Andrew Friedenthal

Decades before Hamilton, the hardest ticket to get on Broadway was for Jonathan Larson’s RENT, a reinvention of Puccini’s La bohème set in New York City’s east village during the 1990s. Though the AIDS crisis at the heart of the play may be somewhat abated today, the larger issues of health, homelessness, love and sexuality remain extremely pertinent. This 20th anniversary touring production is presented by Broadway in Austin.

St. Edward’s University’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre kicks off its own 2017-2018 season with Eugene Ionesco’s classic absurdist drama Rhinoceros, in which the inhabitants of a small town in the French countryside turn into the titular horned mammal. Directed by David Long, this is the first show in a season that will explore what the rise of fascism in a democracy looks like.

Sarah DeLappe’s acclaimed debut play, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, gets its first production outside of New York City at Austin’s Hyde Park Theater (completing a year of plays written by women). Directed by Ken Webster, the play tells the story of an indoor girls soccer team, providing the opportunity for many young Austin actresses to get a well-deserved spotlight.

TexArts’ professional production series brings a bit of Texas flare to the dog days of summer with a new mounting of Carol Hall, Larry King and Peter Masterson’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Directed by Austin musical theater veteran Sarah Gay, this high-energy show should be a romping, racy good time.

William Shakespeare’s timeless tale of star-crossed lovers is the perfect fodder for a balletic interpretation, as Stephen Mills’ all-ages production of Romeo & Juliet with Ballet Austin shows. These performances also feature live accompaniment from the Austin Symphony Orchestra, playing Sergei Prokofiev’s classic score.

This stage adaptation of the classic MGM movie musical kicks off ZACH Theatre’s 85th anniversary season, with direction by Abe Reynold, choreography by Dominique Kelly, and musical direction by Allan Robertson. This is the musical’s first production in Austin, and ZACH promises classic songs, delightful comedic hijinks, and, yes, even a healthy dose of rain!

Penfold Theatre presents its own Halloween offering, playwright Stephen Mallatratt's haunting The Woman in Black, adapted from the Susan Hill novel. Opening on London’s West End in 1989, the original production is still running. However, thanks to Penfold, Austin audiences needn’t travel to the UK in order to appreciate this spooky drama about two men’s obsessive excavation of history and memory.

Undeterred by losing their own performance space this past year, Salvage Vanguard Theater brings Virginia Grise’s topical and contemporary play blu to the Dougherty Arts Center. Directed by Florinda Bryant, this “epic poem for the stage” follows a queer Chicana/o family caught in the explosive after-effects of prison, hunger, desire, and war, as they try to envision an earth and sky without the police and their helicopters.

This gothic opera by Chad Salvata, directed by Bonnie Cullum, is a co-production of Ethos and the VORTEX, designed to put audiences in the proper mood for Halloween. The show promises stunning costumes, immersive sets, lighting, and sound, and a bloody good time for mature audiences who are all right with nudity and stage violence.

The first part of Blue Lapis Light dance company’s new work, Belonging, will turn the Seaholm District Plaza into a site-specific venue for a performance that addresses the natural beauty of the planet in the context of our very human relationships to one another.

Robert Schenkkan’s extremely topical new play, Building the Wall—written following the November 2016 presidential election—imagines a future dystopia of restrictive, draconian border and immigration policies. This timely, not-to-be-missed professional regional premiere at the University of Texas at Austin is directed by Brant Pope and features actors Franchelle Stewart Dorn and David Sitler.

When they first met at the University of Texas, playwright Nicole Oglesby and director Marian Kansas had no idea that they would one day co-found a theater company. Now, several years later, the two are preparing to embark on their second production as the Heartland Theatre Collective (the first production, Dust, was at the tail end of 2016). We spoke to the talented duo in order to learn more about how they brought the collaborative spirit of college theater out into the real world—and about their commitment to showcasing powerful Texas women. How did your collaboration at UT Austin lead to establishing the Heartland Theatre Collective? Oglesby: We met our senior year of college in a class on entrepreneurship and the performing arts. The class focused on defining who we were as artists and navigating the professional theater world. Realizing we had similar interests, we decided we wanted to make work together after college. When Marian asked me if I had a play she could direct, I put the script for Dust in her hands. She read it immediately and told me she wanted to make it happen onstage. Now, two years later, we have more experience and refinement, but we still have the same excitement and passion for the work we had as students. Can you speak a little bit about your collaborative process, both as a writer/director team and as co-founders of Heartland?Oglesby: The co-founder/producer component of our jobs work well because Marian and I are both extremely hardworking and dr

