14/48 Festival Runs 7/31-8/1 & 8/7-8 At On The Boards In Seattle

Winner of the Seattle Mayor's Arts Award in 2008 and Seattle's hearts and minds in 2009, 14/48 will run July 31 - August 1 & August 7 - 8 at 8:00 & 10:30 pm, Fridays & Saturdays at On the Boards, 100 W Roy St, Seattle WA in lower Queen Anne. 14/48 involves more than 75 artists per festival with at least 25%, the 14/48 Virgins, participating for the first time. Artistic participation is by invitation only and is predicated on the most rigorous professional standards. With twelve solid years of growth under its belt, 14/48 (fresh off a Standing Room Only January 2009 festival ) will enter On the Boards proudly carrying enough beer, food and caffeine to fuel the city's most adventurous theatre artists who will create 14 plays in 48 hours the audience will never see again but will never forget.

Tickets are $18 online or $20 at the door.
An All-Festival Pass is available for $35 and available at www.brownpapertickets.com.
The complete Artist Roster and Press Photos are available at www.1448fest.com.

14/48 is 14 plays conceived, written, designed, scored, rehearsed and performed in 48 hours. The brutal combination of short deadlines, extreme talent, incredible speed, frayed nerves and an immediate 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.
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 ten-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.

Friday Morning: Seven directors gather and each randomly draw one play. Thirty minutes later, the directors blindly choose actors and actresses' names on slips of paper to cast the show.
That Day: The band shows up to provide music and sound, designers create all technical aspects of each show as the directors and their casts rehearse all day.

Friday at 8pm: The seven plays have their World Premiere. The audience provides the theme for the next evening's show via a random drawing and the seven writers go home to start the process all over again to culminate with seven World Premieres for Saturday evening at 8pm.

14/48 Veterans include: Jerry Manning (Producing Artistic Director: Seattle Repertory Theatre), Stephanie Shine (Artistic Director: Seattle Shakespeare Co.), Charles Leggett (Becky's New Car at ACT & Merchant of Venice at SSC) Rita Giomi (Artistic Associate: Seattle Children's Theatre), Brian Faker (Producing Director: Giant Magnet), Sheila Daniels (Associate Artistic Director: INTIMAN), and Stranger Genius Award Winners Paul Mullin, Amy Thone, Gabriel Baron and Sarah Rudinoff. Some artists who have worked at On the Boards and 14/48 include Kevin Joyce, Stephen Hando, Bret Fetzer, Juliet Waller-Pruzan, Amii LeGende and Sarah Rudinoff. On the Boards artists participating in 14/48 this summer are directors Nick Garrison, Katjana Vadenboncoeur and Basil Harris, actor Charles Smith and marimbist extraordinaire Erin Jorgensen.

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 dedicated to featuring 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 Shawn Belyea, Jodi-Paul Brown-Wooster, Kerri Brown-Wooster, Deb Fialkow, Tim Hyland, Andy Jensen, Peter Dylan O'Connor, Alex Samuels and Stan Shields.

To post a comment, you must register and login.