• EASY Theatre is doing theatre we love, with people we love, for people we love. 
• EASY Theatre is an ensemble built upon cooperation and sharing. 
• EASY Theatre is a home for artists to expand their talents.
• EASY Theatre seeks actors, directors, writers, producers, technicians, designers, and teachers who work for the love of the craft and the art, and provides them opportunities to learn  through production. 

Pruning the Family Tree
A Play by Daniel Gordon
Directed by Engela Edwards
Texas première production

The award-winning play, Pruning the Family Tree, is a crazy comedy with a twist.  In this quirky, clever, and humorous story three generations of southern women gather after the unexpected death of the family patriarch.  Pruning the Family Tree treads the boards between dark comedy and bright wit.  It is sometimes poignant, sometimes silly, often surprising, and not to be missed.  These amusing characters are expertly and honestly portrayed by four wonderfully-talented, quick-witted, and sharp-tongued actors. 

The cast: 

• Engela Edwards as Marilyn Casey
• Lisa Holcomb as Barbara Casey
• Rachel Edwards as Christy Ferguson
• Alicia Gust as Ellen Casey Ferguson
• Toto as Toto

Pruning the Family Tree, was a finalist in the Eugene O' Neil Centers National Playwrights Conference and won theHeller Theatre's new play competition.

Fridays & Saturdays Oct. 29, 30, Nov. 5, 6, 12, 13 7:30 p.m. 
and Sunday Nov. 14 2:30 p.m.

Tickets:  $12 Adults;  $10 Seniors 60+;  $8 Students, Active Military, and Veterans
Produced by special arrangements with the author.
PG-13 Some adult language.

The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree
Book by Martin A. Follose 
Music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur 
Directed by Engela Edwards

Fridays and Saturdays, January 14, 15, 21, 22, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. 
& 
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 2 p.m.
Bastrop Opera House, 711 Spring Street, Bastrop, Texas
An audacious tale on the high seas as Captain Bree and her female pirate crew take of Captain Jennings' ship. This large cast musical is complete with sword fights, plank walking, and even a touch of romance. 
This is a swashbuckling musical comedy with a host of hysterical characters on deck and a spectacular Bill Francoeur score. 

General Admission Tickets $5 to $10
VIP Reserved seating $12.50 
Tickets will go on sale in September.
Produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., Englewood, Colorado
Rated G.

Wonderland is an unabashedly silly adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, with hip-hopping music.  It is an upbeat coming-of-age story that audiences of all ages will adore! You'll recognize some of your favorite familiar characters of Alice's Wonderland along with meeting dozens of new ones: a baseball team, a gospel group called The Responsibilities, a train conductor, star-struck tourists, knights, and much more. An eclectic mix of music that ranges from gypsy swing to doo-wop to bluegrass.  Enjoy toe-tapping musical renditions of “Jabberwocky” and “The Walrus and the Carpenter” as well as other great numbers such as “Anything’s Possible,” “Step by Step” and the hysterical “I was a Good Egg But Then I Done Went Bad,” sung by Humpty Dumpty and the Dixie Chickens!
Tickets for this show will not go on sale until November.
Produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., Englewood, Colorado
Rated G
 

Directed by Engela Edwards
Dougherty Arts Theater 1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Texas

Includes the following:

As You Like It

by William Shakespeare
adapted by I.E. Clark
Directed by Engela Edwards 
February  2011
Dougherty Arts Theater
1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Texas
A glimpse into the Forest of Arden finds teenagers of Shakespeare's play much like those of today—interested in the opposite sex. Rosalind disguises herself as a boy in her scheme to win Orlando's love. But they are just one of several pairs of odd couples that make this play fun. There's Audrey, the shepherdess, and Touchstone, the jester. And Silvius, the lovesick teenager, and Phebe, the whipped cream in his banana split. And there's Celia, the city girl, and Oliver, who hates lions. As the characters try to untangle the web they have woven, the excitement in the forest keeps the audience laughing.

I. E. Clark, has a great respect for and love of Shakespeare, and it shows in his cutting.  This is a youth production.
 

OZ!

Book by Tim Kelly; 
Music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur 
Directed by Engela Edwards 
February 2011
Dougherty Arts Theater
1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Texas
A dazzling musical based on the L. Frank Baum classic story 
This musical is filled with fun and fantasy with a great cast of characters including a live Toto dog. 

Engela has produced this show before with an adult cast, and it was a hugh hit with both the actors and the audience.  In fact it sold out every performance. 

Produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., Englewood, Colorado 

The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

by Don Zolidis
Directed by Engela Edwards 
February 2011
Dougherty Arts Theater 
1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Texas
Two narrators attempt to recreate all 209 (or another number if you actually know math) of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in a wild, fast-paced extravaganza. To make it more difficult, they attempt to combine them into one gigantic fable using Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and other more obscure stories like Lean Lisa and The Devil's Grandmother.  Performed by the EASY Theatre Teen Troupe.
Produced by special arrangements with I. E. Clark Publishing 

THEATRE AWARDS:  Hundreds of people gathered in Abilene the second week of June for the 15th Annual Texas Nonprofit Theatres Youth Conference.  Youth actors performed plays and musicals for each other and the local audiences.  The youth attended workshops and classes taught by theatre professionals and college professors during this five-day conference. 

This conference is a sharing of shows from some of the best youth companies in Texas.  Austin was represented by EASY Theatre of Austin and Bastrop was represented by the Bastrop Opera House’s Teen Troupe, both are homeschool theater companies under the direction of Engela Edwards who has been taking homeschool theater companies to the conference since 2001.  Austin performed the Audition by Don Solidis, and Bastrop performed Without Strings by Patrick Rainville Dorn.  Bastrop’s performance was dedicated to Zach Bullock a seventeen-year-old Bastropian who is battling cancer.

The conference is not a play competition, but is intended to help actors grow as performers.  Dr. Victoria Spingler was the commentator for the conference.  She gave insightful comments after each of the performances and chose an All Star Cast.  Rachel Edwards, Ethan Glass, Hunter Archield-Cupit and Kaley Klecka won the All Star Cast Award, the highest acting award given at the conference.  Kaley Klecka won a Teacher’s Pet Award.  Sarah Bullock and Hallie Casey were presented an award for exemplifying the Spirit of the Conference.

The final award of the conference was presented with some historical flair.  The Linda Lee Leadership Award has been presented to the youth or adult who exhibited amazing leadership throughout the Texas Nonprofit Theatre's Youth Conference.  Past recipients have included Linda Lee (TNT Executive Director) who the award is named after, Todd Hart (Theatre Arlington), Tammy Clark (Corpus Christi's Crash Test Puppets), Roberta Elliot (New Braunfels' Circle Arts Theatre) and M.A. Sterling (Brazos Valley Troupe).  In each of the of the past four years that this award has been presented, the recipients have all been adults.  History was made Sunday, June 13, 2010 as two young people were named as Lee Leadership Award honorees.  Rachel Edwards, age 14, of Bastrop Opera House and EASY Theatre of Austin, and Leonor Castro, age 12, of Brazos Valley Troupe from Bryan-College Station were the proud recipients of this high honor.

The Audition

Without Strings