August 28, 2009 - Zachary Scott Theatre’s New Season Preview
We stopped by ZACH’s VIP
Season Preview for patrons and media on Thursday the 27th, for
a sampling of the new season’s shows. In addition
to exceptional performances from more than a dozen of the
theatre’s veteran performers - including Martin Burke,
Judy Arnold, David Christopher, and Espie Randolph - we learned
a few secrets about plans for the 2009-
2010 productions:
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• Set designer extraordinaire
Michael Raiford is working on a new set for the holiday staple Rockin’ Christmas
Show - inspired by the pages of pop-up books!
• The new production of Thorton
Wilder’s Our Town - slated to open April 18th, 2010 - will be
both Austin-centric and environmental. The show will
include both director Dave Steakley’s patented touch of
Austin references in his productions, plus nightly guest stars
of Austin notables. Plus, each act will move to a
different space around the ZACH campus, for site-specific
stagings. For example, the wedding in teh second act will
be staged as a real wedding - with the audience as the invited
wedding guests. The idea borrows from a similar, recent
staging at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre.
• Lauren Lane - remembered as
“C.C. Babcock” from television’s The Nanny - will star in Austin playwright Steven
Dietz’s new work Becky’s New Car. The play
premiered last season in Seattle, where it was commissioned by
a real estate mogel as a birthday gift to his wife. The
husband and wife will be travel to Austin for the ZACH premiere
of the show next Spring.
The season launched on
September 17th with the hit musical The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee. Check out the ZACH website at www.ZachTheatre.org for details.