Story and Song

Story & Lyrics by Bret Fetzer
Music Composed by Sari Breznau & Eric Padget

Tue-Wed 8pm | Feb 4-26
$10 gen | $5 stu

Sly American fairy tales about alligators and debutantes, told with sprightly vigor and combined with gorgeous choral singing. A storytelling experience like no other.

“As a storyteller, Bret Fetzer is a five star performer and writer. Following in the tradition of the great Southern storytellers, his writing is imaginative, funny and engaging; the performance, in which Mr. Fetzer assumes all the voices and characters himself, is beyond superlatives.” – Drama In The Hood

Performed by
Sari Breznau
Bret Fetzer
Christine Longe
Eric Padget
Jillian Vashro

appearing on Feb 18-19
Mike Gilson
Valerie Moseley
Davey Patnode

Production Manager – Catherine Blake Smith
Stage Manager – Cynthia Kelly
Costume Consultant – Samantha Armitage
Lighting Consultant – Alex King

Undo

Written by Holly Arsenault
Directed by Erin Kraft

Jan 18-Feb 16
Thurs-Sat at 8 pm
PWYC Industry night on Mon, Feb 4, at 8 pm
Please note: No Late Seating will be allowed

All Thurs PWYC
$20 general/$18 advance tickets
$12 senior, military, TPS / $5 student

Rachel and Joe are getting divorced and everyone they know is invited. Guilt, grief, desire, and booze collide in this darkly comedic new play that contemplates a world where the worst moment in your life is something that people dress up for.

Performed by Sydney Andrews, Zoey Belyea, Nick Edwards, Tom Fraser, Amy Hill, Ashton Hyman, Samantha Leeds, Barbara Lindsay, Marty Mukhalian, Ian O’Malley, Jillian Vashro, Mark Waldstein.

PRESS PHOTOS

Reviews:

“Local playwright Holly Arsenault’s full-length debut, Undo, has a premise so deliciously simple, it’s a wonder it hasn’t been done already: What if there were a requisite divorce ceremony, a sort of backward wedding, where the original guests gather to get their presents back, hear the toasts again, see the couple’s last dance, then watch them take off their rings and undo their vows?….The script is fantastic, with witty but believable dialogue that sounds cribbed from real family get-togethers and focuses on the small, mundane logistics of the un-wedding that make it so convincing.” — The Stranger

“[Undo] is an exceptionally honest piece of playwriting, moving in the emotional investment of all the characters and both deeply sad and deeply gratifying in its authenticity.” — Seattle Actor

“There is tremendous strength in the writing. The dialogue is realistic and the relationships ring true… The cast is extremely likable, making the audience root for everybody (there aren’t any ‘bad guys’).” — Seattle Gay News

“Undo is an evening of blissful anguish watching two people sever ties to each other completely — a funny, dark look at how relationships end and all that goes into undoing what’s done.” — The Sunbreak

More info:
Get out your wedding dress: It’s time for your divorce – an interview with playwright Holly Arsenault and actors Mark Waldstein and Samantha Leeds

This play contains adult language and content. It is recommended for mature audiences ages 15 and up.

Sideshow

written & directed by Jenna Bean Veatch

Tue-Wed at 8 pm, May 1-16
Preview: Mon, Apr 30, 8pm
$10 general / $5 student

Inspired by the tradition of the old-fashioned circus sideshow, this original dance-theater work by Jenna Bean Veatch features characters whose physical abnormalities bestow them with special powers. Rather than disabilities, they have super-abilities. Supported by a chorus of sideshow performers singing haunting Appalachian ballads, the work highlights the peculiar beauty that can be found only in the unusual and draws on the excitement that comes from catching a glimpse of otherworldliness. With displays that are at times odd and outrageously funny and at other times breathtakingly beautiful, Sideshow falls into the category of children’s art made for adults.

It’s whimsical yet somber, with a tingling strangeness. Blending dance, theater, music, and elements of puppetry, it toes the line between being magical and haunting, simple and fantastical.

Sideshow is simple, charming, sweet, and completely devoid of power ballads and schmaltz…. [Naomi] Russell’s…innocence and transparency cannot be resisted…[Wyllin] Daigle is a great stage presence….[Jenna Bean] Veatch’s own composition is a highlight of the show as are the folk songs wonderfully rendered by Francesca Mondelli and Jillian Vashro as the Conjoined Twins.” –The Sunbreak

“A tender and modest piece of work [for] people who enjoy Circus Contraption and other neo-vaudeville expressions of that soft spot between innocence and irony.” –The Stranger

“Sideshow is the kind of theatrical experience that reminds you why it’s worth it to live in a cool city. It’s willfully expressive, and silly, and full of joy…. Don’t miss this one. It’s really beautiful.” –Culturemob

CAST
Steven Gomez The Tree Man
Jenna Bean Veatch Daffodil, The Jaundiced Girl
Christine Longe The Ringmaster
Francesca Mondelli/Jillian Vashro The Conjoined Twins
Wylin Daigle The Bearded Lady
Naomi Russell The Hunchback
CREW
Creator/Director Jenna Bean Veatch
Stage Manager Blair Feehan
Production Manager Grant Knutson
Scenic Designer Devin Petersen
Lighting Designer Ian Johnston
Assistant Director Juliet Waller Pruzan

Penguins 5: Mea Maxima Culpa, Baby


Written by Scot Augustson
Directed by Bret Fetzer

Fri-Sat at 11 pm, Aug 6-26
$10 gen / $5 TPS/senior/student
PWYC Industry Nights: Mondays, August 15 & 22

End times are near in the final episode of Scot Augustsonʼs black-and-white comedy Penguins! The conflict of priests vs. nuns comes to a head, along with exorcisms, conspiracies, lesbian love, historical secrets revealed, and more of the caustic comedy thatʼs brought this late night serial acclaim and dismay! Directed by Bret Fetzer.

