Blue Light Special - An event to help after this week's FIRE at the BLUE Theatre!!!

BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL

BLUE Theatre 916 Springdale Road (Blue Genie Hanger, btw. 7th & Airport Blvd) Austin, TX

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1st, 2010
2pm until...

http://bluetheatre.org/

The event will help in raising funds to repair damage to The BLUE Theatre caused by the FIRE that took place this week. The BLUE Theatre also needs new lighting equipment and for those of you who know..that costs $$$.  Please, please come out to show your support to the theatre and join in on the fun.

Help Support the Arts in East Austin!!!

The BLUE Theatre's SUPER-RAD band friends HOME BY HOVERCRAFT (http://www.myspace.com/homebyhovercraft) & ABANDONED WAREHOUSE (http://www.myspace.com/aarondembe) agreed to play what we are calling the BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL - All-Day Music Event Designed To Raise Money For Fire Repairs and Lights!

TITO'S HANDMADE VODKA has generously donated their delicious Texas Tea Cocktails, OLD SCHOOL BBQ & GRILL rolls in at 2pm to fire up the grill and the bands take the stage at 3pm.

Oh..AND did we mention the raffle!! We got some great prizes from local businesses eager to help out the BLUE. AND YOU CAN HELP OUT TO..

By coming out for a FREE Event at the BLUE and enjoying a tasty beverage, having some old school BBQ or by taking a gamble at the raffle. All proceeds go to the BLUE.

The BLUE Theatre will gladly accept lighting equipment donations as well. If you are looking to give or to sell, swing by and introduce yourself to us. The BLUE Theatre love to meet you!!

See you all there! 

MURDER BALLAD MURDER MYSTERY, Last weekend, last 4 shows and basta, finito, you missed it!

"[...Murder Ballad Murder Mystery's] set designer Lisa Laratta's transformation of the Vortex space, which I've never seen used more effectively."

"[...] I can't recall seeing many Austin theatre productions in the last 20 or so years so seamlessly perfect as this one [Murder Ballad Murder Mystery]."

-Barry Pineo, The Austin Chronicle

Tutto Theatre Company

& VORTEX Repertory Company

presents

Murder Ballad Murder Mystery
by Elizabeth Doss | Directed by Dustin Wills

Murder Ballad Murder Mystery unearths a host of dank and dirty bayou bandits whose names once marauded headlines, wanted posters, and LP sleeves. Watch these corpses whittle out new murder tools to make mincemeat of fair maidens and turn your sweetest dream into your worst nightmare. This psychedelic bluegrass symphonic romp through the swamp spins infamous southern-gothic tales of torture and true crime into a circus massacre of whodunits. A blast from the past straight up from the grave.

Featuring an amazing cast including: Alex Cogburn, Andy Tindall, Ben Schave, Cami Alys Frederic, Content Love Knowles, Elizabeth Doss, Emily Tindall, Florinda Bryant, Hilah Johnson, Kelli Bland, Mark Stewart, Phillip Emanuel, and Robert Pierson.

Also Featuring: Set Design by Lisa Laratta, Lighting Design by Megan M. Reilly, and Costume Design by Kim H. Ngo.

CLOSING WEEKEND November 4th - 7th, 2009

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8:00 p.m.


The VORTEX
2307 Manor Road; Austin, Texas 78722
To View A Map Click Here

Tickets:

$30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists

Wednesdays: BUY-1-GET-1-FREE with donation of non-perishable food item.
(Donations to benefit Hope Food Pantry of Trinity United Methodist Church)

Tickets for Murder Ballad Murder Mystery
are available NOW at
www.tuttotheatre.org!!!


For reservations call: Available at 512-478-LAVA (5282)
www.TuttoTheatre.org

You can now Follow Tutto Theatre Company on Twitter & Facebook.

Tutto Theatre Company is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

CHRONICLE REVIEW!!!!!

Arts: October 30, 2009

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=901610

Arts Review

By Barry Pineo

Murder Ballad Murder Mystery

The Vortex, through Nov. 7

Running time: 2 hr

The older I get, the more I seem to enjoy plays and films that have no obvious linear, narrative plot. When I first saw Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, I thought it was the finest, deepest, greatest film I had seen in many years, so I was surprised to read reviews that excoriated it for its shallowness and its indulgence. It only goes to show, there really is no accounting for taste.

I have a feeling that some might react to this Vortex Repertory-Tutto Theatre Company co-production of Elizabeth Doss' original musical with similar confusion and, perhaps, even derision. But I can't recall seeing many Austin theatre productions in the last 20 or so years so seamlessly perfect as this one. I'm tempted to give most of the credit to director Dustin Wills, but I hesitate to do so. While certainly Wills was the guiding hand, every element of the production contributes mightily to its overall effect.

