DIRTY
A Staged Reading with Music
Written by Jayne Hubbard
Directed by Suz Pontillo
Music by Magritte & Rosen
February 4 – 5, 2025
Pay-what-you-can tickets
The year is 1892. As business magnates continue to rally the community to rebuild after a glue fire destroys most of downtown Seattle, everyone looks to the wealthiest person in town: local brothel owner Madame Lou Graham. A historical fiction with lots of music, DIRTY explores the complex lives of the most powerful figures in town: Seattle’s sex workers.
Feedback
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Performances
Tuesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Masking & Air Filtration
All audience and staff are required to wear masks in all spaces unless they are actively eating and drinking. The theatre has minimal airflow and air filtration devices, so utilizing masks maintains safety for our performers, patrons, and staff. If you forget your mask, we will have extras available at the box office.
Cast
Lou – Holly Vander Hyde
Amber – Kendra Tamär Budd
Jo – Ariel Rose Horton
Hazel – Jessica Marvin-Romero
Ann – Anamaria Guerzon
French Lily – Jeanie Lee Cookston
Allen – Rhys Daly
Frances – Kaelyn Langer Mendonca
Stage Directions – Miki Murray
Crew
Playwright – Jayne Hubbard
Director – Suz Pontillo
Composers – Alara Magritte & Daniel Rosen
Music Director – Nick Bringhurst
Dramaturg & Production Manager – Catherine Blake Smith
Technical Consultant – Jordan Somers
Vision Mixer – Ben Laurance
Bios
Jayne Hubbard – Playwright
Jayne Hubbard (she/they) is a Seattle based playwright/actor and is SO happy to have you here. Other works include Lighthome, a play with music about two sisters who run the Admiralty Head Lighthouse on Whidbey Island in 1864 (Seattle Public Theater Distillery New Works 2024 Finalist). Jayne has a soft spot for Washington history and Seattle based stories. Thank you so much for being here and supporting queer new Seattle based work.
Suz Pontillo – Director
Suz (they/she) is a first-generation Chilean-American multi-hyphenate queer artist from Miami, Florida. They are the Director of Artistic Experience for Washington Ensemble Theatre and a member of Dacha Theatre. She is grateful that Jayne has trusted them to help build the incredible world of DIRTY.
Alara Magritte – Composer
Alara Magritte (she/her) is a songwriter, playwright, producer, and art director whose work explores the space between the grotesque and the gorgeous. A 2015 California Playwrights’ Project winner for The Tangible Tollbooth, she has collaborated with many organizations including Playwrights Foundation, NYMF, TheatreWorks: Silicon Valley, and La Jolla Playhouse. Alongside Daniel Rosen, she co-wrote the original festive holiday collection This Year, and the spine-tingling Halloween album, Magritte and Rosen’s House of Haunts. The pair also produces “My Body, My Voice,” a benefit concert supporting equitable access to abortion care. Magritte is a graduate of Beth Morrison Projects Producer’s Academy and holds a BA in Playwriting from Purchase College. magritteandrosen.com
Daniel Rosen – Composer
Daniel Rosen (he/him) is a writer and arranger from the Bay Area, where his first one act was selected for the 2014 TheatreWorks’ Young Playwrights Project. He co-produced and arranged for the Vassar Devils’ studio album, Words Unsaid, a multi-nominee at the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards. Along with Alara Magritte, his full-length works include With Great Power and the award-winning Safe Hands, which received a sold-out extended run at the SheNYC Arts Festival and was recently featured at Seattle Public Theater’s Distillery Festival. In 2024, the pair had their repertoire performed at Phoenix Theatre Company’s Festival of New American Theatre and Urban Stages’ Winter Rhythms Festival. @magritteandrosen
Nick Bringhurst – Music Director
Nick (he/him) is an award-winning multimedia marketer and musician originally from Pocatello, Idaho. Since moving to Seattle in 2022, Nick has worked as the Director of Communications at Seattle Public Theater, making music and music directing on the side! Special shoutout to Jayne for creating this story, all his new friends in this production, and his mom, who made him take piano lessons for all those years when he didn’t want to.
