Welcome To Braggsville Encore Program

JUNE 2017

OUR 2016-1 7 SEASON A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING • TREASURE ISLAND • A MOVEABLE FEAST • WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE

April-June 2017 Volume 13, No. 6

Paul Heppner Publisher Sara Keats, Jonathan Shipley Encore Stages Editors Susan Peterson Design & Production Director Ana Alvira, Robin Kessler, Shaun Swick, Stevie VanBronkhorst Production Artists and Graphic Design Mike Hathaway Sales Director

A WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL

Brieanna Bright, Joey Chapman, Ann Manning, Rob Scott Seattle Area Account Executives

Based on the novel by Jane Austen Book by Harold Taw Music and Lyrics by Chris Jeffries

Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Jonathan Shipley Ad Services Coordinator

JUL 12 - AUG 19

Carol Yip Sales Coordinator

taproottheatre.org 206.781.9707 204 N 85th St Seattle, WA

Sara Keats, Jonathan Shipley Online Editors

Leah Baltus Editor-in-Chief Paul Heppner Publisher

3/22/17 NOT JUST A WALK IN THE PARK

Contents 4

Time to Act: Arts Patrons Can Protect Arts and Culture

9

Dressed for the Part: Harmony Arnold, Costume Designer

Dialogue 13

10:11 AM

Dan Paulus Art Director Gemma Wilson, Jonathan Zwickel Senior Editors Amanda Manitach Visual Arts Editor Barry Johnson Associate Digital Editor

Encore Stages in conversation with Janelle Velasquez and Seán Griffin

Intermission Brain Transmission 15

PROFESSIONAL THEATRE IN A NEIGHBORHOOD SETTING

Persuasion_EncoreArtsAd.indd 1

SPRING 2017

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Time to Act

Patrons Can Protect Arts and Culture

Billie Wildrick and the company of The Pajama Game at 5th Avenue Theatre. Photo by Mark Kitaoka.

Arts administrators say that patrons have a say in the future of the arts in America.

A trombone player warms up along Market Avenue during the Ballard Jazz Festival. Painters and photographers of all levels of experience are hanging their group show at the Mount Baker Neighborhood Center for the Arts. Three Dollar Bill Cinema hosts a transgender film festival, and there is a poetry slam at Hugo House. Little kids are performing hip-hop at the Creative Dance Center, and the curtain rises on The Magic Flute at the Seattle Opera. There are original paintings on the walls of our coffee shops and performances in the streets.

Seattle is bursting with art. Our citizens and, in turn, our city government, value the arts and support them generously.

Art is everywhere because of arts funding, and recently, one key source

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of arts funding, has been threatened: funding at the federal level.

There were shockwaves felt nationwide when the White House released the proposed 2018 federal budget. The budget calls for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If the budget is approved and, indeed, these historic institutions are eliminated, Seattle's arts and culture will be affected. Randy Engstrom, Director of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, says, in a statement issued in March, that the action “will have profound economic and societal impacts in Seattle and throughout the country.”

“In times like these, when people feel stress and division, it’s the arts where we find meaning and solace,” says Kristina Goetz, Artist Trust’s Director of Development. “Artist Trust helps make the telling of that truth possible.”

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Fidelma McGinn, Vice President of the Seattle Foundation, believes in the power arts can wield. “Our mission [at the Seattle Foundation] is to ignite powerful, rewarding philanthropy to make greater Seattle a strong, more vibrant community for all.”

Patrons get ready to GiveBIG Patrons of the arts—theatre audiences, museum members, concert subscribers—are citizen philanthropists. The cost of admission or a season subscription goes a ways in helping arts organizations balance their budgets, and attendance records helps arts organizations makes their case to major donors. But it is not only major gifts that make a difference to arts organizations: no amount is too small to make a difference to the organizations audiences respect and admire. McGinn urges patrons to donate during the Seattle Foundation’s annual GiveBIG campaign, which happens each May. GiveBIG is one day each year that arts organizations use to maximize the donations they receive. The event is hosted online, through the Seattle Foundation’s website. Donors can give to specific organizations within the Seattle Foundation’s network.

The program began in 2011, as a 24hour online campaign designed to raise money for various community organizations. That first year, GiveBIG generated $3.6 million. It has grown significantly since then: last year, GiveBIG raised $15.9 million for more than 1,200 individuals, families, businesses and non-profits the Seattle Foundation serves.

“The growth continues to amaze us every year, and so does the resources

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2016/17

and the creativity non-profits invest in developing their funding campaigns,” says McGinn. Each individual group designs and implements an individual campaign for GiveBIG donations, but the collective energy of the day gives every organization a boost.

Seattle is prepared Seattle is in a fortunate position to be generally well-equipped to weather budget cuts by way of the White House.

“The city of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture has seen its budget increase significantly, thanks in large part to the 1% for Arts plan, and the admission of tax surpluses propelled by the likes of Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Great Wheel,” says McGinn.

JUNE 30 & JULY 1

A LIVE PRESENTATION OF 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Pablo Rus Broseta, conductor

Experience Stanley Kubrick’s spellbinding, Academy Award®-winning masterpiece.

Recognized as one of the greatest works of science fiction cinema, 2001: A Space Odyssey is acclaimed for its technological realism, boldness and inspired use of music.

Watch the film on the big screen with the iconic score, featuring the epic opening scene set to Also sprach Zarathustra by R. Strauss, performed live by the Seattle Symphony.

In association with Warner Bros., Southbank Centre London and the British Film Institute.

FOR TICKETS:

206.215.4747 | SEATTLESYMPHONY.ORG 6 ENCORE STAGES

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2/28/17 10:08 AM

In the early 1970s, Seattle established a comprehensive system for assuring that creativity would remain a part of civil life in perpetuity. The city instituted the progressive 1% for Art ordinance, which has since become a model other cities have replicated worldwide. The proposal stipulated that, noted a Seattle Times article at the time, "All requests for appropriations for construction projects from eligible funds shall include an amount equal to one (1) percent of the estimated cost of such project for works of art" and that those monies would go for the "selection, acquisition, and/or installation of works of art to be placed in, on, or about public facilities.”

In 2015, McGinn notes, the city invested $3 million to support more than 360 individuals and institutions. Following Trump’s proposed NEA cuts, Engstrom at the Office of Arts and Culture issued a statement, which says, in part: “Our office envisions a city driven by creativity that provides the opportunity to engage in diverse arts and cultural experiences.”

Mari Horita is the President and CEO of ArtsFund, an organization that gives to the local arts community through leadership, advocacy and grant making.

In 2016, they supported over 100

goals—they’re finding ways to combat what they’re seeing on the national stage. They’re fighting for equity through art.” Hsieh notes recent work by arts organization like the Latino Theatre Projects, the Wing Luke Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum that puts diverse voices and perspectives front and center.

“There’s more intentionality about inclusivity,” she says, “and it’s wonderful to see.”

The Seattle Symphony received $40,000 from the NEA last year. Photo by Brandon

Patoc.

cultural institutions. Their investment dollars and resources helps arts and cultural organizations present over 10,000 events, exhibits, and performances every year. Over 800,000 students received tickets to exhibits and performances through ArtsFund. They gave $2.4 million in grants last year to groups like the Seattle Art Museum, SIFF, Jet City Improv and Seattle Arts & Lectures. Since ArtsFund’s inception 47 years ago, the organization has distributed more than $75 million. “We want to strengthen our community with the arts,” Horita says.

“The city is healthier with a diverse arts sector.”

Horita sees silver linings in regards to the political turmoil of late. “There’s been an increase in dialogue and civic engagement. It’s been a reminder to show up and stand up for what we believe in.”

She paraphrased Republican politician Mike Huckabee, who recently wrote a column in the Washington Post urging Trump to not cut the NEA. “He says the arts civilize and humanize us all.

This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s about our fundamental values.”

Kathy Hsieh, Cultural Partnerships and Grants Manager at Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, is encouraged as well.

“It’s inspiring to me,” she says. “Different groups are coming together for common

Be that as it may, the current political climate has had some unexpected, adverse effects on arts funding. Asked if they’ve seen a shift in giving patterns since Trump’s ascendency, several arts administrators say they have. “There’s been a focus on giving to social services over the arts. People are donating to Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock,” Hsieh says. Artist Trust’s Kristina Goetz agrees: “Who didn’t become a member of the ACLU recently? I added them to my [personal] monthly giving budget, and they were a new one for me.”

Arts groups and artists are already adapting. “We need to tell our stories a little differently,” adds Goetz. Hsieh notes local artists are pursuing their creative endeavors and then giving the proceeds from them to those well-known social service organizations.

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MEET THE NEW WORLD. SAME AS THE OLD WORLD.

Investing in the arts at the federal level works “Let’s be clear, this was not about finances,” Randy Engstrom says of the proposed budget. “It was not an act of strategy. It was a blunt instrument. An ideological statement about the arts and creativity.” The NEA receives about $150 million in federal funding—that’s .004% of the federal budget. Engstrom believes that cutting the NEA is shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible.

