Tag: Chris Comte

COMTE’S 2ND ANNUAL 49TH BIRTHDAY BASH!

Sunday, Nov 14, 2010 – 5pm
$12 advance/$15 at the door

Annex Theatre Facilities Coordinator and 22 year company member Chris Comte is dragging himself kicking and screaming into his 50’s. And what better way to celebrate the reluctant leaving behind of youth, the imminent transition into middle-age, and inevitable slide into geriatric decline than by throwing THE BIGGEST PART OF THE YEAR – and you’re invited!

And the best part is that 100% of the proceeds will benefit Seattle’s oldest continuously producing fringe theatre company!

There’ll be food! There’ll be drink! There’ll be entertainment:

* Music by “Awesome” and Jose Bold!
* Seductive Tribal Dance by Hands Of Kali!
* Something from Annex’s Spin The Bottle regulars Gude-Laurance (probably involving candy)!
* Puppet This!
* Plus a bevy of surprise Special Guests

ABOUT ANNEX THEATRE:

Annex Theatre is a democratic collective of theatre artists dedicated to creating bold new work in an environment of improbability, resourcefulness and risk.

Having earned the distinction of being the longest continuously operating fringe theater in Seattle, Annex Theatre produces twelve productions a year along with frequent co-productions and curated rental productions. In addition to new plays, Annex produces radical re- interpretations of classic scripts, geek-tastic sci-fi adventures, space-defying stunts, ensemble- generated performances and non-linear wild-ass spectacles. Also kicking off the first Friday of every month is our late-night variety show Spin the Bottle, curated by former Annex Artistic Director Bret Fetzer and currently celebrating its 12th year!

Now in its new Capitol Hill venue, Annex originally opened its doors in 1987 in a former dance studio on 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle. Since then the theater has produced hundreds of world and Northwest premieres, including new plays by Stranger Genius Award winners Chris Jeffries and Paul Mullin; dozens of local playwrights, including Jeff Resta, Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Keri Healey, Scot Augustson, John Kaufmann, Elizabeth Heffron, Heidi Heimarck, and Suzanne Maynard; and nationally recognized playwrights such as Erik Ehn, Naomi Iizuka, Glen Berger, Anne Washburn, Jeffrey Jones, and Nicky Silver.

Former Annex company members alumni can be found throughout the Seattle arts community including Seattle Children’s Theatre Teaching Artist and former Annex Artistic Director Gillian Jorgensen, former Artistic Director of the Empty Space Allison Narver, Executive Director of Town Hall Weir Harman, Development Director of ACT Josef Krebs and Education Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre Andrea Allen as well as in the local and national film industry such as directors SJ Chiro, Garrett Bennett, Mike Shapiro and actors Jillian Armenante and Paul Giamatti.

written by Bret Fetzer & Juliet Waller Pruzan
directed by Rachel Katz Carey
with songs by Rick Miller
Jan. 16 – Feb. 14, 2009

When 8 year old Kirsty Vanderkamp finds a hidden world in the nooks and crannies of her house — dust bunny farmers under the bed, a burlesque show in the butter compartment, a tabloid published in the china cabinet — she also finds herself caught up the wake of Aura Rotter, an ambitious social climber working her way up the rungs of society, and the lovelorn Iota Potts, a farmboy who risks everything that ever mattered to him to win Aura’s heart. Kirsty travels from the depths of the drains to the heights of the lighting fixture as she tries to make sense of this miniature world — and her own.

REVIEWS

“Blind Spot wends its way into your imagination… I found Blind Spot something of a revelation: I saw new life and new civilizations, and boldly went where no man had gone before. Way cool.” — Seattle Weekly

“The play reinvents the house in a childlike way as a rich, surprising place and satirizes all kind of adults, from the poor devout to the filthy rich.” — The Stranger

The cast of Blind Spot

CAST

CREW

BUILD CREW

Chris Bell, Daniel Christensen, Chris Comte, Meghan Darling, John DeShazo, Ciara Griffin, Allie Hankins, Sandy Kopriva, Todd Kopriva, Jem Lewis, Gary Menendez, David Roby, Matt Shannon, Suja Hart, David Otten, and Kristina Volkman

SPECIAL THANKS

14/48, Wendy and Marc Barrington, Ruth Baugh, David Baum, Lyssa Browne, Nicholas Carey, Stanley and Arlene Cohen, Chris Comte, John DeShazo, Eglantine, Ilene Fins, Anne Fitzgerald, Ted Ford, Susan Freccia, the Katz Foundation, Nebunele Theatre, Alan Pruzan, Brandon Simmons, Crispin Spaeth, Roy Stanton, Alia Swersky, Theater Schmeater, theater simple (Llysa Holland and Andrew Litzky), Sulo Turner

written by Mike Daisey | directed by Christopher Comte
October 17 – November 15, 2008

This first play by acclaimed monologuist Mike Daisey (21 Dog Years, Monopoly!, How Theater Failed America) weaves a vision of the brutal history of the Soviet space program with an unbelievable premise: a dead cosmonaut is called back down to Earth on a radio wave when Americans in a remote Arctic base hear the beating of his dying heart. A dark and hilarious fairy tale set against the Cold War, it asks what we risk in the struggle between will and humanity, and what it means to love beyond death itself.

Playwright Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections.

His monologues, fourteen and counting, include the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Over the past decade he has performed his unique extemporaneous monologues at venues such as the Public Theater, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Yale Repertory Theater, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, Performance Space 122, and many more.

