September 2024 Theater Openings compiled by Miryam Gordon from press releases.
Classics are here! Regional premieres are here! World premieres are here! Even dance theater is here! September brings on a full slate of performance opportunities. Get out yer calendars!
Romeo And Juliet, Theatre Battery, 9/1-22/24 (at Kent Station)
The classic love story, performed with Radical Hospitality: Free Admission for All Audiences.
The Glass Menagerie, Heart Repertory Theatre, 9/1-15/24 (at Kenmore Community Club, 7304 NE 175th St., Kenmore)
The classic Williams play, a memory of a fragile woman, a high school crush, a son who has to escape, and a mother who cannot escape her dreams of the past. An English-Spanish production.
Damn Yankees, Reboot Theatre Company, 9/6-21/24 (at Theatre Off Jackson)
Baseball fanatic Joe Boyd trades his soul to the Devil, also known as Mr. Applegate, to lead his favorite team to victory in the pennant race against the New York Yankees. As young baseball sensation, Joe Hardy, he transforms the hapless Washington Senators into a winning team, only to realize the true worth of the life that he’s left behind.
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, ACT Theatre, 9/7-22/24
Jillian Armenante returns from Los Angeles to direct Selena Fillinger’s play, a comedic story of seven extraordinary women tasked with managing the antics of the most powerful man in the world. From PR nightmares to global crises, these brilliant and very different women navigate a maze of chaos, risking everything to uphold sanity and stability in the White House. With sharp wit and biting satire, this Tony nominated play offers a tribute to the unsung heroes behind the political curtain.
Camelot, Village Theatre, Issaquah: 9/10/24-10/13/24; Everett: 10/19/24-11/10/24
Passion! Jealousy! Romance! An idealistic King Arthur hopes to build his kingdom on a foundation of justice and order, only to find his principles tested by the love between Queen Guenevere and his favorite knight, Sir Lancelot, all while the future of the kingdom is at stake.
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, On The Boards, 9/12-14/24
Internationally renowned British-Iranian artist, Javaad Alipoor, takes you on a wild ride down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia and murder mystery podcasts. This interdisciplinary work sorts through the tangle of digital information about the mysterious murder of an Iranian pop icon to reveal the limits of search engines in this post-colonial world.
What I Like, Filament: A Collab Lab, 9/12-15/24 (at Magnuson Park Amphitheater)
Local playwright Nathan Brockett adapts the work of Charles Mee into a theatrical game played by six performers in various pairings, personifications, and properties, and celebrates how we follow our impulse to create, and where that impulse leads us. (Free in the park!)
https://www.facebook.com/filament.collablab
Guards At The Taj, ArtsWest with Pratidhwani, 9/12/24-10/6/24
If you were able to see two Rajiv Joseph plays this year from ReAct Theatre and Pratidhwani, here’s a chance to see a third! In 1648 India, two Imperial Guards watch from their post as the sun rises for the first time on the newly-completed Taj Mahal—an event that shakes their respective worlds. When they are ordered to perform an unthinkable task, the aftermath forces them to question the concepts of friendship, beauty, and duty, and changes them forever. Live musicians will perform each night!
The Adding Machine: A Cyborg Morality Play, The Feast (formerly The Williams Project) and Intiman Theatre, 9/12/24-10/6/24 (at The Lee Center, Seattle U) (open 9/14)
This production will incorporate artificial intelligence into its artistry, adapting Elmer Rice’s century-old classic for a new generation. Zero loses their job to a machine, so they kill their boss. They are then sent on a hallucinatory journey through internet culture, the legal system, the underworld, and the future as they struggle to understand their value.
www.the-feast.org or www.intiman.org
Passage, Yun Theatre, 9/12-28/24 (at 12th Avenue Arts)
Can there be true friendship between people of different positions of power? Christopher Chen invites us to embark on a journey to Country X together. B, a local country X doctor, and F, an expat country Y teacher, begin to forge a friendship that is challenged after a fateful trip to a local attraction. The play is a meditation on how power imbalances affect personal and interpersonal dynamics across a spectrum of situations.
