Shame on me. This past Sunday, I paid a long-overdue first visit to the State Theater since its renovation, and I deserve a swift kick in the keyboard for taking two months to get there. After all, the revitalized State is one of the keystones of the new generation of Austin arts projects and one that is all the more important for being on our main street. It deserved immediate attention. Well, I can’t turn the clock back and provide that, but I can report, late though the date may be, that the redesigned facility is an impressive addition to the city’s theatrical treasures. Architect Sinclair Black has done a fine job of capitalizing on the building’s roominess with great expanses of air and light that recall the big sky of the Lone Star State itself. You get a sense of expansiveness as you move in the lobby and the auditorium, but it doesn’t dwarf you; the space’s narrowness preserves its intimacy. Watching the company’s staging of Hay Fever was as cozy an experience as I’ve had at a State (or Live Oak Theatre) show. (Alas, the review of the show was squeezed out of this week’s issue at the last minute by space limitations; look for it in the June 25 Chronicle.) The one drawback to the space at present is an unfortunate echo — the result of a lot of air and hard surfaces with almost no baffling to direct the sound. But I trust State Producing Artistic Director Don Toner to be on the case regarding this chip in his gem of a theatre. I expect he won’t rest until it’s flawless.
The benefit of my reporting belatedly on the State is that I can remind you that the theatre’s renovation isn’t complete and that the capital campaign to raise funds for the State’s new support facilities in the theatre basement and in the Reynolds-Penland Building next door needs your help now. The Meadows Foundation of Dallas has provided a matching grant in the amount of $232,267 to help pay for the new rehearsal hall, dressing rooms, costume shop, and scene shop, as well as the Horton Foote Theater, a small space devoted to experimental and new works, to be built next door. Gifts to the campaign will be matched dollar for dollar by the foundation but only through July 24. Don’t be like some folks and wait to do the right thing. Make your contribution to the future of Austin theatre now. For info, call 472-5143.
Bye, Sam/Hi, Ben
Speaking of long overdue, I’ve allowed an entire month to go by without mentioning the departure of Chronicle Visual Arts writer extraordinaire Sam Martin. Sam wasn’t with the paper for long, but in the year that he helped us cover the local arts scene, he added a lot. It was Sam who provided those insightful reviews of last summer’s succession of fine exhibitions at Mexic-Arte Museum and the fall’s slew of impressive photography shows at the Austin Museum of Art. It was Sam who gave us the striking profile of Fidencio Duran and penned the amazing cover story on Austin’s murals, from the Fifties to today. And it was Sam who annotated our Art listings from last September through May. Needless to say, we’ll miss him, but we wish him well in his new position as editor for Mother Earth magazine in New York. As for our present and future visual arts coverage, we’re happy to welcome Ben Willcott to these pages. His first review (of the “Alan Rath: Robotics” show at AMOA) appeared in last week’s paper; this issue, he takes his first crack at the Art listings. Expect to see his byline on a regular basis.
This article appears in June 18 • 1999 and June 18 • 1999 (Cover).