14/48 Returns to ACT in January 2010

14/48: The World's Quickest Theater Festival returns to ACT January 8-16 for another round of new work created in record time! Fourteen plays are conceived, written, designed, scored, rehearsed, and performed in 48 hours, all by Seattle's brightest talent.

Who: Over 50 of Seattle's most adventurous theater artists (7 playwrights, 7 directors, 7 designers, 7 musicians, and approximately 24 actors) are invited each week to create 14 fully-produced plays in 48 hours based on a theme chosen at random. Confirmed artist roster will be at www.1448fest.com on December 8. True Fact: Look at a Seattle theater calendar listing from any point over the past five years - no less than three shows would have had a 14/48 participant involved in those productions!

Where: ACT Theatre, 700 Union St, Seattle WA (7th and Union, downtown)

When: January 8- 9 & 15-16, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 & 10:30 p.m.

Tickets: $20 online / $25 day of show / $40 All-Fest Pass

(206) 292 -7676 or www.acttheatre.org

After four venues in two years, 14/48 returns to ACT Theatre to continue the partnership with the Central Heating Lab started in January 2009. The January 2009 festival sold out 7 of its 8 performances, inspiring leadership to move 14/48 from the Bullitt Cabaret to the larger Gregory Falls Theatre.

The brutal combination of short deadlines, extreme talent, incredible speed, frayed nerves, and an overflowing fountain of inspiration serve to strip away creative inhibitions occasionally found in more traditional theater, proving that, contrary to popular opinion -sometimes the first idea is the best. 14/48 involves over 50 artists per weekend with at least 25% participating for the first time. Artistic participation is by invitation only and is predicated on the most rigorous professional standards. Here's how 14/48 works:
Early Thursday Night, Before the Festival Begins: After tapping the ceremonial 14/48 Keg, all the participants choose a theme by completing this sentence: "Theatre would be a lot more interesting if there were seven 10-minute plays about _____." One answer is chosen at random and that becomes the theme for the following evening.
Thursday Night: Seven caffeine-filled writers have one night to write a 10-minute play based on the theme.
The Next morning: Seven directors gather and each randomly draw one play. Thirty minutes later, the directors blindly choose actors and actresses to cast the show.
That Day: The band shows up to provide music and sound as the directors and their casts rehearse all day. Early that evening the groups struggle to squeeze in a tech rehearsal and at 8:00 p.m. the first show begins!
After the Seven World Premiere Plays Wrap: The audience chooses a new theme and the adrenaline-charged theater-a-thon kicks in again.
14/48 runs for two consecutive weekends January 8 -9 & 15-16, Friday and Saturday (8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.) with a new group of artists each weekend. Tickets are $20 advance, $25 at the door and $40 for an All-Fest Pass. Tickets are available at the ACT Ticket Office, 700 Union Street, Downtown Seattle, (206) 292-7676 or online at www.acttheatre.org. For more information on 14/48 visit www.1448fest.com, and www.1448fest.blogspot.com.
About 14/48
Founded in 1997 by Michael Neff and Jodi-Paul Wooster, the festival has evolved from a one-night, one-time only event to a twice-yearly, two-weekend-long theatrical bonanza that features Seattle's most fearless theatre artists with occasional guests from Los Angeles, Vancouver BC, and New York. Participation is by invitation only and ranges from experienced fringe theater artists to Seattle's performance elite. Each festival, 14/48's Steering Committee strives to comprise the artist pool of at least 25% new participants (a.k.a. "14/48 virgins"). The 14/48 Steering Committee is Megan Ahiers, Shawn Belyea, Jodi-Paul Brown-Wooster, Kerri Brown-Wooster, Deb Fialkow, Tim Hyland, Andy Jensen, Peter Dylan O'Connor, Alex Samuels, and Stan Shields.

Past 14/48 participants include: R. Hamilton Wright (Scrooge in ACT Theatre's A Christmas Carol), Jerry Manning (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Stephanie Shine (Seattle Shakespeare Co.), Rita Giomi (Seattle Children's Theatre), and Seattle audience favorites Charles Leggett, Khanh Doan, Alyson Scadron-Branner, Nick Garrison, Sheila Daniels, Paul Mullin, Amy Thone, Sarah Rudinoff, Kathy Hsieh (Sex in Seattle), and members of the highly-aclaimed theater-music-comedy-art collective "Awesome."

About ACT
For the past 44 seasons, ACT's mission has been to inspire our diverse community through theatre that advances our understanding of human life and to dare, excite, and enrich artists and audiences, and steward our many resources. Through The Central Heating Lab, ACT seeks to heat things up and create a conversation with its season that reaches for an even deeper impact.

ACT gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Season Sponsors ArtsFund, ACT Foundation, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and The Shubert Foundation, along with Producing Partners 4Culture, The Boeing Company, Getty Images, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation, One Nation, PONCHO, and The Seattle Foundation.