Holly Vander Hyde – Lou
Holly Vander Hyde (she/they) is a queer artist hailing from Palmdale, California. Since stepping out into the theatre scene in Seattle she’s been lucky to work with companies like Showtunes, Dacha, Greenstage, Jet City, NOW, and WET. They have most recently appeared in Jet City’s Selling Seattle and CSz’s VisionEuro. When not on stage, you can see her spending her time agonizing over how to best spend her time.
Kendra Tamär Budd – Amber
Kendra Tamär Budd (she/her) is so excited to do her first show with Annex Theatre. Past roles of hers include Artemis in Pomegranate Tree and Mrs. Bumbrake in Peter and the Starcatcher. When not acting, Kendra is usually writing or dabbling in photography. Kendra would like to thank her family and friends for their continued and unwavering support.
Ariel Rose – Jo
Ariel Rose (she/her?) is ever so joyous to support the debut of this wonderful new play. Puget Sound credits include Jane Bennet/Anne de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice (Harlequin Productions), Joan la Pucelle in Henry VI Part 1 (Greenstage), Ellie in An Incomplete List (Dacha), understudy for Taproot Theatre Company’s Sherlock Holmes & The Precarious Position and Georgianna & Kitty, and two years of educational theatre touring with Taproot’s Road Company. When not performing, Ariel teaches at a nature preschool and takes a lot of naps. Love to Mom, Sal, Michael, and friends.
Jessica Marvin-Romero – Hazel
Jessica Marvin-Romero (she/her) is a Mexican-American actress and poet thrilled to be a part of this reading. Some credits include Cowboys with Questions (Washington Ensemble Theatre), Carmilla (The Shattered Glass Project), and Pase lo que Pase (PlayPenn, Philadelphia). She’d like to thank all involved for creating a joyful and warm space to play in and her partner for being the best. 🙂
Anamaria Guerzon – Ann
Anamaria Guerzon (she/they) is an actor, playwright, and dramaturg. Anamaria received their BA in Theatre from Pacific Lutheran University (2021). They won the 2024 Gregory Award for their performance as Fay Apple in Anyone Can Whistle at Reboot Theater Company (dir. Jasmine Joshua). Other select acting credits include: Swing (Songs of the Moon Mini Tour, 5th Ave), Student (TRYING, Book It Rep), Nancy (Yellow Fever, Centerstage Theatre). Their playwriting work has been developed with The Playwright Realm’s Scratchpad Series (dir. May Adrales), Seattle Public Theater, and more. To learn more about Anamaria’s work, go to anamariaguerzon.com.
Jeanie Cookston – French Lily
Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Jeanie moved to Washington in 2018 to attend Cornish College of the Arts. Graduating in 2022, with a BA in music and a fully staged recital under her belt, she’s been teaching piano and voice at Meter Music School in the Central District ever since. Questioning what was next in her career, she returned to a passion that she had long forgotten: musical theater. DIRTY will be her first stage production since high school. Hopefully the first of many many more!
Rhys Daly – Allen
Rhys Daly (He/Him) is an actor and writer who is thrilled to be part of another new work in the Seattle area! Recent credits include A Charlie Brown Christmas (Taproot), Camelot (Village Theatre), GUNKED! (Annex Theatre), and Anyone Can Whistle (Reboot Theatre Company). @Jellicletrash
Kaelyn Langer Mendonca – Frances
Kaelyn Langer Mendonca is thrilled to be joining the cast of DIRTY at Annex Theatre. She was previously seen in Gale (Shoreline Community College, Aunt Z/Ms. Goodwin) Lizzie (Pullman vs. Paxton, Bridget Sullivan), and Safe Hands (Seattle Public Theater, Dolly).
Over the last 30 years, she has worked as an actor, director, arts administrator, educator, and artistic leader. Her passion lies in creating complex characters and telling important stories that resonate with audiences. Let’s make cool shit together! @kaelyn_acts
Miki Murray – Stage Directions
Miki is a local actor, singer, and D&D consumer. Some of her favorite credits include Kalliope in She Kills Monsters and Annelle in Steel Magnolias at Second Story Repertory. She is beyond grateful to be a part of the staged reading of DIRTY and its budding journey of what she has come to love as a transformative piece of theater, and hopes you are as moved as she is by this particular story.
