Tag: Katie McKellar

Something monstrous is bubbling up at the new waterpark. Something icky is making Tina, misunderstood girl genius, uneasy—her little sister Winnie has a piece of tentacle in a jar that hisses, her mom Denise is taking too many pills, and the local Sheriff can’t bake enough crumb cakes to make himself feel better about the body parts washing up on the shore. And just what does the fry cook at Salty’s Sea Palace have in his pants? Welcome to the world of The Underneath, the latest play from the writer of Kittens in a Cage and Hearts Are Monsters. Featuring Daniel Christensen, Meaghan Halverson, Tracy Leigh, John McKenna, Pilar O’Connell, Mandy Price, and James Weidman.

“A show about the evil ocean … begins with humping and gore, which is a good precursor to the rest… Playwright Kelleen Conway Blanchard is drawn to pulp material, injecting it with funny grotesquery and ear-catching details… These moments, where actors have the freedom to just let loose with strings of Blanchard’s perfectly deranged rambling, make the show worth checking out.” —The Stranger

“Through the ingenuity of set designers Bret Fetzer and Susannah Anderson, there’s also clever and almost instantaneous transformation of the small stage into five separate sets… Meaghan Mary Halverson provides a really good portrayal of youth and innocence as sweet Winnie, the nice little girl who is abducted by the slithering monsters. Pilar O’Connell, as her brilliant but emotionally wounded and therefore nasty sister, is equally powerful. She’s cruel, angry and rebellious, yet you can’t help rooting for her. The dread, menace and humor underpinning ‘The Underneath’ work really well.” – Seattle Times

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This incisively poetic play follows Brodie, a 42-year-old linguistics professor who chooses to become a single parent. When genetic testing reveals a possible problem with her pregnancy, unexpected emotions complicate both her research of a dying language and her romantic relationship with Dre, a grad student with a mind of her own. Amid the noise, Brodie forms an unexpected connection with a “talking” gorilla at the local zoo. Precious Little features three actresses who navigate dozens of relationships in this beautiful exploration of the limits of language.

[Precious Little] intelligently poses some engaging philosophical questions… Director Katherine Karaus addresses these concerns in a spare staging that moves swiftly, cleanly from brief encounter to encounter. Pearce bites with relish into every little role she’s given, and is especially effective (and amusing) as Rhiannon, the eager young counselor who is clearly out of her depth. Murfin Bailey also makes deft work of her several personae. She’s remarkably restrained, and uncannily convincing, playing a zoo gorilla whose thought patterns are enviably basic… Smart and frank… it sure conjures a primal image (reminiscent of O’Neill’s “The Hairy Ape”) that sticks with you. — The Seattle Times

“Quick timing and skillful acting make it an absorbing production…. Papineau delivers a skillful performance, navigating her character arc with believability…. Precious Little is anything by precious. It is funny and sad and tough. But most of all it makes us think. In a world where we are inundated with language, words, and talk, what does it mean to communicate, and how can we find the most effective way? That may be an unanswerable question, but at least Precious Little is brave enough to ask.” — City Arts Online

“The three women on stage are likable and watchable and keep the evening enjoyable. …[Taryn] Pearce shows amazing vocal range as she morphs over and over into completely different small characters.” — Seattle Gay News

“The three actors played nine parts and brought a strong presence…making every scene as thought-provoking as the one before.” — Drama In The Hood

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Star Crossed, and other tales from a devious universe is an evening of tasty, bite-sized science fiction and fantasy from the playwright of Duel of the Linguist Mages and A Mouse Who Knows Me. The plays include:

STAR CROSSED
Directed by Scotto Moore
Featuring: LaChrista Borgers, Daniel Christensen, Melissa Fenwick, Erin Ison, Mark Rud, Gina Marie Russell, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
A collection of four interlocking short plays about an immortal astronaut crossing time and space to reunite with the woman she loves.

SENDING A MESSAGE
Directed by Catherine Blake Smith
Featuring: Daniel Christensen, Sascha Streckel
A man builds a time machine to go back in time and murder Judy Garland before she can sing “Over The Rainbow.”

LEAVING THE NEST
Directed by Jen Moon
Featuring: Katie Driscoll, Gina Marie Russell, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
When teenage demon Lilith falls in love with an angel, her parents Satan and Ashtaroth are faced with a parenting challenge.