In 2015, according to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the arts contributed more than 4% to our nation’s GDP, coming in at $704 billion. Agriculture and mining, combined, contributed to 3% of the GDP. 78,000 full-time jobs are

A WORLD PREMIERE STAGING JUNE 7 - JULY 2

CENTER THEATRE AT THE ARMORY

TIX: 206.216.0833 | BOOK-IT.ORG encore art sseattle.com 7

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in the arts in Chicago, producing $2 billion in household income. In New York, ticket sales to Broadway shows alone gross $1.37 billion. Zachary Whittenburg, Communications and Engagement Director for Arts Alliance Illinois, summarizes it this way: for every dollar the federal government puts into arts organizations via the National Endowment for the Arts, the arts and culture sectors puts nine dollars back into the national economy.

The pattern holds up locally, too.

ArtsFund published "An Economic Impact Study of Arts, Cultural and Scientific Organizations" in 2014.

Polling 313 non-profits in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties, the report found that non-profit cultural organizations generate $2.4 billion for the state economy, supporting over 35,000 jobs, not including volunteers.

The study revealed 1.18 million volunteer hours logged for central Puget Sound arts groups, done by approximately 29,000 volunteers. A separate study, done in 2014 by Independent Sector, estimated that each volunteer hour is worth $27.54; a value of $32 million.

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What can concerned and caring patrons do? Volunteering time and donating money are a great start, even if it’s only a few hours or dollars at a time. “Pick an organization or two or three, and become a monthly sustaining donor. That $10 become $120 a year. That $25 becomes $300,” says Goetz. Engstrom also encourages patrons to buy tickets to arts they want to support. “We all vote with our dollars,” Engstrom says. Patrons can also support the arts sector politically; if local representatives hear from their constituents that the arts matter to them, they can better advocate for arts funding. Seattle Foundations’s Fidelma McGinn says, “Engage. Volunteer. Be a donor.” ArtsFund’s Mari Horita agrees: “Attend events. Join a board. Write letters.” The lesson to arts-lovers is this: show up, stay active, engage and contribute. Together, the community artists, administrators, and patrons can preserve and protect this valuable sector, no matter what happens at the federal level. <

F

or 28 years, Book-It has been standing up for our community. We’re rooted here, and using our tools of art and theatre to contribute to the vitality and health of our home is one of our core values. This spring, we’ve asked our community to Stand Up for Book-It in return. We are blown away by the support we have received thus far—our deepest thanks to all who’ve contributed to our #StandUpforBookIt Campaign. True champions of Book-It know what it takes to produce new work show after show, year after year. And the truth is we simply cannot do it without your contributions.

Your support has made possible this newest new work, Welcome to Braggsville.

T. Geronimo Johnson’s “coming of age story for a new generation” has energized all of us with his fresh language and points of view that present possibilities for deep discussion, investigation of ideas, and introspection. The hard dialogues invite us to gather and share our responses to what may not always be comfortable, but nevertheless entertaining and exhilarating. We invite you to take part in our Beyond the Book events around this show — you’ll find a complete schedule in our lobby.

And next season we’ll continue to bring forward new voices, complex stories, and fantastical worlds. The 2017-18 season line-up features the poetic narrative of Maya Angelou, the magic of Howl’s Moving Castle, Noir classic The Maltese Falcon, and the compelling contemporary voice of Junot Díaz. We are thrilled to bring it together for you.

Book-It is committed to continuing the conversations around the works of literature at the center of our work. If we don’t exercise our imaginations, we are apt to fall prey to fear and feeling stuck in old responses to new ideas. To be our best selves, we must engage and broaden our horizons. Not the opposite.

So come and laugh and cry and question and challenge. Show your emotions. Take action. Invest in your spirit. Invest in the arts. Stand Up! Thank you, Jane Jones & Myra Platt Founding Co-Artistic Directors

W E L C O M E T O B R A G G S V I L L E

by Maya Angelou SEPT 13 – OCT 15, 2017

From the novel by Diana Wynne Jones NOV 29 – DEC 30, 2017

[A NEW MUSICAL]

by Dashiell Hammett

A THEATRICAL CULINARY COLLABORATION WITH CAFÉ NORDO

FEB 7 – APRIL 2, 2018

Subscribe today at BOOK-IT.ORG or call 206.216.0833 Single tickets go on sale August 9 A-2 BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

by Junot Díaz APRIL 19 – MAY 6, 2018

TBA

JUNE 6 – JULY 1, 2018

JANE JONES & MYRA PLATT, FOUNDING CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE

BY T. GERONIMO JOHNSON

Adapted by Josh Aaseng and Daemond Arrindell Directed by Josh Aaseng

CAST

in alphabetical order

Naa Akua Sylvie Davidson* Rebecca M. Davis Brace Evans Doug Graham Justin Huertas* Andrew McGinn* Olivia Martin† Chris Mayse Mia Morris Drew Starmer† Zack Summers Jazmyne Wilder Waters† Dimitri Woods* Maria Gray* Jeremiah Givers*

Poet / Ensemble Candice Mrs. Brooks / Ensemble Otis / Ensemble Quint / Ensemble Louis Sheriff / Ensemble LeeAnn / Ensemble Mr. Davenport / Ensemble Mrs. Davenport / Ensemble Jo-Jo / Ensemble D’aron Student / Ensemble Charlie Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager

PRODUCTION AND ARTISTIC TEAM Pete Rush Andrew D. Smith Candace Frank Matt Starritt Rebecca Fredrickson Gin Hammond

Scenic Designer Lighting Designer Costume Designer Sound Designer Dramaturg / Assistant Director Dialect Coach

* Member Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States † Book-It Acting Intern

season support

media sponsors

sage foundation Additional generous support is provided by numerous local businesses, family foundations, and hundreds of individuals.

Many thanks to all our supporters! encore art sseattle.com A-3

MEET THE

CO-ADAPTOR

Literary and Artistic Intern Rebecca Fredrickson spoke with Co-Adapter Daemond Arrindell about poetry and point of view in his work on Welcome to Braggsville. This is an excerpt of their conversation; the full text may be viewed at book-it.org.

Rebecca Fredrickson: Book-It doesn’t normally add to the texts of the books it adapts with substantial pieces of new writing. What about this story in particular made it important to write new poetry?

Daemond Arrindell: I created Found Poems from several very short chapters. The words are still the author’s, but where I come in is playing around artistically with the orientation, repetition, and order of those words, always with the goal of providing the audience with insight into the characters. …

Braggsville is a really nuanced book addressing our complex and complicated relationships with race, history, privilege, bias, etc. There are some specific chapters within the book where the narration shifts from third person, using “he, she, they” to speaking directly to the characters as if it was a one-way conversation. The tone, rhythm, and language of these short chapters are all different from the rest of the novel. They felt reminiscent of spoken word poems. They needed something different, something more than the audience seeing and hearing an internal monologue.

RF: How did you incorporate T. Geronimo Johnson’s words into your poetry?

DA: Found poetry is created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and making changes in spacing and lines, by adding or deleting text, to create new meaning. My take on it was to use the words of the original text to reveal to the audience what the characters were driven by, were in contention with, and were questioning.

RF: In your experience, what is the relationship between the arts and social justice?

DA: Social Justice requires the arts—requires creativity and critical thinking—a willingness to see things through different lenses. The rigidity with which many people see the world is what cuts many of us off from who we can be. There is no social movement I can think of where the arts did not play a pivotal role. …

It is the artists who help us to envision a reality different than the one we live in, that show us possibility, the ones who challenge the status quo and make the invisible visible.

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NOTES FROM THE

O

ver the past year when discussing Welcome to Braggsville, and the particulars of the four main characters’ plot to protest a Civil War reenactment, I’ve often met responses approximating, “You can’t be serious.

That’s absurd.” Perhaps so. But perhaps T. Geronimo Johnson is simply pointing at the absurdity that we Americans have not dealt with our racism and white supremacy in any complete and meaningful way. With insufficient examples of how to confront and dismantle institutional racism, how could these four young people at the center of the story coming of age in 21st-Century America have hatched a plan that was anything but absurd?

Welcome to Braggsville is a provocation to take a hard look at ourselves. What are the conscious and unconscious biases clattering around in our heads? How do we enact or perform them? Where do they come from? In an interview, T. Geronimo Johnson describes ideas in

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

B

orn and raised in New Orleans, T. Geronimo Johnson received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his MA in language, literacy, and culture from UC Berkeley. He has taught writing and held fellowships—including a Stegner Fellowship and an Iowa Arts Fellowship—at Arizona State University, the University of Iowa, UC Berkeley, Western Michigan University, and Stanford. His first novel, Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Johnson is currently a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Berkeley, California.

DIRECTOR his head as cars in a garage, many of which parked there don’t belong to him. He discusses the importance of ridding our minds of the ideas that we’ve inherited from others, rather than acquired through actual lived experience: ideas about our identity, as well as ideas about other groups of people.

Live theatre has the potential to be an effective tool for interrogating such ideas. After all, even the four main characters in this story recognize the power of live performance, employ it for social change and come to realize how life altering it can be. I love live theatre because it is real bodies in real time and space, creating a shared human experience that is complex, unpredictable, and perhaps at times, volatile—a perfect forum then for Welcome to Braggsville.

