Solo Performance Festival returns for a fourth year with “SPF #4 – Can You Get My Back?” and a huge lineup from March 3 – April 3, 2010 at Theatre Off Jackson. All original works feature solo artists in theatre, music and dance along with three shorts nights and two late night monologue slams hosted by Teatro Zinzanni’s Kevin Kent at the Canoe Social Club.
The 2010 Festival performers include Gin Hammond, Kevin Kent, Keira McDonald, Julia Mackey, Ben DeLaCreme, Billie Wildrick, Lisa Koch, Jennifer Jasper, Elizabeth Kenny, Wes K. Andrews, Jonah Von Spreeken, Tamara Ober, Ki Gottberg, Paul Budraitus, Carrie McIntyre, Jayson McDonald, Mike Harris, Norman Bell, Suzanne Morrison, Jeff Frieders, Ben Gonio, Noah Benezra, Becky Poole, Erin Jorgensen, and Ernie Von Schmaltz.
The Solo Performance Festival kicks off today, Wednesday, March 3 with a “Best in Shorts” evening and runs through April 3rd, 2010 closing with a night of solo performances favorites of the Seattle Burlesque community.
Lisa Koch (Dos Fallopia, Ham for the Holidays) brings Demonstrate the Place of My Abode with a look at the life and music inspired by a funny father. Weekly pop culture-and-politics columnist of The Stranger’s “Last Days,” David Schmader takes the stage exposing his relationships with women in Blue’s Not Black. Helen Hayes Award winner, Gin Hammond, shares the true story of civil rights African American doctor, Caroline Beatrice Montier in Returning The Bones.
Drag queen extrordinaire Ben DeLaCreme (Can Can Cabaret, Atomic Bombshells, Academy of Burlesque) shows us what’s behind the makeup in Ben DeLaCreme’s Piece de Resistance (the piece she should have resisted) now in IMAX 3-D! Minnesota’s Sage Award Outstanding Performer, Tamara Ober brings dance performance Pipa to Seattle, which has captivated audiences with it’s dynamic mix of spoken word, dance, video and beautiful musical score. Billie Wildrick (ACT Theatre, 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Footlight Award Winner, Gregory Award Nominee) brings her commanding and luminescent vocal talent to Theatre Off Jackson to the story of Samson.
With so much great theatre crammed into one solid month it is difficult to digest it all but be sure to check out the schedule of the Solo Performance Festival at Theatre Off Jackson. Performances for SPF #4 range from March 3 – April 3 at 7:30pm and tickets are just $15 ($10 for Late Night Monologue Slams at 10pm) or $99 for an all-access festival pass. Visit www.theatreoffjackson.org for more info and full details.
Highlights for tonight’s “Best in Shorts” at Theatre Off Jackson:
- “Above Normal Range by Becca Davis” –
A woman with an unusual vocal attribute interviews for a specialized dating service. - “Daddy is Plastic by Elspeth Walker” –
A short performance piece about a girl who goes to London to meet a dad she hasn’t seen in eleven years and finds that her knight-on-white-horse vision is actually self-centered, fat, self-destructive and ugly. Daddy is Plastic is a valley-girl’s wrestling match with the duplicities of images we create for a single person; a deconstruction of our nasty human tendency to fabricate idyllic, porcelain people out of their primal, repulsive counterparts. - “A One Man Miss Saigon by Manuel R. Cawaling” –
In these difficult economic times, why produce a major Broadway musical with a cast of 30 or more when it can be performed with just one person? And with our shrinking attention spans, why produce a three hour musical when a story can be told in under 10 minutes? Manuel Cawaling returns to the Theatre Off Jackson stage with his hilarious parody of Miss Saigon. Through “movement”, karaoke, lip-synch, a helicopter and the use of a very large fan, Cawaling tells the tragic story of war torn lovers like it’s never been told before. - Rapid Slippage Along a Fault by Keira McDonald –
In the first minute of the first year of the 21st century a girl falls…in love. First comes the earthquake and then the declaration of war. - “The Riverboat Runs Aground: Based on a True Story by Wesley K. Andrews” – Wesley K. Andrews performs an excerpt from his original work, The Riverboat Runs Aground: Based on a True Story. Tonight’s performance will be Chapter III: The Fairbanks High School Constitutional Crisis, a story of careless endangerment and rebellion in the context of a post-Columbine school system.
- Also “Clown Car” by Emmet Montgomery and “Sick” by Elizabeth Kenny.
Get ticket’s for tonights “Best in Shorts” here.
