Monday, October 26, 2009

Taproot Needs Your Help!

Taproot Theatre seeking alternate location for this weekend’s performance of Enchanted April after Greenwood fire

SEATTLE – October 23, 2009 – As fire crews work on the scene of this morning’s fire on 85th street in Greenwood, Taproot Theatre is working on finding an alternative theatre space for the remaining performances of Enchanted April, which is set to close this Saturday to three sold-out performances.

Taproot staff members are waiting to obtain access to the building to assess the damage. More details about the situation and possible new location for the show will be released soon.

Please check our website, taproottheatre.org, for the most current information.

Thank you to those who have expressed your concern and support. The encouragement from the community on websites such as Phinneywood.com—including suggestions to form a support fund—are extraordinary.

ABOUT TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY

Taproot Theatre Company is a professional, non-profit theatre company with a multi-faceted production program. Founded in 1976, Taproot Theatre serves the Pacific Northwest with Mainstage Productions, Touring Productions and Acting Studio. Taproot exists to create theatre that explores the beauty and questions of life while bringing hope to our search for meaning. Taproot Theatre Company is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Theatre Puget Sound (TPS), and the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce.

Taproot Theatre moves performances of Enchanted April to Seattle Children’s Theatre after Greenwood fire

SEATTLE – October 23, 2009 – Taproot Theatre Company is moving its closing weekend performances of Enchanted April to Seattle Children’s Theatre due to fire at an adjacent building, which caused significant damage to Taproot Theatre. The fire early this morning has forced tonight’s performance to be canceled. Tomorrow’s shows (October 24) will take place at 2 and 8 p.m.

Patrons who have tickets for tonight’s performance may choose to attend either of tomorrow’s performances. Taproot Theatre is calling patrons who have tickets to the remaining shows to let them know about the change. Due to the high volume of calls, please wait to hear from us. Please do not call Seattle Children’s Theatre.

The performances will have festival seating, on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional tickets will be available to purchase immediately prior to performances, cash or check only.

Seattle Children’s Theatre is located at 201 Thomas Street at Seattle Center.

Thank you to all the theatres and arts organizations who have stepped up to offer support and alternative locations during this time. The Seattle theatre community has been incredibly generous.

Please check our website, taproottheatre.org, for the most current information.


Abe Lincoln in Illinois Extended at Intiman!

Abe Lincoln in Illinois Extends at Intiman Theatre through Thursday, November 19—the Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

Intiman will honor “King County Heroes” at the closing performance; nominations are being accepted through Tuesday, November 3 and will be judged by a panel of local community leaders

SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre announces that, in response to audience demand and strong ticket sales, its American Cycle production of Robert E. Sherwood’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois, directed by Sheila Daniels and featuring a cast of 19 actors, will extend beyond its scheduled closing and will now end its run on Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 pm—the anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. New performances now on sale are Tuesday, November 17 at 7:30 pm; Wednesday, November 18 at 7:30 pm and Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 pm. Tickets may be purchased from www.intiman.org or over the phone from the Ticket Office at 206.269.1900.

The November 19 closing performance will also be a celebration of selected King County Heroes who will be honored by Intiman as part of its American Cycle programming. In the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, Intiman is calling on our community to help us identify and honor individuals who dedicate their time and energy, quietly and under the radar, to bettering our world. The public is invited to submit nominations identifying a local hero and why that person should be honored, in a statement of 500 words or less, to hero@intiman.org by November 3.

The candidates will be considered by a panel of community leaders including Someireh Amirfaiz, Executive Director of the Refugee Women’s Alliance; Chris B. Bennett, Publisher of the Seattle Medium Newspaper; Peter Bloch Garcia, President of the Latino Community Fund of Washington State; Bill Block, Project Director of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County; Nicole Brodeur, a Columnist for the Seattle Times; Keli Carender, Political Director of the King County Young Republicans; Randy Engstrom, Founding Director of the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center; Megan Gustafson, President of the Young Democrats of Washington; Audrey Haberman, Executive Director of the Pride Foundation; Katie Hong, Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation; Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney; author Garth Stein; Intiman Trustee Jared Watson, Vice President of the Seattle Foundation; and Intiman Trustee Kristine R. Wilson, an Attorney with Perkins Coie LLP.

