about

“A cause and no curve, a cause and loud enough, a cause and extra a loud clash and an extra wagon, a sign of extra, a sac a small sac and an established color and cunning, a slender grey and no ribbon, this means a loss a great loss a restitution.”

Mildred’s Umbrella by Gertrude Stein

Mildred’s Umbrella creates and performs innovative theatrical works that compel actor and audience to step forward into a diverse, engaging world of illusion. We strive to emphasize the difficult transport between fiction and fact, between characters and personal identity. We are committed to our vision of the new and challenging, to our craft grounded in the best traditions of the dramatic arts.

HISTORY

Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company was founded in April of 2001 by Jennifer Decker (a local actress and instructor at Houston Community College) and John Harvey (poet, playwright, professor at Houston Community College and lecturer at University of Houston). By August of that same year, Harvey’s first play, “Kama Sutra”, was written, cast and ready to open. Harvey and Decker managed to scrape together enough money between them to rent a space at Theatre New West. With borrowed set pieces and costumes from the actors own closets, the production was a success. Lee Williams of the Houston Press wrote “as raw as the company is, this production shows promise and Harvey has created a whole new genre”.

Since the closing of “Kama Sutra,” the company has created and performed six more original plays by John Harvey: “Eros: A Circus”, “Things Being at the Worst”, “Tomorrow Morning”, “Needful Creatures”, “Hotel Pasiphae” and “Rot”. Of these productions, the press has said, “Think Tom Stoppard on Methamphetimines” (Houston Press), “exudes enough despair to make the average Samuel Beckett outing look like “Annie” (Houston Chronicle) and “a smart, wildly literary piece of experimental theatre the likes of which no Houstonian will see anywhere else this season” (Houston Press).

In addition to the original plays, the company has produced and performed “Mac Wellman’ s Dracula”, “By the Bog of Cats”, “[sic]”, “Triptych”, and “A Long History of Neglect”. All except one of these has been a regional premier. These productions have earned considerable praise from the press, such as “Full of promise for something new and different, Mildred’s Umbrella seems to be on the road to someplace exciting” (Williams, Houston Press); “Everything's of a piece in Wellman's worldview, especially the amazing enemble cast, which throws itself into the creepy goings-on with panache and conviction... a tasty bit of theatre you won't soon forget”, and “The director and his cast capture the play's intensity and willful eccentricity, rising to its peaks of bleak humor, fierce confrontation, and desperate lamentation” (Evans, Chronicle).

Mildred’ s Umbrella officially became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in February, 2004. The company has also recently won several awards, including “Best Theatre Company in 2006” in the Houston Press , “Best Original Production in 2007” (For 'Rot’) in the Houston Press and “Best Theatre Company on a Shoestring Budget in 2008” in the Houston Press.

Mildred’s Umbrella’s Mission:

To deepen Houston's cultural life by creating a unique theater

experience that draws from and develops the city's existing artistic

talent.