Frank Benge - Page 6

When you choose a three-person show it doesn't leave you much room for error or less than stellar acting. The current Southwest Theatre Productions company of Nicholas Kier, Devin Finn and Kristin Chiles under the direction of Joni Lorraine delivers nothing short of perfection, each character has been crafted to show without artifice or contrivance their specific needs and emotional depth. These performers show us abrasive tempers buffeted by discoveries, in Theresa Rebeck's unusual modern theatrical hybrid of drama and comedy.

TWENTYEIGHT, a 2014 play by Tyler English-Beckwith, is a look at eight laborers who are trying to finish the shuttle that will carry them to the Liberian Space Station. This Space Station (also known as the L.S.S.) is a refuge for people of color. It seems that in this very Dystopian future, things, for people of color, are even more violent and oppressive than things are now. This, as an audience member, isn't very comforting. Indeed, this is a short oppressive theatrical experience you aren't likely to forget easily. The world we know is long gone. A rubble of ruins. People of Color have been crammed into settlements, where they work on projects just like this shuttle. What keeps them at work are the faceless Enforcers and a distant dream of liberation. There is the pull and allure of that promised place where what is wrong magically becomes a place of blessings, joys and riches. Isn't that, after all, the promise of all regions? Your heaven in amongst the various heavens.

Who doesn't know THE WIZARD OF OZ? And even if by some strange coincidence the multiple books of L. Frank Baum have managed to escape you, the classic MGM film (on which this production is based) has been a television staple and family viewing tradition for decades.

Jen Silverman's black comedy THE MOORS is an interesting concoction; a black comedy about love, desperation and visibility. Set in the thick of the English literary landscape, Silverman spoofs the Bronte sisters with a bit of a queer twist. She uses all the expected elements of the Gothic (diaries, governesses, hidden lust) yet employs them for a different set of romantic fantasies, where boys are more on the outskirts of the action. Two sisters, Agatha (Catherine Grady) and Huldey (Jess Hughes) and their Mastiff (David Yakubik) live out their lives on the English moors, dreaming of a life different from their current existence. When a hapless governess, Emilie (Katie Kohler) and a moor-hen (Lindsay Hearn Brustein) arrive on the scene, it sets all three on a strange and dangerous path.

One of Austin's most innovative theatre companies is Theatre Synesthesia, which has been recently recognized with awards from both BroadwayWorld and the Austin Critic's Table. We had an opportunity to sit down with two of the company founders, Devin Finn and Nick Kier to find out more about this company that, of late, has been creating so much buzz in the Austin theatre community.

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.

SOMETHING ROTTEN! is a musical comedy with a book by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Set in 1595, it tells the story of the Bottom brothers, Nick (Rob McClure) and Nigel (Pierce Cassedy), and their struggle to produce a show that isn't overshadowed by their contemporary William Shakespeare (Adam Pascal). The show opened on Broadway in 2015 and was nominated for multiple Tony Awards and ran for 745 performances. This touring production launched earlier this year.

NYC theatre company Aztec Economy teams with Austin theatre company Theatre Synesthesia to present Casey Wimpee's play BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME in this Austin premiere production. Directed by Leah Bonvissuto, who directed the original NY production, the play is a seventy five minute sensory experience about five coal miners who are trapped in a cave in. Set in 1973, West Virginia, BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME, is a startling look at the male psyche-in-crisis.  As these five coal miners struggle to overcome a dwindling supply of oxygen and the lack of food and water, it becomes clear that the biggest obstacles they face are their own competing natures. Director Bonvissuto has done a masterful job here of creating an immersive event.

LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL is a play with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting key events in the life of Billie Holiday. The play originally premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014. The play covers the same legendary Holiday stories that were in Lady Sings the Blues as anecdotal memories related by the singer during her act.

It's the rare person who has never told a lie. Who hasn't pondered whether you could train yourself to beat a lie detector? What situation would bring you to lie? Would you lie if saving yourself or your loved one was at stake? Is it possible to craft a perfect lie? In Jason Wells' PERFECT MENDACITY the playwright investigates the realities surrounding deception when a corporate scientist tries to avoid implication after a sensitive memo has been leaked. He has engaged a professional to help him escape implication during his lie detector investigation. Wells' tale of corporate espionage, lies and cover ups, where the past comes back to haunt you as your personal and professional lives collide is darkly funny in all the best ways.

Continuing our series of interviews of Austin Theatre companies and the artists behind them, BroadwayWorld had the opportunity to talk to Benjamin Summers about StreetCorner Arts during their Tech Week for their latest production, PERFECT MENDACITY.

BroadwayWorld recently asked ZACH Theatre's guest director Michael Rader, in town to direct the Austin Premiere of LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL, to give our readers a little background on him and the production, which runs April 5-30 on the Topher Stage.

