Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > May > 28
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Red Then Party for ‘Henry V’ at Faires-Chisholm home
Robert Faires thought up his one-man “Henry V” 18 years ago while working at La Jolla Playhouse.
James Armstrong, Eugene Sepulveda, Larry Connelly
He trimmed the script. Storyboarded the scenes. Discovered how much of Shakespeare’s play involved addressing an audience (straightforward, as in the Chorus; imaginary, as in Henry motivating the army).
Joan Lava, Robert Faires, Linda Ball
Faires didn’t get around to producing it during all that time. Yet, for his 50th birthday, his teenage daughter, Rosalind, convinced her mother, actress and theater leader Barbara Chisholm, to produce his “Henry” through her Red Then company. (His day job is at the Austin Chronicle; hers at Zach Theatre.) They mocked up a program and were off to the races.
Vicki McCullough, Richard Hartgrove, Emma J. Virjan
Wednesday, Chisholm invited guests to their Bouldin-area house for a tiny fundraiser. Everybody in the room was somebody in the arts world. Some were heavy hitters. They play opens in July at the Off Center. They listened to songs from Meredith McCall and Jason Connor, a short pitch, then a very short scene from the play.
Steven Tomlinson, Gary Cooper
Why the name Red Then for Chisholm’s production company? Love the answer: At La Jolla, a costume designer approached the female star of an epic production of “Elmer Gantry” to ask which color robe she wanted to wear during the climactic religious revival scene. “Red or white?” The actress asked what everyone else was wearing. Costumer: “White.” Star: “Red then.”
Now, that’s a theater story, no?
Kidder Turk Pipkin at the end of the evening: “I always wanted to do a one-man ‘Battleship Potemkin.’”
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Dean Lofton at Matt’s El Rancho
If you are at all connected digitally — e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. — you know Dean Lofton.
She linked up with me at Matt’s El Rancho, however, to discuss IBuyAustin.com, the nonprofit that spreads the word about local businesses and business districts. She knew in advance I didn’t need conversion.
After all, I live two blocks from South Congress Avenue. There’s only one national chain there: American Apparel, and I can’t fit into their skinny clothes.
Lofton’s from South Carolina. She’s spent time in California and Colorado, too, but she seems more closely suited to Austin, which she calls “peachy.” (Her only linguistic concession to the Deep South.)
She had met — or rather re-met — Jeff after many years and other other relationships because they had played in the same school horn section at one time. Now, Dean is helping to raise Jeff’s child; all three are thriving in Austin.
It’s largely thanks to Jeff’s professionalism and Dean’s grassroots marketing skills that jazz has bumped up its Austin profile in the last year. Catch him at the Driskill Hotel, Elephant Room and elsewhere soon.
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The Other Arts Critics 2
For Part 1 on the other writers and editors on the dais for the Austin Critics Table Awards, see post below.
David Mead: “I would survive just fine without the arts in general, and music in particular, but life would be pretty dull. I would give Faires and Barnes stiff competition in any martini-mixing contest.”
Claire Ruud: Been reading “Mean Little Deaf Queer” by Terry Galloway and working on a needlepoint inspired by an 18th-century American sampler by Mary Eaton.
Joey Seiler: “My day gig as a tech blogger has made me an expert in kids’ virtual worlds, but moonlighting as an Austin critic is my personal career highlight. After almost four years of writing about Austin theater, I’ll be leaving next week to motorcycle around the country and attend New York University Law School.
Jonelle Seitz: If you’re in the theater right now and I’m not, I’m jealous of you. At a dance performance, I’m usually the one in the back of the house taking things way too seriously. I think bloopers in the theater are the best comedy. If scenery falls over or you get tangled up in a curtain (and you’re not injured), I’m going to laugh. Nothing personal.
Avimaan Syam: I have a day job as a software developer. I love food but strongly dislike grapefruit and olives. I have many dreams but have seen scant few of them fulfilled. I blame people other than myself for this.
Kate Watson: Recently, I’ve been working on a video about giving my youth to Texas and reading “Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci.”
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The Other Arts Critics 1
How well do you know your Austin arts critics?
The faces at the dais include familiar newspaper types: arts editor Robert Faires, arts writer Jeanne Claire van Ryzin and a social columnist (me). What about the others? What do readers not know about the less-well-known voters?
Elizabeth Cobbe: “In college, I set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles that lasted for two weeks. If you don’t know what “k2tog, YO” means, you’re missing out. I will be busy honeymooning in Canada instead of presenting at the awards ceremony.”
Claire Croft: Before moving to Austin to work towards my doctorate, I wrote about dance for The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. The first time I met the artistic director of the Washington Ballet, he looked very surprised and said, “Based on your writing, I thought you were 50 years old.” I used to perform, and among the many roles I’ve had, dancing the Rat King in the Nutcracker remains one of my favorites.
Erin Keever: “I teach art history at Austin Community College. I live in West Austin with a border collie mix and a big orange cat. My latest weakness is watching (too many) BBC miniseries”
More to come …
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