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Review: Austin Sympony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Shouts of ‘bravo’ and a rousing standing ovation topped off Austin Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 Friday night at the Long Center, the first of two sold-out concerts the orchestra performs this weekend.
True, orchestra music director Peter Bay and the orchestra may have made their official Long Center debut in April. But Friday’s concert had the festive feel of a true premiere.
Generally good traffic and parking flow and orderly box procedures lay a calm foundation for the evening. And the seasonably cool spring night drew concert-goers to the Long Center’s stunning City Terrace before the show began where they enjoyed the sweeping views of downtown and almost seemed reluctant to go inside.
But once inside, the audience was amply rewarded.
Over the course of two seasons, Bay has presented all of Beethoven’s symphonies in order with an aim to end with the Ninth in the new Long Center. Friday, Bay started the evening with a pleasant playing of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony — a short, melodic happy symphony that’s almost uncharacteristic when compared to others by the dramatic German composer.
The drama was delivered after intermission when Bay and company attacked the Ninth.
Much is required of an orchestra and chorus to shape Beethoven’s intense last symphony. And it started with the verve and emotional, with Bay clearly extracting rich color from the orchestra — a considerable effort given the stormy first movement and the even more spectacularly brisk, forceful and energetic second movement.
Bay and the musicians are still clearly experimenting with the subtle of acoustics of the Long Center’s Dell Hall. At their disposal is a range of quiet modes, vastly different than the full-out volume that was required to fill the orchestra’s long-time home, the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall. Now, delicacy is a new instrument for ASO to master. Beethoven’s sweeping Ninth Symphony proved a test. There’s still some tweaking that’s needed, evidenced in the third movement where the direction of the orchestra sounded unresolved in its focus. The Dell is ultimately a quiet sounding hall that’s unforgiving of any musical indecisiveness.
But the orchestra pulled it together for the final movement, when a 175-member choir, under the direction of Kenny Sheppard, assembled to sing what’s become commonly known as ‘Ode to Joy’ chorus.
And that’s where the energy and drama counted most, when the emotional build-up of the nearly hour-long symphony finally, and joyously, is released in a shower of rousing glory.
Bay is to be commended for his two-year Beethoven journey and the smart timing to end it in the new Long Center. He’s clearly up for the challenge of the new hall — and full of ideas and energy to meet that challenge
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When something wonderful comes to the stage
The inimitable Barbara Chisholm takes the stage tonight in “When Something Wonderful Ends,” the new one-woman play by Sherry Kramer.
Directed by Katie Pearl, “When Something Wonderful Ends” is Kramer’s semi-autobiographical story based on packing up her parents’ house in Missouri and discovering her near mint condition Barbie doll she got as a 12-year-old in 1964. Riffing on her reform Jewish family in a fundamental Baptist community, Kramer charts a winding tale that routes from her feelings about losing her mother to the United States dependence on foreign oil to Middle Eastern politics to religious fervor.
Chisholm — an award-winning actress and wife of Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Fairess — has the sparkle, moxie and wisdom to bring a whole lot of vibrancy to the one-woman, one Barbie show.
“When Something Wonderful End” was first performed at the 2007 Humana New Play Festival. Kramer, who plays have been produced extensively in the U.S. and abroad, and include “Things That Break,” “David’s Redhaired Death” and “The Wall of Water” has taught at UT’s Michener Center for Writers.
“When Something Wonderful Ends” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays through June 1. The Off Center is at 2211-A Hidaldo Street. Tickets are $15-$25.
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Austin Symphony Orchestra sells out Beethoven concerts
If you were still hoping to nab a ticket for Austin Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony, you’re out of luck.
Officials at ASO reported that both the Friday and Saturday night concerts at the Long Center have completely sold out as of Tuesday afternoon. The concert is the last of ASO’s season and marks the end of a two-year journey ASO music director Peter Bay has embarked on, presenting all of Beethoven’s symphonies in order as the orchestra transitioned from its longtime home at UT’s Bass Concert Hall to the new Long Center.
