Dayna Hanson built guidance within the work for rubes like me who stress about our inability to understand this kind of performance, and that help was as refreshing and thoughtful as a good host who has invited a bunch of aliens to stay in her house. more ›

Wahoo for Rubber Rep! more ›

In Look Back in Anger's script, these four distinct voices, plus that of Alison's imperialist father , form a steely English chord. But in this production, all the actors except Bayne speak in a confident American Standard. This makes it difficult to hear the subtle changes in Osborne's dialogue, like when Alison cranks up the snoot to gab with her girlfriend, or when Jimmy gets so angry that he drops his educated lexicon for a working class invective. And the action gets really clunky when an actor attempts a Britishism, like "pop round" or "she's got no digs," while sounding straight outta Akron. more ›

An adult version of childhood magic is at work in The B. Beaver Animation, the second of the Rude Mechs' shot-for-shot re-imaginings of seminal performance works. Originally a 1974 Mabou Mines production, B. Beaver is, on one hand, a playful and obtuse poem, the ballad of a stuttering aquatic rodent toiling to save his family from disaster. But it is also an hour of ramshackle spectacle, a celebration of how shrewd theater artists can MacGyver a world out of a few key production values. more ›

Summertime in Austin seems a good season to waste with late breakfasts, midday naps, and other heat avoidance tactics. In Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, a stifling hot month spent in idleness is cause for complaint, and even violence, and the gentle pace of Breaking String's elegant production at the Off Center belies the sadness tucked away in each character's heart.
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It's 6,000 miles from Austin to Moscow (the one in Russia, not Texas), but one local theater company is striving to close that gap, bringing contemporary and classic Russian plays to life here. Breaking String, named after a much discussed stage direction in Anton Chekhov's , is led by a quartet: Liz Fisher, Robert Matney, Matt Radford, and Graham Schmidt. They call themselves Co-Producing Artistic Directors (a nod to the structure adopted by Austin's Rude Mechs). In conversation during a break in rehearsal for their latest production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, it's clear that Breaking String's creative partnership is strengthened by a mix of passion and intellect. more ›

It's a meditation on competing visions of the Wild West. It's a love story to Austin. It's about two dachshunds, a mountain lion, and the people they're tied to (sometimes literally). The Rude Mechs have managed to pack all of those things into I've Never Been So Happy, a video-enhanced, dance-spattered musical that lives up to the promise of its title. The Rude Mechs have made their name with original, collectively created theater, and their latest offering is no different. From the seed of an idea sparked five years ago, Kirk Lynn and Peter Stopschinski have built a bouncy, sweet, utterly delightful love story that's family friendly, save a few curse words more ›

One of the neat quirks about humans is that, whatever the topical or sub-level differences, there's usually a bedrock ability to empathize with others. You may not be wealthy or attractive or well-heeled and popular, but you know what it feels like to be bred to be a certain thing, and to have the repercussions of that bite you in the ass. That's the basic reason Breaking String Theater's North American premiere of Russian playwright Olga Mukhina's Flying works: despite some (possibly) untranslatable Russian-ness, and its focus upon the drug-and-sex-fueled exploits of a largely foreign economic class, the sensation of what it's like to have pieces of you selected and others discarded is one that's largely relatable. more ›

One of the hallmark strengths of Suzan Lori Parks' work is her ability to translate and make achingly familiar the foreign or estranged through simple, thick, and omnipresent metaphor. In In The Blood, one of her two riffs on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester, an illiterate homeless mother of five children by five different fathers, struggles to "get a leg up" on an impossible terrain. Wading through the mire of the welfare, medical, and social systems, she strains against those who only use her but claim she taxes them. Dehumanized, most literally via a court-advised removal of her "woman's parts", and improbably hopeful, she strives to learn the alphabet but never gets past the letter "A". A pair of shoes she refuses to wear until she has the finery to match are a sore reminder of what she might've had and cannot have, as are her children. Parks double casts the various men and women that manipulate and rely upon the heroine as her progeny, underlining the dependency and vulnerability inherent in the role of "victimizer". In the proper mouths, incantations of these "little spells" (as she calls combinations of words) pummel, corrode, and malleate the audience's perception of what poverty really means and what victimhood really entails. more ›

