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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
Contemplating the big 3-0
Women & Their Work turns 30 next year. So it’s time for a little navel-gazing.
On Saturday at 3 p.m., the nonprofit arts organization will present ‘Why Then, Why Now,’ a panel discussion on the current state of feminism and female artists and the role and relevancy of an organization like WTW today.
It’s about time WTW did a little self-examination. Little has changed about the place and its arts practice in the past decade, or longer. Meanwhile, the world and the arts have changed considerably all around it. And Austin has morphed into something unrecognizable from what it was even 10 years ago.
The panel will be moderated by Kay Turner, professor at New York University and folklorist for the Borough of Brooklyn.
Respondents include longtime Austin arts scenesters writer Saundra Goldman, artist Connie Arismendi, dancemaker Deborah Hay and artist and UT prof Margo Sawyer.
Representing the current generation is Rachel Cook, artist and editor for Glasstire.com and artist and Texas State University assistant prof Joey Fauerso.
Joey Fauerso, “Why I Am Here I Am #2,” 2004. Oil and acrylic on digital print. Courtesy Finesilver Gallery.
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New Music, live — on the Web
So many arts event, so little time?
UT’s School of Music can make it a little easier on you tonight. You can log into a live Web cast of ‘Monsters and Lovers,’ the New Music Ensemble’s lively Halloween-themed program. Of course, you can see the concert live for free tonight at 8 p.m. at Bates Recital Hall. But if you can’t make the show live, try it out virtually.
Faculty guest artist David Small will sing H.K. Gruber’s hyper ‘Frankenstein: A Pandaemonium.’ Guber — a defrocked Vienna Choir Boy — used children’s rhymes by Austrianpoet H.C. Artmann to create an odd, appealing 30-minute work that’s the School of Music is describing “a direct descendant of Kurt Weill’s cabaret music through the prism of LSD.”
Also on the lineup UT prof Donald Grantham’s 1990 “‘Slobberin’ Goblins, ’ an 8-minute chamber romp and the premiere of ‘Love Song’ by UT student composer Tim Rogers sung by mezzo-soprano Sarah Bannon.
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‘Voices Underwater’ a sublime mix
Salvage Vanguard Theater’s “Voices Underwater” is a sublime mix of the physical, mental and emotional.
Abi Basch’s new play tells the story of two ghosts and a mixed-race couple trapped in an Alabama plantation home during one rainy night. It’s full of esoteric discussions about humanity and history, but also incredible bursts of passion. Hannah Kenah and Sean Tate play the living couple, inheritors of the home and victims of local police aggression. Supposedly Tate’s character is the emotionless one, but both speak so objectively and coldly that the final climax holds double strength.
It’s direction, from Jenny Larson, has a vocabulary of stilted, repetitive movements, but also athletic, poetic poses. As the long-dead daughter of a KKK leader, Meg Sullivan haunts the gutted out attic space designed by Conner Hopkins (who also provides a set of surprising puppets), hanging from rafters and climbing up posts, half-oblivious of the home’s current occupants. Robin Grace Thompson, as a wounded Union soldier, is mostly confined to a wheelchair, moving only with Beckettian precision while narrating a series of alliterative epistles. But her final pose, held for what seems like an eternity, evokes in its silence an elegy richer than any of the soldier’s letters.
At some points the stilted dialogue and movement feel oblique for modern obliqueness’ sake, but there’s meaning and emotion underneath, just waiting for the powerful moment to come out.
“Voices Underwater” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Nov. 17 at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $12-$35, 512-474-7886, www.salvagevanguard.org.
—Joey Seiler is the American-Statesman’s freelance theater critic.
‘Take Off Your Pants’ creators tonight
Artists Michael Smith and Joshua White created this fabulous, wacky installation called “Take Off Your Pants,” which is a multimedia advertising kiosk for a fictitious board game called, well, “Take Off Your Pants.” Think the promises of the information superhighway will make your life action-packed? Wrong! You’re as passive as it gets sitting around in your underwear at the computer all day.
Tonight at 6 p.m., Smith and White — presumably with their pants on — will discuss their collaborative work which is on view in the current Blanton Museum exhibit, “Mike’s World: Michael Smith & Joshua White (and other collaborators).”
Tonight’s event is free because admission to the Blanton is free on Thursdays.
As we reported in September, one young man got so involved with “Take Off Your Pants” at Blanton’s B-Scene party, he took off his pants.
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‘Io’ overflows with vigor
There are some performances, some moments, that should absolutely invigorate anyone, artist or audience, involved in Austin theater. “Io: A Myth About You” is crammed to overflowing with them.