_ Josh Aaseng

TOP, ABOVE: Members of the Welcome to Braggsville cast include (left to right): Naa Akua, Zack Summers, Sylvie Davidson, Dimitri Woods and Justin Huertas. Photo by Alabastro Photography.

Excerpt from an interview with Tavis Smiley “… there’s a joke I tell at my readings where I talk about this garage that is my head and how many cars are parked in there that don’t actually belong to me … Sometimes I just observe my mind and find myself. And this is really helpful as a writer, just observe my mind and find the thoughts that are in there that are not my own and sort of, you know, take note of how they’re operating and unfolding.

So I think that probably the most important takeaway for ‘Welcome to Braggsville’ would be something along those lines for one to ask one’s self whether or not these ideas are ideas born of experience, whether or not your opinions of people are born of actual exchanges with those people or whether or not you have just inherited some ideas that are in no way based on lived experience and in no way based on your sort of immediate notion of the world. I guess to get the extra cars out of the garage.”

Welcome to Braggsville Awards: Accolades include being longlisted for both the 2015 National Book Award 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence Named one of the best books of 2015 by The Washington Post, TIME, Men’s Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Kansas City Star, Brooklyn Magazine, NPR, the Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and Buzzfeed. encore art sseattle.com A-5

POWER TO THE PEOPLE A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF PROTEST ON LIBERAL COLLEGE CAMPUSES

by Rebecca Fredrickson

T

he University of California, Berkeley, is well known as a hotbed of liberal activity. Protests have been common in Berkeley for a century; issues have included World War II, the Red Scare, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, apartheid, police brutality, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. More recently, faculty and students have protested speaking engagements from conservatives Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter, resulting in violent conflicts and canceled appearances.

This sort of devout liberalism is not unique to Berkeley; rather, it can be seen with increasing frequency across highly selective schools. Author William Deresiewicz wrote an essay, titled “On Political Correctness,” that dismantles the processes by which the liberal elite perpetuates itself on elite liberal college campuses. He argues that political correctness has come, for liberals, to mean “the persistent attempt to suppress the expression of unwelcome beliefs and ideas.” He draws upon his experience at a variety of college campuses to illustrate how students are taught to actively silence themselves if they have opinions that deviate in any way from the radical liberal norm, including Zionism, conservatism of any kind, and even religious belief. He argues that “Selective private colleges have become religious schools. The religion in question is not

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Methodism or Catholicism but an extreme version of the belief system of the liberal elite [...]. To attend those institutions is to be socialized, and not infrequently, indoctrinated into that religion.”

He also points out that at these institutions, the “student populations largely come from the liberal upper and upper-middle classes, multiracial but predominantly white, with an admixture of students from poor communities of color—two demographics with broadly similar political beliefs, as evidenced by the fact that they together constitute a large proportion of the Democratic Party base.

As for faculty and managerial staff, they are even more homogenous than their students, both in their social origins and in their present milieu, which tends to be composed exclusively of other liberal professionals—if not, indeed, of other liberal academics. Unlike the campus protesters of the 1960s, today’s student activists are not expressing

LEFT: University of California Peace Strike, Berkeley, 1940. Photo by Randal Partridge.

ABOVE: Students of Smith College blocking the entrance to College Hall in 1986 as an act of protest urging the Board of Trustees to divest the college’s endowment from South Africa. Photo by Smith College Archives.

ABOVE, RIGHT: Marine recruiting protests, 2008. Photo by John Martinez Pauliga.

RIGHT: Emerson students and faculty perform a walkout after Eric Garner’s killer receives a non-indictment. Photo by Nydia Hartono, originally published in USA Today.

countercultural views. They are expressing the exact views of the culture in which they find themselves [...].” While there is diversity of identity, especially with regard to race, gender, and sexuality, “in terms of ideology, they are all but homogenous.”

Students from these liberal campuses often graduate to find themselves in hostile environments in which they are unable to fully articulate their views.

Having never needed to argue for liberal doctrine, some are woefully unprepared to respond to challenges from other viewpoints. This can lead to knee-jerk hostility and

a deep divide between liberals and conservatives, or even liberals and moderates. In T. Geronimo Johnson’s novel, he hypothesizes one way this can play out, creating the central tension – and exciting drama – that appears on our stage in Welcome to Braggsville.

Deresiewicz’s full article can be found at: https:// theamericanscholar.org/on-political-correctness encore art sseattle.com A-7

MEET THE Naa Akua

CAST

Poet/Ensemble Naa Akua is a queer writer, emcee, and poet.

They have performed in plays such as The Sunday Series: IvorySocial Activism, Racial, Gendered, and Sexual Identities and Reflection–A Tribute to Sara Baartman, an ensemble performance piece in New York City.

Sylvie Davidson*

Candice Sylvie Davidson has previously appeared on the Book-It stage in The Art of Racing in the Rain, Great Expectations, Night Flight, The Highest Tide, and in the title role in Emma. Local credits include Pump Boys and Dinettes (Village Theatre), Tails of Wasps (New Century Theatre Company), A Christmas Carol and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (ACT Theatre), Getting Near to Baby (Seattle Children’s Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (Island Stage Left). Regional credits include the world premiere of Troubadour (Alliance Theatre, Ga.), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Rubicon Theatre, Calif.), and Lonesome Traveler (59E59 Theaters, NYC). Sylvie is a native Washingtonian and a graduate of Knox College. A singer/songwriter as well as an actor, she divides her time between Seattle and Nashville. www.trevorandsylvie.com

Rebecca M. Davis

Mrs. Brooks/Ensemble Rebecca M. Davis is a Northwest native and proud graduate from the University of Oregon. Some of her favorite roles include Big Momma Bob in Money and Run, Episode 3 at Theater Schmeater, Count Orsini Rosenberg in Amadeus at Seattle Public Theater, Sid in the West Coast premiere of Girl You Know It’s True for The Stay Up Late Show, Cinna the Conspirator in Julius Caesar at Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O, and Madame Thénardier in Les Misérables at Balagan Theatre.

In addition, Rebecca has created and performed solo works for the Northwest New Works Festival and Solo Performance Festival. She emcees events at the Museum of Popular A-8 BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

Culture, Seattle’s Best Damn Happy Hour, and various Nerd-Burlesque shows (including the Emerald City Comicon’s Guardians of the Sexy 2017).

Brace Evans

Otis/Ensemble Brace is a local, born and raised. He studied Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the summer of 2016 and completed the Ensemble Training Intensive program at Freehold Theatre in 2015. These two experiences deepened his knowledge in the craft and art of acting. Recent performances include Cherdonna’s Doll’s House (Washington Ensemble Theatre), House of Dinah (On the Boards), and A Raisin in the Sun (Seattle Repertory Theatre). Additional performances include Parade and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi (Sound Theatre Company), The Kentucky Cycle and Twelfth Night (Bainbridge Performing Arts), Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (Book-It); VERNAE with Ethan Folk, and This Land is Your Land with Mark Haim.

Next is Henry IV, Part 1 (Key City Players) in Port Townsend this August.

Doug Graham

Quint/Ensemble Doug Graham is a professional actor, director, education artist, and the cofounder and producing artistic director of The Fern Shakespeare Company. Originally from Kansas City, he earned his BFA in Acting from Drake University.

He became a member of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company Apprentice Class in 2006 and has been steadily working as an actor and teacher ever since with them and many Atlanta-area theatres including The Alliance, Aris Theatre, 7 Stages, and Dad’s Garage.

Favorite credits include Horatio in Hamlet, Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Tribe Member in Hair for which he received a Suzi Bass Award Nomination for Best Ensemble.

* Member Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Justin Huertas*

Louis Justin Huertas makes his Book-It Repertory Theatre debut with Welcome to Braggsville.

Justin returns to Seattle after bringing his original musical Lizard Boy to San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre, for which he received a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for Lead Actor in a Musical. Acting credits include the world premiere of Lizard Boy at Seattle Repertory Theatre (Gregory Award, Footlight Award, Gypsy Rose Lee Award), In the Heights at Village Theatre (Gregory Nomination), and Grease at The 5th Avenue Theatre. Justin has also performed around Seattle in folk-rock duo Hanschen & Ilse with frequent collaborator and best friend Kirsten deLohr Helland.

Andrew McGinn*

Sheriff/Ensemble Andrew McGinn is thrilled to join Book-It for the first time. He has recently performed at ACT Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Portland Center Stage, and Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Project.

He has directed for Seattle Fringe Festival, Sound Theatre Company, Freehold’s Ensemble Training Intensive, Seattle University, and Cornish College of the Arts. A NYC transplant, Andrew has performed in over 150 shows, almost 50 of them Equity productions, at venues including Broadway, New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and many others in NYC and across the country. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School in acting, and holds an MFA in directing from University of Washington.

