January/February 2017

We were voted BEST OF FEST at Frontera Fest Short Fringe 2017!

THE SHOW:

God’s Rabbit Hole

A new orginial play by Anthony Ellison

Jean is married and in the middle of a sexual crisis; she is completely unfulfilled, so she turns to God for guidance to ultimate ecstasy.

The Cast:

Daniel Berkowitz – Clyde

Nicole Oglesby – Jean

Zac Carr – Alex

Directed by Anthony Ellison

Performance dates:

January 20 & 21 at 8pm

Additional dates in February

at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St., Austin, TX 78751

January/February 2016

Unshackled

by Anthony Ellison and Neal Adelman

 A new original dark comedy produced as part of Frontera Fest BYOV 2016

About the play:

A popular conspiracy theorist has a podcast called Unshackled. His “harmless” Twitter banter leads to the kidnapping of his mother and threats by a powerful corporate force. The enemy forces him to decide between his mother or his beloved cell phone. Which will he choose?

Performance dates:

Thurs. 1/21, 9:15PM canceled

Sat. 1/23, 10PM

Tues. 1/26, 7PM

 Sat. 1/30, 2PM

Sat. 1/30, 8PM

All performances at The Backpack Theater, 2400 E. Cesar Chavez, Ste. 206, Austin, TX 78702.

Directed by Anthony Ellison

Cast:

Jonathan Flanders – Clark

David Boss – Don

Kathy Rose Center – Mother

This project was funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

July 2015

Lonely Planet

by Steven Dietz

Lonely Planet by Steven Dietz performed at The Off Center on July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 & 26! All shows at 8pm.

Directed by: Anthony Ellison

Cast:

Jonathan Flanders……………. Jody

Clint Harris………………. Carl

About the play:

“History itself is made, day by day, by all those whose names are never known, all those who were handed a place on earth and quietly made a life out of it.” – Steven Dietz

Lonely Planet revolves around two gay men, Jody and Carl, in a map store in an American city. The play, essentially, is an exploration of truth and its close relations, dream and memory. When Jody and Carl need to connect, they play “the truth game.” Jody recounts the plots of his dreams, which spur him to face the world as it is. The two friends consider how little they know of each other, how their ideas of each other are really an invention. We begin to discover that they create these realities to help each other cope with a troubling world and the disease that is crippling their community.

Lonely Planet explores the idea that we can’t change the world, but we can remember the truth of it, as accurately and as respectfully as we can. And to remember the world’s truth is to remember its people, the Carls and Jodys on the periphery of our distorted maps.

About the playwright: Steven Dietz’s thirty-plus plays have been produced at regional theaters across the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions of his work have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Greece, Singapore, and South Africa. Recent plays include the widely-produced thriller, Yankee Tavern; the Steinberg Award finalist, Becky’s New Car; the Pulitzer-nominated Last of the Boys (produced by Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago); and the Edgar Award-winning Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (from William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle). Other plays include Fiction (produced Off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company), Shooting Star, Inventing van Gogh, The Nina Variations, Private Eyes, Halcyon Days, God’s Country, and Lonely Planet (PEN-USA Award for Drama). Mr. Dietz’s work as a director has been seen at many of America’s leading regional theaters. He divides his time between Seattle and Austin, where he is a professor at the University of Texas.

 ”Lonely Planet” was presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

This project was funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

August 2014

This Is Our Youth

by Kenneth Lonergan

The play performed at The Off Center on August 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, & 10. All shows at 8pm.

OUR CAST:

Eric Austin (Dennis Ziegler)

Clint Harris (Warren Straub)

Hannah Burkhauser (Jessica Goldman)

THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan

January/February 2014

The Relentless Pursuit Of Ice

by Max Langert

The Relentless Pursuit of Ice is set in the impending desolate future, where we focus on a couple. We follow their daily life of enduring the never ending, increasingly miserable hot sun. With the weather getting hotter, and more unbearable, a special delivery is brought to their door. Choices must be made. Will this new adventure tear them apart, or bring them together?

