Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth

Written & directed by Simon Astor
Music direction by Meg van Huygen

Thu-Sat at 8 pm, Jan 26-Feb 25 (Thu PWYC)
$15 general / $10 TPS, senior, military / $5 student
PWYC Industry Night: Monday, Feb 6

In a world run on refined, harvested mummies, where blimps are accessed via pneumatic tube, surgically enhanced foxes lecture on inter-species marriage, and self-winding is the latest advancement in mechanical men, there lived a great many people, who desired a great many things.

Set among the steamcabs and airships of this alternate world is a comedy of manners, in which street urchins try to land rich lovers, bandaged terrorists attempt to overthrow the government, and socialites train seahorses to bring them martinis.

Join an unlikely group of drinking buddies as they share secrets, sonnets, and sloe gin, in watering holes that range from the sea to the sky to the center of the earth.

With musical numbers, arch dialogue, and a dash of anarchy, Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth is a steampunk extravaganza of words, wit and wonder!

CAST
Asa Bass Conrad
Carter Lee Churchfield Reynard Diggswell
Trevor Cushman Lansing
Kai Curtis Servant
Monica Finney Helena
Josh Hartvigson Rakehell
Todd Hull Daniel Engine
Katherine Karaus Patricia
Andrea Lauritsen Flame Girl #1
Jonah Martin Baxter / Maxwell / Dexter / Wuxtry / Windsor
John McKenna Col. Moutarde
Jen Nelson Gloriana/Constellation Girl
Erin O’Malley Paravion
Jennifer Pratt Gepetta Odenkirk
Laurel Ryan Roulette
Sailor St. Claire Burlesque/Flame Girl #2
James Weidman Bunny
Monica Wulzen Dovecote
CREW
Writer/Director Simon Astor
Musical Director Meg van Huygen
Bassoon Jono Green
Guitar Tyson Lynn
Costume Design Heather Bernadette
Set Design Todd Van Der Ark
Lighting Design Tess Malone
Stage Manager Murphy Stevens
Production Manager Grant Knutson

Press Photos are available here

When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!

written by Scotto Moore | directed by Kristina Sutherland
Apr 23 – May 22, 2010 | Fri-Sat at 8 pm
Industry Night: May 10 at 8pm
$15 gen | $5 stu

“When I Come To My Senses, I’m Alive!” is a near-future sci-fi story about a technological provocateur who invents a method for capturing emotions as digital information, as part of a project to “chart the emotional genome.” She develops a cult following of fans who download her very addictive “emoticlips” – each delivered with cryptic, poetic file names like “the surprise of an unfamiliar memory” – and play them back in hobby-built receiver helmets. The experience is not full blown virtual reality; instead, emotional responses & sensations are triggered, and each fan experiences something unique. A seedy television executive tries to coopt her technology to syndicate the emotions of TV stars, hiring an elite P.I. to figure out what her weaknesses are when she refuses to sell out… but in the meantime, publishing digital versions of her emotions to the internet has unexpected consequences amongst the botnets of the world.

SeattleActor.com review:

Scotto Moore‘s new play, “When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!” is the best kind of science fiction, the kind where speculation about the future feels like something you could wake up to tomorrow morning. In this World Premiere production, director Kristina Sutherland has kept the ideas fresh and intriguing and the performances finely finished and compelling. The acting is brisk and, at least for the enthusiastic opening night audience, it’s premise and articulation is easily embraced by a generation for whom the globalization of information, media and personal experience meld into our shared online identities…. [The play] is a lot of fun, at least in part because it is so confident and thoroughly considered in its ideas and equally finished in its theatrical savvy for putting them on stage.

Seattle Times review:

It’s not hard to be captivated by Moore’s provocative premise about a leap in information technology that makes human emotions a downloadable, vicarious experience. The story’s late turn toward suspense — with the spectral rise of freethinking, artificial intelligence on the Internet — certainly ups the ante in unexpected, spooky ways…. Director Kristina Sutherland keeps the action brisk and crisp, and knows how to nudge the audience’s imagination.

The Stranger review:

One wants to see more plays like this in Seattle—smart science fiction about the amazing world we have found ourselves heading toward.

Seattle Gay News review:

Fun, fascinating, thoughtful and delightful.

[Note: omnipotent self-aware botnets click here]


Jade Justad in When I Come to My Senses, I'm Alive!

