Kurt Beattie News

ACT Theatre's highly anticipated original production of the international sensation Every Brilliant Thing takes the stage this spring in the round of the Allen Theatre. The play, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, is a heartwarming and hilarious look at the lengths we go to for those we love and has been playing to acclaim across the world, including a recent HBO special.  

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre today announced complete casting for its production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage (MJ the Musical, The Secret Life of Bees). 

The 2022-2023 season launches in October with William Shakespeare's Othello directed by Reginald André Jackson. Shakespeare's play follows a racist master manipulator as he deceives a military leader into believing his wife has been unfaithful.

Tickets are now available for Traveling Players' Dionysian Play Festival, which runs  weekends March 12-20 at their Studio in Tysons Corner Center. Performed by Traveling Players'  students, the festival will travel back in time to the beginning of Western Theatre, in ancient Greece, with  three modern twists on classic myths.  

The magic of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens' classic story of redemption and charity, comes to life as ACT - A Contemporary Theatre presents the timeless tale this year as a radio drama, complete with dialogue, Christmas carols, Adam Stern's musical score and sound effects. Imagine Scrooge, Marley, the Ghosts and all of the characters you know and love… coming to your home for the holidays.

Seattle Shakespeare Company unveiled its 2020-2021 season containing several artist-initiated projects around the theme of a?oeFamily Trust.a?? Highlights include a comedy by a Shakespeare contemporary, the return of upstart crow collective to the Seattle Shakespeare stage, a 20th Century American classic, and the beloved bickering of Beatrice and Benedick.

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) announces today that Valerie Curtis-Newton will be the recipient of the 2019 Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award.

Since the joint production between the 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT of "Urinetown" was announced I heard far too often from people that they wouldn't want to see that. A stupid musical about pee? "I don't care for shows that are all bathroom humor," I would hear. And I'd have to defend this wonderful show explaining that it's a super funny, well written show, yes with peeing as the basic setting, but that it was so much more as it pokes fun at government corruption and is an homage to famous musicals who came before. I guess Little Sally from "Urinetown" was right that nothing can kill a show faster than bad subject matter or a bad title. But then her stating that is why this self-referential, meta show works so well. It knows it's ridiculous and it embraces it. And the same could be said for this wonderful production that went for every bad joke with brilliant comic timing and then some.

The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT - A Contemporary Theatre announced today that their co-production of Urinetown has been extended by popular demand, adding five performances through June 2. Urinetown, which is now in performances, is the Tony-nominated, unforgettable piece of theatrical satire that imagines the consequences when the tangle between capitalism and politics gets too complex to unwind. The 5th Avenue Theatre's Producing Artistic Director Bill Berry directs.

BroadwayWorld has a first look Urinetown, this season's co-production between The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT - A Contemporary Theatre!

The cast for Urinetown, this season's co-production between The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT - A Contemporary Theatre, has been announced.

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) and the Gregory Awards announce today that brothers Billy and Howie Seago will be recognized for their contributions to the Seattle theatre community.

'The Gin Game' is a two-act, two person play about two septuagenarians playing cards together, bored in their retirement home. Neither Weller Martin nor Fonsia Dorsey have visitors on Visitor's Day, so they find themselves outside together, and kill time by playing gin rummy. They make polite conversation about their families both divorcees without family nearby and bond over mutual complaints about the retirement home's food. But round after round of gin, Fonsia, a gin rummy novice, beats Weller, and Weller gets increasingly frustrated with Fonsia's improbable winning streak. How could Fonsia keep beating him when he was the one who taught her how to play?

Snappy dialogue and quick wit crackle in this Pulitzer Prize-winning play that was called the closest thing the theatre offers to a duel at 10 paces by The New York Times. A collaboration between local Seattle theatre legends Jeff Steitzer (director), Kurt Beattie (Weller), andMarianne Owen (Fonsia), the story follows two strangers who enter into a seemingly harmless game of Gin Rummy. When one goes on an instant winning streak, tensions build within their friendship and the conversation starts to get personal.

Village Theatre is excited to announce its 2017-2018 Season with a diverse collection of shows that will combine to create an incredible year of theatre. The lineup includes: Into the Woods, a fairytale collision featuring the music of Sondheim; Disney's Newsies, a high-spirited explosion of song and dance; The Gin Game, a battle of quick wits and sharp tongues; String, a World Premiere musical fable about fate and the fragile fabric of the universe; and Hairpsray, the Tony Award-Winning smash hit.

Bad Apples is the new rock musical inspired by the real-life prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Bad Apples seeks to answer the simple question: How in God's name did this happen? Two soldiers ended up pregnant by fellow soldier Charles Graner; both women wanted to marry him, competed with each other to win his love, and enthusiastically tortured prisoners together, documenting most of it in pictures that later leaked and shocked the world.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre's Executive Director Carlo Scandiuzzi and Chair of the Board of Trustees Chuck Sitkin are pleased to announce that Becky Witmer has been promoted to Managing Director. Witmer previously served as ACT's General Manager and Director of Marketing and Communications. She will work with the staff and board to continue ACT's success in developing audiences, raising funds, and overseeing the daily operations of the theatre. Witmer signed a two-year contract in 2016 and now reports to the Board of Trustees.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre and Artistic Director John Langs are thrilled to announce ACT's first Core Company. Each year, a group of actors will join ACT in a year-long creative endeavor, performing and contributing as artistic ambassadors to ACT's Mainstage season. Langs has assembled the talents of Keiko Green, Kirsten Potter, Lorenzo Roberts, Jasmine Jean Sim, G. Valmont Thomas, Connor Toms, and R. Hamilton Wright for 2016.

As part of its 75th Anniversary Season, the University of Washington School of Drama is hosting a New Play Workshop Series with the goals of championing new and diverse voices in both the regional and national theatre community.