The new play by Monika Bustamante staged by Shrewd Productions recasts the tale of Io as a story about down-at-the-heels gods plotting over gentrification, drugs and murder. It’s a “Rent” meets “Rocky Horror Picture Show” sort of aesthetic with more than a dash of “Dallas.”
From Elena Araoz’s direction that wrings out passion and comedy from a superb ensemble cast to Ann Marie Goron’s creative junkyard set to the rocking live music written by T. Lynn Mikeska and Adam Sultan, every piece meshes together for a sum that’s almost better than its parts.
There are still rough patches — moments of writerly self-consciousness, a tune that doesn’t quite match the mood, or a pop culture joke that rides a half beat early over a tender line — that make it hard sometimes to pick the final point and tenor of the play from all the individual moments. But those moments! Some of Bustamante’s language is obtuse, but most is hauntingly beautiful or wickedly funny. The rough patches just highlight how much more promise Shrewd Productions has for the future.
It’s almost criminal that the house wasn’t packed opening weekend. This is a group, a play and a time worth celebrating.
(“Io: A Myth About You” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Nov. 10 at the Vortex, 2307 Manor Road. $15-$25. 478-5282, www.vortexrep.org.)
[Joey Seiler is the American-Statesman’s freelance theater critic]
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No ‘Tuna’ surprise, but that’s why it’s so loved
They’re baa-ack! And the citizens of Tuna, Texas, couldn’t be in finer form.
And based on the heartfelt hoots, the excited hollers and the warm cheers erupting from the sold-out audience Tuesday night at the Paramount Theatre, Austin couldn’t be more excited that Joe Sears and Jaston Williams have once again corralled their crazy characters from the third smallest town in Texas and delivered them to the stage in “Tuna Does Vegas.”
If there were few surprises to this new fourth chapter in the “Tuna” trilogy — the ribald comedic satires that made Sears and Williams famous as quick-change artists who can each shape-shift through up to 10 characters a show — that’s because there’s no reason to mess with the formula that made “Tuna” the string of endearing hits that it is. (“A Tuna Christmas” plays the Paramount Jan. 8-13.)
And if that formula seems a bit stretched this time out — all the denizens of Tuna pack up and hit the road to Sin City, where everyone stays at the Hula Chateaux Hotel — still, the show is reliably funny. (The script is co-authored by Sears, Williams and director Ed Howard.)
‘Tuna Does Vegas” premiered in August at the Opera House in Galveston. Sears and Williams — who are producing this show on their own after years other management — extended the Austin run from one week to three after initial sales took off. They’ll take the show to Fort Worth next spring and look to tour it nationally as well.
Ultimately, it’s Sears’ and Williams’ performances that make this “Tuna” so entertaining. Both actors are at the top of their game. Williams’ perfectly timed pauses give the chain-smoking gun enthusiast Didi Snaveley the most potent comedic moments of the show. And Sears brings a new tenderness to the often-flustered plus-sized Bertha Bumiller.
The Vegas plot line might add some fresh material to the much-loved “Tuna” universe, but it’s the richly developed characters that are most appealing. In the end, Sears and Williams prove once again there’s no place like Tuna.
Welcome home.
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Changes at American Repertory Ensemble
Things are good for Rob Deemer, composer and co-artistic director of American Repertory Ensemble. So good that his new position as chair of the composition program at SUNY-Fredonia, he’s no longer able to keep his obligations at ARE where he developed, along with co-artistic director David Justin, an innovative company that brings together modern small-scale classical ballet and chamber music together on the same stage, at the same time. Since jumping on the scene two years ago, ARE has boldly commissioned new music and new choreography for their potent, gorgeous performances.
Looks like ARE’s next show — “Winter’s Tryst,” Jan. 18-19 — will be no exception. On the program is pas de duex by rising international star choreographer Christopher Wheeldon set to the haunting cabaret music of Kurt Weill. Justin himself will take the stage in ‘Soudain l’hiver dernier, ’ by choreographer James Kudelka, a pas de deux for two men that negotiates the confluence of love, lust, patience and dignity.
“Already Dusk,” performed by American Repertory Ensemble. Photo by Amitava Sarkar.
B. Iden Payne Award Winners
Austin Circle of Theater presented the 2006-2007 B. Iden Payne Awards tonight at ceremony in the Jones Auditorium of the Ragsdale Center on the St. Edward’s University campus. Given annually by the ACOT board to individuals and productions who made exceptional contributions to Austin theatre, the awards are named in honor the English-born actor and director B. Iden Payne, one of the first to really grow the theater department at the University of Texas.
