Richard Ziman News

The New York based company, The One-Minute Play Festival (Dominic D'Andrea, Producing Artistic Director) and the Central Heating Lab at ACT- A Contemporary Theatre create a dynamic partnership to bring The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) to Seattle for the first time.

There's a plot device that has annoyed me since I was a kid. Sitcoms use it a lot. It's where the main character keeps lying and/or making obviously poor decisions which keeps digging them deeper and deeper into a hole until you just want to scream at them, "Just tell the truth and do the right thing already!" In sitcoms it all gets resolved in a fun way in 22 minutes and everyone learns a valuable lesson. But when this plot device is combined with the nation's current economic woes as is the case with Laura Marks' play "Bethany", currently playing at ACT, that frustration with the characters never seems to end leading to a bleak evening which left me asking, "why?" Is this a journey we need to take or is it simply frustration for frustration's sake and shining a spotlight on the plight of some to make others without the plight feel better about their lives?

From squatting in a foreclosed home, to lying to the government, to taking desperate measures to make one last sale at work, Bethany takes on the economic crisis from the eyes of a middle class mom fighting to get her life back on track. This Helen Merrill Award-winning play tells the story of a young woman whose daughter has been taken away by State services when she loses her home. If she can just make one more sale before the car dealership closes for good, she might be able to salvage a life that's rapidly spiraling out of control.

A Contemporary Theatre single tickets go on sale to the public for all 2014 Mainstage shows February 12, 2014. ACT is offering 50% off of adult price tickets for previews of Bethany one-week only February 12-18.

J. B. Priestley's 1938 farcical comedy, set in 1908, is about three couples who married on the same day in the same church, who learn on their twenty-fifth anniversaries that they aren't legally married at all, sending them into a tizzy of spousal re-evaluation. The play is full of funny lines, and is a first-rate screwball comedy - but this hilarious Yorkshire farce has more going on in it than this premise would indicate, because, after all, this is a play by J. B. Priestley!

J. B. Priestley's 1938 farcical comedy, set in 1908, is about three couples who married on the same day in the same church, who learn on their twenty-fifth anniversaries that they aren't legally married at all, sending them into a tizzy of spousal re-evaluation. The play is full of funny lines, and is a first-rate screwball comedy - but this hilarious Yorkshire farce has more going on in it than this premise would indicate, because, after all, this is a play by J. B. Priestley!

ESP comes around the curve and into summer's final stretch with Pinero's 1887 horse-racing farce, Dandy Dick! With two impetuous daughters both on the brink of matrimony,the Very Reverend Augustin Jedd is in need of a bit of dowry enhancement... So, even though he's a staunch disapprover of the racing game, when his sometime-do-well sisterGeorgiana Tidd, the 'daisy of the turf,' shows up with a supposedly sure thing -the horse of the play's title - the Very Reverend gets very interested, and he and his whole household go delightfully and British-ly bonkers!

DAS BARBECÜ IN CONCERT has extended for 2 shows on August 19th and 22nd.

Wagner's 'Ring' is back in town at Seattle Opera. Some say for the last time (at least as it is now) as Speight Jenkins is stepping down from the organization. So it's only fitting that the abridged twangy retelling the cycle, 'Das Barbecu' make it's way back again. But unlike the productions in the past (like the most recent at ACT) this one is a bit trimmed down into a concert version (music in hand). But not to worry as the three night only run is still filled with hilarity and heart as the performers shine like some magic gold.

DAS BARBECÜ IN CONCERT is set for tonight, August 12, and contining on the 13th and 14th this week. Doors open at 7:00, show starts at 7:30pm at West of Lenin, 203 N. 36th Street, Seattle, WA 98122. Tickets: $20 - available in advance online HERE. Unclaimed tickets sold to waitlist 5 minutes before curtain.

Originally commissioned by Seattle Opera to accompany their internationally renowned production of Wagner's RING CYCLE, DAS BARBECÜ is a two-hour retelling of Wagner's 'Ring' cycle, specifically the fourth opera, Gotterdammerung, that sets Brunnhilde, Siegfried, Wotan and the gang in the middle of Texas and the 'Valhalla' Ranch. With music by Seattle composer Scott Warrender and book and lyrics by Jim Luigs,BARBECÜ is a witty Texas fable with five actors playing more than 30 outrageous characters at breakneck speed. Songs run the gamut from Broadway to Texas swing, from jazz to twangy country and western. Mismatched lovers who meet on the day of their shotgun double wedding, three generations of feuding families and a magic ring of power make for a fast and furious love letter to Wagner's great epic.

Werner Heisenberg gave us the uncertainty principal, the essence of which is, you can't know everything about everything. A few decades later, Kurt Godel proved-literally proved with MATH-that some truths cannot be proven. If science and mathematics seem to be telling us anything, it's that the truth likes to keep its clothes on. Butnothing gets things naked like art can. Come watch us strip it all down to the gist...

Werner Heisenberg gave us the uncertainty principal, the essence of which is, you can't know everything about everything. A few decades later, Kurt Godel proved-literally proved with MATH-that some truths cannot be proven. If science and mathematics seem to be telling us anything, it's that the truth likes to keep its clothes on. Butnothing gets things naked like art can. Come watch us strip it all down to the gist...

Endangered Species Project is tickled to once again blow the dust off an undeservedly dusty script - the astoundingly charming family comedy, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER. Playwright Liam O'Brien honors, by reference and imitation, the great George Bernard Shaw, who died two years before PENNYPACKER's premiere. The play, O'Brien's only work for the stage, was founded on a true story that occurred in O'Brien's family.

Endangered Species Project is tickled to once again blow the dust off an undeservedly dusty script - the astoundingly charming family comedy, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER. Playwright Liam O'Brien honors, by reference and imitation, the great George Bernard Shaw, who died two years before PENNYPACKER's premiere. The play, O'Brien's only work for the stage, was founded on a true story that occurred in O'Brien's family.

Is there any vision clearer than that born in imagination's utter darkness? All stories become vibrantly possible when you set the stage in your mind. So close your eyes and come hear what all the fuss is about as Sandbox Radio presents its latest episode, 'Eye of the Beholder', live! at 8:00 PM, today, January 28 at Fremont's most happening theatre, West of Lenin.

Is there any vision clearer than that born in imagination's utter darkness? All stories become vibrantly possible when you set the stage in your mind. So close your eyes and come hear what all the fuss is about as Sandbox Radio presents its latest episode, 'Eye of the Beholder', live! at 8:00 PM, Monday, January 28 at Fremont's most happening theatre, West of Lenin.

Head to Arena Stage for this new, challenging, and entertaining play with music.

Following its celebrated opening at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Pullman Porter Blues travels across the country in its world-premiere co-production at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Inspired by her grandfather's work on the postal trains, playwright Cheryl L. West, whose work at Arena Stage includes Jar the Floor and Play On!, returns with the tale of three Pullman train porters whose journey is underscored by Midwest blues songs, including "Sweet Home Chicago" and "This Train." Directed by Lisa Peterson (Arena's The Rainmaker and The Quality of Life), Pullman Porter Blues runs November 23, 2012 - January 6, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.