History

2009-2010 The Collection by Harold Pinter directed by Ken Webster September 10 - October 10, 2009 This darkly-comic jewel of a play sizzles with sexual tension as three men and one woman fall into shifting, overlapping triangles of desire and menace. One of Harold Pinter's funniest and most erotically charged works, The Collection features an all-star cast of local actors: Joey Hood, Kelsey Kling, Ian Manners, and Ken Webster.   FronteraFest 2010 January 12 - February 13, 2010 The seventeenth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   The Atheist by Ronan Noone February 18 - March 13, 2010 Wickedly funny dark comedy about a young journalist who is high on ambition and low on scruples. Featuring Joey Hood and directed by Ken Webster.   Body Awareness by Annie Baker April 8 - May 8, 2010 In Annie Baker's hysterically funny new comedy, it's Body Awareness Week at Shirley State College in Vermont, and things don't go very smoothly for the hosts or the guests. Featuring Kenneth Wayne Bradley, Katherine Catmull, Emily Erington, and Stephen Mercantel. Directed by Ken Webster.   Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker July 8 - August 7, 2010 From the playwright who brought you HPT's current hit, Body Awareness, a new play that took New York City by storm last fall. Set in a "creative drama" class, Circle Mirror Transformation is "absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny" according to the New York Times. Directed by Ken Webster.   2008-2009 Blackbird by David Harrower co-production with Capital T Theatre Company directed by Mark Pickell September 11 - October 11, 2008, 2007 Fifteen years ago, Una and Ray had a relationship. They haven't set eyes on each other since. Now she's found him again. The Statesman called the show "a boiling kettle with no vent for the steam" and "one of the most richly challenging plays for audiences this year."   FronteraFest 2009 January 13 - February 14, 2009 The sixteenth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   Bombs in Your Mouth by Corey Patrick February 26 - March 28, 2009 HPT presents the world premiere of this darkly comic piece, in which a brother and sister are re-united at their childhood home for the funeral of their father. Ken Webster directs this brilliant new comedy by one of America's hottest new playwrights.   My Child, My Child, My Alien Child written and performed by Zell Miller, III February 26 - March 28, 2009 The return of Zell Miller's award-winning one-man show is a hilarious and and passionate story about his son crash-landing into his life. The Austin Chronicle called it "Miller very much in Richard Pryor mode . . . utterly engaging."   House by Daniel MacIvor April 30 - May 230, 2009 The much-requested return of this one-man show starring Ken Webster. Victor, the loser inhabiting Daniel MacIvor's dark and furiously funny piece, takes you on a whirlwind tour of the offices, circus tents, supermarkets, Ramada Inns, sewers, dreams, and houses that compose the hallucinatory landscape of his life. The Austin American Statesman: "Roaring laughter one moment and stunned silence the next. Webster knows how to grab an audience and hold them until right before they burst. . . . House is a brilliantly crafted, imaginative work that Webster takes to the edge of perfection in his portrayal."   2007-2008 Featuring Loretta by George F. Walker directed by Ken Webster September 6 - 29, 2007 A woman plagued by too many suitors sits in a cheap motel room contemplating a career as a porn actress. Comical mayhem ensues!   Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno Featuring Ken Webster November 29-December 22, 2007 An encore of the one-man piece that won raves from Austin critics and audiences earlier this year. The play the New York Times called "astonishing in its impact" returns in an award-winning performance by HPT Artistic Director Ken Webster. "Imagine what might happen if Jon Stewart and Samuel Beckett had an offspring, and you will likely have envisaged Will Eno's Thom Pain." (theaterscene.net)   FronteraFest 2008 January 15 - February 16, 2008 The fifteenth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh directed by Ken Webster February 28 - March 29, 2008 In the Irish backwater of Leenane, two brothers live to torment each other, quarreling over everything from potato chips to a sexy teenage bootlegger to what kind of hors d'oeurves to have at their father's funeral. Another savagely funny comedy from the playwright who gave you The Pillowman.   