The winners are…
PLAYS FOR YOUTH
Outstanding Production of a Play for Youth: The Page and the Caterpillar (Second Youth Family Theatre)
Outstanding Director of a Play for Youth” Leslie K. Hollingsworth (The Page and the Caterpillar)
Outstanding Performer in a Play for Youth” Amy Downing (Ms. Darbus, Ms. Tenny, High School Musical)
MUSIC THEATER
Outstanding Production of Music Theater: The Rocky Horror Show (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
Outstanding Director of Music Theater: Michael McKelvey (Assassins)
Outstanding Lead Actor in Music Theater: Joe York (Dr. Frank N. Furter, The Rocky Horror Show)
Outstanding Lead Actress in Music Theater: Leslie K. Hollingsworth (Janet, The Rocky Horror Show)
Outstanding Featured Actor in Music Theater: Quincy Kuykendall (Horse, The Full Monty)
Outstanding Featured Actress in Music Theater: Emily Bem (Alice Miller, My Favorite Year)
COMEDIES
Outstanding Production of a Comedy: Present Laughter (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
Outstanding Director of a Comedy: Ken Webster (The Pillowman)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy: Jamie Goodwin (Garry Essendine, Present Laughter)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy: Jill Blackwood (Rosalind, Amiens, Hymen, As You Like It)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Comedy: Wray Crawford (Lucien P. Smith, The Boys Next Door)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Comedy: Helen Merino (Monica Reed, Present Laughter)
DRAMAS
Outstanding Production of a Drama: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Different Stages)
Outstanding Director of a Drama: Lowell Bartholomee (A Beautiful View)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama: Tom Chamberlain (Martin, The Goat)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama: Rebecca Robinson (Stevie, The Goat)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama: Martin Burke (Mason Marzac, Take Me Out)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama: Michelle Flanagan (Ophelia, Hamlet)
TECHNICAL
Outstanding Set Design: Cliff Simon (Present Laughter)
Outstanding Lighting Design: Jason Amato (Trickster)
Outstanding Sound Design: Craig Brock (Take Me Out)
Outstanding Costume Design: Susan Branch (My Favorite Year)
Outstanding Music Director: Michael McKelvey (Assassins)
Outstanding Choreographer: Aaron Alexander (As You Like It)
Outstanding Original Script: Ron Berry, Rebecca Beegle, Sonnet Blanton, Jeffrey Mills, Chase Staggs & Cyndi Williams (The Assumption)
Outstanding Original Score: Chad Salvata (The Dragonfly Princess)
SPECIAL
Outstanding Ensemble Performance: Breanna Stogner & Kathleen Fletcher (Kathy & Mo, Parallel Lives: The Kathy & Mo Show)
Outstanding Youth Performance: Sean Maddox (Ryan Evans, High School Musical)
Outstanding Special Theatrical Event: Bell(e): The Museum of Suicide Machinery (ethos)
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Weekend arts pix
Talk about obsessive!
Shawn Smith painstakingly crafts his “Re-Things” — sculptural representations of digital information — from hundreds (thousands?) of squares of wood. Smith, who just returned to Austin, notes that he is interested in the “slippery intersection between the digital world and reality. Specifically … how we experience nature through a television or a computer screen.”
Check out Smith’s terrific new work at D. Berman Gallery.
Shawn Smith “Double Dahl,” courtesy D. Berman Gallery.
For his first solo gallery show at Art Palace, Austin artist Jonathan Marshall uses precisely rendered drawings and staged photographs to present the first part of his epic trilogy, ‘The Book of Lenny,’ which chronicles the journey of an everyman hero who navigates a post-apocalyptic landscape aided by a strange cast of characters. Far from pessimistic, though, Marshall’s mythology offers is downright sweet — oddball, but sweet — offering brave new ways of living. After all, bears will be there to help us!
The opening reception is 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday.
Image courtesy Art Palace Gallery.
And the winner is …
Apparently, others are vexed about the proliferation of cultural prizes and their over-valuation.
The second biennial Arthouse Texas Prize brings all kinds of thoughts to mind about the value (over-value?) of cultural prizes. There are more prizes and awards out there on the cultural landscape than ever before. Prizes and awards have become the new cultural currency — the way we assign value to a work of art. How many times have you heard “so-and-so” just won the “such-and-such” or was just listed to “such-and-such” a “best of list.”
Jonathan Morrison, blogger for The Guardian, ponders the same.
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Giant eyeball’s creator to project vision on park
Remember the giant eyeball that peered over downtown Austin last New Year’s Eve from the Green Water Treatment Plant? That was the work of award-winning media artist Luke Savisky.
