LNT@the Alley Auditions - "The Mexican"

Beowulf Alley’s LNT@the Alley Holds Auditions

The Mexican by Ulises Soto

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre’s Late Night Theatre, LNT@the Alley, will hold open auditions for The Mexican on Sunday Jan. 31st at 8:30 p.m. at the theatre, 11 South 6^th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress). Please bring a headshot and resume if you have one. The audition will consist of a cold reading from the script.

 

Rehearsals begin February 3rd and will be scheduled according the production team’s availability, usually some late nights, weekday evenings and weekends. Performance dates are March 5,6,12 and 13.

 

Looking for:

Female (3) - mid 20s to early 30s

Male (2) - mid 20s to early 30s

Male (1) – 40s

 

Email Michael at michaelfenlason@aol.com with questions or for more information.

 

The Mexican is a controversial and timely play about border politics, sexual politics and the relationship between North Americans and Latino Americans. Funny, sexy, word-drunk and poetic, Soto’s play illustrates the strained subtle racisms within communities and --without preaching-- the need for understanding and a border solution. The play begins with a murder and ends in a kiss.

 

Facade Fantstique! Featuring Diane Van Deurzen and Lisa Otey

Façade Fantastique!

Featuring Diane Van Deurzen and Lisa Otey at Club Congress

 

A benefit concert will be held on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at Hotel Congress’ Club Congress, featuring the sweet vocals of Diane Van Deurzen and Lisa Otey, voted Best Entertainer in Tucson Lifestyle and Tucson Home magazines. There will be a live and silent auction including restaurant gift certificates, wine, merchandise, art and entertainment items. Proceeds from this event will be used to match the Façade Improvement Matching Grant awarded to Beowulf Alley Theatre by the City of Tucson as well as support the annual fund of our 501(c)(3) organization.  Improvements to the theatre include an illuminated marquee, redesigned entrance with exterior box office, new energy efficient display windows, and new lighting.

 

Doors will open at 7:00 p.m. Tickets may be purchased, and donations may be made, through Beowulf Alley Theatre online at http://www.beowulfalley.org/html/facade_fantastique.html or by phone at (520) 882-0555. Prices are $19 in advance or $24 at the door. There will be a cash bar. Appetizers and food may be purchased at The Cup Café.

 

Why not spend an evening being entertained by two of Tucson’s most talented artists? A dynamic duo - a perfect blend of hot jazz, sultry blues and cabaret. They take their act all over the world, performing at festivals, clubs and theatres but they call Tucson “home.” Their new CD, "Wild Women," celebrates 100 years of classic blues women. Diane is also a member of Lisa Otey and the Desert Divas. Lisa has been inducted into the Tucson Music Hall of Fame, the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame and appeared on the Grammy-nominated CD, "Ladies Man", by Pinetop Perkins. Lisa and Diane co-produced Lisa's 8th CD, "Trio", and Diane's debut CD, "I Never Knew," on Lisa's label, Owl's Nest Productions.

 

"Whenever these two artists perform together, people comment on their easy rapport and emotional connection. Otey's piano and vocals are hot and steamy. Van Deurzen sings sweetly. Together they blend like a musical cappuccino with extra foam on top."                   -Chuck Graham

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, a 501 (c)(3) organization, is committed to enriching the community and enhancing appreciation of the arts through the production of innovative, invigorating theatre and theatrical education with the highest standards for acting and production. 

FOOL FOR LOVE' SETS ITS OWN RULES AT BEOWULF ALLEY

THEATRE:
FOOL FOR LOVE' SETS ITS OWN RULES AT BEOWULF ALLEY
by Chuck Graham
TucsonStage.com


On its own, love has no substance. It only exists if we believe it exists. If we don't believe love exists, then poof, love turns itself off like a burned out light bulb.

