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| Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura), 1638-39 Painted by Artemisia Gentileschi |
You had such a good time reading about upcoming shows in
January that you clamored for more information for February! Well, we’re happy
to oblige and let you know about the scintillating choices around the Sound on
area stages. In fact, there is so much locally written material this month, we
could dub February Locally Written Theater Month.
First to open is a locally written play, Natural,
at Annex Theatre, 2/3-18/15 but
on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Writer Marcus Gorman crafts a play about six
Seattleites who unravel messy, urban lives of retail hell, online erotica and
crises of sexual identity. Art and Theo met in French class and seem to be very
happy together. But while Theo sorts through his relationship with a persistent
coworker, and his best friend Chloe tries to reconcile her on- and off-line
reputations, Art finds himself unexpectedly drawn to worldly bartender
Samantha. Alliances shift, friendships are tested, and mistakes are made.
Carousel is the
next musical at The 5th Avenue Theatre, from 2/5/15-3/1/15 (a co-production of
the 5th and Spectrum Dance Theater). It’s a classic musical love story about a carnival
barker, Billy Bigelow, who loves mill worker Julie Jordan. After his untimely
death, Billy makes a deal with an angel and is allowed to return to earth for
just one day for a chance to redeem his life and make peace with the wife and
daughter he left behind. A terrific cast, headed by Laura Griffith, Brandon O’Neill
and Billie Wildrick, promises a strong showing, along with some unique
choreography from Spectrum Dance Theater. The musical is not without
controversy, though, since Billy Bigelow is a rough-cast fellow who has such
difficulty managing his feelings that he hits people, including women.
Phoenix Theatre in Edmonds mounts Self Help by Norm Foster, 2/6/15-3/1/15. Foster is a comedy
stalwart known as the “Canadian Neil Simon.” Hal and Cindy Savage are two
struggling actors, turned self-help gurus. But when their marriage takes nose
dive, they find themselves scrambling to hide a body, protect their
reputations, and hold onto their falsely won fame.
The Dog of the South
is Book-It Repertory Theatre’s newest adaptation, performing 2/11/15-3/8/15 in
the Armory at Seattle Center. The novel
by Charles Portis introduces Ray Midge, a persnickety, hapless, twenty-something
Arkansan on a mission to find his wife Norma who has run off with her
ex-husband, Dupree. The two fugitives have stolen Midge's credit cards and his beloved Ford Torino. Midge follows
the meandering trail of credit card receipts from Arkansas to Mexico to Belize.
Along the way he picks up the cranky con-artist Dr. Symes who happens to be
headed in the same direction.
Seattle Musical Theatre presents Sweet Charity from 2/13/15-3/1/15. This classic musical focuses on
Charity as she sings and dances through the harsh reality of Times Square,
searching for The One. With her trio of streetwise girlfriends, a phony
evangelist, a list of unreliable suitors, the unflappable Charity knows in her
heart that there’s gotta be something better than this. The book by Neil Simon,
music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields includes musical theatre
favorites Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now, and There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This.
Matt & Ben, by
Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers, is brought to you by STAGEright Theatre, 2/13-28/15
at Richard Hugo House. It’s a comedy supposedly about Ben Afflect and Matt
Damon but played deliberately by women. When the screenplay for Good Will
Hunting drops mysteriously from the heavens, the boys realize they're being
tested by a Higher Power. The authors performed it on Broadway in 2003.
Voyage For Madmen
by Rachel Atkins, local playwright, will play at West of Lenin 2/20/15-3/7/15,
courtesy of 14/48 Projects. It’s based on the true story of Ardeo, Seattle's
theatre in a French chateau. In fact, Atkins was an original member, so her
play is based on inside information. The Seattle theatre company bought a château,
moved to France to do theatre, and then crashed and burned spectacularly in
2001. Incorporating live music, vaudeville, The Tempest, Frankenstein, and the
true story of Donald Crowhurst, a British amateur sailor who falsified his
records in an attempt to win a round-the-world race in the 1960’s, Voyage for
Madmen goes beyond documentary facts to delve into the wild world of start-ups
and creative risk at all costs, while highlighting many of the strange-but-true
details of backstage life at Ardeo.
Another accomplished local playwright, Joy
McCullough-Carranza, debuts her play Blood/Water/Paint produced by Live Girls! Theater 2/20/15-3/14/15 and housed
at Theatre Off Jackson. This is a true story of Artemisia Gentileschi, an
Italian Baroque painter from the early 1600s, now considered one of the most
accomplished of her generation. Through interactions with the women featured in
her own most famous paintings and the process of teaching her daughter to paint
the story unfolds of her fierce battle to rise above the most devastating event
in her life and fight for justice despite horrific consequences.
The one-act play
theatre, Stone Soup, presents Sam Shepard’s God
of Hell 2/20/15-3/15/15. Wisconsin dairy farmers, Frank and Emma,
agree to put up an old friend, Haynes, who is on the lam from a secret
government project involving plutonium. What ensues is a thrilling theatrical
ride as hilarious as it is sobering.
The Pulitzer award winning musical about a mentally ill
housewife trying to manage her family life,
next to normal, will be presented by SecondStory Repertory, 2/20/15-3/15/15. Locally
developed here at Village Theatre before going on to win multiple awards
nationally, it is a more easily managed musical for a small venue like
SecondStory, because it has a cast of six! But it is a tricky and challenging
piece. Ann Cornelius is new to Seattle stages and is making her debut here with
this complex character.
The last locally written piece of the month is Seven Ways to
Get There, produced by DeeJayCee Creative Ventures and performed at ACT Theatre
2/24/15-3/15/15. Bryan Willis and Dwayne Clark based their play on a true
story, following seven men in group therapy trying to work through their
issues. Set in the strange and manic world of men’s group therapy, this new
play explores the many ways it takes to make it through difficult times. The
play has a particularly strong cast and will be directed by John Langs, so you
might tag this one “ACT Light.”
A Gogolplex is the name Ghostlight Theatricals has given to adaptations of two
Nikolai Gogol stories: The Overcoat and
The Nose, 2/27/15-3/14/15. His vision
of St Petersburg: a city in which a man on the brink of gaining everything he
ever thought he wanted wakes up with a most personal possession missing; a city
in which saving for a new coat transforms the life (and afterlife) of a humble
clerk; a city of pigeons and ghosts, strange summers and brutal winters, and
the oddest extremities of human experience.
Arouet also provides
a night of two one-acts: The Long Road
by Shelagh Stephenson and Nine by
Jane Shepherd at Eclectic Theatre, 2/27/15-3/14/15. In The Long Road, after Danny’s pointless murder, his family
struggles to find meaning and forgiveness. Stephenson spent many hours talking
with victims and perpetrators of violent crime, visiting prisons and
collaborating with the Forgiveness Project. The result is an affecting play
intent on opening the hearts and minds without ever becoming preachy. (source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/)
In Nine, when two women find themselves in
a life-threatening situation, the mind games they play may be the only way to
stay alive. Held in a room and chained apart, their only currency is words, and
the fragile nature of their desperate situation means that a single word can
become the hanging point between life and death.
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