Next Friday, Oct. 26, Savisky will train his talents on Wooldridge Park using at least 12 projectors — 35mm film, 16mm film and digital video — to float a montage of images on the trees and onto translucent scrims around the park’s gazebo. Recorded music will intermix with live music from the Tosca String Quartet featuring original compositions by award-winning composer Graham Reynolds.
The event is free. Bring your blankies to sit on. Wooldridge Park is at 900 Guadalupe St.
Luke Savisky rehearsing his projection, the “Eye of Texas,” Tuesday, which was part of First Night 2007. Savisky projected live images of eyes onto the water tower of the Green Water Treatment Plant. Photo by Larry Kolvoord.
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New music for Austin
The New Music Co-op just keeps getting more and more ambitious.
On Saturday night at Ceremony Hall at 4100 Red River St., they’ll present “Kinship Collapse,” a new composition from Arnold Dreyblatt that the NMC commissioned from the pioneering Berlin-based minimalist composer.
The collaboration between NMC and Dreyblatt began during the 2006 South by Southwest Music Festival when Dreyblatt chose NMC to be his backing ensemble.
NMC’s ‘Orchestra of Excited Strings’ features Steve Bernal, cello; Brent Fariss, modified bass; Mikal Hart, horn; Nick Hennies, percussion; Josh Ronsen, modified guitar; and Travis Weller, violin.
Saturday night’s gig will also feature a solo performance by Dreyblatt on his ‘excited string bass,’ which uses piano wire instead of contrabass strings to create an otherworldly cloud of harmonic overtones.
Rock on!
Dreyblatt with New Music Co-op at SXSW 2006.
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Wideman/Davis Dance returns
We’re lucky New York-based choreographer Thaddeus Davis has found Austin such an accommodating place to work. The talented dance maker has been using Austin as his rehearsal studio during the past few months, and come Friday, we’ll be treated to two new works in a free performance 8 p.m. at the George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center.
Wideman/Davis Dance — the company Davis has with his wife, dancer Tanya Wideman-Davis, — has been building a relationship with Carver since last year.
Premiering Friday night is “Elida and Twenty Rising,” Davis’ meditation on music and movement.
Also on the bill is “Bosket Affair,” which draws from the chilling story of teenage murderer Willie Bosket as chronicled in Fox Butterfield’s book, “All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence.” In 1978 at age 15, Willie Bosket was arrested for murder — one of a string of violent crimes he had already committed. Young Willie’s arrest and history of violence led to a change in New York state law that allowed for juveniles as young as 13 to tried in adult court for murder.
Davis has a knack for transforming history into compelling modern dance. Last year, he dazzled audiences with “The Bends of Life,” his expressive interpretation of the story of the African American female quilters of Gee’s Bend, Ala. “The Bends of Life” garnered praise across the country.
Davis won first place in Ballet Austin’s first-ever “New American Talent” choreography competition in 2006. This fall, he’s been working on a new piece for Ballet Austin II, the apprentice company of Ballet Austin.
Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis. Photo by Nick Applbee.
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Blanton — and Texas — make good with AICA noms
The Blanton Museum of Art has done good when it comes to getting nominations for 2006-2007 AICA-USA Awards, the annual kudos passed out by the International Association of Art Critics - USA Section
Two Blanton exhibits have nabbed noms. “The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection,” curated Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, is up for “Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally” while “Luca Cambiaso, 1527-1585,” gets to try out for “Best Historical Show.” Curator Jonathan Bober was the Blanton’s rep on the international curatorial team for that show.
The Blanton is one of two museums in “fly-over land” — i.e., somewheres not on the East or West Coast — to receive more one nomination from the admittedly New York-centric critics group. (Although, as a long-time AICA-USA member, Texas-based yours truly gets to nominate for the annual awards.)
The Museum of Fine Arts-Houston gets two noms too: “Singular Multiples: The Peter Blum Edition Archive 1980-1994” is up for “Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally” while “Helio Oiticica: The Body of Color” competes for “Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally.”
In fact, Texas, and Austin, faired well with this year’s AICA-USA nominations.
Arthouse’s Daniel Bozhkov: Recent Works/ Cantata for Twelve Choirs and Several Salamanders is up for “Best Exhibition of Time Based Art.” So is “Miguel Angel Rios: Aqui” by the Univ. of Houston’s Blaffer Gallery.
Getting a shout out for “Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally” is Austin’s Lora Reynolds Gallery for “Tom Molloy: Lone Star,” and Houston’s Texas Gallery for “Hamish Fulton: Geronimo Homeland.”
