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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
Mexic-Arte director nets award
Sylvia Orozco executive director and co-founder of Mexic-Arte Museum received the Ohtli Award from the Mexican government on Friday at the Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel. The Ohtli Award is presented by the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, an agency within the Secretariat of External Relations of Mexico that promotes ties between Mexico and the Mexican communities in the U.S. The award was created to recognize people who have promoted Mexican culture abroad.
By the way — ‘Ohtli’ means path, or road, in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs.
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‘Tuna’ adds two more weeks at Paramount
You now have two more weeks to spend time with the outrageous and lovable denizens of Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas as they head to sin city — Las Vegas — to rid it of its sinful ways.
With actors Joe Sears and Jaston Williams on hand in full costume as Bertha Bumiller and Vera Carp, Paramount Theatre executive director Ken Stein announced this morning that two more weeks of additional shows have been added to the run of “Tuna Does Vegas,” the new and fourth show in the much loved series created by Sears and Williams. “Tuna Does Vegas” opens Oct. 23 with eight shows a week running through Nov. 11. Tickets for the originally planned one-week run sold to such demand that Paramount officials decided to extend the run. “Tuna Does Vegas” premiered in Galveston in August, but Sears and Williams have been tweaking the show for its Austin debut.
This is a home-coming of sorts. “Greater Tuna” opened at the Paramount in 1982. Its outrageous success spawned two more shows: “Tuna Christmas” and “Red, White and Tuna.” In January, “Tuna Christmas cycles into the Paramount for a week.
And if you had it in mind to see other shows at the Paramount, be warned — they’re selling out quicly. Anthony Bourdain? Sold out. Craig Ferguson? Sold out. Garrison Keillor? Sold out.
$5 ‘Get Your War On’ tix this weekend only
Not one of the 65,000 per day who will attend the Austin City Limits festival this weekend?
Maybe you need to spend $5 to “Get Your War On”.
After ripping up audiences across the pond, longtime Austin theater collective the Rude Mechanicals have returned home for a three-week run of their in-your-face political satire based on David Reese’s Internet comic of the same name. Of course, the Rudes debuted the show here in 2006 and since then have taken to Off Broadway for a critically praised run and elsewhere around the country. This summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the show netted the “Total Theatre Award” for “Best Original Work from an Ensemble” — one of only five awards given out to the over 1800 shows at the festival.
Five actors, some hand-held mics, old-school overhead transparency projectors and plenty for F-word bombs rocket through a 75-minute acerbic commentary on our current state of political affairs. And smartly, as the Rudes proved last weekend, they’ve updated the show, working in Reese’s comics from as recently as a few weeks ago.
The show plays tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Off Center with tickets for the late show going for only $5.
(Jason Liebrecht in “Get Your War On.” Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.)
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Ballet Austin dancers (heart) their new home
Whee!
That seems to be the response of just about everyone who calls Ballet Austin’s new Butler Dance Education Center home.
“Dancing in the new building has been awesome!” writes dancer Ashley Lynn in the Ballet’s austin360.com blog. “We can finally TRAVEL across the floor in class without worrying about running into a wall!”
If the ability to NOT run into a wall seems like an odd thing to celebrate, consider how athletic ballet dancing really is and how rapidly dancers actually move across large expanses of floor space. Then consider that for years Ballet Austin rehearsed in a nearly 100-year-old firehouse with charming but not overly large studios that didn’t meet the company’s needs.
Keep Austin safe for jete-ing dancers, we say!
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Texas Commission on the Arts names new director
From an official press release:
TEXAS COMMISSION ON THE ARTS NAMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Texas Commission on the Arts announced today that Gary Gibbs will take center stage as the Commission’s new executive director. After an extensive review process, the decision was finalized at TCA’s Sept. 7 commission meeting. The past director of education and outreach for the Houston Grand Opera, Gibbs is expected to officially begin his role as TCA’s executive director on Oct. 1.
“Dr. Gibbs is a well-respected leader in the arts community. His passion and vision will be a great asset to the Commission and will help us continue to elevate the profile of the arts in Texas,” said Victoria Lightman, TCA commission chair. “We have already witnessed Dr. Gibbs’ ability to bring a fresh new perspective to the agency, and we anticipate strategic advances under his leadership.”
Since 1991, Dr. Gibbs served as the director of education and outreach for the Houston Grand Opera. During his tenure, he commissioned and produced numerous operas for student and family audiences and developed hundreds of community events to make opera more accessible to the general public. He also designed programs that reached approximately 300,000 people per year and were recognized as national models by OPERA America.
“After an extended and successful career with the Houston Grand Opera, I am looking forward to broadening my horizons and serving the citizens of Texas in this important role,” said Gibbs. “I believe Texas is a strong leader in so many industries - including the arts. It’s my goal to strengthen and increase the visibility of the existing arts programs and initiatives throughout this great state so that we are continually recognized nationwide for our artistic talent and cultural diversity.”
