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Seattle Goes Red: Win cool prizes!
- For example, our Arts Management Intern, Melissa Fagan, took this photo of Alexander Calder’s “Eagle” at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Winner of six Tony Awards, Red is a riveting drama that takes an insider’s look at abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko as he defends—and doubts—his life’s work after receiving the biggest commission in the history of modern art.
Seattle Goes Red: In honor of our upcoming production of Red—preview performances start this Friday, Feb. 24—we’re offering folks a chance to win a Red-inspired gift basket by sharing with us iconic images of red objects, landmarks, art, etc. in Seattle.
How do I participate in the “Seattle Goes Red” contest?
Take a photo of something that is red and just screams Seattle. And try your best to make it pretty (and by that we mean, it should be a photo that would impress Rothko!). So let your inner artist have some fun about town!
After you’ve shot your photo, post it on the wall of our Seattle Repertory Theatre Facebook page and you’ll be entered to win. (Make sure to leave a comment saying that you’re entering our competition too.)
What do I win? The Red Basket
- 2 tickets to Seattle Rep’s production of Red
- 2 passes to the Seattle Art Museum (they have two Rothkos you can check out!)
- $20 Red Robin gift certificate
- Six red velvet cupcakes from Cupcake Royale
- A red Seattle Rep mug
The contest begins on February 24 and runs through March 9. If you have any questions about the contest, just leave a comment on this post and we’ll get back to you. We’ll select a winner on Tuesday, March 13. Good luck Red hunters!
What did you think of Red?
No really, what'd you think? We'd love to know.
Script for Free: Mike Daisey Keeps the Conversation Going
Mike Daisey in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Photo by Kevin Berne.
Mike Daisey democratizes theatre, one script at a time.
Daisey will be releasing the script of his one-man show The Agony and the Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, which played at Seattle Rep last season, on his website, mikedaisey.blogspot.com this week. The script will be free to download and there are no royalties associated with staging a production of the show.
It’s true! Any performer can mount The Agony and the Ecstacy of Steve Jobs for free. The New York Times stated that the “decision comes from his [Daisey's] desire to connect with other theater artists and to help organizations that have inquired about the show and want to adapt the work.”
Daisey’s work recounted his trip to China and back and asks the question of “How did one obsessive man [Steve Jobs] change the world to his liking—and at what cost?” The one-man show immediately sparked conversation in the theatre world and community at large.
The play’s impact is evident. And while those other than Mike Daisey can now have a crack at performing The Agony and the Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, Daisey won’t stop the conversation either. He is currently performing the show at The Public Theater in New York through March 4. If anything, Daisey’s bold move to share his script freely with others will only further spread the word about his work and the issues of the play.
So what do you think? How do you feel about Daisey’s decision to share the script at large and allow others to produce it freely without restrictions?
Nick Garrison’s German Love Affair
Actor Nick Garrison.
Actor Nick Garrison’s love of German history, art, and music began long before he took on the role of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in I Am My Own Wife.
In his extensive Seattle acting career, Garrison has played everything from the titular role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Re-Bar—a role he went on to play in San Francisco, the U.K., and Chicago—to performing as the Emcee in The 5th Avenue’s Cabaret. Garrison is a veteran of playing German characters for the stage and has always had a strong interest in German history and culture.
“I went to school in Paris for a while,” Garrison said. “While there I studied voice for years and was always very drawn to music from Weimar Berlin. I don’t know why German characters have found me and German culture has kind of haunted me. It didn’t even begin with Hedwig [and the Angry Inch]. It began before that. I played some German characters, I learned early on how to sing in German with some facility—even though I don’t speak German—but I’m learning more German for this show.”
“There’s a vibration of that era, particularly the early part of the twentieth century in German culture, which rests well with me as a performer,” Garrison said. “It was a flowering before the war of incredible ideas and art and democracy and freedom. That soul of Germany is in this play. It’s all over it. And Rob Witmer, our sound designer, is bringing it literally into the room, with some of the beautiful music he’s bringing into the show.”
Nick Garrison in I Am My Own Wife at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Photo by Chris Bennion.
Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife holds a special place in Garrison’s heart. After seeing the original production in New York and being awestruck by the play and Jefferson Mays’ performance as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in 2004, Garrison immediately knew he wanted to do the play someday.
