The Next Chapter

The Next Chapter
Theater	The Institution Theater
Directed by	Justin Davis
Assistant Director(s)	Jessie Pascarelli
Cast	Justin Davis Jessie Pascarelli Brad Hawkins Ryan Hill Ben Masten Paul Normandin Jessie Pitluk Heidi Rogers Megan Venable Luke Wallens
Crew	Jeanette Jones
Run	May/Jun 2013

The Next Chapter was a mainstage show at The Institution Theater that performed improvised continuations of the works of a published author.

Summary

Each night of the show had a different guest author. An author was interviewed, usually by Justin Davis, for a short period at the top of the show, usually lasting five to ten minutes. Then, the author read anywhere from 500 to 750 words of his or her choosing from a published work. The cast listened and at the conclusion of the reading, performed a deconstruction of the piece by stepping forward to recite different details, themes, or concepts they heard for about a minute. They then improvised from where the excerpt left off to create a story that lasted for just over an hour. On short-story author nights, two stories were performed, with the author reading shorter excerpts from two different stories. The first story lasted for 25 minutes and the second for 35 minutes.

Guest Authors and Works

• 5/3: Deano Jones — Rise of the Cafe Racer
• 5/10: Owen Egerton — Everyone Says That at the End of the World
• 5/17: Doug Dorst — Two stories from The Surf Guru
• 5/24: Manuel Gonzales — Two stories from The Miniature Wife and Other Stories
• 5/31: Matt Sturges — Masked
• 6/7: Katherine Catmull — Summer and Bird
• 6/14: Beth Kander — Was
• 6/21: Suzy Spencer — Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality
• 6/28: Daniel Quinn — Two stories from At Woomeroo

Media

Videos

• Video of the 5/24/13 show, featuring Manuel Gonzales.

Photos

• Photoset by Michael Yew of the 5/10/13 show.

More Information

• An Austin Chronicle interview with director Justin Davis by Wayne Allen Brenner.