Do It For Umma

Written by Seayoung Yim
Directed by Sara Porkalob
Tue-Wed, Feb 2-Feb 17
Industry night: Mon, Feb 15

In this surreal comedic detective story, the ghost of Hannah’s recently deceased mother returns to haunt the Korean convenience store she once ran with an iron fist, shaming, cajoling, and needling her daughter into avenging her extremely suspicious death. While Hannah’s older brother shirks off familial duties in favor of a romantic tryst with the local dry-cleaning maven, Hannah embarks on an epic mission to piece together the clues that will lead her to Umma’s killer. Featuring a chorus of ajummas and a healthy dose of revenge, Do It for Umma is an absurd tragicomedy about a young woman trying to gain her mother’s approval and protect her family’s honor in the strangest of circumstances.

CAST:
Skye Stephenson
Ina Chang
Christian Ver
Maggie Lee
Katie Driscoll
Laura Dux
Anna Saephan
Corinne Magin

The Zig Zag Festival

Curated by Catherine Blake Smith
August 4 – August 19, Tues-Wed at 8 pm
Opening Night: August 4

Six playwrights–all female, all young, all local–collaborate on an evening of short works. Each is playwright of one play, director for another, and an outside eye for a third. The ensemble cast performs in all six plays about a range of topics such as ghosts of ex-lovers, comedic nightmares, and an absurdly honest job interview.

Tuesdays

Job Search – written by Dayana “Dayo” Anderson, directed by Courtney Meaker
Roaring Girls – written by Seayoung Yim, directed by Amy Escobar
Mythologizing me like I do you – written by Catherine Blake Smith, directed by L. Nicol Cabe

Wednesdays

The Strongest Flavor – written by L. Nicol Cabe, directed by Catherine Blake Smith
After It Ends – written by Courtney Meaker, directed by Dayana “Dayo” Anderson
Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine – written by Amy Escobar, directed by Seayoung Yim

Ensemble:
Kiki Abba
Devon Allen
Isabela de Campos
Rachel Delmar
Katie Driscoll
Nathaniel Leeson
Jordi Montes
Tatiana Pavela
Cody Smith
Sydney Tucker

Production Team:
Production Manager – Kaeline Kine
Technical Director – Ian Johnston

Star Crossed, and other tales from a devious universe

Written by Scotto Moore
Directed by Ian Johnston, Katherine Karaus, Jen Moon, Catherine Blake Smith, and Scotto Moore

April 30 – May 22
Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 8pm
$10 general / $5 student, TPS, senior, military

Star Crossed, and other tales from a devious universe is an evening of tasty, bite-sized science fiction and fantasy from the playwright of Duel of the Linguist Mages and A Mouse Who Knows Me. The plays include:

STAR CROSSED
Directed by Scotto Moore
Featuring: LaChrista Borgers, Daniel Christensen, Melissa Fenwick, Erin Ison, Mark Rud, Gina Marie Russell, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
A collection of four interlocking short plays about an immortal astronaut crossing time and space to reunite with the woman she loves.

SENDING A MESSAGE
Directed by Catherine Blake Smith
Featuring: Daniel Christensen, Sascha Streckel
A man builds a time machine to go back in time and murder Judy Garland before she can sing “Over The Rainbow.”

LEAVING THE NEST
Directed by Jen Moon
Featuring: Katie Driscoll, Gina Marie Russell, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
When teenage demon Lilith falls in love with an angel, her parents Satan and Ashtaroth are faced with a parenting challenge.

THAT DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT AT ALL
Directed by Ian Johnston
Featuring: Daniel Christensen, Gina Marie Russell, Sascha Streckel
Elvis wins 15 minutes back on Earth in a poker game in Hell, and spends his limited time trying to connect with the love of his life.

COMING TO A CONCLUSION
Directed by Katherine Karaus
Featuring: Katie Driscoll, Melissa Fenwick, Mark Rud, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
A group of neighbors is caught off guard when one of them orders a machine off the internet that produces instant and continuous orgasms.

PRODUCTION TEAM
Katie McKellar Production Manager
Andy Buffelen Stage Manager
Jordan Sell Lighting Designer
Kyle Thompson Sound Designer
Rachel Hunter-Merrill Assistant Stage Manager

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

[sugar_slider id=4]

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

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