Intiman will honor the chosen heroes, the people who nominated them and the selection panel with complimentary tickets to the closing of Abe Lincoln in Illinois, a private reception before the show and an invitation to the cast party following the performance.

The American Cycle is sponsored by Ameriprise Financial, The Boeing Company, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation and PONCHO. Media Sponsorship is provided by KUOW.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Help fund Seattle Musical Theatre just by surfing the net!

Seattle Musical Theatre - SMT Needs Your Help!
As you know, I'm a supporter of Seattle Musical Theatre (SMT) and I want to share with you a simple way for you to help support this organization or any other cause that you care about.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Taproot Theatre presents Sherlock Holmes

and the Case of the Christmas Carol

World premiere by local playwright opens November 27

SEATTLE – October 15, 2009 – Holiday traditions are getting a twist with the world premiere of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol at Taproot Theatre Company. Written by local playwright John Longenbaugh and directed by Scott Nolte, this is a mystery that will delight the entire family. These then are the facts: The year, 1894. The date, Christmas Eve. The location, 221B Baker Street. After being presumed dead for three years, a hardened Sherlock Holmes resurfaces, turning his back on the people who need him most. Three unexpected callers arrive on Christmas Eve uncovering clues from the detective's past, present and future. Can they save Holmes and his world from a dire end? They must "do it all in one night" to accomplish the task. Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol opens on November 27 and runs through December 30, with low-price previews on November 20 & 21, plus a pay-what-you-can performance on November 25.

In The Final Problem, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote what he believed would be the final story in his series about his legendary detective. In this story, Sherlock Holmes faces his nemesis Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, and tumbles into the roaring rapids below. Outraged at the hero’s death and at the series’ end, fans demanded that the writer bring Holmes back and continue writing. So, the Holmes stories can be filed in two categories: before the incident at Reichenbach Falls, and the years following the fall, starting in 1894, when Holmes reappeared in The Adventure of the Empty House. But what happened between 1891 and 1894, the “missing years,” which are one of the great unsolved mysteries of the time? Where did Holmes go? What really happened to him? And what could that mean for the future? Uncover the startling answers in this world premiere production.

Playwright John Longenbaugh has been involved in the Seattle theatre scene for years. Formerly writing about Seattle theatre in a column in Seattle Weekly, Longenbaugh is now the media relations manager at 5th Avenue Theatre.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol features Terry Moore as Sherlock Holmes, David Nail as Watson and Alex Robertson as Moriarty, plus David Dorrian, Aaron Lamb, Jesse Notehelfer, Pam Nolte and Eric Riedmann. The production team includes scenic and sound designer Mark Lund, costume designer Sarah Burch Gordon and lighting designer Jody Briggs. Sarah Dale Rice serves as stage manager and Judy Naegeli as dramaturg.

On Its Stage and Across the State, Intiman Theatre’s Annual Arts Education Programs Rough Eagles and Living History Give Voice to Young People

The Rough Eagles, students from Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools , will perform their own original play on the set of Abe Lincoln in Illinois on Monday, October 26 at 7 pm, under the direction of Mary Sea Kaminski

Living History teaching artists will spend residencies in schools across the state during a eight-week tour that takes them from Seattle to Eastern Washington

SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn , announces new information about its annual arts education initiatives for young people across the state of Washington. Presented as part of an integrated series of programs that also include student matinees, Rough Eagles and Living History support Intiman’s mission to go beyond the walls of its theatre and encourage young people to think and speak about contemporary issues they face in their own lives through participation in the arts.

