Penguins 3: The Bishop’s Bastard

August 7-August 27, 2010 | Fri-Sat at 11 pm
$15 gen

The bloody feud between nuns and priests gets set aside in the face of a greater threat: Other churches! Everyone thinks the Bishop’s illegitimate child can be used to their advantage, so the bastard’s baptism becomes a war zone filled with forbidden love, strange addictions, May/December romance, schizophrenia, radical atheists and musical numbers. Come see the bullets fly in Penguins, Episode III: The Bishop’s Bastard!

Written by Scot Augustson and directed by Bret Fetzer.

Featuring Daniel Christensen, Chris Dietz, Katie Driscoll, Teri Lazzara, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt, Jillian Vashro, Lisa Viertel, and Clayton Weller.

“Augustson’s late-night serial comedy Penguins is a breath of fresh, filthy air…its balls-out devotion to depravity is executed by a talented, canny cast.” — The Stranger

Check out a very different late night mass this summer and enjoy communion libations in our fully stocked bar. You can always confess about it later!

When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!

written by Scotto Moore | directed by Kristina Sutherland
Apr 23 – May 22, 2010 | Fri-Sat at 8 pm
Industry Night: May 10 at 8pm
$15 gen | $5 stu

“When I Come To My Senses, I’m Alive!” is a near-future sci-fi story about a technological provocateur who invents a method for capturing emotions as digital information, as part of a project to “chart the emotional genome.” She develops a cult following of fans who download her very addictive “emoticlips” – each delivered with cryptic, poetic file names like “the surprise of an unfamiliar memory” – and play them back in hobby-built receiver helmets. The experience is not full blown virtual reality; instead, emotional responses & sensations are triggered, and each fan experiences something unique. A seedy television executive tries to coopt her technology to syndicate the emotions of TV stars, hiring an elite P.I. to figure out what her weaknesses are when she refuses to sell out… but in the meantime, publishing digital versions of her emotions to the internet has unexpected consequences amongst the botnets of the world.

SeattleActor.com review:

Scotto Moore‘s new play, “When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!” is the best kind of science fiction, the kind where speculation about the future feels like something you could wake up to tomorrow morning. In this World Premiere production, director Kristina Sutherland has kept the ideas fresh and intriguing and the performances finely finished and compelling. The acting is brisk and, at least for the enthusiastic opening night audience, it’s premise and articulation is easily embraced by a generation for whom the globalization of information, media and personal experience meld into our shared online identities…. [The play] is a lot of fun, at least in part because it is so confident and thoroughly considered in its ideas and equally finished in its theatrical savvy for putting them on stage.

Seattle Times review:

It’s not hard to be captivated by Moore’s provocative premise about a leap in information technology that makes human emotions a downloadable, vicarious experience. The story’s late turn toward suspense — with the spectral rise of freethinking, artificial intelligence on the Internet — certainly ups the ante in unexpected, spooky ways…. Director Kristina Sutherland keeps the action brisk and crisp, and knows how to nudge the audience’s imagination.

The Stranger review:

One wants to see more plays like this in Seattle—smart science fiction about the amazing world we have found ourselves heading toward.

Seattle Gay News review:

Fun, fascinating, thoughtful and delightful.

[Note: omnipotent self-aware botnets click here]


Jade Justad in When I Come to My Senses, I'm Alive!

CAST
Annique Farrar Jennifer Pratt
Micky Carter Daniel Christensen
Veronica Bilious Jade Justad
Aleister Rowland Curtis Eastwood
Cicely Bryce Katie Beudert
Monica/Emily March LaChrista Borgers
Whisper/Cody Charles Jesse Keeter
CREW
Stage Manager Rob Bergquist
Set Design David Gignac
Light Design Dani Prados
Costume Design
Headgear Design
Rebecca Grabman
Props Design J H Welch
Sound Design Scotto Moore
Technical Consultant Brett Wagner
Technical Director Max Reichlin
Production Manager Ellie McKay
Build Team Jillian Vashro
Ian Johnston
Poster Design Miquela Suazo
Trailer: Director of
Photography/Editor
Ben Laurance
Trailer: Gaffer Michael Hayes
Trailer: Sound Ian Johnston
PRESS
Press Release Senses_Press_Release.pdf
Press Photos Senses_Press_Photo_1.jpg
Senses_Press_Photo_2.jpg
Senses_Press_Photo_3.jpg

Penguins 2: Roll Away the Rock

written by Scot Augustson, directed by Bret Fetzer
LATE NIGHT: Jan 29 – Feb 12, 2010, Fri-Sat at 11 pm
(no show Friday, Feb 6)
$10 gen / $5 stu

A gang war twixt nuns and priests!

Episode 2 of Annex’s smash-hit Penguins, about a gang war between nuns and priests in the Catholic church that rocks the dioceses!

