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Happy Hour Theatre

We're back! Happy Hour Theatre returns in the gorgeous new Topfer Theatre, but one thing hasn't changed: We're still out to create a night geared towards twenty-somethings that's destined to be a good time!

On Wednesday, May 15, we're offering discounted $25 tickets to HARVEY for all patrons under 30. The show starts at 8 pm, but get there at 6:45 pm to take advantage of some free grub, hobnobbing and of course cheap beer and drink specials. After the show, join us in the Serra Skyline Lounge to mingle with the cast!

If you are interested in student tickets, we offer $18 rush tickets one hour before curtain at the door.  You are still welcome to join the festivities, but, as always, must be 21 to drink.

This show will likely sell out, so reserve your seat now by using the discount code HAPPYHOUR, calling ZACH's Box Office at 512-476-0541 x1 or stopping by during normal Box Office hours — Monday through Saturday, 12 noon - 7pm.

Remember to join our Facebook group to keep tabs on all future Happy Hour Theatre events and join the Facebook event for any updates!

by Michael Meigs

Yes, I would be delighted to enjoy a guilt-free assignation once a year with the energetic, sweet and affectionate Virginia Keeley.

Fellow actor Bill Barry has had that privilege this month at the Georgetown Palace, at least in our imaginations.  Since the six scenes in Bernard Slade's play span the twenty-four years between 1951 and 1975, Barry's averaging just about one imaginary assignation a day.  (And by his exuberant count in the final scene, 116 acts of marital infidelity over that period.)

Posters from the Palace caution potential clientele  that Same Time, Next Year "is intended for ADULT audiences," but they probably needn't have worried.  As the appreciative audience made its way out afterwards, I saw a woman look around and heard her comment, "It doesn't look as if there's anyone under 40 in here."

This piece is not adult in the XXX sense; it's adult in that it's pitched at those who have reached the age of consent.  It's not a sex farce à la Feydeau, for such pieces provoke our laughter by suggesting how foolish and mindlessly lustful the characters are, implying that they're essentially still children in their emotions.  And it's not a play about adultery, for it never seriously examines that issue.

Bernard Slade's light comedy was a success in New York almost 40 years ago, and received Tony award nominations for best actress, best actor and best direction, and in fact Ellen Burstyn walked away from that year's ceremony with the statuette.  Three years later she got the Academy award for the same role in the filmed version.

This script has two distinguishing characteristics: first, by situating his six scenes at intervals of about five years, the playwright evokes some of the changes in American popular culture during that time.  Some of them he misses -- the contraceptive pill, for example, prompting us to wonder if one or the other of these good parents of families already had tubes tied -- but others he celebrates.  Spunky Doris embraces the freedom of the Age of Aquarius, and she becomes a self-made businesswoman by the final scenes.  George is a quivering, nervous mess when this first gets started, but once he gets used to it, he thrives.  Unlike Doris, he gets more conservative as he ages, creating what might be derided by some today as a Republican paradox.  The Vietnam War is there, as well, and inflicts a deep-felt catastrophe on one of the illicit partners.

Second, Same Time, Next Year is pure wish fulfillment, the equivalent of meeting in real life that 'imaginary friend' you may have had in your childhood.  The casually confident acceptance of a regular extra-marital sex partner, one who poses absolutely no danger to your own agreeably settled life, was an enchanting one to the hopefuls of the mid-1970's.  And may still be an enchanting one for the now somewhat creaky public for this play that has probably become a staple of community theatres. The strong support given the Palace by the retirement communities of the area made it a feasible programming choice.

The world of the play is pretty much irrelevant to the contemporary world of instant messaging, hooking up, friends with benefits, living together without sanction of marriage and easy divorces.  And to anyone born since the play was first staged in 1975.

This serial wish fulfillment cannot go on forever, of course, even in the world of the play.  The uncomfortable dénouement in the final scene touches upon the infringed vow "till death do us part," although the death in question isn't that of either of the characters on stage.  One engages in a bit of grandstanding, and -- for apparently the first time -- some outright duplicity, betraying their comfortable compact of betrayals for the first time in 24 years.  That's weakly resolved, but we're supposed to feel happy about it.

The Georgetown Palace does its usual accomplished job in putting the piece on stage.  The set's a solid and convincing depiction of the hideaway on the California coast, costuming by Ismael Soto III is appropriate, Rich Simms provides the video transitions, and both actors are fully into the characters.  Bill Barry as George visibly gains confidence and ages, principally by shifts of expression, attitude and posture; Virginia Keeley's an unaffected sweetheart, a doll who grows in experience and perhaps in wisdom over the course of the action.  That Southern accent of hers is never explained, but it just made her that much more attractive to me.  One gentle chiding, however: we in the audience who are applauding at the curtain call would like to be met by smiling actors.  Keeley the acknowledging actor appeared suddenly tired or distracted.

