Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Austin’s favorite all-woman troupe is back for their seventh annual production, keeping Shakespeare weird with a modern rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Austin Lovers Hermia and Lysandra long to don their wedding dresses and make a lifetime commitment to one another, but Hermia’s father Egeus implores Republican governor Theseus to throw the book at the same-sex couple to make room for his preferred son-in-law Demetrius, who is in turn lusted after by the lovely and lovelorn Helena.

The four skip town, seeking solace in the hill country woods, but even their high quality R.E.I. gear can’t keep them safe from the machinations of the meddling Puck and the fairy courts of Oberon and Titania. Join the Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective from August 18-21 and 25-27 in this whimsically relevant take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.

When: August 18-21 and 25-27, 8pm & Sunday at 2pm

Where: Center Stage Texas – 2826 Real Street – Austin, TX 78722

Tickets: Reserve online at Brownpapertickets.com and at the door. Online tickets not available on the day of the show, but come on down to the theater, we’ll have tickets available at the door!  Call 452-1340 with questions.

Facebook: event page

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @weirdsistersatx and like us on Facebook to keep abreast (ahem) of all of our doings.  If you’re feeling adventurous, why not sign up for our newsletter? We’ll send you an email next time we put on a play, salon, or a fabulous fundraiser.

Press:

Review by Michael Meigs at AustinLiveTheater.com

Moved to Texas with an all-female cast, the Bard’s comedy is a summer escape

‘Weird Sisters’ Reinvent the Bard, Women Only

Keeping it Weird: Sisters Take on Midsummer

Weird Sisters’ Fresh Take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Weird Sister Courtney Glenn recently wrote and published the following article about our upcoming play and the issues surrounding it.
Originally published on theexaminer.com June 29, 2011

A Midsummer Night’s Pipe Dream? Austin’s Weird Sisters Vie for Same Sex Marriage

“Full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child, my daughter Hermia.”

So speaks the character of Egeus in one of Shakespeare’s most famous (and most performed) comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The story is one we’ve heard before (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?) — two lovers, barred from marrying one another by the will of a meddling parent. Since it’s a comedy, it all works out in the end — Lysander and Hermia get hitched, as do the other pair of lovers, Demetrius and Helena. Midsummer is literally a fairy tale (just ask Oberon, Titania and Puck) and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is a happily ever after.

Of course, the Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective rarely take “happily ever after” at face value.

For the last seven years, the Austin’s Weirds have been putting their feminist spin on Shakespearean classics. From their first production, an adaptation of Macbeth called The Weird Sisters, Hand in Hand, this collaborative, all-female theater group has been addressing gender equality in an imaginative way.

This year, however, the Weird Sisters are planning to tackle a very specific civil rights issue: same-sex marriage.

“Finding resonances of today’s world in Shakespeare’s plays is so easy to do and so satisfying,” says Dr. Susan Todd, co-founder and director of the Weird Sisters. “In considering A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Weird Sisters’ own midsummer rumble, I had to think about the play’s fit to contemporary issues.”

And what’s a more fitting contemporary issue than same-sex marriage? In New York, the Marriage Equality Act goes into effect on July 24, 2011, and while Texas doesn’t seem to be particularly close to doing the same, the Weird Sisters are hopeful that change is on the horizon. Through its setting in present-day Austin and the clever gender bending switch of the male LysandER to the female LysandRA, their adaptation of the classic addresses the possibility of same-sex marriage legalization in Texas.

“Nowadays, a father like Egeus might rant about his of-age daughter marrying a guy he doesn’t like, but he wouldn’t have the law on his side,” says Todd. “That’s not so in the case of a daughter wanting to marry another woman–or a son another man. The Texas law would stand firmly on the side of the patriarch, as is depicted in the first scene of Midsummer. Theseus is a perfect match for Rick Perry, or any figurehead of any state that has yet to legalize same-sex marriage.”

To Alyson Curtis, a long-time Weird Sister, there’s a sub-issue at stake in the legalization of same-sex marriage that she is happy to address on stage. She is concerned that, “…women, in particular gay women, are often overlooked in our patriarchal society even within the gay community.” Since the Weird Sisters are primarily a feminist theater group, it’s no surprise that they have twisted the tale to explore same-sex marriage from the female perspective. “As we move forward in our thinking as a society and the walls surrounding hetero marriage crumble down, it’s often the two tuxedos on the wedding cake that we imagine first; it’s not two brides in full wedding gowns that comes to mind,” says Curtis. “With our version of Midsummer, we’ll bring this dynamic front and center, exploring the issue of gay marriage in an imaginary patriarchal world, not unlike our own.”

