Monthly Archives: January 2016

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Is it free?

Fundraiser January 31, 2016 0Likes 0Comments

At BAT we meet the most interesting people.

Today, while waiting to lend some of BAT’s couches to CARES for their fundraiser, a very bat-logo-banner-trans-940x198-300x63interesting woman stopped by. As is oft to happen, we got to talking.

She asked about BAT’s season and about BAT’s writing group, Seattle Playwrights Studio. With every answer I gave, her question was, “Is it free?”

I totally get living on next to nothing and watching every penny. People living there have all of my respect. It is very hard. Making theater possible for those on small-to-meager incomes is what got BAT, over ten years ago, to designate the first Sunday of every run as $7-Sunday. On $7-Sunday all tickets are $7. (Because $7-Sunday sells out so fast, BAT recently added a half price night on the first Saturday of a run.) TICKETS

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Valentine’s Day Fundraiser Concert

Fundraiser January 27, 2016 0Likes 0Comments

Enjoy cool 21st-century sounds of Rat City Brass
At Burien Actors Theatre’s 429492_356387884388695_830852403_n

(January 27, 2016- Burien, WA) – On Sunday, Feb. 14, enjoy the irresistible 21st-century musical stylings of the Rat City Brass while indulging in chocolate and champagne, beer or wine at Burien Actors Theatre’s Valentine’s Fundraiser Concert.

Combining infectious melodies from the 1960s golden age of instrumental pop, cool cocktail exotica and a touch of contemporary roar, the Seattle-based Rat City Brass have fashioned an exceptional band guaranteed to raise smiles from old-school music aficionados and jaded hipsters alike.

When they formed in 2009, Seattle-based Rat City Brass largely paid homage to classic pop composers like Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach, and Henry Mancini. Within months, they added their own arrangements of songs by artists like The Turtles, The Beatles, and even Tchaikovsky. Suddenly it’s on – and the cool kids get it.

Rat City Brass plays the best rooms throughout the Pacific Northwest, and has been featured live on Seattle’s KEXP 90.3 FM.

With top-notch musicianship, soaring melodies, danceable rhythms and a fun, breezy stage presence, Rat City Brass is what brass sounds like in the 21st century.
BAT’s Valentine’s Day fundraiser concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and runs until 9:00 p.m.

Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 seniors and $10 students. For tickets, go to www.burienactorstheatre.org or call 206-242-5180–while tickets last. Burien Actors Theatre is located at 14501 Fourth Ave. S.W. in Burien. Get your TICKETS HERE!

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In the Next Room – press release

Shows Uncategorized January 27, 2016 0Likes 0Comments

Ignite your bustle with comedic Victorian love story

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play

(Jan. 27, 2016 – Burien, WA) – A finalist for the Pulitzer Prizc, In the Next Room or next-room-web-imagethe vibrator play is a touching and comical love story about a young doctor and his wife in the Victorian age.

The show will be performed at Burien Actors Theatre Feb. 12 through March 6, and features specialty drinks themed to the show and free on-site parking, plus an opening night party.

“IN THE NEXT ROOM, or the vibrator play”

Dr. Givings is obsessed with the marvels of technology and what they can do for his patients. He isn’t sure exactly how the vibrators help the women he treats–but they keep coming back. The only woman who isn’t helped is his own wife, who longs to connect with him – but not electrically. Written by Sarah Ruhl, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play explores the Victorian era repression—and what happens when the rules are broken.

This show is suitable for ages 16 and older due to adult content and brief nudity.

Ticket prices range from $7 to $20. Student tickets are just $10. For tickets, special deals or other information, go online to www.burienactorstheatre.org or call 206-242-5180.

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Why the Next Room – part 2

Shows January 17, 2016 0Likes 0Comments

urlFor many years, centuries really, women diagnosed with “hysteria”–a disease thought to result from a lack of sexual intercourse or gratification–were treated by massaging their genitals in order to induce “paroxysm.”

