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This week Austin Shakespeare opens The Tempest at the Rollins Theatre, Long Center.
Theatre is a collaborative art, coordinated in the best stagings by a precise schedule, time consuming preparation, and an accelerating rhythm as performance day comes near. The actors will fix our attention but the piece depends also upon decisions and actions of those we never see. For The Tempest the company and artistic director Ann Ciccolella are supported -- some might even say carried -- by the work of the stage manager, the dramaturg, designers, dressers, props handlers and stage hands.
A theatre buff finds it fascinating to watch those contributions coming together in final rehearsals. Last Friday after an escorted trip through the labyrinthine basement of the Long Center, ALT got to sit in the Rollins Theatre for the first melding of those arts. Lighting designer Jason Amato worked his light plot and plan through a full rehearsal.
The cast hardly missed a syllable, even as colors changed, pools of light materialized and then disappeared, and sometimes the action went forward in a penumbra. Shakespeare's intelligence and wit were embodied by the cast, many of them dressed as yet in temporary costume; Prospero's magic isle was defined by a simple wide circle with provisional backdrops. Much of the music was ready, either recorded or played live, but projected video effects for the fairy isle would not be included until the weekend.
ACU alumni trio Nathan Jerkins, Sean Martin and Ryan Crowder have made a big splash in the Austin arts scene this year. As the Penfold Theatre Company, they've sold out shows, piqued the interest of the rapidly growing Austin suburb of Round Rock and swept the Austin Critics Circle Awards. This year they received awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and their show, Jon and Jen, captured the award for Best Musical.
In every title that we choose, in every choice that we make, we're trying to connect to an audience and not just put on a play. Yes, we have quality standards, but it's about telling stories that inspire and impact people. - Sean Martin
The timing of Penfold Theatre could not have been better. The year before they began this company, an arts council was formed and a professional symphony came to the Round Rock area. So by the time they got there, a foundation for the arts had already been created. Perfect timing
"It was great because there's already a stream going that way, and we've stepped into that stream," said Sean. "Round Rock is really well positioned, because it's a city in its own right, but it's also at the intersection of several other growing suburbs." The population of Round Rock combined with surrounding suburbs is nearing 400,000 people.
The city council of Round Rock came to see Penfold's second show, The Last Five Years. "Then they called us up, took us to lunch and basically sat us down and said, 'What can we do to make you in our town?' " said Ryan.
Lynne Nottage's Ruined and Will Eno's Middletown Named First Recipients of Horton Foote Prizes
By Andrew Gans 30 Aug 2010
Winners of the newly established Horton Foote Prizes, named in honor of the late legendary writer, were announced Aug. 30.
Presented biennially "to award excellence in American Theater," the first winners include Lynne Nottage's Ruined for Outstanding New American Play and Will Eno's Middletown for Promising New American Play.
Nottage and Eno will be honored at a private reception Sept. 20 at The Players in New York City. Each playwright will be presented with $15,000 and a limited edition of Keith Carter's photograph of Horton Foote.
As contenders for Outstanding New American Play and Promising New American Play, Nottage and Eno were nominated by Manhattan Theatre Club and Vineyard Theatre, respectively.
The Greater Austin Creative Alliance (GACA) has established a website for the B. Iden Payne Awards, the competitive nominating and selection process for stage productions for the September - August annual season. Members of the Creative Alliance vote in September on a nomination list established by the committee, and results are celebrated in October.
Committee members are volunteers, GACA members from various branches of the arts. The Committee invites applications for vacancies that may occur at the opening of the stage season. Click on the image to go to the new website for further information.
A note: for their production of The Fantasticks, UT alumni Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones reportedly were thinking of B. Iden Payne with their affectionate portrayal of Henry the old stage actor, an itinerant comic figure valiantly stiff in the joints and occasionally bewildered in his Shakespearian memories. UT celebrates the 50th anniversary of the play's first Off Broadway staging in October of this year.
This is a time lapse done with a Canon G9. It shows me photographing incredible actor, Espy Randolph, for Zachary Scott Theater's 2010 Season Brochure.
We did all of the images that year with tungsten lights and a Nikon D700 camera.
A note: for their production of The Fantasticks, UT alumni Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones reportedly were thinking of B. Iden Payne with their affectionate portrayal of Henry the old stage actor, an itinerant comic figure valiantly stiff in the joints and occasionally bewildered in his Shakespearian memories. UT celebrates the 50th anniversary of the play's first Off Broadway staging in October of this year.