Austin’s Generic Ensemble Company, also known as GenEnCo, is something of a rarity among the city’s many theater ensembles. Rather than producing classic texts, or new works by single playwrights, GenEnCo creates all-new theatrical pieces that are developed by the entire creative team, who work together to express timely social and political points of view.  Their newest project, Carmen, takes the classic French opera by Georges Bizet as the inspiration to explore issues that are crucial to Austin’s Latinx community. With an all-Latinx cast—and support from the city of Austin through its Museums and Cultural Programs Division of the Parks and Recreation Department—Carmen is a vital piece of conversation at this point in time in Austin. We spoke to the show’s director (and GenEnCo’s producing artistic director), kt shorb, to learn more about Carmen and about GenEnCo’s process in general. Most GenEnCo performances are devised by the company. Is this something that comes about through conversation, through on-your-feet rehearsal processes, or through a combination of both?It's often a combination of both. Each process is really different, but generally, we look at various source materials, have discussions, do writing exercises, and then I lead some on-our-feet sessions. For Carmen, we watched the opera as well as clips from telenovelas then wrote things we wanted to see and didn't want to see. I asked the actors to each choose a character from the opera they wanted to work with

Need a play to see with your bestie? The newest production from Austin’s Theatre en Bloc is the regional premiere of Molly Smith Metzler’s Cry It Out, a play about “the absurdities of being home with a baby, the power of female friendship, the dilemma of going back to work, and the effect class has on parenthood in America”—all incredibly timely issues. We spoke to director Lily Wolff in order to unpack some of the play’s deeper layers. This play focuses on motherhood, both the highs and the lows. How does it approach that topic in a way we don't often see in popular culture?This play is about friendship as much as it is about being a mom. These characters are lonely, just like (let's face it) most of us are—we live in an isolating society. It's hard to walk up to someone and ask them to be your friend. It's hard to meet new people as a working/parenting/married adult. As an adult, period. It's about being brave enough, strong enough, vulnerable enough (desperate enough!) to ask for what you need from the strangers around you. These moms (and dads) are struggling, and that struggle isn't glossed over or made palatable for public consumption. I feel, for women (and moms especially), there's an immense amount of pressure to be pleasing and perfect at all times. The play totally rejects that. How do you think this play relates to current debates in our culture about motherhood and related topics such as abortion, maternity leave and postpartum depression?It's brutal the way we

Spring has officially sprung here in Austin, meaning it’s time for all of your annual outdoor “get them in before it’s too hot to stand outside” traditions. For the theater lovers amongst us, that includes the pleasure of enjoying a few outdoor productions of musicals and classic works. Here are three upcoming outdoor performances to look forward to, all of which are free to the public. The Merry Wives of WindsorSpring always comes into bloom for Austin theater fiends with a bit of Shakespeare in the Park, courtesy of Austin Shakespeare. After the fun and success of last year’s raucous The Comedy of Errors, the company returns to the Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theater with a somewhat lesser-known Shakespearean comedy: The Merry Wives of Windsor. The production, which is inspired by classic sitcoms, will focus on the text’s family-friendly hijinks and, of course, its witty, whimsical women of Windsor as they spar with Shakespeare’s classic comedic foil, Sir John Falstaff.Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theater, May 3-27, Thu-Sun at 8pm; free admission Much Ado About NothingNot content to let Austin Shakespeare have all the fun, Round Rock-based Penfold Theatre will be presenting its own “Penfield in the Park” production of a classic Shakespearean comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. Produced at the Round Rock Amphitheater in partnership with the Round Rock Parks & Recreation Department, the play mixes lowbrow hilarity with poetic romance to create the perfect mix of

In the early days of Hitler’s reign, prior to the outbreak of international hostilities with the rest of Western Europe, an organized rescue effort developed in the United Kingdom to save Jewish children from countries threatened by the Nazis. This effort, known as the Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”) saved upwards of 10,000 children from facing the Holocaust. British playwright Diane Samuels’ 1993 play Kindertransport examines one such child, named Eva, as she grows up in England with a British foster mother, trying to assimilate to the culture while still haunted by all she has left behind. A new production of the play, co-produced by Austin Jewish Repertory Theatre (AJRT) and Trinity Street Players (TSP), taps into debates over immigration and refugeeism in an era where those issues are as timely as ever. According to TSP artistic director Ann Zárate, the timing was intentional. “I wanted a script that not only allowed TSP to partner with AJRT, but that also spoke to the contemporary climate of America,” she explains. “With the separation of church and state blurred by unchecked nationalism, a question arises: Will America allow history to repeat itself in its latent and blatant racism and sexism?” She adds, “We are closing our borders to needy families and children, victims of horrible gang and political crimes in their home countries.” To direct this weighty, loaded text, the natural choice was James Lindsay, who has not only performed in and directed