“For me, Charlotte represents German history in a way,” he said. “She is a literal representation of the German soul. Charlotte stands for survival in the face of anything, which to me is what gay people have done and many other disenfranchised groups have done for years. She’s implacable. She’s steady survival, calm survival, and that to me is beautiful. I love her as you can tell, I adore her. I think she’s a hero for the ages. And like most good heroes, she’s a little bit flawed and strange. “
What rituals do you have in your life?
Patron responses to "What rituals do you have in your life?"
In the play, Bill tells the audience, “Ritual is a good form of prayer for a writer.” Here are just a few of the audience replies to the third question we asked in our New Book lobby display.
What rituals do you have in your life?
- I get out of bed at 5:27.
- Grace at supper (say thanks), Rachel Maddow at night, & church on Sunday
- Sunday morning NPR & New York Times
- I write at least a page a day. Usually more.
- I drink a perfect martini everyday at 4 p.m.
- Always have Friday night Shabbat dinner with friends and family.
- Bring coffee to wife in bed in morning.
- Going to the theatre with my mom. Taking my daughter to the theatre.
- Each year, on the day after Christmas, my daughter and I join a larger group to sing Handel’s Messiah. It’s become an important ritual for us.
- I kiss my dog and my husband everyday—in that order!
Why we make theatre
In tech rehearsal at Seattle Rep's Bagley Wright Theatre.
One of my favorite things about my position as Associate Designer here at Seattle Rep is that I not only get a chance to design a few shows here each season, but it also affords me time to do freelance design work at other theatres as well. This past fall I had the good fortune to be the lighting and projections designer for the Seattle Children’s Theatre production of Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is currently running in Minneapolis at Children’s Theatre Company. The performance report from the student matinee this morning had the following note:
PERFORMANCE NOTES: It was generally agreed by all that the show was “kind of rough” (tech wise). But after the show we learned that there was a 5 year old autistic child in the house. He had never spoken. But as the lights went down, he began to talk. In full sentences. He called the teacher by name. She had no idea he even knew her name. He was engaged in the show – at one point commenting to the teacher that if there is a dragon then there will be fire. And there was fire. He talked all throughout the show. When the lights came back up – he quit talking and returned to his world. So, yes, I could list all the little things that wrong today but that is not what this show is about. And that little boy certainly didn’t see those things as he sat talking in the dark theatre watching Harold and the Purple Crayon.
During these times of tight resources, both human and financial, it is very humbling to receive this reminder of why we do what we do, and why it is so desperately important. I want to say thank you to all of the artists out there who make it their life’s work to tell these stories, and I want to say thank you to all of the arts patrons out there who give us somebody to tell these stories to… it is important, and it is vital.
Seattle Rep audience shares family rules
The Rep's New Book lobby display: in the process of accumulating post-its.
In How to Write a New Book for the Bible, playwright Bill Cain asks questions that speak to the heart of every family. A recent Crosscut review characterized it this way: “What Cain wants us to see is the intense sacredness of ordinary life as well as the significance of the lives of ordinary people, of their living and their dying.”
In the spirit of this notion that the “ordinary is extraordinary,” we wanted our audiences to share with us stories and rituals of their own lives. We invited patrons to answer three questions—inspired by the play—and share those answers on post-it notes that they’d leave on our lobby display.
The response was overwhelming! Front of house staff had to replenish the post-it note supply often and many patrons lingered in the lobby after shows to read every note stuck on the board.
Read below for a few answers to our first question.
What is the most important rule of your family?
- Do your best—in all things.
New Book audiences answer, "What is the most important rule of your family?"
- There are no points off for loving.
- If talking is good, yelling is better.
- Try.
- Living well is the best revenge.
- Keep the women fed.
- Don’t get hit by a car.
- It is okay to make mistakes.
- This moment is holy.
Stay tuned for future blog posts that share audience answers to “What do you wish the Bible said? OR What are you glad it says already?” and “What rituals do you have in your life?
What did you think of I Am My Own Wife?
Opening night of I Am My Own Wife is approaching fast! Preview performances start this week, and we’d like to give you a place to share your thoughts about the show. So what’d you think? Leave a comment on this post and let us know how you feel.
Nick Garrison: 1 Man, 30 Characters
Not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, playwright Doug Wright began a conversation with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an elegant and eccentric 65-year-old German transvestite who, against all odds, hid from the Nazis in plain sight as a woman. In the play, Doug Wright uses more than 30 characters—played by actor Nick Garrison—to piece together Charlotte’s controversial life.
Click below to hear Garrison talk more about creating these characters and the rehearsal process of I Am My Own Wife, a play which he calls an “incredible exercise in storytelling.”
