The Play's the Thing...

This weekend, Cyn and I indulged in some theater with some members of the writing community at two of our favorite central Texas venues: the Kleberg Stage at the Zach Scott Theatre and the Barn at Winedale. 

Photo by Kirk Tuck, courtesy Zach Scott Theatre

First up -- with Salima Alikhan, her husband Sam; Nikki Loftin and her husband Dave -- was XANADU, an absolutely hilarious spoof on the Olivia Newton John film.  I haven't laughed that much in a long time.  The acting, singing, costumes and sets were absolutely spot-on.  A terrifically fun jaunt back to 1980 and the era of roller disco.  Check out the official photo gallery here.

Next up was A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, one of the three plays being presented this season by the students at Shakespeare at Winedale. (It's been a while since Cyn and I have been out there -- it used to conflict with Cyn's VCFA residencies; this time, we went with a gang from the Austin children's writing community).

The performances were, as always, outstanding, especially since the performers are non-theatre majors.  (If you've never heard of the program, in a nutshell, every summer, fifteen non-theatre UT students go and live at Winedale and learn three Shakespeare plays, and then perform them in July and August.  The program's been going on for 42 years and still going strong). MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM has never been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, but the troupe was engaging and funny and brought a nice verve to the play.  Afterward, there was a chance to have lemonade and chat with the performers.