Gibbs has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Houston Arts Alliance and TCA. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education in voice from Baylor University in Waco, a Master of Music in voice from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Texas at Austin.
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We didn’t mean literally
Things got a little frisky at the Blanton Museum of Art’s B Scene Friday night. Seems one patron took the giveaways that accompany the new exhibit ‘Mike’s World: Michael Smith & Joshua White’ a little too literally.
See, artist and UT professor Michael Smith has over the course of his 30-year artistic career developed an alter ego ‘Mike’ — a endearing but hapless dude who optimistically strives for the Next Big Thing, but never seems to get it. Convinced that our computer age means more lounging around in a private utopia, ‘Mike’ conceives of a multimedia information kiosk that admonishes everyone to ‘Take Off Your Pants!’ After all, you’ll be doing nothing but sitting around in your underwear at the computer anyway.
And so to augment the installation in ‘Mike’s World,’ yellow lapel buttons emblazoned with ‘Take Off Your Pants’ are given away to exhibit viewers. But Friday night, sources say, one man decided that it would be good to actually take off his pants at the B Scene.
UT police and Blanton officials thought otherwise and the man was asked to leave, which he did. With his pants on, we understand.
(“Take Off Your Pants,” photo from installation. Michael Smith & Joshua White, 2005.)
Dig in the dancing scene
More than 2,500 turned out to check out Ballet Austin’s new Butler Dance Education Center Sunday afternoon.
This hula class was packed in the Armstrong/Connelly Studio, the nifty double-height space that has windows flanking West Third Street.
Dance on, everyone!
[Photo by Kelly West]
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Weekend arts Picks
THURSDAY
“Designing for the Everyday.” 7 p.m. Austin Museum of Art. Julie Heard, founding principal of Mixer Group, talks to Austin designers about their most cutting-edge projects and what inspired them. Heard leads design and experience development at Mixer and holds numerous patents and international awards for work she directed for Qualcomm, Dell, Compaq, HP and Texas Instruments. Guest speakers will include designers from Austin-based Design Edge, ID-ONE, M3 Design, and Wet Noz.
Faith Gay. 6 to 8 p.m. D. Berman Gallery. An inventive Austin talent, Faith Gay shows her explosively colorful, delightfully compelling new mixed media work.
“Sabine,” Faith Gay.
SATURDAY
Brunch with the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Finalists. 11 .m. to 1 p.m., Arthouse at the Jones Center. Join the five finalists for the Arthouse Texas Prize — Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Justin Boyd, Margarita Cabrera, Bill Davenport and Katrina Moorhead — as they discuss their commission projects for the prize exhibit.
“Cuckoo Clock,” Bill Davenport
Drive-by Press. 6 to 9 p.m., Slugfest Printmaking Workshop & Gallery. The Wisconsin-based artist duo behind Drive-By Press bring their mobile printmaking studio to town and will produced T-shirts, poster and more on-the-spot.
“Get Your War On,” 8 p.m., Off Center. First Austin, then the rest of the U.S., then the world. The Rude Mechanicals created and premiered “Get Your War On” right here. Then the venerable theatre collective went on to a critically acclaimed Off Broadway run followed by a world tour that included rocking the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Now the Rudes return home with their biting political satire based on David Rees’ savage and hysterical Internet comic strip.
“Polonia Gloriosa: Music from Poland’s Golden Age: 1540-1690,” 8 p.m., Texas Early Music Project. Renaissance and early Baroque music from Poland including madrigals, dances and sacred works for various combinations of voices and instruments. Featured singers include: Kathlene Ritch, Gitanjali Mathur, Stephanie Prewitt, David Stevens, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, Brett Barnes and Gil Zilkha.
SUNDAY “La Labor: The Paintings of Roel Flores,” noon to 4 p.m., Texas Folklife Resources. Self-taught artist and musician and former migrant worker Roel Flores shows his colorful paintings.
‘Libres,’ Roel Flores.
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Get your dancing shoes on!
You could even say it glows.
Ballet Austin’s new Butler Dance Education Center and Community School, that is.
(Photo courtesy Ballet Austin)
Read all about Ballet Austin’s new downtown center and see how this company is poised to jettison ballet into the new millennium with originality and flair.
Who says a classic art form has to be threatened by new cultural consumption patterns? Not Ballet Austin. They’ll continue to do what they do best — present full-length ballets and support new ballet work — and do it in a way that allows more people than ever to take part.
Sunday you can get your dance on at the free ‘Find Your Center’ party from 3 to 8 p.m. For a full schedule of happenings that day, go here.
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City’s cultural arts program starts blog
Need to keep up on City of Austin cultural arts funding news? Austin Music Memorial got your interest?
You can stay tuned to all the notices sent by the city’s Economic Growth and Redevelopment Service Offices — the folks that oversee all the cultural arts funding service — via the offices’ new blog on austin360.com.
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