Murder Inn, Edmond’s Driftwood Players, 9/13/24-10/6/24
Local playwrights Howard Voland and Keith McGregor (d. 2024) write about Barnsley Inn, a dilapidated eighteenth-century inn, which is supposedly haunted by Marco, a knife-throwing poltergeist. A group of tourists, on a tour is forced, by a storm, to make an unscheduled stop at the Barnsley. What looks to be an unpleasant and uncomfortable detour soon turns into a night of mayhem and madness as knives begin to pop up… in the most unexpected places. As the storm builds and the body count rises, the survivors try to figure out who done it. And even more important- who’s likely to have it done to them next?
www.edmondsdriftwoodplayers.org
The Importance of Being Earnest, Olympic Theatre Arts Center, 9/13-29/24
Two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff, create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and indeed bizarre, characters to be found on stage.
My Lord, What a Night, Taproot Theatre, 9/18/24-10/19/24
Based on the real-life friendship between famed contralto Marian Anderson and physicist Albert Einstein, we are introduced to Marian Anderson as she is denied lodging after a sold-out Princeton audience. Albert Einstein, a longtime fan, invites her to stay in his home. Over time, they grapple with their responsibility as an artist and scientist in a world plagued by racial segregation and a looming world war.
Abacus, Red Rover Theatre Company, 9/19-28/24 (at West of Lenin) (world premiere)
A troubled family in the not-too-distant future struggles with AI, aging, and dementia. Few challenges confound contemporary society as much as these. By local playwright Duane Kelly. Experts in AI, aging, and dementia will present free optional discussions following three performances: Sept. 21 and 27 matinees, and the Sept. 26 evening performance.
www.brownpapertickets.com (www.redrovertheatre.com)
Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical, Seattle Children’s Theatre, 9/26/24-10/27/24
Cat Kid and Molly Pollywog have started an epic club to teach 21 rambunctious baby frogs how to make their own comics! This madcap musical based on Dav Pilkey’s irreverently hilarious book series will entertain the whole family. (Ages 6+, 60 minutes, no intermission)
The Skin of Our Teeth, Seattle Rep, 9/26/24-10/20/24
Imagine: You’ve been married for 5,000 years, raised a couple of kids, and survived multiple catastrophic disasters. But with the world constantly teetering on the edge of collapse, would you have the strength to save the human race, over and over again? Join the Antrobus family on a time-bending romp from the age of the dinosaurs, to our 21st century election year, to what might just be the end of the world as we know it. Featuring an epic-sized cast and dozens of community guest stars, Thornton Wilder’s action-packed comedy is a love letter to human endurance.
LIZZIE: A Rock Musical in 40 Whacks, Pullman vs. Paxton, 9/27/24-10/5/24 (at Broadway Performance Hall)
In the dog days of 1892, Lizzie Borden took an ax…and, well, you know the rest. Muckraking journalists made her a bicoastal media sensation overnight. An all-out spectacle, the show’s provocative delivery oozes attitude and simmering tension with a kinetic urgency that hums under the surface. Using a gasoline-soaked rock score, and based on the historical record, LIZZIE explores the strange alchemy leading up to the murders, Lizzie’s controversial acquittal of all charges, and the creation of a new American myth. (A benefit for Legal Voice.)
Woman With No Wings, Mohini Dance School, 9/27-29/24 (at Cornish Playhouse)
An immersive glimpse into Queen Cleopatra’s life paints a vivid portrait of her mental and emotional landscape. With Indian Classical dance (forms such as Mohiniyattam, Kathakali, Bharatanatyam, Kuchupudi) and songs in multiple languages, original music and poignant drama, the play highlights her journey – from a queen battling societal constraints to a woman grappling with her inner demons. The play invites audiences to connect with the essence of Cleopatra’s enduring legacy, breathing life into the human struggles that unite us all. www.mohinidanceschool.org
Sandbox Radio: REDUX, Sandbox Radio, 9/29/24 (at Town Hall)
This unique company returns with its presentational style of old-timey radio presentations. Multiple musical performers and guest artists.
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