Shawn Sides and the Rude Mechanicals are staging a re-enactment of Dionysus in 69 (the first of its kind) in order to give contemporary theater audiences the opportunity to see the production as it was. We caught up with Sides—who's joined in this production by Schechner, who guest-directed several rehearsals—to talk about creating a re-enactment, working with an inspiration, and whether the Rude Mechs are living in the past. more ›

Proving once again that Austin is a town crawling with talent, creativity, and a most twisted sense of humor, DA! Theatre Collective’s Leave it to Beverly is a totally superb way to while away an evening. Presented as three TV episodes delivered over two acts, the show, written and directed by Kirk German, offers a send up of any number of classic old TV shows, with plenty extra pop culture references to boot. Leave it to Bev is the polar opposite of subtle, entirely intentional as German’s goal appears to be to push even further over the top the material that inspired him which, of course, was already over the top to begin with. Sitcoms are to real life what a Smiley Face is to the Mona Lisa—no room for nuance. Except… more ›

For the month of July, a nation is contained in the Off Center where Robert Faires delivers his one-man adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V directed by Catherine Weidner. In less than two hours’ traffic on the stage, Faires simply and elegantly creates not only these great characters, kings and yeomen alike, but also the entire world in which we view them. more ›

England’s most storied and inspirational warrior king is revealed in a new, one-man adaptation of the Shakespeare history starring B. Iden Payne Award-winning actor/director and Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires. more ›

Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill will be presented at The Off Center directed by Lucien Douglas, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and starring long-time Austin theatre bastions Ev Lunning, Jr. and Patricia Pearcy. more ›

Theatre is one of the few art forms whose content-delivery system remains untouched by the technological advances of the past decades. You can't download a play, or put it on an iPhone; the only real way to take it in is to physically drag your carcass down to the theatre and sit in a dark room while people make art in front of your eyes. more ›

Image courtesy Rude Mechs The Method GunThru 12/15, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmThe Off Center (map)[info] | [tickets] The Dick Monologues12/16 at 2pmHyde Park Theatre (map)12/12 at 7pm (sold out)[info] | [tickets]In this season of family-friendly fare, we're pleased to highlight a bit of naughty-naughty for your holiday pleasure. Admittedly it's something of an intellectually flavored naughty-naughty, but hey, that's how we like it. Rude Mechanicals' current show The Method Gun contains nudity! Whee! Nude Rudes!! Which... more ›

Plenty of delightful doings in A-Town this week! First, Austin is participating in Free Night of Theater 2007. The program is exactly what it sounds like: reserve tickets to see a show for free. It's like the biggest giveaway ever! And it lasts all the way through the first week of November. Only a few shows were available at press time, but we have it on good authority that new shows and fresh batches... more ›

O, the mighty men and women of Austin's stages! They get so busy this time of year. There's more than enough to choose from this week, but here are the theater picks that top our list. ProArts Collective wraps up the Black Arts Movement Festival with Incognito on Thursday at 8pm, and Spoken Word Caravan on Friday at 8pm. The former is a one-man drama, performed by author Michael Fosberg, about a man who grew... more ›

National Poetry Slam returns with a full schedule of stuff happening all over town this week, culminating in Friday and Saturday's final matches at the Paramount HBMG Foundation presents the 2007 ArtSpark Festival Visual Art Showcase at the Off Center Mayor Will Wynn and director Turk Pipkin screen "Nobelity" and "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Paramount Willie Nelson headlines the Austin Freedom Fest 2007, joined by the likes of Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling... more ›

Thursday, June 28 artOpening Reception for Whitney Lee: Power Craft at Women and Their Work, 1710 Lavaca Street (6-8pm) artOpen House Work Viewing at Atelier 3-D, 2209 Pasadena Drive (4-10pm) artArtistic License: Josefina Guilisasti at The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress Ave (Free, 6-8pm) booksAmanda Eyre Ward presents Forgive Me at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedyPat Dixon with Brendon Walsh at Cap City Comedy Club comedyParallelogramophonograph with special guests Look Cookie at ColdTowne Theater (8pm)... more ›

Yellow Tape Construction Company, the masters of self-promotion that they are, have so much weird, entertaining content on their website...it's a more than a little addicting. Our recent favorite, by far, is a funky video of Yellow Taper Doug Rutherford doing some, er, Yellowtape-ish things with a balloon and a scarf and his face. Just...yeah. Check it out. We imagine the highly anticipated YTCC production, But, I Could Do That, opening tonight and running this... more ›

