Chaos Theory, a play seeking order

Written by Courtney Meaker
Directed by Pamala Mijatov

April 18-May 17
Thurs-Sat at 8pm | All Thurs PWYC
Industry Night Mon April 28
$20 general/$18 advance tickets
$12 senior, military, TPS / $5 student
Running time: 2 hours, including intermission

When her lover disappears, Frannie and her friends seek solace in a book about chaos theory, leading them to build a machine that might take them into other dimensions—but instead they fall into different stories and just might bring about the end of the world.

Chaos Theory deals with contemporary issues (sex, identity, loss, crazy exes, mind games, doppelgangers) through the lens of absurdist science (and some actual science!).

Press photos

“Though the play has a blatant speculative science-fiction slant to it, it is surprisingly and refreshingly character-driven. The play grapples with ideas of perception of reality, time relativity, gender binaries, friendship dynamics, and heart-wrenching moral dilemmas… The cast was small, well-selected, and strong. Thanks to Meaker’s smart writing and the excellent cast, the play had me wishing I could be friends with Frannie, Seth, and Bach, and be a part of their quick back-and-forth verbal banter.” – Drama In The Hood

CAST
Keiko Green Frannie
Evelyn Dehais Bach
Drew Highlands Seth
Jana Hutchison Mack, others
CREW
Playwright Courtney Meaker
Director Pamala Mijatov
Stage Manager Kaeline Kine
Lighting Designer Gwyn Skone
Scenic Designer Robin Macartney
Sound Designer Kyle Thompson
Prop Designers Robin Macartney & Emily Sershon
Costume Designer Amy Escobar
Technical Directors Ian Johnston & Emily Sershon
Graphic Design Ash Williamson
French translation Evelyn Dehais

The Underneath

Written by Kelleen Conway Blanchard
Directed by Pamala Mijatov

Thurs-Sat at 8pm | Oct. 18 – Nov. 16
Preview Thurs, Oct. 17 | Industry Night Mon, Nov. 4
$20 general, $12 TPS/Seniors/Military, $5 Students.
All Thursdays Pay-What-You-Can.

Something monstrous is bubbling up at the new waterpark. Something icky is making Tina, misunderstood girl genius, uneasy—her little sister Winnie has a piece of tentacle in a jar that hisses, her mom Denise is taking too many pills, and the local Sheriff can’t bake enough crumb cakes to make himself feel better about the body parts washing up on the shore. And just what does the fry cook at Salty’s Sea Palace have in his pants? Welcome to the world of The Underneath, the latest play from the writer of Kittens in a Cage and Hearts Are Monsters. Featuring Daniel Christensen, Meaghan Halverson, Tracy Leigh, John McKenna, Pilar O’Connell, Mandy Price, and James Weidman.

“A show about the evil ocean … begins with humping and gore, which is a good precursor to the rest… Playwright Kelleen Conway Blanchard is drawn to pulp material, injecting it with funny grotesquery and ear-catching details… These moments, where actors have the freedom to just let loose with strings of Blanchard’s perfectly deranged rambling, make the show worth checking out.” —The Stranger

“Through the ingenuity of set designers Bret Fetzer and Susannah Anderson, there’s also clever and almost instantaneous transformation of the small stage into five separate sets… Meaghan Mary Halverson provides a really good portrayal of youth and innocence as sweet Winnie, the nice little girl who is abducted by the slithering monsters. Pilar O’Connell, as her brilliant but emotionally wounded and therefore nasty sister, is equally powerful. She’s cruel, angry and rebellious, yet you can’t help rooting for her. The dread, menace and humor underpinning ‘The Underneath’ work really well.” – Seattle Times

CREW
Songs Violet Séverine Blanchard
Stage Manager Kaeline Kine
Production Manager Katie McKellar
Set Designers Bret Fetzer & Susannah Anderson
Lighting Designer Gwyn Skone
Sound Designer Kyle Thompson
Costume Designer Meaghan Darling
Prop Designer Emily Sershon
Make-up Designer Jana Hutchison

Second Date

Co-produced by Rain City Projects
January 29 – February 13
Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 8pm
$10 general / $5 student, TPS, senior, military

Two people meet. Two people connect. Ordinarily, this might be a night out on the town, perhaps going bowling—but if those two people are a playwright and a director, it’s a very different game. These directors and playwrights have never worked together before, but we’re going to see what their chemistry will create. Co-produced by Rain City Projects, each night of SECOND DATE will feature these three one-act plays, which are being created as you read this:

