Martin on the Road

Austin playwright Marty Martin has a new show on the road, and it may well be the road to Broadway. The Dragon and the Pearl is a solo drama about Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck that Martin has written for Valerie Harper. Harper's husband, producer Tony Cacciato, thought a solo stage piece would be an ideal vehicle for his wife and contacted Martin, who had penned one for Harper's pal from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cloris Leachman. At first Martin was -- how can one put it? -- disinclined to author another one-actor workout. After his Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein became a hit for Pat Carroll, Martin was loaded with requests for them and churned out everything from Leachman's Grandma Moses play to a Picasso piece for Anthony Quinn. Buck won Martin over, however; reading about her, he was so moved by her compassion that he agreed to write the show. It premiered in July at the American Stage Festival in New Hampshire and is currently having a run in Chicago. If Cacciatto and Harper get the response they expect, they may try for the Great White Way next spring. This comes during a fruitful time for Martin, who reports a new resurgence of interest in Shaviana, his drama about young George Bernard Shaw, and Whitechapel, his Jack the Ripper play. On to Broadway!

Sharir Goes International

For you folks who have missed the Sharir Dance Company performing Dervishing, José Luis Bustamante's dance inspired by the whirling dervishes of the Melevi order, you have another chance to see it next week. There's just one catch... you have to go to
Tel Aviv. That's where the company will be, taking part in the Suzanne Dellal International Dance Competition, a truly transglobal event featuring choreographers from nine countries. (It's SDC's second appearance there; in 1992, both company founder Yacov Sharir and Bustamante were chosen to compete.) Israel is SDC's second international stop this fall. It was in Rotterdam last month for the Future Moves Festival. Sharir was invited to present his Hollow Ground/Cyborg Dances and speak on his pioneering work with digitized dance. The company flies home to open its 14th season November 15 at the McCullough Theatre, UT campus. Call 458-8158 for info.

Honors

The Mid-America Arts Alliance (MAAA) has announced the recipients of its Fellowships in Painting and Works on Paper, and two Austin artists are among the 25 honorees. Sydney Yeager and Jake Gilson will both receive $5,000 fellowships. The news is bittersweet because it's the last year MAAA will dispense the awards. The program has been partially funded through the National Endowment for the Arts, and recent Congressional dictates prohibit the agency from supporting programs that grant fellowships to individual artists. (Thanks, Congress!) Ah well, kudos to Gilson and Yeager for making the final cut.

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