Noel Gaulin

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces the biennial festival New Visions/New Voices from April 27-29, 2018, marking the 15th showcase of this industry workshop.

The Rudes fixed Troilus and Cressida and we follow the actors right where they take us.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces the biennial festival New Visions/New Voices from April 27-29, 2018, marking the 15th showcase of this industry workshop.

THR3E ZISTERS by Baltimore-based playwright Lola Pierson was conceived and directed by Yury Urnov of D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth and was first mounted by Salvage Vanguard Theatre in 2015. That smash hit is currently receiving a remount at The Off Center. The original production won 4 Austin Critics Table Awards including Best Production of a Comedy. The show is part modern adaption of Chekhov's Three Sisters and part critique of Chekhov's work along with fresh literal translations of the original Russian text. It is also a bold criticism of the intrinsic conflicts of producing classical theatre in contemporary times. For good measure, THR3E ZISTERS spends a little time analyzing the transitioning roles of gender and performance in contemporary culture.

MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY was originally produced as a full-length, site-specific show at the VORTEX Theatre in 2009; and since then, paper chairs has been condensing the piece into the current gem now on display for three nights only in East Austin.

MAST, now playing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, is a new play by paper chairs co-founder and local playwright Elizabeth Doss. In its World Premiere staging, MAST tells the story of Ann (Katie Bender), a rancher's daughter working on an Air Force base outside Abilene, TX, where she meets Walter (Jesse Bertron), a journalist, and ends up unexpectedly conceiving a child, Michael (Sean Francis Moran), in the heat of wartime frenzy. They elope to the Dominican Republic, which is under the oppressive rule of Trujillo (Noel Gaulin). This is the place where Michael is born and where everything begins to unravel. Based on stories of her own mid-century Texas relatives that have been with playwright Elizabeth Doss for most of her life, MAST spans the decades of this family's life.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Rhode Island, Milwaukee, Italy, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include BIG FISH at First Stage in Milwaukee, KISS ME KATE in Memphis, and THE WHO'S TOMMY in LA, just to name a few.

Part I of Trouble Puppet's THE WARS OF HEAVEN, is the first part of an epic three-part saga. The story, created by the company under Artistic Director, Connor Hopkins, is told through tabletop and shadow puppetry. Parts II and III are to come in 2016 and 2017.  At the core of the story is the concept that angels and demons are among us, serving God and Lucifer, fighting in our wars to uphold an ancient order. The work examines what happens when some of them begin to doubt the rules. The piece is strongly influenced by Milton's "Paradise Lost", an epic telling of Satan's rebellion against heaven.

paper chairs will premiere MAST,  a new play by paper chairs co-founder and local playwright Elizabeth Doss that explores a nuclear family born of World War II as it blows apart over the globe.

There's a sad phenomenon that occurs when an artist shows extreme talent and brilliance in one artistic medium. We tend to reward that talent by unjustly pigeonholing that artist into that medium alone. Case in point: Chekhov. We revere the Russian artist as a playwright, but we forget that he wrote an abundance of short stories as well.

Breaking String's We Play Chekhov includes two of Chekhov's masterful short stories adapted for the stage, presented as a double-bill in what will be the perfect summer night out for any theater-goer. The Black Monk (adapted by Kama Ginkas and translated by John Freedman) depicts Andrei Kovrin - a writer who is visited by an apparition in the form of a monk, dressed in black. The monk bears a tantalizing message: Kovrin's art flows directly from God. But when loved ones suspect a mental illness, this joyful chapter in Kovrin's life becomes a terrifying encounter with madness, megalomania and the mystery of artistic creation.

Breaking String's We Play Chekhov includes two of Chekhov's masterful short stories adapted for the stage, presented as a double-bill in what will be the perfect summer night out for any theater-goer. The Black Monk (adapted by Kama Ginkas and translated by John Freedman) depicts Andrei Kovrin - a writer who is visited by an apparition in the form of a monk, dressed in black. The monk bears a tantalizing message: Kovrin's art flows directly from God. But when loved ones suspect a mental illness, this joyful chapter in Kovrin's life becomes a terrifying encounter with madness, megalomania and the mystery of artistic creation.

paper chairs hits the road this July for a Central Texas tour to San Antonio, Ft. Worth, and a special performance at a historic farm in Strawn. We'll round out the month with a limited appearance of ONLY TWO Austin performances: July 15 at Cheer Up Charlie's & July 17 at the Longbranch Inn.

Czech marionettes and bunraku-style puppets tell the darkly hilarious, wickedly smart story of You Lad, a workhouse boy dodging boy-eating monsters.

Czech marionettes and bunraku-style puppets tell the darkly hilarious, wickedly smart story of You Lad, a workhouse boy dodging boy-eating monsters.

A darkly funny, post-industrial Dickensian fable featuring a variety of styles of puppets, including Czech marionettes and bunraku-style (three-person) puppets.

On their website, Paper Chairs describes their latest production, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery as "part existential whodunit, part slapstick haunting, and part ramshackle hoedown [that] investigates the many ways and whys we carry out a death sentence." I didn't see the existential pieces or the ruminations on the death sentence when I caught a performance on Thursday night, but quite frankly, I don't care. Murder Ballad Murder Mystery is a disjointed, non-linear, and nonsensical spoof on the western and musical genres, and I loved every wacky moment of it.

paper chairs is thrilled to kick-off its fall with a resurrection of Murder Ballad Murder Mystery.

paper chairs is thrilled to kick-off its fall with a resurrection of Murder Ballad Murder Mystery.