FronteraFest 2014

Our favorite picks for this week's FronteraFest at Hyde Park Theatre

Discover the best of FronteraFest this week.

Last Saturday, individuals affiliated with the 21st incarnation of FronteraFest put a cap on four solid weeks of theatrical passion and provocation by performing six site-based pieces in residential workshops and living spaces all over Austin. We hope you’ve had a chance to make it out to a show or two this season — or at least stayed in for the one at your house.

Tuesday, February 11, marks the final week of the festival’s around-town run; and the annual “Best of Fest” wrap up is a doozy. Here’s a quick rundown of the dramas and explorations descending upon Hyde Park Theatre five nights this week. At the time of this writing, all shows save Thursday’s are sold out, which is usually what happens with good theatre. You can reserve tickets for the remaining show on the venue’s website, or show up at Hyde Park Theatre around 7 pm (that’s an hour before showtime, folks) to get on a list for seats sold but unclaimed.

Best of Fest I: Tuesday, February 11 and Friday, February 14

Violet Crown: Salamander’s Town
By Theatre En Bloc
Examinie Austin’s growth with help from the Barton Creek Salamander. Shadow puppets and original folk music are just two of the things that distinguish this second installment of the troupe’s Violet Crown trilogy.

Fat
By Althea Clemons, Caleb Luna, Dan Miller, Erin Burrows, Jules Pashall and Nicole Arteaga
The creators collaborate to take a close look at various perspectives on fat bodies, from inward-looking personal experiences to external societal viewpoints and pressures.

After the Silence
By Anne Maria Wynter, directed by Zell Miller III and featuring Brian L. Ridley
Excerpted from a collection of plays all set in one apartment complex, this short work reveals the intricacies of the intimacy shared by people living lives on opposite sides of the same wall.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow
By Richard Wright, directed by Teresa Morrow, featuring Reginald C. Brown
This autobiographical sketch, and one of the earliest works by powerful and controversial author Richard Wright (Native Son, Black Boy, Uncle Tom’s Children), paints a portrait of life in the face of racial inequality and violence.

O Pioneers
By Kyle John Schmidt, directed by Elizabeth C. Lay
Not every pioneer found fortune in the storied lands of the West. This whimsical offering from a perennial Best of Fest favorite shows what can happen when two young pioneers arrive, appraise, get disappointed and depart.

Best of Fest II: Wednesday, February 12 and Saturday, February 15

Handbomb Presents: The Vacationers
By Vanessa Gonzalez and Michael Foulk
Gonzalez and Foulk compose the entire cast of this two-person sketch show featuring a whirlwind of absurd characters and situations.

Rosetta
By Candyce Rusk, directed by Mary Alice Carnes, featuring Gina Houston and Jolia Jones
A play with music, based on the story of bad luck and blessings lived by gospel guitar heavyweight Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

The Heart of the Sixties
By Southpaw Jones
Austin’s resident earthy and irreverent song-maker brings you a half-scripted, half-improv solo show full of singing, strumming and pleasant idle talk.

Southern Fried Chickie “Extra Crispy”
By Christy McBrayer, featuring Johnny Molinari and Baird Blanton
Country grammar shapeshifter McBrayer brings more than a handful of original characters to the stage in this one-woman show, backed by her band, “The Redneck Greek Chorus,” detailing a trip to Tupelo, Mississippi.

How to Crush Crayons
By Pete Betcher, Katie Kohler, Jeremiah Rosenberger and Justin Morley
This new offering by last year’s Best of Fest winners — Montana transplants collectively known as the Back Pack — keeps its roots in rhythm while playing with your expectations through clowning, dance and music.

Wild Card Performance: Thursday, February 13

Short Stories
By Kiya Heartwood
Pan-American songwriter Heartwood presents four selections from a longer work of tall tales illuminated in song.

Hazy Eyes
By Ellen Bartel, featuring Dany Casey, Errin Deperdang, Angie Johnson and Amy Meyers
This dance quartet explores the gentle mayhem of young love through meditations on physical memory and loss.

Iced Tea in Texas, Chapter I
By Bernadette Nason, directed by Michael Stewart
This selection from the Long Fringe portion of FronteraFest depicts the surprising effects of Lone Star culture shock on a seasoned world traveler.

Our Flock
By Briandaniel Oglesby, featuring design by Nellie Kurtz
This 10-minute piece — part of the Fallout of the Sky, a piece of documentary theatre about the fall of Icarus — adds a layer of language to the traditional motion-and-visuals experience of a stage show based on masks.

