Guest List Envy

Local artists create dream dinner party during Make. Eat. Drink.

Perhaps the toughest ticket to snag on November 21 was a seat at the Make. Eat. Drink table, a collaborative dinner party held at Canopy Austin in East Austin. An event months in the making, the party was a celebration of the fine line between art and food.

Austin artists Keith Kreeger, Ryan McKerley, Michael Yates, Leigh Taylor Wyatt and Shara Funari joined chefs Shion Aikawa from Ramen Tatsu-ya, Grae Nonas and Michael Fojtasek from Olamaie and Elyse Hoang from Sway to create a full dining experience, from handcrafting the tableware to plating the dishes.

For $125, guests were treated to a five-course dinner surrounded by local art on exhibit for the East Austin Studio Tour. A portion of the proceeds went to Big Medium, the non-profit arts organization that puts on E.A.S.T.

On the menu? Japanese-inspired charcuterie and tsukemono board; chicken wing, sweet potatoes, grilled persimmons, huckleberry chestnuts and carrot gastrique; smothered cauilflower, bone marrow and egg yolk; lamb belly, winter squash, sorghum glazed carrot and pecan; and black sesame sticky rice, roasted chestnuts, white gourd and chrysantheum ice cream.

"It went beautifully and exceeded my expectations of what could have happened that evening," said Kreeger, the Austin-based ceramicist who recently collaborated with Paul Qui to create the tableware for his flagship restaurant qui. It's definitely going to be something that happens again. The wheels are already turning."

A table setting at Make. Eat. Drink.

Photo by Leah Overstreet

A table setting at Make. Eat. Drink.

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Hideout

Longtime improv theater closes curtain on downtown Austin location

Photo by Steve Rogers Photography

One of the final weekend performances at the Hideout, including owners Roy Janik, Kareem Badr, Jessica Arjet, and many longtime performers.

After 26 years, Austin's longest-running improv theater has taken its final curtain call downtown. The Hideout Theatre at 617 Congress Ave. went dark for the last time over the weekend of March 20. The folks who kept the theater going hope the story will continue in a new location, but it hasn't been easy.

For many Austinites who've spent significant time downtown, the Hideout needs no introduction.

Maybe it was a Thursday when they wandered in off Congress Avenue on a whim and ended up cry-laughing at a PGraph show. (That's Parallelogramophonograph, formally). Maybe it was an improv class that offered, somewhere between the warmly lit walls and a roomful of fellow students, a little more courage than anyone walked in with. Or maybe it was just a quick cup of coffee — one of the oldest independent brews in town — that drew them in.

The Hideout was founded in 1999 by Sean Hill. Ten years later, Roy Janik, Kareem Badr, and Jessica Arjet took the reigns and have been running things since. Since the doors first opened, the theater's two stages have seen almost three decades of unscripted magic: improvised Shakespeare, long-form plays, and musicals conjured from nothing more than an audience suggestion and a whole lot of trust.

Over the years, the theater has trained thousands of students, launched programs helping autistic and other neurodivergent people through improv, and won five Best of Austin awards.

The story of the Congress Avenue location's closure isn't one the Hideout's owners chose. The building was sold, and the new owner plans to convert the space into a bar. It's a familiar and painful chapter in Austin's ongoing story of displacement. One by one, Austin's improv theaters have been squeezed out, bought up, or simply priced into oblivion: Salvage Vanguard, The Institution, and ColdTowne.

"It sucks," says Hideout marketing director, performer, and teacher Courtney Hopkin. In the background are the sounds of people talking and moving things as Hopkin and other staff members pack up the space and clear out. "Right now we have to leave this building by next Monday."

Last year, Hideout owners seemed settled on a new location, Art Hub ATX. This creative complex along the South I-35 frontage road is the sort of funky, eclectic home the Hideout would flourish in. However, Hopkins says it's not a done deal.

"Everything keeps getting harder, or it keeps getting more expensive and taking longer," she says. "Yeah, so 'we don't know,' is really where we are right now. We're still working on figuring out. If it works at the Art Hub [or] if it doesn't."

Either way, Hideout's owners are hopeful. They're still running classes at the Hideout's annex space on North Lamar and raising funds for their new forever home, wherever it ends up being. Shows will start at the annex space in May.

"It is such a strong community of people who just enjoy doing creative work together," says Hopkin. "And we have so, so, so many people in our community who are happy to work together, to support each other, and just have fun together. That's what we're about — bringing people together to have fun. It's like the first lesson we learn in our improv classes: have fun. And that's what we do for the rest of the time."

The spirit of the Hideout doesn't live in a building. It lives in the people. And wherever the Hideout winds up, Hopkin is confident the people will follow.

"They have said as much, so I do believe them," she says, adding that an actual parking area could be good incentive for folks to follow.

The Hideout Theatre will update fans on next steps vi Instagram or at hideouttheatre.com.

theater comedy closings