Olivia Martin

LeeAnn/Ensemble Olivia Martin is excited to make her Book-It Repertory Theatre debut in Welcome to Braggsville. The recent Cornish College of the Arts graduate is looking forward to working with the company and theatre community for years to come. She hopes you enjoy the show. www.oliviataylormartin.com

Chris Mayse

Mr. Davenport/ Ensemble Chris Mayse earned his MFA from the Professional Actor Training Program at Ohio University. He has been a professional actor, director, designer, instructor, and administrator for over 25 years. Chris has appeared regionally with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Montana Repertory Theatre, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, and others. He has performed locally with a variety of companies. Most recently, he was seen in Big Fish: The Musical at Taproot Theatre, as well as in the title role of Woyzeck with Seattle Theatre Works. Chris also served as the managing artistic director of Seattle Musical Theatre this past season.

Mia Morris

Mrs. Davenport/ Ensemble Mia Morris is a Seattlebased actor, director, and theatre arts teacher.

After attending the Professional Theatre Training Program at the State University of New York at Purchase, she worked with various theatre companies in New York and New England. In the early ’90s Mia moved to Seattle to co-found Open Circle Theatre. For the last seven years she has been working for the Great Plains Theatre Conference as an instructor, panelist, actor, and director. Other theatre credits include Irma in The Balcony, God in Poona the F**ck Dog, Nell in Fen, Frau Bergmann in Spring Awakening, Ronnie in at the vanishing point and Samantha in The Feast, a world premiere with MAP Theatre.

Drew Starmer

Jo-Jo/Ensemble Drew Starmer is a recent graduate of Cornish College of the Arts’ Original Works Program. His most recent work outside of school was in Blood Ensemble’s production of Barn Show.

Zack Summers

D’aron Zack is elated to be making his Book-it Repertory Theatre debut with the cast and crew of Welcome to Braggsville! His recent credits include Man 2 in Edges (Black Tie Productions), Prince Brian in Red Riding Hood and Mark in Ring of Fire! (Centerstage Theatre), and Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (Studio 18). Zack was also a member of the Gregory-nominated cast of American Idiot (ArtsWest Playhouse). Cheers to relevant theatre. Contact: zack. summers@outlook.com

Jazmyne Wilder Waters Student/Ensemble Jazmyne Wilder Waters is a recent graduate of Cornish College of the Arts. She has had the acting bug for years now and is beyond stoked to embark on her first postgraduate show.

Dimitri Woods*

Charlie Dimitri is happy to be making his Book-It debut in Welcome to Braggsville. Although a Seattle native, Dimitri is new to Seattle theatre, having performed mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area where he received his BA in Acting from Santa Clara University, and in South Carolina where he received his MFA in Acting from The University of South Carolina. You may have seen him recently in productions around Seattle such as Malik in Milk Like Sugar at ArtsWest Playhouse, Paul in Six Degrees of Separation with Theatre 9/12, and in Fucking A at the University of Washington. Other credits include Choir Boy (Marin Theatre Company), In the Heights (Palo Alto Players), The Color Purple (Hillbarn Theatre), and Follow Me to Nellie’s (CSU-Eastbay) among others. www.dimitrijai.com

MEET THE

ARTISTIC STAFF Daemond Arrindell

Co-Adapter Daemond Arrindell is a poet, performer, and teaching artist. He has written for City Arts and Crosscut magazines, has self-published two chapbooks, “Hungry for the Word” and “Mission Statement,” and is working on a full-length poetry manuscript, “When the Music Box Won’t Open.” Daemond is adjunct faculty at Seattle University, a 2013 Jack Straw Writer, and a 2014 VONA/ Voices Writers’ Workshop fellow. He has performed across the country and has been repeatedly commissioned by Seattle and Bellevue Arts Museums.

Josh Aaseng

Director/Co-Adapter Josh Aaseng is a director and writer based in Seattle. Directing credits include Slaughterhouse-Five, ReEntry, Jesus’ Son, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (associate director).

He is a consulting director on Frank Boyd’s The Holler Sessions, which has performed at On the Boards and ACT in Seattle, the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in the Netherlands, and PS 122 COIL Festival in New York.

Josh received two Seattle Theatre Writers awards for excellence in playwrighting and direction for his production of Slaughterhouse-Five.

Josh is the literary manager for BookIt Repertory Theatre where he has helped develop several new works, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Pete Rush

Scenic Designer Pete Rush designs costumes and scenery for the theatre. Plays at BookIt include The Cider House Rules, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and Sense and Sensibility. Other Seattle designs include Hamlet, Electra, Antony and encore art sseattle.com A-9

Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, Coriolanus, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry V (Seattle Shakespeare Company), Little Shop of Horrors, Bad Apples, Buzzer, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Rapture, Blister, Burn (ACT Theatre), RENT, Jasper in Deadland, Hairspray in Concert, Spamalot, and Cinderella (The 5th Avenue Theatre), and Cherdonna’s Doll’s House, The Motherfucker with a Hat, Sprawl, BedSnake, Sextet, and Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys (Washington Ensemble Theatre). He’s additionally worked on projects at New Century Theatre Company, ArtsWest Playhouse, West of Lenin, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, and Seattle Public Theater.

Andrew D. Smith Lighting Design

Andrew returns for his twelfth design with Book-It. Andrew’s work has been seen at Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, New Century Theatre Company, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Azeotrope, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Seattle Public Theater, Theatre Off Jackson, ArtsWest Playhouse, On The Boards, Velocity Dance Center, and Broadway Performance Hall. National work includes Cornerstone Theatre Company, Flint Youth Theatre, Horizon Theater Company, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Roust Theater, and Cardinal Stage Company.

Andrew holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the University of Washington, where he currently teaches.

Candace Frank Costume Designer

This is Candace Frank’s first production with Book-It. She has been designing and teaching for 14 years, and is currently costume lead at Seattle University. She recently held the position of costume shop manager at Intiman Theatre and costume manager at ACT Theatre. Frank was named a Seattle Artist to Watch by Seattle Met Magazine. She has designed costumes for many local theatres, including Frozen (ArtsWest Playhouse), The Combat and Don Giovanni (Young Artists Program, Seattle Opera), Stick Fly (Intiman Theatre), Penelope and The Magic Flute (Vespertine Opera), Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi and The Wild Party (Sound Theatre Company), Passing Strange (ACT Theatre’s ACTLab), and many fantastical costumes with Lucia Neare’s Theatrical Wonders.

Matt Starritt Sound Designer

Matt Starritt is a Seattle-based freelance sound designer for theatre and dance. In Seattle, he has designed for ACT Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Book-It, A-10 BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

ArtsWest Playhouse, New Century Theatre Company, Cherdonna, DeLouRue, Waxie Moon, zoe | juniper, and Washington Ensemble Theatre. Nationally, he has designed for Alley Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, The Old Globe, and South Coast Repertory. He is a part-time lecturer for the University of Washington’s School of Drama and was a founding member of Washington Ensemble Theatre.

Maria Gray* Stage Manager

Maria Gray is delighted to join Book-It Repertory Theatre for her first production with the company. Maria has recently moved to Seattle from the Philadelphia region and the road. This past fall and winter, she enjoyed assistant stage managing Bring Down the House and Medea at Seattle Shakespeare Company. Prior, she was head of props on Million Dollar Quartet (2016 National Tour), Memphis (2015 National Tour) and Hair (2014 National Tour).

Her favorite recent stage management experiences include West Side Story (Summer Theatre of New Canaan), Master Class (Shakespeare & Company) and The Little Prince (Bristol Riverside Theatre).

In addition to stage managing, Maria also works as an electrician, props mistress, and general stagehand. Maria has a wonderful husband, Nathan. www.mariajgray.com

Jeremiah Givers* Assistant Stage Manager

Jeremiah Givers is pleased to be returning to Book-It Repertory Theatre. Shows include When Love Speaks (Thalia’s Umbrella), Henry IV and King Lear (Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Project), A Tale for the Time Being, The Brothers K, and Emma (Book-It). A proud graduate of Cornish College of the Arts in Performance Production, he also was a stage management intern at both Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Rebecca Fredrickson Dramaturg/Assistant Director

As the literary and artistic intern at BookIt, Rebecca is excited to be working on this production after sailing the high seas with Treasure Island and cavorting through Paris with A Moveable Feast! She recently moved back to Seattle after acquiring her MA in Shakespeare Studies in Stratfordupon-Avon. In the past, she has performed dramaturgy for Sueño at the University of Washington and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Azusa Pacific University, directed Romeo and Juliet for the Shakespeare Institute Players, and musically directed The Little Mermaid with Everett High School as well as A Year With Frog and Toad and Elephant and Piggie’s We’re In A Play at SecondStory Repertory.

Gin Hammond Dialect Coach

Gin Hammond received her MFA from the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theater.

She received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance in The Syringa Tree, and has performed in Russia, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and England. She is co-founder of the Seattle Voice Institute where she teaches a wide array of vocal techniques such as voice-over, public speaking, and accent/dialect skills. Hammond’s voice can be heard on commercials, audiobooks, and a variety of video games including “Undead Labs: State of Decay,” “DotA 2,” “Aion,” and “Halo 3: ODST.” Recent performances include the 22-character, 11-dialect solo show Seedfolks at Seattle Children’s Theatre.

