RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, HAM FOR THE HOLIDAYS and More Set for ACT Theatre's 2013 Season

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre announces a jam packed summer and fall with shows that cover a broad range of theatre. Finishing out the Mainstage season with three powerhouse Seattle Premieres, ACT presents Gina Gionfriddo's Pulitzer Prize finalist Rapture, Blister, Burn; followed by Will Eno's Middletown; and closing with Sir Alan Ayckbourn's American Premiere of Sugar Daddies - where the theatre legend himself will travel to Seattle to direct. In our Central Heating Lab, where ACT partners with other groups to produce new and exciting alterNative Theatre, AZEOTROPE returns with a double-header performed in repertory, and Das Fallopia makes their ACT debut with Ham for the Holidays. Fans of new works who love to delve into the developmental process will have plenty to see with ACT's New Play Award, The Construction Zone, and Icicle Creek Theater Festival.

The following take place between July and December of 2013, tickets are currently on sale at www.acttheatre.org or (206) 292-7676. All shows are included on the monthly ACTPass Membership.

RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN (Mainstage)

By Gina Gionfriddo

July 12 - August 11

Tickets: Adults: Single Tickets start at $41; Discounts available for: Seniors, Students, and Under 25, and the daily Pay-What-You-Can program

When Catherine, a 40-something, single, and highly successful academic returns to her hometown to take care of her ailing mother, she reconnects with her college roommate and best friend, Gwen, now a stay-at-home mother and housewife married to Catherine's old flame. Both women, coveting each other's choices, attempt to find the happiness and fulfillment they lack by travelling a very bumpy road not taken, with surprising and hilarious results. This fast-paced, witty comedy by Gina Gionfriddo explores the continuing fallout and evolution of the feminist movement.

THE CONSTRUCTION ZONE

Reading and Development Series

Presented by the Central Heating Lab and Washington Ensemble Theatre

Tickets: Adults: $20 Students/Seniors/Under 25: $10

New plays are the life blood of ACT Theatre and Washington Ensemble Theatre and these two innovative companies are now coming together as a team to develop daring contemporary works by talented writers. Co-curated by Washington Ensemble Theatre with support from ACT's Associate Artistic Director John Langs and Literary Manager Anita Montgomery, The Construction Zone provides playwrights with opportunities to share new work, while providing audiences with an intimate and meaningful exposure to the development process including post play discussions. Plays chosen for the series will be of the moment, written by top playwrights, and be performed by professional artists. The Construction Zone will occur in the 60-seat Eulalie Scandiuzzi space (The Lalie).

July 23 - Battle Hymn by Jim Leonard

August 27 - The Dangers of Electric Lightning by Ben Clawson

NEW PLAY AWARD

Red Earth, Gold Gate, Shadow Sky by Mark Jenkins

July 27, 28 (Free event)

A workshop of Mark Jenkins' new play will have a free public reading this month. Red Earth, Gold Gate, Shadow Sky is the recipient of the 2013 ACT New Play Award and has been selected to be in the 2014 Mainstage season at ACT.

THE LOVE MARKETS CD Release "World of Your Dreams"
With guest band, The Half Brothers

August 10

Tickets: $20

Celebrated Weimar cabaret band will debut their new album "World of Your Dreams" with a big live show in the Falls Theatre. Passionate, subversive, musically gorgeous, and theatrically absurd, The Love Markets play songs of the past and future, interweaving vintage Berlin cabaret with their own genre-bending originals written in the Weimar spirit. Local trio, The Half Brothers, will open.

ICICLE CREEK THEATER FESTIVAL

Tuesday, August 20, 7:00pm: The Private Sector by Cory Finley, directed by Victor Pappas
Wednesday, August 21, 7:00pm: A Perfect Robot by Sarah Saltwick, directed by Anita Montgomery

Tickets: General: $12; Festival Pass: $20; Industry: Pay-what-you-can at the door

ACT and Icicle Creek Center for the Arts continue their annual collaboration in developing and bringing new plays to the public which culminates in a series of readings at ACT.