Male physicians considered the practice drudgery, and sought various ways of avoiding the task, often foisting it off on midwives. In the late 19th century, physicians turned to mechanical devices. Some devices were manual, some were steam driven and once 957f06d18241ce27304513f944387a2belectricity became available, the devices became electronic.

Some of theses devices, like the Chattanooga stood almost 6 feet tall. In 1900 the Chattanooga sold for $200 to physicians. A tidy sum. That is equivalent to $4,651.00 in 2015 dollars.

Eventually, these devices became available for purchase and home use; Hamilton Beach, a major home appliance manufacturer, made one of the first handheld vibrators that could be used for pleasure instead of just medical use. One such “portable vibrator” was advertised in the 1918 Sears, Roebuck catalog as an “aid that every woman appreciates.”

You would think that in over 125 years, with the Suffragette and the Feminist movements, society’s views regarding female sexuality would have changed. However, the attitude toward women’s sexuality in the medical and psychological professions continue to reflect the ancient biases. Women’s sexuality is still perceived as an unapproachable subject in some quarters.

Why is that? 

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To be nude, or not to be? That is the question

Community Shows January 15, 2016 0Likes 1Comment

At BAT we talk a lot about theater. Mostly we talk about the audience. For better live theater the audience must be engaged. After all, without BAT-fans (no, not like the one pictured, but you) there would be no BAT.il_fullxfull.11037103

So, when BAT-fans talk, we listen.

Every show BAT has produced over the last 10 years that I have been here has received at least one “comment.” Nothing drives comments like a little skin on stage. A few years ago, BAT produced a Holiday show with a man in a speedo. My in-box runneth over. To be fair, the comments were pretty evenly matched, positive and negative.

When BAT produced Lysistrata, you would have thought I was on speed email. (Is that a thing?) Again, some good and some bad.

This brings us to In the Next Room, or the vibrator play. The play’s name is a bit of bait-and-switch. Vibrator is in the title, but this is not a show about vibrators per se. The vibrator is a literary device upon which to hang a love story. That is not to say a vibrator does not appear on stage, but its not the kind of vibrator that you may keep in the nightstand drawer.

There is no nudity in the vibrator scenes, but what has gotten BAT to huddle is the last scene of the show. A touching tribute to all that has come before. As written, there is a bit of nudity. Nothing gratuitous.

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The “wall” plug – it’s about theater

Shows Technical January 8, 2016 0Likes 0Comments

Creating better live theater is lots of work. Well, at BAT we call it fun, but it is really work.

To give you an idea, while preparing for In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, TICKETS urlHERE the question came up, “What kind of wall plug goes on the end of the vibrator machine?”

This set off a series of discussions on BAT’s communication tool. On that tool, all of the designers and directors can talk together and share all sorts of things. Think of it as a modern chat room with the ability to share documents, sounds, photos and videos.

Why is something as small as the look of the wall plug important? One of the props represents an early electromagnetic vibrator. Back when the play was set, about 1881-2, there were not typically on and off switches on appliances. Lights used pull chains to turn them off and on, and appliances were plugged in to turn them on.

To realistically turn on an appliance like the electromagnetic vibrator machine the actor will have to plug it into something, but what? This led to the question what did a typical wall plug look like in 1881-2? This was, after all, at the very dawn of the electrification of America. Things were not as they are now.

It turns out that wall plugs were not in use in 1881. To plug in an appliance one unscrewed0AC1 a light bulb and screwed the appliance in to where the light bulb had been. Houses where not wired for appliances, rather for lights. Odd to think about it now, but even table lamps were “plugged” onto ceiling lamps and not into the wall. So a cord would hang down from the ceiling light to the table light, rather than the table light being plugged into the wall.

My speculation is that this is why so many light fixtures had two or more bulbs in them. That way you could unscrew one bulb and still have light coming from the second (or third) bulb while you used the appliance that you “plugged” into were the removed bulb had been. This might also have been because the voltage (and hence the amount of lumens produced) by early light bulbs was pretty small by today’s standards, so two or more bulbs created more light.

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