There is a time in every production when, despite the amount of work left to be done, the solid feeling among the designers that this is a show and it has, or will very soon,…
BAT has had the joy of working with Allan Loucks, a composer extraordinaire. If you have been coming to BAT shows, you have heard Allan’s work. For The Letters Allan in back. Not only did…
Psychological thriller The Letters
creates suspense at Burien Actors Theatre
(March 30, 2016 – Burien, WA) – Burien Actors Theatre’s next production, the psychological thriller The Letters, performs April 8 through May 1.
The Burien Actors Theatre production features live music performed pre-show and at intermission, specialty drinks themed to the show and free on-site parking, plus an opening night party.
“THE LETTERS”
In The Letters, written by John W. Lowell, a Ministry Director calls Anna, a bureaucrat, into his office for a meeting. It is 1931 in the Soviet Union and things aren’t what they seem. The interview becomes a suspenseful game of cat and mouse in which being the last to flinch may mean the difference between life and death. Based on Soviet efforts to edit composer Tchaikovsky’s letters, this taut thriller is a vivid slice of paranoid life under Stalin.
Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. at Burien Actors Theatre, 14501 4th Ave. S.W. in Burien.
Ticket prices range from $7 to $20. Student tickets are just $10. For tickets, special deals or other information, go to www.burienactorstheatre.org or call 206-242-5180.
The Letters is sponsored by the City of Burien, 4Culture and the Mark Restaurant & Bar.
THE CAST, DIRECTOR AND DESIGNERS
Beau M.K. Prichard is directing a talented cast, together with assistant director Barbara Cawley: Devin Rodger (Anna) and Michael Mendonsa (Director). Incidental music was composed specifically for this production by Allan Loucks and performed by The Crown Hill Chorale under Loucks’ direction. Designers for the show are: Maggie Larrick, set; Craig Orsinger, lighting; Cyndi Baumgardner, props; Helen Roundhill, costume; and Tony Cochran, sound. Live music will be performed preshow by Allan Loucks and Dan Seese.
Photographs and Cast Bios available upon request; please contact Maggie Larrick at 206-949-9554.
BAT is blessed to work with so many talented people. BAT’s actors, directors, designers, running crews and volunteers are all so amazing, at times it takes my breath away. Occasionally, BAT also works with a writer who is both a joy and very giving.
BAT does not focus solely on new works, but BAT does its share of works that are Pacific Northwest premiers. And every odd year, in the Spring, BAT holds a playwrights festival for works of Washington playwrights that have never been previously produced, the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival. During the Festival, BAT produces four new works, two one-acts and two full-length plays, over the course of four weeks.
BAT’s next production, The Letters by John W. Lowell, is having its Northwest Premier at BAT from April 8 through May 1. This is my favorite script of the season, and BAT has done some outstanding theater this season. This season was the best of better live theater.
John W. Lowell is one of those very special people, who is also a playwright. BAT often gets manuscripts from author’s agents. I read them all. Some of the scripts I read are has produced. Of those, very once in a great while, BAT gets to work with a writer who makes personal contact with BAT, and takes an active interest in the production. Not in the micromanaging the production way, but in the being there to help the production succeed. Such is John W. Lowell.
I love The Letters. One of the reasons I like the play, beyond its excellent writing, is that is speaks to the re-writing of history, that I see so often. We delete the parts of our history that don’t fit the current narrative.
For example, yesterday I was talking to a props with a exhibit designer/builder for the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The Smithsonian is preparing an exhibit about slavery in America. We were talking about the exhibit and its section on the use of slaves to grow rice in South Carolina. The amazing cruelty of slavery, and the board use of slavery has been written out of much of US history. And during an election year, many politicians’ past records on issues are re-written to fit a new narrative. And it goes on and on. So, I asked John W. Lowell what event was he thinking about when he wrote The Letters? He kindly sent me this:
A review from the Chicago production of The Letters. A review from the San Francisco production of The Letters. In The Letters, written by John W. Lowell, a Ministry Director calls Anna, a bureaucrat, into his office…
BAT is putting In the Next Room, or the vibrator play to bed. By every measure, it was very successful. Today we received the following email, that BAT is sharing, with permission: Hi Maggie…