Sam Shepard pursued this thought in depth when he wrote 'Fool For Love,' the new show by Beowulf Alley Theatre Company. May (Jessica Lea Risco) and Eddie (Daved Wilkins) hate each other, then hate themselves for loving each other, They can't help it. Just like the legendary bite of the Gila monster -- the more they try to pull free, the tighter they hang onto each other.

'Fool For Love' is a one-act, one-set show. Mike Sultzbach as director tosses his cast of four into a cheap motel room that becomes an emotional pressure cooker with faded paint. Actually, just three people are in the room. Dan Higgins as the Old Man sits rumpled and slouched off to the side of the stage in an equally weary chair.

Looking rustic and raw boned as a split-rail fence, the Old Man becomes the conscience of the piece. Clearly, his attitudes are from an older generation, valuing the slower pulse of a much different drummer.

May and Eddie are members ot the modern cowboy culture. They're ornery and independent as any old cowboy, but May and Eddie don't have a cowboy's eye for the horizon. They lack the patience to put up with a bone-jarring journey like a cattle drive.

They prefer in-your-face action -- and quick results. If it takes too much thinking or waiting, they get frayed with frustration. As the play opens, May and Eddie keep shouting at each other. Like two scorpions in a bucket all they can do is attack.

May is as defiant as she is insecure. The sort of winner who would apologize for making her opponent feel like such a loser. Eddie is the type who will shoot first and apologize later. At first they can't decide if they will even stay together. She accuses him of having a wealthy girlfriend. Then they can't decide, if they are going to stay together, where they should settle down.

By the time May admits she has a boyfriend who is coming to her motel room, Eddie goes ballistic.

That fellow is Martin (Eric Smith). A gentle giant with a warm heart, he just wants to do what is right -- if he only knew what that was. First Martin attacks Eddie, throwing him to the floor. Then Eddie, sensing Martin's uncertainty, begins making fun of Martin.

Then the play gets down to what it is really all about.

All four actors gave excellent performances on opening night. This is not an easy play to pull off, being full of inner tension that keeps ratcheting up the ante, making every confrontation another round of poker players' bets and challenges.

'Fool For Love' was first presented in 1983, set on the edge of America's southwestern civilization. Shepherd was always trying to find a place for old cowboy values in the New West. His connection with both cutltures is made clear by Beowulf Alley's decision to give the play an opening act.

Bill Black, a cowboy poet and student of contemporary psychology, opens each evening reciting humorous poems that remind us how this part of the United States was built by individuals of unique character. Eastern intellectuals, Southern gentlemen and solid Midwesterners were not in the equation.

Men and women like May and Eddie headed west because they didn't belong anywhere. We feel that need to stay in motion in Bill Black's poems. We meet the ramifications of it in 'Fool For Love.'

LNT@the Alley Auditions

Beowulf Alley’s LNT@the Alley Holds Auditions

For Clown Shakespeare, Nude Ascending Stairs and Half in Shadow, Half in Light!

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre’s Late Night Theatre, LNT@the Alley will hold open auditions for three productions: The Bad Quarto: Clown Romeo and Juliet, Nude Ascending Stairs and Half in Sun. Half in Shadow Wednesday, January 13, 2010 from 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. at the theatre, 11 South 6^th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress). Please bring a headshot and resume. The audition will consist of a cold reading from the script, though pre-prepared pieces are welcome. Those auditioning for Half in Sun, Half in Shadow may be asked to sing a capella, as it is a musical.

 

Rehearsals begin January 17th and will be scheduled according the production team’s availability, usually some late nights, weekday evenings and weekends. Performance dates are in February and March.

 

Looking for:

Female (4) - mid 20s to early 30s

Female (1) – 35-45 (singer)

Male (1) – 35-45 (singer)

Male (4) - mid 20s to early 30s

 

Email Michael Fenlason at michaelfenlason@aol.com with questions or for more information.

 

The Bad Quarto: Clown Romeo and Juliet  is Late Night Theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s grand tragedy of love using the notorious bad quarto version, vaudeville, slapstick and clowning.

