Thu 21 Jun 2007
The Pueblo, a main stage play by Hartbeat Ensemble, will open tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Austin Arts Center at Trinity College. Check it out. In English, Spanish, with music, possibly puppets and masks. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, dance in your seat, maybe smoke a cigar with Hugo Chavez at intermission. Call 860-548-9144 or 888-548-9144.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:52 pm
I love HartBeat, America-haters, and plays; however, I have a fear of puppets (dude, they’re creepy). Still, will try to overcome this because HartBeat Ensemble hasn’t let me down before.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Does anyone know where they will be performing their following plays? I didn’t see it on their website.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 am
Hartbeat Ensemble’s play, The Pueblo, is at Trinity College Austin Arts Center. We saw it last night. It is a workshop production in a small black box theater. Great music performed live by Lorena Garay, multi media, with shadow puppets, hand puppets (Kerri, they are very small, very cute puppets, not like Chuckie the homicidal ventriloquist dummy). There’s also scary bits. When the deposed populist leader of an unnamed Latin American country is wheeled out on stage bound by leather belts to a chair, my mind’s eye flashed on Hannibal Lector.
Hartbeat Ensemble solicits audience input. The intention is to put on a mainstage production next year.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 am
If they are cute puppets, then I may be able to cope. I plan to see it Saturday night.
June 24th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Okay, I can confirm what Jim said. The puppets aren’t creepy at all. I can’t wait to see the final version of this in February ‘08.
June 25th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I saw the show on Saturday, and I’m in the rare position of agreeing with HartBeat’s politics, but completely and utterly hating the show.
I wrote a review of sorts on my website, which if you’re interested in reading can be seen here: http://blog.frivolousmotion.com/2007/06/stop-hartbeat-ensemble.html
Thanks, and sorry for the self-promo - it just felt relevant!
June 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I followed the link provided ever-so-humbly by the author of the comment above, and was awestruck by how people can be such incredible tools without realizing the full extent of their toolery.
Kevin is more interested in bizarre self-promotion of his crappy blog (”and if you’re feeling awesome (and you should, after all) toss in a link to this post”) than any useful criticism.
And by the way, that retooling of the logo falls way short of clever. Even my grandmother can use photoshop, and would classify that as strictly amateur hour.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Maureen - If you fail to grasp the absurd hyperbole contained in that so-called “self-promotion” (as if my link’s presence in a survey read only by HartBeat will increase exposure), you’re missing the point. I’ve no illusions that my “call-to-action” will somehow compel a single reader to fill out the survey for a show they’ve not seen. My blog is not so famous, nor are my readers so in love with me that they’ll do anything I say. The “March! March!” directive in my post was a *joke*.
Any of this “toolery” on my part doesn’t change the fact that The Pueblo is a bad show. And I’m under no obligation to provide constructive criticism to a group (let alone spend more than two minutes on a Photoshop job) that wastes my time and money, even though I did on the actual survey form after watching it.
On a side note - I know you, Maureen - from Trinity college (through Ben Johnson and EROS) and I’m sorry if you hate my crappy blog.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I think we’ve done Frivolous Motion a public service here because this is probably the most hits it’s ever gotten. This is what independent media is all about. Good work, team!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Yo, Frivi Mo, you over the top, bro. Maybe you want to hook up with a chillin’ facilitator, help sort thru your issues, knowwhatimsayin’?
June 29th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Ok. I’m sure that for some of you this comment might be a little late. Yes, I want to be past this stupid issue with the Hartbeat Ensemble. They don’t deserve this much attention. But I have to say to all of you people, who have made ridiculous comments about Kevin Keating, that you are missing the point completely. Just because someone has an opinion different than yours, and different from the other sheep surrounding you, that doesn’t make him a criminal, nor does it make him a person with anger problems.
For people who pretend to be in favor of the mission of the Hartbeat Ensemble and all the political messages about equality and human rights and freedom and whatever else they’re fighting for, you don’t seem to care much for freedom of speech. They wanted feedback, they got it. The reason everybody is shocked to see any critique that’s not positive is that the Hartbeat Ensemble is surrounded by people like you. No professional would ever make such a fuss about a negative review.
Please, stop harrassing Kevin for stating his opinion, and for being honest. That’s low.
And lastly, I saw The Pueblo. And YES, it was THAT BAD.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Hey, what are you all talking about here? Some of you folks liked what you saw, some of you didn’t. No need to get so worked up. Geez, just like one of our group sessions down at the Open Hearth. You want to hear sound and fury signifyin’ nothin’, come on down.