End of Lear & Border:Home at ReAct Theatre

Baker Theater Workshop Presents Two Plays About Power, Family, and the Perils of Both

Baker Theater Workshop is proud to present the world-premiere staged reading of a script by a local playwright alongside a reimagining of King Lear this June.

Baker Theater’s artistic director Peter Temes has penned a new play called Border:Home that will premiere at Seattle’s ReAct Theatre June 5th and run through the 14th. The play centers around a group of volunteers stationed at the least-used border crossing between the US and Mexico who are dedicated to helping migrants cross the open desert.

Border:Home does more than raise a voice of protest against the US’s current policy of granting precious few asylum claims and repelling families seeking shelter: it spotlights the human dimensions of the tragedy and the struggle to make some kind of positive contribution.

Border:Home will be presented alongside another one-act called The End of Lear: Four Kings, an adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy. Continuing Baker’s dramatic explorations of King Lear, this one-act piece depicts the original text from Lear’s perspective.

In The End of Lear, four dynamic Seattle actors simultaneously unearth the varied facets of this Shakespearean king: his cruelty toward his loved ones, his anxiety about how others perceive him, and his propensity for transforming the world into merely a stage for his personal drama.

Paired together as one evening of theatre, both Border:Home and The End of Lear delve into themes related to the hunger for power, the limits of family bonds, and the personal tragedies inherent within larger political machinations. The staged readings are directed by Temes and feature local actors Peter C. Cook, Hester Elwell, Raine Hoover, Ken Knight, Ava Hoover, and John Dugaw.

Border:Home and The End of Lear premiere on June 5th at ReAct Theatre in Pioneer Square and run through June 14th. The entire evening runs approximately two hours, including one ten-minute intermission. There will be snacks and non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase both prior to the show and during intermission.

ReAct Theatre is wheelchair-accessible through the freight elevator entrance at the back. If you need any accommodations, please contact us at peter@iloinstitute.com after reserving your tickets so that we can let you in through this entrance or assist you with anything else.

Baker Theater Workshop exists to bring new works of theater to the Seattle community, with an eye toward highlighting voices often unheard. We offer free admission as part of our radical hospitality policy that ensures quality art is accessible to all. You can also choose to make a donation with your ticket reservation, which greatly helps underwrite the costs of producing high-caliber theatre and offering unlimited radical hospitality ticketing.