Rough Eagles, one of Intiman’s American Cycle programs, brings together diverse teens from Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools (the name is a combination of the two school mascots, the Roosevelt Rough Riders and the Cleveland Eagles). On Monday, October 26 at 7 pm, seven students will present their own original play, “To Speak of a Dream,” which is inspired by the themes of Intiman’s current production of Robert E. Sherwood’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois and the question of what it means to be a hero today. Directed by Seattle artist Marya Sea Kaminski, the performance is free to the public, and will be followed by a discussion and reception with the students; for reservations, patrons should call 206.269.1900.

Although Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools in many ways represent two different worlds, Rough Eagles is about the collaborative process of making theatre as a way to explore big ideas and discover what unites the students, rather than to stay on the surface of what separates them. The program begins each year with a summer retreat, during which the students begin to connect on an individual level by participating in theatrical exercises and by attending different kinds of shows (many of them for the first time) around Seattle . In the fall, they develop, write and rehearse their own play, which they also perform in their schools for their peers following their performance on the Intiman stage.

Living History, Intiman’s statewide arts-in-education program, brings teaching artists to schools from Seattle to rural communities in Eastern Washington for intensive week-long residencies. Living History includes performance excerpts that allow students see the ideas in classic plays, followed by innovative classroom exercises that challenge and inspire them to think about corresponding social, economic and political conditions in our world today.

This season, Living History will include scenes from Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Shakespeare’s Othello and A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner. At the beginning of each residency, the actors perform scenes from these plays, immediately challenging assumptions as they switch between genders, races, ages and eras. They then spend the rest of each week as teaching artists in classrooms. Each residency incorporates a character-based “hot seat” discussion between two real or historical figures, and an issue-based debate that uses the themes of the plays as a springboard to explore a contemporary conflict. Students are motivated by original ways of learning, including interacting with iconic characters from literature and important figures from history such as Emma Goldman, Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass.

Living History will tour the state for eight weeks from October 19 through December 11, including residencies at AC Davis, Cleveland , Franklin , Ingraham, Interlake, O’Dea, Omak, Renton and Roosevelt High Schools . Under the leadership of program director Robin Lynn Smith and production director Desdemona Chiang, the cast includes actors/teaching artists Hannah Franklin, Sylvester Kamara and Khatt Taylor.

The American Cycle is sponsored by Ameriprise Financial, The Boeing Company, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation and PONCHO. Media Sponsorship is provided by KUOW. Front Porch Theater is sponsored in part by Starbucks Coffee Company. Rough Eagles is sponsored in part by Wells Fargo.

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.

Sales Go Nuts for Puppetry of the Penis!

Added Performance: Oct 24, 9:30 pm.

Tickets on Sale Now: $45

Wednesday & Thursday: 8 pm

Tuesday, Friday 7 pm

Saturday 7 pm & 9:30 (great seats available!)

Seattle ticket sales have gone nuts for the wildly successful Puppetry of the Penis. Originally slated for a five-show show run at ACT’s 400+ seat Fall’s Theatre, the producers have just added a sixth show at 9:30 pm on Saturday October 24, 2009. Tickets to that performance are on sale now at www.acttheatre.org and great seats are still available.

Starting Tuesday evening October 20, 2009, Northwest native Christopher J. Cannon, along with his puppetry partner Rich Binning, will display their unusual natural abilities in the Ancient Australian Art of Genital Origami to hundreds of speechless audience members. Requiring amazing concentration, astonishing stamina, an unbelievable stretch factor and a remarkable level of testicular fortitude, this show leaves women and men gasping at over 40 heroic and hilarious penis installations including the Pelican, The Windsurfer, The Eiffel Tower, Loch Ness Monster, and their signature installation, the Hamburger. A video camera projects intimate detail of the installation onto a large screen ensuring little can be missed - even from the very back row!

Box office phone: (12-7pm, closed mon.): 206-292-7676; Interviews, photos are available by contacting: Jennifer Rice; (206) 285-5175 or rice1234@yahoo.com. Puppetry of the Penis is a non-sexual adult show.