The Austin theater scene is a delightful hodgepodge of productions, from classic musicals of the American canon to cutting-edge dramas straight from Off Broadway. And there are always talented creators looking to put together something entirely new—like these four world premiere works to look forward to this spring: A Night in RioOne hidden secret of Austin is that our city is home to the country’s largest samba performance group—Austin Samba. This spring, 80 of the company’s 150 volunteer performers will take to the stage at ZACH Theater for one day only to present A Night in Rio, a brand new piece of musical theater that utilizes dance and drums to explore Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro. The show loosely follows a samba school on the night before Carnaval, utilizing the narrative as a way to showcase electrifying performances backed up by an irresistible percussive beat.Austin Samba at ZACH’s Topfer Theater, April 21 at 2pm & 7:30pm; $23-$31. TrioThis new play by internationally produced playwright Sheila Cowley is receiving its world premiere courtesy of The Filigree Theatre, who will close out their inaugural season with the production. Directed by Elizabeth V. Newman, Trio uses childlike creativity to explore the very adult issue of a romantic triangle. Actors Leslie and Tim are rehearsing a children’s show in a spooky old garage when Fletcher, Tim’s old college love, appears and throws their lives into even greater chaos. The show promises to use “a dreamlike space” to exam

Ten events, over ten months, in each of Austin’s ten districts. That's how one of Austin’s most experimental and avant-garde theater companies, the Rude Mechanicals (more affectionately known as Rude Mechs), described their 21st season of new works, called crushAustin. After losing their home of almost two decades, the Off Center, due to property owner UT Austin pricing them out, the theater collective decided to turn tragedy into opportunity by exploring “every nook and cranny of Austin with the very best new independent cultural productions.” April marks the tenth month of crushAustin, and thus its grand finale. Or does it? We spoke to co-producing artistic directors Lana Lesley and Kirk Lynn to find out more about the two performances that the Rude Mechs have in this month’s Fusebox Festival—a one-man show written and performed by Lynn called The Cold Record and a free, interactive event called Grageriart. What makes these two pieces a fitting end to the crushAustin season?Lesley: These two pieces aren't really the end of the crushAustin season. The end of the season will be marked by a piece called Lost Austin, which we can't talk about quite yet. But Grageriart and The Cold Record are notable because they're a part of our Perverse Results series, which is a long-form experiment in episodic collaboration that centers on us trying to find the creative opportunity in competing schedules, hidden talents and disparate personal interests by making smaller independent projects

Well before last month’s tragic events in Parkland, Florida—and the resurgent national conversation about gun control that followed—Austin’s Theatre en Bloc was preparing the world premiere of The Secretary, a new play that tackles many of the issues dominating recent headlines. The Secretary, by playwright Kyle John Schmidt, is about an elderly secretary at a high school who is confronted by a gun-toting threat in her office. In response, a local gun company names their latest gun "The Secretary." But when the weapon goes into production, guns start being fired all over town—"and no one's pulling the trigger."  It's a dramatic premise with a comedic outline, using a goofy situation to explore some very serious issues. The impetus for that story, according to Schmidt, was his own mother. “Several years ago, an Olympic marksman rolled into my hometown and taught my mom and her friend Marge how to shoot in a goat pasture,” Schmidt explains. “My mom got really into guns, and not just for sport but also for self-protection. The more I talked with her, the more I understood why a woman of a certain age who lives in the country would want to carry a gun. But this also got me thinking about who else should have a gun, why they should have it and where they should be able to bring it.” As his background might suggest, Schmidt did not approach the play from the solidly pro-gun control stance one might expect from an Austin theater company. According to director Jenny Lavery, that was

