Annex Theatre Presents 'The Tale of Jemima Canard', 4/22-5/21

The underbelly of Beatrix Potter comes to life in Brandon Simmons' "The Tale of Jemima Canard". An innocent girl falls under the romantic sway of a predatory cad, but as the author is interrogated by one of her own characters, layers of love, envy, jealousy, and much worse becomes revealed as the play delves into the initially whimsical loves of Jemima. Along with her hard-as-nails sister Rebecca, the rugged but earnest St. Hubert brothers, the degenerate Tommy Brock, Miss Potter herself, and the elegant and alarming Tawny Whiskered Gentleman. Seattle actor Brandon J. Simmons makes his playwriting debut with this anthropomorphic dream-play. Simmons uses Potter's "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck" as a springboard to explore the nature of fate and time, blurring the lines between animal and human; love and violence; food and sex; and the artist and the art she creates.

Directed by Carys Kresny, who previously dug her fingers into dark and roiling emotions in "The Challenging" and "Penetralia" at Annex Theatre. The cast is rounded out with Mary Murfin Bayley as Potter, Jillian Vashro as Jemima, Danielle Daggerty as Rebecca, Martyn G. Krouse as Roland, Truman Buffett as the Tawny Whiskered Gentleman, and James James as Leroy and Brock. The production team consist of Erin Paige as Sound Designer, Cole Hornaday as Mask Maker, Hannah Schnabel as Costume Designer, Terra Morgan as Set and Props Designer, Tess Malone as Lighting Designer, Ryan Spickard as Fight Choreographer. Stage Management is provided by Katie Driscoll.

 

Ticketing Information
Tickets for The Tale of Jemima Canard can be made in advance on brownpapertickets.com or in person at the door. General Admission is $15; TPS Members, Seniors, and Military pricing is $10 and students are $5. The 'Pay What You Can" industry night is May 9th.

About the Playwright
Brandon J. Simmons is a writer, actor, and musician living in Seattle. He has performed in London, Liverpool, New York City, Minneapolis, as well as with many of Seattle's theatre companies, including Seattle Children's Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Capitol Hill Arts Center, theater simple, and Book-It Rep among many others. As a writer he has worked with 14/48: The World's Quickest Theatre Festival and Book-It Rep, for whom he recently adapted Oscar Wilde's Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. A passionate amateur musican, Brandon is on a lifelong journey of exploring and memorizing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. He was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota.

About the Director
Carys Kresny has directed theatre, physical performance and opera for stages that range from A Christmas Carol on a tabletop to baseball's opening day celebration at Giants' stadium. She has collaborated with a diverse range of performers and producers, among them opera singers, jugglers, juvenile detainees, jazz musicians, and inanimate objects. Most recently, she directed Saving Tania's Privates, which enjoyed successful runs in Phoenix and Edinburgh, and scooped up the "Audience Choice" award at New York's Fringe Festival. Past work includes directing the Flying Karamozov Brothers in Catch!, which originated in Seattle at A Contemporary Theater and toured nationwide, and in the Berkeley production of L'Universe. Her production of Cymbeline for Wooden O received a Seattle Times Footlight Award for "Best Local Shakespeare". Venues include Annex Theatre, Seattle Opera, Off-Center Opera, The Village Theatre, ACT Theatre, theater simple, Wooden O, Earshot Jazz, Printer's Devil, Northwest Shakespeare, The Group Theatre, and fringe festivals in Seattle and Vail. She's taught and directed at Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington, Taproot Theater, Highine and Olympic Community College, Northwest Actors' Studio, and The Annie Wright School. Carys spent her formative years in Las Vegas in a house at the edge of the desert and grew up believing that she was going to become a oceanographer.
Annex Theatre is a democratic collective of theatre artists dedicated to creating bold new work in an environment of improbability, resourcefulness, and risk.

In addition to new plays by living playwrights, Annex produces radical reinterpretations of classic scripts, ensemble-generated non-linear spectacles, and dynamic solo performances, as well as our monthly late-night variety show Spin the Bottle, now in its 14th year. All productions are chosen by the Annex company as a whole, through a process of proposals, interviews, readings, frenzied argument, and final consensus.

Annex incorporated on Bainbridge Island in 1986, and took residence in 1988 in a former dance studio on 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle. Since then the theater has produced hundreds of world and Northwest premieres, including new plays by Stranger Genius Award winners Chris Jeffries and Paul Mullin; dozens of other local playwrights, including Elizabeth Heffron, Jeff Resta, Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Scotto Moore, Keri Healey, Scot Augustson, John Kaufmann, and Heidi Heimarck; and nationally recognized playwrights such as Erik Ehn, Naomi Iizuka, Glen Berger, Anne Washburn, Jeffrey Jones, and Nicky Silver.

Former Annex company members ("alumni") can be found throughout the Seattle arts scene (including former Artistic Director of the Empty Space Allison Narver, Executive Director of Town Hall Weir Harman, Development Director for A Contemporary Theatre Josef Krebs, and Education Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre Andrea Allen) and in local and national film (directors SJ Chiro, Garrett Bennett, and Mike Shapiro; actors Jillian Armenante and Paul Giamatti).

Former Annex company members can be found throughout the Seattle arts community, including Allison Narver, former Artistic Director of the Empty Space; Weir Harman, Executive Director of Town Hall; Josef Krebs, Development Director for ACT Theatre; Andrea Allen, Education Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre; and Gillian Jorgensen, Seattle Children's Theatre Teaching Artist-as well as in the local and national film industry, such as directors SJ Chiro, Garrett Bennett, and Mike Shapiro, and actors Jillian Armenante and Paul Giamatti. We believe that Annex?s distinctive collective working model (which cultivates a combination of initiative, diligence, and the ability to play well with others) is responsible for this remarkable track record of producing leaders in the arts.
Annex?s new Artistic Director is Pamala Mijatov, who rose to power in September of 2010.

 

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