Love Train
Have you ever overheard a snippet of an interesting conversation and wished you could hear the rest? Love Train, a […]
14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival Closing Weekend
[Note: This is a review of the closing performances of the festival on Jan 13th and 14th. R.E. Parker reviewed
The Trojan Women-adaptation of Euripides Play, As relevant today as in 415 B.C.
The Trojan Women explores the Class, Racial and Sexual Politics of War
An intense but highly intriguing adaptation of Euripides’s The Trojan Woman, by Caroline Bird opened at Seattle’s favorite venue for plays taking place in prisons: The old Immigration Jail, now called The Slate Theatre. Produced by Civic Rep Theatre, the play offered a scintillating exposé of the interconnection between war and rape, of the rationalizations of the powerful as they evade their responsibilities and avoid making amends, how the wives of the powerful, accepting of their “feminine” roles, use power ruthlessly and of course, how the poor and disenfranchised pay the ultimate price for war. All this wrapped up in a coherent script, sprinkled with poetic witticisms, which honored the classical text and our modern theatrical conventions.
The 14/48 Project: Saturday night World Premiere Show
Two days, fourteen new plays. With lots of laughs and some moments of compelling drama, the second night of “The 14/48 Project” is just as skillfully executed and fun as the first.
If you’ve been to the festival or read my review from Friday’s 10:30 p.m. show, you know how “The 14/48 Project” works. The plays I saw at the Saturday 8 p.m. show were written between the playwrights receiving the prompt “Taking a Shot” on Friday night and 8 a.m. the next morning. After being assigned to plays by random drawing, the directors and actors tackled seven more new plays. The pieces I saw on Saturday night premiered after forty-eight hours of new theatre creation by an adventurous group of artists.
The atmosphere in the Gregory Falls Theater was significantly different at this Saturday World Premier show. The audience was larger and older on average. An audience member could overhear conversations between friends of the performers, or between middle-aged, male theater figures scouting talent…
The 14/48 Project: Friday night Final Performances
Two days, fourteen new plays. “The 14/48 Project: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival” is as fun as it is impressive.
First performed in 1997, 14/48 is an even more challenging spin on the traditional 48-hour theater festival format. On Thursday evening, the artists involved kick off the festival by tapping the ceremonial 14/48 keg. A theme is then chosen at random for the writers. The seven playwrights get started on a ten-minute play on that theme (this time, “Who’s Watching Who”), which is due the following morning at eight.
On Friday, each of the seven directors is randomly assigned one of these plays. The casts are chosen (also by random drawing) soon after. The directors and actors rehearse the pieces for the rest of the day. They are joined by the not-to-be-underrated design team. The festival band contributes music and other sound. The seven new plays have their world premieres at 8 p.m. on Friday, and their final performances at 10:30 the same night.
The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival-The British Are Coming, to ACT, to ACT
British Invasion from Leicester, not Liverpool this time.
The 14/48 Projects is very pleased to bring 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival TWQTF, back to ACT Theatre for two weekends in January as a partner of ACTLab. 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival takes over the Falls Theatre January 6, 7, 13, and 14, 2017 with performances each day at 8pm and 10:30pm.
A Christmas Memory-A reading at 18th and Union
What really happens when two childhood friends become writers and one puts the other in their novel?
The Harper Lee and Truman Capote relationship is one of the most famous literary friendships in the world. The unique aspect of the friendship of Truman Capote and Harper Lee was that, unlike most literary friendships, which usually start as adults or students, their friendship started in childhood, before each evolved into two of the most critically acclaimed, best selling and famous authors of the 20th Century. As a result, most of us are familiar with Truman Capote’s childhood, not from anything Capote wrote, but from the character Dill in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. But in A Christmas Memory, Capote himself tells the story of his childhood in Monroeville, Alabama.
PREVIEW Sandbox Radio-Dec. 28th
“Got clever, funny, sound rich radio theatre? Yes we do, right here in Seattle!!!
Sandbox Radio’s post-Christmas live radio show will take place at ACT Theatre on Fri Dec. 30, 2016, at 8 pm. It is a fabulous opportunity to be part of the show as the “live” audience.
Sandbox Radio redefines the classic radio variety show with a cool Seattle spin. Don’t miss our latest episode recorded live, featuring guests tenor Rob McPherson, writer, cycling advocate and NPR regular Willie Weir, and more in the locally grown show that combines killer music, sound effects, engaging storytelling, the city’s best performers and an ultra cool sparkly host… all recorded live for podcast in front of you, our “studio” audience. Join producers and hosts Leslie Law and Richard Ziman and special guest Music Director Angie Louise (The Love Markets), for an uplifting evening full of wit, music, and heart as we transition into the new year. Learn more about Sandbox Radio and where to find the podcast at www.sandboxradio.org.
The Little Match Girl Passion
Instead of a play, watching The Little Match Girl Passion and listening to a dramatic reading of A Child’s Christmas
Peter and the Starcatcher
If you’ve ever wondered how Peter Pan got to Neverland, along with all those pirates and mermaids, this is the