Author name: Mark Douglass

Past

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

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Next Case! Shall Judas Iscariot go to Heaven or Hell?

Mothers stick by their children when they have no one else, even in Death by suicide. In the gripping opening monologue of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 2005 masterpiece The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Judas’s mother Henrietta wails her grief. As a woman and mother she recalls his birth as a burst of light. Her buries Judas after his suicide from despair at the irreversible consequences Jesus, his leader and friend, suffers by his betrayal. She gets no help from the other Apostles, no other friends came either.

Past

Summer Shakespeare 2016—Cymbeline

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GreenStage’s 28th season of free outdoor theater is off to a terrific start this summer with perfect weather. I watched their production of William Shakespeare’s Cymberline in Volunteer Park this Sunday. Under the skillful direction of Vince Brady, the large company of 15 actors performed in front of the stage platform in the park.

Past

Centrifuge—Where Science Meets the Dramatic Imagination

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World Premiere on Friday Night; Show Closes on Saturday Night — by Design

The set-up: as a partner project of the 14/48 Project (see reviews here and here), Centrifuge holds to 14/48’s sensibility of producing fully formed live theater in a limited amount of time. In Centrifuge’s case the clock began on Monday, June 20 when invited scientists and artists convened to toss potential topics into a large cylinder, one of which was randomly selected. … “Ready About and hard to lee.” Part of the fun opening night while waiting for the lights to go up was discussing with fellow audience members what that means.

After the draw, five writer-scientist teams

Past

‘A Hand of Talons’ A Winning Premiere

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World Premiere Mash-Up of the Wild Wild West and The Godfather

Director Amy Poisson teams up with writer Maggie Lee and Pork Filled Productions (PFP) for a third time to bring us A Hand of Talons. This plays returns us to the fictional city of New Providence, the setting for their previous collaborations—the 2015 Tumbleweed Zephyr and the 2013 The Clockwork Professor.

The genre is steampunk, the drama twirls around the rivalry of siblings competing to lead the Yao Chinese crime family that runs the casino and other operations in New Providence. This is perhaps the goriest of the three plays as the struggle for recognition, power, and dominance plus a betrayal take their toll. The acting is melodramatic, to match the time period, and fully engaging.

Past

Love, Loss, and What I Wore

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Seattle Premiere

Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron is based on the surprise hit book by Ilene Beckerman. The play begins as Gingy (representing Beckerman) describes herself as an ordinary person who was bored one day and began to sketch dresses she had owned. She discovered that during many important events in her life she vividly recalled what she’d worn. She worked up this idea and sent copies to her family and a couple of best friends. One of those friends sent it to a publisher where the largely female staff circulated it among themselves and added post-it notes of their own recollections. In 1995 the publisher gave the book a chance

Past

‘brownsville song’ shows the ripple effect of tragedy

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Grief and Trauma are Anything but Tedious

Kimber Lee set for herself in brownsville song: b-side for tray the task of rounding out for the public the “other story” of someone like Tray Franklin. In the play Tray is 18 and working on his scholarship essay. In real life, Franklin was a black college student and winning amateur boxer who was one of three youth shot by gang members in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 2012. His friends survived, he did not.

Listen carefully to the opening soliloquy by Lena, Tray’s grandmother (Denise Burse) as she speaks apparently to the “press” or non-Brownsville society in general—”Tray was not …” she insists and repeats. Burse cries by the end of her long speech.

What is the b-side?

Past

‘Luna Gale’ Spotlights Fraught Daily Dramas

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Caught between the Headlights & the Headlines

Rebecca Gilman says it took her 10 years to find the plot for Luna Gale. From the performances of the extremely talented cast directed by Braden Abraham at The Seattle Rep, one can see why. This play is written from the lives of overworked social workers, young, earnest parents hooked on crystal meth, plus rippling entanglements with parents, courts, and Christians. All considered, ten years is pretty fast.

The plot Gilman found follows Caroline, a veteran social worker in Iowa’s Department of Human Services as she deals with a single case out the 80 she’s assigned.

Past

‘Voilet’ Sings to what it Means to be Beautiful

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Violet is a 2014 Broadway hit that Director Andrew Russell has stripped down to the ‘bone’ for this run at ArtsWest. The title character Violet (Brenna Wagner) has hopes that a TV faith healer in Tulsa, Oklahoma will heal her face. It was scarred in a freak accident. The creators—Brian Crawley wrote the lyrics and book to Jeanine Tesori’s music—respect the audience and leave it to us to imagine the scar. They had to assert themselves throughout the long development process, but as Crawley notes, “We weren’t about to drive a bus onstage, why not leave the scar to the imagination as well.” Russell followed the spirit and with scenic designer Christopher Mumaw kept the props and furniture to the barest minimum. What’s left is a musical examination of one woman’s vulnerable search for healing and acceptance with little else on stage to distract your attention.

Past

Fringe 2016: Illuminati: the Musical

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Love Snack is the comedy duo Baylie Freeman and Caitlin Obom. For this production, the duo are keying off the common feeling that all of the power moves in the world, from Wall Street to unmarked prisons to major international trade agreements, are controlled by the same secret organization: The Illumanati.

Past

Fringe 2016: A Necessary Sadness

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Danielle Gregoire found her inspiration of her A Necessary Sadness shows from John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.* People voluntarily respond to her call for a 5 minute set on a sorrow in their lives.

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