 

Nude Ascending Stairs is the newest sketch comedy production from LNT’s Grendel’s Mom comedy group.

 

Half in Sun, Half in Shadow is a one-act musical by Tony Guilliford and Fiona Benn about two strangers waiting for a train on a platform outside of London.

Stage Manager, Costumer and Props Master needed

Beowulf Alley Technical Crew Needed

Beowulf Alley Theatre, at 11 S. 6^th Avenue, has positions open for some of its productions for the spring portion of the 2009-2010 season. We offer stipends according to the position and the production. Please contact the director for further questions.

Last of the Boys by Steven Dietz – Stage Manager, Costumer and Props Master

Director: Susan Arnold (Smarnold@dakotacom.net)

Periodic production meetings start January 23, rehearsals begin March 1, costumes and props completion are on March 23, media photo shoot is March 24, tech launches April 1. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. beginning on April 9 through April 25, 2010.

A 2006 Pulitzer Prize nominee. Ben and Jeeter fought in Vietnam, and for thirty years they have remained united by a war that divided the nation. Joined by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her off-the-grid whiskey-drinking mother, these friends gather at Ben's remote trailer for one final hurrah. As the night deepens, the past makes a return appearance, and its many ghosts come flickering to life. This is a fierce, funny, haunted play about a friendship that ends—and a war that does not. – Dramatists Play Service  -  May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 "Last of the Boys is about the way the past creates the present and the present repeats the past -- Philadelphia City Paper

 Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service.

 

Technical Crew Needed Immediately

Beowulf Alley Technical Crew Needed Immediately

Beowulf Alley Theatre, at 11 S. 6^th Avenue, has positions open for some of its productions for the spring portion of the 2009-2010 season. We offer stipends according to the position and the production. Please contact the director for further questions.

Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage by Jane Martin – Stage Manager

Director: Steve Anderson (steve@steveandersonacting.com)

Rehearsals begin the week of January 4 and tech begins on February 19. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. beginning on February 26 through March 14, 2010.

Big 8, is facing foreclosure on the Wyoming ranch where she rehabilitates injured rodeo cowboys. The arrival of a shocking woman named Shedevil and a one eyed Ukranian biker named Black Dog ushers in outrageous violence and horror in this shoot ‘em up, knock ‘em up, cut ‘em up comic romp that roasts the cowboy mentality of western writers like Zane Grey. This bodacious and macabre cross over comedy mixes horror and hilarity as it pits the code of the West against contemporary darkness. May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 “The funniest and the wildest…Adds still another dimension to this author’s body of work..The laughs are nonstop.” – Center Stage

 Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service

Beowulf Alley Theatre presents Fool for Love

Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love Opens This Week

Beowulf Alley Theatre

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre presents Fool for Love, directed by Mike Sultzbach, at the theatre, 11 South 6^th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress), with a presentation of Cowboy Poetry by Tucson’s own Bill Black preceding each performance (www.billblackaz.com). The cast includes Dan Higgins, Jessica Risco, Eric Smith, and Daved Wilkins.

 

The January 15 preview performance ticket price is $10. From January 16-31, general tickets by phone or at the door are $20 with an online only ticket price of $18 at www.beowulfalley.org using our secure server via PayPal or Google. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. The box office phone number is (520) 882-0555. May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 

And something new -- Student/Military Rush Tickets for $12, cash only (identification required) – will be available 15 minutes prior to curtain for each night of the performance, based on seating availability.

 

In a stark motel room at the edge of the Mojave Desert, May, a disheveled young woman and Eddie, struggle through recriminations and physical violence. Eventually May and Eddie tire of their struggle and embrace—but it is evident that the respite is temporary and that their love, the curse of the past which haunts them, will remain forever damned and hopeless.