“A world not unlike our own” is a key phrase when it comes to the Weirds’ August production. Though it has a particularly strong LGBT community, Austin is only one city in a state that often seems bogged down with antiquated ideals. But Dr. Susan Gayle Todd is hopeful:

“With the recent ratification of same-sex marriage in New York, Texas couples like our Hermia and Lysandra hang in the balance between oppression and hope. I like to think this Dream is not far-fetched.”

The Weird Sisters Theater Collective invite you to join us for a night filled with live music, performance, cocktails, dancing and gender-bending attire! Please come ready to support our upcoming summer performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Suggested entry is $10 and up.

Featuring entertainment by Austin’s own Kings N Things and the Queertastiks, with the fabulous musical stylings of J_Dub and the Tease and the Kari K Band!  Bid on some swanky merch in our silent auction! Vote for Prom King and Prom Queen! We’ll have photo fun and lots of zexy Weird Sisters to fill your dance card.  Don’t miss it!

When: June 23, 2011 from 8pm to 11pm
Where: Mercury Hall – 615 Cardinal Lane

Dress to transgress; bras, beards and bards welcome! Invite all your friends and anyone you want to make friends with.  Invite your boss, we might have a sweet mustache she can borrow for the night, and you’ll get a raise in the morning.

Facebook event page here

Silent Auction Items
Turquoise and Silver Accessories
Vintage Goods
Artwork
Pottery
Theater Tickets
American Apparel Gift Card
Kitchen Items
Restaurant Gift Certificates, including Kerby Lane
… and more!
If you would like to donate an item to our silent auction, please email us

The Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective is revving up for our SEVENTH Annual Production! We’ll be bringing our own twist to Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at Center Stage Texas Theater (formerly Arts on Real) the last two weekends in August.

We’re fun(d)raising in our usual ways, one of which is a BIG GARAGE SALE, to be held Saturday, May 28 next to Juan in a Million on Mildred Street. (Another is our DRAG PROM at Mercury Hall in late June–stay tuned for more details about that!)

We’ll  have all sorts of forgotten clothing, furniture, art, jewelry, knick-knacks, tools, toys, and such for sale, you won’t want to miss it!

Thanks for your generosity and support–we do hope to see you at the Garage Sale, the Drag Prom, and the Play!

Saturday May 28th
109 Mildred St. (behind Juan in a Million)
Austin, TX 78702

PS: Can’t make the garage sale or party? You can still help support us by making a small donation via PayPal

*Update, March 10 2011* We put the call out and you all helped us spread the word!  We are happy to announce that we just signed an agreement with Center Stage Texas to use their theater space in Central East Austin during the last two weeks of August 2011.  Make sure to mark your calendar for performances on August 19-21 and 26-28.  We’re brewing up a gender bending, thought provoking comedy as we speak.  Stay Tuned!

In the small conference room of Fleck Hall 309, theatrical greatness is brewing.

Present members of Shakespeare Club at St. Edward’s University express a love for theater and the works of William Shakespeare, so they created a club where they can celebrate their enthusiasm.

As plans for the upcoming semesters are discussed, members get sidetracked, and become fully engrossed in a discussion about the magic of theatre, forgetting the original plans for conversation.
Shakespeare Club, in partnership with the Theater Transit Troupe, is planning a performance of William Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.”

The play is set to open in either March or April, with auditions to be held in early December. Adjunct professor Susan Gayle Todd, the faculty sponsor of Shakespeare Club, will produce the play.

To describe the goal of the club, Todd quoted Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.”

Todd has a Ph.D in performance studies and theatre with a specialization in Shakespeare. She is also a part of the Weird Sisters Women’s Theater Collective, an all-women’s cast that performs Shakespearean theater around different Austin venues. The Weird Sisters have been performing one play a year in Austin since 2005, and have produced Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” among others, including this year’s production of “Sycorax,” a play that Todd authored.

Shakespeare Club was co-founded by students Amanda Glick and Yvette Puga.

“It was Amanda’s idea, and she invited me to come to the meetings,” Puga said. “I was one of the first two, and it just took off from there.”
Shakespeare Club, which recently gained official recognition from Student Life, is in its second semester.
In the spring, the club held informal meetings and readings under the Sorin Oak, and took field trips to places such as Austin’s Curtain Theatre.

This semester the club will be doing dramaturgical work on “Merry Wives of Windsor,” and perfecting their vision for their production of the play in the spring.

The club will also continue to explore the theme of “cross-dressing heroines” and discuss historical and personal events that might have prompted Shakespeare to use this theme in so many of his plays.

Included in the discussion of gender is “Twelfth Night,” which the club plans to read next.

Shakespeare Club also plans to set small goals to gain more members. Ideas include organizing fundraisers and persuading professors to offer extra credit for participation. One highlighted goal for the year is to make students aware of Shakespeare and theater’s accessiblility on college campuses, and also the myriad opportunities available to get involved in theater, even for those who are not theater majors or minors.