Reviews for Red Dragon Players, Austin High School Performances
Review: The Cinderella Waltz by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 25, 2012
Despite Samantha Melomo's stepmother readiness to trim feet with an axe as necessary to get 'em into that magic slipper, pretty much everyone comes out pleased at the end
The mischievous Don Nigro puts the Cinderella fairy tale into a humorous trailer-park context and sends it spinning around so unpredictably that you're never quite sure whether the sweet, mistreated Rosie Snow is going to turn up roses or not. Shannon Tipton directed a one-act version of the story last week as her inaugural outing with the Austin High School Red Dragons with their 401st stage production. It was a "novice" production with a cast …
Review: The Magic Fire by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 13, 2011
The Magic Fire covers ground that has been covered elsewhere -- in many a play or film about life in wartime Europe, for example -- and it does so with a rewarding wealth of character and detail.
The Red Dragon Players at Austin High School consistently perform at levels considerably above those of their peers, a fact confirmed once again last year when their Over The Tavern was judged the winner among the one-act plays presented by the largest high schools in Texas. There's some good fortune and serendipity involved there, as well as healthy geographic/demographic input, but a good deal of the credit must go to Billy Dragoo, head of the theatre …
Review: Mad Forest by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 19, 2010
Pacing is sublime, suggesting a hesitancy, an overcoming and then a willingness to reveal these desires both to themselves and to one another. The act gathers speed and intensity in a crowded family scene including the shocking spectacle of a gleeful re-enactment of the execution of the Ceaucescus
Theatre is a lens. The audience and the players look through the action in the playing space to perceive a story in the collective imagination. That story may be entertaining, or trivial, or profound, and the clarity of the vision is directly affected by the skill of the players and the willingness of the audience to engage. The themes may be familiar. Take vampires, for instance. The century-old thrills of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel …
Review: Wonderland High by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 15, 2010
Katherine Schwartz's performance of "Supply and Demand" swaggers and amuses with the refrain, "You can have whatever you want -- if you've got the 'Ka-Ching'!" -- recalling a long line of pecuniarist career girls including Sally Bowles.
The Red Dragon Players at Austin High School invest themselves gallantly in this first-anywhere musical theatre premiere. The music by James Merillat in Wonderland Highis challenging and stage-quality, with several clever numbers, cleverly staged. The Players workshopped some of this material last year, according to Billy Dragoo, who runs the AHS program, and they've delivered on his promise to Merillat to stage the piece when he finished it. The book, by Merillat and Jesse Johnson, …
Review: Talking with Jane Martin, by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 18, 2010
A collection of sharp, bittersweet portraits of women, many of whom have reacted to disappointments by melting into private worlds.
Talking With is a collection of eleven monologues delivered by women characters, first staged in 1981 in Louisville, Kentucky. It played off-Broadway in 1982 to great success. The identity of playwright Jane Martin remains a mystery. All of her considerable work has first been staged at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, by that group's artistic director John Jory. This is a collection of sharp, bittersweet portraits of women, many of whom have reacted to disappointments by melting into …
Review: Season's Greetings by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 15, 2009
Every actor in this cast delivered a strong, nuanced performance. Aubrey Elenz as the needy, frustrated Belinda carried much of the overt action of the play -- not only as hostess but also as the most visibly vulnerable of these characters, all of them in need of love.
Their institution is ancient by Austin standards, with 80 years of theatre history under its present name, but the Red Dragon Players themselves are younger than most thespians in the town. They perform at Stephen F. Austin High School, at 1715 W. César Chavez near Mo-Pac, in the Praes Theatre, an impressive and well-equipped space with stadium seating three-quarters of the way around the playing area. The Red Dragons' Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn played the first two …