 

“Winner of the [1984] Obie Award [for Best New American Play], this masterfully constructed work brings searing intensity and rare theatrical excitement to its probing, yet sharply humorous study of love, hate and the dying myths of the Old West.”

– Dramatists Play Service

 

Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service.

 

Sponsored in part by Arizona Commission on the Arts, Tucson Pima Arts Council, the Janet S. Brunel Residuary Trust.

 

'Fool for Love' shows playwright was no dimwit | www.azstarnet.com ®

'Fool for Love' shows playwright was no dimwit | www.azstarnet.com ®


Accent

'Fool for Love' shows playwright was no dimwit
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.08.2010

Playwright Sam Shepard was a fool for love back in the early 1980s, when he left his wife after he fell in love with actress Jessica Lange.

Happily, his emotional turmoil resulted in one of Shepard's best-known plays, 'Fool for Love,' which Beowulf Alley Theatre will open next weekend.

Dan Higgins, left, Daved Wilkins, Jessica Risco and Eric Smith
in Beowulf Alley Theatre's production of "Fool for Love."
Creatista / Scott Griessel Photo
The deliciously wordy play is about the love-hate relationship between May and Eddie, on-again, off-again lovers stuck together in a run-down motel.

The play is a story of being embraced and abandoned, of passion and repulsion, power and powerlessness.
Shepard, who first staged this show in San Francisco, is a master at reinventing the American West.
'We watch a pair of figurative gunslingers fight to the finish — not with bullets but with piercing words that give ballast to the weight of a nation's buried dreams,' The New York Times said of the 1983 New York City production.

May and Eddie are from Wyoming, but she suspects Eddie of cheating on her and has escaped to the run-down joint near the Mojave Desert. Eddie finds her there with the intention of bringing her home.
It is this 'gunslinger' relationship that gives 'Fool for Love' its intensity and, in a way, its tragedy.
Don't expect to leave the theater feeling everything is nice and tidy.

'I think it's a cheap trick to resolve things,' Shepard once told an interviewer.

'It's totally a complete lie to make resolutions. I've always felt that, particularly in the theater when everything is tied up at the end with a neat little ribbon and you're delivered this package. It's almost as though — Why go through all that if you're just going to tie it all up at the end?'

But do expect to have a theatrical experience that'll stick with you.

'His works often play more feverishly in the mind after they're over than they do while they're before us in the theater,' said that New York Times review of 'Fool for Love.'

'But that's the way he is, and who would or could change him? Like the visionary pioneers who once ruled the open geography of the West, Mr. Shepard rules his vast imaginative frontier by making his own, ironclad laws.'

Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128."

Beowulf Alley Announces Spring Program for Kids

Beowulf Alley Announces Spring Program for Kids

 

ActingKids@the Alley, Beowulf Alley’s innovative program for young people ages nine through seventeen, is launching a series of after-school programs, beginning Tuesday, January 19,^, 2010.  All activities will take place at the theatre at 11 South 6^th Avenue, downtown between Broadway and Congress.

According to Dave Sewell, Youth Program Director, the upcoming program’s mission is to “create a performance-based learning experience that will provide our participants with a fun, expressive outlet; develop valuable skills through collaboration and creative interaction; foster awareness and sensitivity; and instill an appreciation and love of the art of Theatre.”

Sewell is a Theatre graduate of the University of California, Riverside, and has been actively involved in all phases of Theatre for over 35 years.  “What sets our program apart,” explains Sewell, “is that we provide the same training adult actors would be expected to receive, but in an age-appropriate setting.  We’re not looking to train ‘stars;’ we’re looking for kids who are interested in learning the value of the arts in developing creative thinking and teamwork, having fun, and meeting new friends.

A trio of distinct three-week sessions is planned, with two 90-minute classes per week (Tuesday/Thursday; 4:15pm to 5:45pm).  Each session will highlight one particular aspect of the actor’s craft, from creative movement, to verbal proficiency, and finally to a session on Shakespeare for the 21^st century.  In addition, ActingKids@the Alley will offer two special full day “pods”: a Playwrighting Jam on Rodeo days in February and an Old Time Radio-style Workshop during TUSD Spring Break.  Students may attend all sessions and pods, or pick-and-choose among the offerings according to availability and family budget.