And why, Palace folks, is it necessary to mic up your actors for a stage play in the comfortable space of your theatre?  Body mics are appropriate for the Palace's many musicals, but in this conventionally delivered dialogue piece, neither actor lacks lung power.  When the script called for them to raise their voices, the sound system went a bit bonkers.  I speculate that the technical decision was taken because the Palace has installed that special system for the hard of hearing.  Perhaps the on-stage action could be gathered for that clientele by microphones suspended above the stage rather than held on stalks extending from the sides of the actor's heads.

EXTRA

Click to view excerpts from the program of Same Time, Next Year at the Georgetown Palace

Author, drama review and WSJ columnist Terry Teachout sees that because of financial pressures, regional theatre programming is collapsing toward the safe center:

Theatre's Expiring Subscription Mode

by Terry Teachout, April 26, 2013

[. . . .] [N]ot only are solo and small-cast plays increasingly taking the place of large-scale shows, but I've noticed in the past couple of years that many regional theaters are also opting for significantly less adventurous fare. More familiar comedies and recent Broadway hits, fewer challenging new shows and revivals of great plays of the past: That seems to be the direction in which American theater is moving.

But is it all about the recession? Not long ago I spoke to the artistic director of a well-regarded theater company somewhere in America that's feeling the pinch. No names: I'll call her Ms. X for the sake of convenience, though "she" may or may not be a woman. In addition to running the company, Ms. X is a stage director of high seriousness, one whose work I've praised in the past. Yet her company is inching away from the kind of programming that led me to start reviewing its shows in the first place. I didn't ask why—we were talking about something else—but Ms. X volunteered an explanation, and though I wasn't taking notes, this is more or less what she said to me:

I""m in the ticket-selling business. If I don't sell tickets, we shut down. We used to do it by selling subscriptions. That gave us money up front, and it also made it easier for me to do serious work, because people were buying a five-show package, and they trusted me to give them a well-chosen, wide-ranging package each year. We'd do a comedy, a new play or two, a classical revival, maybe a couple of modern classics. August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, that kind of thing. Sometimes they didn't like all five. Maybe they never did. But they still went home feeling like they'd gotten a balanced diet, they'd done their duty to theater. And that used to matter to people. It really did. They thought that seeing good shows made you a better person.

"Then the subscription model fell apart, for a lot of reasons. Some subscribers got too busy, or too old, to commit in advance to five shows on specific dates. Some of them couldn't afford to buy all five in one pop anymore. And young people never have gotten in the habit of subscribing to anything. On demand, that's their motto. Anyway, it all added up to the same thing: We had to start selling individual shows instead of a package. When that happened, everything changed. Instead of trusting us to give them something good, people started playing it safe, and we had to play safe with them. We didn't have any choice. The last time I tried putting on a classical revival, our single-ticket sales dropped by nearly half. And we've had to start using name actors as often as we can. Doesn't matter what the show is: It's the star that sells, not the play.

"Look, I'm as serious as I ever was. And I don't waste money, either. I didn't pile up debt by building a big, fancy theater complex, which is what's gotten a whole lot of other regional companies in hot water. And I think we're still putting on good shows here—but more and more of them are middlebrow shows. Safe shows. And more than anything else, it's the collapse of the subscription model that's done it to us. It's as simple as that."

Is it? Or was the old-fashioned subscription model always a snare and a delusion, an easy-money honeypot that seduced growth-happy companies into losing sight of their artistic missions? While I'm sure that the answer varies from company to company, there seems little doubt that the model itself is going bust. According to the Theatre Communications Group, nationwide revenue from subscribers plunged 18% between 2007 and 2011.

What now? Modernize the subscription model? Or scrap it altogether and try something completely different? If I knew, I'd start a theater company. But I do know that if regional theater wants to save its soul, it'll have to find new ways to sell tickets. Otherwise, it's going to be "The Odd Couple" and "Clybourne Park" over and over again, forever.

—Mr. Teachout, the Journal's drama critic, writes "Sightings" every other Friday. He is the author of "Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong." Write to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Click to link to the article at the WSJ on-line

This week the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that Austin’s Creative Action will receive a $40,000 NEA Art Works grant to support the “Creative Action In the Classroom” project.

This innovative project will allow Creative Action (formerly Theatre Action Project), in partnership with MINDPOP, to deliver powerful arts experiences to 2,500 AISD students, but it will also allow it to provide targeted professional development to teachers that will help them incorporate arts-based strategies as part of their teaching.

