AJ Epstein

West of Lenin & The Panel Jumper will present The Panel Jumper **LIVE** on Friday, March 22, 2024 @ 8:00pm PST, celebrating the magic of Nerd Culture in its myriad forms.

Sadly, the Covid-19 Washington Stay-at-Home Order required the cancellation of The Panel Jumper **LIVE** Chapter IX originally scheduled for the evening of Friday, May 8th at West of Lenin.

Seattle's critics' circle announces Nominees of Excellence in Seattle theatrical productions. Spanning dozens of theater companies and productions, from large and prominent to small and humble, the Gypsy Rose Lee Awards honor the excellence found in the myriad of professional theater productions that we reviewers attend in a year.

Join us for our seventh chapter of The Panel Jumper **LIVE** as we celebrate the magic of sequential storytelling-comic books! Produced in collaboration with West of Lenin, this one-night gala of excruciatingly gifted Seattle-based talent will leave you inspired by all our nerd culture has to offer!

Join us for our sixth chapter of The Panel Jumper **LIVE** and celebrate the magic of sequential storytelling-comic books! Produced in collaboration with West of Lenin, this one-night gala of excruciatingly gifted Seattle-based talent will leave you grateful for all nerd culture has to offer.

Inspired by his Ancient Corean culture and our increasingly globalized world, Che Sehyun shares his original songs, ancient stories and captivating visuals for a night of hilarity, tragedy and intrigue.  Recognizing his gifts, purpose and our inter-connectedness, Che works through #SongVersations, hip-hop, piano, ukulele, photography and video to entertain, explore and inspire. 

Lloyd Sun's play, "American Hwangap", currently playing at West of Lenin in association with SIS Productions, by its very nature should be about connection and reconnection. Unfortunately, the play itself lacks the depth needed to form those connections and the pacing of the production doesn't help.

Steeped in the difficulty of reunification and reconciliation, American Hwangap tells the story of Min Suk Chun, who some 15 years earlier left his family in a West Texas suburb to return to his native Korea. On the occasion of his 60th birthday (hwangap), a milestone signifying the completion of the Eastern Zodiac and a type of rebirth, he returns to his ex-wife and now adult children as they struggle to reconcile their broken past with the mercurial, verbose and often exasperating patriarch now back at the head of the table. Through a tense birthday weekend filled with humor, heartbreak and half-filled expectations, this American hwangap and its aftermath bears a family not quite whole but still somehow transformed, and not quite happy but still somehow beautiful.

'I've always loved this play. It's deceptively simple on the page, and incredibly powerful on stage. I'm especially excited to explore the story of the Chun family. We get an intimate portrait of a Korean family, but quickly realize that the immigrant experience has great resonance across cultures, and this play is an inviting exploration of that unique and universal American phenomenon.'

Join us for our fifth chapter celebrating the magic of sequential storytelling comic books! Produced in collaboration with West of Lenin, this one-night gala features Stop, Thief! a short play by Bret Fetzer and Juliet Waller Pruzan, a world-premiere screening of the latest episode of The Panel Jumper detailing the corruption of American youth by the evils of comics in the 1950s, the nerdy musicality of indie singer-songwriter Aaron J. Shay, a thrillingly original-original superhero epic (as told by a pair of dingbats) straight from The Adventures of Rocketman and Beano, comic book industry guest Eisner nominee and New York Times best-selling artist and illustrator Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, Flight), a live podcast recording of City Arts Magazine top-rated Perfect Bound Podcast and nerd-tastic burlesque from the weird and wacky Sally Savant.

West of Lenin & The Panel Jumper will present The Panel Jumper **Live** Chapter IV on Friday, April 14th, 2017 at 8:00pm to celebrate the magic of sequential storytelling with live performance. 

West of Lenin has pulled together some great alternatives to the traditional holiday fare.  Whether you love this time of year or are looking for an escape, there is something in the Up Your Chimney line-up for you. Grab a drink at our Gallery bar and let the festivities begin!

Join us for the third episode of our celebration of the magic of sequential storytelling-comic books! Produced in collaboration with West of Lenin, this one-night gala features the talents of composer-pianist Michael Owcharuk (The Bushwick Book Club, 14/48: The World's Quickest Theater Festival), a new short play by Scotto Moore (Duel of the Linguist Mages, A Mouse Who Knows Me and HP Lovecraft: Stand-Up Comedian!) directed by Jaime Roberts (Annex Theatre's Team of Heroes Trilogy) and featuring the acting talents of Mike Gilson, Tracy Leigh and Sarah Winsor, indulge your ears with the satirical song stylings of Ray Misra (AKA "Midgard, Wind, and Fire"), comedian and twisted toy collector Allison Lizotte (Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery and Radio LARP), nerd-tastic burlesque by Miss Daisy O'Day, an all-new short film from The Panel Jumper that peeps under the shells of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a special live podcast recording with the crew of the Perfect Bound Podcast and special comic book industry guest, inker of Image/Skybound's The Walking Dead and Marvel's Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man, Stefano Gaudiano!

Join us for the second episode of our celebration of the magic of sequential storytelling-comic books! Produced in collaboration with West of Lenin, this one-night gala features the talents of singer/songwriter Tai Shan (Bushwick Book Club), a new play by Gregory Award-winning playwright Wayne Rawley, a reading pairing world-famous comedian Emmett Montgomery (Last Comic Standing and Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery) and Cole Hornaday, the wild and wonderful puppetry of Vox Fabuli, nerd-tastic burlesque by Daisy O'Day, a fresh piece of super hero satire from playwright Jim Jewell, an all-new The Panel Jumper film short, a special live podcast recording with the crew of the Perfect Bound Podcast and special comic book industry guest, David Lasky the Eisner Awarding-winning cartoonist of The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song.

It's one thing when a play is meaningful and important, something most plays strive for. It's another thing when a play tries to be meaningful and important. And it's yet another thing when a play insists that it's meaningful and important. Unfortunately Tracey Scott Wilson's play 'Buzzer', currently playing at ACT, falls squarely into that second camp and teeters to fall into the third.

AJ Epstein Presents, in collaboration with ACTLab, announce the West coast premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer coming to ACT in February. Directed by Anita Montgomery, Buzzer is a story about class, money, race, love, and fear set in a rapidly changing urban environment.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre announces the winter shows that will close out its 50th year and carry over into the debut season of Artistic Director John Langs. In December, ACT presents the 40th Anniversary Production of A Christmas Carol and the merry Ham for the Holidays: Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham? by Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt. Also in December, ACT celebrates the achievements of all the playwrights in the 2015 Young Playwrights Program and presents As You Like It, directed by ACT's Kenan Directing Fellow Wiley Basho Gorn.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is proud to announce the Mainstage productions and two ACTLab productions for the dynamic debut season of incoming Artistic Director John Langs.

Mik Kuhlman comes to Seattle and West of Lenin to perform her latest solo theatre piece. Collaborating once again with visual and textile artist, Patricia Toovey, Mik incorporates an original installation, weaving movement, poetry, household objects, and personal story for a visceral journey into home.