#Merlin itheater professional#

Words like “odd,” “weird,” “bizarre” buzz through the room. Those who have never worked with Wilson pump the others for clues about the enigmatic director who has dominated European theater for the past 15 years.

Faustus.” Versace is designing the costumes. They have gathered this evening for the first production meeting of a new opera to be performed at La Scala based on novelist Thomas Mann’s “Dr. Expectantly, nervously, others fidget, waiting for director Robert Wilson, an American original from Waco, Texas, to arrive. Versace stares out the window into the exotic gardens of his palace. At its head, a sheaf of papers and a silver goblet with freshly sharpened pencils sit. It all looks like an extravagant fantasy dreamed up by La Scala opera director Franco Zeffirelli, but, in fact, this palazzo is the grandiose residence of fashion designer Gianni Versace.Ī long Renaissance table, elaborately carved with garlands and cornucopia, stands against one wall in Versace’s conference room. Inside one of these, after one has safely passed through the portcullis, past the growling German shepherds with chiseled teeth, past the armed guards, after ascending the grand staircase to the piano nobile, one is transported to a palazzo of Baroque splendor: marble on the floor, gold-framed mirrors on the wall, crystal chandeliers suspended in the air. Outside, the houses lining the street look like forbidding stone fortresses. For more information, visit del Bambino Gesu is the most exclusive address in Milan. The show is at 8pm in the Kleberg Stage, 1421 W.

Tonight's grand opening starts at 6pm, with drinks, food, and a sneak peek at the new space. For the premiere tonight, the invited guest is another group that Merlin is a member of: Girls Girls Girls, the creators of improvised musicals. The school's students will be able to perform as well, and improv troupes from around Austin will also be invited to play. With the move to Zach, Merlin Works is able to host a monthly performance in the 230-seat Kleberg Stage, and the new troupe gives the show a ready-made headliner. Their particular improv magic trick? Merging the best of shortform games with longform narrative.

The Known Wizards – see what they did there? Merlin, Wizards? – consists of Lauren Buck, Quinn Buckner, Michael Joplin, Aden Kirschner, Kevin Miller, Ted Rutherford, Lacy Shawn, the aforementioned McCormick, and the head sorcerer herself, natch, with live keyboard accompaniment by Ammon Taylor. So Merlin Works survives to start its second decade.Īnd it's starting it with a new improv troupe made up of the school's outstanding faculty members. That led Merlin to contact Nat Miller, Zach's director of education (also an improv friend), who got behind the idea of adding adult improv classes to the wealth of classes that the theatre provides for youth. But a chance encounter with an old friend – Karen LaShelle of Creative Action – provided a boost of encouragement and the idea of finding a new home for the school.

#Merlin itheater professional#

When Gnap! decided to shift its focus from improvised theatre to the scripted kind, Merlin – who also began juggling her professional work with a new baby last spring – felt the increased workload and added pressures would force her to shut down the school. For the past five years, Merlin had made a home at Salvage Vanguard Theater on Manor Road through a partnership with Gnap! Theater Projects, the production company run by Shannon McCormick, Merlin's longtime friend and colleague in the improv duo, Get Up. Without the move to Zach, there might not have been a Merlin Works this January. Now Merlin Works, the improv institute founded by Shana Merlin, blasts over to new home Zach Theatre, marking the move with an improv showcase tonight starring Girls Girls Girls and Merlin Works instructors. Last January saw the debut of the Institution Theater.

January seems to be a fortuitous month for improv launches. Black magic woman: Shana Merlin (Courtesy of Merlin Works)