Season 3 Of BRASS Podcast to Feature New Northwest Cast Members

The ongoing alternate-history podcast BRASS premieres its third season this month. Recorded in Seattle, Washington and featuring a veteran cast of Pacific Northwest talent, the series follows the adventures of a quartet of Victorian science geniuses and their ongoing battle against a criminal mastermind known only as the Crime Minister.

The year is 1885, in a London very different from the one in our history books. This is world where Aethereal batteries and computational engines have brought the computer age to the world 150 years early, and the result is a British Empire where the past is considerably more pleasant than the one we know. But the story of the Brass family, the Defenders of this idyllic Realm, has apparently come to a tragic end.

Season Three continues directly after the catastrophic events of Season Two, when the Brasses were apparently killed in an assault by an army of criminal gangs on their Mayfair residence. Now we see the world readjust to their presumed death, as friends and allies try to lead a resistance to a criminal mastermind who now seeks political power as well. We leave the cozy confines of London society for a darker world of espionage and political intrigue, on the Continent and elsewhere.

This season noted Seattle actor Charles Leggett steps into the role of Lord Brass. Leggett, inaugural winner as well as two-time nominee for Seattle's Gregory Award, has played on every professional stage in Seattle, including ACT, Intiman, Seattle Children's Theater, and The 5th Avenue, and recently gave a standout performance in Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things at The Seattle Repertory Theatre. He will be seen this in August in Bulrush at Intiman Theatre, and this autumn in Village Theatre's production of Guys and Dolls.

Seattle actor Ronnie Allen, familiar to audiences through his performances at Theater Schmeater (The Most Deserving, Gilgamesh) and Café Nordo (Jitterbug Perfume), joins the company playing both the sinister (and very French) Graveyard King as well as the American inventor Dr. Henry Jones.

Nikki Visel, an actress with a long association with Taproot Theatre (including Shadowlands, An Ideal Husband, and Arthur: The Begetting), has also worked with Harlequin Productions in their production of Clybourne Park, Seattle Public Theatre's production of Proof, and shows with ReAct, Exchange Theatre, Theater Schmeater, Wooden O and Seattle Shakespeare. For our production she is playing the American abolitionist Matilda Gage.

And we're thrilled to have noted playwright Yussef El Guindi stepping into the role of Ab'd Al Katar, an Islamic warrior with ties to the Brass family. El Guindi's plays, which include Threesome, Back of the Throat, Pilgrims Musef and Sheri in the New World and Hostages, have been produced in and around Seattle and the United States. He is currently the playwright-in-residence at ACT.

Returning actors include Kate Kraay, Katherine Grant-Suttie, Jeremy Adams, Larry Albert, Margie Bicknell, Lisa Carswell, Nancy Frye, Matthew Middleton, Tadd Morgan, Phillip Keiman, and Terry Edward Moore as the Crime Minister.

BRASS: SEASON THREE premieres on Wednesday July 17th, and will continue for ten episodes every two weeks. It can be heard on iTunes, Podcaster, Podchaser, as well as pretty well wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as our newly updated battlegroundproductions.org.

BRASS is a multiplatform adventure serial available as an audio drama, a series of live shows, and a trio of short films. The audio drama version was originally streamed to over 50 commercial stations in the US and Canada courtesy of Seattle's Imagination Theater, and is available as a podcast through iTunes and other platforms.

Developed over five years and featuring a company of over 50 actors, crew and writers, BRASS features a collection of veteran Seattle and Northwest-based artists with some significant experience in stage and independent film, including Charles Leggett *(Lord Brass), Kate Kraay* (Lady Brass), Katherine Grant-Suttie* (Gwendolyn Brass), Jeremy Adams (Cyril Brass), Terry Edward Moore* (The Crime Minister), Tadd Morgan (Oscar Wilde and many others), Phillip Keiman* (Ponder Wright), Matt Middleton (Lord Whitestone), Margaret Bicknell (Mrs. Drake), Nancy Frye (M. Tressano) and Larry Albert* (PC Edwards and many others). (*Member of SAG/AFTRA.) It's written and directed by John Longenbaugh, author of over a dozen-full length plays, including Arcana, Scotch and Donuts, and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, which has had over 50 productions across the country and in Canada and England.