Season Preview

The can't-miss Austin concerts, theater, and cultural events for fall 2017

Ah, September. The weather begins to cool down and the events start to heat up. This season, why not expand your horizons by sampling a variety of activities and events. Enjoy the best Austin has to offer when you explore our top recommendations for concerts and culture.

Austin Shakespeare
Austin is home to a top-notch Shakespeare theater company. Austin Shakespeare kicks off the season at the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible from September 21-24, and we are also recommending that you sample one of Shakespeare’s finest comedies — Much Ado about Nothing — onstage November 15-December 3.

Storm Large and Le Bonheur at McCullough Theatre
Dance, chamber music, voice, film, and theater is all included in the University of Texas Performing Arts Center’s 2017-18 season. Broaden your horizons with singer, actor, author, and playwright Storm Large and her band Le Bonheur as they perform American songbook classics, rock anthems, and Broadway tearjerkers with a twist and wicked sense of humor. September 21.

Singin’ in the Rain at Zach
Zach Scott Theatre celebrates a remarkable 85-year run with the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain. Filled with joyful song and dance numbers, this toe-tapping, laugh-out-loud production will help you escape. September 27-October 29.

Austin Classical Guitar
Matthew Hinsley's vision was to bring the best classical guitarists in the world to Austin, establish education to perpetuate the music, and spread the love around the world. He has succeeded, and the 2017-18 season of Austin Classical Guitar is simply amazing, so we cannot choose just one performance to recommend. Instead, begin with renowned classical guitarist Jorge Caballero on October 7 and feel the heat of flamenco sensation Jose Luis de la Paz on October 28.

Herbie Hancock Austin City Limits taping
It is hard to believe that 14-time Grammy winner and legendary pianist and composer Herbie Hancock has never graced the ACL stage. A pioneer of new jazz, Hancock was a member of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet and has been making innovative music ever since. Free passes are distributed about a week before the taping, taking place October 12.

Lisa Fischer at One World Theatre
One World Theatre has partnered with chef Steve Constantine of Chef ATX to provide culinary specialties and entertainment at one of the most intimate theaters in Austin. Enjoy pre-concert music, gourmet food, and Hill Country sunsets before most concerts. On our list? Lisa Fischer, a background singer featured in the Oscar-winning documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom, will step into the spotlight and take the stage for two shows on October 27.

Carmen at the Long Center
Whether or not you are an opera aficionado, some operatic characters and tales are so well known that just the name makes you want to burst into song. And what could possibly be more dynamic than Bizet’s hot tale of love and betrayal? Austin Opera’s season opener is anything but stuffy and boring. We guarantee that Carmen will have you coming back for more. November 11, 16, and 19.

The Long Center presents Annie Leibovitz
From Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz’s distinctive and alluring photographs have portrayed some of the most iconic figures of our time. From politicians to musicians to writers, directors, actors, royals, and just plain people with something to say, Leibovitz has captured the soul and spirit of them all. Austin is one of only five cities Leibovitz will be visiting on her tour, where she will be showing and discussing selections from her newly published book, Annie Liebovitz: Portraits 2005-2016. November 13.

Gladys Knight at the Paramount Theatre
The 2017 fall season at the Paramount and State theatres has it all. When we saw that Jack Hannah, John Waters, Garrison Keillor, and The Flatlanders were on the list, it seemed impossible to make a single recommendation. But how can anyone resist the opportunity to mark Gladys Knight off the concert bucket list? November 19 at the Paramount.

The King and I
Broadway Across America brings the memorable tunes and staging of hit musical The King and I to Austin. A wonderful family event, you and your children will be waltzing out singing “Getting to Know You” and “I Whistle a Happy Tune.” Bass Concert Hall December 12-17.

See Singin' in the Rain at Zach September 27-October 29.

$ZACH Theatre presents Singin\u2019 in the Rain$

Photo by Kirk Tuck

See Singin' in the Rain at Zach September 27-October 29.

theater concerts music

Theatrical History

New play weaves stories of real Austin women together from 1950s on

Photo courtesy of

A photo from the She Was Here dress rehearsal ahead of its world premier.

On January 17, She Was Here, a play about real Latina women in Austin, premieres at Austin Playhouse's new interim theatre space off of West 22nd Street. Although the story is fictional, it was compiled through interviews, making it a truthful rendition of Austin across 70 years.

Written by Austin's renowned Raul Garza and directed by Jerry Ruiz, this poignant but lighthearted play is about how Austin, and culture more generally, have changed over the decades. It's about how women's roles are shifting—moving forward, and sometimes backward; it's about mothers and daughters, and it's about the relationship between people and the space around them.

As Garza puts it, "What imprints do places leave on our soul, and what imprints does our soul leave on [a] place?"

The play was originally written and developed during the pandemic. Garza had received a grant from the city during a time when theatre could be written, but not attended.

"It was a time when there was nothing going on," says Garza, "so we just kind of got reacquainted with what was around us."

For this play's devising team, which included Garza, director Jerry Ruiz, Katie Bender, and mother and daughter Giselle de la Rosa and Chamila Muñoz, what was around them was Austin.

"I wondered what it would be like to wake up 50 years in the past, 60 years in the past, and revisit the exact same physical space but with a new sensibility," says Garza.

Ester A photo of Ester, one of the women whose stories inspired the play. Photo courtesy of Raul Garza

With this idea, Garza and the team began talking to multiple generations of Latina women from Austin, starting with Garza's own mother who went to UT. From there, they expanded their conversations to include multiple groups and multiple family members—activists, mothers, daughters—all via Zoom or the phone. They asked them, How did you get here? What hardships did you encounter? What was it like for you then?

The story that began weaving itself together showed that despite changing times and a changing place, the little things in life always remained the same.

The play, starring Tonie Knight, Alyssa Hurtado, Vivian Noble, and Yesenia García Herrington, is inspired by these stories; but it doesn't focus on any one of them autobiographically. Instead, it follows the lives of two imagined families in one imagined house over the span of decades.

"We see this one consistent place, a physical house, that we imagined was somewhere in the Rainey Street neighborhood," says Garza. "And we see what happens to the lives of the people who inhabit that space, from the 50s through 2020. So it's like you're a fly on the wall, if you could be a fly on the wall in your grandmother's house. The setting is definitely a character."

Joann and her family Joann, pictured here with her family, was one of the women interviewed for this play.Photo courtesy of Raul Garza

At first, this might sound like a play about how things are getting better over time, but of course, it's not that simple. Austin is being developed, and depending on who you ask, we're better or worse off than we were a few decades ago. The same goes for women's rights; it certainly hasn't been a linear progression.

"In the wake of our latest election, it really made us stop and think," Garza says. "Wow, they're talking about the ERA March in 1975; we're talking about the ERA March in 2025. What is going on here?!"

Though the play covers some important and at times heavy topics, Garza says it's also a lot of fun; he hopes the audience comes away with a new appreciation for Austin, for those around them, and for the stories we all hold.

She Was Here is showing at Austin Playhouse Theatre at 405 West 22nd Street, from January 17 though February 9. Tickets range between $24 and $38 and can be purchased online.

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