News and notes from the San Antonio theater scene
Go East Young Men
Two respected members of the local theater community are making an impact on the East Coast this autumn. Ryan Young, a native San Antonian with a bachelor's in acting from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon, was best known to local audiences for his work at the Vexler Theatre and with Firelight Players. He has been hired by Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company as a 2005-06 Acting Fellow. He performed in the ensemble in the company's production of Othello, which closed on October 30. He'll be opening in The Comedy of Errors in mid-November.
North East School of the Arts über-student Tyler Phillips' new musical, Fairest of Them All, was presented as part of the York Theatre Company's Developmental Reading Series in Manhattan in late September. With book, music, and lyrics by Phillips, the show interweaves the stories of the Grimm Brothers' Snow White, The Brave Little Tailor, and Doctor Knowall.
Jim Morgan, producing artistic director of York, which presents more than 40 new works annually, told BroadwayWorld.com "I think it's safe to say that Tyler is the youngest writer of musical theater represented in New York City, both on- and off-Broadway and at various festivals. We're thrilled to be presenting the New York premiere of this exceptionally talented writer."
The Bard of Autumn
While summer Shakespeare is axiomatic - and generally packaged al fresco to attract the modern equivalent of the groundlings, it's in autumn when we're most likely to see the academic theater community weigh in with its interpretation of the classics. The Bard is not always so well-represented - there are, in fact, a great many classical playwrights in the modern curriculum - but this month both powerhouse university drama departments (they've been swapping off locally lauded artistic supremacy for as long as I can remember) are showcasing their takes on one of the deadest and whitest of the canonical dead-white-male playwrights.
Trinity Theater presents Director Kristin Crouch's production of Much Ado About Nothing, a popular romantic comedy updated to 1940s Italy, in the Stieren Theater on the campus of Trinity University (call 999-8515), and the University of the Incarnate Word is offering another comedy, As You Like It (which they're billing as "Shakespeare's happiest play"), directed by Bryn Jameson (call 829-3800). Both shows open on Friday, November 11, and run through Saturday, November 19. Too bad the two departments didn't get together and package themselves a festival.