 

Session I: Creative Movement, January 19 to February 4, 2010

An actor’s physical presence is a powerful tool for telling the story. This class will develop non-verbal communication skills through mime and other techniques, including exercises and games for building confidence in gesture and movement.

Session II:  More Than Words Can Express, March 9 – 25, 2010

The playwright provides the story and the words; the actor’s job is to bring it all to life. Students in this class will learn basic verbal development skills for the theatre, including diction, projection, and building a character.

Session III:  Shakespeare in the 21^st Century, April 27 – May 13, 2010

Holy iambic pentameter, Batman! Shakespeare is a great way to check out all the skills in the actor’s toolbox! Challenging and fun, rich with language and meaning, even today Shakespeare’s plays still feature the most interesting characters in dramatic literature.

New! Special Recess Day “Pods”, two special interest mini-sessions or “pods” for Rodeo Days and TUSD Spring Recess!

 

Pod I:  February 25^th and 26^th (Rodeo Recess) - Playwrighting Jam

This two-day experience will be off the hook! Kids will be teamed in small groups, given a set of parameters, and each team will be challenged to write a short (about 10 minutes) play together. The next day they will come back, get cast in each other’s plays, and rehearse and perform them (script in hand) in front of an audience!

Pod II: April 1^st and 2^nd (Spring Recess – TUSD) - Radio Theatre

Radio: a world where performance and imagination meet! In the days before television, actors projected their characters over the airwaves, aided by dramatic music and sound effects. And don’t forget the commercials! Participate in this special two-day workshop, and learn how actors use their voice to stimulate the imagination of their listeners!

Whether you child is new to theatre or an old stagehand, all are welcome at ActingKids@theAlley! Classes are filling fast, so reserve your place today!

Our Mission:

We will create a performance-based learning experience that will provide our participants with a fun, expressive outlet; develop valuable skills through collaboration and creative interaction; foster awareness and sensitivity; and instill an appreciation and love of the art of Theatre.

For full details, click “Learning at the Alley” on the Beowulf home page: www.beowulfalley.org, or call the theatre at (520) 622-4460 for more information.

Crew Call for the spring portion of the 2009-2010 season

Beowulf Alley Technical Crew Needed

Beowulf Alley Theatre, at 11 S. 6^th Avenue, has positions open for some of its productions for the spring portion of the 2009-2010 season. We offer stipends according to the position and the production. Please contact the directors for further questions.

 

Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage by Jane Martin – Stage Manager

Director: Steve Anderson (steve@steveandersonacting.com)

Rehearsals begin the week of January 4 and tech begins on February 19. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. beginning on February 26 through March 14, 2010.

Big 8, is facing foreclosure on the Wyoming ranch where she rehabilitates injured rodeo cowboys. The arrival of a shocking woman named Shedevil and a one eyed Ukranian biker named Black Dog ushers in outrageous violence and horror in this shoot ‘em up, knock ‘em up, cut ‘em up comic romp that roasts the cowboy mentality of western writers like Zane Grey. This bodacious and macabre cross over comedy mixes horror and hilarity as it pits the code of the West against contemporary darkness. May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 “The funniest and the wildest…Adds still another dimension to this author’s body of work..The laughs are nonstop.” – Center Stage

 Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service

 

Last of the Boys by Steven Dietz – Costumer and Props Master

Director: Susan Arnold (Smarnold@dakotacom.net)

Periodic production meetings start January 23, rehearsals begin March 1, costumes and props completion are on March 23, media photo shoot is March 24, tech launches April 1. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. beginning on April 9 through April 25, 2010.

