Seattle Spotlight: June 2009

Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp repeat their starring roles of Roger and Mark in the touring company of Rent (Paramount, June 16-21), along with another original cast member, Gwen Stewart. Book-It Repertory soars in its borrowed home of the Moore Theater with Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (June 4-14), as a flight chief keeps his planes flying dangerously through the night to get the mail through. Seattle Shakespeare Company predicts stormy weather with Shakespeare’s The Tempest (June 4-28). Acclaimed actor Michael Winters stars as Prospero, with the production including original music by Jesse Sykes and Phil Wandscher from the local “porch-noir” band Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter.

ACT presents the break/s (June 17-July 12), a one-man tour de force by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, described as a hip-hop renaissance man who acts, dances, writes poetry, and always pushes the boundaries. New Century Theatre Company presents Craig Wright’s Orange Flower Water (June 23-July 20), featuring two married couples in a series of scenes set in or around a single bed. Our American Theater Company’s full annual production is Eyes for Consuela by Sam Shepard (June 4-27), where an American tries to hole up in a rundown Mexican hotel and finds himself caught in a mysterious triangle.

Comic performances abound as Live Girls presents the West Coast premiere of Vrooommm! A Nascomedy, by Janet Allard (June 19-July 11), a super charged spoof of America’s fastest sport! Phoenix Theatre moonlights with Moonlight and Magnolias (June 5-28), as David O. Selznick hires Ben Hecht to write the screenplay of Gone with the Wind, when Hecht has never read the book and filming starts in five days. Hamlet gets skewered in I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick at SecondStory Repertory (June 5-27).

Driftwood Players leads the laughter with Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig (June 12-28). Jack and Leo hear of an old lady about to die and deed her fortune to two long-lost English nephews, so they resolve to pass themselves off as her nephews and get the cash, but the old lady is expecting nieces. Driftwood also presents Love is a Divine Accident (June 21-29), featuring Carissa Meisner Smit’s new adaptations of Anton Chekov’s “A Little Joke” and Sherwood Anderson’s “Sophistication,” short stories examining the moment in time when a boy and girl begin to understand one another as man and woman.

Washington Ensemble Theatre hosts the third annual QTET: Queer Teen Ensemble Theater (June 26-29), an original collaborative piece developed with gay teen performers. Rebecca Gilman’s The Crowd You’re In With is read by Mirror Stage Company (June 6-7), and asks: Is the chicken done? Does the band need a new tune? Is this the right time to have a baby? Four Strange Loves (June 5-14) is the world premiere presentation of local playwright Daniel Tarker at Seattle Playwrights’ Collective. In it, Sarah Dunn finds herself in a most bizarre love triangle with her former college sweetheart and the ghost of her recently deceased husband. Harlequin Productions introduces a musical mosaic of the singers and songwriters who gave a female voice to an era of social and political upheaval, in Sixties Chicks (June 18-July 18).

Children have a new production company to explore as Anything is Possible Theatre performs It’s a Whatchamadoozie with a Whaddayacallit with a Thingamajigit on Top (June 5-21). Fearful, the Mayor declares a state of emergency and orders all of the children inside for the summer. It’s up to Lucy Margaret and her plucky pals Cecil and Gracie to save the day by transforming fear into wonder and fiction into fact.