Up in Dallas, the Jennifer Steinkamp-Jimmy Johnson collaborative video and sound permanent installation “Ring of Fire” in Victory Park was nominated for “Best Show in a Public Space.”
GO TEXAS!!
“Lone Star,” (detail), by Tom Molloy. Courtesy Lora Reynolds Gallery.
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Remember: Vote
Got an opinion about which of the five artists should win the $30,000 Arthouse Texas Prize?
Go to our online ballot and cast your vote. Dawalo Jabari Anderson? Justin Boyd? Margarita Cabrera? Bill Davenport? Katrina Moorhead?
Don’t know? Perhaps head to Arthouse this weekend and judge for yourself. A jury will select a winner on Nov. 2. But in this day and age where it seems like the only way to recognize culture is to award it a prize, why not join in the fun?
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Volitant Gallery to close
Chatter has clattered since an e-mail circulated Tuesday announcing that Volitant Gallery will close when its lease is up in November.
The art gallery business is never an easy one, and it seems Volitant gallery owner and lease holder Chris Slover — who also owns the trendy club the Belmont — has decided to pursue other ventures.
That’s a shame. Gallery directors Sean Gallagher and Xochi Solis have brought an impressive amount of energy to the Congress Avenue gallery since it opened 18 months ago, staging some very ambitious shows and developing lots of lively programming to go with it. That’s cool. And lucky for Austin, Gallagher and Solis will be staying in town and looking for post-Volitant art ventures. In fact, congrats to Solis, who was recently selected for the Austin Museum of Art’s triennial “New Art in Austin: 20 To Watch.”
Onward…
Armando Miguelez, “Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico Benito Juarez,” c-print. From the Volitant exhibit “Perspectivas.”
Austin Museum of Art selects triennial artists
The Austin Museum of Art just announced the 20 emerging artists who have been chosen for the much anticipated show New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch. The triennial exhibition, started in 2002, features emerging artists from within the Austin community whose work stretches the boundaries of contemporary art.
The 20 artists are:
Yoon Cho
Meggie Chou
Ali Fitzgerald
Alyson Fox
Buster Graybill
Jen Hirt & Scott Webel, (Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata)
Jules Jones
Baseera Khan
Andrew Long
Kurt Mueller
Jill Pangallo
Scott Proctor
Matthew Rodriguez
Shawn Smith
Xochi Solis
Sarah Sudhoff
Raymond Uhlir
Stephanie Wagner
Rebecca Ward
Eric Zimmerman
The exhibit will be on view at the museum downtown Feb. 16-May 11, 2008. Then it will travel through 2009 to Blue Star Art Space in San Antonio, the Grace Museum in Abilene and DiverseWorks in Houston.
The museum received 254 artist submissions, a record number. The pool of artists was developed from a public call for entries, nominations from past artists, local curators and critics and museum curatorial staff interest over the past three years. The statewide curatorial team evaluated the work of 32 finalists, all living within a 50-mile radius of Austin.
Eva Buttacavoli, the Austin Museum of Art’s director of exhibitions and education and one of the curators of the show, said “The curators and I were invigorated by immersing ourselves in Austin’s evolving art scene during a week of meetings with artists.
“Some exciting themes artists are addressing include architecture, class, personal narratives, manipulation of found imagery, and a return from the digital world back to the natural world. Materials used are as varied as medical equipment, vinyl tape, displays challenging the museum itself, as well as refreshing looks at painting and drawing.”
Eric Zimmerman. Mixed media drawing.
Ali Fitzgerald. Detail of “On Virgin Land.”
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Circle of Friends exceeds Long Center funding goal
Austin ‘s singular civil rights, education and arts pioneer Ada Anderson has done it again — even surpassing her own estimable goals. The third-generation Central Texan has for more than 50 years been a leader in the political, economic, social and artistic life of the capital city. Now, she has succeeded in outdoing herself to raise $50,000 for the Long Center for the Performing Arts through her Circle of Friends campaign, targeted at getting Austin’s African American community involved as donors to the new civic performing arts center. As of last week, Anderson raised $67,000 — $17,000 beyond her original goal.
You can read more about it here.
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Symphony commissions new work, sets annual fund record
Austin Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a a new orchestral work to celebrate its inaugural season in the new Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts. The orchestra will open its 98th concert season next fall with world premiere of a new work by native Texan and Grammy-nominated composer Christopher Theofanidis.
