Thursday, June 25, 2009

ACT - RAWSTOCK Festival July 24, 2009

Seattle, WA – June 24, 2009 – Hosted by The Central Heating Lab at ACT, the RAWSTOCK Summer Film Festival includes an all-star lineup of independent Seattle filmmaker premieres. David Lowery's evocative and sublime feature film, St.Nick, is a 70-minute tone poem that evokes Malick in its bittersweet chronicle of a runaway brother and sister and their symbiotic relationship. This feature length Seattle premiere is preceded by a program of all new shorts from cutting-edge local filmmakers, including Shawn Telford and Jason Reid. Directors David Lowery, Shawn Telford, and Calvin Reeder will be in attendance for a pre-screening Q&A.

Additional highlights include:

· Shawn Telford’s Safe Passage - A SIFF 2009 Fly Filmmaking triumph of two women and their nightmare ride on the monorail.

· WT Russell’s Special Talents - Four years in the making, this is Russell's most personal film, featuring Justin Freet and Thomas Kneeland reprising their roles as "Justin" and "Tom".

· Tim Marchant’s Tidy Monster - An unseen man quietly goes insane in this minimalist animated tour-de-force from the United Kingdom.

· Carlos Lascano’s Love Story in Stop Motion - From Portugal. This animated masterwork tells of two lifelong lovers and is set to the music of Sigur Ros.

· Calvin Reeder’s Snake Mountain Colada - A bracing, darkly hilarious follow-up to 2008's polarizing Rambler.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Othello at Intiman

SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn, continues its 2009 Season with the Theatre for a New Audience production of Shakespeare’s Othello, directed by Arin Arbus. Performances will begin at Intiman Theatre, 201 Mercer Street at Seattle Center, on Tuesday, July 2 and continue through Sunday, August 2. The opening night performance is Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 pm. Please see the Fact Sheet at the end of this release for the complete schedule.

The Theatre for a New Audience production of Othello was originally produced in New York last February. The sold-out production was brought back in April due tooverwhelming demand for tickets and played a limited-engagement remount before coming to Seattle this summer.

Tickets are available from www.intiman.org or 206.269.1900. Tickets range in price from $40 to $55, with discounts available for groups, seniors and members of the military (those on active duty and veterans). Patrons 25 and under can purchase tickets to any performance for $10. Pending availability, rush tickets will be sold 15 minutes before curtain for $20.

To support patrons in the current economy, all adult tickets for every Tuesday night performance are now on sale for $25 and Intiman will offer a pay-what-you-can performance (with a $5 suggested minimum per ticket) on Thursday, July 2 at 7:30 pm. Intiman has also created a new “Friends Four Pack” for the remainder of this season: buy four adult tickets for any production and save $50 off your total order.

Orange Flower Water Opens This Weekend!

NCTC’s highly anticipated second show opens this Thursday! Tickets are selling fast and seating is limited, so get yours today!!

Orange Flower Water, by Craig Wright, at ACT’s Bullitt Theater (in association with Central Heating Lab)

Directed by Allison Narver and featuring NCTC company members Hans Altwies, Jennifer Lee Taylor,
Ray Gonzalez and Betsy Schwartz.

June 24th -July 20th
Thursdays
thru Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 7pm
Opening Night: June 25th, 8pm – SOLD OUT

Click Here or call ACT's box office (206-292-7676) to purchase your ticket now!!

Ticket prices:
$25 General Admission
$10 Students
$15
Senior Citizens & Folks under 25

For more information, check out our website:
www.newcenturytheatrecompany.org

Memphis is Heading to Broadway!

SEATTLE, WA –The producers of Memphis, the new musical about the early days of rock and roll, announced today that they have secured a theater, and an opening date, for a Broadway run. With a book and lyrics by Joe Pietro and music and lyrics by Bon Jovi band member David Bryan, the blues-and-rock-infused production will open at The Shubert Theatre on September 23, where Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit starring Rupert Everett and Angela Lansbury is currently playing.

The show tells the story of Huey Calhoun, a white DJ living in Memphis in the 1950s whose unstoppable enthusiasm for “race records” helps bring black music across the color line, while his love for the black singer Felicia leads them across the same line with tragic results.

