Review: Muses III: Memories of a House by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs

Pocket theatre. 

Home theatre; intimate theatre. 

Theatre for no more of you than can fit comfortably into a 12x15 room with the actors.

Muses III by the Vestige Group puts you into a small group for this experience. They have concessions available on the lawn beforehand, under the tall and twisty live oaks. They suggest that you get to know the persons in your group. 

You probably won't, because your guide is not going to push the touchy-feely approach among your dozen faces. You'll be up close and personal with the actors soon enough. 

The evening reminded me very strongly of those odd national day receptions we attended in central Africa. For one thing, the proprietors have acquired an eclectic houseful of handicrafts, art, masks, textiles and textures from across the world. We strangers carefully tramped through the house, settled on sofas as directed, slipped along the corridors and lingered out by the pool. As in a diplomatic reception, our mission was to get to get acquainted -- in this case, not with one another but with this odd collection of characters dreamed up by the writers.

"Writers" for the most part, rather than "playwrights," although there were some notable exceptions. Vestige had asked for ten-minute scenes. Four were performed at a single venue, poolside, but that still meant six transitions. . . so figure that on average that a scene would run about seven minutes. It's not easy to create a story, character, conflict and resolution in that short span of time.

This exotic soup required lots of cooks.

Four directors: Susie Gidseg, Jen Brown, Will Hollis Snider and Aaron Black.

Eleven writers: Susie, Bastion Carboni, Kristin Harrison, Jenny Keto, Charles Eichman, Sarah Saltwick, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Max Langert, Trey Deason, Martha Lynn Coon, and Barry Pineo.

Fifteen actors: Sarah Granger, Natalie Navar, Michelle Ward, Kimberly Mead, Alexandra Kirkilis, Chris Higgins, Jen Brown, Gabe Smith, Christa Haxthausen, Phillip Emmanuel, Tracy Medberry, Michele Goodson Burnett, Yvonne Young, Liz Watts, and Evelyn Lalonde. (Susie's program alleges 18 actors.)

Plus, at a minimum, an uncredited guide for each of the two groups, and someone to babysit the cash and concessions out front. One assumes that on any given night only one or two of the writers might be in attendance.

Add the couple who own the house, and that comes out to about 45 individuals at home with the unseen hosts for 90 minutes.

Seven scenes featured a single actor telling a character's story. Among them, for example:

- -At our first stop in the red-draped bedroom, Kimberley Mead, clad in a negligée, recounted with a serenely sloshed demeanor a love affair that went bad when the booze got turned off (Jenny Keto's "Bloody Mary"). 

- - At the poolside bar Yvonne Young described the nightmare of being taken in by friendly Weight Watchers, some of whom had been dieting unsuccessfully for 40 years ("Wherein We Tell our Secrets to Strangers" by Susie Gidseg). 

- - Up in the living room we encountered Tracy Medberry dreamily plinking a toy piano. In an somewhat uncertain New York City accent she told a bizarre and very comic story of how an unexpected visitor to an open house renewed her will to live ("A Little Beethoven" by Max Langert -- meriting "playwright" status!). 

- - And next door in the kitchen Michele Goodson Burnett shared with us the catastrophe of yet another failed pan of brownies, building the story with revelations and with scarcely contained emotion into much more ("Brownies" by Trey Deason -- also meriting "playwirght" status). 

 

 Of the four duet scenes the stand-out was the first thing played for us at poolside. A woman academic enjoying a night swim unexpectedly discovers that the house arranged for her visit is not, in fact, unoccupied. Louisa (Christa Haxthausen) must deal with Greg (Phillip Emmanuel), a handsome and much younger man with whom she once had a tenuous connection. Marshall Ryan Maresca's "Poolside" winds up the cross-generational sparring with a terrific laugh line. ("Playwright" status here, too!).

 

If you sign up for a night with the Muses, come with friends. The Vestige folks keep the concessions table open for you on the lawn afterward, with the promise that you can mix with the crew and actors.

It's fun, they're inventive, it's not expensive. And you're not likely to get rained out!

 

Review by Preston Kirk on ACOT's A-Team theatre review blog, August 26 

Review by Sean Fuentes on AustinTheatreReview.com, August 26 

Review by Dan Solomon at Austinist.com, August 27 

 

EXTRA

Click for program of Muses III: Memories of A House by the Vestige Group 

 

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Muses III: Memories of a House
by Vestige Group ensemble
Vestige Group