Articulations

---

On the Road Again

We may have said goodbye to 2001, but the first weeks of 2002 show that Austin artists are continuing their space odysseys. Among the companies and creators who are taking their art to other parts of the country:

Ballet Austin is in the nation's capital this weekend to play the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The company will present the first act of Stephen Mills' hilarious adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the Center's 2001-2002 Youth and Family Public Performance Season. BA will present four public performances and three school performances in the Terrace Theater January 3-6.

The Rude Mechanicals are touring the Midwest with their award-winning stage adaptation of Lipstick Traces all month. The road version, which features original cast members Ehren Conner Christian, Lana Lesley, Jason Liebrecht, Michael T. Mergen, and Robert Pierson, with Jason Phelps joining the company to play Guy Debord, Hugo Ball, and Steve Jones, will play Columbus, Ohio's Wexner Center January 10-12, Minneapolis' Walker Arts Center January 17-19, Cedar Rapids, Iowa's Legion Arts Center January 24-26, and Houston's DiverseWorks January 30-Febuary 1.

Dan Dietz is having his play Dirigible produced in Wilmington, Delaware. The City Theater production, which follows a recent staging of the play in Los Angeles, opened December 28 and continues through January 12 at the Baby Grand Theatre in Wilmington.

Rosalyn Rosen will have the world premiere of her play Why Is the Dog Howlin', Momma? in Los Angeles next week. The drama, which was developed locally by Rosen's company Remembrance Through The Performing Arts and went on to win the New Play Festival at Cleveland Public Theatre, will open at the American Renegade Theatre on January 11 and run for six weeks.

Sharon Bridgforth will have her performance piece con flama produced in Minneapolis at the end of the month. This collaboration with composers Lourdes Pérez & Annette D'Armata and director Laurie Carlos originated at Frontera here in Austin. The Penumbra Theatre Company production, which will feature original cast members Zell Miller III, Sonja Parks, and Ana Perea, will run January 29-March 3.

---

Leaves on Stage

Physical Plant Theater needs your leaves! Its next production takes place in a world that is filled in part with fallen leaves about 3 feet deep, so Physical Plant's Steve Moore and Carlos Trevino are looking for bags of dry leaves, preferably oak (although not live oak). If you have some, they'll happily come over with a truck and cart them off. Call 443-2955, or e-mail physicalplant@hotmail.com.