The musical enjoyed rave reviews and large and enthusiastic audiences when it played the La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle’s own 5th Avenue Theatre earlier this year. TheSeattle Times described it as “bursting at the seams with big vocal talent, a soulful tone and attitude, and enough human wattage to power a city block,” while the Seattle Weekly says “the music of Memphis sizzles like soul food on a hot griddle.” Seattle’s own Chad Kimball, who starred as Huey, came in for particular praise, with theSeattle P.I. calling him “a shuffling whirlwind who tears up his own fragile earth, hunched and gangling with a slurring, honky-tonk drawl,” and the Times declaring that “his reedy, sturdy tenor pipes work just fine, on such rousing anthems as ‘Music of My Soul’ and ‘Tear Down the House.’”

“Our audience went crazy for Memphis,” says The 5th’s Producing Artistic Director David Armstrong. “Not since Hairspray had we seen this kind of response to a brand new musical. Memphis’s combination of dynamic music, exciting staging, and moving story really got Seattle buzzing about the show—and they haven’t stopped yet.”

The move marks another successful cross-continental leap from the stage of The 5th Avenue to Broadway, following in the steps of other successful productions includingHairspray, The Wedding Singer and the show that opened the 2008-2009 Season, Shrek. The show that opens our 2009-2010 Season is another brand new musical,Catch Me If You Can, based on the Dreamworks film and featuring the same creative team behind Hairspray.

Kate Whoriskey to Succeed Bartlett Sher at Intiman

SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre Board President Kim A. Anderson announces that Kate Whoriskey, one of the most admired directors in the American theatre today, will succeedBartlett Sher as Artistic Director in 2011, following a season in which they will share artistic leadership. The multi-year transition process will begin this month, with Whoriskey and Sher working together on artistic programming and season planning for 2010.

“Our entire Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome Kate Whoriskey back to Intiman and Seattle ,” says Anderson . “Kate is a most exceptional, and most adventurous, artist and thinker. The Board began conversations with Bart more than a year ago about creating a succession plan that would continue and further our mission to remain innovative and intimate at the very foundation of our Theatre, as well as in the way we produce our plays. Kate has an exciting vision for Intiman’s future, and we look forward to supporting it though an organic artistic transition in tandem with Bart’s last season as Artistic Director and under the leadership of Managing Director Brian Colburn .”

Widely praised throughout her career for her visual imagination and heightened sense of the possibilities of storytelling, Whoriskey has directed modern classics and new works by today’s leading writers at theatres across the country.

She is currently represented in New York with this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Ruined, written by her frequent collaborator Lynn Nottage. The play was recently extended for the seventh time at Manhattan Theatre Club, where it opened in February after a run at Chicago ’s Goodman Theatre. To develop the play, which is set in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, Nottage and Whoriskey traveled to Uganda to do research and conduct interviews.

Whoriskey previously worked at Intiman in 2000 when she was selected by Sher to direct The Chairs in his first season as Artistic Director. She subsequently directed Ibsen’sThe Lady from the Sea and Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange at Intiman, and held the position of Associate Artist in 2002-2003 through a grant from the New Generations Program, an initiative cooperatively designed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group.

Intiman is a unique place,” said Whoriskey. “It has a large, loyal and intellectually curious audience, and works with a tremendous pool of talented theatre artists. There is also an overall environment of innovation in many fields in Seattle , which I think is part of what makes it one of the most exciting cities in America to make theatre.

“I admire the work that Bart has done at Intiman very much, particularly the American Cycle programming,” Whoriskey continued. “I’m excited to think about how we can complement this with a new International Cycle, and I look forward to building relationships with different voices to promote diversity and interdisciplinary work here.”

“Kate is one of the most audacious artists I know,” said Sher. “She believes in being brave, in taking chances and in creating work that exists in relationship to the larger world. As the Board, Brian and I worked together on creating this transition process, it was very important to me to be responsible to Intiman’s audiences and supporters. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with Kate and to support her intelligence and imagination as she assumes leadership of the company.”