Jane Jones

Founder, Founding Co-Artistic Director Jane is the founder of Book-It and founding co-artistic director of Book-It Repertory Theatre, with Myra Platt. In her 27 years of staging literature, she has performed, adapted, and directed works by such literary giants as Charles Dickens, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Pam Houston, Raymond Carver, Frank O’Connor, Jim Lynch, Ernest Hemingway, Colette, Amy Bloom, John Irving, John Steinbeck, Daphne du Maurier, and Jane Austen. A veteran actress of 35 years, she has played leading roles in many of America’s most prominent regional theatres.

Film and TV credits include The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Singles, Homeward Bound, Twin Peaks, and Rose Red. She co-directed with Tom Hulce at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Peter Parnell’s adaptation of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, Parts I and II, which enjoyed successful runs here in Seattle, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles (Ovation Award, best director) and in New York (Drama Desk Nomination, best director). Recently Jane directed Book-It’s Great Expectations at Portland Center Stage, where her credits also include Pride and Prejudice, Cyrano and Twelfth Night (2008 Drammy award for Best Direction and Production). For Book-It, she has directed What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, The Dog of the South, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Uncensored, Truth Like the Sun, The House of Mirth, The Highest Tide, Travels with Charley, Pride and Prejudice, Howard’s End, In a Shallow Grave, The Awakening, Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant, A Tale of Two Cities, and The Cider House Rules, Parts I and II, winner of the 2010 and 2011 Gregory Awards for Outstanding Production. In 2008 she, Myra Platt, and Book-It were honored to be named by the Seattle Times among seven Unsung Heroes and Uncommon Genius for their 20-year contribution to life in the Puget Sound region. She is a recipient of the

2009 Women’s University Club of Seattle Brava Award, a 2010 Women of Influence award from Puget Sound Business Journal, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s 20th Anniversary Founders Grant, and was a finalist for the American Union for Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s 2012 Zelda Fichandler Award.

BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE’S ARTS & EDUCATION PROGRAM

Myra Platt

Founding Co-Artistic Director

Myra has helped Book-It produce over 100 world-premiere mainstage productions and over 30 education touring productions. Most recently she directed and adapted Little Bee, and directed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the 2014 Gregory Award for Outstanding Production and received a Seattle Times 2014 Footlight Award. She directed Persuasion, Plainsong, Cry, the Beloved Country, and Sweet Thursday, and she adapted and directed The Financial Lives of the Poets, The River Why (by David James Duncan), Night Flight, Red Ranger Came Calling, The House of the Spirits, Giant, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Cowboys Are My Weakness, Roman Fever, A Little Cloud, A Telephone Call, and A Child’s Christmas in Wales. She adapted The Art of Racing in the Rain, co-adapted Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant with Jane Jones, and composed music for Prairie Nocturne, Night Flight (with Joshua Kohl), Red Ranger Came Calling (with Edd Key), The Awakening, Ethan Frome, Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, A Telephone Call, and I Am of Ireland. Her acting credits include Prairie Nocturne, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, The Awakening (West Los Angeles Garland Award), Howards End, and the original production of The Cider House Rules, Parts I and II. She has performed at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, New City Theatre, and the Mark Taper Forum. Myra is the recipient, with Jane Jones, of a Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Anniversary grant, the 2010 Women of Influence from Puget Sound Business Journal, and was named by The Seattle Times a 2010 Unsung Hero and Uncommon Genius for their 20-year contribution to life in the Puget Sound region.

SPECIAL THANKS: Peter Danelo, ACLU Anastasia Higham Mary Haynes Cornish School of the Arts UW School of Drama

TOURING STORIES LIVE AT SCHOOLS 2017-18 ADA’S VIOLIN: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay WHOOSH: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN BOOK YOUR STORY! 206.428.6266 | EDUCATION@BOOK-IT.ORG

PRODUCTION Dan Schuy Production Manager Benjamin Radin Technical Director Carmen Rodriguez Scenic Change Artist Suzi Tucker Master Carpenter

STAFF

Adrian Delahunt Charles Minshall Scenic Carpenters

Jessica Jones Sound Engineer / Sound Board Operator

Joe Schlicta Gemma Cody-Anders Scenic Painters

Anna Bowen Wardrobe Supervisor

Trevor Cushman Master Electrician / Light Board Operator

Affiliations ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION This theatre operates under an agreement within AEA, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 49,000 actors and stage managers in the United States.

A.J. Heinen Rachel Miller Production Assistants Shawna Grajek Casting Associate

THEATRE PUGET SOUND THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

encore art sseattle.com A-11

ORGANIZATIONS

PARTNER FOR OUR WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE BEYOND-THE-BOOK EVENTS EARTH PEARL COLLECTIVE:

ACLU OF WASHINGTON

Mission: Earth Pearl Collective

The ACLU is the nation’s premier civil rights and civil liberties organization.

Accepting no government funds, The ACLU works in the courts, the legislatures, and in communities to protect and extend basic rights for everyone.

is a queer, black womyn nonprofit organization dedicated to healing our community through creative collaborations.

Vision: Earth Pearl Collective strives

to be at the center of connecting queer womyn of color around the world to collaborate on artistic projects that fight against social injustices, particularly those endured by queer womyn of color communities.

Purpose: Earth Pearl Collective seeks

to challenge racial, gender, and sexual orientation stereotypes by inspiring action amongst queer black womyn to empower themselves and heal their communities.

All across the country the ACLU tirelessly pursues large-scale impact that affects real people’s lives, from reproductive, youth, and LGBTQ rights; mass incarceration and racial justice; privacy, surveillance and technology; immigrant rights, freedom from religious interference, and more.

The ACLU is fueled by more than a million members and supporters as well as thousands of volunteers.

CENTRAL DISTRICT FORUM OF ARTS AND IDEAS

The CD Forum’s mission is to offer progressive programs that encourage thought and debate on the role of African-Americans in American society.

Their vision is to inspire new thoughts and challenge assumptions about African-American culture.

Created in 1999, the CD Forum is dedicated to supporting local and national African-American artists by providing them with a stage upon which to present their work along with a welcoming and diverse audience. Our events present African-American culture in a radical new way: African-American as American and for every American.

STAND UP for LITERACY. STAND UP for THEATRE. STAND UP for BOOK-IT. DONATE TODAY. ONLINE

book-it.org

MAIL

Mail a check to: 305 Harrison St Seattle, WA 98109

CALL

206.428.6202 10am–6pm Mon–Fri

Pick up a donation envelope in the lobby and add your name to the wall.

THANK YOU! A-12 BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

Now more than ever, it is critical for us to stay connected, informed, and inspired to speak our minds.

This is why theatre is fundamental to the health of our community. By choosing the works of literature that we adapt, and the ways we connect with our audiences, we are committed to supporting this mission: to stand up for our community — for all of us.

Now we ask you, amid the politics and the noise, to Stand Up for Book-It. Help us raise $115,000 by June 30 as we program a bigger season, take greater artistic risks, and reach more youth than ever before.

Honoring Book-It Contributors LITERARY CHAMPIONS’ CIRCLE $25,000+ ArtsFund The Boeing Company Grousemont Foundation N. Elizabeth McCaw & Yahn W. Bernier Shirley & Dave Urdal

LITERARY HEROES CIRCLE $10,000+ Anonymous BMGI Jane Cremin Gretl Galgon Lucy Helm Ellen & John Hill Stellman Keehnel Margaret Kineke & Dennis West Lucky Seven Foundation Ellen & Stephen Lutz Holly & Bill Marklyn Anne McDuffie & Tim Wood The Morgan Fund Nesholm Family Foundation The Norcliffe Foundation Mary Pigott Michell & Larry Pihl Sonya & Tom Campion

PARTNERS’ CIRCLE $5,000+

Anonymous John Aldaya ArtsWA Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Matching Gifts Program Amy & Matthew Cockburn Emily Davis Stuart Frank & Marty Hoiness Jay Hereford & Margaret Winsor Lynne & Nick Reynolds Robert Chinn Foundation Ellen & Michael Rosenberg True-Brown Foundation

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE $2,500+

Monica Alquist Emily Anthony & David Maymudes Laura & Greg Colman† Carolyn & George Cox D.A. Davidson & Co. Anne Fisher Laura & Erik Hanson Lydig Construction Kelly & Peter Maunsell Ellen Maxson

MANY THANKS TO THE ‘WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE’ SUPPORTERS WHO MADE THIS SHOW POSSIBLE: PRODUCERS Sonya and Tom Campion Mary Pigott Nesholm Family Foundation CO-PRODUCERS Anonymous Emily Davis BECOME A PRODUCER

Learn how to help Book-It create vibrant theatre by contacting BookIt’s development staff at development@book-it.org

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE, CONT. Shyla Miller Glenna Olson & Conrad Wouters Shirley Roberson† Kate & Stephen Robinson Steve Schwartzman & Daniel Karches Charyl Kay & Earl Sedlik Martha Sidlo Nancy & Warren Smith Drella & Garth Stein U.S. Bank Foundation Kris & Mike Villiott Carlos White & Rachel Sage Williams Miller Family Foundation