Workshop of a New Musical Inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnets

I Always Write of You

SEATTLE - Big Band Swing, Brazilian Bossa Nova --- even disco, all get paired with Shakespeare's sonnets in I Always Write of You, a new musical by David Duvall. Seattle Shakespeare Company will develop the musical through a workshop rehearsal process that culminates in three staged readings on October 25, 26, and 27 at 7:30 in the Center House Theatre.

Directed by Duvall, I Always Write of You explores the many aspects of love through a compendium of musical genres. Six performers (Ali Mohamed el-Gasseir, Jenny McMurry, Julian Schrenzel, Jenness Klein-Schrenzel, Stacie Calkins, Aaron Lamb) will sing, recite and re-invent the sonnets, revealing how these 400 year old works still to speak to contemporary audiences. After each performance, audiences are encouraged to share their feedback to help develop the play.

Tickets to the staged reading of I Always Write of You on Oct 25, 26, and 27 are now on sale for $15 each.

For ticket reservations, call the Seattle Shakespeare Company box office at (206) 733-8222 or go online at www.seattleshakespeare.org. Regular box office hours are Tuesday through Friday 1:00-6:00 PM. During performance weeks, in addition to regular hours, the box office opens Saturdays 1:00-6:00 PM and Sundays 12noon to 4:00 PM. Seattle Shakespeare Company performs at the Center House Theatre at Seattle Center.

Final Chapter of Strawshop's "Biograph" Series to Focus on Gay Martyrs

Matthew Shepard and Alan Turing
Join Galileo, Riefenstahl, Merrick,
and Holiday as Dramatic Sources


Beginning with the 2007 production Life of Galileo, Strawberry Theatre Workshop has endeavored to produce great plays about historical figures who were challenged by the moral and political ambiguities of their time. The series – called Biograph – has sought to make clear the parallels that exist in human struggles across all troubled eras.

For Biograph’s final chapter in 2010, Strawshop will partner two seminal works of late 20th century drama exploring the lives and deaths of two gay martyrs:

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman (July)
Breaking the Code
by Hugh Whitemore (September)

Produced with some of the city’s most acclaimed professional artists at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the pairing is an opportunity to hold a summer-long conversation about conflicting perspectives of partnership, tolerance, and heroism in the heart of the city’s gay community.

The Laramie Project explores the reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard—a gay student who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. The play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries, and published news reports.

“The images of the bloodied Mr. Shepard, beaten beyond recognition, keep echoing. They become the touchstone by which everything else is measured, an unconditional physical reality that cannot be ignored but can, the play suggests, be transcended.”
Ben Brantley, New York Times (2000)

The subject of Breaking the Code is Alan Turing, a British mathematician and computer pioneer whose work as an inventor during World War II helped defeat Nazi Germany. Mr. Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” in 1952 for having a homosexual affair and was forced to endure injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.

“When the story of a badgered nonconformist is told as a tale of proud self-assertion rather than maudlin self-pity, one finds not a saintly victim, but a stirring hero, at center stage.”
Frank Rich, New York Times (1987)

The Laramie Project and Breaking the Code are dramatic works that will be revisited for generations, and yet will always appear new for their layered look at individual freedom. To produce these plays now in Seattle, is not simply to celebrate diversity — Seattle does that every day. These plays represent an opportunity to hear and ask questions about ‘what’s next?’ How do we support each other when we don’t fall into our expected roles? What happens when we don’t naturally agree with the majority opinion, or when imperfect men and women make imperfect choices?

Strawshop won The Stranger newspaper’s Genius Award in 2007, and received five nominations in the first-ever TPS Gregory Awards for 2009. More importantly, the public has come to link Strawshop with a movement in Seattle to create jobs for working artists and to reestablish local small business in theatre, which has lost five mid-size professional companies since the turn of the century.

At this time, Strawshop is seeking support from organizations, businesses, and individuals with a history in the Seattle arts community to bring these two plays to Capitol Hill in 2010.

For more information, please go to: strawshop.org