BLACK LIKE US
written by Rachel Atkins
directed by Tyrone Brown
Featuring: Caitlin Gilman, Laurel Ryan, Qadriyyah Shabazz, Sarah Winsor, and Amber Wolfe

SKETCH
written by Tracy Vicory-Rosenquest
directed by Katherine Karaus
Featuring: Asa Bass, Laurence Hughes, Jana Hutchison and Joan Jankowski

THE SIBYL AT COMMOTION STREET
written by Jaime Cruz
directed by L. Nicol Cabe
Featuring: Andy Buffelen, Justine Freese, and Keiko Green

PRODUCTION TEAM
Bret Fetzer Producer
Catherine Blake Smith Production Manager
Michelle Berweiler Stage Manager
Danny Fisher-Bruns Lighting Designer
Samantha Armitage Costume Designer

Kittens In A Cage

Written by Kelleen Conway Blanchard
Directed by Bret Fetzer

Thu-Sat at 8 pm, July 27th-August 25th (Thu PWYC)
$15 general / $10 TPS, senior, military / $5 student

Kittens in a Cage tells Junie’s story, a good girl gone bad, sent to the pen by a buncha rats. From the knife fights in the showers to riots in the prison mess hall, Junie has to toughen up fast. Lucky for Junie, she’s got Vickie. A tough love story about bad broads that can’t get no breaks.

Junie, a juvenile delinquent with a heart of gold, gets thrown into a prison cell with hardened arsonist Vickie.  But as they team up against the predations of prison queen bee Jeanine and her cannibalistic sidekick Barbara, not to mention the deranged scientific schemes of the Prison Matron, Junie finds her heart swelling up over Vickie.  Does Vickie feel the same?  Will Jeanine take vengeance in the shower?  What’s up with those rumors of strange furry babies in the Matron’s secret laboratory?

Kittens in a Cage features an all female cast of Annex favorites, original songs by Rick Miller performed on the ukulele by Francesca Mondelli, and Kelleen Conway Blanchard’s unique voice. Kittens in a Cage is a love story, a story of breaks both good and bad, a story of survival, and an agonizingly funny portrayal of women behind bars.

Kittens in a Cage is directed by Bret Fetzer. Blanchard and Fetzer previously teamed up on Small Town (produced by Annex Theatre in 2007) and Hearts are Monsters (produced by Macha Monkey Productions in 2010).

“‘Kittens in a Cage’ is a f***ing riot. ‘Kittens’ takes on women’s-prison B movies and pulp novels with biting wit—no worries about offending anyone—and a gorgeous splatter of comically short prison uniforms (top buttons undone), smeared red lipstick, bright blue eye shadow, bouffant hairdos, and crazy accents…. This wicked, uproarious show features an all-female cast—not impossibly rare, but not common enough. Bosoms heave, brains leak out of heads, and women make out. Blanchard seems fully aware and in control while she wades into the muck of exploitation entertainment, with a wink and a nod (and a shiv) to its complicated history of empowerment.” –The Stranger

“In a nutshell: Kittens in a Cage is a funny, witty, naughty romp through chicks in prison films, with a spicy dash of horror and all overlaid with a delicious lesbionic sauce of camp and heaving bosoms.” –Seattle Gay Scene

“So what’s not to love about a play starring 7 local powerhouse actresses and written by an equally strong local, female playwright?! Given the dearth of substantive roles for women in theatre and film, it is great to see a show like ‘Kittens in a Cage’ infused with so much estrogen and feminine prowess…. The entire cast does a great job, and it is obvious that they are having a lot of fun in their respective roles; and when I saw the show on opening night, it was obvious that the audience had just as much fun watching them.” — Drama in the Hood

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CAST
Francesca Mondelli Junie
Katie Driscoll Nancy
Lisa Viertel Prison Matron
Laurel Ryan Vickie
Tracy Leigh Jeanine
Erin Pike Barbara
Erin Stewart Junie’s Ma, Lois, Peggy
CREW
Writer Kelleen Conway Blanchard
Director Bret Fetzer
Songwriter Rick Miller
Stage Manager Daniel Christensen
Set Designer Bret Fetzer & Ian Johnston
Scenic Artist Susannah Anderson
Sound Designer Kyle Thompson
Prop Designer Megan Tuschhoff
Costume Designer Meaghan Darling
Hair & Makeup Designer Jana Hutchison
Mugshot Photographer Ian Johnston
Poster Designer Ellen Forney
PRESS

Kelleen Conway Blanchard was the subject of a recent SLOG post.

