CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe - Part 2

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe Part 2 from Christopher Taylor on Vimeo.

Spotlight On: RUTH ENGEL

Ms. Ruth Engel

Continuing our series of profiles of the great artists associated with Audacity, we now present... Ms. Ruth Engel

Q: Hometown?
A: Keene, Texas

Q: Strangest Theatre-related job?
A: This is not exactly the strangest job, but a theatre job is an odd reason to fly to South Korea. I traveled to South Korea for a week to be the equivalent of a stagehand in a religious production at a University.
Then, some might consider this strange; I have and do take great pride in making clothes/costumes for puppets.

Q: What experience(s) made you want to go into the theatre?
A: My entire journey towards theatre is a long one, but the shorter version begins with my dissatisfaction on continuing work for a PhD in English Literature. You see, I went directly on to Master’s work in English after I graduated college so I never felt a scholastic completion with my college graduation like many of my friends did. But once I completed my Master’s degree in Literature I started to feel some of that completion. So I taught for a bit but if did not take me long to start to get restless so, while still teaching, I started taking Literature PhD classes. It was after a year that I knew that I craved another direction in my education. It was at that point that my brother suggested Drama. Now, I had always loved theatre and drama and had dabbled with it since elementary school, but I had never thought of it as a career. But I did some research, applied to the graduate program at Texas Woman’s University (I had some unusual circumstances since none of my undergraduate work nor my graduate work had anything to do with theatre), and was accepted. I told myself that I would try it for one semester and if I was not happy, then I would move on and find something else. After about two weeks of classes I was hooked and have never looked back.

Q: Tragic flaw?
A: I over think and question everything far too much.

Q: If you could change one thing about theatre, what would it be?
A: Its perception – the way many people view it. Theatre is magic but only because life is magic. So often in our society we do not stop to see the magic of life and therefore, we do not recognize the magic in theatre.
Also, if I could I would eliminate “bad” theatre (occasionally, including a few of my own production as well).

Q: Who are or were your theatrical influences?
A: This is a slightly difficult question for me to answer because many of my influences in the theatre are not solely restricted to theatre. Due to my background in British literature, the lives of many of the early women writers (such as the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen, for example) inspire me. The fact that they loved writing so much that they wrote under pseudonyms just to get their work out to the public inspires me. I have also been influenced by the great Greek and Roman philosophers. I see life and the philosophical questions of life present in theatre. As someone who loves to dwell on those fundamental and yet complex questions, theatre has given me a canvas to playfully examine what the greatest minds have wrestled with for ages (however, still not coming up with any answer). And lastly, I would also have to say that I have been influenced by Margo Jones and Paul Baker (especially since I have grown up in the Dallas area), and Peter Brook.

Q: What kind of theatre really excites you?
A: Making theatre. I know all theatre has to be made, but the very act of making it: building puppets, creating characters, building a set, telling a story that has never been told (at least in that way), and touching someone’s life - that thrills me to the core.

Q: What is in the near future for you as far as your work in the theatre?
A: Well, currently I am working on creating three one-woman historical pieces about three extraordinary women in the early 20th century. The first one that I am working on is about the life of Sara Murphy, then, next up will be a piece on Violet Jessop, and lastly the life of Ruth Draper. All three amazing women were quite humble, but left a tremendous impact on those around them.

For more information on Ruth Engel visit her website at: http://www.ruthengel.net/

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CHOP in 2010

It has been a good run troughout 2012 with CHOP. After World Premiering the piece at Addison Water Tower Theater's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in March, Ruth Engel (my tech gal) and Andy Merkel (Director) have managed to get the piece seen by a variety of audiences at a variety of venues. This is what Audacity is leaning more and more towards... small, nimble, hard-hitting productions that travel about and spread the mirth over a relatively long development timeline. Below is the venues lisdt of this year, but I plan to contune to perform the piece throughout 2011 and maybe into 2012 as well.

2010 DATES

New Orleans Fringe Festival
November 17th at 9:00 PM, 19th at 7:00 PM, 20th at 11:00 pm
Party World
3621 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117

One-Night Benefit Performance in Dallas
November 3rd at 7:30 PM
The Continetal Lofts Gallery3311 Elm Street, Dallas, TX 75226 (Between Trunk & 2nd Ave. in Deep Ellum).

Phoenix Fringe Festival
April 8th at 7 PM, 9th at 10 PM, 10th at 1 PM & 8:30 PM, 11th at 5:30 PM
The Chocolate Factory
1105 W. Grand Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85007

College of Santa Fe
April 6th at 3 PM
Weckesser Studio Theatre
1600 Saint Michael's Drive, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival
Water Tower Theatre
March 4th at 7:30 PM, 7th at 5 PM, 11th at 7:30 PM & 13th at 5 PM
15650 Addison Road, Addison, TX 75001

~ Brad McEntire

Playwright/performer of CHOP

Staged Readings at the Magnolia Lounge

Projects-in-Progress by Brad McEntire
On December 13 at 7:30 PM, Audacity Theatre Lab will present Staged Readings of two works-in-progress by Brad McEntire.

I HAVE ANGERED A GREAT GOD

Robert von Ritchie Ritchie has somehow upset a Great Tiki God with anger-control issues. Robert retraces his steps over the past few days to discover where he ran afoul. It might be easier if he weren't constantly on his cell phone talking with his now ex-girlfriend Martha, who barely made it into Mensa. A brief satire of modern public etiquette. Newly expanded to feature a kick-ass hip hop opening number.

THE DOLPHINS OF MARS

Roy has been dumped by his girlfriend. She snuck back to Earth on one of the last shuttles and Roy finds himself stuck on Mars. Now, the colonists are rioting and he has just enough time to send one last broadcast home before the bio-dome cracks wide open.

WHEN: Monday, December 13, 2010 at 7:30 PM

WHERE: At Nouveau 47 Theatre in the historic Magnolia Lounge (Margo Jones Building), Fair Park, 1121 First Ave., Dallas, TX 75210.

COST: $5 suggested donation (includes FTP Comedy Troupe performance after the reading), BYOB.



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Five Things I Like About Sara Murphy

Sara Murphy, with her legendary pearls draped over her back for sunbathing, and Ada MacLeish (under umbrella), La Garoupe beach, Antibes, 1924.

ATL artist Ruth Engel is currently developing a series of biographical pieces for the stage. Each will feature a historcal "strong" female from the early 1900s. The first in the line of "historical portraits" will involve maven of the Jazz Age: Sara Murphy.

Sara Murphy, along with her husband Gerald Murphy, were wealthy, expatriate Americans who moved to the French Riviera in the early 20th century and who, with their generous hospitality and flair for parties, created a vibrant social circle, particularly in the 1920s, that included a great number of artists and writers of the Lost Generation.

Engel lists out below a few of the things that she has learned so far and come to love about Sar Murphy:

1. She was a consummate hostess

2. She was classy in a way that she wore a string of pearls when she sunbathed on the beach.

3. She had such a magnetic personality that everyone loved her.

4. She was compulsive neat freak (I can identify) to the point that when she and Gerald traveled with their three kids on trains she would always take their own linens for her kids to sleep on.

5. She had a big heart.

Look for workshops of Engel's Sara Murphy project in the spring of 2011.

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe - Pt. 1

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe from Christopher Taylor on Vimeo.