Monthly Archives: November 2014

I didn’t like your show.

BAT has been producing better live theater for 35 years. This season’s Holiday comedy, “Bob’s Holiday Office Party,” opens November 28, the day after Thanksgiving. TICKETS

I have not been at BAT for 35 years, but for a number of years I have been at the BAT email address info@burienactorstheatre.org, fielding questions and comments.

About 8 years ago, when BAT started its current revival and joined at least the 20th question-mark-red22century by building a website, the emails started to come. (Check out show photos from prior seasons.) Back then, BAT was just returning to its roots by producing shows that were outside the traditional suburban fare. (Suburban fringe theater, if you will.) BAT loves to produce the fantastical.

One of the early shows in this renaissance was “Dracula” by Steven Dietz. During the run, BAT got emails saying BAT was devil worshiping. Of course, the email authors had not been to the show. Oddly enough, “Goat-man,” a clear satanic reference in “Reefer Madness” got no comments.

BAT’s “Lysistrata,” a story about the women of Athens and Sparta withholding sex to end a war, got emails, not because of its anti-war message, but because it talked about sex. Really, a story about withholding sex to end war mentioned sex? BAT set “Lysistrata” in the 1950s just for fun.

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Where are the arts?

BAT attended a Soundside Alliance meeting. The Alliance mission is:

The Soundside Alliance partners work together to promote economic development dollar-signthrough programs dedicated to increasing job opportunities and income for Southwest King County residents and stimulating quality business investment and real estate development in the Southwest King County area. The Soundside presents a collective approach to improving the area’s economy. By collaborating on economic development goals, this cooperative approach to economic development could serve as a model transferable to other policy areas.

It was interesting on many levels. There were movers and shakers of the South End, now the Soundside there. Many many suits. The conversations were about economic growth and economic development for five cities, Burien, SeaTac, Des Moines, Normandy Park, and Tukwila The meeting started at 7:30 am. For theater folk, that is the middle of the night.

What was most interesting was that BAT was the only arts organization with a representative present. Why was that?

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