Artist Sam Coronado started coming into his own in the early Eighties, when his Dias de los Muerte paintings received public attention. Cornado then developed his printmaking skills several years ago when he attended a workshop at Self-help Graphics in Los Angeles. Since the workshop, he's been hooked and has applied for grants to establish a print shop in East Austin. Hoping to inspire local artists into the medium, Coronado started a nonprofit atelier, providing many of them their first opportunity to create a print with a master printer. Now in its fifth year, the workshops have inspired many artists and helped launch some of their careers.
Coronado Studio & Gallery
901 Vargas
512/385-3591
www.coronadostudio.com
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An off-shoot of Teatro Humanidad Cansada, a Latino theatre group, the Latino Comedy Project has in the last two years brought some of the best Latino comedians to the forefront of the entertainment scene in Austin. With biting satire on race and culture, LCP hits the funny bone time and again in bilingual sketches that target every aspect of being Latino in the U.S.
Latino Comedy Project
www.latinocomedyproject.com
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As if we needed another festival in this, the city of never-ending fetes. But when one is run this well, when it shines a light on Austin's underappreciated comedy artists, and when it provides hours of gut-busting guffaws, it not only must be given its due, it must be celebrated! So we doff our jester's cap to this jamboree of joy which, in three years, has grown to encompass 75 comedy companies and 55 shows, drawn humorists of the caliber of Fred Willard and Monteith & Rand, and made talent scouts on the coasts take note. Host troupe Monks' Night Out runs the fest with efficiency and smarts, keeps the quality high, and compares well with their big-name guests in the laugh-making game. Six months after and our sides are still aching.
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Named for the power chakra, the "double burner" in the chakra system - the place from which all of our fire energy comes - Tantien is a quadruple-burner of flaming dance and athletic derring-do. Four dancers twirl batons, toss sticks, and wrangle lariats of fire in a sensual display of elemental power. They have performed at local parties and events, mostly to small but intense and intimate gatherings; to see them in the cloak of night is unforgettable. Baruseula, Heather, Sage, and Tanya (who individually also "does" fire for local band Govinda) are as intense as the heat they throw. Any chance to catch this wonder should not be missed.
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photograph by Todd V. Wolfson Todd V. Wolfson
There are reasons that the world went gaga over American musicals, and we can see them in every production from Austin Musical Theatre. True, the company has just three shows to its credit, but its Peter Pan, West Side Story, and Annie were so consistent in their exuberance, high gloss, and sheer zest for the expression of emotion in song and dance that it's as clear as that sun comin' up tomorrow that AMT understands what makes a musical magical - and can conjure it with the energy, enchantment, and élan that echoes Broadway in its glory days. All we can say to AMT founders Scott Thompson and Richard Byron - serious pros whose deep love of the genre push them to seek perfection and get it, from dazzling guest artists and Austinites alike - is: Applause, applause!
Austin Musical Theatre
2011 E. Riverside
512/292-9696
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After walking into a theatre, have you ever felt that - when the movie actually starts - the sound quality would be better at home, on your own TV minus a speaker? Well if you have, we hope you got your money back. Gateway is an auditory Graceland. Teeming with digital and THX sound, it delivers the loudest explosion or the softest whisper, clearly.
Gateway Theatre
9700 Stonelake
512/416-5700
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If theatre is a gateway to distant and exotic lands, then Christopher McCollum may be our top travel agent; his magical sets never fail to transport us. Whether it's Depression-era NYC or Paris during the Great Terror, this Austin native can take a little lumber, some paint, and canvas, and carry us there into what feels like a wonderland. His set for Austin Musical Theatre's Annie made that comic-strip musical's setting a cotton candy-colored Big Apple; his scene work for Zilker Theatre's South Pacific offered luxuriant tropical foliage on traveling boxes, which parted to reveal a three-dimensional Bali Hai rising from a glttering sea. His work reveals not only an expansive sense of scale, perspective, color, and texture, but a great grasp of the dramatic and a thriving sense of wonder.
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We first heard about this through some odd inquiries to our "Public Notice" column, and then continued to hear about it at the bars. The murmurs around the possibility of a weekend-long Chances reunion extravaganza intrigue us. Despite its reputation as the South's gay-friendly hot spot, Austin is sure lacking when it comes to lesbo hang outs. For those here long enough to remember Chances on Red River, it hardly seems relevant: No bar could possibly fill the niche the way Chances did with its welcome and inviting atmosphere and amazingly eclectic booking policies, anyway, so why bother? Why bother?! Well, not only will all the regulars show up, but new generations of yummy baby dykes who have only heard about the legend will have a chance to revel in the faded glory, too. So what say we bug Chances maven Sandra Martinez - or even better - offer to help her organize one?
Chances
900 Red River
512/472-8273
