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| Miranda Troutt in The Diary of Anne Frank at Seattle Children's Theatre (Zach Rosing) |
Theatrical productions this coming month touch on politics,
history, multicultural and multimodal performances, and include musicals and
Shakespeare and Shakespearian interpretations. There’s drama and humor and
everything inbetween, it looks like. Got your calendar up? Let’s get shows
planned!
Represent! A Multicultural
Playwrights Festival, Hansberry
Project, eSe Teatro, SIS Productions and Pratidhwani, 3/31/19-4/3/19 (at Langston Hughes Performing Arts
Institute)
Local Playwrights Showcase, 3/31, 4:00 PM, In Braunau by Dipika Guha, 3/31, 7:30 PM,
Two Big Black Bags by Julieta Vitullo,
4/1, 7:30 PM, We, Too! by local Asian
American performing playwrights, 4/2, 7:30 PM, Riverwood by Andrew Lee Creech, 4/3, 7:30 PM.
The Diary of Anne
Frank, Seattle Children’s Theatre,
4/4/19-5/19/19 (opens 4/5)
This sobering true story of two families hiding in Nazi-occupied
Holland during World War II, is based on the real diary of young teen Anne
Frank. Anne’s words reach out to us over
the generations, inspiring us to never forget, to never give up on the power
and goodness of the human spirit, and to always “fill life with living.”
1932: The Devil comes to Moscow, demonic entourage in tow,
to learn if Stalin's politics have actually changed human nature... This story
is tangled up in interesting ways with a re-telling of a fateful meeting with
Pontius Pilate. Five actors take on the challenge of 35+ characters, with
on-stage musicians playing a brand-new musical score by Brent Arnold.
Queer, Mama.
Crossroads, Annex Theatre,
4/5/19-5/4/19
Where do black women go when their souls have been taken too
soon? At the crossroads, explore racism, sexism, homophobia, systemic silence,
and spirit in this choreo-poem-performance piece. Dismantle the American cover
of denial and secrecy regarding injustices committed against queer women of
color who are mothers.
Urinetown, 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT Theatre, 4/6/19-6/9/19 (at ACT
Theatre) (opens 4/11)
This outrageous social and political satire is set in a fictional
future where a terrible 20-year drought has crippled the city’s water supplies.
Citizens must now use the public pay-per-use amenities owned and operated by
Urine Good Company. Those who try to circumvent the peeing-fee by relieving
themselves in the bushes risk being taken away to “Urinetown,” a mysterious
place where many have been sent but no one ever returns. With fee increases in
the pipeline, the poor rise up to fight the tyrannical regime to make the
public amenities free for all to use. With a storyline that’s uncomfortably
close to home, Urinetown is a
hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution.
Cherubin, Parley Productions, 4/11-13/19 (at West
of Lenin) (world premiere)
Local playwright Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth debuts a play
based on characters in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Two women caught in a tempestuous witch-hunt discover in each other the feral
magic of the natural world and learn that interdependence is the key to
survival.
Cora, a midwife and herbalist, is in the wrong place at the
wrong time. In search of her long-lost son, Cora arrives in a Puritan
settlement in 1652 during the most destructive storm in a century. When she's
thrown in jail under suspicion of witchcraft, she demands to see her child--a
man the settlers call the Monster of Connecticut. Instead, she meets Miranda, a
Puritan on the verge of childbirth, sent in to extract a confession and save
Cora's soul. But neither Cora nor Miranda is exactly what she seems.
Language Rooms, Pony World Theatre, 4/12/19-5/4/19 (at Slate
Theater)
Local playwright Yussef El Guindi’s play follows Ahmed, a
quintessential American worker trying to do his job right while navigating the
workplace politics of water cooler gossip and Super Bowl parties. Only this
office is a secret military compound where Ahmed translates the interrogations
of terrorism suspects. Brilliantly shifting between comedy and suspense, Ahmed takes
a strange and unsettling journey. As his work and even his loyalties are called
into question, Ahmed realizes that more than his job might be at risk.
Devi, Pratidhwani, 4/16/19-5/11/19 (at ACT
Theatre)
In the original 1884 Bengali novel Devi Chaudhurani, a young, illiterate, and impoverished Prafulya
unexpectedly soars to great heights as Devi [/they-vee/], a woman who rises to
power against the rule of the British. Despite being beloved by her people,
Devi ultimately submits to cultural pressure and returns to her traditional
duty as a wife.
Now, however, Prafulya will be allowed the power of choice —
proving that a woman can be the protagonist in her own story, despite mens’
best efforts to make her invisible. Will Prafulya return to her love and
traditional life? Will she remain Devi, the leader of a military movement? Or
will she fully embrace the religious identity of her new name, and dedicate her
life to God?
Small Mouth Sounds,
Thalia’s Umbrella, 4/18/19-5/11/19
(at 12th Avenue Arts) (opens 4/19)
Bess Wohl’s (mostly) silent comedy has seven people meet in
the seclusion of the woods to begin a silent retreat. In the quiet, they must
come to terms with both their darkest fears and silliest foibles. They each
leave changed...but not in the ways they expect. Using very few words, Small Mouth Sounds depicts the achingly
human need to connect.
Boeing Boeing, SecondStory Repertory, 4/19/19-5/12/19
This 1960's French farce adapted for the English-speaking
stage features self-styled lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German, and
American fiancées, each a beautiful airline hostess with frequent
"layovers." He keeps "one up, one down, and one pending"
until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris, and Bernard's
apartment, at the same time.
Lemons Lemons Lemons
Lemons Lemons, Theater Schmeater,
4/20/19-5/4/19 (at Bathhouse)
The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a
lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to
find out. Lemons imagines a world
where we're forced to say less. It's about what we say and how we say it; about
the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye
contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons.
As You Like It, Seattle Shakespeare Company, 4/23/19-5/19/19
Rosalind and Orlando engage in a glorious game of love,
lust, and mistaken identities in Shakespeare’s magical forest, as Shakespeare
seems to be the oldest marriage counselor available.
The Lightning Thief:
The Percy Jackson Musical, 5th
Avenue Theatre, 4/23-28/19 (tour)
This is an adaptation of the best-selling Disney-Hyperion
novel by Rick Riordan. The Greek gods are real, and they're ruining Percy
Jackson's life. As a son of Poseidon, Percy has newly discovered powers he
can't control, monsters on his trail, and is on an epic quest to find Zeus's
lightning bolt to prevent a war between the gods.
Singlet, Washington Ensemble Theatre,
4/25/19-5/5/19 (imported)
Erin Markey draws on their longstanding friendship and
working relationship with actor Emily Davis to create a performance that maps
the bonds and hysteria of earned intimacy. Combining Markey’s singular style
with a host of influences—spanning Genet’s The Maids, celebrity psychotherapist
couples counseling sessions, and Precious Moments® Collectible Dolls—this
kaleidoscopic production grapples with the desire, rivalry, vulnerability, and
subterfuge that bind two people together.
Nina Simone: Four
Women, Seattle Repertory Theatre,
4/26/19-6/2/19
When "The High Priestess of Soul" Nina Simone
heard about the tragic bombing deaths of four young girls in an Alabama church
in 1963, the songstress turned to her music as a means of expressing the
country's agony. "Four Women" and Simone's other evocative activist
anthems sang a truth that the world needed to hear. And it is a truth that
remains sung to this day. Through storytelling, debate, and music, Nina Simone: Four Women immerses us in
the complex harmony of protest.
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