Read more about Bay and his Beethoven journey here.
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Tix on sale Sunday for Broadway shows at the Long Center
Tickets go on sale this Sunday, May 18, for the three Broadway shows headed to the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The Long Center box office will open at 10 a.m. Sunday. The Long Center is at 701 W. Riverside Drive.
Tickets will also be available online at www.thelongcenter.org and by calling 474-5664.
The five-time Tony Award-winning “The Drowsy Chaperone” will play August 19-24. Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri will kick off his U.S. tour of “A Bronx Tale” in Austin Sept. 2-7. And direct from Broadway, the internationally acclaimed “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” will play Nov. 25-30.
“We are thrilled to present Broadway to Austin. While the Long Center is worth a visit in and of itself, we are excited to say that these dynamic shows are just the beginning of the wonderful and diverse lineup the Long Center will bring to the Austin community,” states Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center.
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Robert Rauschenberg dies
Texas art titan Robert Rauschenberg, 82, died Monday, numerous news services have reported today.
Born in 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas, in, Rauschenberg arguably shaped the course of art in the twentieth century, jolting the traditional notion that an artist stick to using one medium. The prolific artist produced a sprawling body of work that included painting, sculpture, printmaking — and many works that defied simple categorization in any media.
At the University of Texas, both the Blanton Museum of Art and the Harry Ransom Center have Rauschenberg works in their permanent collection. The Austin Museum of Art also has work by Rauschenberg in its collection.
Robert Rauschenberg, “Treaty,” 1974. Three-color lithograph. Blanton Museum of Art.
The Blanton has numerous Rauschenberg prints and other work on paper. On current exhibit is the “Autobiography,” a triptych print.
“Rauschenberg was an irrepressible innovator and superb collaborator who generated art through virtually every action taken during his long life,” said Blanton curator Annette DiMeo Carlozzi. “He was constantly inventing on every front he could visualize.”
Austin-based internationally-recognized modern dance pioneer Deobrah Hay was a close of friend of Rauschenberg’s. The two collaborated on multi-media performance works when both lived in New York in the 1960s. That collaborative work now constitutes an important chapter in twentieth-century art history. “Bob once told me early in my career ‘never wait for anything,’” Hay recalled. “He was fearless. And that was hugely influential for me.”
Robert Rauschenberg, detail from “Autobiography,” 1968. Currently on view at the Blanton.
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Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Don Quixote’
In an impromptu fashion, the dancing started outside the Long Center Friday night before Ballet Austin made its debut on the stage of the new $77 million civic venue. A handful of little girls danced playfully and on the large, flat circular lighting feature set in the lawn at the top point of the Long Center’s City Terrace.
And, perhaps in deference to the parking problems that have plagued the Long Center on some occasions, one couple was seen arriving in the relaxed comfort of a pedicab. Inside, a nearly full house packed Dell Hall with anxious anticipation, there to drink in the spectacle of “Don Quixote,” the sweeping classical story ballet that Ballet Austin chose for their inaugural performance in their new performance home, though their last show of this season.
Indeed, a ballet spectacle doesn’t get more spectacular than this “Don Quixote,” a hybrid of choreography combining the original 19th-century Russian ballet by Marius Petipa and subsequent American versions. To wit: When Don Quixote (Greg Easley) and his sidekick, Sancho Panza (Kevin Hockenberry), paraded onto the stage in the first act, they rode a live horse and donkey, respectively. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the Long Center’s first instance of live onstage animals drew audible gasps of surprise from the audience.
This “Don Quixote” is a demanding three-act, two-and-a-half hour ballet of one virtuosic pas de deux after another by the story’s young lovers Kitri (Michelle Thompson) and Basilio (Frank Shott) intermixed with equally showy solos and small ensemble dances.
Ballet Austin’s true strength is perhaps as a contemporary ballet company with expressive, theatrically nuanced dancers. And true to that, the company succeeded in extracting the comedic elements of “Don Quixote” with utter charm, playfully incorporating a little slapstick and mime in a light manner.