UNDERGROUND, a taut new psychological and political thriller by Lisa B. Thompson, is currently in its World Premiere production at The VORTEX. UNDERGROUND examines African American activists, artists, and intellectuals and how they have responded from the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond. The play takes a head-on look at where we are in the long fight for equality in our current political climate and what survival may look like over the next four years and beyond. This is an unflinching look at the possible aftermath of the appointment of white supremacists to high-ranking positions in the executive branch. This two person drama is set in the very near future and flashes backto their first encounter. At the core, UNDERGROUND asks the question: how far would you go to protect your people?

MRS. MANNERLY, a memory play by Jeffrey Hatcher, takes inspiration from the playwright's memories of a childhood etiquette class that he took at the tender young age of ten. Walking with an etiquette book balanced on your head, learning complex table settings with a confounding array of flatware and stemware, and dropping a quarter in a jar each time you interrupt...those were the ways of Mrs. Mannerly's classes in 1967. Mrs. Mannerly (Jennifer Underwood) has high standards; so high, in fact, that not one student in her thirty-six years of teaching proper deportment has ever achieved perfection. Young Jeffrey (Suzanne Balling) wants to be the first and he has a trick up his sleeve that he thinks makes him a shoe-in to achieve that sought after goal... he has discovered Mrs. Mannerly has a secret past.

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is a jukebox musical that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King with a book by Douglas McGrath, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others. The original production received its world premiere in San Francisco in October of 2013, and made its Broadway debut at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in January 2014. This U.S. touring production now at Bass Concert Hall launched in September 2015.

Cirque du Soleil's OVO, currently playing at the HEB Center in Cedar Park is an immersive family friendly evening of acrobatic thrills wrapped up is a sweet and funny clown bug love story. The show is a look at an insect ecosystem teeming with life. The acrobats are dressed as insects and the acts, which are tied together by the clowns storylines of looking for the egg and the lady bug's suitors, results in a non-stop story of insects working, playing, fighting and looking for love. Among the exciting visuals in this fast paced dazzler of an entertainment are foot jugglers who, as ants, juggle gigantic kiwi fruit and ears of corn; trampoline artists dressed crickets leaping off and on a high wall; a silk artist who uses the silks to show a butterfly transforming from cocoon state and trapeze artists in a stunning aerial act. Along the way is also a beautiful and graceful dragonfly hand balancing act and a hilarious moment with a caterpillar.

JOHN, a new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Annie Baker, is now receiving a Southwest Premiere production at Hyde Park Theatre, under the direction of Ken Webster. The production is so exceptional on so many multiple levels that I am likely to wear out my thesaurus. This is not the first play by Baker that Hyde Park Theatre has produced. Earlier this season, they presented The Flick, and they have, in the past, produced Circle Mirror Transformation, The Aliens and Body Awareness. Webster clearly has an affinity for her work and Austin is all the richer for it.

There is a lot of original theatre that happens here in Austin and it spans the gamut in terms of quality. A GIRL NAMED SUE, a new play by Christine Hoang, now in its World Premiere production in the Trinity Street Theatre, is among the best in terms of both quality and execution. Ms. Hoang has crafted a funny, witty and touching play that examines intercultural and interracial relationships all set in the world of coffee house collegiate culture. It manages to deliver a powerful message without ever being high handed or preachy. It does what all good theatre must do first and foremost: entertain.

WEST SIDE STORY is historically one of the most important of American musicals, with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Its conception as a heavy dance piece came from original choreographer and director Jerome Robbins and is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The show also marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. With its dark subject matter, focusing on social problems, and sophisticated score, the show was a turning point in American Musical Theatre. Bernstein's score includes 'Something's Coming', 'Maria', 'Somewhere', 'Tonight', 'I Feel Pretty', and 'One Hand, One Heart', all of which have become part of the Great American Songbook. The original production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Musical in 1957. It was turned into a film in 1961, ultimately winning ten Oscars, including Best Picture.

Young Adult novelist and actress Katerine Catmull has teamed up with Physical Plant Theatre to create SISTER OF SHATTERING GLASS, an adventure story told entirely with text messages. The adventure follows Catmull's characters Summer and Bird in a race to the center of a dark maze located behind the mirrors of the world, where a being born from reflections and fractures threatens to devour the maze from within - including the two sisters and every bird on earth. People who join up for the adventure will take the role of father, receiving messages from the two daughters. The adventure is written by Catmull, featuring characters from her novel, Summer and Bird, and will feature photographs by Annie Gunn and sound design by Buzz Moran. The story unfolds gradually over the course of five months. Broadway World recently had an opportunity to talk to Katherine Catmull to find out more about this unique and exciting new theatrical venture.