Susan Gayle

TREASURE ISLAND IN THE BAY OF BENGAL is currently playing at the Austin Scottish Rite Theater. The adaptation written by Zane Baker and Susan Gayle Todd is based on the 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, 'Treasure Island.' Directed by Susan Gayle Todd and Megan Moore Ortiz, the production infuses the classic tale of pirates and buried treasure with Bollywood style and South Asian culture.

W;T is a 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Margaret Edson. The play also received the 'Best New Play' award for 1999 from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play. Functioning as both the narrator and a character in the play, the character of Vivian Bearing (Kristin Fern Jihnson) shifts between the present and the past, as she experiences stage four ovarian cancer through diagnosis to treatment with high-dosage experimental chemotherapy and finally, to her demise. Along the way, she also examines her life choices to discovers that she prefers kindness to intellectual detachment.

Penfold Theatre Co. and Austin Scottish Rite Theater present An Iliad at Austin Scottish Rite Theater February 16-26.

Scottish Rite Theatre has long been one of Austin's premier children's theatres, PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON continues their rich tradition of excellence with an enchanting tale.

Penfold Theatre Co. and Austin Scottish Rite Theater present An Iliad at Austin Scottish Rite Theater February 16-26.

Now playing in Austin's oldest playhouse, The Scottish Rite Theater, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR delights theatre goers with its gender-bending cast and lively performance. Austin's Scottish Rite Theater is a most appropriate venue for such a play to be presented, giving the audience a passage through time within the Masonic grand hall adorned with decorative antiques around the house. THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, written by none other than William Shakespeare, commands any space with a high level of detail, and Scottish Rite Theater fits the bill.  Given the historic nature of the theater itself, first opening in 1871 as a German Opera house, the play THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR was interestingly first published 269 years prior. The historic location introduces the audience immediately into another age and lends to the other worldly tone of the play's presentation. The experience within this show begins before the lights are up on the stage - a group of 'merry' players entertain the excited audience as they file in to find their seats. A bar, The Garter Inn, has an innkeeper polishing glassware as would any restauranteur on a Sunday afternoon. The mood is set well by The Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective and when the curtain rises, the audience can disconnect and journey back into 15th century England.