About

TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS

THE B-SIDE: “Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons” A Record Album Interpretation

Part of TPA’s 40th Anniversary Season

January 26-29, 2022 | McCullough Theatre

Influential and trendsetting, legendary and revolutionary, The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company directed by Elizabeth LeCompte since its founding in 1975.  Their productions tour nationally and internationally, though have never been presented in Texas until now.  In January 2022, the Wooster Group will make their long-overdue Texas debut with a two-week residency for Texas Performing Arts’ 40th Season.  The Wooster Group will present a full production and present work-in-progress showings of a second work in the McCullough Theater, which will be transformed in to a black box-style theater with all audience seating on the stage.

THE B-SIDE: “Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons” A Record Album Interpretation

THE B-SIDE is an original production based on the 1965 LP record Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons, which features work songs, blues, spirituals, preaching, and ‘toasts’ from inmates in Texas’ then-segregated agricultural prison farms.  Performer Eric Berryman plays the album, and along with performers Jasper McGruder and Philip Moore, channel the inmates’ voices, via in-ear receivers, recreating them live.  Berryman also provides context from the book Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues by Bruce Jackson, the folklorist who recorded the album at the prison in 1964. THE B-SIDE is directed by long-time Group member Kate Valk and designed by Elizabeth LeCompte.

The production was a New York Times Critics Pick, was nominated for a 2019 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and was included in ‘Best Theater of The Year’ lists in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Performances:

• JAN 26, 7:30 PM
• JAN 27, 7:30 PM
• JAN 28, 7:30 PM
• JAN 29, 2:00 PM

BUY TICKETS

KMFA Classical 89.5 is proud to be a media partner for the Texas Performing Arts 40th Season.

Event Details

• Date: January 26-29, 2022
• Time: Thurs-Sat at 7:30 p.m. | Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
• Venue: McCullough Theatre
• Website: https://texasperformingarts.org/season/the-wooster-group-b-side-2021-mccullough-theatre-austin-texas

Ticket Information

• Cost: $40.00
• Phone: 512.471.1444

Presenter Details

• Name: Texas Performing Arts

Texas Performing Arts is the performing arts presenting program of The University of Texas at Austin and operates campus venues including Bass Concert Hall and McCullough Theatre. It is the home of the Lexus Broadway in Austin series. In calendar year 2019 Bass Concert Hall had the highest number of tickets sold of any theater in Austin, was #2 in the State of Texas and #22 in the world, according to industry publication Pollstar. Following a national search, Tony Award-winning producer Bob Bursey was appointed Executive Director in January, 2020.

Venue Details