Seattle's Rep Unveils 2016-17 'Other Season' of New Work

With great excitement and anticipation, Seattle Repertory Theatre announces 11 projects for its nationally respected new work series, The Other Season, with additional projects to be revealed. Throughout the course of the year, Seattle Rep will collaborate with over 15 leading writers and directors from Seattle, across the country, and around the globe, to foster, develop, and present their extraordinary new work. This exploration will further enrich Seattle Rep's vibrant history with new play development and help shape the Contemporary Theatre landscape throughout the nation and beyond.

Now in its second year, Seattle Repertory Theatre's The Other Season develops and presents exclusively new work. The Rep offers each collaborator, whether they are a playwright, director, or devisor, a menu of development support. Some of these activities include free public readings, closed residencies with writers working on brand new work, and extended workshops. The theatre will also partner with the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle and the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle for two of the endeavors. "In assembling this year's The Other Season, we sought artists who eloquently articulated challenging questions and tackled the zeitgeist through innovative forms. All of these artists expressed their excitement to share their work and their process with our Pacific Northwest community, and Seattle Rep feels honored to support them on their journeys for these specific projects and beyond," Kristin Leahey, Seattle Rep Literary Director and Dramaturg explains. "Our foremost goals are to cultivate these important relationships, provide artists the time, space, and experience they desire to foster their work, and for the collaborators to become a vibrant part of our cultural imprint. We hope the greater Seattle community will join us in the celebration of these collaborators' work and in our enthusiasm for having them as part of The Other Season."

Some of the work that has been developed through The Other Season last year includes Sarah Burgess' award-winning Dry Powder, which will be produced as part of the Rep's mainstage season this spring, commissioned writer Hansol Jung's Wolf Play, Seattle-based writer Yussef El Guindi's Oubliettes, and Erica Schmidt's innovative telling of Macbeth, among others.

"Seattle Rep has a long history of developing new theatrical works, fostering dozens of new plays and musicals through mainstage productions, commissions, workshops, and readings," Braden Abraham, Seattle Rep Artistic Director comments. "This year, we are taking that commitment to a new level with more activity throughout the season, engaging a wide range of exciting playwrights and directors at every stage of their creative process. We are particularly proud of our commitment to taking new work from page to stage, with our active commissioning program and a commission-to-production rate of 89% over the last six seasons."

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About The Other Season Line-Up:

The Burdens

by Matt Schatz

directed by Matt Giles

Kickoff Event for The Other Season

Public Reading on November 14, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

This is a dark comedy about how technology helps keep us close, while still enabling us to keep our distance.

The Burdens was developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center: National Playwrights Conference in 2016. Schatz won the Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre in 2012.

The Grove

by Mfoniso Udofia

directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton

Public Reading on November 21, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

Written by Mfoniso Udofia, a playwright, actor, storyteller, and slam-poet, The Grove is part of her Ufot Family Cycle, a 9-play cycle tracking several generations of a Nigerian-American family. The play follows a young poet's Nigerian history and American present as they collide and combust.

Director Valerie Curtis-Newton is a Professor and the Head of Performance (Acting and Directing) at the University of Washington School of Drama. She is the Founding Artistic Director of The Hansberry Project.

I'll Get You Back Again

by Sarah Gancher

directed by Rachel Chavkin

Public Reading on December 12, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

I'll Get You Back Again is a meditation on what we've inherited from the 60s via the reunion of a seminal psychedelic rock band.

Playwright Sarah Gancher is the winner of the New York Stage and Film Founder's Award, the A.R. Gurney Prize, and the Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission. Director Rachel Chavkin recently won the 2016 Obie for Direction for her work on The Royale at Lincoln Center. She is also the director of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway.

Early's House

by Nathan Alan Davis

Public Reading on February 6, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

Early's House is the third in a trilogy, which spans 60 years and is titled The Refuge Plays, about an African American family carving out their existence in Southern Illinois forest. The story follows Early's independent way of life, which becomes challenged when Crazy Eddie returns from the war.