However, with the exception of Thompson’s commanding and sparkling performance — do we have a new leading ballerina of the company? — the technical flourishes demanded by the rigorous choreography wasn’t consistently there throughout the company.
This “Don Quixote” might have been a stage spectacle aimed at filling Dell Hall with splash and glamour. It did in terms of its scale, but not its finesse.
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Review: ‘The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese’
“The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World,” written and performed by Heather Woodbury with direction from Abigail Deser, is in its last weekend of its Texas premiere at the Vortex. That it hasn’t been performed frequently before is evident in some of the rough patches throughout the show, but equally so in Woodbury’s more than compensatory energy.
In spite of the title, “The Last Days” mostly recounts the early days of Desmond Nani Reese. Along the way of the storytelling, the sometime stripper, prostitute and mermaid for Salvador Dali offers up her views and lessons to go along with her history. The beneficiary of the knowledge is Amber, a beleaguered Harvard doctoral candidate researching “loose women” for the specialized field of “ethno-feminist-dance anthropology.”
The awkward juxtaposition between the ivory tower’s take on sexuality and the streets is prevalent, with plenty of — maybe a few too many — jabs at academia. What I find more satisfying, though, is the way Woodbury drifts between the elderly woman and her younger self. The former is an eccentric caricature, though one with occasional bursts of melancholy and introspection. The latter is, simply, poetic.
Woodbury occasionally lingers too long for pacing’s sake in Nani’s near monologue. When she jumps between her stable of characters, otherwise often and ably, the difference is intriguing, comic, and touching.
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Broadway shows returning to UT’s Bass Concert Hall
Broadway shows will once again tour through the Bass Concert Hall, when the University of Texas performing arts venue re-opens in 2009. Closed since May 2007, the Bass is undergoing a $14.7 million renovation.
Touring producers Broadway Across America announced today that the company plans six shows. “Legally Blonde: The Musical” plays Feb. 3-8, 2009 followed by “Monty Python’s Spamalot” *(March 10-15) and *“Avenue Q” (April 5-19).
Kelli Sawyer (Lucy The Slut) in the National Tour of “Avenue Q.”
Late spring will see “Rent” (May 12-17) with stars of the original Broadway production Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp.
Anthony Rapp (left) and Adam Pascal in “Rent.”
“Mamma MIa,” the popular musical based on the songs of ABBA plays June 23-28. Wicked wraps up the season Aug. 12-30, 2009.
Carmen Cusak as Elphaba in “Wicked.”
Subscriptions to the Broadway Across America season are available by phone (800) 731-7469 or www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com. Tickets to individual shows will go on sale about 8 weeks prior to the show’s opening.
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Heather Woodbury’s ‘The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese’
Obie Award-winning performer and recipient of the first-ever Spalding Gray Award, Los Angeles-based performer Heather Woodbury returns to Austin and the Vortex Theater to present the Texas premiere of her new solo show, “The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World.”
Back in the 1990s, Woodbury gained audience praise in Austin when she presented her epic one-woman 100-character show “What Ever: An American Odyssey in 8 Acts. ”
“The Last Days” finds a feminist graduate student, Amber, in a futuristic dystopian Los Angeles busily researching a 10,000-page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” The main source of this history? A legendary 108-year-old stripper named Desmond “Nani” Reese. From Reese’s mouth spin a century of tales about outlaw women.
Woodbury’s compelling performance style has been heralded by critics as “mesmerizing,” her gift being “her singularly flamboyant way of telling (a story).”
“The Last Days” plays 8 p.m. today through May 11 and 8 p.m. May 14-18. See the Vortex Web site for ticket information.
Heather Woodbury
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Austin Shakespeare names new managing director
Signaling its further organizational growth, Austin Shakespeare today announced that Alex Alford has been appointed as the first managing director in the company’s 23-year history.