Theofanidis received a Grammy nom for his choral/orchestral work, “The Here and Now,” which will be performed in April 2008 at Carnegie Hall by the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus. His orchestral concert work, “Rainbow Body,” has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the last 10 years, having been featured by more than 70 orchestras, including the Austin Symphony who included in its opening concert of the 2005-2006 season.
In other symphony news, the organization has set an all-time record for its annual fund contributions. The symphony recently surpassed its original goal of $950,000 and netted more than $1 million. Annual fund contributions are unrestricted donations for organizations to meet general operations needs. The Austin Symphony Orchestra, in its 97th season, has an annual budget of $3.5 million.
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Onward, upward with Austin Arts Alliance
The organization formerly known as the Austin Fine Arts Alliance has given itself a new 21st-century name: Art Alliance Austin.
The announcement was made last night at a celebratory shindig on the plaza of Austin City Hall. Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith kicked things off, commending the 51-year-old nonprofit group for its support of the visual arts, specifically the Austin Museum of Art and the Blanton Museum of Art.
Once known as the Women’s Art Guild and responsible for hosting the annual Fiesta at Laguna Gloria (now part of the Austin Museum of Art), the organization has since morphed into a modern co-ed group whose principal event is the weekend Fine Arts Festival in Republic Square Park every spring. But that event is getting a new spin. Alliance officials noted that the event — slated for April 12-13, 2008 — would take place along Lady Bird Lake and West Cesar Chavez Street, with some installations and happenings even extending down the First Street bridge. The gig’s new name? Art City Austin.
After presenting AMOA director Dana Friis-Hansen and Blanton director Jesse Otto Hite each with a check for $30,000, Alliance director Meredith Powell also announced that the Alliance is also now committed to raising $25,000 to grant to area artists. In the coming weeks, Austin artists can make proposals for art projects they would like assistance realizing — with plans for and results from these ideas being revealed at Art City Austin 2008. All inquiries/applications for proposing a commissioned work should be directed to artist@artallianceaustin.org.
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What you missed last weekend
Want to see what you missed last weekend arts-wise?
Conspriare’s inspired performance of new music by rising star composer Tarik O’Regan, Ballet Austin’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Ellen Bartel’s smart flourish to the end of the Hot September Flurries dance festival and the first wave of performances from Pro-Arts Collective’s Black Arts Movement Performing Arts Festval.
Read the reviews here
Austin Circle of Theaters announces Payne 2007 Award nominees
The Austin Circle of Theatres has announced the nominees for the 33rd annual B. Iden Payne Awards. The Payne Awards honor excellence in acting, directing, design, production, music and writing across in the following broad categories: plays for youth, comedy, drama and musicals.
The 2007 Outstanding Honoree award will be presented to actress, philanthropist, 2004 Austin Arts Hall of Fame inductee and all-around leading lady, Karen Kuykendall.
Nominations for the awards are made by ACoT’s B. Iden Payne Committee. This year’s event — which includes a silent auction — will be Oct. 21 at the Jones Auditorium in the Ragsdale Center of St. Edward’s University.
The Payne Awards are named in honor of renowned Shakespearean scholar and director B. Iden Payne, who spent his latter years at the University of Texas at Austin.
PLAYS FOR YOUTH
Outstanding Production of a Play for Youth: Dear Edwina Junior (Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School); High School Musical (Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School); Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends’ Story (Pollyanna Theatre Company); The Page and the Caterpillar (Second Youth Family Theatre)
Outstanding Director of a Play for Youth: Leslie K. Hollingsworth (The Page and the Caterpillar); Jaclyn Loewenstein (Dear Edwina Junior); Dave Steakley (High School Musical);