CAST
Father Luke/The Organist/Snake Eyes Daniel Christensen
Father Jones Chris Dietz
Sister Daphne George/Mother Gershwin/Connie Sullivan Teri Lazzara
Sister Jenny Memphis/June/Sister Peaches Sophie Lowenstein
Adam, the Organist’s son David Roby
Sister Mimi Coco/Marilyn/Sister Iddy Biddy Jenny Schmidt
Sister Candy/Young Susan/Widow Kilorin Jillian Vashro
Sister Bernadette/Gertrungkt Lisa Viertel
Brother Placido/Spencer/Monsignor Kittan Clayton Weller
CREW
Stage Manager Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe
Technical Director & Photographer Ian Johnston
Production Manager Ellie McKay
Postcard Design Emily Harvey
Design Team Susannah Anderson
Meaghan Darling
John DeShazo
Julia Evanovich
Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe
Ed Hawkins
Ian Johnston
SPECIAL THANKS

Lynn Jepson, Jen Moon, Deb Skorstad and the UW Costume Shop, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and Theater Schmeater.

Penguins 1: Roll Away The Rock

written by Scot Augustson, directed by Bret Fetzer
LATE NIGHT: Nov 27–Dec 19, 2009, Fri-Sat at 11 pm
(no show Friday, Dec 4)
$10 gen / $5 stu


A gang war twixt nuns and priests!

A gang war twixt nuns and priests!

Annex Theatre’s smash success, Penguins, returns! To consolidate his power over the parish, Father Jones decides to rid himself of the meddlesome Sister Bernadette – setting off an ecclesiastical turf war of biblical proportions! Featuring blasphemy, heresy, dancing, guns, organ music, puppet sex, and much much more, Penguins will shock and delight Catholics and non-Catholics alike! Written by Scot Augustson (Sgt. Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes), directed by Bret Fetzer (director of Small Town by Kelleen Conway Blanchard), featuring Daniel Christensen, Chris Dietz, Teri Lazzara, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt, Jillian Vashro, Lisa Viertel, and Clayton Weller! See the first episode before the second rolls around in January!

“Brawny, brogue-brandishing badass Sister Bernadette (Lisa Viertel) demands some basic rights for nuns, which triggers a priest/nun gang war that makes last year’s pitiless Cannes winner Gomorrah look like an afterschool special…We’re talking Doubt on Ecstasy, smack, and aerosol cheese…The hour-long show felt like half that, and I wished Penguins: Episode 2 would have begun immediately after.”
— Seattle Weekly

“Ultra-lowbrow, extreme Catholic camp…[director] Fetzer keeps his cast moving full-tilt…You wouldn’t think there’d be any thrill (perverse or otherwise) left in priest-and-nun exploitation, but [playwright] Augustson mines the veins of altar-boy molestation and convent lesbianism with such fervor, he might win you over.”
— SunBreak

“A bottomless well of depravity…Helping things immensely is the cast, a uniformly excellent crew…Chris Dietz cements the show’s comic tone with his masterful performance as Father Jones…a dark comic marvel.”
— The Stranger

“I thought it was absolutely fucking great…If all late-night theater were like this, it would devour prime-time theater, which would be fantastic.”
— monologist Mike Daisey

Stage Manager — Jillian Vashro
All-Purpose Tech Stud — Ian Johnston

Blind Spot

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
Kirsty Vanderkamp Jennifer Pratt
Astor Potts, Sheriff Whilk, Escrow Deshabille, Dr. Churlish, Gamut Tawdry John Bianchi
Sella Stringley Potts, Deputy Gall, Peril, Jolly Deshabille, Summit Tawdry Sara Balcaitis
Iota Potts Joe Feeney
Onus, Vigor Potts, Tubly, Announcer, Luster Wedge, Waifish/Snit Seanjohn Walsh
Aura Rotter Alissa Mortenson
Bib Clad, Deputy Hisk, Burn, Escrow Deshabille III, Yodel, Spat Mayhap Daniel Christensen
Protestor, Volly Smirk, Dulcet Expiration, Fernel Spriggs, Pasty Sann Hall
Glee Patina, Booboo Expiration, Uvula Bestwick, Illicit Deshabille Ellie McKay
CREW
Production Manager Kristina Volkman
Stage Manager Meg Tully
Assistant Stage Manager David Roby
Costume Design Juliet Waller Pruzan
Pamala Mijatov
Lighting Design Matt Shannon
Properties Design Ashley Born
Set Design Bret Fetzer
Sound Design Brian Christian
Song Recording Michael Hayes
Build Team Ron Darling
Max Reichlin
Costume Team Jen Moon
K.D. Schill
Properties Team Sean Kauffman
Allison Lizott
Gabby
Meryl Roth
Poster Design Susannah Anderson
Bret Fetzer
Amber Zipperer
Special Painting Susannah Anderson
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