Ann Ciccolella, Austin Shakespeare artistic director praised Alford’s experience as a long-time Austin arts administrator.
“Not only is Alex an extraordinarily talented arts administrator, he brings with him financial skills of the COO/CFO variety. His arrival is expected to take the organization from a place of reintroducing itself in the community to one of growth,” says Ciccolella. “He is a beloved insider in the Austin Arts scene. I know that Alex will now spread his wings by returning to his first love — the theater.”
Austin Shakespeare is currently presenting free performances “Much Ado About Nothing” in Zilker Park.
In 1994, Alford assumed the position of Director of Administration for Austin Lyric Opera, a position he held until 1999, when he became the Executive Assistant to the General Director. In 2004 he became Director of Board and Volunteers, serving as the primary liaison to the Board of Trustees and administrating volunteer and outreach programs, including: The Austin Lyric Opera Guild, Triangle on Stage (outreach program for Gay & Lesbian audiences) and La Noche de Opera (outreach program for Hispanic audiences).
A native of Liberty, Texas, Alford is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in History, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Alford has worked at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Research Center, Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts, University of Texas Performing Arts Center and Zachary Scott Theatre Center. A dedicated Longhorn football fan, he has served on the board of directors for Austin Circle of Theaters as President and Rude Mechanicals, where he served as Treasurer.
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2007-08 Austin Critics’ Table Awards nominees
Ballet Austin’s “Cult of Color: Call to Color,” Austin Museum of Art’s triennial exhibit “New Art in Austin” and Zach Scott Theatre’s production of “Porgy and Bess” are just three of many events in the past year to be nominated for an award by the Austin Critics’ Table.
Other nominees announced today include composer Graham Reynolds, who was nominated for two original compositions, “Cult of Color: Call to Color” and “The Odyssey,” a choral work commissioned by the Austin Children’s Choir; dancers David Justin, Andee Scott and Laura Cannon; actors Marc PouhĂ©, Lee Eddy and Katherine Catmull; and visual artists Yoon Cho, Ali Fitzgerald and Jonathan Marshall. Costume designer Susan Branch, sound designer Buzz Moran and lighting designer Tony Tucci are also among this year’s nominees.
For a complete list of the Austin Critics’ Table 2007-2008 nominees, go to www.austin360.com/criticstable.
The informal group of arts critics from the American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle acknowledges achievement in the arts with its annual awards. Awards are given in various categories for theater, dance, visual art and classical music.
This year’s awards ceremony will be at 7 p.m. June 2 at the Cap City Comedy Club, 8120 Research Blvd. Admission is free, and no reservations are required.
(Pictured: Anthony Casati and Allyson Paino in Ballet Austin’s “Cult of Color: Call to Color.”)
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Austin Critics’ Table Awards nominations to be announced Thursday
Nominations for the 2007-2008 Austin Critics Table Awards will be announced here on Thursday.
Check back here to see who and what have been noted for the achievement in the arts over the past year.
The Austin Critics Table Awards will be presented Monday, June 2, at Capital City Comedy Club, 8120 Research Blvd. The informal ceremony starts at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Also honored at the ceremony will be this year’s inductees to the Austin Arts Hall of Fame. The honorees are:
Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long, for arts patronage of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and in particular the Long Center for the Performing Arts, named in their honor after they donated $22 million to the recently completed $77 million center.
Architect Stan Haas of Nelsen Partners Architects, for his design of the Long Center.
Craig Hella Johnson, director and founder of the Grammy-nominated choral group, Conspirare
Tina Marsh, innovative jazz vocalist and founder of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra
Capital City Comedy Club owner Margie Coyle
Arts patron Don Howell
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Irresistible: Artist’s talk by Ali Fitzgerald
Austin artist Ali Fitzgerald has created in irresistible micro-opera with “Swan School: The Matriculation,” her current solo exhibit at Art Palace.
