Seattle Public Theater to Present GIDION'S KNOT

Seattle Public Theater (SPT) presents the Pacific Northwest premiere of Johnna Adams' explosive new drama, Gidion's Knot, directed by Shana Bestock.

When a mother arrives for a parent-teacher conference, the teacher is shocked she has shown at all. Gidion was a deeply creative 5th grader, but recent tragic events have cast a long shadow over his brilliance. Nominee for the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honoring female playwrights, and a 2013 Steinberg Award Finalist, Gidion's Knot is a story that brings some explosive questions to the table. What are appropriate limits to a child's freedom of creative expression? How does one address a single child's growth and development while respecting the needs of the community? Ultimately, who is accountable for a child's actions?

"Raising kids is a tough and challenging business," says director Shana Bestock. "Schools often fail highly individualistic and creative youth, whose emotional capacity and imagination can take them outside the realm of what's acceptable to the mainstream. What are parents and teachers to do? When a teacher clicks with a kid, magic can happen - but when a teacher and a kid are a poor fit, who's to blame? Gidion's Knot is a great play for anyone fascinated by the realities of raising children, and that beautiful, terrible truth of parenting: when the kid you kiss goodbye in the morning may not be the same person who steps onto the school bus five minutes later."

Directed by Shana Bestock, Gidion's Knot features the acting talents of Heather Hawkins (ArtsWest Playhouse's Shirley Valentine and The Little Dog Laughed) as Corynn and Rebecca Olson (Seattle Shakespeare Company's Love's Labour's Lost and WET's Ballard House Duet) as Heather. Gidion's Knot is stage managed by Jessilee Marander (Seattle Shakespeare Company's Antony and Cleopatra, Pygmalion,and The Comedy of Errors) and features Lighting and Set Design by Richard Schaefer (SPT's The Understudy, Cryptogram, and Arms and the Man), Costume Design by Pete Rush (SPT's 13th of Paris, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and The Language Archive), Sound Design by Jay Weinland (SPT's Superior Donutsand Halcyon Days), Assistant Sound Design by Harry Todd Jamieson (SPT's Broke-olgy), Props Design by Ashley Banker (Sound Theater Company'sDogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth), with Dramaturgy by Sonja Lowe.

Gidion's Knot contains graphic language and descriptions of fantasy violence, and is not recommended for children under the age of 13 without parental guidance.

Seattle Public Theater's Pacific Northwest premiere of Johnna Adam's Gidion's Knot previews March 27th, 2014 and runs March 28th to April 20th, 2014. Tickets are available by contacting the SPT box office at (206) 524-1300 or on line at www.seattlepublictheater.org.

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