Articulations

If you’ve been yearning for a program of theatrical training that combines strenuous physical work with intensive explorations into the definitions of theatre, yearn no more. The folks at Physical Plant Theater have begun just such a program, and they’re actively seeking folks to join them in it. According to Katie Pearl, who helps lead the training, the five-times-weekly sessions (Monday-Friday) mix warm-up exercises, Suzuki exercises (including stomps, walks, statues), tumbling and gymnastics, yoga, breathing and image work, and discussions of various texts (such as Grotowski’s Toward a Poor Theatre, and Barba’s Beyond Floating Islands). This is not your standard stage training program, just as Physical Plant is not your standard theatre company. Both program and company take the long view when it comes to physical and artistic development — a year for a project, five years, 10 years — and draw heavily on the collaborative nature of theatre, relying on the abilities and vision of the individuals involved in a project for creative input. It’s an intense way of working, but remarkable things come out of it, strange and wonderful theatre. Currently, the program meets Monday-Friday, 9am-noon, at Movements Gallery, 211 E. Sixth. For more info, call 478-5675.

Getting Seen

If it’s July, this must be Cyprus — if you’re in Ballet Austin, anyway. The local dance company has returned to the Mediterranean island for the third year in a row to conduct a three-week dance intensive. BA artistic director Lambros Lambrou, a native Cypriot, leads the workshop, along with a handful of dancers and choreographers from the ballet and a couple of other local dance companies. Joining Lambrou this year are BA principal dancers Nadya Zybine and Rafael Padilla, Andrea Beckham of Sharir Dance Company, and Nicholas Young of Tapestry Dance Company. The intensive began this past Monday and continues through July 24. For more info, call 476-9051.

Worthy Causes

If you’re reading this before 7pm on Thursday, July 10, it’s not too late to make Contact, that is, the special screening of the big new movie starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey, the film’s producer (and new Austinite) Lynda Obst, and local hero Richard Linklater are hosting a preview showing at the Paramount to benefit the Austin Film Society’s Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund and the Austin Circle of Theatres’ AusTix/The Box Office program, the front half of which provides half-price tickets to many performing arts events in town, the back half of which provides a centralized source of tickets to most area music, dance, and theatre events. Both are well worth your support. Tickets to the screening are $20. For info, call The Box Office, 454-TIXS, or the Austin Film Society, 322-0145.

This article appears in July 11 • 1997 and July 11 • 1997 (Cover).