Outstanding Performer in a Play for Youth: Amy Downing (Ms. Darbus, Ms. Tenny, High School Musical); Kathleen Fletcher (Grace, Jesse and Grace); Kirk German (Boris the Page, The Page and the Caterpillar); Joe Hartman (Prince Durante Ole, The Page and the Caterpillar); Julianna E. Wright (Princess Chrysanthemum, The Page and the Caterpillar);
MUSIC THEATER
Outstanding Production of Music Theater: The Assumption (Refraction Arts); At Home With Dick 2: A Progressive Degenerative Cabaret (Rubber Repertory); Parade (SEU Mary Moody Northen Theatre); The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (UT Department of Theatre and Dance); The Rocky Horror Show (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
Outstanding Director of Music Theater: Sonnet Blanton & Julia M. Smith (The Assumption); Kent De Spain (Marat/Sade); Matt Hislope and Josh Meyer (At Home With Dick 2); Ev Lunning Jr. (Parade); Michael McKelvey (Assassins);
Outstanding Lead Actor in Music Theater: Matt Hislope (Fool, Trickster); John Pointer (Judas Iscariot, Jesus Christ Superstar); Dick Price (everyone, At Home With Dick 2); Scott Shipman (Alan Swann, My Favorite Year); Joe York (Dr. Frank N. Furter, The Rocky Horror Show)
Outstanding Lead Actress in Music Theater: Leslie K. Hollingsworth (Janet, The Rocky Horror Show); April Perez (Miranda, Intermission); Glay Marie Posch (Rose Maybud, Ruddigore); Melissa Vogt-Patterson (Mala, The Dragonfly Princess)
Outstanding Featured Actor in Music Theater: Ron Berry (Clarence, The Assumption); Blake DeLong (Herald, Marat/Sade); Joe Hartman (Sy Benson, My Favorite Year); Quincy Kuykendall (Horse, The Full Monty); Gabriel Maldonado (Monkey King, Trickster)
Outstanding Featured Actress in Music Theater: Emily Bem (Alice Miller, My Favorite Year); Shannon Locke (Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, Assassins); Adriene Mishler (O’leilah, The Assumption); Janis Stinson (Simon, temple ensemble, Jesus Christ Superstar); Larissa Wolcott (Columbia, usherette, The Rocky Horror Show)
COMEDIES
* Production of a Comedy:* As You Like It (Mermaid Theatre Company & Austin Shakespeare Festival); The Boys Next Door (City Theatre Company); The Pillowman (Hyde Park Theatre); Present Laughter (Zachary Scott Theatre Center); A Thought in Three Parts (Rubber Repertory & VORTEX Repertory Company)
Outstanding Director of a Comedy: Andy Berkovsky (The Boys Next Door); Rod Caspers (Ah, Wilderness!); Guy Roberts (As You Like It); Carlos Treviño, Matt Hislope & Josh Meyer (A Thought in Three Parts); Ken Webster (The Pillowman)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy: Aaron Alexander (Orlando, Charles, William, As You Like It); Jamie Goodwin (Garry Essendine, Present Laughter); Jude Hickey (Katurian, The Pillowman); Eric Porter (Ebenezer Scrooge, Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge)’ Ken Webster (man, St. Nicholas)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy: Jill Blackwood (Rosalind, Amiens, Hymen, As You Like It); Michelle Cheney (Honey Raye Futrelle, Dearly Beloved); Babs George (M’Lynn, Steel Magnolias); Tiny Robinson (Lucy, Mr. Marmalade); Julianna E. Wright (Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Comedy: Kenneth Wayne Bradley (Ariel, The Pillowman); Wray Crawford (Lucien P. Smith, The Boys Next Door); Joe Hartman (Mrs. Ruth Forrest, Psycho Beach Party); Charles P. Stites (Norman Bulansky, The Boys Next Door); Travis Tinnin (Arnold Wiggins, The Boys Next Door);
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Comedy: Elizabeth Doss (Daphne Stillington, Present Laughter); Ileana Herrin (Puck, A Midsummer Nigh’s Dream); Gina Houston (Henrietta Iscariot, Saint Monica, Juror 3, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot); Helen Merino (Monica Reed, Present Laughter); Adriene Mishler (Sarah, A Thought in Three Parts); Jennifer Underwood (Lotte Schoen, Lettice and Lovage)
DRAMAS
Outstanding Production of a Drama: Funnyhouse of a Negro (ACC Drama Department & ProArts Collective); The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Different Stages); My Child, My Child, My Alien Child (Hyde Park Theatre); Take Me Out (Zachary Scott Theatre Center); The Women of Lockerbie (City Theatre Company);
Outstanding Director of a Drama: Lowell Bartholomee (A Beautiful View); Robert Faires (An Almost Holy Picture); Katie Pearl (Wireless-less); Dave Steakley (Take Me Out); Ken Webster (My Child, My Child, My Alien Child);
