Current Season

We produce several Main Stage and Second Stage shows each year.  Main Stage shows are produced by the program as extracurricular activities.  These shows are done with full support for technical aspects. The auditions and crews for these shows are open to all students.  Second Stage shows are typically student produced and driven.  This includes budgets, casting, technical needs, etc.  Special events include any outside group, such as the University of Texas, or culminating events like the End-of-Year Exhibition.

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

(September 18-21) - professional series
Three casts, two featuring MacTheatre students and one with local professional actors (including Molly Wissinger, recently seen as “Belle” in this summer’s Zilker Hillside Summer Musical BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Andrew Cannata from last summer's Zilker show MY FAVORITE YEAR) perform this one act musical that explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy travels backwards in time (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie travels forwards (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle.

 YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN

(October 9-19) - professional series
As they did last year in the Scottish Rite Theatre smash THE TOYS TAKE OVER CHRISTMAS, MacTheatre and Second Youth Theatre Company join the forces of MacTheatre student actors and local professionals to put on this timeless Broadway classic musical involving all your favorite PEANUTS comic strip characters.

 THE PILLOWMAN

(October 30 – November 9) - mainstage series
MacTheatre tackles award-winning English playwright Martin McDonagh’s pitch black comedy about brutal murder, family violence, totalitarian regimes, and other childhood fairy tales.  Katurian, a writer of grisly short stories often depicting violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of his stories resemble recent child murders. On learning that his brother Michal has confessed to the murders and implicated Katurian, he resigns himself to his execution but attempts to save his stories from destruction.  NOTE:  THE PILLOWMAN involves adult themes and is intended for mature audiences.

 J.B.

(December 4-7) - mainstage series
Poet Archibald Macleish’s much heralded but seldom produced 1958 Pulitzer Prize winning play that puts a modern spin on the Book of Job from the Old Testament in the Bible.  The action takes place in a run down circus in the waning days of World War II, and the play-within-a-play is performed by circus workers who take on the roles of God and Satan.  Don’t miss your chance to see this rarely performed and insightful masterpiece on the nature of God and human suffering on MacTheatre’s main stage.

 FUDDY MEERS

(January 29-30) - lab theatre series
Described by the New York Observer as “comic genius”, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s comic adventure tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire, who awakens each morning as a blank slate on which her husband and teenage son must imprint the facts of her life. One morning Claire is abducted by a limping, lisping man who claims her husband wants to kill her. The audience views the ensuing mayhem through the kaleidoscope of Claire's world. The play culminates in a cacophony of revelations, proving that everything is not what it appears to be.

 ANYTHING GOES

(February 26-March 8) - mainstage series
It’s hijinx on the high seas set to Cole Porter’s music and tap dancing as MacTheatre puts on its most spectacular and ambitious musical to date.  Perhaps Porter’s most famous work, ANYTHING GOES concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy #13 “Moonface” Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced such songs as "Anything Goes", "You're the Top", and "I Get a Kick Out of You" to the world.  As always, expect the unexpected from MacTheatre’s student and professional technical wizards, who are sure to take the challenge of building an ocean liner on stage to heart.

 BIG LOVE

(March 26-29) - mainstage series
Adapted from one of the oldest plays in Western literature (Aeschylus's THE SUPPLICANTS), BIG LOVE updates to modern times the tale of fifty brides fleeing their arranged marriages to various cousins by hiding out in an Italian villa.  Performed on MacTheatre’s outdoor Courtyard Stage, the play is full of feisty women and the men who think they own them.  Sexual politics and hysterical slapstick combine into one of the most thrilling and strangest comedic plays you are ever likely to see.

 TICK…TICK…BOOM!

(April 13-14) - lab theatre series
Following up on MacTheatre’s triumphant presentation of RENT last summer, TICK…TICK…BOOM! Is an earlier, lesser known musical by RENT’s creator Jonathan Larson.  Like RENT, and with similarities to Stephen Sondheim’s COMPANY, TICK…TICK…BOOM! Is largely autobiographical, and tells the story of an aspiring composer named Jonathan (also referred to as Jon or Johnny) who lives in New York City in 1990. Jon is worried he has made the wrong career choice to be part of the performing arts.

 UNTOLD STORIES

(April 23-26) - mainstage series
As has been the tradition, MacTheatre’s ends its season with a repertory of student directed and/or written works.  This year’s theme, UNTOLD STORIES, is intended to highlight short plays that are either rarely produced, or original works making their world premiere.  Come see these young artists take over the McCallum stage as they cast, design, and direct these hidden gems.  Plays and schedule will be announced in Spring 2009.

End of Year Expo!

Theatre Academy students at all levels participate in an end of year event to present their final projects. These often include scenes, monologue work, devised pieces, and portfolio presentations.