With an expressive line, Fitzgerald crafts a sprawling open-ended narrative from drawing-based sculptural elements. In “Swan School” Fitzgerald presents a dystopia where adolescent impulsive judgments rule and with that, a certain wanton violence. Yet the improbable ‘Through the Looking Glass’ architectural elements of Fitzgerald’s installation ring with an ornate girliness — a nightmare diorama decorated with swirly decadent details in white and gold. Somewhere in “Swan School” is the story of a little girl lost and left at a gothic boarding school. Everywhere in “Swan School” is Fitzgerald’s talent for constructing rich, operatic tableaux that — refreshingly in this age of self-consumed conceptual projects — spin fantasical fictions.
Fitzgerald will give a talk Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. Art Palace, 2109 E. Cesar Chavez St. Admission is free and Fitzgerald invites questions after her talk. The gallery opens at 7 p.m.
Don’t miss it.
You can catch a preview of the exhibit here
Photo by Carling Hale.
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Fusebox review: Scott Heron and Hijack
Scott Heron and dance duo Hijack have a paradoxical ability to seem both more and less than human. The New Orleans-based solo performer and Minneapolis-based dancers were a sensitive and hilarious inclusion in the Fusebox Festival, performing Saturday afternoon at Salvage Vanguard Theatre.
The concert began as Heron, wearing a dress, crooned “Desperado” while playing a synthesizer. Kristin Van Loon darted about the theater, occasionally stopping to stroke her blue vinyl belt. Heron eventually joined her, the two embarking on a chase circling around a small log. Finally they sit and pose, ready for either a family portrait or glamour shot.
Things only got funnier when Van Loon and the other half of Hijack, Arwen Wilder, scuttled onto stage wrapped in fleece blankets held up by a series of belts for “Guerrilla Gay Bar”. Van Loon and Wilder proceed through jerky isolations, moving like robots, except for soft, caressing hand gestures. The music skips through portions of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet,” sampling, according to program notes, “only the positive lyrics.”
Hijack and Heron come together for “Stacked Double Cow,” which has the most pedestrian feel of the collaboration’s repertory. As the group moves through lots of walking phrases and climbs all over each other, they seem the contemporary heir apparent to the Judson Theater movement, the 1970s dancers and choreographers who questioned what constitutes dance, including more movement from the sidewalk than the stage in work. Whatever Hijack and Heron might be classified as, their work is funny, compelling and queer. As I watch, I don’t care that I’m never quite sure what’s going on.
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Fusebox review: Field Guide: Dance in the US pt. 2
He sat there like a satyr in repose. One man, wearing only nude briefs and an incredibly lifelike deer head, sat in a rocking chair. The slow sway of the chair was only interrupted by an occasional hand reaching up to scratch the deer head’s neck.
Portland-based dance theater group Teeth, who closed Fusebox Festival’s “Field Guide: Dance in the US pt. 2” at Salvage Vanguard Theatre on Thursday with the piece “Rash,” is funny, and oh so strange.
In stark juxtaposition to the man/deer’s calm, Angelle Hebert seemed near the brink, as she used her fingers to pry open her mouth. Her screams and facial contortions, accompanied by an electronic smash-up of sounds, only ended when she placed her head on the man/deer’s lap. She found a humorous sort of peace there. Me too.
Other works on the program expanded the category of dance beyond the usual Austin fare. In “Falling Up,” Heather Maloney and John Beauregard questioned what constitutes limitation and possibility onstage. Beauregard, who uses a wheelchair, used a rope tied across the stage a foot above the ground to pull himself along on his back, while Maloney bent and twisted herself over the rope.
Sarah Gamblin and Jordan Fuchs’ duet “Not in But Here” had a rich, full quality, largely due to Gamblin’s ability to carve through air with every available inch of her body. Even her fingertips are part of the dance.
The program also included the comedic, pleasantly smooth Austin-based Elsewhere Dance Theatre in “Playing Nice.”
