Last night, Austin's theatre denizens gathered at Zach Scott Theater for the annual B. Iden Payne Awards ceremony. A function of Austin Circle of Theaters, every fall the BIPpies recognize outstanding work on Austin's stages. This year's ballot was chock full of amazing talent—undoubtedly the voting public had some difficult choices to make. With a fabulous ceremony helmed by Andrea Skola and the women of Shrewd Productions, and featuring commentary from the always-funny Buzz......

We’ve already brought to your attention most of this week’s theatre and dance openings, but here’s a quick refresher, just in case you haven’t been paying attention: We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa: a new dance epic from the Yellow Tape Construction Co featuring Cari P from Fancy Feast and Belaire. Read our preview, or check out our photos. At Home With Dick 2: the Dick Price musical. All singing, all dancing, Alzheimer’s. Check......

As happens this time every year, the last few months have been pretty slow at Austinist Theatre Central. The 2005-2006 season wrapped by late August or so, including the shorter, simpler summer productions and workshops that seem to be mainstays of so many local theatre companies. Finally the '06-'07 season is well planned and underway, and while we're looking forward to some exciting upcoming productions, we're also in the mood to look back at......

And they're off.... The nominations for this year's B. Iden Payne Awards have been announced. We received 'em this morning, straight from the offices of the Austin Circle of Theatres. If you want to get in on the action, ballots will be available starting this Thursday, September 21, at ACoT (701 Tillery Street) & AusTIX (kiosk at the Austin Visitors Center, 209 E. 6th Street). You must be an ACoT member to vote, but......

Shrewd Productions' latest offering, Cheater, features the work of some seriously bad ass local playwrights, including Michael Kranes, Robert LeBlanc, Gregory Romero, Ken Webster, Mical Trejo, and Andrea Skola, who also directs. Plus, the cast includes (amongst other notables) Monika Bustamante and Lana Dietrich -- awesome! Now you, dear reader, can cheat your way out of paying to see this fine performance, simply by filling out the form below. Ok, it's not really cheating......

Ah, the theatre. Drenched in history, glory, shame, and the passionate pursuit of dreams. Wrought with the epitomic struggles of man – the epochal moments of our modern age – wrangling that which is humanity onto our most noble public platform – the stage. So yeah, just like every week there’s a manwich-size portion of performance going on in town this weekend. Beyond the kick-ass stuff that’s already going on, the new show garnishing......

We hate to whine, but sometimes writing reviews can be really difficult. You'd think it'd be the negative reviews we'd struggle with, but nope. It's the glowingly positive ones. This explains our delay in getting our thoughts about Hyde Park Theatre's current production, The Glory of Living, onto paper. Or rather, ether. We liked this production so much that we're a little tongue-tied. We keep asking ourselves, "Where to start?" Part of us wants......

This week’s theatre offerings have nothing to do with John Aielli or KUT, and we won't be playing a variety of songs referencing how exceptionally cold it’s been these past few days. Really, we just liked the title. (Sorry to all you non-KUT listeners who we’ve just completely excluded.) Plus, it actually is a very eclectic week on the boards (or, er, the concrete floors...in our local warehouse theatres). There’s an exciting collaboration afoot......

Okay! Time for a little break from all the SXSW zaniness! Let's talk about women, shall we? Did you know that March is National Women's History Month? One of our favorite women, the Vortex's fabulous fearless leader Bonnie Cullum, clued us in to this fact a few days ago. To honor the so-called gentler sex, Vortex has created a menu of tasty treats for the entire month. I Look Like An Egg, but I......

*This post comes from new contributor Julie* *Photo courtesy of HTP and Brett Brookshire* We have been trying to compose our review of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll at Hyde Park Theatre in our heads ever since we took in the show last Saturday. We keep thinking "Wow. Wow, wow, wow." We don't know how to tell you that you must not miss this show without saying you must not miss this show. It's......