Three from Fronterafest by Daniel MacIvor, Aimée Gonzales Gonzales, & Ken Webster directed by Ken Webster & Jamison Driskill March 3 - 26, 2008 This offnight production was an evening of FronteraFest's greatest hits, with three quirky, funny audience and critical favorites from FronteraFest 1998, 2006, and 2008.   Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Bert V. Royal directed by Ken Webster May 15 - June 14, 2008 An off-Broadway hit, Dog Sees God is a highly unauthorized imagining of the high school years of a certain well-known blockhead--let's call him "C.B."--and his best friend, who has given up his security blanket for a mellow buzz; his furious ex-girlfriend; and his ever-changing little sister. For C.B., high school means drugs, rebellion, a penpal gone silent, and worse. Rats.   Spring-Summer 2007 FronteraFest 2007 January 16 - February 17, 2007 The fourteenth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   My Child, My Child, My Alien Child by Zell Miller III Directed by Ken Webster March 22 - April 7, 2007 Another wild, funny, and affecting one-man piece from Zell Miller III, who brought you the multi-award-nominated The Evidence of Silence Broken.   Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno Featuring Ken Webster April 12 - 28, 2007 The one-man piece that shook raves out of the jaded New York critics ("Astonishing in its impact" - New York Times) comes to Austin in a performance by HPT Artistic Director Ken Webster. "Will Eno is a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation." (The Times)   The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh Directed by Ken Webster June 7 - July 21, 2007 (held over) A very black comedy indeed about a short story writer who must answer to the police when his horrifying fictions begin to come true. The New York Times called it "The season's most exciting and original new play . . . appallingly funny, endlessly quotable, delicious and wondrous."   2006 FronteraFest 2006 January 10 - February 11, 2006 The lucky thirteenth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, BYOV, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   The Glory of Living by Rebecca Gilman Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Kelsey Kling, Joey Hood, Ken Bradley, Monika Bustamante, Jude Hickey, Andrea Skola, Jessie Tilton, Ken Webster, and Heather Huggins March 23 - April 15, 2006 Gilman's Pulitzer-nominated play traces the journey of a teenage girl who runs away with an ex-convict only to be drawn into a world of sex, lost innocence, and murder. Chilling, heartbreaking, beautiful.   You're No One's Nothing Special by Ann Marie Healy Directed by Ken Webster May 25 - June 17, 2006 More quirky comedy from the author of 2003's hilarious Something Someone Someplace Else.   Radio :30 By Chris Earle An HPT/Universal Cynic Co-Production Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Mical Trejo and Robert S. Fisher July 13 - August 5, 2006 The return of last season's acclaimed dark comedy about a hotshot voice talent who falters while recording a 30-second radio spot. Winner of the Canadian Comedy Award (and you know those Canadians are funny) and the Chalmers New Play Award.   St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson Featuring Ken Webster September 7 - 29, 2006 In this darkly comic one-man piece by the brilliant Irish storyteller Conor McPherson, a theater critic relates tales of his life among the vampires. The New York Times called it "spooky" and "delectably droll."   365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks Directed by Ken Webster December 12 & 13, 2006 In November 2002, Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright and MacArthur "Genius" Grant awardee Suzan-Lori Parks committed to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. Now, from November 13, 2006 to November 12, 2007 the 365 Days/365 Plays National Festival is presenting the work simultaneously across the country, creating the largest collaboration in the history of American theater. HPT is proud to participate by presenting these seven short plays--tender, hilarious, challenging.

