Articulations

For the past week and a half, the New York City performance art cafe Here seemed more like it was here -- as in Austin, Texas -- than in good old Gotham. That's because three of the projects in this year's Culture mart, the arts center's annual winter festival of alternative performance, featured a trio of very familiar folks. On January 5 and 6, jamming at Here with The Walter Thompson Orchestra in evenings of "Sound Painting," spontaneous compositions for a large musical ensemble incorporating texts by New York playwright C.J. Hopkins, was local actor/dancer/performance artist Jason Phelps. Then, on the 7th and 8th, and again on the 14th and 15th, the cafe was treated to the retro coming-of-age comedy Freshman Year Sucks! by onetime Austinite Rob Nash, who was performing it here just before the holidays. And as if that weren't enough, on January 10 and 11, the featured work was The Portrait Project, written, choreographed, and performed by our own Margery Segal, with design and media work supplied by a platoon of local artists, including Ann Marie Gordon, Luke Savisky, Jim Filer Coleman, Sergio Samayoa, and Tiana Hux. It was nice of Here to turn Austin for a little bit. Looking at the local schedule, it appears we'll be returning the favor very soon: It'll look a little like Here here the first week of February as Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre's own winter festival of alternative and (not-so-alternative) performance, FronteraFest, will be hosting New York vocalist Grisha Coleman (Hot Mouth, Urban Bush Women) and the very same Walter Thompson Orchestra doing some of its Sound Painting. For more info, find a FronteraFest schedule or call 454-TIXS.

Worthy Causes

Muses Workshop is a new entity/event that seeks to bring together potential mentors in the arts with potential protégés or apprentices, to introduce new talent, and to entertain. It's the effort of a group of former employees and associates of Capitol City Playhouse and friends of CCP founder Michel Jaroschy, who are looking to memorialize their friend and continue a part of the work in which he was engaged during his life. What they've planned is a day of artistic interaction, with an afternoon of rehearsals and workshops with assorted local artists and groups, to be followed by an evening of performances by the same artists. They've procured the Scottish Rite Temple, 207 W. 18th, and scheduled workshops from 2-7pm and a concert from 7-11pm. Featured artists include LeeAnn Atherton, Greater Peace Christian Church Choral Group, The Keller Brothers Band, Jack Nichols, Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones, and
Z-Helene. Tickets are $10 for workshops, $20 for the concert ($5 off concert tickets for workshop ticket holders). All proceeds benefit the Children's Rights Coalition and the Jaroschy Children's Trust Fund. For info, call 478-6306. The Austin Circle of Theatres presents a salon reading of the new French farce Art, by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, on Sunday, January 18, 5:30pm, at the Charles Moore-designed home of Tana Christie. The play debates the question of what art is through three friends and a rather expensive piece of art that is a blank piece of canvas. The reading features Bill Johnson, Norman Blumensaadt, and Paul Norton. Ann Ciccolella directs. Proceeds benefit ACoT. Tickets are $20. For info, call 454-TIXS. Send literary, performing, and visual arts news to: "Articulations," PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765 or onstage@auschron.com