Articulations

The Austin theatre community is a little bit bigger this week, owing to the birth of Kaitlin Elizabeth Polgar. The latest production from Michelle and Robi Polgar, founders of The Public Domain Theatre, made her debut at 1:11am Tuesday, May 11, at Seton Northwest Hospital after a couple of false alarm trips to the doc, then one frantic post-midnight dash crosstown and bona fide emergency entrance at the Seton Northwest ER. Michelle got to the maternity ward with literally no time to spare; Robi estimates that just three minutes passed from the moment Michelle got into a bed to the moment Kaitlin Elizabeth was born. The proud papa, who also writes for the Chronicle, reports the following of his new daughter: "Full head of dark hair. 7 pounds, 12 ounces. 20 inches long. Scored 8, then 9 on the apgar test. She's a sweet, chirpy little thing." Mother and daughter are doing fine. Official first child Ariana is said to be "very excited" about her new role as big sister, and Dad is -- what else? -- "very sleepy." Our congratulations to all the Polgars.

Alas, this joyful news from the Polgars arrives with some not-so-joyful news: The couple's first "baby," The Public Domain Theatre, which they founded together in 1993, is losing its home next month. Robi Polgar reports that the building at 807 Congress, which has been The Public Domain's home for the last four years, has been sold and the new owner has decreed that the company must vacate the premises on June 25. Polgar had hoped he might negotiate a month-by-month lease through the fall and mount a farewell production then (his idea was to stage the most recent Harold Pinter play, Ashes to Ashes, with Katherine Catmull and Ken Webster), but that idea was nixed, so the PD's Antigone, staged by Marshall Maresca and originally set to run June 17-25, will be the final show in the current space. Polgar expects to close the show a few days early in order to clean out the space, then have a farewell event of some kind the final night. The PD board and staff are meeting to discuss the group's future, which may include a few productions staged at theatres around town while the company looks for a new space. But whatever direction The Public Domain takes, it will take it without Polgar. The founder and current artistic director is resigning his position at the end of June to devote more time to other pursuits and family. This follows Michelle Polgar's resignation from the company last year, leaving the company without either of its founders.

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This Medium Not That Medium

Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre artistic director Vicky Boone sent in this clarification on last week's item about playwright David Hancock and the play The Invisible Medium that the two will develop at Sundance in July: "For the record, the play we are working on is not in any way a version of the play which Salvage Vanguard Theater gave a workshop production in 1996. The play which Salvage workshopped is a play now called The Blind Voyeur. The play we have been working on, with a working title The Invisible Medium, is about a medium, a prospector, an ornithologist, and so on. Not the same play. No blindfolds. No people tied up in chairs. So what's with the title? I don't know! Maybe David always uses The Invisible Medium as a working title. I think that is a question for him and his agent to sort out!"