At the Austin Critics Table Awards last year, playwright and performer Zell Miller III used his induction into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame to call out local theater companies and critics for inaccurately representing the diversity found among Austin’s artists. His words hit home with the crowd and reinforced a commitment to elevate inclusion in the city’s theater scene—starting with Miller himself. In December 2017, Miller launched his own company, ZM3 Live Productions, to highlight the city's African-American community. “[ZM3 Live Productions] is going to give you this culture that you can absorb and then walk away thinking, This isn’t what I hear on the radio or see in the news,” he explains. The company’s upcoming schedule includes works by Miller and variety shows that present the best of local hip-hop, comedy and dance; one of ZM3’s recent productions, Oh, Snap! My Alien Children Are Trying to Kill Me, was a humorous and insightful look at the joys and challenges of raising kids of color in today's landscape. Another new Austin company has focused on making performances accessible. The Filigree Theatre, a female-driven company cofounded by locals Elizabeth V. Newman and Stephanie Moore, provides affordable ticket prices and creates resources for visually impaired audience members. “We hope that by making different elements of the theatergoing experience accessible—physically, financially, psychologically—that Filigree will nurture and grow diverse audiences and theater

Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit is, ostensibly, a play. But it’s also something more than that. The Iranian playwright’s most well-known work has become a world-wide sensation, performed in more than 20 languages by an array of actors both A-list and amateur. Ground Floor Theatre’s production of the play, running from March 15 to 31, will star an eclectic mix of performers out of Austin’s arts scene, from drag queen Rebecca Havemeyer to poet/playwright Zel Miller III and author/filmmaker Owen Egerton. So what makes this play so popular and unique? It’s hard to say without risking a major spoiler, but each time the text is performed it must be by a new actor who has never read the script or seen White Rabbit Red Rabbit performed. The actor’s on-the-fly performance—one that becomes increasingly threatening—is a vital part of this theatrical experience. According to Ground Floor Theatre’s artistic director Lisa Scheps, this play is not just a meta-theatrical stunt, but also a powerful artistic statement for our time: “Nassim Soleimanpour wrote this as an exercise of a playwright communicating directly with their audience. He does this with flair and fun and a bit of mystery.” The performers, of course, are much more in the dark about White Rabbit Red Rabbit than Scheps. She explains, “That is one of the prerequisites. They receive ‘instructions’ two days before their performance, but it gives away very little.” Owen Egerton, who will be performing the role on March

SXSW 2018 is almost upon us, which means Austinites will soon be faced with close to two week of music, movies, panel discussions and, of course, traffic jams. Amidst all of the high-profile events, though, it might be easy to overlook some cool theater-related happenings that are part of this year’s festival. If you’re a theater geek trying to find your way through a music/movies/tech festival, we’ve got you. Check out these SXSW events that are geared towards theater lovers, all of which are conveniently happening on the same day: March 13. Be sure to check the links to each event for badge requirements. Choreographing the City: Policy through PerformanceFor the local dance fan, SXSW has you covered with this panel all about Forklift Danceworks, an Austin-based company that produces unique performance projects in collaboration with diverse communities. The panelists will discuss the company’s newest work, the Pools Project, which “uses dance to engage historically disenfranchised communities on the East Side of Austin.” Four Seasons, Ballroom CD, Mar 13, 9:55am-10:40am Brave New World: The Future of Theatre & TechThis is the SXSW event for theater geeks, as it features several industry experts (including Sarah Ellis, the director of digital development for the Royal Shakespeare Company) discussing the ways in which technology—like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)—will influence the future development of live theater. If you want to know what a night out at th

The fall of the Enron Corporation was one of the biggest scandals of the early 2000s; today, the company is still held up as one of the biggest examples of modern corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal has since been explored through a number of different lenses, from books to documentaries to TV movies, but one of the most interesting perspectives comes in the form of a stage play by British playwright, Lucy Prebble. Prebble is best known for black comedies that explore issues of sex, love and desire. Her 2009 play, ENRON, is something of a departure, as it focuses instead on the business and politics of Enron’s shady accounting, all of which led to the company’s downfall. Starting this week, the University of Texas’ Department of Theatre and Dance will present ENRON with a unique twist—the cast is composed entirely of women and non-binary actors. We spoke to director Hannah Wolf in order to learn more about this distinctive production. What drew you to this text at this particular moment?It's relevant to today in how it explores the power that corporations have in the U.S. and how we see that legacy thriving through government and big business. It asks us to question what's behind the drive for more success, more innovation, more money and what happens when corporations value money over humanity. Lucy Prebble is a British playwright looking at the rise and fall of an American corporation. Does her outsider perspective play into the text at all?I think that her outside