by Michael Meigs
Published on June 30, 2023
The reveals of WRAITH RADIO, when they come, are well foreshadowed and satisfying—if, that is, yielding to the void can ever seem satisfying to those still quivering with life.
Chris Fontanes's parable Wraith Radio portrays delirium and last hours of an injured soldier isolated in some dark time and place. The work debuted in a shabby warehouse in South Austin in 2016. The playwright's ragtag Bottle Alley Theatre Company was born in an equally devastated punk locale in 2012, and they've crept from one found venue to another since—proof of the ingenuity and dogged determination of DIY theatre makers. The 2016 Wraith Radio …
by Justin M. West
Published on May 20, 2022
"That was one of the best performances I have ever seen," I told Abby Ferree, the solo protagonist. I stand by that. "You're amazing," I told director Allison Price.I regret not finding better words for an unforgettable and transformative experience.
For years I have maintained, as I likely always will, that theatre is not and should never be a "safe space." I am not referring to the creation process, of course. The creation of a piece, from its inception to its rehearsals and performances, should absolutely be a safe space for all involved. The safety of performers and those supporting them is paramount. But the art, itself? The ideas and emotions it evokes and …
by Justin M. West
Published on November 21, 2020
WILDCRAFT is a participatory exercise, extremely immersive. Our fingertips relish in the touch of unfamiliar herbs. Our ears parse our host December’s carefully crafted, wistful and alluring oration. Bottle Alley has done something exceedingly special.
2020 has been a year of sacrifice and loss. We’ve traded abundance for scarcity, kinship for solitude, and whim for measured compromise. For those of us with a creative spirit and for whom trips to the theatre were a mainstay of our nights and weekends, the inability to enjoy the arts—or the outright unavailability of them—has served as a poignant reminder that we’ve been taking it all for granted. Joni Mitchell was right. …
by Justin M. West
Published on September 14, 2018
BLACK DOG's running themes are abuse and social anxiety. Attachment and retribution. The bonds of love and friendship, and the deepest caverns of human depravity. Through lengthy monologues and thoughtful abstractions, the audience is forced to ask... why?
Bottle Alley, brainchild of local playwright Chris Fontanes, is nothing if not offbeat. If you're in the mood to dress to the nines and buy your trophy wife a $9 plastic cup half-filled with some shitty Merlot or another, this is not the theatre company for you. However, if you desire something original, risky, and challenging, and you don't mind using bug spray before watching a show in a creepy ass barn filled with shit …
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 11, 2018
Behind the laughter was a keen sense of the absurdity and difficulty of lives of young adults; they invited us in, revealed themselves and just about knocked our socks off with energy and revelations.
The eleven actor/writer/participants in Bottle Alley's Self Portraits filled the Back Pack's hole-in-the-wall space in East Austin with exuberant energy reminiscent of summer camps, stand-up comedy fests and drama therapy sessions. This was a real smörgåsbord of an evening, a festive intellectual table of unpredictable experiences. These celebrants had worked up thirty pieces averaging about two minutes each, and the numbered sheets hung on a line high across the stage. Audience members were encouraged to …
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 03, 2017
Apocalypse succeeds as an evocation not of the classic notion of apocalypse, the world ending in fire or in ice, but in intimate finales of accumulating inertia and unknowing.
You need ingenuity if you're a small theatre company facing Austin's squeeze of performing space. Equipped spaces are recording reservations well out into 2019. On the other hand, if you're a determined ad hoc band of performers not worried about the inquisition forces of the City of Austin, you can put up your tents virtually anywhere. The world is wide. And if you have no tents either, the woods are lovely, dark and deep. …