Articulations

Calling all artists who want a voice in the full-body makeover of Palmer Auditorium! This coming week, project consultants will be in Austin to talk to local performing arts groups about their needs and dreams for the renovated facility. To date, the arts companies most often associated with the renovation have been the handful of institutions with stature and size that have looked to Palmer as their refuge from Bass Concert Hall, i.e., Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin, and Austin Symphony. But the folks at ARTS Center Stage, the nonprofit heading up the auditorium redo, report that this week's meetings are specifically geared toward small and midsize companies which will make use of the space. Four 90-minute sessions have been scheduled, each for a different arts discipline: theatre companies, Wednesday, June 16, 9:30-11am; dancers and dance groups, Wednesday, June 16, 1-2:30pm; vocal ensembles, Thursday, June 17, 9:30-11am; and instrumental groups, Thursday, June 17, 1-2:30pm; all meetings will take place at the ARTS offices, 111 Congress, Suite 400. If you have a vision for the space or just want to know what is being considered for the spaces in this monumental project, hie thee to these meetings. Or call ARTS Center Stage about other ways you can contribute ideas to the project; the number is 482-0800.

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Classical Platter Chatter

If you want to see the faces behind the voicesof Austin's broadcast bastion of classical music,KMFA, head to Tower Records this Saturday. The station is holding its second Classical Music Roundtable, part of an ongoing series in which KMFA personalities spin new releases and chat about music outside the studio. Charla Dain, host of KMFA's early music program Quire and Consort, takes the lead this week to discuss new early music releases on Dorian. Tower and Allegro Distribution are sponsoring the hour-long event, which begins at noon, Saturday June 12, at Tower Records, 24th & Guadalupe. For more, call KMFA at 476-5632.

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Worthy Causes

It may not be the Night of a Thousand Stars, but in terms of quality not quantity, it's still One Stellar Night. That's the title of this fundraiser for the Austin Circle of Theatres, the arts umbrella celebrating its silver anniversary this year, and it has a lineup that is indeed heavenly. The show features jazz songstress Pam Hart, consistently regarded as one of the city's finest vocalists; Robert Skiles, accomplished local musician, playing solo jazz piano; the 40-voice show choir River City Pops; the exuberant young hoofers of Austin Musical Theatre's Junior Company; cast members from the Zachary Scott Theatre Center production of Beehive, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society production of Patience, and the Zilker Summer Musical production of Big River; and actor-musician Robert Rudie as Paganini. Tickets are $15 ($12 ACoT members, students, seniors). The stars fall Sunday, June 13, 7:30pm, at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress. Call 454-TIXS.

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Hancock Scores!

Belated congratulations to David Hancock on his 1998-99 OBIE Award for Playwriting for The Race of the Ark Tattoo, a show developed in part by Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre artisticdirector Vicky Boone and staged by her locally in August, 1998. As reported earlier, Boone and Hancock are in cahoots again, cooking up a show at Sundance Theatre Lab this July.