As a producing organization, Intiman’s central value is the telling of great stories in the belief that theatre is a place for provocative ideas, and that people come to Intiman to think, talk, participate, get involved and stay connected to each other. Intiman’s programs encourage audiences to laugh and argue, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and connect what they have witnessed on stage to our shared history, their own experiences and the very real dilemmas that we face in our lives today. Intiman is also dedicated to making theatre part of a larger conversation about how we live now, and produces free-standing events with a public benefit, designed to support curiosity and interconnectedness, beyond the work on stage.

Conversations with several candidates were already underway when I interviewed with Intiman’s Board, and Kate clearly emerged as the unanimous choice of the Trustees and staff,” said Colburn, who was hired last summer. “The innovative nature of this plan is part of what compelled me to join the company. Intiman is a forward-thinking organization that attracts the best artists in the country. Kate’s energy and ideas are very motivating, and she is familiar with our aesthetic and attracted to the kind of work we have built over many years. All of us here are eager to start the next big adventure for our company.”

A graduate of NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing and American Repertory Theatre’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, Whoriskey is currently an associate artist atSouth Coast Repertory and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University . She and her family will move to Seattle in early 2010.

For more information or to request interviews, please contact Stephanie Coen , Director of Communications, at 206.204.3320 [direct line] or stephanie@intiman.org.

Seasonal support for Intiman Theatre is provided by ArtsFund; Intiman Theatre Foundation; Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation; The Leading National Theatres Program, a joint initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and Washington State Arts Commission.

Greenstage Dates Change for the Summer

GreenStage's Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival is thrilled to announce the inclusion of a new company to our Festival! Direct from the Fremont Troll, Balagan Theatre will be bringing their Taming of the Shrew to our Second Stage, located just north of the Asian Art Museum.
The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival is now in its 9th season. The festival began as a cooperative venture between GreenStage, Theater Schmeater, and Wooden O Productions, and quickly became the launching pad for Seattle's Outdoor Theater scene. In 2008, the festival management was taken over by GreenStage.
GreenStage Producing Artistic Director Ken Holmes points out the advantages of central management for the festival:
"Having a festival celebrating outdoor theater is a fabulous thing, but with no central leadership, it was difficult for the festival to grow. By having a single company managing the details, coordinating staging and information becomes much easier. GreenStage is the perfect candidate for the job - we have been producing outdoor theater for over 20 years, and know how to make theater in the park work - especially in a park we have been performing in for 17 years."
This year's schedule includes ten performances of nine productions by seven local theater companies.
Updated Schedule:
All performances at the Amphitheater unless noted
Saturday, July 11
  • 12:00pm - THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR - Last Leaf Productions
  • 2:00pm - RICHARD III - Seattle Shakespeare Company's Wooden O
  • 2:30pm - THE TAMING OF THE SHREW - Balagan Theatre
    BEHIND THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM
  • 5:00pm -THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE - Theater Schmeater
  • 7:00pm - THE COMEDY OF ERRORS - GreenStage
Sunday, July 12
  • 12:00pm - TWELFTH NIGHT - Young Shakespeare Workshop
  • 2:00pm - KING JOHN - GreenStage
  • 2:00pm - WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF - Open Circle Theater
    BEHIND THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM
  • 5:00pm -THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE - Theater Schmeater
  • 7:00pm - THE TAMING OF THE SHREW - Seattle Shakespeare Company's Wooden O

Full schedule and information available at www.greenstage.org/sotf

Monday, June 15, 2009

Children's Auditions for Joseph and White Christmas at the 5th Avenue

SEATTLE – The 5th Avenue Musical Theatre Company will hold general auditions for children’s roles in their 2009-2010 season.  Auditions will be held Tuesday, June 30 3pm-7pm and Wednesday, July 1 3pm-9pm. 

 

Boys and Girls between the ages of 8 and 13 are encouraged to audition.  All children should be able to sing and move well.  All boys MUST have unchanged voices.  Most rehearsals will take place during afternoons, evenings and weekends, however, children should be prepared to miss some school during the final rehearsals and performances. 

 

For the audition, please have your child prepare 32 bars of a song.  The total audition should last no more than 3 minutes.  All auditioners must bring a photo and resumes (if available) or current contact information.  Professional headshots are not required.  A school photo is acceptable.  Photos will not be returned. 