CAST
Daniel Christensen Father Luke
Chris Dietz Father Jones & Hitchhiker
Katie Driscoll Adam
Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe Connie Sullivan
Sophie Lowenstein Sister Jenny Memphis
Jenny Schmidt Sister Mimi Coco
Jillian Vashro Sister Candy
Lisa Viertel Sister Bernadette
Clayton Weller Brother Placido
CREW
Director Bret Fetzer
Technical Director/Photography/Graphic Design Ian Johnston
Stage Manager Caitlin Gilman
Lighting Design Tess Malone
Costume Design Avery Reed & Meaghan Darling
Sound Design Kyle Thompson
ABOUT PERFORMANCE TIMES, PUBLIC TICKETS AND PRESS TICKETS

PENGUINS 5: Mea Maxima Culpa, Baby

August 6th through August 26th

Annex Theatre

1100 Pike Street East / 2nd Floor

The Performance Dates include:

August 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 26th  at 11pm

August 15th and 22nd at 8pm for our Industry Pay-What-You-Will Nights
$10 General Admission: Advance / Door

$5 General Admission: Student/Senior/Military/TPS

PRESS TICKETS / PRESS PACKETS

If you are an editor or writer of any medium that would like to review this show, please contact our Marketing & Communications Director, Brian Peterson, at brian.peterson@annextheatre.org.

You will receive two complimentary press tickets for opening night, a press packet and a link to our online press photo gallery – which includes all press photos taken, our video trailer for the show.

Press Photos Photo 1
Photo 2
What The Press Has Said In The Past…

penguins

“Augustson’s late-night serial comedy Penguins is a breath of fresh, filthy air…its balls-out devotion to depravity is executed by a talented, canny cast.”

– The Stranger

“Brawny, brogue-brandishing badass Sister Bernadette (Lisa Viertel) demands some basic rights for nuns, which triggers a priest/nun gang war that makes last year’s pitiless Cannes winner Gomorrah look like an afterschool special…We’re talking Doubt on Ecstasy, smack, and aerosol cheese…The hour-long show felt like half that, and I wished Penguins: Episode 2 would have begun immediately after.”

– Seattle Weekly

“Ultra-lowbrow, extreme Catholic camp…[director] Fetzer keeps his cast moving full-tilt…You wouldn’t think there’d be any thrill (perverse or otherwise) left in priest-and-nun exploitation, but [playwright] Augustson mines the veins of altar-boy molestation and convent lesbianism with such fervor, he might win you over.”

– SunBreak

“I thought it was absolutely fucking great…If all late-night theater were like this, it would devour prime-time theater, which would be fantastic.”

– Monologist Mike Daisey

The Tale of Jemima Canard

Written by Brandon J. Simmons
Directed by Carys Kresny

Fri-Sat at 8 pm, April 22-May 21
$15 general / $10 TPS, senior, military / $5 student
PWYC Industry Night: Monday, May 9

There’s something odd about Kilkin Farm. The ducks parade about in skirts and bonnets and carry on forbidden love affairs with the hounds. Badgers and foxes negotiate their bloody deals behind the henhouse, bartering for flesh by day, and stealing it by night. And Miss Potter, the farm’s indomitable mistress, is driven nearly to madness.

Only Potter can unlock the mysteries of this world. As she examines the hidden corners of her own past, layers of passion and regret weave themselves into a tale that blurs the lines between love and violence, food and sex, and ultimately, the artist and the art she creates.

Love! Whimsy! Terror!

The underbelly of Beatrix Potter comes to life in The Tale of Jemima Canard. A young innocent, capricious but willful, falls under the romantic sway of a predatory cad—but the characters are not Edwardian ladies and gentlemen; they are ducks, hounds, badgers, and foxes. As the author is interrogated by one of her own characters, layers of love, envy, jealousy, and much worse become revealed as the play delves into the deceptively whimsical lives of Jemima, her hard-as-nails sister Rebecca, the rugged but earnest St. Hubert brothers, the degenerate Tommy Brock, Miss Potter herself, and the elegant and alarming Tawny Whiskered Gentleman. Seattle actor Brandon J. Simmons makes his playwriting debut with this anthropomorphic dream-play, using Potterʼs The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck as a springboard to explore the nature of fate and time, blurring the lines between animal/human, love/violence, food/sex, and the artist and the art she creates. Directed by Carys Kresny, who previously dug her directorial fingers into dark and roiling emotions in The Changeling and Penetralia at Annex.

CAST
Mary Murfin Bayley Potter
Truman Buffett TWG
Danielle Daggerty Rebecca
James James Leroy/Brock
Martyn G. Krouse Roland
Jillian Vashro Jemima
CREW
Production Director Meaghan Darling
Stage Manager Katie Driscoll
Set Design Emily Reitman
Light Design Tess Malone
Costume Design Hannah Schnabel
Mask Maker/Props Design Cole Hornaday
Sound Design Erin Paige
Fight Choreographer Ryan Spickard
Dialect Coach Pamala Mijatov
Dramaturg Bret Fetzer
Technical Director Ian Johnston