The wet rainy spring season continues to cause trouble in the garden.

Spooky Action Ranch Report: Week Eight 2015. This week we head to the state capital for lobby day, can a bit of spinach, watch our baby turnips grow, and get down to business in the closet.

A review of Mary Helen Specht’s debut novel Migratory Animals.

Spooky Action Ranch: Week One 2015. We begin a new era on the homestead.

What makes a community? How can we turn back the clock to unlock the future? What scares you? Dawn Youngs takes a moment away from casting; venue and travel arrangements; and publicity to answer a few questions about bringing Last Chance: tales from a broken heartland to Austin, Texas as part of Spooky Action Ranch’s Nurturing New Ideas Series. 1) Why bring plays about the Ozark Mountains to Austin? Well, first off, I am not sure that I would describe these plays as plays about the Ozarks. They take place in a fictional town in the Ozark region, and there is no doubt that there are themes running through the plays that get at the root of that rural American life, but I also think these are universal themes that run through the lives of people around the country. Most of all, I think these are plays about community and interconnection, and the struggle to find a place for self or to define self. Austin is a booming town, but part of what that means is that the unique community and small town feel of the place has been rapidly consumed by the rabid growth. Individual neighborhoods, and I think the city as a whole, are grappling with issues of identity. Struggling with how to maintain the older connected ways of life while money and technology flood in. There is a clash between the folks working to keep Austin weird, the trailer parks and honky-tonks, and chicken coops and urban farms of Austin are clashing with the condos and developers. And on a broader sweep, this is happening all over. My generation, raised in the 70s and 80s were raised as little consumers: pushed to believe that constant growth and consumption was not only necessary for the success of our nation, but also really good for us. I see people questioning this idea all around me. I think they are waking up to the lies and wondering, what are all of these material goods really worth? What do we lose when we become one huge homogenized consumer culture? These plays tap into that awareness and I think that Austinites are ripe for exploring these ideas. In fact, I think they are poised to be the leaders in a new movement and shift in American values. Austin is not only ready to hear the questions raised by this work, but ready to grapple and search for real answers too. 2) What form do you imagine this series of plays or this project taking? Many of the plays have extremely different tones and settings, how do you navigate that? There are a lot of ideas floating around in my head on this...