“What makes this project so important,” says Karen LaShelle, executive director of Creative Action, “it allows us to model and then train teachers on the effective strategies we use every day to inspire, engage and educate youth. Teachers can keep using those strategies across the curriculum making the entire educational experience more fun, more interactive and ultimately as studies have shown, more successful.”

Launched with in-depth research last year, the project is a collaboration among Creative Action, MINDPOP, Austin Independent School District and City of Austin. Creative Action staff will train a total of 125 classroom teachers in arts-based teaching strategies to support district-identified gaps in arts education.

According to a report published last year by the NEA, "The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth," at-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement. The study reports these and other positive outcomes associated with high levels of arts exposure for youth of low socioeconomic status.

“Arts and social and emotional learning continue to be an important part of the curriculum in schools,” says LaShelle, “especially since we know that engaging youth creatively and supporting their personal growth is critical to student success.”

As Austin’s largest provider of after-school programming, arts enrichment, and character education programming in Central Texas, Creative Action serves more than 16,000 children and young people every year. The NEA grant marks a significant point of growth for Creative Action, which is already the largest arts-education organization in Central Texas. Last year, Creative Action won a $150,000 grant from Impact Austin for its “New Stages” youth ensemble and it was a finalist for the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, selected by the President’s Committee on the Arts.

Austin Live Theatre talks to leads Suzanne Balling and Scot Friedman about the upcoming

production of

The Happy Couple

by James Venhaus

May 8-25, 2013, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.

The White House Ranch, 3410 E. Pennsylvania Ave. (click for map)

To celebrate their anniversary, Michael and Mary Elizabeth visit the first home they ever lived in together. But the visit takes an unexpected turn when they discover a group of squatters living in the house. Last Act Theatre Company is proud to present this moving story about what happens when circumstances force people to face the reality of their situations. See what truths bubble to the surface when two different worlds collide!

Tickets available via BuyPlayTix

Stage Combat Class with Toby Minor

from the paper's Art beat page at www.mysanantonio.com:

Classic Theatre explores potential new homes

In the short time since they learned they’ll have to move, the folks at Classic Theatre have looked at potential new homes at the Woodlawn Theatre, the Josephine Theatre, Performing Arts San Antonio and Fox Tech High School.

The big take-away so far? “There’s a lot of unused space in San Antonio,” said Diane Malone, a co-founder of the company.

The company currently shares space with Jump-Start Performance Co. at the Blue Star Arts Complex. Jump-Start learned nearly two weeks ago that their lease on the building will not be renewed. The company was able to negotiate an extension that allows them to stay through January.

Classic closes its fifth season with the farce “Scapin,” slated to open May 10 at the Sterling Houston Theater at Jump-Start. The company has not yet decided whether they’ll begin their sixth season there and then move, or if they’ll do their entire season at a new space, Malone said.

Ideally, Classic’s new space will include room for an office, storage and rehearsal space.

“We’re asking for the moon,” Malone said.

A lot of other theaters have stepped up and offered to house the company, she said.

“A lot of people are talking about, it giving us suggestions: There’s a place here, a place there, museums and theaters and storefronts,” she said.

There is also a possibility that Jump-Start will go in together on a new space.

At this point, nothing is off the table: “We’re not eliminating any options,” Malone  said.

Austin Live Theatre talks to playwright James Venaus about the upcoming

production of

The Happy Couple

by James Venhaus

May 8-25, 2013, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.

The White House Ranch, 3410 E. Pennsylvania Ave. (click for map)

To celebrate their anniversary, Michael and Mary Elizabeth visit the first home they ever lived in together. But the visit takes an unexpected turn when they discover a group of squatters living in the house. Last Act Theatre Company is proud to present this moving story about what happens when circumstances force people to face the reality of their situations. See what truths bubble to the surface when two different worlds collide!

Tickets available via BuyPlayTix

Extra:  Derek Vandi's rehearsal Week 1 blog entry with photo, April 7

[Sam Bass Community Theatre, 600 Lee Street, Round Rock - click for map]

