The Arthropologist

Sold out: Theater hunks, Facebook, bizarre Bugs & a Wicked witch create aperfect buzz storm

Tracy's Lett's "Bug" at Theater Southwest with Lance Marshall and KatrinaEllsworth
Photo by Ananka Kohnitz
"Wicked" with Chandra Lee Schwartz and Donna Vivino at the Hobby Center
Photo by Joan Marcus
Ensemble Theatre's "Five Guys Named Moe" with, front row from left, Tony Glover,TC Carson and Donald Callier and, back row from left, Chioke Coreathers, CarltonLeake and Tommie Harper
"The Flu Season" by Mildred's Umbrella with, from left, Jessica Janes, LyndsaySweeney, Wayne Barnhill and Caleb George
Photo by Anthony Rathbun
Aaron Echegaray, from left, Jeoaf Johnson, Matt Brownlie and Mike Harden in"Life is Happy and Sad"
Photo by George Hixson
Musetta played by Alyssa Bowlby is carried by Marcello (at right, BrianShircliffe) and Schaunard (at left, Keir Murray) in Opera in the Heights'production of "La Boheme."
Photo by Kinjo Yonemoto
Get to Catastlphic Theater's production of "Hunter Gatherers" at DiverseWorksbefore it sells out again. Actors shown are, from left, Shelley Calene-Black,Troy Schulze, Greg Dean and Amy Bruce.
Photo by George Hixson

This story is sold out. Yeah, that's right, so many people clicked on it, liked it, posted, tweeted, digged, e-blasted, or turned it into paper airplanes that it crashed the CultureMap server and maybe a tree or two.

OK. Not. But wasn't that a fun fantasy?

Looking back over the season, I see that several Houston arts groups basked in problem everyone loves to have. Just now, I got a "Sorry, we are sold out" e-mail from Aurora Picture Show about their Extremely Shorts Film Festival. Sometimes, it's the case of the lovable chestnut that always sells; other times, it's more complex, like a confluence of factors all converging at one moment, sending people into a frenzy of ticket buying desire.

"Popular, you want to be popular," chirps Galinda in Wicked, now a hot ticket at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Yes, we do Galinda.

Opera in the Heights (OH) knew it had a hit on its hands with La Boheme, it's one of the most produced operas of all time. Yet, they had no intention of resting on the opera's track record and set out a multi-level effort to get warm opera-loving bottoms in the seats.

A full on attack included multiple radio ads, Facebook presence, board members getting behind it, Houston Young People for the Arts events, George Geary underwrote student tickets, press coverage of Brian Byrnes' opera directorial debut by yours truly and the list goes on. "There's nothing like a sellout to generate desire for ticket sales," Bill Haase, OH's chairman of the board, says.

"They would come if it was Romeo & Juliet on ice," Dominic Walsh quips during the after-party. The nicely timed Valentine's Day weekend run created a mania of its own. The choreographer found the atmosphere charged. "It's amazing to walk into the theater knowing you have a sold-out show," Walsh confesses. "The dancers' instincts were so authentic, vulnerable and powerful for those performances."

Who didn't want to watch The Flu?

A ticket to Mildred's Umbrella production of Will Eno's The Flu Season proved impossible to get your hands on during the final weekend, even while mobs of people were also attending the opening of FotoFest. My own case of Eno-mania had me telling complete strangers about this show. For at least a week, I started every sentence with "Have your seen The Flu Season?"

Eno's work is riveting, this was a stellar production directed by Matt Huff and the show featured some of the best actors in town. Edward Albee was in the audience too. Perhaps under his handlebar mustache a whiff of approval emerged. Mildred's artistic director Jennifer Decker has her own musings on the subject.

"With The Flu Season the buzz started with our company members diligently spreading the word on Facebook," she says. "It didn't hurt that there were cute guys in the show. Bobby Haworth seems to be popular with our female patrons."

Buzzing to Bug

I wasn't the only one who drove westward to Theatre Southwest's cozy digs to see Tracy Letts' bizarre play, Bug. Who would think people would swarm to see a play about a delusional guy and his girlfriend who are convinced that bugs are crawling under their skin?

Several factors accelerated the bug-o-steria. Letts is one hottie playwright right now; his Pulitzer and Tony-Award winning August: Osage County heads to the Alley Theatre next season. Stages Repertory Theatre just wrapped up a bang up job on Letts' Man From Nebraska. Our appetites arrived pre-whetted for Letts' weirdness. Bugs director Ananka Kohnitz gave Letts' gritty play its bite. "Amazing actors, realistic wounds, bloodbath and train heading for a brick wall kept the audience spellbound," Kohnitz says. "And don't forget the itching, everyone scratched afterwards."

The stars were aligned for Classical Theatre Company's production of Tartuffe at Barnevelder. Executive artistic director John Johnston finds the sellout no accident.