2005 FronteraFest 2005 January 11 - February 12, 2005 It's the twelfth season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, BYOV, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. Start 2005 out right: four out of five doctors recommend getting your yearly dose of edge. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   Pageant By Daniel Macdonald Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Corey Gagne, Kelsey Kling, Jude Hickey, and Robert Matney April 7 - 30, 2005 When a beauty contest winner who is almost, but not quite, perfect hooks up with an overenthusiastic plastic surgeon, her father and the town that raised her take their revenge in this superbly strange black comedy.   Radio :30 By Chris Earle An HPT/Universal Cynic Co-Production Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Mical Trejo and Robert S. Fisher April 11 - 27, 2005 An acclaimed dark comedy about a hotshot voice talent who falters while recording a 30-second radio spot. Winner of the Canadian Comedy Award and the Chalmers New Play Award.   The Water Principle By Eliza Anderson Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Katherine Catmull, Ken Webster, and Joey Hood June 9 - July 2, 2005 In a post-apocalyptic world where the few people left have little to eat, a woman guards the secret of her land from an entrepeneur named Weed who wants to build an amusement park. An extraordinary drama full of dark humor.   The Evidence of Silence Broken By Zell Miller III Directed by Ken Webster Featuring Zell Miller III September 8 - 24, 2005 Poet and playwright Zell Miller's award-winning one-man piece. Not to be missed.   Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll By Eric Bogosian Directed by Andrea Skola Featuring Ken Webster September 29 - October 15, 2005 Artistic Director Ken Webster performs in Eric Bogosian's classic and dangerously funny one-man, multiple-character show.   Chopper By Leah Ryan Directed by Ken Webster October 27 - November 19, 2005 A Southwest premiere. Nominated for the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chopper is a hilarious and moving comedy about two young women, friends since childhood, struggling to make their rent and keep their sanity. 2004 FronteraFest 2004 January 13-February 14, 2004 The eleventh anniversary season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, BYOV, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. Start 2004 out right: four out of five doctors recommend getting your yearly dose of edge. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   Blue Surge by Rebecca Gilman directed by Ken Webster March 25 - April 17, 2004 Two small-town undercover cops try to shut down a massage parlor -- but each ends up involved with one of the prostitutes instead. It's a brilliant and darkly comic drama of class struggle, sexual politics, and love gone wrong. Directed by Ken Webster and starring Corey Gagne, Kelsey Kling, Mical Trejo, Shannon Grounds, and Rebecca Robinson.   The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey directed by Ken Webster May 27 -June 19, 2004 "Drawer Boy" as in "the one who draws." In this multi-award-winning play, it's 1971, and two aging farmers encounter an eager young actor whose theater collective is writing play about farming. One farmer is stern and curmudgeonly; the other's war injury has cost him his memory. They share secrets from the boy and from each other. A funny, surprising, and infinitely moving piece.   Ham by Hans Frank WORLD PREMIERE directed by Ken Webster September 2 - 25, 2004 A Democratic county commissioner from the Appalachian region of Southern Ohio takes on the coal mining interests and the Republican Party, in this political thriller by B. Iden Payne Award-winner Hans Frank. 2003 FronteraFest 2003 January 13-February 14, 2003 The tenth anniversary season of this renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, BYOV, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro--all as unpredictable as ever. Start 2003 out right: four out of five doctors recommend getting your yearly dose of edge. FronteraFest is produced in collaboration with Austin Script Works, a group dedicated to supporting emerging playwrights and developing new dramatic works.   