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Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’
In “Much Ado About Nothing,” new management and new direction grace the old Zilker Park stage for Ann Ciccolella’s *first turn at *Austin Shakespeare nĂ©e Festival’s free summer performance. It’s a first step in the right direction, to be sure, but there are still plenty more to take.
Most important are pacing and attention to language. The first third of the play lags due to line problems, an unwillingness to trust in Shakespeare’s words and frequently lugubrious delivery. For example, the men’s deception of Benedick is one of Shakespeare’s finest comic moments. With built-in gags for four lovable characters, the Bard mines bit of comic gold and puts it in the hands of the actors. Unfortunately, it gets slowed down and tripped up for a fumble here.
The next scene, essentially the same joke for the play’s women, almost always suffers for its repetition. Here, though, it shines. Beth Burns is incredibly winning as the often under-served serving woman Ursula, warming up to the prank slowly and then exuding glee.
What follows — from a steady stream of smart, touching moments between Matt Radford as Benedick and Babs George as Beatrice to a Three Stooges police force led by improviser Les McGehee — goes a long way to make up for the unsteady introduction.
Here’s hoping the production’s transition is emblematic of Austin Shakespeare’s.
(“Much Ado About Nothing” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through May 25 and 2 p.m. on May 11 at Zilker Park’s Sheffield Hillside Theater. Free. www.AustinShakespeare.org.
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City announces new Long Center parking plan
Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza released a memo Friday detailing a new parking and traffic plan for the Long Center, Palmer Events Center and Auditorium Shores.
Memo on Long Center Parking Meeting (pdf)
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Update: Arts on Real loses lease
Arts on Real Theater has lost its lease on the East Austin property it has called home for the past five years.
The venue, at 2826 Real Street, is the permanent home of theater director Blake Yelavich’s Naughty Austin Productions, the primary presenter of shows at the theater.
Gary I. Currier, an attorney with Vack, Kiecke and Currier who is representing the property’s owner, LWR Family Partnership, LP, said Friday that the nonprofit theater organization’s lease was terminated effective May 1 and that his client has taken reposition of the property. Currier said he has been negotiating a renewal of the lease contingent on payment of back rent but that the theater had not made the payment by Thursday. Currier declined to disclose the amount of back rent the owner said was due.
Earlier this week, Yelavich and Arts on Real supporters had sent out a plea for money when a new lease was not offered on the former warehouse.
Catherine Tabor , an attorney with Tabor Law Firm, PC who said she was providing pro bono legal services to Arts on Real, said donors had pledged $15,000 by Wednesday in effort to secure a new lease. Tabor said she had “a small hope” that the property owner would still be open to negotiating new lease terms once the pledges had been collected.
Tabor said that Yelavich had added approximately $30,000 of improvements to the property over the five years he has occupied it.
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Austin Children’s Choir changes leadership
Austin Children’s Choir announced Thursday that Kathleen K. Turner, who has been the artistic director of the 150-voice choir since 2003, is moving on to other endeavors and is welcoming a new artistic director, Adam Roberts.
A press release from the organization reads:
Turner and the Austin Children’s Choir board of directors this week selected Roberts from a short list of over two dozen applications for the position. Roberts has served as the artistic director, musical director or choreographer for over 60 musicals. His accompanying and choreography credits include two European concert tours with the Sound of America Honor Chorus.
Says Turner, “My tenure as artistic director has been wonderful, exciting, invigorating, creative and life-changing. My calling as a professional musician has always been one to bring an organization in need to healthy standing. I made the decision to pass the torch as artistic director in January of this year. My decision was made in a positive place, knowing the Austin Children’s Choir has a future that is bright, stable and ready to move forward.”
Roberts holds a Master’s degree in Music and a College Teaching Certificate from Florida State University. He received undergraduate degrees from Youngstown and Kent State universities. A member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, the National Registry of Dance Educators and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, he received formal training in grant writing from the Grantsmanship Center of Los Angeles. Turner calls Roberts “a person of great integrity and spirit” who possesses what she believes are essential attributes to do the job well: “multifaceted musician, a person born to teach, and a person with an innate creative spirit.