"We had good reviews, a new communications director who reached out to more media outlets than ever, and strong word-of-mouth buzz," Johnston reports. "Producing a comedy also brought them in. Audiences love a good laugh, and Tartuffe is full of them."

The fact that no one had heard of Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly did not get in the way of the show having some sold-out nights at the Ensemble Theatre. According to artistic director Eileen J. Morris, the play touched a nerve. "Stick Fly depicts a well-educated, highly intellectual family with problems just about everyone can relate to, including sibling rivalry, parents with high expectations and a few dark secrets of their own," Morris says.

Five Guys Named Moe is playing right now. It's one nonstop blast of a show, so it's no surprise that there's limited seats left for the entire run.

It's a bittersweet situation for Catastrophic Theatre chief Jason Nodler. Typically, their shows sell out closing weekend, while seats go empty during the middle of the run.

"People tend to put off seeing a show until the last weekend," Nodler says, "and some wind up missing the show."

Patrons sometimes ask for an extension so they can bring friends. Nodler's advice is to bring them early in the run. "There's something so wonderful about the vibe in a sold-out theater for both artists and audience." Nodler is coming off a run of a 94-percent-sold run of The Designated Mourner.

About now, Catastrophic is in that middle week, so if you want to see Hunter Gatherers quit reading this and skedaddle over to DiverseWorks right now.

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welcome home, wes

Wes Anderson's Houston homecoming supports historic theater restoration

A fancy, eccentric-looking crowd showed up for the Wes Anderson Homecoming Soirée, held on Friday, July 17, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’s Zilkha Hall.

Fans of the Houston-born, Oscar-winning auteur paid hundreds of dollars to attend this benefit event. Guys dressed up like characters from The Royal Tenenbaums. Others wore red skull caps and low-top Adidas, like the characters from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Some people working the event even wore “Lobby Boy” hats, looking like the bellboy character from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The people gathered for two reasons: 1) to get a chance to see Anderson in person; and 2) to raise money to renovate and restore the Garden Oaks Theater, a project spearheaded by local nonprofit Arthouse Houston. Top-tier “Founders Experience” ticketholders got a chance to meet Anderson onstage for pics. The St. John's School alum also received a proclamation from Mayor John Whitmire declaring it “Wes Anderson Day.”

After that, he and actor/fellow SJS alum Michael Maggart (who has appeared in several Anderson films) held a half-hour discussion where they reminisced about making Rushmore here in Houston, Anderson’s days working at the Bookstop on W. Alabama (now a Trader Joe’s), and how he and frequent collaborator Owen Wilson used to sneak into the River Oaks Theatre. (It involved pretending to lose a pair of glasses.)

Of course, the conversation shifted to Anderson coming back home to support the Garden Oaks project. “I always say you can't build an old building,” Anderson said. “First of all, I mean, a beautiful old place has history, and has people's experiences tied into it, and it has stories involved in it. And I think an old cinema — these things are kind of endangered all over the world, and it's not just an architectural thing. It's not even just a community thing. It's a sort of delivery system for something that’s, to me, deeply important to our country.

“It’s one thing we can access these things on all these devices,” he continued. “It's a different thing when you go to a place that's designed to help you share the experience of a movie together. It's such a powerful art form. And, anyway, for me, it's worth making a bit of an effort to try to save a place like the Garden Oaks.”

After the convo, he introduced the quintet of films he curated for the event. (Unfortunately the DCP file for his 2007 short Hotel Chevalier had some technical difficulties and was cut short.) “We wanted to do a screening here, and I don't have a new movie to show,” he said. “I don't have something hot off the presses. So, I thought I'd put together a little something that just was different from what anybody else will see. So it's a sort of mixture… This is just for Texas, this little collection.”

He eventually left the stage, leaving Arthouse Houston co-founder/director Maureen McNamara and Houston Public Media host Ernie Manouse to auction off perks & gifts and encourage the audience in helping revive another legendary, local movie palace. Among other items, attendees bid for treasures such as a special John Waters backstage VIP experience at his upcoming Christmas Show, dinner with John Cameron Mitchell, and a rare set of photo portraits of a young Anderson and friends, circa Bottle Rocket. Others paid $5,000 for select seats in the future theater and $5,000 to restore one foot of the venue's neon sign.

Photo by Alan Nguyen

Mayor John Whitmire declared Friday as Wes Anderson day in the director's honor.

So far, the effort has raised approximately $1.3 million of the $4 million required to begin the renovation project. The organization needs to raise $4 million by July 30 for the project to move forward. Those interested in securing naming rights will find more information here.

“River Oaks has 245 seats,” McNamara informed the crowd. “The Garden has over 700, and that is a place that we don't have in Houston. We have a need for that, for premieres, for performances in your life, for music, for a dynamic learning & exhibition space… So, we're building new on the shoulders of our history. I hope you guys will join us, and we need people to join us in a big way today.”

wes anderson garden oaks rushmore houston fundraisers