THAT DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT AT ALL
Directed by Ian Johnston
Featuring: Daniel Christensen, Gina Marie Russell, Sascha Streckel
Elvis wins 15 minutes back on Earth in a poker game in Hell, and spends his limited time trying to connect with the love of his life.

COMING TO A CONCLUSION
Directed by Katherine Karaus
Featuring: Katie Driscoll, Melissa Fenwick, Mark Rud, Stephen R. Scheide, Jake Ynzunza
A group of neighbors is caught off guard when one of them orders a machine off the internet that produces instant and continuous orgasms.

PRODUCTION TEAM

A Mouse Who Knows Me is a world premiere science fiction musical comedy with book & lyrics by Scotto Moore (Duel of the Linguist Mages), music by Robertson Witmer (of the band “Awesome”), & directed by Kristina Sutherland (artistic director of Macha Monkey Productions). In a genetics lab that is inserting human genes into mice to see what might happen, Dr. Audrey Whitman starts to believe that one of her mice has developed human empathy & intelligence and develops a strange relationship with the mouse she christens Romeo, to the chagrin of her colleagues in the lab. Her mentor secretly plots to use her intelligent mouse to breed a new form of war machine – but neither realize that the mice in the lab have their own plans for bloody revolution. It’s an inter-species West Side Story!

WHO’S INVOLVED

Scotto Mooreʼs previous plays at Annex include the Gregory-Award-nominated pair Duel of the Linguist Mages and When I Come to My Senses, Iʼm Alive!; interlace [falling star]; and Principia Discordia LIVE! (as well as having acted in such productions as The Front Page and Market Research Theatre). Mr. Moore is also the creator of the web series Cherub: The Vampire with Bunny Slippers and the forthcoming The Coffee Table, as well as a contributing writer to What the Funny (directed by Lynn Shelton, created by Wayne Rawley).

Robertson Witmer‘s recent work as a composer and sound designer includes I Am My Own Wife and Of Mice and Men at Seattle Rep; As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, and Hamlet for Seattle Shakespeare Company; and The Art of Racing in the Rain for Book-It. His recent performance credits include A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Intiman, Yale Rep and Berkeley Rep), Go, Dog. Go! (Seattle Children’s Theatre), and West (On the Boards). Rob also performs with many bands, including “Awesome,” the Love Markets and the Toucans.

Kristina Sutherland is the Director of Education at ACT and the co-founder and Artistic Director of Macha Monkey Productions. She is the author of several plays, most recently the critically acclaimed THEBES. She has also co-created four plays with Desiree Prewitt: Nancy, Frank, and Joe (nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association Award 2009 and a Gregory Award for playwriting in 2010), The Cowgirl Play, R (The Swashbuckling Tale of Anne Bonny and Mary Read) and Live Girls Do Elektra. Her recent directing credits include When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive! by Scotto Moore at Annex Theatre, Franklin and Figaro by Kristina Sutherland at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Kid Simple, a radio play in the flesh by Jordan Harrison at Macha Monkey Productions, Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl (2004 Footlight Award Winner) at Macha Monkey Productions, and Dukthul by Kristina Sutherland and Red Eagle Soaring.

Reviews of ‘A Mouse Who Knows Me’:

“One of the wittiest, funniest and most topical musicals I have ever seen…this world premiere is not going to die in Seattle, but I suspect will soon be on Broadway and the West End. Hurry and get your tickets now, before it gets sold out.” – Drama In The Hood

Reviews of ‘Duel Of The Linguist Mages’:

“Moore’s success here, as both writer and director, is finding the humor in confrontational moments… [It’s] good entertainment, filled with thought-provoking notions and moments of sincere laughter.” – Seattle Weekly

“Moore’s writing is high-caliber, his dialogue and plot devices are smart, his concepts are clearly inventive. He’s one to watch, so this is recommended.” – Seattle Gay News

“‘Duel of the Linguist Mages’ is a nicely crafted PLAY with a clever theatrical format, witty dialogue, a topical premise and it’s smartly directed, designed and acted… the entire premise of the piece is original and highly charming and smart.” – Seattle Gay Scene

Reviews of ‘When I Come to My Senses, Iʼm Alive!’:

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

“Fun, fascinating, thoughtful and delightful” — Seattle Gay News

Reviews of ‘interlace [falling star]’:

“[Writer/director] Moore conjures a fairly logical extension of our wired world with geeky authority and comic flair.” — Seattle Times

“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.” — The Stranger

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