Articulations

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All the World's a Stage – But Especially 401 Sabine

After 20 years without a home and most of that time spent out of doors, the Austin Shakespeare Festival is about to get a roof over its head – of its very own. Artistic Director Guy Roberts has announced that a proposed restaurant and bar complex to be built at 401 Sabine, better known as the site of the old City Grill restaurant, will include a new theatre just for his company. This leap forward for ASF comes through the generosity of board members Patricia and Steve Zinkgraf, who decided last summer that the company should have its own facility and have been leading the search for a suitable location since. After several false starts – among them, the former adult cinema on South Congress – the Zinkgrafs got a look at the empty eatery on the banks of Waller Creek and thought it a keeper. They aim to tear down the existing structure and, with help from noted local architect Dick Clark, build a new multistory structure that will include a fine-dining restaurant and bar in one part and a theatre, offices, and other facilities for ASF in another. Clark will also design the theatre – currently envisioned as an intimate venue of roughly 200 seats – but Roberts has also contacted the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre to obtain assistance from Simon Bowler, head of engineering services for the RSC, and Jason Barnes, head of production at the National's Cottesloe Theatre, in creating the facility. The Zinkgrafs will build the facility, but ASF is responsible for raising the funds for the theatre's construction, currently estimated at approximately $2 million. The company hopes to open the yet-to-be-named theatre in early to mid-2005. For more information, call 454-BARD or visit www.austinshakespeare.org.

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Coming Soon to an Opera Near You

When is an arts company's 18th season also its first? When that company has a new artistic director and season No. 18 is the first to bear his creative stamp. So it is with Austin Lyric Opera, and the significance of this moment in its history was not lost on ALO, which announced its 2004-2005 season at a gala soiree on Feb. 25. And what has conductor Richard Buckley chosen for his inaugural foray? Well, he's bookending the season with a pair of Really Big Guns, two of the 10 most-produced operas on the continent: Tosca and The Marriage of Figaro. (Naturally, with hits of this caliber, both have already been staged by ALO, although each only once and neither in the past 10 years.) In between, however, in that traditionally experimental January slot, Buckley has slotted something different and definitely new for ALO: Richard Strauss' Elektra. The company's only previous venture into R. Strauss territory was Salome in 1999, so taking on his version of Sophocles' tragedy offers an intriguing expansion of ALO's repertoire. The season opens considerably earlier than usual, with Tosca running Sept. 17-20. Elektra follows Jan. 8-16, and The Marriage of Figaro closes the season April 29-May 2. Maestro Buckley conducts the first two productions.

Giving ALO even more cause to celebrate as it looks ahead to these shows is a $1 million gift to the opera's Artistic Excellence Campaign from stalwart patrons Jeff and Gail Kodosky. This donation, titled the Kodosky Family Endowment for Artistic Excellence, launches the $3.6 million campaign for endowment and production growth. For more information, call 472-5992 or visit www.austinlyricopera.org.