NOBEL PRIZE CIRCLE $1,000+

Anonymous (2) Cinnimin Avena Ruth Bailey Donna & Anthony Barnett Stephen & Salli Bauer Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Luther Black & Christina Wright Penny Bradley Karen Brandvick-Baker & Ross Baker Patricia Britton Sally Brunette Pablo Butler Diana Carey Karen & Tom Challinor Clipper Seafoods, LTD. Donna Cochener Carol & Bill Collins Nora & Allan Davis Christina & Mark Dawson Mark Dexter & Deborah Cowley Earl B. Gilmore Foundation

NOBEL PRIZE CIRCLE, CONT. Elizabeth & Paul Fleming Jayn & Hugh Foy Tina Ganguly & Tim Whitwell Jean Gorecki & Dick Dobyns Margaret Griffiths† Clay Gustaves Mary Frances & Harold Hill Melissa Huther Karr Tuttle Campbell Debbie Killinger Marianna & Agastya Kohli Dan Kuhn Susan Leavitt & Bill Block Melissa & Don Manning Kimberly & Doug McKenna Mary Metastasio Terry & Frank Michiels Microsoft Matching Gifts Program Moccasin Lake Foundation Lisbet Nilson & Mark Ashida Cheryl & Tom Oliver Deborah & Jeff Parsons† Myra Platt & Dave Ellis Point B Jo Ann & Jim Roberts Nathan Rodriguez John Schaffer Christine & Josh Stepherson Paul Stucki & Christina Chang Deborah Swets† Cassandra Tate & Glenn Drosendahl Dave Thompson & Judy Jesiolowski Katherine & James Tune Elizabeth Warman Gregory Wetzel Judith Whetzel Williams Companies Matching Gifts The Wolf-McWhirk Fund Wyman Youth Trust

PULITZER PRIZE CIRCLE $500+

Anonymous (2) Connie Anderson Lenore & Dick Bensinger Judy Brandon & H. Randall Webb Linda & Peter Capell Cathy & Michael Casteel Robin Dearling & Gary Ackerman Julie Edsforth & Jabez Blumenthal Sara Elward Merck Foundation Shannon & Graham Gardner R. Brooks Gekler Jane & David Graham Craig & Darcy Greene encore art sseattle.com A-13

Honoring Book-It Contributors PULITZER PRIZE CIRCLE, CONT.

Mark Hamburg Ellen Hastings Lake & Company Real Estate Karyn Henry Barbara Hieronymus Chris Higashi Heather Howard Russell Janney Catherine & Dave Johnson Jane Jones & Kevin McKeon Jamie & Jeremy Joseph Jacqueline Kiser Mariko Kita & Mark Wellington Mary Klubben Mr. & Mrs. Gareld John Kneepkens Tami & Rob Kowal Emily Krebill Eric Pokorny & Jessica Kurtz Pokorny Richard LeBlanc Eleni Ledesma & Eric Rose Craig Lorch Darcy & Lee MacLaren Susan & Bob Mecklenburg Tami & Joe Micheletti Whitney & Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser Jane Noland & Tom Zilly John O’Connell & Joyce Anne Latino Cathy & Jeff Peda Olivia Pi-Sonyer & Andrew DeVore Eleanor Moseley Pollnow & Charles Pollnow Doris & Charles Ray Shawn & Mike Rediger J. Reed Fund / Vanguard Charitable Priscilla Rice Mig Schaff & Stuart Dunwoody Lauren & George Schuchart Gail & John Sehlhorst Michael & Jo Shapiro Margaret Silver Jenness & John Starks Janice Strand Gail Tanaka Jennifer Teunon & Adam Smith Wendy & Rhea Thompson Audrey Watson Leora & Robert Wheeler

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD CIRCLE $250+

Anonymous (6) • Melissa Albert • Gail Anderson • Amy Arvidson • Heather & Mark Barbieri • Kayti Barnett-O’Brien • Carla & Bradley Berg • Nancy L. Bittner • Inez Noble Black • Bob Blazek & Monique Kleinhans • Janet Boguch & Kelby Fletcher • Bonnie Bowie • Jonathan Buchter • Thomas Buford • Joann Byrd • Mary A-14 BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD CIRCLE, CONT.

Casey-Goldstein • Shelton-de Clercq Family • Wendy del Valle • Denise Derr • Carol & Kelly Dole • Lori Eickelberg & Arni Litt • Lynne & Hollie Ellis • Expedia Gives Matching Gift Program • Jane & Stan Fields • Caroline Fox • Marlene Friend • Alan & Lisbeth Fritzberg • Siobhan Ginnane & Dan Whelan • Vicki & Gerrie Goddard • Carla Granat & Stephen Smith • Diane Grover • Lisa Hanna • Diana & John Hice • Sandy Hill • Ann Hollar & Steve Orser • Cynthia Huffman & Ray Heacox • Tom & Angie Johnson • Ted Jones • Gil Joynt • Alice Braverman & Patrick Kafer • Pam Kendrick • Mary Beth & Marty King • Alan Kristal & Jason Lamb • Michael Lamb & Adam Grutz • Mary Therese Chambers • Connor & Thomas Lennon & Patricia Keegan • Susan Lerner • Brock Loen • Douglas & Sherry Luetjen • Thomas Markl • Mary Anne Stusser Martin & Charles Martin • Elaine Mathies • Ruth McCormick† • Jill & Joe McKinstry • Jen Modjeska • Richard Monroe • Martha Mukhalian • Christina Papadakis • Cecilia Paul & Harry Reinert • John Pehrson • Steve Bull & Christiane Pein • Corliss Perdaems & Carl Kassebaum • Sherry Perrault & Michael Harding • Yumi Petersen • Raquel Phillips • Judy Pigott • Susan Porterfield • Barb & Dan Radin • Maren Richter • Paula Riggert • Rebecca Ripley • Jain Rutherford • Troy & Margot Saharic • Linda Sahlin • Patti & Mark Seklemian • David Shellenbarger & Marsha Ose • Marilyn Sherron • Virginia Sly • Penny & Dan Smith • Constance Standish & David Darby • Colleen & Brad Stangeland • Julie Stohlman • Linda & Hugh Straley • Liann & Stephen Sundquist • Jen Taylor • Shari & Kerry Thompson • Lisa & Manish Tripathi • Elizabeth Valentine • Ruth Valine & Ed McNerney • Ruth & Jerry Verhoff • Susan Ward • Washington State Employee Combined Fund • Juanita & Bob Watt • Jerry & Vreni Von Arx Watt • John Pehrson • Carol & Bryan Willison

PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CIRCLE $100+

Anonymous (17) • Doug Adams & Scott Fitzgerald • Judith Alexander • Cortney AndersonSanford • Deborah Ashin • Joel Aslanian • Brian Atwater • Anne & Roger Baker • Jo Ann & Tom Bardeen • Susan Bean • BECU • Brenda Bennett • Julia Bent • Roger Berger & Eileen Simmons • Karl Bischoff & Leslie Phinney • Lindsay & Tony Blackner • Marisa N. Bocci • Barry Boone & Mary Wilson • Cheryl Boudreau • Mary Anne Braund & Steve Pellegrin • Erin Brindley • Nicole Brodeur • Kim Brotherton • Angela & Curtis

PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CIRCLE, CONT.

Brown • Don & Karen Brown • Bryan Burch • Stan & Alice Burgess • Kathleen Caldwell • Cory Carlson • Jeanne Carpenter • Melissa Chase • Joyce Chase • Carl Chew • Catherine Clemens • Johanna & Colin Coolbaugh • Beth Cooper • Mary & Robert Cooper • Rebecca Crichton • Mike & Janice Cummings O’Mahony • Melinda Deane & Danny Wheetman • Sandra & Paul Dehmer • Dottie Delaney • Anthony J. Derrick Nelson Dong & Diane Wong • Marcia Donovan† • Beth L. Dubey† • Donna Dughi • Susan Dyer • Marilyn Endriss • Bretnie & Eric Eschenbach • Judi & Steve Finney • Laura Fischetti • Liz Fitzhugh & Jim Feldman • Carolyn & Robert Fletcher • K Denice Fischer-Fortier & James Fortier • Jean & Mike Gannon • Mike Garner • Shelley Gibson • Terry Graham • Laurie Grieg • Linda Haas • Alle Hall & Cliff Meyer • Judith Hamilton • Lenore Hanauer • Faith Hanna • Amani Harris • Amy Harris • Phyllis Hatfield • Signy & James Hayden • Lloyd Herman & Richard Wilson† • Patricia Highet • Stephanie Hilbert • Jean Hilde • Mariko & John Hirasawa • Beth Hogg • Erika Holden • Terry Holme & Jeanne Iannucci • Robert Hovden & Ron DeChene • Julie Howe & Dennis Shaw • Elizabeth Hubbard • Harriet Huber • Mary & Robert Hunter • Winifred Hussey • Annie Jamison • Janof Architecture • Kent Johnson & Cody Blomberg • Susan Jones • Kristin Jorgensen • Joan Kalhorn • David Kasik & Jan Levine • Owen Kikuta • Alana & Harry Knaster • Karen Koon • Akshay Kulkarni • Kristen Laine & Jim Collins • Stephanie Lakinski • Patricia Lambert • Elizabeth & Robert Lamson • Frank Lawler & Ann McCurdy • Meredith Lehr & William Severson • Lois Levy • Sylvia & Wayne Levy • Bonnie Lewman • Bill Logan • Mary Frances Lyons • Marcia Mason • Elizabeth Mathewson • Susan McCloskey • Paul & Anna McKee • McVicars Family • Medina Foundation • Elaine Mew • Min Moon • Cornelia & Terry Moore • Margaret Morrow • Lori Mudge • Catherine Mudge • Lynn Murphy • David Nash & Pat Graves • Susan Nivert • Karen O’Connor • Martha Oman • Onehope Foundation • Carrie Oshiro • Mona & Kurt Own • Cheryl Papadakis • Julie Paul • Janet L Pauli • Louise Perlman • Roger & Christine Pihl • Anne & Lee Pipkin • John & Sandra Platt • Wilson Wyoming Platt • Andrea Ptak & Aaron Houseknecht • Lisa Quinn • Benjamin Radin • Michelle Rebert & Tom Laughlin • Roberta & Brian Reed • Nancy Reichley • Jeannette Reynolds • Karen & Eric Richter • Jennifer Ridewood • Nancy Risdon • Karen Robins† • Beth Rollinger • Fernne &

PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CIRCLE, CONT.