 

Auditions are by appointment only. Parents and guardians who wish their child to audition must call The 5th Avenue Theatre at 206-625-1418 x215 Monday-Friday between the hours of 1pm-5pm to schedule an appointment.  They will receive directions to the audition location when the appointment is scheduled.

 

The 5th Avenue Theatre is seeking children for its production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which plays October 10-November 1, 2009 andWhite Christmas which plays November 28-December 30, 2009.

 

For further information, to schedule an audition, and get directions, call 206-625-1418 x215.

 

We welcome and encourage auditions from children of all ethnic and cultural groups.

Intiman Advance Calendar Listings and Ticket Discount Opportunities!

SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn, continues its 2009 Season with three productions that carry forward Intiman’s mission to produce provocative theatre and programs that encourage audiences to talk, think, laugh, argue and stay connected.

 

In the summer, Intiman will present the highly acclaimed Theatre for a New Audience production of Othello, directed by Arin ArbusOriginally produced in New York last February, the sold-out production was brought back in April due to overwhelming demand for tickets and played a limited-engagement remount. It now comes to Seattle with Sean Patrick Thomas as Othello, John Campion as Iago and Elisabeth Waterston as Desdemona. The season will continue in the fall with Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, starring Judith Roberts and directed by Sarna Lapine, and Robert E. Sherwood’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which will launch Intiman’s new American Cycle. The production, directed by Sheila Daniels, will feature Erik Lochtefeld in the title role and Mary Jane Gibson as Mary Todd Lincoln. The full cast of 19 includes actors from every generation of the Seattle theatre community.

 

Tickets are available from www.intiman.org or 206.269.1900. Tickets range in price from $40 to $55. To support patrons in the current economy, throughout the season all adult tickets on Tuesday nights will be on sale for $25 and Intiman will offer floating pay-what-you-can performances. Intiman has also created a new “Friends Four Pack” for the remainder of this season: buy four adult tickets for any production and save $50 off your total order. Patrons 25 and under can purchase tickets to any performance for $10, and discounts are available for groups, seniors and members of the military (those on active duty and veterans). Pending availability, rush tickets will be sold 15 minutes before curtain for $20.

 

Intiman Theatre performs at 201 Mercer Street at Seattle Center . Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm; and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 pm. 

 

Theatre for a New Audience’s production of

OTHELLO

By Shakespeare

Directed by Arin Arbus

Previews: July 2, July 3, July 5 and July 7

Opening: July 8 at 7:30 pm

Close: August 2 at 2 pm    

 

When Othello and Desdemona elope to consummate their undeniable passion, Iago sees his chance to destroy the Moor he secretly hates. Iago convinces Othello his bride is having a tawdry affair with Lieutenant Cassio. Othello becomes enraged, Iago fuels the scandal and Othello’s world comes crashing down. And a handkerchief undoes them all.

 

Director Arin Arbus ignites Seattle ’s summer with one of the most acclaimed stagings of a Shakespeare play in a decade, the Theatre for a New Audience production ofOthello. The production will feature Sean Patrick Thomas (a star of the films Save the Last Dance, Barbershop and Barbershop 2 and the recent television adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun) as Othello and Elisabeth Waterston (The Tempest opposite Mandy Patinkin at Classic Stage Company) as Desdemona. Thomas and Waterston previously appeared on stage together in Much Ado About Nothing for the New York Shakespeare Festival. John Campion has appeared in productions at theatres across the country including American Repertory Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, The Public Theater and Seattle Rep, as well as in the London premiere of Wallace Shawn’s Aunt Dan and Lemon at the Royal Court .

 

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING

A play by Joan Didion based on her memoir

Directed by Sarna Lapine

Previews: August 21, August 22, August 23 and August 25

Opening: August 26 at 7:30 pm

Close: Sept. 20 at 2 pm 

 

Hailed by critics as honest, exhilarating, compassionate and unexpectedly funny, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking looks at how grief can make you crazy, and what it means to come out on the other side. Judith Roberts, previously seen at Intiman as Arkadina in The Seagull under the direction of founder Margaret Booker, brings the voice of one of America ’s greatest writers to the stage.

