Photos by Andy Berkovsky for

production of

Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

directed by Bridget Fairas,

June 13 - July 7, 2013

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m.

(3823 Airport Rd. at 38 1/2 St., behind the Shell station)

Shakespeare’s Sublime Battle of Wits and Wills.

Considered one of the most popular and charming comedies, Much Ado About Nothing features the classic couple Benedick, an arrogant and confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favorite sparring partner, who would rather exchange scorching insults than sweet nothings. However, the pugnacious pair is forced to forge a partnership in order to defend house and honor, and salvage the true love of Hero and Claudio after deceptions destroy the lovers’ wedding day. Will the earnest endeavor to restore a young romance elicit an unexpected change of heart for the effort’s unlikely collaborators as well? Witty wordplay, passionate poetry and clever plot twists make this the perfect romantic evening to share love and laughter.

Click 'Read more' to view additional, larger photos. . . .

UpRise! Productions is dedicated to bringing the voices of writers of color to the stage in the Austin, Tx area. We are one of a few companies who consistently feature these writers.  Zell Miller, III, is the artistic director of UpRise! Productions.  Last year, we produced a very successful and award-winning version of “For Colored Girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf”.

This year, we are proud to bring to Austin one of the greatest American plays ever written, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.  We are bringing one on the architects of “The Jazz Aesthetic," as well as an Obie and Bessie Award winner, Laurie Carlos, to direct our production.  Laurie has been Zell's personal mentor for over 15 years.  If you have enjoyed Zell's work in the Austin area, then Laurie is to thank.  Zell's first community production in Austin as a child was A Raisin in the Sun, playing the role of Travis.  Zell is excited to now perform in the role of Walter, which brings Zell's Austin theatre experience full circle.

We are in need of your financial support to bring this amazing play to the stage. Funds raised will go to such production costs as Director fees and travel, scenery construction, marketing, actor fees, lighting and sound equipment rental, and costumes.  Our goal is $3000 by July 19.

Please consider helping us by donating what you can to this campaign and spreading the word about our production. Click on either logo to go to the campaign page. Thank you for your support.

We also hope to see you at the show, August 1-17, at The Vortex in Austin.

Video by Lowell Bartholomee for Austin Shakespeare with performance views, posted on Vimeo June 12 --

Celebrate Austin Shakespeare: The Best Within Us from Lowell Bartholomee on Vimeo.

Austin Shakespeare enters its 29th season as a showcase of some of Austin's best talent and the timeless words of Shakespeare and some of our greatest playwrights. This is going to be an exciting season full of challenges and achievements.

by Dr. David Glen Robinson

Circus Girl, written by Rocky Hopson, is a coming-of-age play like few others.  Set in the 1890s in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains, the play proceeds initially like the adventures of one of many “Little Nells” of the dime novels of that time.  If those stories had finished with any of the realism and hard times of that age depicted in this play, very few “Little Nells” would have survived to tell the tale.  'Circus Girl' is the name given to a very young orphan by her circus family; the circus travels, but then settles in Kansas City when the owner buys a theatre for a home base.  All dreams are shattered when the Panic of 1893 causes a riotous run on America’s banks.  The bank forecloses on the circus’s theatre loan; the performers and owner lose everything, and Circus Girl is cast loose in depressed America with absolutely nothing.

The first point of appreciation of the play is the beauty that's presented on stage against the background of decay.  The costumes are at times truly sumptuous and approach period accuracy, at least as far as I could evaluate.  The sweetness of many of the characters also provided a sometimes-relieving contrast with the corruption surrounding them.  Impressive, too, were the patterns of overwrought oratorical gestures presented in the monologues.  These gestural systems were taught formally in that era.

Dawn Youngs was notable for her adept use of this style in her role as a suffrage reformer and traveling lecturer.  Old photographs of the era were projected; particularly enjoyable were the many pictures of the Columbian Exposition of 1893.  Early films of circus acts were a treat shown as a pre-show; they were, of course, a couple of decades out-of-period, but who cares.

Setting in the American Midwest of the 1890s and later was a fascinating choice by playwright Rocky Hopson.  The period is called the Gilded Age for its optimism and immense growth economically, politically and socially.  It was also the nadir of monopolistic capitalism. The Sherman  Anti-Trust Act, which we take for granted today, had been enacted in 1890, and its reforms were just taking hold by the time of the Panic of 1893, that giant jolt to the system, as Circus Girl starts.  Labor unions were organizing and starting their struggles; Upton Sinclair’s pivotal reform novel The Jungle would not be published until 1906. The gold and silver mines in the Rockies were playing out.

Cedar Park HS is also looking for a new Technical Director! (posted 6/13)

This position is for a Theatre Tech teacher at Cedar Park HS. Job duties include teaching all theatre tech classes, providing technical expertise for all theatrical productions. If interested, please go to the high school teacher job postings at the Leander ISD web site at www.leanderisd.org and complete the online application.

Peter J. Warshaw -  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    - 512-570-0161

ZACH Theatre has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Impact Austin — a nonprofit organization that pools annual donations from members and gives grants to local, worthy causes selected by its members — to fund the expansion of ZACH’s Arts Across the Curriculum program.

Impact Austin will hold an award presentation for ZACH on Monday, June 17 at noon at the Topfer Theatre’s People’s Plaza, 202 S. Lamar Blvd. at W. Riverside Dr. The presentation is open to the public.

ZACH Theatre’s Arts Across the Curriculum is an arts integration and professional development program that trains teachers to use creative drama and theatre techniques to actively engage students in language arts, science, history, and math curricula.

Impact Austin’s grants are awarded in five focus areas: culture, education, environment, family, and health and wellness. ZACH’s Arts Across the Curriculum program was the grant winner for the culture category, which encompasses programs and projects that cultivate, develop, educate and improve the cultural climate in the Greater Austin area.

For the past two years, ZACH Theatre, with support from partner organizations mindPOP, Austin ISD and The Kennedy Center, has successfully piloted the AAC program in three Title I Austin ISD elementary schools and 15 classrooms. The Impact Austin grant will allow ZACH to expand its AAC program from three Title I schools to 16, from 15 teachers to 60, and from 300 at-risk students to 1,500 over the next two years. The grant will also fund the addition of a dedicated program coordinator, salaries for teaching artists, and an in-depth third-party quantitative and qualitative evaluation conducted by UT to measure the effectiveness of the program so it can further be refined and expanded.

From M. Scott Tatum  via Facebook:

McCallum High School & Fine Arts Academy is looking for a new Technical Theatre Director. www.mactheatre.com if you want to see what they've been up to.

Click to go to job posting at Austin Independent School District.