Seattle Public Theater Youth Presents OPEN CARRY This Weekend

Seattle Public Theater (SPT) Youth presents Open Carry, a world-premiere play commissioned especially for SPT's Youth Program from local playwright Scot Augustson that takes a whimsical look at our constitutional right to bear arms by asking, "What if those arms were actually tigers?"

TWO [free] performances: Today, November 8th @ 2pm and Sunday, November 9th @ 4pm at the historic Bathhouse Theater on Green Lake. Admission to all Youth performances is free to the community. Donations are encouraged to support SPT's Theater Youth Program and to offer student tuition assistance.

With Open Carry, playwright Scot Augustson (Printer's Devil Theatre and Theatre Off Jackson's Animal Cruelty, 2014 Gregory Award Nominee for Best New Play) treats audiences to his slightly twisted and clearly cracked take on reality by applying it to one of the most serious issues of the day; gun violence in schools.

"When SPT approached me about writing a play for kids addressing gun violence, my first reaction was, 'No way!'" says Augustson. "Just thinking about putting kids and firearms on-stage together made me uncomfortable. I, personally, could not sit through that and pay any attention to the story. Then I thought, 'This is a really meaty challenge. How could it be done?' The idea that I ran with was to use dangerous animals as a metaphor. It's a little absurd, visceral and gives the play that element of distance from reality we'd need to bring the discussion to life. My hope is that everyone on both sides of the curtain has a good time and is left with plenty to talk about later."

"There's a benefit in addressing serious topics with humor," says director Steven Sterne. "This play was conceived with middle-schoolers in mind. The first playwright I thought of was Scot Augustson. His work always makes me laugh but also probes deeply. Open Carry paints a vivid picture of middle school life, with its hideous cliques and interpersonal cruelty. Toss in access to venomous snakes, killer bees and a tiger, and you've got a great metaphor for guns at school. I'm pleased that this work is never preachy or didactic, but rather, full of truth, humor and humanity."

Open Carry is written by Scot Augustson, directed by Steven Sterne and features the acting talents of Aaliyah Soukup-Stone, Aaron Sterne, Austin O`Fallon, Caetano Key, Declan Mullin, Erica Gill, Gigi Varriano, Griffin Cheng, Ian Graybill, Isaac Panks, John Romano-Olsen, Quinn Papineau, Sylvie Knox, Zac Pie, and Zoe Poole. The production is assistant directed by Abby Stein, stage managed by Caitlin McCown, assistant stage managed by Becky Hewitt, with sound design by Mark Waldstein.

Ensemble features actors grades 5-8.