 

ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS

By Robert E. Sherwood

Directed by Sheila Daniels

Previews: October 2, October 3, October 4, October 6, October 7 and October 8

Opening: October 9 at 8 pm

Close: November 15 at 2 pm

 

In the 1830s, a quietly charismatic young man, acclaimed by those who knew him for his powerful combination of pragmatism and vision, entered politics and changed the course of the nation. Spanning 20 years, the period of Lincoln ’s maturation before he became president, Abe Lincoln in Illinois is an epic play about the making of an American hero — and the shaping of our history. The story of how Lincoln forged his conscience, his ideals and his actions amid personal struggles and troubled years for our country launches Intiman’s second American Cycle under the direction of Intiman Associate Director Sheila Daniels. 

 

Erik Lochtefeld, who is making his Intiman debut as Abe Lincoln, has appeared on Broadway as Orpheus in Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses and at Seattle Repertory Theatre inMetamorphoses and The Secret in the Wings. Former Seattleite Mary Jane Gibson, an actor and writer, will play Mary Todd Lincoln. The company will feature actors from every generation of Seattle ’s theatre community, including Hans Altwies, Clayton Corzatte, Susan Corzatte, Philip Davidson, Angela DiMarco, Russell Hodgkinson, Reginald AndrĂ© Jackson, Peter Dylan O’Connor, Jose Rufino, Matt Shimkus, Richard Nguyen Sloniker, Adam Standley, Kate Wisniewski and R. Hamilton Wright.

 

Intiman’s American Cycle programs include Front Porch Theater, a county-wide series that brings the stories on the Intiman stage to life in gathering spots and unexpected venues that encourage spontaneous participation; Rough Eagles, the groundbreaking partnership of students from Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools who come together each year to develop, write and then perform an original play on the Intiman stage; Writers & Artists, a speaker series in which contemporary artists and scholars share personal reflections and insights into the work of America’s great writers.  

 

BLACK NATIVITY 

By Langston Hughes

Music Direction and Arrangements by Pastor Patrinell Wright

Choreography by Kabby Mitchell III

Directed by Jacqueline Moscou

Previews: December 1, December 2 and December 3

Opening: December 4 at 8 pm

Close: December 27 at 7:30 pm

 

Like nothing else on stage in Seattle , Black Nativity embraces a celebration of faith, a generosity of spirit, and the infectious joy of a rousing gospel songfest. It brings together diverse performers from across the Puget Sound region: Pastor Patrinell Wright, Gospel Queen and music director, and members of her Total Experience Gospel Choir; Black Nativity Choir members and musicians who have sung, shouted, soared and stomped with the sounds of gospel, opera, jazz and blues; and gifted dancers, many of them teens. Intiman’s holiday celebration embraces both change and tradition, with new artists, songs and poems joining beloved favorites each season.

5th Avenue High School Theatre Awards!

 

SEATTLE - Tonight, 2,200 high school students, teachers and parents from across Washington State packed The 5th Avenue Theatre for the Seventh Annual 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards, sponsored by Wells Fargo. A highly enthusiastic crowd filled the theatre and cheered as the award recipients were announced in 21 different categories, ranging from Outstanding Overall Musical Production to Outstanding Program Design.

The high school theater nominees, some dressed in their production costumes and the rest in their best party clothes, shook the walls of the Theatre with their cheering and applause, celebrating a variety of exceptional musical theater productions presented during the 2008-2009 school year. Nominees in select categories presented numbers from their shows and performed song medleys. Teachers and students alike were thrilled to receive recognition for their hard work and dedication, just as accomplished high school athletes have received for decades.

 

Since its inception the program has grown in size and scope, from 31 productions and 3,100 students in 2003 to 82 productions and 8,200 students participating this year. These students come from schools across the state, not just Seattle; participating communities include Spokane, Wenatchee, Lynden, Sequim and Lacey.

 

Olympia High School won the Outstanding Overall Musical Production award, while The Overlake School won the most awards of the evening, four. Capital High School, Eisenhower High School, Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center and Kamiak High School received three awards each.

 

Henry Nettleton from Bellarmine Preparatory School won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor, and Faith Higgins from Peninsula High School won for Outstanding Performance by an Actress. The Overlake School won for Direction, Tahoma High School won for Musical Direction, and Eisenhower High Schoolfor Outstanding Choreography.