Nathan Alan Davis' Nat Turner in Jerusalem recently had its world premiere at New York Theatre Workshop. He is a winner of the Blue Ink Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Award.

This Flat Earth

by Lindsey Ferrentino

directed by Wendy C. Goldberg

Public Reading on April 17, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

This Flat Earth follows 12-year-old Julie, who is determined not to return to school after a tragedy and has since developed a friendship with the elderly cellist who lives upstairs.

Lindsey Ferrentino recently won the 2016 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting for her play Ugly Lies the Bone. She is also the recipient of the 2015 Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, winner of the JoAnne Woodward/Paul Newman Drama Award, and made the 2015 Kilroys' List. Director Wendy C. Goldberg is the Artistic Director of the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.

the night, sans stars

by Benjamin Benne

directed by Kaytlin McIntyre

Public Reading in Spring of 2017

Mother and daughter each prepare for a big test. As Alma strives to become an American citizen, her U.S.-born daughter, Angel, attempts to ace the SATs.

This exciting new work by Seattle writer and 2016/17 Playwrights' Center Many Voices Fellow, Benjamin Benne, explores a flawed education system and this family's search for the American Dream.

Pride & Prejudice

adapted by Kate Hamill

Public Reading in Spring of 2017

This adaptation is a progressive take on the classic story of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, where family, status, and love collide in Regency-era England.

Hamill's theatrical rendering of Sense & Sensibility (in which she premiered the role of Marianne) was named "Top 10 Theater of 2014" by both Ben Brantley of The New York Times and the Huffington Post, which called it "the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history." It returned to off-Broadway last winter to glowing accolades. Her adaptation of Vanity Fair will premiere off-Broadway in Spring 2017.

Consulate of Mexico Partnership Project

Public Reading in Spring 2017

This is an exciting new partnership between Seattle Rep and the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, in which a writer from Mexico City will share their work in Seattle.

Dirty Crusty

by Clare Barron

directed by Ken Rus Schmoll

Closed Residency, December 2016

Dirty Crusty is a play about dance, sex, bad hygiene, and the attempt to reclaim big dreams.

Clare Barron is a playwright and actress from Wenatchee, Washington, who now resides in New York. She received the Obie Award for Playwriting in 2014 for her play You Got Older. She was also a co-winner of the inaugural Relentless Award. Director Ken Rus Schmoll is a two-time Obie Award winner.

Qui Nguyen Project

Closed Residency, Winter 2016

In addition to being known to Seattle Rep audiences as the playwright of Vietgone, Nguyen is the co-founder of Obie Award-winning theatre company Vampire Cowboys and is credited as one of the pioneers of "geek theatre." He is currently a writer for Marvel Studios.

Hannah Moscovitch Project

Closed Residency, 2017

Moscovitch is considered an "indie sensation" and "Canada's hottest young playwright." Her plays include East of Berlin, The Russian Play, and This is War. With this residency, Seattle Rep is thrilled to collaborate with our international partner, the Consulate General of Canada.

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Seattle Repertory Theatre creates productions and programs that surprise, entertain, challenge, and uplift the community through a shared act of imagination. In 1963, a group of theatre lovers created Seattle Rep as a foundation for a thriving arts-rich community. More than 50 years later, the theatre remains a vital source for creative thought and conversation, a place where the audience brings life to the stories we tell. Each year, we reach more than 100,000 audience members through our eight-play subscription season as well as public programs and youth arts education. In addition to the organization's many world-premiere productions, Seattle Rep also invests in the development of art and artists through new play readings, workshops, and commissions. Seattle Rep is currently led by Artistic Director Braden Abraham and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann, and is one of America's premier not-for-profit resident theatres, having achieved international renown for its consistently high production and artistic standards, Seattle Rep was awarded the 1990 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Seattle Repertory Theatre is grateful to the many visionary supporters who have helped new works find their way to the page and stage in Seattle and beyond. We thank the following individuals and foundations for their leadership support of new play development over the last four years: the Edgerton Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Glenn Kawasaki, Marcella McCaffray, Theatre Forward, Valerie and David Robinson, and Janet and Doug True.

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