Take Doss' original script, which seems set in some unnamed part of Appalachia. Its focus is death, and it's filled with it. Sister kills sister, father kills daughter, mother kills father, strangers kill strangers, and that's just the first act. But rather than stirring horror and revulsion, the deaths are perversely loving or revoltingly comic, and all are set to music. Two of the songs particularly stand out: Content Love Knowles stops the show in the first act with her rendition of "You Got What You Deserved," and Mark Stewart, accompanying himself on guitar, fascinates in the second act with the strange ballad "The Night I Didn't Kill You."

Or look at set designer Lisa Laratta's transformation of the Vortex space, which I've never seen used more effectively. Ramps and platforms span the walls. Actors splash through a pool of water center stage. Rope and spookily glowing lanterns hang suspended from the ceiling, and shanks of rope adorn the walls. Actors crawl onto the stage, slide onto it, scamper up and down ladders, and are hoisted to the roof. And the background for all of this – well, I just don't want to give this delightful surprise away. If you want to know what major scenic element dominates the stage, you'll just have to see it for yourself.

Or consider Mark Stewart and Andy Tindall's original, evocative bluegrass music, which accompanies most of the action, played by a band of four on banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. And while, for me, Robert Pierson's growling father Tom and Hilah Johnson's detached and weary Agatha stand out, the entire ensemble of actors commits completely and utterly to this broad, bizarre vision of a backwoods community gone completely and utterly mad.

In writing all this, I don't want to imply that the production is transcendent. Nothing is, really. Even I found it self-indulgently ridiculous when Caden Cotard used a dropper to put fake tears in his eyes in Synecdoche, New York. But that moment was the exception that proves the rule: In order to achieve greatness, great risk must be undertaken, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a riskier production in Austin this year than this strange string of ballads and mysteries, best summed up in the final lines of the final song of the show: "How lucky to be dead. How lucky to be singing ... tonight."

www.TuttoTheatre.org

You can now Follow Tutto Theatre Company on Twitter & Facebook.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Murder Ballad Murder Mystery Opens with a BANG! BANG! BANG!

A lowdown & dirty load-in followed by a fast & furious tech week were well worth the dark circles meticulously covered with concealer by the cast. Thank god for adrenaline, ‘else asses would have been draggin’. A sold-out opening crowd witnessed one hell of show! Fourth of July fireworks shot straight from the swamp last Friday night. We wore our inner animals on our sleeves, tackling every scene & song with guts & gumption. Were they mishaps? Sure. Deviations from our best-laid plans? Hell, yes. And shit-ton of heart, too. And some tired, happy tears at the opening night soiree as Bonnie Cullum, toasted the incredible efforts from both Tutto Theatre Company & Vortex that brought this beast of a musical into being.

And there were no “second night blues” on Saturday when we met, once again, a solidly packed house. We were up to tricks old & new, hollerin’, line dancin’, and brandishing plastic pistols. Enough entrances and exits to make your head spin. No time hem and haw! This breakneck play requires an A game. The ensemble on their toes at all times. All except our sweet harp, Agnes, suspended in her swing like upside down anchor, defying gravity. From Lincoln Lady’s gritty ditty “I Killed You”, to the Sleuth’s bad-ass rendering of, “Why’s Everybody Gotta Die?” Murder Ballads ran, yet again, on greased lightening.

And we didn’t stop there ‘cause we packed ‘em in again on Sunday! And we even amped it up a notch for fiddle player and musical director, Andy Tindall’s birthday. We met with surprisingly responsive crowd. Jay and I managed through our rapid fire text with fewer slip-ups than ever before. Some took issue with the Indian Summer heat, but I must say it made the water fight feel like a pool party. So, I couldn’t complain. They say a cold front’s comin’ next week.

In a nutshell? Great stuff all around. The design rocks. The cast rules. The direction from Tutto Theatre Company's Dustin Wills reeks of genius. Who could ask for more? Not me. I’m as happy as a pig in you-know-what.

xoxo

B

www.TuttoTheatre.org

You can now Follow Tutto Theatre Company on Twitter & Facebook.

REVIEW of Murder Ballad Murder Mystery on KOOP Radio...

Two weeks ago we were featured guest on the 91.7 KOOP radio show Off Stage and On The Air hosted by Lisa Scheps. As part of this week's show Lisa interview live and on the air the Murder Ballad Murder Mystery ticket winner.

Click play below and listen to what the winner had to say about Murder Ballad Murder Mystery.

ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!!!

Tickets for Murder Ballad Murder Mystery

are available NOW at:

www.tuttotheatre.org!!!

For reservations call: Available at 512-478-LAVA (5282)

www.TuttoTheatre.org

You can now Follow Tutto Theatre Company on Twitter & Facebook.