Blinn College-Brenham Theatre Arts
Program Announces Its 2022-23 Schedule
Information courtesy of Blinn College
Blinn students will stage ‘Houdini,’ ‘The Day Before Christmas,’ ‘Vinegar Tom,’ and ‘Ladies at the Alamo’
The Blinn College-Brenham Campus Theatre Arts Program’s 2022-23 productions promise something for everyone with a “Magic in the Air” theme.
This season’s performance schedule includes:
- “Houdini,” 7 p.m. Oct. 6 and 7, and 2 p.m. Oct. 8 and 9;
- “The Day Before Christmas,” 7 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2, and 2 p.m. Dec. 3 and 4;
- “Vinegar Tom,” 7 p.m. Feb. 16 and 17, and 2 p.m. Feb. 18 and 19;
- and “Ladies at the Alamo,” 7 p.m. April 27-28, and 2 p.m. April 29 and 30.
All performances will be held at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center.
In addition to the plays, the programs improvisation troupe “Slaphappy” will perform Oct. 13 and April 4, both at 7 p.m. at the O’Donnell Center.
“Our 2022-23 theatre arts season promises to be one of our best seasons yet,” said Theatre Arts Professor Brad Nies, who has been at Blinn since 1990. “We want sold-out crowds this year, so we are pleased to offer works that have something for everyone.”
“We will begin our season with the beautiful dramatic work ‘Houdini,’ our entry to the 2022 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF),” Nies said. “This previously unpublished play offers the audience a spectacular look at the life of world-renowned magician Harry Houdini. Part biography, part fantasy, Houdini unlocks the worlds of illusion and reality and leads us from his childhood to his acts underwater and onstage.”
The KCACTF is a national play festival that allows universities and community colleges the opportunity for a critique from a theatre professional, as well as individual recognition.
“The Day Before Christmas” is Blinn’s 2022 Theatre Arts Faculty Showcase.
“With direction by theatre arts faculty member Jennifer Patrick and musical direction by instrumental music professor Jill Stewart, this holiday musical spectacular shares the magic of the season as Santa Claus and his team prepare for the biggest night of the year,” Nies said. “Unfortunately, a tricky Jack Frost decides to stop the Christmas festivities with some wintry chaos.”
Technical Theatre Arts Professor Kevin Patrick will play Santa Claus and Nies will perform the role of Jack Frost.
“Vinegar Tom” is a thought-provoking historical tragedy that will be Blinn’s entry into the 2023 Texas Community College Speech and Theatre Association Play Festival, Nies said. The TCCSTA Play Festival gives students an opportunity to compete with other Texas community colleges for acting, technical, and presentational awards.
“Set in rural England during the witch hunts of early modern Europe, this powerful work is about a woman who is named as a witch by a man she has spurned romantically,” Nies said. “As the story continues, other women are accused and punished of the same crime.”
The Blinn-Brenham Theatre Arts Program will close the 2022-23 season with “Ladies at the Alamo.”
“This play is about the artistic director of a regional theatre in Texas City who is challenged by the Chairman of her Board of Trustees,” Nies said. Part ‘Steel Magnolias’ and part ‘Designing Women,’ this comedy comes complete with verbal skirmishes, shocking revelations, and battle scars that will be long in healing.”
Ticket information is available at www.blinn.edu/boxoffice.
About the Blinn College District With innovative programs and award-winning co-enrollment partnerships, Blinn’s academic transfer rate ranks No. 1 among Texas community colleges. For more information, visit www.blinn.edu.