Seattle Public Theater Announces 2017-18 Season

Gregory Award-winning Seattle Public Theater announced the lineup for its 2017-18 season yesterday. The six plays, including a newly-commissioned world premiere by local playwright Maggie Lee and the runaway broadway sensation Hand to God by Robert Askins, were chosen specifically by newly appointed co-producing Artistic Directors Kelly Kitchens and Annie Lareau as part of the organization's mission to produce compelling and socially relevant theater that sparks conversation, broadens consciousness, and inspires compassion.

October 13 - November 5, 2017

The World of Extreme Happiness by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Directed by Desdemona Chiang

Presented in Collaboration with SIS Productions

When Sunny is born in rural China, her parents leave her in a slop bucket to die because she's a girl. She survives, and at 14 leaves for the city, where she works a low-paying factory job and attends self-help classes to improve her chances at securing a coveted office position. When Sunny's attempts to pull herself out of poverty lead to dire consequences for a fellow worker, she is forced to question the system she's spent her life trying to master - and stand up against the powers that be.

December 1 - December 24, 2017

The Flight Before Xmas by Maggie Lee

Directed by Amy Poisson

With all the stress of the holidays, spending Christmas Eve stranded in an airport with a bunch of strangers is the last thing anyone needs! With endless delays, kids shuttling between stepfamilies, a rogue cat on the loose, an important business deal at stake, and missing your grandson's first Christmas morning, the holiday spirit can disappear quicker than your lost luggage. But sometimes, all you need is to be a little late in order to truly appreciate what you're rushing toward. A heartwarming new holiday show about finding your way home and the family we discover for ourselves.

December 8 - December 24, 2017

Christmastown: A Holiday Noir by Wayne Rawley

Directed by Kelly Kitchens

In this film noir-inspired holiday thriller by Seattle playwright Wayne Rawley, hard-boiled detective Nick Holiday investigates some un-holiday-like shenanigans taking place in Christmastown that sends him on a search for the truth about Big Red. Add a glamorous elf, a used-Christmas-tree salesman, a muckraking reporter, and a quick-thinking cab driver, and you've got what the Seattle Times calls "best new holiday romp of the year!"

February 2 - February 25, 2017

Vanishing Point by Rob Hartmann & Liv Cummins
Music by Rob Hartmann
Original Concept & Additional Lyrics by Scott Keys
Directed by Annie Lareau

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and author Agatha Christie each vanished mysteriously: Agatha disappeared for eleven days; Aimee disappeared for three weeks; and of course Amelia vanished completely. Vanishing Point, a musical comedy-fantasy, brings these three women together as they solve the mystery of their disappearances from their own lives.

March 23 - April 15, 2018
Ironbound by Martyna Majok
Directed by Kelly Kitchens

An immigrant woman waits for her late night bus in The Shadows of a run-down Jersey factory. A man appears. A man always appears. And he's got something she needs. Spanning over 20 years, three relationships, and three presidents, what will two working class people trade and how dirtily will they fight for the cheapest safety in a world that does not value all kinds of people?

May 11 - June 3, 2018

Hand to God by Robert Askins
Directed by Kelly Kitchens

After the death of his father, meek Jason finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry, in the devoutly religious, relatively quiet small town of Cypress, Texas. Jason's complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school bully, the girl next door, and-most especially-his mother are thrown into upheaval when Jason's puppet, Tyrone, takes on a shocking and dangerously irreverent personality all its own. Hand to God explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us.

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