Austin Underground Collective's 'The Wild Party'

We're headed back in time with Austin Underground Collective's production of The Wild Party. It's running on Halloween through November 12th. Joining us this morning with a preview, Leslie Hollingsworth, founder of Austin Underground Collective, who also plays Queenie over here, and director Juliana E. Wright. Thank you both for coming in this morning. Thank you. You're both local to Austin. Yeah, we've been here for a really long time. Yes, yeah, we did. Thank you so much. So for those who don't know about The Wild Party, reading about it is wild. Well, yes, ironically. Can you tell us about the story and what people liked about it? Yeah. I'll let this lady do it. Yeah. This was a love, a passion that she wanted to do, so go ahead. The story actually comes from a poem that was written in the 1920s by Joseph Marsh, and the story was actually adapted into two musicals at the same time on Broadway. One was in 1999 and one was in 2000, so it kind of happened back to back. And we just fell in love with the music, right? The music that Andrew Lippa wrote that accompanies the show is kind of well known. a lot of people do the show because it's a very hard complicated show it has a lot of like dark material which people don't tend to want to see when they're watching musical theater and so we said how do we tackle this right and I think you know on top of the music being so challenging as you know we've got to find really great musicians and a great music director and great performers but on top of that we had to have a really great director that could come in and really figure out how to dissect this script because it is it's a challenge And that's you Julie, so let me just read a little bit about The Wild Party, what it says here as the plot driven by sultry jazz, razor sharp emotional stakes, The Wild Party is built for intimacy and immersion, story about excess and vulnerability, attraction and violence. And the moment when a celebration tips past the point of no return, what are the emotions that people are gonna experience during this? Well, if we do our job right, they're gonna feel joy, they're gonna feel excitement, they're gonna feel a little on edge, they're gonna feel because it's immersive. a big thing that we're trying to do so the idea is that audience is an audience audience uh they're party goers right they are at the party and so they're part of it and so being able to to create a world where everybody is part of it with a whole group of people that have no idea what's going on is is fun i mean people like you said it's immersive so when people show up this isn't like a regular play that you're right the people there are involved right you're picking on them yeah Yeah, so you can get tickets that are like away if you don't want to participate. But a lot of it is gonna be, there's stuff that's happening around you. And I think part of it and part of the reason why Austin Underground Collective has been created is we want to like explore raw emotion and raw humanness. And for people to feel connected to imperfections of humans. And I think this is a perfect story about the imperfection of humans, which we all are. But I think with social media and AI and all that, like building these like images of perfection and this this show is adverse of that you're going to see voices crack and you're going to see people's emotions right here in your face and i think that's part of the beauty of the storytelling for this and and with all that that heavy kind of it's also fun it's also quite fun it's you know again those jazz riffs those rock there's a bit of rock and roll in there all of that and so it's a party it is a wild wild party people are going to be having a lot of fun but underneath it you're going to be like oh these people need some help Make it make you feel better about yourself. Yeah, I mean, truly, truly, right? It really does, yeah. Almost here for a little over two weeks. So there's all the information on your screen. This is at Pershing Hall. Are tickets still available? Yeah, we've got some tickets available. They are going fast. And I think part of something to know is that it's a whole event. So the moment that you show up, you'll see the show. We've got a surprise performer at intermission. There's kind of an after party that happens in the speakeasy next door. So it's all very inclusive of this experience and it's dinner while you're there. You can eat dinner. Yeah, they're going to do a curated menu for us, so you'll get like a special 1920s menu that's wild party themed. We're encouraging like dress up in your dress up in your twenties. But like come ready to have a fun time. It's going to be fun. I can't wait to see you guys tackle this. I know you executed it so well. It's going to be so good. The wild party October 31st through November 12th. Thank you, ladies. Thank you so much. The website to buy tickets is right there on your screen.