He’s been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, a commentator for PRI’s Studio 360 and NPR’s Day To Day, a contributor to WIRED, Slate and Salon, a web contributor to Vanity Fair and Radar Magazine, and his work has been heard on the BBC, NPR, and the National Lampoon Comedy Hour. His first film, Layover, is being distributed by Lars von Trier’s company Zentropa, and he stars in the Lawrence Krauser feature Horrible Child. His first book, 21 Dog Years: A Cubedweller’s Tale, was published by the Free Press and he is working on a second book, Great Men of Genius, adapted from his monologues about genius and megalomania in the lives of Bertolt Brecht, P.T. Barnum, Nikola Tesla, and L. Ron Hubbard.

He has been the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, two Seattle Times Footlight Awards, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in New York City with his director and collaborator, Jean-Michele Gregory. The Moon Is A Dead World is his first play.

REVIEWS

“[Playwright Mike] Daisey has a rich, restless imagination…. Moon is a small, sweet pleasure.” – The Stranger

“Director Christopher Comte has put together an entertaining production worthy of the script.” – Seattle Weekly

“Fascinating…. Annex’s production is an amazing display…. Crisp direction, great set design, and excellent sound support create a great reality for this unreal play. The four actors are all excellent. … This is one of the best efforts Annex Theatre has produced, and that’s saying a lot.” – Seattle Gay News

“If a new play of this caliber opened in Seattle every few weeks, we could stop going to see Hollywood crap or caring about how Christian Slater blows up Russians on the TV.” – Seattlest.com

Preview in the Seattle P-I: Full-length ‘The Moon Is A Dead World’ is a new phase for solo performer Mike Daisey

Interview on Seattlest.com: A Dialog with Newly-Minted Playwright Mike Daisey

The cast of The Moon Is A Dead World

CAST

CREW

AFTRA Seattle Local, Cicada Bridal, Ron Darling, John DeShazo, A.J. Epstein, The Ethereal Mutt, Ltd., David Gassner, Teri Lazzara, Theater Schmeater, Frederick Vegas.

Annex Theatre wishes to acknowledge the generous contributions of 4Culture, The Flintridge Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, The Seattle Foundation, The Boeing Company, ActiveMac, and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support of this production.

written & directed by Scotto Moore
August 1 – 30, 2008 – Friday & Saturday at 8 p.m.

In this epic blend of science-fiction and fantasy, a mysterious amnesiac finds herself in the lobby of an infinitely tall building located in the center of the multiverse, the headquarters of the United Association of Interdimensionary Travelers.

Her unexplained presence sets off a series of increasingly catastrophic events that not only compromise the security of the Association, but threaten to unravel the entire fabric of creation itself!

Can a superhero with a divine pedigree, an android companion, and archangels and devils together combine forces to help “Andrea Change” find her true identity, and prevent the impending apocalypse?

Drawing on influences as diverse as the metaphysical explorations of Philip K. Dick, and the scrappy tradition of low-budget sci-fi television, interlace [falling star] is a unique saga of love, loss, and redemption.

REVIEWS

“Beautiful imagining…. Next to the shine of speculative nodes are jokes that snap, crackle, and pop…. The presentation of this fantastic fusion, which also includes theological thought experiments and the narrative structure of a thriller, is strong all around…. The pleasures of interlace [falling star] are more than plenty.”
– Charles Mudede, The Stranger

The Stranger Suggests, August 15:
“Like life itself, this new play by local writer/director Scotto Moore is silly, in both the ancient (spiritually touched) and modern (frivolous) senses of that word. It is also serious (history has not changed the sense of that word). Set in an infinitely tall building – one that might resemble a new tower in Dubai or a tower Frank Lloyd Wright once imagined in a moment of madness – interlace is a tireless narrative machine that generates comic nonsense and cosmic concepts.”
– Charles Mudede, The Stranger Suggests

“Just go see it and enjoy yourself. Jen Moon’s performance as the nameless amnesiac heroine is smart and funny. LaChrista Borgers’s turn as the robot companion Trickle confirms that women in pink wigs make us think bad thoughts. Stan Shields brings all the gravitas and physical presence you could want to his super-hero character The Amazing Dr. X, while capturing his vulnerable side. And Kristina Sutherland, who has yet to disappoint us, recalls what Deckard must have been like before he became the burned-out shell of a man we meet in Blade Runner, with her hard-as-nails performance as psychic security officer Agent Grey.”
– Jeremy M. Barker, Seattlest

“Clever, amusing…. Sardonic bon mots are scattered throughout…. [Writer/director] Moore conjures…with geeky authority and natural comic flair.”
– Misha Berson, Seattle Times

“This trippy, smart, new sci-fi fantasy…uses futuristic techno-speak cleverly, and often keeps you guessing.”
– Seattle Times

In this “bent science-fiction vision of the godly plane”, the “characters joust with jaded irreverence and are skeptical of their own tropes.” The show is “zany fun…as if Joseph Campbell wrote an episode of Red Dwarf.”
– Giani Truzzi, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Jen Moon [as] ‘Andrea Change’…is wonderful to watch…. The very strong cast…takes a very funny journey into Infinity…. The journey is worth taking.”
– Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News

interlace [falling star] delivers “a cheerful blend of horror and humor, fueled by a heady mixture of future shock and super-heroics. Gotta say this about Annex: For a company that just reached the advanced age of 21, it’s still unafraid to tackle weird material and provocative ideas.”
– John Longenbaugh, Seattle Weekly

“Behind the absurdity, sci-fi mystery takes on serious questions about God and faith”
– Preview article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Kristina Sutherland, Jen Moon & Stan Shields

CAST

CREW

SPECIAL THANKS

Annex Theatre wishes to acknowledge the generous contributions of 4Culture, The Flintridge Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, The Seattle Foundation, The Boeing Company, ActiveMac, and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for their support of this production.