Turner has led the Austin Children’s Choir to greater notoriety and connectedness in recent seasons with concerts such as Water Under Snow is Weary (part of the citywide Shostakovich 100 celebration); a collaboration with the George Washington Carver Museum, Austin History Center, and University of Texas Department of History titled “The Passage of the Underground Railroad,” and a critically acclaimed world premiere of “The Odyssey” from Graham Reynolds and librettist Beverly Bardsley (commissioned from board member Sara Jarvis Jones). She plans to explore other creative opportunities after this weekend’s concerts.
The announcement about Kathleen Turner’s resignation comes the day before the 2007-08 season finale performance by the Choir, “Around the World in 80 Days,” a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning children’s artists Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel to present an international musical excursion. The concert will be presented Saturday in Austin and Sunday in San Marcos, both with San Marcos-based Hill Country Youth Chorus.
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Update: Arts on Real offered new lease
Arts on Real has been offered a new lease for the property at 2826 Real St., the East Austin property it has called home for the past five years.
Cathy Tabor, attorney with Tabor Law Firm, who is providing pro bono legal services to the theater, said that she is “cautiously optimistic” that by the end of Wednesday the theater would be able to sign a 12-month lease on the former warehouse that Arts on Real founder Blake Yelavich converted into a theater.
Yesterday, the theater reported that its occupancy was threatened when the LWR Family Partnership, the owner of the property, said they would not offer the theater group a new lease. An attorney for LWR Partnership said in a statement Tuesday that a continuation of the lease was not offered because of arrears in rent payments.
Tabor said that she received a new one-year lease agreement this morning.
She said that $6,000 was needed by the theater by the end of the day to pay outstanding debt LWR Family Partnership says it is owed. She said that although an exact accounting of what LWR Family Partnership is owed has still not been provided, the theater was willing to make the additional $6,000 payment in order to secure a new lease. “Part of the confusion seems to be not fully understanding the (monthly payment) calculations and the fact that the property taxes and the insurance have fluctuated,” she said. The initial lease required the tenant to cover property taxes in addition to a monthly rent payment.
“We have donors that have come forward and are willing to keep the theater open,” said Tabor. “We just need to bring in those donor pledges.”
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Fusebox review: ‘Terrible Things’
Hundreds of marshmallows spread across a stage make compelling theater. Austin favorites director/performer Katie Pearl and playwright Lisa d’Amour bank on the beauty of marshmallows in the works-in-progress showing of “Terrible Things” Sunday at the Blue Theatre, which closed the first weekend of the Fusebox Festival. The marshmallows did their job: the piece has a kinesthetic, visual draw, even though it is obviously still under construction.
The play loosely follows Pearl’s life, tracking her childhood in Oklahoma, and then gesturing to her adult life as an artist. The show is a solo show and it is not a solo show. Seven women swirl around Pearl throughout the play, painting pictures with marshmallows and shadowing Pearl’s gestures. Their largely silent, slowly sculpted movements, choreographed by Minneapolis-based dancer Emily Johnson, expand Pearl’s presence.
The text, delivered by Pearl playing herself, is at its most poetic when stories are told absent context. After recollecting her parents enticing her 5-year-old self to sleep, Pearl curls up against the theater’s back wall, telling stories that seem to reference frustrating intimate relationships: wanting to tell someone she would move in with her and nursing someone in a hospital. These stories give a more natural sense of jumbled emotion and desire than Pearl’s more straightforward childhood anecdotes. As Pearl jokes throughout the show, “Terrible Things” teaches others how to feel like Katie Pearl for a half an hour. It’s funny that it’s easiest to empathize with Pearl in the moments where it is least clear why she feels the way she does.
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the city should condemn hooters and build a big parking garage.
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Great choices this year—and can’t wait to see the various nominations for “Best of” etc. If you’ve never been to one of these events, they are…very Austin: irreverant, entertaining, unexpected… and a great tradition.
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