Hello all! Firstly, I'm very excited to be joining you all as part of the Dramaturgy team on Ragtime and am available whenever, if ever you have any questions or need assistance fleshing some ideas out. This past summer, I interned with L Style G Style magazine and as part of our September/October issue, I wrote an article about Zach Scott, the new Topfer Theatre and Ragtime for their Culture/Arts section. I wanted to share as part of where our thought process is at:

A City in Syncopation

Isaac Gomez | No Comments

With the grand opening of ZACH Scott’s new Topfer Theatre, Austin’s premiere regional theater celebrates its inauguration by launching the season with a musical built on the premise of the American dream, narrowly focused at a time of a cultural evolution and the struggle that comes with accepting change—“the people called it Ragtime!”

The sound of a distant, familiar tune and people “singing a dream” of a “nation in its prime” won’t feel so foreign in the Topfer Theatre as it did to those who experienced the new syncopation of the ragtime music movement in 1902. Written by Tony award-winning playwright and Texas native Terrance McNally, Ragtime introduces the challenges facing three families in America at the dizzying brink of a new century.

In the musical, based on the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, the three families are  represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class household in New Rochelle, NY; Coalhouse Walker Jr., a musician from  Harlem who drives a Ford Model T; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant who struggles to find a better life for his family. With intersecting storylines, the aspects of acceptance, progression and the struggle to embrace change are not only prevalent in the early 20th century, they are still seen in Americans today.

As ZACH embarks on its 79th season, Artistic Director Dave Steakley wants to focus the 2012-2013 season on plays and musicals that involve dreams. From chasing the American dream to places where dreams are realized, a season of aspiration goes hand-in-hand with the journey for the theater’s new facilities to finally grow into fruition. Originally designed to be a black-box community theater, ZACH’s current Kleberg Theatre has gained exponential attention and support since its original establishment in 1972—so much attention, in fact, that proposals for a new space to accommodate twice the number of  patrons started in 2009.

Thirteen years and $20.1 million later, the new space will not only seat up to 450 people, it will also expand the opportunities presented at ZACH. With a larger performing area and high-tech amenities, the Topfer Theatre will expand ZACH as the premiere regional theater in Central Texas, in favorable comparison to the Dallas Theatre Center and the Alley Theatre in Houston. In addition to giving patrons the opportunity to watch first-rate shows, the new theater provides more space for education in the Binning-Dickinson Education Program and provides the opportunity for ZACH to be a launching pad for Broadway-bound plays and musicals.

The beauty of a show like Ragtime is that it really isn’t like any other commercial Broadway musical. Its nontraditional narrative and jolting musical score cause it to stand alone as an authentic retelling of the American story and challenges the ways we accept change into our own lives.