Ben Wolfe News

MIDDLETOWN is an essentially plotless play by Will Eno, which was the winner of the 2010 Horton Foote Award for Most Promising New Play. Like Thornton Wilder's Our Town before it, MIDDLETOWN looks at our existence between life and death, or, the middle. What MIDDLETOWN achieves that Our Town doesn't, at least for me, is that it succeeds through a crackling wit and the usual Eno word play to remind us that it is the every day minutiae that make us all human. It also is a refreshing reminder that we all need to stop and take the time to appreciate just how achingly painful yet weird and wonderful life here as a human truly is.

The TexARTS Professional Series presents The Unexpected Guest, an Agatha Christie thriller. The Unexpected Guest plays October 19 - October 28, 2018 at the Kam & James Morris Theatre in Lakeway.

Lorin Latarro will direct an industry presentation of the dark comedy, ALIVE! The Zombie Musical on September 28. Leading the show are Betsy Wolfe (Waitress), Ben Fankhauser (Newsies), Lauren Zakrin (Great Comet), and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka (A Little Night Music).

Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian legend who has stretched the boundaries of slack key guitar music while remaining true to its deeply Hawaiian roots. Jeff Peterson is a rising star who uses the style's open tunings to explore multiple genres with ease and flair. Joined by lovely dancer Moanalani Beamer, they present an evening of superb guitar that explores the range of Hawai'i's many cultural influences (as evidenced by their music in the film The Descendants, starring George Clooney). "Keola Beamer is the Andres Segovia of the slack key guitar" (Long Beach Press Telegram).

CRY IT OUT is a superior production - well worth the 90 minutes spent in the theatre. Theatre en Bloc's generous, pay it forward ticketing model should eliminate any financial excuse one might have to missing such a worthwhile show. Catch it while you can.

Hailed by DownBeat as the embodiment of 'style, substance, soul, and swagger,' Reggie Quinerly is just the kind of drummer to take on a first-time challenge-like writing an album's worth of songs featuring vocalists. 'As a drummer, I'm always trying to write things you wouldn't expect,' says Quinerly. On 'Words to Love,' his third album as a leader which is set for April 20 release by Redefinition Music, Quinerly composed music and lyrics for eight songs exploring the many facets of love.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a 2014 stage adaptation by Lee Hall of the 1998 Academy Award winning film by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard of the same name. It was first created under the auspices of Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions. The story concerns an imaginary love affair involving Viola de Lesseps (Claire Grasso) and playwright William Shakespeare (Stephen Mercantel) while he was writing Romeo and Juliet. Many of the characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare's plays. The production, now playing at Austin Playhouse, is one of their biggest productions to date. This script has become one of the most produced plays in America this season, and rightfully so, as it as entertaining as the 1998 film was.

It was only a matter of time before the universe drove BEN CHISHOLM (CHELSEA WOLFE) and FELIX SKINNER (WRECK & REFERENCE)into one spectacular sonic collision. The commended multi-instrumentalists have joined forces to bring the world a post-rock masterpiece dubbed Burgeoning Verse. The album's first single, featuring special guest Andrew Clinco on drums, is a six-minute rumination that bobs and weaves through dulcet piano arcs and ambient haze. Listen to “IV” via Brooklyn Vegan today.

The State Theatre Center for the Arts announces a brand new music series, Stage on Stage, where the bands and fans share the stage. The series will kick off Saturday, January 27th with A Night of Southern Rock featuring The Trongone Band and special guest Acoustic Kitty Project. The State Theatre main stage will be transformed into a club atmosphere, with the bands and the audience both on stage. The production area off the right wing of the stage will also be used for the cash bar.

WAIT UNTIL DARK is a 1966 play by Frederick Knott that was revised in 2013 by Jeffrey Hatcher. Hatcher's revisions backdate the story to 1944, making Sam and Mike Marine buddies who served together in Italy, and the doll that is the object of search now contains diamonds instead of heroin. It also slightly tightens the text, most noticeably at the end of the first act.

The TexARTS Professional Series presents Wait Until Dark, the groundbreaking thriller that follows a blind woman who finds herself the victim of scheming conmen and in the middle of a murder. Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Wait Until Dark, written by Frederick Knott, plays now through October 29, 2017 at the Kam & James MorrisTheatre in Lakeway. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The TexARTS Professional Series presents Wait Until Dark, the groundbreaking thriller that follows a blind woman who finds herself the victim of scheming conmen and in the middle of a murder.

SSTI's tenth anniversary season sets sail with the Cole Porter classic hit musical, "Anything Goes." The Tony Award-winning musical comedy features a classic love story told by a cast of eclectic passengers sailing aboard the luxurious S.S. American.

OLD TIMES is an enigmatic play by Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter that centers on a trio of characters and produced flawlessly by Austin Shakespeare at Austin's Long Center.

Austin Shakespeare seats the audience in the round for Harold Pinter's Old Times at The Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. This sensual, poetic and deeply unnerving drama is the 33-year-old company's first Pinter production. Performances will run at 8pm on Thursday - Saturday and 3pm on Sunday, tonight, February 16, through March 5, 2017. Scroll down for a first look at the cast in action!

Austin Shakespeare brings Harold Pinter's sensuous language to life for the first time with Old Times, a mysterious drama about a love triangle and the seductive battle for power. The intimate production will be staged in the round, February 15 - March 5, 2017. Featuring Ben Wolfe, Jill Blackwood and Nancy Eyermann.

Austin Shakespeare seats the audience in the round for Harold Pinter's Old Times at The Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Austin Shakespeare seats the audience in the round for Harold Pinter's Old Times at The Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Austin Shakespeare seats the audience in the round for Harold Pinter's Old Times at The Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

BASKERVILLE is a rollicking bit of fun, especially for the mystery fans among us.