announces its 2013 - 2014 theatre season

The Red Velvet Cake Wars
by Jones, Hope & Wooten - directed by Lynn Beaver

In this riotously funny Southern-fried comedy, the three Verdeen cousins—Gaynelle, Peaches and Jimmie Wyvette—could not have picked a worse time to throw their family reunion. Their outrageous antics have delighted local gossips in the small town of Sweetgum (just down the road from Fayro) and the eyes of Texas are upon them, as their self-righteous Aunt LaMerle is quick to point out. Having “accidentally” crashed her minivan through the bedroom wall of her husband’s girlfriend’s doublewide, Gaynelle is one frazzled nerve away from a spectacular meltdown. Peaches, a saucy firebrand and the number one mortuarial cosmetologist in the tri-county area, is struggling to decide if it’s time to have her long-absent trucker husband declared dead. And Jimmie Wyvette, the rough-around-the-edges store manager of Whatley’s Western Wear, is resorting to extreme measures to outmaneuver a priss-pot neighbor for the affections of Sweetgum’s newest widower. But the cousins can’t back out of the reunion now. It’s on and Gaynelle’s hosting it; Peaches and Jimmie Wyvette have decided its success is the perfect way to prove Gaynelle’s sanity to a skeptical court-appointed psychologist. Unfortunately, they face an uphill battle as a parade of wildly eccentric Verdeens gathers on the hottest day of July, smack-dab in the middle of Texas tornado season. Things spin hilariously out of control when a neighbor’s pet devours everything edible, a one-eyed suitor shows up to declare his love and a jaw-dropping high-stakes wager is made on who bakes the best red velvet cake. As this fast-paced romp barrels toward its uproarious climax, you’ll wish your own family reunions were this much fun!

A Christmas Story
by Philip Grecian. Based on the motion picture "A Christmas Story." Directed by Laura Vohs.

Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa Claus himself, at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent response: "You'll shoot your eye out." All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here, including the family's temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys' experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's fantasy scenarios and more.

The Boys Next Door
by Tom Griffin, directed by Eric Nelson

The place is a communal residence in a New England city, where four mentally handicapped men live under the supervision of an earnest, but increasingly "burned out" young social worker named Jack. Norman, who works in a doughnut shop and is unable to resist the lure of the sweet pastries, takes great pride in the huge bundle of keys that dangles from his waist; Lucien P. Smith has the mind of a five-year-old but imagines that he is able to read and comprehend the weighty books he lugs about; Arnold, the ringleader of the group, is a hyperactive, compulsive chatterer, who suffers from deep-seated insecurities and a persecution complex; while Barry, a brilliant schizophrenic who is devastated by the unfeeling rejection of his brutal father, fantasizes that he is a golf pro. Mingled with scenes from the daily lives of these four, where "little things" sometimes become momentous (and often very funny), are moments of great poignancy when, with touching effectiveness, we are reminded that the handicapped, like the rest of us, want only to love and laugh and find some meaning and purpose in the brief time that they, like their more fortunate brothers, are allotted on this earth.


The Chalk Garden
by Enid Bagnold, directed by Frank Benge

A story about the need to bring love - real love - to children. Miss Madrigal is a newly hired nanny/companion at the home of Mrs. St. Maugham, a wealthy and slightly eccentric old woman who has been at war with her daughter Olivia for some time. Olivia has a daughter Laurel who has emotional problems, and whom Mrs. St. Maugham has legally taken away from Olivia. The old lady pretends that only she can give the love and care to the girl that her own daughter fails to give, but in reality she allows Laurel to have full freedom. As Laurel is an arsonist and liar this is not the best policy. The household is completed by the wryly humorous butler Maitland. He sees the blundering by his employer, and he would like to tell a few things to Laurel, but he restrains himself because of his status as an employee. Madrigal, of course, having just arrived is more willing to openly confront Laurel. She does so in an effort to understand her. Laurel appreciates having a new person to toy with, and opens up to an extent (revealing a love of old murder cases), but she is trying to find out the secret that Madrigal is holding back on - which she assumes can prove quite wounding if exposed, and she would love to expose it. At points the secret comes near to the surface, but it keeps getting closed as quickly as it seems to appear. In the meantime Madrigal tries to get her employer see the need for Laurel to have her mother back into her life.

Refried Flimflammery
An evening of selected short plays from the playwrights of Loaded Gun Theory's "Slapdash Flimflammery"

Once again, we offer an evening of the most popular of the short plays from the minds of Loaded Gun Theory! These were all done one night only... until NOW!! A riotous evening of adult laughs!!


Jungalbook
Adapted by Edward Mast. Based on the Mowgli stories of Rudyard Kipling. Directed by Nelly Ruiz de Chavez.

Our Youth Guild summer show! This dramatization places the jungle of India on a children's playground. The dialogue and action refer to the jungle, but the play draws color and style from a child's intense world of playfulness, loyalty, adventure and betrayal. Mowgli, the human child, grows up in the jungle, raised by wolves under the guidance of Baloo the bear. The tiger, Sherakhan, killed his parents and wants the boy's flesh, but Bagheera, the lone panther, protects him. Mowgli grows up wild and unconcerned, believing he's a wolf; but the tiger works long and hard to poison the wolf pack against him. With rope stolen from the human village, Mowgli meets and destroys Sherakhan; but his use of "manthing" has broken jungle law. Mowgli must choose whether to defy the law or leave the jungle forever.