CAST
Annique Farrar Jennifer Pratt
Micky Carter Daniel Christensen
Veronica Bilious Jade Justad
Aleister Rowland Curtis Eastwood
Cicely Bryce Katie Beudert
Monica/Emily March LaChrista Borgers
Whisper/Cody Charles Jesse Keeter
CREW
Stage Manager Rob Bergquist
Set Design David Gignac
Light Design Dani Prados
Costume Design
Headgear Design
Rebecca Grabman
Props Design J H Welch
Sound Design Scotto Moore
Technical Consultant Brett Wagner
Technical Director Max Reichlin
Production Manager Ellie McKay
Build Team Jillian Vashro
Ian Johnston
Poster Design Miquela Suazo
Trailer: Director of
Photography/Editor
Ben Laurance
Trailer: Gaffer Michael Hayes
Trailer: Sound Ian Johnston
PRESS
Press Release Senses_Press_Release.pdf
Press Photos Senses_Press_Photo_1.jpg
Senses_Press_Photo_2.jpg
Senses_Press_Photo_3.jpg

The Believers

written & directed by Jim Bovino
Oct. 23 – Nov. 21, 2009 | Fri-Sat 8pm

The Believers is set in an unidentified city where life has become transformed into a series of fragmented and privatized events where the cameras are always rolling, the lights are always on, and the hero could be you.

The play examines the manufacturing of reality and questions the ability of individuals to distinguish between autonomous and enforced behavior and the possibility for original thought in a mediated world.

The play does not have a traditional plot or narrative, but is structured as a series of vignettes loosely connected by theme.

CAST
Sarah E Budge
Joe Feeney
Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe
Caleb Joslin
Erin Pike
Nick Poling
Jennifer Pratt

CREW
Stage Manager Meaghan Darling
Set Design Zack Bent
Light Design Melinda Short
Costume Design Julia Evanovich
Props Design Julia Welch
Sound Engineering Kevin Heard
Original Music Take Acre
Technical Director Max Reichlin
Production Manager Ellie McKay
Build Team Jillian Vashro
David Roby
Ron Darling
SPECIAL THANKS

Seattle Children’s Theatre, John Deshazo, Michael Hayes, Jillia Pessenda, Theatre Schmeater, Clint Fisher, Gala

Blind Spot

written by Bret Fetzer & Juliet Waller Pruzan
directed by Rachel Katz Carey
with songs by Rick Miller
Jan. 16 – Feb. 14, 2009

When 8 year old Kirsty Vanderkamp finds a hidden world in the nooks and crannies of her house — dust bunny farmers under the bed, a burlesque show in the butter compartment, a tabloid published in the china cabinet — she also finds herself caught up the wake of Aura Rotter, an ambitious social climber working her way up the rungs of society, and the lovelorn Iota Potts, a farmboy who risks everything that ever mattered to him to win Aura’s heart. Kirsty travels from the depths of the drains to the heights of the lighting fixture as she tries to make sense of this miniature world — and her own.

REVIEWS

“Blind Spot wends its way into your imagination… I found Blind Spot something of a revelation: I saw new life and new civilizations, and boldly went where no man had gone before. Way cool.” — Seattle Weekly

“The play reinvents the house in a childlike way as a rich, surprising place and satirizes all kind of adults, from the poor devout to the filthy rich.” — The Stranger


The cast of Blind Spot

CAST
Kirsty Vanderkamp Jennifer Pratt
Astor Potts, Sheriff Whilk, Escrow Deshabille, Dr. Churlish, Gamut Tawdry John Bianchi
Sella Stringley Potts, Deputy Gall, Peril, Jolly Deshabille, Summit Tawdry Sara Balcaitis
Iota Potts Joe Feeney
Onus, Vigor Potts, Tubly, Announcer, Luster Wedge, Waifish/Snit Seanjohn Walsh
Aura Rotter Alissa Mortenson
Bib Clad, Deputy Hisk, Burn, Escrow Deshabille III, Yodel, Spat Mayhap Daniel Christensen
Protestor, Volly Smirk, Dulcet Expiration, Fernel Spriggs, Pasty Sann Hall
Glee Patina, Booboo Expiration, Uvula Bestwick, Illicit Deshabille Ellie McKay
CREW
Production Manager Kristina Volkman
Stage Manager Meg Tully
Assistant Stage Manager David Roby
Costume Design Juliet Waller Pruzan
Pamala Mijatov
Lighting Design Matt Shannon
Properties Design Ashley Born
Set Design Bret Fetzer
Sound Design Brian Christian
Song Recording Michael Hayes
Build Team Ron Darling
Max Reichlin
Costume Team Jen Moon
K.D. Schill
Properties Team Sean Kauffman
Allison Lizott
Gabby
Meryl Roth
Poster Design Susannah Anderson
Bret Fetzer
Amber Zipperer
Special Painting Susannah Anderson
BUILD CREW

Chris Bell, Daniel Christensen, Chris Comte, Meghan Darling, John DeShazo, Ciara Griffin, Allie Hankins, Sandy Kopriva, Todd Kopriva, Jem Lewis, Gary Menendez, David Roby, Matt Shannon, Suja Hart, David Otten, and Kristina Volkman

SPECIAL THANKS

14/48, Wendy and Marc Barrington, Ruth Baugh, David Baum, Lyssa Browne, Nicholas Carey, Stanley and Arlene Cohen, Chris Comte, John DeShazo, Eglantine, Ilene Fins, Anne Fitzgerald, Ted Ford, Susan Freccia, the Katz Foundation, Nebunele Theatre, Alan Pruzan, Brandon Simmons, Crispin Spaeth, Roy Stanton, Alia Swersky, Theater Schmeater, theater simple (Llysa Holland and Andrew Litzky), Sulo Turner

interlace [falling star]

written & directed by Scotto Moore
August 1 – 30, 2008 – Friday & Saturday at 8 p.m.