Roger Rosenblatt • Jennifer L. Cells Russell • Lisa Schafer • Carol Schapira & Michael Levin • Lee Scheingold • Shannon Schneider • Julie & Jeff Schoenfeld • Heidi Schor • B. Charlotte Schreiber • Kinza & Philip Schuyler • Pamela & Nate Searle • Lavonne & Josh Searle • Kael Sherrard & Anne Kiemle • Marcia & Peter Sill • Caren Skube • Marilyn Sloan • Barbara Snyder • Craig & Vicki Sosey • Joy Southworth • Diane Stark • Patty Starkovich & Greg Allen • David & Elise Stokes • Alexandra Tavares • Anne Terry • Richard Thorvilson • Carolyn & Rick Turnbaugh • Marcellus Turner • Eugene Usui • Marcia Utela • Karen & Ron Van Genderen • Dana Van Nest & Paul Casey • Pieter & Tjitske Vandermeulen • Kathleen Vasquez • Mike Vila • Jorie Wackerman • Amy Wald • Scott Warrender & John Bianchi • Susan Warwick • Joella Werlin • Sara White & Robert Jordan • Bill & Paula Whitham • D.D. Wigley • Jim Wilder & Margaret Curtin • Hope & Ken Wiljanen • Shannon Williams • Melinda Williams • Rob Williamson • Sarah Wilmot • Patricia Wilson • Anthony & Gina Winkler • Michael Winters • Jean Worthen • Jeff Youngstrom & Becky Brooks

O’HENRY AWARD CIRCLE $50+

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of donors making recurring donations in support of Book-It

IN-KIND DONOR LIST

O’HENRY AWARD CIRCLE, CONT.

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Chris O’Brien • Mitchell J. Olejko & Jill O. Wolcott • Pat O’Rourke • Brenda Osterhaug & Scott March • Sara Patton • Elizabeth A. Pearson & Jacyn Stewart • J. Greg Perkins • Cheryl Peterson • Kit Phillips • Candace Plog • Neave Rake • Esther Reese • Jennifer Rice • Carla Rickerson • Roberta Roberts • Robert Romeo† • Donna Sand • Audrey & John Sheffield • AJ Silva • Mika & Jenny Sinanan • Charles Sleicher • Linda Snider • Dana Standish & Noah Seixas • Sarah Stanley • L.K. Stephenson • Ericka Stork • Kathleen Stout • Constance Swank • Jennifer Sweigert • Lori Taylor • Michele & Alan Tesler • Sara Thompson & Richard Gelinas • Roger Tucker & Becky Barnett • Stephanie A. Twigg • Joan Voorheis • Stephany Watson • Laura Weese • Kayla Weiner • Julie Weisbach • Dorothy Wendler • Tim West • Ian Stewart • Kim Winward • Pamela Wolf

GIFTS IN HONOR & MEMORY On behalf of Margaret Kineke D.A. Davidson & Co.

In honor of Al Worch

Ellen & Michael Rosenberg

In honor of Julian Mudge-Burns’

passion project AJ Silva, Lori Mudge, Thomas Burns, Catherine Mudge, Kimberly Berge, Ursula Burns, Jackie McGuire The donor list reflects gifts received April 1, 2016 – March 31, 2017.

Book-It makes every attempt to be accurate with our acknowledgments. Please contact Development Associate Ian Stewart at ians@ book-it.org or (206) 428-6202 with any changes.

THE PEOPLE ON THESE PAGES ALL STAND UP FOR BOOK-IT. Join them today by making a gift of any size to show your belief in the work we do, the stories we tell, and our value to our community.

DONATE TODAY book-it.org or pick up a donation envelope in the lobby. encore art sseattle.com A-15

OUR MISSION IS TO TRANSFORM GREAT LITERATURE INTO GREAT THEATRE THROUGH SIMPLE AND SENSITIVE PRODUCTION AND TO INSPIRE OUR AUDIENCES TO READ.

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BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE 2010 Mayor’s Arts Award-winner, recipient of the 2012 Governor’s Arts Award and the 2014 Inaugural Sherry Prowda Literary Champion Award, Book-It Repertory Theatre began 27 years ago as an artists’ collective, adapting short stories for performance and touring them throughout the Northwest. The company incorporated as a non-profit in 1990. Today, with over 125 world-premiere adaptations of literature to its credit—many of which have garnered rave reviews and gone on to subsequent productions all over the country—Book-It is widely respected for the consistent artistic excellence of its work.

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Dressed for the Part

Harmony Arnold is Part of the Fabric of Seattle’s Performing Arts Community

Rich Gray and Chris DiStefano in Murder for Two at ACT Theatre. Photo by Jeff Carpenter.

"My job is to work with an actor to achieve character," says costume designer Harmony Arnold.

Harmony Arnold is the costume designer for the production Murder for Two, produced in collaboration with the 5th Avenue Theatre. "My job is to work with an actor to achieve character," she says. It is the collaborative character development she appreciates most in costuming actors. "I love the collaborative process."

Arnold is no stranger to collaboration; she has worked with the 5th Avenue Theatre (The Man of La Mancha), Seattle Repertory Theatre (Buyer & Cellar, Venus in Fur, Bo-Nita), INTIMAN Theatre Festival (Lysistrata), Village Theatre (Snapshots), and another ACT Theatre/5th Avenue Theatre collaboration (Jacques Brel is Alive and

Well and Living in Paris), to name a few. Arnold has also designed for film (Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel, Perfect 10), advertising and commercials. She is an Associate Professor of Performing Arts & Art Leadership (Theatre, Costume) at Seattle University. "It is a team sport," she says of her costuming work, sitting in ACT's lobby. She’s taking a break for a few minutes from the production of Murder for Two to talk about the show and her process.

The cast of Murder for Two is a small one. There are only two actors. Chris DiStefano plays a crime investigator.

Richard Gray plays everyone else—ten different suspects. Together, the pair make up the entire orchestra. Murder for encore art sseattle.com 9

by

will eno

directed by

paul budraitis

Arnold designed costumes for the 5th Avenue Theatre production of Man of La Mancha.

Photo by Mark Kitaoka.

JUNE 1 - JULY 1, 2017

TICKETS: WEARENCTC.ORG

GEOFFREY LARSON, MUSIC DIRECTOR

SEASON FINALE FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2017 8:00 PM First Free Methodist Church

Chamber Symphony Op. 110a arr. Barshai

String Quartet No. 14 “Death and the Maiden” arr. Mahler

Adagio for clarinet and strings ERIC JACOBS Clarinet

Tickets: $20 General, $15 Student/Senior Tickets and information: SMCOmusic.org

10 ENCORE STAGES

Two takes place over 90 minutes with no intermission. How do you costume someone who doesn't have time for a costume change? The show is very busy and fast-paced and it's a challenge for someone like Arnold. It is a challenge to costume an actor who plays dozens of characters but never leaves the stage.

"The whole show could be done with a piano and a hat," she shares, but this production's approach is not that simple.

Arnold’s designs are a piece of the puzzle in the creation of the play’s parade of characters.

era and the work of Edward Gorey, with the addition of some bursts of colorful flourishes. The fashions of the 1970s harken back to the Victorian era through their textures and patterns, Arnold explains, but with more color. Arnold began working up this idea, looking deeper in 1970s culture: All in the Family episodes, Phyllis Diller, Elton John, the board game Clue, Velma from the ScoobyDoo cartoons. The ideas showed up on Arnold's character boards, collections of images that inspire the costume designs to come.

Her process starts with a deep read of the script. The actors and the director have ideas about costuming as they read the script; Arnold does, too. They meet, discuss and collaborate. With a creative team that includes director Daniel Knechtges, scenic design by Carey Wong, lighting design by Rich Paulsen and sound design by Christopher Walker, the look and feel of the whole production is determined. "The production meetings include laughing, brainstorming and collaboration," Arnold enthuses. "If you bring a good care-free attitude to them, a lot can get done."

