SEASON 34 | july-august 2022

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
July 29 - AUGUST 6, 2022

By Anne Washburn
Score by Michael Friedman
Lyrics by Anne Washburn
Directed by Jennifer Jennings

The VORTEX Summer Youth Theatre presents Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, a dark American comedy by Anne Washburn. Mr. Burns unfolds the story of a group of survivors of a global catastrophe (!) recalling and retelling The Simpsons “Cape Feare” episode. The play begins in the immediate future and then moves 7 years and finally 70 years into the future as cultural mythology evolves into cult-like engagement and a grand musical.

The VORTEX is thrilled to present an ensemble of youth and adult guest artists in an extraordinary, long-awaited production. This award-winning play originally premiered in 2012 at Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington D.C. and then Playwrights Horizons, New York City.

Now in its 30th year, Summer Youth Theatre’s award-winning tuition-free program features a dynamic cast of teenage performers and adult guest artists.

CAST

The 2022 youth ensemble features: Eli Clark, Alex Duchene-Phillips, Haley Perez, Sharky Meehan, Cristina von Schimonsky, Rowan Hickle, Kylee Stanaland, and Juno Wood. Adult guest artists include Trey Deason as Mr. Burns. Featuring Gabriel Maldonado, Mindy Rast-Keenan, Demetri Bellini, Adam Rodriguez.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Directed by Jennifer Jennings. Musical Direction by Tyler Mabry. Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Costume Design by Aaron Flynn. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony. Makeup Design by Amelia Turner. Fight Choreography by Jelena Stojiljkovic Rhynes. Assistant Director, Hayley Armstrong. Stage Manager, Sarah Hogestyn. Assistant Stage Manager, Fred Demps. Assistant Designers: Demeti Bellini, Madison Murrah, and Dow Zabolio. Producing Artistic Director, Bonnie Cullum.

ABOUT THE VORTEX’S SUMMER YOUTH THEATRE

For several generations, SYT has provided high-caliber theatrical productions to Austin audiences as the jewel of VORTEX’s community engagement. Last year’s Pandemdem Edition received the B. Iden Payne Award for Jessica Cohen’s Outstanding Original Song. The Austin Chronicle named SYT “Best Theatre Program that Treats Kids like Grownups.” Nominated for dozens of local awards, SYT has received B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Production of a Play for Youth for The Commedia of Errors and Machinal, Outstanding Direction of a Play for Youth for The Commedia of Errors, The Physicists, Moby Dick, and The Frogs, Outstanding Acting for The Physicists and Moby Dick, and Outstanding Sound Design for Machinal. Every year, students work with adult artists who are among Austin’s most celebrated theatre professionals. Bonnie Cullum founded SYT in 1991 and was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2009.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Jennifer Jennings was honored to direct the first devised work in SYT’s history last summer. Last seen eating up all the okra as Weezy the Talking Goat in the Rolling World Premiere of Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly, she will be in Jarrott Productions’ The Pact in October. A VORTEX Rep Company member, her productions include Performance Park (winner of four 2018 Austin Critics Table awards), Wild Horses (2018 B. Iden Payne Outstanding Actress in a Drama; Robert Faires' Top 10 (+1) Theatre Riches of 2017; 2018 Austin Critics Table Performance by an Individual), Storm Still (2018 B. Iden Payne Small Cast Performance in Scripted Theatre), Terminus (2016 B. Iden Payne Outstanding Cast Performance), Sing Muse (2013 B. Iden Payne Outstanding Original Score), Air, :humpty, Lear, Sleeping Beauty, Oceana, and Secret Life of the In-Betweeners. Favorite regional productions include Much Ado About Nothing (Penfold Theatre and Present Company), Agent Andromeda (Sky Candy), title of show (Austin Theatre Project), The History of King Lear (The Hidden Room), The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Austin Theatre Project), and Still Now (Shrewd Productions).

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Anne Washburn is from the West and Northwest and as a result prefers her foliage and landscapes a little on the drastic side. Her plays include, The Internationalist, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, The Ladies, I Have Loved Strangers, Little Bunny Foo Foo, and a transadaptation of Euripides' Orestes. Her work has been produced by 13P, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, E.S.T., London’s Gate Theatre, NYC’s Soho Rep., DC’s Studio Theater, and NYC’s Vineyard Theatre, among others. Her plays have been published by American Theatre, Theatre Magazine, and by Playscripts, and are included in the anthologies New Downtown Now, New York Theater Review 2007, and The Civilians: an Anthology of Six Plays. Support includes a Bug ‘n’ Bub Award, residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo, and a Guggenheim. She has been commissioned by The Civilians, Soho Rep, the Williamstown Theater Festival, and Yale, is a member of 13P and The Civilians, and a New Georges affiliated artist.

Summer Youth Theatre 2022 is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, Six Square Austin’s Black Cultural District, and a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. Mr. Burns, a post-electric play is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. Sponsorships and community donations subsidize these tuition-free opportunities for youth. Please contact us at vortex@vortexrep.org to support these crucial educational opportunities.