Recent Reviews
Review: Pivot by Performa/Dance
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 22, 2024
PIVOT, organized by Performa/Dance, swam in the milieu of new ballet with always striking and often surprising interpretations and movement. Here was a new Alice for a modern Wonderland.
The group ballet show Pivot has just closed its brief run at Austin Ventures Studio in downtown Austin. Produced by Performa/Dance, Pivot was exemplary of new ballet, which incorporates new concepts and performance practices and addresses social issues. Performa/Dance deconstructs creative material that comes its way, embracing hybridity and incorporating new media and forms unusual or unheard of in traditional ballet. Yet the company’s performances can be considered nothing other than ballet. Hence the fault …
Review: Trash Planet by Bottle Alley Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 21, 2024
On a morbidly static trash planet playwright Kansas creates vignettes of hardships, backstories from previous lives, and a despairing determination to return to the fascistic hell Earth has become.
Bottle Alley Theatre Company has been doing "DIY Punk Theatre" since I first encountered them twelve years ago, thanks to an invite from founder Chris Fontanes. He and like-minded young theatre artists have remained true to that slogan ever since, scheming and dreaming tales that often deal with the dark, the dreaded, and the fantastic. Early on, they grubbed up free spaces, often outdoors, but as Fontanes' determination was recognized by the Austin arts …
Review: The Wizard of Oz by San Pedro Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 17, 2024
Playing cleverly against the revered 1939 film version, Jenny Lavery's production brings THE WIZARD OF OZ "home" to San Antonio.
The Wizard of Oz production now playing at the venerable San Pedro Playhouse in San Antonio vividly presents the story told by the 1939 MGM film and adds clever, striking production values throughout. It's a huge show -- a cast of twenty-seven, including furry four-legged Dolly Ebarra in the role of Toto -- and it mobilizes a host of staff members, supporters, and volunteers. Especially spectacular are the visuals provided by Jimmy Moore's imaginative …
Review: Borderless by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 02, 2024
Andrea Ariel's multi-ethnic, multi-generational workshop exercises flowered orange into a collection of borderless stories danced by talented performers to driving music with Latino/Western flavor.
Borders aren’t just the boundary lines between nations. Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre explored the many meanings of the term and how at the center of the concept borders divide. Hence the title Borderless and the theme of overcoming divisions among people. As Andrea Ariel writes in promotional material, “What connects us and disconnects [us] as humans across ethnicities and cultures?” She asked guest choreographers and musicians to answer that question and bring together their …
Review: The Lehman Trilogy by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 26, 2024
An undeniable tour de force, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY is the fastest three hours you're likely ever to spend in a theatre. Dave Steakley's bold choice and these three shape-shifting actors stretch the boundaries of theatrical storytelling.
The Lehman Trilogy is an undeniable tour de force delivered by its three actors Peter Frechette, Susan Lynskey, and Nick Lawson, whose energy, stamina, and precision make the production's three acts and more than three hours fly by with blinding speed. The production itself will fly by, as well, for it's scheduled for a run of only three weeks, from June 19 to July 7, a realistic programming decision for a work this intense, …
Review: EXIT STRATEGY by Beyond August Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 23, 2024
EXIT STRATEGY is a sensitive, impressive portrait of hopes raised and hopes menaced. Vivid characters clash; the mute witness of a Black student embodies playwright Holter's message.
No, this small, impressive play is not a comedy. That tag line was probably a marketing decision, for laughter attracts more viewers than drama, just as honey lures more bees than vinegar. The ambitious and alert Beyond August Productions brings us Exit Strategy by Chicago playwright Ike Holter. It's set firmly in Chicago's divisions of class, race, and ethnicity. Austin is but a faint echo of all that, but even so, the gentrification that …