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

Penguins 4: Suffer The Children

Jan 28-Feb 18, 2011 | Fri-Sat at 11 pm
$10 gen / $5 TPS/senior/student
Industry Night (PWYC) Mon Feb 14, 8 pm
Pay What You Can Feb 11/12

The scandals that rocked the Catholic Church finally come to roost at St. Benedict’s: The diocese has its very own pedophile. Someone’s got to take the fall. As reporters dig into the past, the ever-greedy Father Jones and tyrannical Sister Bernadette fight to control the present—including missing relics, rebellious underlings, incriminating videotape, and a lonely Mormon missionary. Sister Candy and elderly Connie Sullivan face unexpected pregnancies; Sisters Jenny Memphis and Mimi Coco wrestle with inappropriate desires; and young Adam learns some unwelcome news about his parentage. Mix in a couple of dance numbers and some surprising guest stars and you have the latest episode of Annex’s late-night serial comedy, Penguins!

Written by Scot Augustson and directed by Bret Fetzer.

Featuring Daniel Christensen, Chris Dietz, Katie Driscoll, Karen Heaven, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt, Jillian Vashro, Lisa Viertel, and Clayton Weller

“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

“The cast is nearly faultless. Bret Fetzer’s direction is excellent. … I had seen two of the prior installments in the series, so it wasn’t a shock to see a nun acting sinfully, but I still laughed and I wasn’t alone.” – Seattlest

Check out a very different late night mass this summer and enjoy communion libations in our fully stocked bar. You can always confess about it later!

Penguins 3: The Bishop’s Bastard

August 7-August 27, 2010 | Fri-Sat at 11 pm
$15 gen

The bloody feud between nuns and priests gets set aside in the face of a greater threat: Other churches! Everyone thinks the Bishop’s illegitimate child can be used to their advantage, so the bastard’s baptism becomes a war zone filled with forbidden love, strange addictions, May/December romance, schizophrenia, radical atheists and musical numbers. Come see the bullets fly in Penguins, Episode III: The Bishop’s Bastard!

Written by Scot Augustson and directed by Bret Fetzer.

Featuring Daniel Christensen, Chris Dietz, Katie Driscoll, Teri Lazzara, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt, Jillian Vashro, Lisa Viertel, and Clayton Weller.

“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

Check out a very different late night mass this summer and enjoy communion libations in our fully stocked bar. You can always confess about it later!