Thursday, June 21 comedy Christian Finnegan at Cap City Comedy Club music Emo’s 15th Anniversary Week with De La Soul, Word Association, Just Born, DJ Notion at Emo’s music Buddy Guy, The Greyhounds at Stubb’s music US Air Guitar Championships at The Parish Room music The Score at Beerland music Discovery School Fundraiser w/Gary Clark Jr., Johnny Moeller, Mike Barfield, Ephraim Owens & more at Continental Club music Doc Watson, Jack Lawrence, Richard Watson... more ›

FRIDAY [15] juneteenth/parade • Alvin Patterson Battle of the Bands and Drumline Competition at Congress Avenue (2pm) books • Lama Surya Das presents Buddha is as Buddha Does at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • Billy D Washington with Doug Mellard at Cap City Comedy Club comedy • Punchline, open mic stand up comedy at ColdTowne Theater (10pm) dance • Constellation, a site-specific dance work from Sally Jacques at Pickle & Thornberry Federal Courthouses (9pm) dance... more ›

FRIDAY [27] music • While You Were Out, presented by Bueno Music Bureau, with The Unbearables, She Sir, The Scripts, Friday After Dark at Club de Ville ($5) books • Anita Gonzalez, Ph.D., presents Dancing Between Myth and Reality at CAAAS (UT - Jester A232) (3:00pm) comedy • Tig Notaro and Steve Burr at Cap City Comedy Club comedy • Punchline, open mic stand up comedy at ColdTowne Theater (10pm) dance • Fetish and Other... more ›

WEDNESDAY [25] comedy • Tig Notaro and Steve Burr at Cap City Comedy Club books • BookPeople's First Annual Spelling Bee at BookPeople (7:00pm, 13 and under) books • Jacqueline Taylor presents Waiting for the Call: From Preacher's Daughter to Lesbian Mom at BookWoman (7:00pm) dance • Fetish and Other Dances, part of Refraction Arts' Fuse Box Festival at The Off Center (8pm) film • "The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico" at Alamo... more ›

Sadly, it is upon us. We'd say they saved the best for last, but the whole darn fest has been great from start to finish. Along those lines, all of the offerings these last several days look to be par excellence. Here're just a few. The Blue Screen International Program, Part I, curated by Lisa Kaselak. (Read Lisa's interview with Refraction Arts' Ron Berry here.) This 1.5 hour program, tonight only, 8pm at the Blue... more ›

FRIDAY [20] benefit/music • Ashera-Blare-A IV with All In the Golden Afternoon, The Heirs, The Minderchucks, and The Otters at Club DeVille beer/party • Black Star Co-op's Craft Beer Celebration with Pong, Opposite Day, The Second Line Social, and fine craft beer from around the country at Fiesta Gardens (8pm-Midnight, $10) comedy • Punchline, open mic stand up comedy at ColdTowne Theater (10pm) dance • Room, part of Refraction Arts' Fuse Box Festival at The... more ›

FRIDAY [19] film • AFS presents a new 35mm print of The Rules of the Game at Dobie Theatre film • Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival 2007 at Alamo Downtown (7pm, 9:30pm, 11:58pm) Most events are probably back on schedule, but call ahead just to be sure. music • The Weird Weeds, W-S Burn, Brian Sookram, Jonathan Horne at The Peacock ($3, 9pm) art • Two Mongolian Artists From Two Generations: D.... more ›

THURSDAY [18] Beware of possible cancellations today and tomorrow -- call ahead! film • Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival 2007 at Alamo Downtown (7pm, 9:30pm) film • Terror Thursdays: Revenge from Planet Ape at Alamo Downtown music • Carrots, Darling New Neighbors, The Sleepwalkers at Emo's music • Spaceinvader Orchestra, Supercontinent, Kosmodrome at Emo's Lounge music • Shuttle Debris, Matson Belle, Ear of Anon at Stubb's music • "Smash" video release, Chingo... more ›

FRIDAY [12] Some of you have asked that we publish the Weekend IST List on Thursdays, in order to better help you plan your goings-on. We're happy to oblige. Starting today, we'll be including Friday-Sunday listings both on Thursday and Fridays. --Ed. Note music • Yacht Rock Party with DJ Starsign -- Chicago, Steely Dan, America, Air Supply, Toto, Boz Scaggs, Loggins and Messina, Carole King, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Doobie Brothers, Seals and... more ›