• Art From the Streets isn’t the only cool spot for picking up art this weekend. The Blanton Museum of Art is unloading some 125 original works on paper, including prints by Robert Rauschenberg, Red Grooms, Marguerite Kumm, and Frank Klepper, among others, at the proverbial bargain-basement prices ($25-$2,000). These are duplicates of pieces the museum already has in its collection, so it’s making them available to you (and putting the proceeds toward more new art). Shell out $25 in advance ($30 at the door) and you can shop early to jazz by trumpeter Zach Buie with wine and hors d’oeuvres on hand. Or wait until Saturday and pay just $5. The preview party is Friday, Nov. 4, 5-8pm, and the public sale is Saturday, Nov. 5, 10am-3pm, both in the Art Building, 23rd and San Jacinto streets, UT campus. For more information, call 471-9210 or e-mail rsvp@blantonmuseum.org.
• It’s Weird, it’s nationwide! That little show about Austin over at the Zachary Scott Theatre Center gets some national exposure this weekend, as CBS News Sunday Morning does a segment on Keepin’ It Weird. The theatre undertook a serious press blitz for the original production, hitting major media outlets all across the land, and saw the Tiffany Network’s eye, as it were. Emmy-winning correspondent Bill Geist saw a performance on Thursday, Oct. 24, and talked to Weird writer/director Dave Steakley, cast member Aralyn Hughes; hairdresser to Karen Hughes Rhonda Peters; Elvis-dressin,’ hearse-drivin’ Johnathan Metina; yard-art stars Scott Stephens (doll heads) and Beth Thom (polka dot lawn), and – wait for it – Leslie Cochran. The segment airs Sunday, Nov. 6, between 8am and 9:30am, on KEYE, Channel 42. For more information, visit www.zachscott.com or www.cbsnews.com/sections/sunday/main3445.shtml.
• Speaking of Zach, its Little Elf ain’t gonna be so little this holiday season. The lead role in the theatre’s now-annual staging of David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries was handled last year by former Flaming Idiot Rob Williams, but when he landed a gig as writer/actor/director for Queer Edge with Jack E. Jett, a new show on the Q Television Network, the leap to La-La land left a big gap in Santaland. To fill it, director Dave Steakley has tapped a big talent (and a tallish one, to boot): Lee Eddy. The acclaimed comic actress, currently performing on the Kleberg Stage in Keepin’ It Weird, will be the first woman to play Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries Elf. Another big change to Santaland this season: a location. To accommodate the still-running Shear Madness in the Whisenhunt Arena Stage, Zach is creating a new black-box venue in the old Bicycle Sport Shop space just east of Zach on Toomey Road. The modified thrust configuration will seat 200 people and allow for a new, environmental feel, with the audience truly in Santa’s Village. For more information, visit www.zachscott.com.
This article appears in November 4 • 2005.