and the play. Performances are Sundays, January 28 February 18 at 2:30pm at MST's Midtown location, 3400 Main St. in Matchbox4. All tickets are on sale via phone at 713.524.6706 or online at MainStreetTheater.com. Tickets are $18 - $22, depending on section. Large print playbills are also available at Will Call.

Main Street Theater (MST) continues its partnership with Prague Shakespeare Company (PSC) in presenting PSC's An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, based on Homer's Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles, and directed by Main Street Theater Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden and Prague Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Guy Roberts. MST and PSC have been partners and collaborators since 2012. There will be a post-show discussion with Udden and Roberts on Sunday, January 7.

Main Street Theater (MST) continues its partnership with Prague Shakespeare Company (PSC) in presenting PSC's An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, based on Homer's Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles, and directed by Main Street Theater Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden and Prague Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Guy Roberts. MST and PSC have been partners and collaborators since 2012. There will be a post-show discussion with Udden and Roberts on Sunday, January 7.

Main Street Theater opens its 42nd Season with Enemies by Maxim Gorky, adapted by David Hare.  Enemies tells the story of Russian society in 1905 when the country sat ready for revolution.  Directed by MST Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden, this collaboration with the University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance features a cast of 24, 8 of whom are UH students.

In Prague Shakespeare Company's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, set in World War II Britain, a group of nurses, wounded servicemen and patriots produce a radio broadcast of the Bard's classic to raise morale of the troops on the front. Main Street Theater brings this novel interpretation of the William Shakespeare comedy to its Rice Village location from December 31 to January 15, 2017.