First sound test rehearsal: Olivia Del Bosque filling in with Luis Zaragosa playing Launcelot.   

Zaragosa, C.J. Lillie as Shylock, and Julio Martinez as Solanio.

Rehearsing with the threat of cupcakes: Melissa Saenz and Zaragosa discuss a scene while Rick Saenz (Gratiano) and Lillie work on a scene.

Here is Premature Punchline’s 2013 tentative tour schedule.  Some dates and times are subject to change. Please note that there have been some very recent changes to the tour schedule!

May 31 – Tango Tea Room, Corpus Christi, 8:00

June 20 – Blue Room, Kingsville, 7:00

June 22 – Pokemon Festival, McAllen, Time TBA Canceled

July 5 – Tango Tea Room, Corpus Christi, 8:00

July 27 – OMNIcon, McAllen, Time TBA

August 2 – Tango Tea Room, Corpus Christi, 8:00

Now that “A Glass Veil” has closed, what becomes of ZU’s project line up?  Well, plenty actually!  ZU plans to take a week-long break from rehearsals, pre-pro, and any other related work to give the cast and crew a chance to prioritize with other endeavors.

Upon our return, we have a huge summer ahead of us.  Two huge projects are being juggled at once: Shakespeare on Air and Annabelle’s Day Out.  SoA will be the radio-play recordings of William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Merchant of Venice.  The project is under the direction of C.J. Lillie (The Rorshach Test, Only Slightly Mad, etc) with assistance from Michael Verderber.  The project’s intention is to create downloadable recordings of the plays for educational purposes.  It should take roughly 1 1/2 months to rehearse and record each play.

Annabelle’s Day Out is a filmed spin off of the very successful Cooookie! play performed at the end of 2012.  An episodic web series, the series will follow the misadventures of Annabelle, the rambunctiously idiotic child fixated on cookies and giving trouble to the baby sitter(s).  At press, four brand new episodes have been ordered, two have already been written, and the play Cooookie! will be broken up into three episodes for a total of seven, released monthly starting in late summer.

Inevitably, Premature Punchline will be having sporadically scheduled shows in Kingsville and Corpus Christi as well.

Until then, we rest!

 Just a handful of teaser pics from the forthcoming “A GLASS VEIL”, written by Katherine Orozco and directed by Michael Verderber.

Pictured in the black shirt is Luis Zaragosa, blue shirt is Josh Cavazos, white shirt is Daron Briscoe, plaid shirt is David Sabrio, black tank top is Katherine Orozco, and brown sweater is Elizabeth Lysinger.

ZU’s next production, the full-length “A Glass Veil” will premiere in early May in the Blue Room.  Due to time constraints and a multitude of other productions beginning, there will only be a limted two performances of this mainstage show.  Usually, ZU does 3 productions of the spring closer.  Performance begins at 8:00 pm.

“A Glass Veil”  by Katherine Orozco, is a tale of irony based on a young girl’s alleged madness paralleling the detectives investigating her case.  After a series of mysterious murders occur, the show plays out almost in reverse of the traditional structure of a building climax.  Unfortunately, we can’t give me out without giving away the play itself, so come out and see.

Cast members include:

Katherine Orozco (Nightmare of Oz, Cooookie!) wrote and assisted directed the play and will star as the lead characters Irina and Simone.  Under the direction of Michael Verderber (manikin, The Mattress), the cast also includes ZU mainstage actors Daron Briscoe (the Wonderland series, Acoustical) and Luis Zaragosa (Twas the Flop, Fish & Giggles) playing Detectives Lawrence and Joyce, respectively.

Josh Cavazos (directing The Rorshach Test, acting in Only Slightly Mad) dabbles in the concernced yet calculated psychologist Dr. Hugo Faris.  Irina’s parents will be played by Elizabeth Lysinger (Chapters, Nightmare) as Lorraine and David Sabrio (The Rape of Lucrece, All The World’s a Stage) as the father, William.

Minor roles include Verderber as Captain Shaw, EMTs Aaron Salinas (Relapse in Wonderland, Pinko’s Pirouette) and Joshua McCaulley (Inviting a Friend to Supper, PrePunch).  Tech include Anissa Medina (Pot & Kettle, Cooookie!), Rebekah Ramos (Lolita & the Fox, The Rorshach Test), Salinas, and C.J. Lillie (Premature Punchline and Not That Wise writer).

The play opens in the Blue Room at 8:00 on May 2 and 3.  Admission is $2.

Premature Punchline will have a little mini-show as part of “First Fridays”, a monthly art event held at the Tango Tea Roomin Corpus Christi.  PP should be performing at around 8 pm on Friday (5th) either inside or at the courtyard area.  See ya there!

 Pictured is a teaser of Christina and Julio from “The Rated R Christmas Show”, performed at Tango Tea Room in Corpus back in late December.

PrePunch, our resident comedy improv troupe, has a performance TOMORROW (Tues) night in the Blue Room at 7:00!

Admission is only $1!

Check out our terrible flyer! It is funny because the flyer sucks.

Line up should be roughly as follows:

– Questions

– What’s My Pitch?

– Panel of Experts

– Dance Off! (a brand new game)

– By the #s

– Quoteline

ZU’s next “Textual Overture” show will happen at our usual venue, Cafe 5, on Friday the 29th at 7:00 with free admission as usual. 

Some of the performances will be live acoustic music from Caleb Bonitz, an original play called “Seeing Is Misbelieving: The Rorschach Test”, and several poetic works by Amber Johnson, Julio Martinez, Michael Verderber, and others!  Come out!

 Pictured above is from the play “Consequences”, performed last year at the third “T.O.” performance.  Pictured are Rebecca Ferguson and Steven Benedit.

Our official flyer, designed by “Lolita” co-director Rebekah Ramos.