Reviews of past Bret Fetzer / Kelleen Conway Blanchard collaborations:

Hearts are Monsters
Hearts Are Monsters, a loose riff on Hamlet, fills the small stage at
Rendezvous with the gallows humor and elegant garishness of a 1970s
exploitation film…Monsters has a style that hovers somewhere between
John Waters, Daniel Waters (Heathers), and Jack Hill (Switchblade
Sisters, Foxy Brown), but Kelleen Conway Blanchard’s world-premiere
script bristles with dense, dirty intelligence, and the jokes come
thick and fast…The cast, directed by Bret Fetzer, never plays the
script for camp, but delivers the craziest lines with a dead-ahead
seriousness that makes the comedy that much sharper.” – The Stranger

Small Town
“[Small Town] is snappy and quick-paced; Fetzer, who has an obvious
knack for comedy, keeps things flowing nicely, and he seems to work
well with actors, drawing from each a solid performance. The staging
is exceptional, especially considering the tight space of CHAC’s
downstairs venue; for instance, by virtue of a ratty couch that flips
back on hinges, Stu Lionel’s underground abattoir is revealed. It’s a
nice touch, as is the split-second conversion of that same couch into
a mammoth dining table. Also noteworthy are the wonderful musical
interludes that punctuate the action: Bud’s uproariously heartfelt
crooning of the Scorpions’ “No One Like You,” or the final number, an
astonishing bluegrass version of Outkast’s hit “Hey Now,” with the
whole cast chanting the chorus in a flat-footed monotone. These
moments stand out not only for their expert execution but also for
their refreshing sense of levity—of good-hearted fun and comic warmth,
for lack of better terms.” –The Seattle Weekly

Team of Heroes: Behind Closed Doors

Written by Alexander Harris
Directed by Jaime Roberts

Thu-Sat at 8 pm, April 20-May 19 (Thu PWYC)
$15 general / $10 TPS, senior, military / $5 student
PWYC Industry Night: Monday, May 14

Contains strong language.

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The gleaming teeth and bulging muscles of America’s preeminent superheroes hide a dirty past and a fractured present.
HOW DID MADAME MAYHEM AND THE CAP’N GET THEIR POWERS?
IS MISS DIXIE AS SWEET AS SHE SEEMS?
WILL SHOCKWAVE’S MOVIE CAREER TAKE OFF?
AND HOW DO GORILLAS FIT INTO ALL THIS?
The same creative team that brought you Annex Theatre’s surprise hit Alecto: Issue #1, returns with another spandex-clad tale of media manipulation and super-heroics.
NEW PLOTS! NEW VILLAINS! NEW HEROES!

“Big, stupid fun done smartly and with tremendous intimacy… Anyone who loves theatre should see this show. Anyone who makes theatre should go learn something from it.” –The Sunbreak

“Cheeky and dark…delightfully self-conscious comedy.” –Seattle Times

“It’s definitely a night to enjoy, and you can puzzle out the deeper meanings later.” –Seattle Gay News

“The real treat of the evening was the main villain, ‘Chaos Theory’, superbly played with great comic timing by Rachel Jackson who also…enacts Chaos Theory’s Scottish Puppet Henchman/Lover ‘Randy’. Ms Jackson’s love scene between her own felt covered hand, and herself, was pretty damn brilliant.” –Seattle Gay Scene

CAST
Tracy Leigh Madame Mayhem
Jason Sharp The Cap’n
Nik Doner Shock Wave
Rachel Jackson Chaos Theory
Ashley Bagwell Ace Johnson
Jana Hutchison Black Swallow
Danielle Daggerty Miss Dixie
Angela DiMarco Melody Knox
Sam Hagen Vladimir/8
Ryan Higgins Mikhael/Dick Engelbert
CREW
Writer Alexander Harris
Director Jaime Roberts
Production Manager Kristina Volkman
Stage Manager Lisa Stahler
Scenic Designer Devin Petersen
Sound Designer Michael White Hayes
Graphic Designer/Geek Consultant Cole Hornaday
Fx Team Max Reichlin, Emily Sershon, Ian Johnston
Fly Master Mike Gilson
Projection Artist Dominick DiGregorio
Costume Designer Candace Frank
Assistant Costume Designer Jenn Hill
Lead Seamstress Meaghan Darling
Lighting Designer Regan MacStravic
Props Designer Amy LaZerte
Assistant Props Designer Jodi Sauerbier
Fight Choreographer Casey Brown
Assistant Director Katherine Karaus
Dialect Coach Pamala Mijatov
Videographer Ben Laurance

Gallery of Press Photos