Directed by Kyle Zamcheck

CAST

Liz: Candice Carr                   Tom: Adam Foldes                 Frankie: Jonathan Itchon

Production dates and times:

Saturday, January 25 at 8pm

Friday, January 31 at 8pm

Saturday, February 1 at 3pm

Saturday, February 1 at 8pm

Venue: The Museum of Human Achievement

This project was funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

July 2013

Raised in Captivity

by Nicky Silver

July 12, 13, 19, & 20 – 8:00p July 14 & 21 – 6:00p

At The City Theatre 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D, Austin, TX 78722

 After their mother is killed by an errant shower head, two estranged twins are re-united at her funeral. A teeth abhorring dentist, a self-mutilating therapist, and a convicted killer escalate the situation into uproarious hilarity and astonishing truth.

Raised in Captivity by Nicky Silver uses this dark absurdist comedy to explore guilt and redemption, amusement and anguish, to address the unspoken question that imprisons them, ”Why am I being punished?”

Directed by Lizz Taylor

Cast:

Andrew Robinson – Sebastian Bliss
Kara White – Bernadette Dixon
Jonathan Flanders – Kip Dixon
Kelly Matthews – Hillary MacMahon/Miranda Bliss
Keith Paxton – Dylan Taylor Sinclair/Roger

This project was funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

January-February 2013

Gods and Idols

by Jason Rainey

FronteraFest Long Fringe 2013!

Fri  1/25 – 6:00p          Sun 1/27 – 8:00p

Tue 1/29 – 8:45p          Sun 2/3   – 2:00p

May 2012

 BILLBOARD
by Michael Vukadinovich

May 11/12/17/18/19 @ 8pm and May 13 @ 2pm
Salvage Vanguard Theater

Andy gets paid a great deal to tattoo a corporate logo on his forehead. The decision has both tragic and comic consequences as he comes to learn that the logo is more than just ink on his skin. But Katelyn, his artist girlfriend, sees a very unique artistic opportunity. His body as an example of the extent to which consumerism has permeated our daily lives.Billboard is about the battle between commercialism, fame, art and love.

*Winner of the 2006 Next Generation Playwriting Contest by Reverie Productions and the 2006 Tim Robbins Playwriting Contest for Plays of Social Significance

Directed by: Lizz Taylor

Stage Manager(s): Kara White (and Ashley Rountree)

Cast:

Andy………….. Jay McKinney

Katelyn……….. Ashley Rountree

Damon…………. Sam Watson

JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2012

The Billy Ocean/Teena Marie Confluence of 1985

a new play by Max Langert

cast:  Lizz Taylor, Jay McKinney

stage manager:  Kara White

asst. stage manager:  Pratima Agrawal

The Billy Ocean/Teena Marie Confluence of 1985 centers around Allison, a young woman who is fascinated by charts and has been plotting her emotional life for the past 20 years. She shares the ups and downs of the past, specifically focusing on her love life. She seems to have a pattern of falling into one disappointing relationship after another. Her only hope lies in two love songs from the 80s, which have a seemingly karmic convergence.

SEPTEMBER 2011

STAGED READING OF “GODS AND IDOLS” Gods and Idols centers on the growing obsessions of a young couple, Harris and Joan.  While driving on the interstate a few years earlier, Harris nearly strikes a Sikh man on a bicycle.  Now Harris finds the man haunting his dreams, circling his apartment on the same bicycle.  Who is this man, and what does he want to tell Harris?  Meanwhile, Joan spends more and more time following a local musician, but who has more to gain from Joan’s loyalty?  Harris and Joan strive to comprehend their fixations without losing their identities. WHEN:  Saturday, Sept. 3rd @ 7:30pm WHERE:  29th St. Ballroom at Spider House, 2906 Fruth St. FREE ADMISSION *The reading will be followed by a Q&A with playwright Jason Rainey About the playwright:  Jason Rainey’s work has received staged readings at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, and Theatre Daedalus in Columbus, Ohio. His playSchadenfreude received a “Best of Fest” citation during Frontera Fest 2011 in Austin. Jason workshopped Gods and Idols during the Northern Writes New Play Festival this July in Bangor, Maine.