Up in the Air
By Rhonda F. Kulhanek
Kulhanek, another frequent Best of Fest selection and creator of the Mommy Confessions series, presents a new original one-woman show.

And please remember: great work goes up on stages in this town all year long.

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State of the Arts

7 Austin art exhibits breaking boundaries this December

Courtesy of Davis Gallery

B Shawn Cox blends western imagery with floral motifs and bold graphics at the Davis Gallery Holiday Show.

From experimental ceramics to multimedia installations incorporating found materials, Austin's early winter exhibitions showcase artists who are pushing the boundaries of their mediums while exploring themes of heritage, identity, and our relationship with nature.

Across seven venues, from the Blanton Museum to intimate gallery spaces like the Wally Workman Gallery, these exhibitions showcase both established and emerging artists. Their works invite viewers to experience familiar subjects through fresh perspectives, creating opportunities for both curiosity and education.

Dimmitt Contemporary

Michael Dines: Echoes of Tonalism — through December 13
Dines creates haunting works that transcend traditional landscape painting, using the natural world as a foundation for exploring deeper artistic elements. The artist creates a compelling tension between surface and depth, inviting viewers into mysterious, otherworldly scenes while simultaneously emphasizing their separation from these spaces. The resulting works feel like portals into an alternate reality, where familiar natural forms merge with abstract elements to create something entirely new.

Wally Workman Gallery

Will Klemm:Elevations — December 7-29
Klemm presents a collection of ethereal landscapes that capture nature's most evocative moments, from emerging sunsets to dusky forest scenes. A nationally recognized artist with more than 40 solo exhibitions across major U.S. cities, Klemm demonstrates his mastery of both pastel and oil in large-scale works that poetically interpret Southwestern landscapes from Texas to California.

Lora Reynolds Gallery

Tony Marsh: On the Clouds of Magellan — through January 1
Created over the past year, Marsh’s new sculptural works explore human torso forms and, for the first time in his career, wall-mounted pieces. The exhibition demonstrates his evolving approach to surface treatment, alternating between smooth and heavily textured surfaces, with experimental glazing techniques that include building with large chunks of glaze. Named after his father's poem about Magellan's explorations, the show marks a shift toward more personal and emotional expression in Marsh's work.

Blanton Museum of Art

Group Exhibition:Native America: In Translation — through January 5
This exhibition brings together nine Indigenous artists who explore contemporary Native identity through photography and multimedia works. The exhibition challenges historical photographic representations of Native Americans while presenting new narratives about Indigenous life today. Featured artists including Rebecca Belmore, Martine Gutierrez, and Kimowan Metchewais use various mediums — from Polaroids to video installations — to examine themes of memory, language, landscape, and beauty.

Group Exhibition: Long Live Surrealism! 1924-Today— through January 12
This multi-artist exhibition marks 100 years since Surrealism emerged as an artistic movement, changing modern perspectives by delving into dreams and the subconscious mind. The show includes pieces by key Surrealist figures such as Bellmer, Carrington, Ernst, Lam, and Ray, plus works by later artists like Kusama and Hood who were shaped by the movement's ideas.

Austin Public Library

Suzy González: Plantcestors — through January 12
González creates distinctive portraits that blend conventional oil painting with actual organic materials like pecans and seeds. Each work depicts members of local creative and social justice communities, with natural elements chosen to reflect each subject's background. The artist combines photography, gardening, gathering of materials, and preservation methods to produce layered compositions sealed in resin. These earth-toned works explore themes of cultural roots and heritage while physically incorporating elements from nature.

Davis Gallery

Group Exhibition: Breathe — through January 18
Davis Gallery’s 26th annual holiday show displays diverse works from 12 artists working across multiple mediums. The show features B Shawn Cox's vibrant acrylic paintings on fabric, which blend portraits with western themes, mixing feminine and masculine elements through unexpected color combinations and patterns. John Sager contributes mixed media assemblages crafted from found objects like printer's blocks, steel, and piano parts, while Lisa Beaman presents serene animal portraits depicting birds, rabbits, and cows in their natural settings.

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Courtesy of Davis Gallery

B Shawn Cox blends western imagery with floral motifs and bold graphics at the Davis Gallery Holiday Show.

visual art galleries museums

FronteraFest 2014

Our favorite picks for this week's FronteraFest at Hyde Park Theatre

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7 Austin art exhibits breaking boundaries this December

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