Something Someone Someplace Else by Ann Marie Healy WORLD PREMIERE directed by Ken Webster March 27 - April 19, 2003 Ronny: Thing is. I'm going to be here longer than I thought. Jeanine: Here at my place? Ronny: Yeah. If that's okay. Only if that's okay with you. I can always get a hotel. Jeanine: Do you have enough money to get a hotel? Ronny: No. Jeanine: How will you be able to get a hotel? Ronny: I won't be able to get a hotel. But I will. If you want me to. This world premiere from New York playwright Ann Marie Healy is a droll and offbeat comedy about a Minnesota woman's hilarious visit with her sister in Manhattan. Adultery, bad poetry, and Billy Joel: just one summer with two very different sisters in the the World's Smallest Studio Apartment.   Quake by Melanie Marnich directed by Ken Webster May 22 -June 14, 2003 The writer of last year's Blur brings a quirky, observant eye to this off-the-wall comedy about a woman's cross-country search for the perfect man. From the hilarious series of potential candidates to the female serial killer our heroine comes to admire, Quake's surreal comic touch is irresistible.   Spy from Mars by Hans Frank July 10 - 26, 2003 HPT joined with GOATSONG PRODUCTIONS to present the continuing saga of Lonely Highway's Sloppy Sean in an evening of transcendentalism, dance routines, and obscure trivia. Appearances by Ken Webster, Travis Dean, Sharon Sparlin and others, plus the strange, wild music of HOGWASH.   Perdita by Monika Bustamante WORLD PREMIERE directed by Ken Webster September 4 - 27, 2003 The world premiere of this dark, intriguing piece by HPT literary manager Monika Bustamante. A college student is tied up in the basement of a kindly couple who insist she is their daughter, returned to them after being missing since childhood. Diabetic, in need of medication, and confused by insulin shock, the girl tries to piece together the truth. ________________ 2002 FronteraFest 2002 January 15-February 16, 2002 The renowned five-week, city-wide, unjuried fringe festival featuring over 800 local and national artists annually. Blur by Melanie Marnich directed by Ken Webster March 21-April 13, 2002 Young Dot grapples with a clingy, slightly crazy mother, a homeless priest, and a collection of offbeat friends, all the while wondering if her eyesight is slipping away forever. The bright-and-dark vision of Melanie Marnich's risky, off-kilter comedy premiered last year at the Manhattan Theatre Club. This HPT production starred Monika Bustamante, Katherine Catmull, Lee Eddy, Corey Gagne, Joey Hood, and David Jones. Critics' Table Award for Outstanding Set Design (Leilah Stewart). Critics' Table nominations for Monika Bustamante and Joey Hood. Austin Circle of Theatres Payne Award nomination for David Jones. Marion Bridge by Daniel MacIvor directed by Ken Webster May 16 -June 8, 2002 An actress who does Chekhov in Toronto basements and drinks too much; a nun who disapproves of big-city talk like "Whatever"; and their peculiar, soap-opera-watching youngest sister. In this bittersweet comedy, three women reluctantly come together over their mother's deathbed. From the acclaimed author of House and The Soldier Dreams. Ken Webster directed Emily Erington, Kelsey Kling, and Rebecca Robinson in this HPT production. Austin Circle of Theatres Payne Award nominations for Ken Webster (Director) and for Outstanding Cast. Lonely Highway: A Transcendental Minstrel by Hans Frank May 21 -June 5, 2002, and late nights September 7-27, 2002 We liked this 2002 Best of FronteraFest winner so much that we brought it in to run off-nights this spring. Sloppy Sean's act is difficult to describe, but it includes music, wrasslin' references, and a rubber assistant named Yoyo. Bizarre; on the edge; hilarious. Awarded a special "Keeping Austin Weird" citation at the 2002 B. Iden Payne Awards. Vigil by Morris Panych directed by Peck Phillips September 5 - 28, 2002 "I spoke to a funeral director today. You don't mind recorded music, do you? Of course not. I don't mean this in a cruel way, but practically speaking, you're the only one who won't have to listen to it." In keeping with our 2002 deathbed season, Vigil's Kemp has come to attend to his dying aunt. But as the play proceeds, it becomes less and less clear what he is doing there, or whether she will ever actually die. The Globe and Mail called this black comedy "a small masterpiece." Maclean's called it "a devilishly funny play that laughs in death's face." This HPT production starred Ken Webster and Lana Dieterich. Listed in the Austin Chronicle's 2002 Ten Best issue as the first "Most Memorable Theatrical Offering I Chanced to See" and as an Honorable Mention in the "Top Ten Onstage Works of Wonder."