MIDDLETOWN (Mainstage)

By Will Eno

August 30 - September 29

Tickets: Adults: Single Tickets start at $41; Discounts available for: Seniors, Students, and Under 25, and the daily Pay-What-You-Can program

In his whimsical, contemporary spin on Thornton Wilder's classic comedy drama, Our Town, Will Eno brings neighbor and stranger together, mining the metaphysical and the mundane in the everyday lives of the citizens of Middletown, aka everytown USA. At the heart of this sweet, disturbing, and immensely moving journey beats the tender, tenacious human struggle for connection and meaning in this mystery we call life.

WHAT IS OUR MIDDLETOWN? (Bullitt Cabaret)

Immersion Event/Conversation

September 8

Tickets: Single Tickets start at $15

As Middletown reflects the themes of the classic American play, Our Town, ACT aims to reflect on the Seattle side of the conversation. Join artists, academics, and fellow audience members to investigate "our" human interactions and social norms. This event features actors reading excerpts fromMiddletown and Our Town and is moderated by community organizer, Zaki Abdelhamid.

GREAT SOUL OF RUSSIA (Bullitt Cabaret)

Reading Series - The Seagull Project

October 3, November 7, and December 5

Tickets: Single Tickets start at $15

Great Soul of Russia series continues with three new events, October 3, November 7, and December 5 in the Bullitt Cabaret. Authors will include Gorky, Babel, Mayakovsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, J.D. Salinger, and Flannery O'Connor. Look for six more Great Soul of Russia in 2014, all leading up to a full scale production of The Three Sisters in 2015.

SUGAR DADDIES (Mainstage)

By Alan Ayckbourn

October 4 - November 3, 2013

Tickets: Adults: Single Tickets start at $41; Discounts available for: Seniors, Students, and Under 25, and the daily Pay-What-You-Can program

Theatrical legend Alan Ayckbourn travels to Seattle to direct the American premiere of his dangerous and scathing comedy of dark intentions. A naïve young student rescues an old man dressed as Father Christmas from a hit-and-run driver and brings him back to the London flat she shares with her sister. As he showers her with gifts in a manner beyond polite gratitude and she accepts them in a way that begins to alter her personality, they embark on a dangerously Faustian game of mutual fantasy.

RED LIGHT WINTER & 25 SAINTS

Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp; 25 Saints by Joshua Rollins

Presented in Repertory (not on the same nights)

October 23 - November 24

Tickets: Single Tickets start at $30

Last year's breakout small theatre company, Azeotrope (winner of multiple awards for Jesus Hopped the A Train), brings two powerful shows to ACT in repertory, Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp, and the Seattle premiere of 25 Saints by Chicago playwright Joshua Rollins.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

By Charles Dickens

Adapted by Gregory Falls

November 29 - December 29

Tickets: Single Tickets start at $32; Discounts available for: Seniors, Students, and Under 25

ACT proudly presents the Seattle holiday tradition of the classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the curmudgeonly businessman who requires the intervention of a few spectral guides to understand the true meaning of Christmas and life. Well over a century after its writing, Dickens' classic tale of hope and redemption continues to remind us what's really worth celebrating - at the holidays, or any time!

HAM FOR THE HOLIDAYS

By Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt

Dec 5-22, 2013

Tickets: Single Tickets start at $28; Discounts available for: Seniors and Students

Dos Fallopa (Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt) arrive at ACT with their 13th holiday comedy extravaganza: Ham for the Holidays: Close Encounters of the Pork Rind.These sketch comedians create an evening full of wickedly funny social satire, musical parody, and razor-sharp zingers roasting the holiday tradition.

About ACT: A Theatre of New Ideas - Raising Consciousness Through Theatre: Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only theatre in Seattle dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us through its annual Mainstage play series and Central Heating Lab program. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. With more than 120,000 people who attend shows annually, ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

About The Central Heating Lab: Launched in 2007, The Central Heating Lab at ACT serves as an incubator and catalyst for new works. ACT cultivates, produces, and presents artists working in all performance genres and provides an artistic home for a variety of local performance groups and artists. Relationships develop daily with individual actors, performers and playwrights while established partnerships with groups such as the Azeotrope, The Seagull Project, 14/48, Seattle Dance Project, and Icicle Creek Theater Festival grow and develop. New programs are added throughout the year. With year-round programming produced by The Central Heating Lab at ACT alongside ACT's Mainstage plays, ACT offers its patrons a unique opportunity to maximize their theatre experience - the ACTPass: all you can see for only $30 per month. ACTPass Members can attend nearly all ACT produced performances.