The Tempest is relatively popular today, perhaps because the story, in which a banished duke uses his magic powers to control and manipulate a sprite, an orphaned child, and to orchestrate a marriage for his own daughter, is ripe material for post-modernist, post-colonial, post-feminist, post-whatever interpretation. If deconstruction exhausts you, this production, which is at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts through September 26, is probably a good bet. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella has assembled a cast of accomplished vets and energetic newcomers for a classical-feeling interpretation: the audience never doubts that Prospero's magic is real, and even though he is a bit of a controlling dad with delusions of grandeur, he does seem to want happiness for his daughter, and the story ends on the redemptive, uplifting note that is characteristic of the romance plays. more ›

Let us begin with a succinct review for Austin Shakespeare’s production of Romeo and Juliet, currently playing for Free at Zilker. Ready? Here it is: WOO-HOO! Though that’s all you really need to know, here’s a little more for you stickler-for-details types. more ›

Beginning this Thursday, Austin Shakespeare offers up the latest twist on the young romantics, as the 24th annual FREE Shakespeare in Zilker Park season opens and runs through June 7th, playing at the Sheffield Hillside Theatre (across the parking lot from Barton Springs). This bicultural interpretation, directed by Ann Ciccolella, is set in Central Texas in the 1940’s and looks at the story through a Mexican-American lens, including some dialogue delivered in Spanish. more ›

When reviewing Wilde, as when reviewing Shakespeare, there is an overwhelming desire by the reviewer to seem as brilliant, poetic, and insightful. This is, of course, impossible, so at the risk of sound oh so trite, we will begin by simply stating that An Ideal Husband as produced by Austin Shakespeare is ideal in many respects. more ›

Since appointing new AD Ann Ciccolella last fall, Austin Shakespeare has been kickin' ass and takin' names. // The director-less, self-dubbed "brats of theater," Bedlam Faction, have returned. // SVT has a trouserload of programming this month, including Twelfth Night, produced by Kadigan and Mountweazel. more ›