Jordan Somers – Technical Consultant
Jordan is a Baltimore grown and Seattle based Technical Director, Sound Designer, and Lighting Designer. Having worked in live music, and theatre, he utilizes a blend of skills acquired over many disciplines of entertainment to support his fellow artists and create his designs. If he’s not busy recording cues or building sets, he can likely be found cycling around the city or curled up with a book and a cat.
Catherine Blake Smith – Dramaturg & Production Manager
Catherine Blake Smith (she/her) is a director, playwright, dramaturg, and production manager who has produced more than 40 new plays at Annex Theatre. She served as Artistic Director from 2016 to 2019, curated the variety show Spin the Bottle from 2015 to 2020, and favorite projects include The Neverborn, THE PARTICIPANTS!, and The Zig Zag Festival. She’s worked with Latitude Theatre, Infinity Box Theatre, Unexpected Productions was a member of the Directors Lab North cohort in 2019. Next up, she will direct another Works-in-Progress production at Annex, Paradise Untapped.
Dramaturgy
Timeline
1888: Madame Lou Graham opens her Wild West-era brothel, located at 3rd and Washington in Pioneer Square, Seattle, now considered a “major city.”
1889: An overheated glue pot starts the Great Seattle Fire, which destroys a majority of the business district and waterfront, including the Red Light District.
1890 – 1892: The rebuilding era in Seattle and the events of DIRTY take place.
1893: The stock market crashes triggers The Great Panic. The nation goes into a four-year economic depression. In King County, Lou Graham supports the financial recovery.
1897: The Klondike Gold Rush kicks off, bringing prosperity to the Puget Sound region.
1903: Madame Lou Graham dies in San Francisco.
The Great Fire
In the uncharacteristically dry heat of the afternoon on June 6, 1889, an overheated glue pot burst into flames on Front Street (now 1st Avenue), starting a fire that destroyed much of Seattle’s commercial and waterfront property. The damage spread from University Street to Dearborn Street and from Elliott Bay to the east, up to what is known today as 4th Avenue S. Volunteer firefighters from Seattle to Tacoma rushed to fight the fire, but it quickly spread out of control until it ran out of material to burn. Thankfully, no lives were lost.
Recovery began the next day with a public meeting, where nearly everyone resolved that there would be no wooden buildings and that the streets would be rebuilt wider, flatter, and higher. The once pioneer town was rebirthed from the ashes as a booming city.
Madame Lou Graham
What we “know” of Lou Graham is mostly invented, since there are no known surviving photographs, letters, or diary entries. Through public documentation, we do know some things. She was born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben in Germany in 1862, and emigrated to New York City at age 16. In her 30s, she ran a clean and elegant “bed house” with entertainment for prominent and important men.
After the building was destroyed in the Great Fire of Seattle in 1889, she bought up land, and constructed some of the first new buildings to reopen the city. She funded Puget Sound National Bank and construction of new buildings in Pioneer Square, and purchased land in Bellingham, Tacoma, and beyond.
As the city’s population grew and new leadership shut down the Red Light District at the start of the 20th century, Graham moved to San Francisco, where she died soon after, in 1903. With no will, no living descendants, and only the intent filed to naturalize as a US citizen, her assets were distributed among her siblings and strangers after her death.
Although she is credited with gifting the largest donation to the King County Education system, that is only evidenced by one of her former plots of land being home to the office for the Highline Public School district.
Further Reading
Notoriously Bad Character by Hannah Brooks Olsen (2024)
This is who we were: 1880 – 1899 by Laura Mars, Scott Derks, ed. (2015)
The Great Seattle Fire Of June 6, 1889 by Austin & Scott (1965)
Wicked Seattle by Teresa Nordheim (2020)
HistoryLink.org, The Free Encyclopedia of Washington State history