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama: Tom Chamberlain (Martin, The Goat); Zell Miller, III (himself, My Child, My Child, My Alien Child); Eugene Oh (man, Say-anything-do-anything-start-anything-go-bankrupt-and-start-anything-society); Jody Reynard (Darren Lemming, Take Me Out); Travis Tinnin (Ralph, Frozen)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama: Lee Eddy (Charlotte, Wireless-less); Kathleen Fletcher (Meredith, Stillborn); Gina Houston (Roach, Slaughter City); Feliz Dia McDonald (Sarah, Funnyhouse of a Negro); Rebecca Robinson (Stevie, The Goat)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama: Martin Burke (Mason Marzac, Take Me Out); Michael Joplin (Record, Wireless-less); Nathan Osburn (Macduff, Macbeth); Robert Pierson (Henry, Mud); Zach Thompson (Shane Mungitt, Take Me Out)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama: Elizabeth Doss (Praline, Ring Rip Rent); Michelle Flanagan (Ophelia, Hamlet); Heather Hanna (Mary Rowlandson, Have You Ever Been Assassinated?); Karen Jambon (Olive Allison, The Women of Lockerbie); Janet Hurley Kimlicko (Vida Powers, The Night Hank Williams Died)
TECHNICAL
Outstanding Set Design: Paul Davis (The Pillowman); Ann Marie Gordon (Bell(e)); Michael Raiford (Jesus Christ Superstar); Cliff Simon (Present Laughter); Chase Staggs (The Assumption)
Outstanding Lighting Design: Jason Amato (Hamlet); Jason Amato (Take Me Out); Jason Amato (Trickster); Autum Casey (Marat/Sade); Stephen Pruitt (Macbeth)
Outstanding Sound Design: Craig Brock (Take Me Out); Clemencia Zapata & Mariachi Diamante (La Pastorela); Jason Newman (Rainbow Family of the Serendipitous Now); Phillip Owen (Thoroughly Modern Millie); Justin Sherburn (Sweet Eros)
Outstanding Costume Design: Susan Branch (My Favorite Year); Susan Branch (Present Laughter); Marann Faget (The Constant Wife); Pamela Fletcher-Friday (Thoroughly Modern Millie); Talena Martinez (Bell(e))
Outstanding Music Director: Jill Blackwood (As You Like It); Austin Haller (Present Laughter); Jeffrey Jones-Ragona (Ruddigore); Michael McKelvey (Assassins); Allen Robertson (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Outstanding Choreographer: Aaron Alexander (As You Like It); Tina Gramann (Take Me Out); Stacey Huston (Parade); Robin Lewis (The Rocky Horror Show); Julia M. Smith (The Assumption)
Outstanding Original Script: Ron Berry, Rebecca Beegle, Sonnet Blanton, Jeffrey Mills, Chase Staggs & Cyndi Williams (The Assumption); Zell Miller, III (My Child, My Child, My Alien Child); David Modigliani (Wireless-less); Eugene Oh (Say-anything-do-anything-start-anything-go-bankrupt-and-start-anything-society) Dick Price (At Home With Dick 2);
Outstanding Original Score: Boone Graham & Adam Hilton (Intermission); Dick Price (At Home With Dick 2); Graham Reynolds (Have You Ever Been Assassinated?); Chad Salvata (The Dragonfly Princess)
SPECIAL
Outstanding Ensemble Performance: Katie Bender & Joey Hood (Mary Jr. & Abe Jr., Have You Ever Been Assassinated?); Kelli Bland, Rosaruby Glaberman, Matt Hislope & Josh Meyer (the hostelers, A Thought in Three Parts); Kurt Mueller, Sermini, Aron Taylor & Ron Weisberg (the crew, Wireless-less); Gary Payne & Nathan Jerkins (Andrew & Milo, Sleuth); Breanna Stogner & Kathleen Fletcher (Kathy & Mo, Parallel Lives: The Kathy & Mo Show)
Outstanding Youth Performance: Taylor Flanagan (Liza Minnelli, Tiny Tim, An Xmas Carol); Sean Maddox (Ryan Evans, High School Musical); Aaron Moten (Jimmy, Thoroughly Modern Millie); Kelli Schultz (Sharpay Evans, High School Musical); Luz Zamora (San Miguel, La Pastorela)
Outstanding Special Theatrical Event: Bell(e): The Museum of Suicide Machinery (ethos); The Great Disappearing Act (Heloise Gold and Beverly Bajema); love conjure/blues (Conjure Productions)
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25,000+ attend Austin Museum Day
Austin (hearts) its museums.
At least that seems to be the conclusion after the 10th annual Austin Museum Day held Sept. 23. The Austin Museum Partnership reports that at least 25,886 headed to the 30 participating museums and historic sites.
As expected, the bigger institutions — Austin Children’s Museum, Austin Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art and the Bullock State History Museum — had big turnouts. But smaller destinations pulled in their share of the crowds. Some 1,758 showed up at Umlauf Sculpture Garden while 1,879 headed to Pioneer Farms. Mexic-Arte Museum attracted 1,188 and more than 1,000 admired snakes and frogs at the Austin Nature and Science Center.
Look for the next AMP events in December when participating museums host holiday sales in their shops.
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