Even though there is no time for Gray to change costumes on stage, Arnold created a character board for each of them to inform the actor and the creative team. By fleshing out the characters, Arnold helped flesh out the show. For DiStefano's character, her work was somewhat more straight forward. A simple, drab 1970s-looking detective outfit. For Gray, there were many boards covering inspiration across age and gender, including Chevy Chase, Tom Selleck, Barbara Streisand. For one character Gray plays, Dahlia, Arnold had the opportunity to go all-out. She describes it this way: "If Elton John and RuPaul conceived a child while watching

For Murder for Two, the inspirations that came to mind included the Victorian

t s e n o H & e l b a p Ca

Costume designer, Harmony Arnold. Photo

by LaRae Lobdell.

206-855-6110 licensed - bonded - insured

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, you’d have Dahlia."

Arnold doesn't create the costumes she designs alone. There are cobblers, drapers, shoppers and craft artisans constructing the visions the creative team have. Arnold and her team need to create multiples of each costume; there are several identical costumes to use as actors sing, dance, and sweat.

The costumes can’t just look good— they must function as well. Luckily, someone as experienced, creative, and collaborative as Harmony Arnold has mastered making functional, beautiful costumes with her collaborators.<

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24 th SEASON

JULY 1-21, 2017 BEETHOVEN • RACHMANINOFF • HAYDN • AND OTHERS. PLUS AN ALL LEONARD BERNSTEIN EVENING TO CELEBRATE HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY.

THE BELLINGHAM FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA & GUEST ARTISTS

JEREMY DENK • MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN • ZUILL BAILEY • ROBERT MCDUFFIE AND THE CALIDORE STRING QUARTET

An Arnold-designed costume for the 5th Avenue Theatre production of Man of La Mancha. Photo by Mark Kitaoka.

Tickets: boxoffice@wwu.edu • 360-650-6146 • bellinghamfestival.org

encore art sseattle.com 11

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Dialogue Five Questions with Janelle Velasquez Janelle Velasquez is in the David Bryne/ Fatboy Slim immersive disco musical, Here Lies Love, being staged at Seattle Repertory Theatre. A Seattle-native, she earned her BFA from Ithaca College and her MBA from Pepperdine. She has been involved with Here Lies Love since its earliest iterations. She's also been on a few TV shows including CSI: Miami and 90210.

We sat down to talk to Velasquez for a few minutes about breathing, West Side Story and Seattle's vibrant arts community.

What first inspired you to be an actor?

When did you realize you could do it for a living?

To be perfectly honest, my acting inspiration was Jodie Foster's performance in Nell. I was a child and my mother forced me to see that film against my will — I wanted to see My Girl 2 — and I'm happy she did. I was dumbfounded that someone could transform in such an extreme and riveting way in order to tell a story.

But my true inspiration came in high school. I actually grew up in Seattle and attended Roosevelt, which had an outstanding theatre program led by the remarkable Ruben Van Kempen at the time. He encouraged me to explore performance beyond dance — I was a PNB kid — by sending me to a Summer Fine Arts Camp in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was there that I developed a passion for acting and made the decision to pursue performance as a career.

“It's a city full of artists who are constantly creating beauty and thought provoking work — something that is so important, especially today.”

What performance are you excited about seeing?

I am very excited to see this new production of The Secret Garden at the 5th Avenue Theatre. I'm in love with Lucy Simon's score and I heard wonderful things about its run at Shakespeare Theatre Company.

What do you do before you go on stage?

My rituals vary depending on whether I'm doing a musical or a play. But sun salutations are a definite for both.

I do a breathing technique I learned in college where I pinch my noise and breathe in through one nostril for eight slow seconds, hold for eight, and then breathe out the other nostril for eight seconds and hold, repeating that cycle a few times. It sounds weird, but it helps me to get the breath going and the

blood flowing.

What piece of art has always inspired you? Why?

West Side Story. I used to watch that film day in and day out as a child. Maria was the first role I ever played at arts camp.

The music rouses such excitement and all the nostalgic feelings of being a kid and watching these people sing and dance and saying to myself, "I could do this one day."

What do you like about Seattle's artistic community?

First off, Seattle has such a vibrant and eclectic arts community, from music to theatre to dance to glass blowing and so on. It's a city full of artists who are constantly creating beauty and thought provoking work — something that is so important, especially today.

It's also a community that takes risks.

I have been a part of Here Lies Love from the very first workshop and it was sad to see it come to a halt after such successful runs in New York City and London. Seattle is the first city to test a new configuration and breathe life back into this magnificent show. For that reason I am both proud — being a Seattle native — and grateful!

The city is spoiled to have such extraordinary talent and top-notch venues and, in turn, the artists are so fortunate to have such a supportive community.<

encore art sseattle.com 13

Dialogue Five Questions with Seán Griffin Seán Griffin is appearing in the 5th Avenue Theatre's production of The Secret Garden. He's playing Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener that helps Mary Lennox settle into her new home.

He's played a lot of roles in Seattle, many at the 5th Avenue: Carousel, Elf, Aladdin, Mame, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and more. He's also been in productions at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, and many others.

We talked to him briefly about Irish superstitions, Broadway and Seattle's local talent.

When did you realize that you wanted to be an actor? When did you realize that you could make a living at it?

I first realized I wanted to be an actor early on in life. I grew up in Ireland and attended many performances of Gilbert and Sullivan and Pantomimes because my uncles were involved as actors and singers. One of my grandfathers was a terrific singer. It wasn't until college that I decided to pursue it as a career.

I realized I could make a living at it in the first few years of my professional life when it seemed that the jobs came along one after the other. I was lucky and in the right place at the right time and it seemed that I had the talent they were looking for.

What artistic performance are you most excited about seeing? Why?

I am looking forward to seeing Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway because I 14 ENCORE STAGES

“Seattle knows that the very soul of the city is its arts organizations.

Without them, who are we? ” have heard so many great things about it. I also want to see it because I think it's in competition with Come From Away, which I loved, for the Tony.

What do you do to prepare before you hit the stage?

I do some realaxation exercises and like to be by myself. In my mind's eye I also visualize certain things, which I will keep to myself, being Irish and superstitious.

Even though I have been doing this professionally for 55 years, I still have nerves.

What piece of art has always inspired you? Why?

Sad to say, many people won't remember the actress Colleen Dewhurst, but she was one of the best stage actresses of her time. I was lucky enough to appear opposite her on Broadway in The Queen and the Rebels. Watching her work in many Eugene O'Neill plays always

inspired me. When I got to work with her and became aware of her generosity on stage, her work ethic and her joy in performing, it has remained with me all these many years. She continues to inspire me.

What do you like most about Seattle's artistic community?

Seattle is a city that loves the arts. It is a city that supports the arts, even in times like now when government subsidies are threatened. Seattle knows that the very soul of the city is its arts organizations.

Without them, who are we? Without them we would be so much less. Finally, I would like to thank the theatres that hire mostly local talent and, thus, keeping me off the streets and out of trouble.<

Intermission Brain Transmission

Are you waiting the curtain to rise? Or, perhaps, you’ve just returned your seat before the second act and have a few minutes to spare? Treat your brain to this scintillating trivia quiz!

Email us the answer to the last question and have a chance to win tickets to a show!

1) Seattle Shakespeare Company is bringing Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the stage. In the play, who is the king of the fairies? a) b) c) d)

Pyramus Lysander Oberon Demetrius

2) Welcome to Braggsville, a satire on contemporary American issues, is on stage at Book-It Repertory Theatre. The world premiere is based on the novel by what author? a) b) c) d)

T. Geronimo Johnson Kurt Vonnegut Denis Johnson Jess Walter

3) The Legend of Georgia McBride, seen at Seattle’s ACT Theatre, about an Elvis-impersonator-turned-dragqueen, takes place in what state? a) b) c) d)

New York Florida Nevada Illinois

Bonus Question What was the last arts performance you attended that you liked best and why?

Midsummer Nights Dream Act IV Scene I. Artist - Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)

4) Taproot is bringing the murder mystery Busman’s Honeymoon to the stage. It’s based on the work of what famed crime novelist? a) b) c) d)

P.D. James Agatha Christie Walter Mosley Dorothy Sayers

Email your response to production@encoremediagroup.com with Trivia Quiz in the subject line.

5) Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo takes the stage at Meany Center for the Performing Arts soon.

What is unusual about this ballet troupe? a) The troupe members are all deaf. b) The troupe are all children. c) The troupe are men in drag. d) The troupe is the oldest ballet company in the world.

ANSWERS 1) C – Oberon. Shakespeare did not create him on his own. He was mentioned often in medieval literature. 2) A – T. Geronimo Johnson. The author is a PEN/Faulkner prize finalist and received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 3) B – Florida. Written by Matthew Lopez, the show will be directed by David Bennett. 4) D – Dorothy Sayers. A student of classical languages, she considered her best work her translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. 5) C – The troupe are men in drag. Founded in New York City in 1974, they tour Japan after their visit to Seattle.

encore art sseattle.com 15

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