2001   FronteraFest 2001   ________________ in transition: In the spring of 2001, Vicky Boone, the founder of Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre, resigned as artistic director. Her departure and the subsequent appointment of Ken Webster, former artistic director of the Subterranean Theatre Company, as the new artistic director was a major transition in the theater company's history. To mark that transition, our company changed its name simply to Hyde Park Theatre. ________________ Ken Webster in the HPT/Subterranean production of Daniel MacIvor's House. Photo copyright Brett Brookshire, 2001 HOUSE by Daniel MacIvor Directed by Peck Phillips Performed by Ken Webster June 21-30, 2001 A cooperative production between the Subterranean Theatre Company and Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre marked the transition into Ken Webster's new role as producing artistic director of the newly-renamed Hyde Park Theatre. Victor, the loser inhabiting Daniel MacIvor's dark and furiously funny one-man show, takes you on a whirlwind tour of the offices, circus tents, supermarkets, Ramada Inns, sewers, dreams, and houses that compose the hallucinatory landscape of his life.   Art Stripped Naked by Wayne Alan Brenner directed by Ken Webster   Judson L. Jones, Greg Gondek, Jenni Rall, and David Jones in HPT's Art Stripped Naked. Photo copyright Brett Brookshire, 2001. September 6-29, 2001   Eddie is a retired auto mechanic who doesn't always understand his son Art, a struggling young artist, in this quirky and unexpected comedy about the difference between life and art, the brittleness and elasticity of love, and what happens when your girlfriend dumps you for a bass player. Wayne Alan Brenner is an accomplished Austin playwright, actor, artist, and critic. His previous plays include Bloodbrother Weekend, which received a B.Iden Payne Award nomination for Best New Script, and Waiting on Godot. Starring David Jones, Judson L. Jones, Jenni Rall, and Greg Gondek.     ________________ 2000 FronteraFest 2000 Cab and Lena by Daniel Alexander Jones and Grisha Coleman Work in Progress Ordering Seconds by W. David Hancock Work in Progress Curb Appeal by Steven Tomlinson World Premiere B. Iden Payne Award: Best Comedy con flama by Sharon Bridgforth World Premiere ________________ 1999 FronteraFest 99 Alaskan Heat Blue Dot created by Laurie Carlos World Premiere Millennium Bug by Steven Tomlinson World Premiere Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling by Erik Ehn World Premiere ________________ 1998 FronteraFest 98 blood pudding by Sharon Bridgforth World Premiere Watsonville: Some Place Not Here by Cherrie Moraga co-produced with Teatro Humanidad The Race of the Ark Tattoo by W. David Hancock co-premiere with The Foundry Theatre, NYC Critics’ Table Award: Outstanding Production of a Drama House by Daniel MacIvor ________________ 1997 FronteraFest 97 Personal Dances, co-produced with Margery Segal/NERVE dance company Why We Have A Body by Claire Chaffee Deviant Craft by W. David Hancock aria inertia created and performed by Jason Phelps World Premiere clayangels written and performed by Daniel & Todd Jones World Premiere David’s Red Haired Death by Sherry Kramer Managed Care by Steven Tomlinson World Premiere B. Iden Payne Award: Outstanding Comedy ________________ 1996 FronteraFest 1996 Personal Dances, co-produced with Margery Segal/NERVE Dance Company Silence, Cunning, and Exile by Stuart Greenman Critics Table Award: Outstanding Drama The Bacchae: Torn to Pieces Adapted and Directed by: Susan Fenichell, co-produced with Hopeful Monsters Critics Table Award: Outstanding Production of a Drama B. Iden Payne Award: Outstanding Drama Unmerciful Good Fortune by Edwin Sanches Roxanne Popsicle Explosion by Daniel Alexander Jones, Josh Taylor/Jeanne Darst and Kristen Thomas World Premiere dyke/warrior prayers by Sharon Bridgforth co-produced with root wy’mn theatre company World Premiere Enfants Perdus by Erik Ehn ________________ 1995 My Left Breast written and performed by Susan Miller Girl Gone by Jacquelyn Reingold And Baby Makes Seve by Paula Vogel B. Iden Payne Award: Outstanding Comedy Earthbirths, Jazz and Raven's Wings by Daniel Jones World Premiere Black Power Barbie in Hotel de Dream by Shay Youngblood World Premiere no mo blues written by Sharon Bridgforth, co-produced with root wy'mn theatre company ________________ 1994 Weldon Rising by Phyllis Nagy, Critics’ Table Award Outstanding Production of a Drama Talking Bones by Shay Youngblood FronteraFest 94 The Water Principle by Eliza Anderson, Critics’ Table Award: Outstanding Production of a Drama ________________ 1993 Vivisections from the Blown Mind by Alonzo D. Lamont, Jr. The Swan by Elizabeth Egloff FronteraFest 93 Halcyon Days by Steven Dietz ________________ 1992 Life During Wartime by Keith Reddin Mi Vida Loca by Eric Overmyer The House of Yes by Wendy MacLeod, B. Iden Payne Award: Outstanding Comedy Contact Us