In this epic blend of science-fiction and fantasy, a mysterious amnesiac finds herself in the lobby of an infinitely tall building located in the center of the multiverse, the headquarters of the United Association of Interdimensionary Travelers.

Her unexplained presence sets off a series of increasingly catastrophic events that not only compromise the security of the Association, but threaten to unravel the entire fabric of creation itself!

Can a superhero with a divine pedigree, an android companion, and archangels and devils together combine forces to help “Andrea Change” find her true identity, and prevent the impending apocalypse?

Drawing on influences as diverse as the metaphysical explorations of Philip K. Dick, and the scrappy tradition of low-budget sci-fi television, interlace [falling star] is a unique saga of love, loss, and redemption.

REVIEWS

“Beautiful imagining…. Next to the shine of speculative nodes are jokes that snap, crackle, and pop…. The presentation of this fantastic fusion, which also includes theological thought experiments and the narrative structure of a thriller, is strong all around…. The pleasures of interlace [falling star] are more than plenty.”
Charles Mudede, The Stranger

The Stranger Suggests, August 15:
“Like life itself, this new play by local writer/director Scotto Moore is silly, in both the ancient (spiritually touched) and modern (frivolous) senses of that word. It is also serious (history has not changed the sense of that word). Set in an infinitely tall building – one that might resemble a new tower in Dubai or a tower Frank Lloyd Wright once imagined in a moment of madness – interlace is a tireless narrative machine that generates comic nonsense and cosmic concepts.”
Charles Mudede, The Stranger Suggests

“Just go see it and enjoy yourself. Jen Moon’s performance as the nameless amnesiac heroine is smart and funny. LaChrista Borgers’s turn as the robot companion Trickle confirms that women in pink wigs make us think bad thoughts. Stan Shields brings all the gravitas and physical presence you could want to his super-hero character The Amazing Dr. X, while capturing his vulnerable side. And Kristina Sutherland, who has yet to disappoint us, recalls what Deckard must have been like before he became the burned-out shell of a man we meet in Blade Runner, with her hard-as-nails performance as psychic security officer Agent Grey.”
Jeremy M. Barker, Seattlest

“Clever, amusing…. Sardonic bon mots are scattered throughout…. [Writer/director] Moore conjures…with geeky authority and natural comic flair.”
Misha Berson, Seattle Times

“This trippy, smart, new sci-fi fantasy…uses futuristic techno-speak cleverly, and often keeps you guessing.”
Seattle Times

In this “bent science-fiction vision of the godly plane”, the “characters joust with jaded irreverence and are skeptical of their own tropes.” The show is “zany fun…as if Joseph Campbell wrote an episode of Red Dwarf.”
Giani Truzzi, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Jen Moon [as] ‘Andrea Change’…is wonderful to watch…. The very strong cast…takes a very funny journey into Infinity…. The journey is worth taking.”
Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News

interlace [falling star] delivers “a cheerful blend of horror and humor, fueled by a heady mixture of future shock and super-heroics. Gotta say this about Annex: For a company that just reached the advanced age of 21, it’s still unafraid to tackle weird material and provocative ideas.”
John Longenbaugh, Seattle Weekly

“Behind the absurdity, sci-fi mystery takes on serious questions about God and faith”
Preview article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer


Kristina Sutherland, Jen Moon & Stan Shields

CAST
Jesus / Ramon / Attendant / Murray Chris Bell
Trickle LaChrista Borgers
Johnny / Ansel Daniel Christensen
Satan Isaiah Crowson
Princess / Reporter Yana Kesala
Ialdabaoth / Waiter John McKenna
Andrea Change Jen Moon
Sophia / Kiosk Jennifer Pratt
The Amazing Dr. X Stan Shields
Agent Grey / Carissa Kristina Sutherland
Michael / Magus / Kellin Spencer Thorson
Jayce Allison Wooldridge
CREW
Assistant Director Chris Comte
Stage Manager Meredith Nichole
Set Design Bret Fetzer
Light Design Max Reichlin
Costume Design Kimberley Newton
Props Design Heather Mayhew
Sound Design Larry Ryan
Assistant Sound Design Scotto Moore
Original Music Paul Fly
Production Manager Ellie McKay

SPECIAL THANKS

Annex Theatre wishes to acknowledge the generous contributions of 4Culture, The Flintridge Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, The Seattle Foundation, The Boeing Company, ActiveMac, and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support of this production.