A 2006 Pulitzer Prize nominee. Ben and Jeeter fought in Vietnam, and for thirty years they have remained united by a war that divided the nation. Joined by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her off-the-grid whiskey-drinking mother, these friends gather at Ben's remote trailer for one final hurrah. As the night deepens, the past makes a return appearance, and its many ghosts come flickering to life. This is a fierce, funny, haunted play about a friendship that ends—and a war that does not. – Dramatists Play Service  -  May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 "Last of the Boys is about the way the past creates the present and the present repeats the past -- Philadelphia City Paper

 Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service.

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre Presents Sam Shepard's Fool for Love

Beowulf Alley Theatre presents Fool for Love, directed by Mike Sultzbach, at the theatre, 11 South 6^th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress), with a presentation of Cowboy Poetry by Tucson’s own Bill Black preceding each performance (www.billblackaz.com). The cast includes Dan Higgins, Jessica Risco, Eric Smith, and Daved Wilkins.

 

The January 15, 2010 preview performance ticket price is $10. From January 16-31, general tickets by phone or at the door are $20 with an online only ticket price of $18 at www.beowulfalley.org using our secure server via PayPal or Google. And something new -- Student/Military Rush Tickets for $12, cash only (identification required) – will be available 15 minutes prior to curtain for each night of the performance, based on seating availability. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. The box office phone number is (520) 882-0555. May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 

In a stark motel room at the edge of the Mojave Desert, May, a disheveled young woman and Eddie, struggle through recriminations and physical violence. Eventually May and Eddie tire of their struggle and embrace—but it is evident that the respite is temporary and that their love, the curse of the past which haunts them, will remain forever damned and hopeless.

 

“Winner of the [1984] Obie Award [for Best New American Play], this masterfully constructed work brings searing intensity and rare theatrical excitement to its probing, yet sharply humorous study of love, hate and the dying myths of the Old West.”

– Dramatists Play Service

 

Produced by special arrangements with Dramatists Play Service.

 

Sponsored in part by Arizona Commission on the Arts, Tucson Pima Arts Council, the Janet S. Brunel Residuary Trust.

 

Auditions for "The Vertical Hour " at Beowulf Alley Theatre

Beowulf Alley Theatre will hold open auditions for The Vertical Hour by David Hare and directed by Philip G. Bennett on Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., at the theatre, 11 South 6^th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress). Callbacks will be held on Sunday, January 10 from noon – 4:00 p.m. Please bring a headshot and resume. The audition will consist of readings from the script.

 

Rehearsals begin the week of April 12 and will be scheduled according to the production team’s availability. Performance dates are May 28 through June 13, Thursday-Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. To reach the director to request additional information or for questions, email Philip G. Bennett at philipgbennett@yahoo.com (please use “TVH” in the subject line). 

 

The Vertical Hour is a story of a young American war reporter-turned-academic who travels abroad and finds herself caught in a most surprising romantic triangle, pulled between the affections of her lover and her lover's father. Character descriptions for the production are:

 

OLIVER LUCAS:  He is English, undemonstrative, casually dressed, in his late fifties.  Oliver is not a Royalist, is politically liberal, speaks French, and a retired doctor. The actor needs to move well, have excellent voice and speech, and be able to speak with a convincing upper-middle-class British accent.

 

NADIA BLYE:  American, pale poised, in her mid-thirties, her style is casual. She is beautiful, brilliant and pro-war.  Teaches political science at Yale University and appears as a television political pundit. Nadia is in love with Oliver’s son, Philip. 

 

PHILIP LUCAS:  English, notably handsome, well-built, mid-thirties, casual.  A doctor, lives in the U.S. and runs a series of physical exercise clinics.  In love with Nadia; has a strained relationship with his father, Oliver.  Actor must be able to handle an upper-middle-class British accent.

 

TERRI SCHOLES:  An African-American, just twenty.  She is a political science student at Yale with strong beliefs.  She is intelligent, beautiful and heart-broken.