Results tagged “plays”

Catastrophic Theatre's renewed production of last year's Hunter Gatherers is a welcome dose of humor to help get us through the long, hot days of summer. We weren't lucky enough to catch last summer's run, but the new show is a thoroughly enjoyable two-act comedy that oscillates between craven fits of passion and self-doubting ennui. Filled with memorable one-liners, spontaneous wit, and bouts of perverse physical humor, the script finds two couples of long-time friends faced with the equally-long-awaited moment when social propriety just isn't going to be enough to keep them from showing their true, animalistic natures. more ›

Last Friday night, as thunderstorms rolled in and out of the city, Catastrophic Theatre premiered their production of Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner in the converted living room space of their offices. And though I am sure the difficulties it supplied the company where not much appreciated, the intermittent rain helped to magnify the haunting and carefully moving nature of the play. Not to say that it was a "dreary" play or that lightning struck at the moment of some criminal act or even that the script mentions the weather that much, but, you see, the play progresses not through a series of actions but of definitions — definitions of beauty, of meaning, of morality, of pleasure, of contempt, of culture — definitions that try, amidst all the wild complications of human society, to either keep things together or mark them as being apart. The rain kept the audience together, cozy in our seats during the performance, packed on the porch at all points before, between, and after — the rain kept the audience apart from the wicked world on the other side of the wall. more ›

Join Catastrophic Theatre tonight at the Big! Bang! Catastrophe! gala as the troupe celebrates another great year and raises funds for future seasons of some of the the most thoughtful and original theatre productions in Houston. This year's special guest is actor Jim Parsons, Infernal Bridegroom alum, who has made it to the big time as Sheldon Cooper on CBS's The Big Bang Theory. more ›

Tonight begins the final weekend of Horse Head Theatre's run of Stephen Belber's Fault Lines at The Brewery Tap. The play is centered around two friends, Bill (Drake Simpson) and Jim (Rick Silverman), who have drifted apart over the years but who have come together at a bar to celebrate a birthday. The setup seems typical enough — old pals unsure of what brings them together, uncomfortable of still calling each other "dude" — but the script makes a few hard turns before all is said and done and the actors keep it moving from the early jokes to the final meltdowns. This is only Horse Head's second production, following last year's Red Light Winter, and it finds the troupe further along in their mission to make theatre a more interactive, "real" experience. more ›

Catastrophic Theatre debuted their production of Wallace Shawn's Our Late Night at DiverseWorks last Friday night to great reception. The play is an at-times-dark, at-times-comedic string of conversations circling the absurdities and difficulties of sexual and personal connection. Our Late Night was Shawn's first produced play, first put on in New York in 1975, and despite the awards and recognition it garnered at the time, the script's difficulty and potential to offend kept it unpublished until only recently. Catastrophic's production is only the fourth run world-wide and marks another step in director and founder Jason Nodler's mission to ultimately have put on all of Shawn's plays. more ›

Houstonist would like to preface this article with a simple fact: you need to go see this play. Anybody who takes the time to invest a bit of themselves digging into the arts scene in Houston knows that there is a veritable treasure trove of secret gems waiting to be found - often right in front of our faces. Life Is Happy & Sad is definitely one of those secret gems. more ›

Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company presents "Night of the Giant", a play by local playwright John Harvey featuring an original score by another Houstonian, Elliot Cole. Whoever wrote the plot synopsis sure knows how to pique our interest: more ›

In March 1945, a young Jewish girl incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp died of typhus. Her body, and the body of her sister (who also died of the disease), were buried in an unmarked mass grave. Though the exact day of her death is unknown, historians believe she died on March 2, 1945. Just a few weeks later, the camp was liberated by British troops. And so ended the life of one of the world's most famous diarists, Anne Frank, who at 13 began chronicling her own life story and the story of the Holocaust, and who's papers have given millions of readers a glimpse into the horror of war and a life in hiding. In 1955 the diary was turned into a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, a version of which will be presented tonight at the Texas Repertory Theatre, 14243 Stuebner Airline Road in Spring. The play is produced by the Houston Family Arts Center. Tickets for the event are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $10 for students and children. The play runs at 8:00 p.m. nightly until Saturday, with a final performance Sunday at 3:00 p.m. The Diary of Anne Frank
Admission: $14 and under
Date and Time: 8:00 p.m. tonight
Location: Texas Repertory Theatre, 14243 Stuebner Airline Road in Spring more ›