FREEHOLD FORUM 2007 NOVEMBER ISSUE

This month we are honored to feature the following:

• Annette Toutonghi. Read about Annette Toutonghi's experience working on ACT's production of The Women.

• Paul Mullin. Find out why renowned playwright Paul Mullin suggests writers "murder your darlings."

• Ryan Schallon. Discover how the making of a list propelled Ryan into acting.

• Freehold Spotlight: Liza Comtois. Get to know Freehold Board President Liza Comtois and find out her hopes for Freehold and the greater Seattle arts community.

• Freehold Faculty and Student News/Shows. Get the most current news about the upcoming performances (and get them on your schedule now!) that Freehold faculty and students are performing in locally, nationally and internationally.

• Freehold Calendar News.

We always appreciate your input. Please feel free to contact us at (206) 323-7499 x14 or kate@freeholdtheatre.org with story ideas, upcoming shows of Freehold students and articles that you would like to see highlighted.  

Photo Credit: Deborah Fialkow, Peggy Gannon, Anne Kennedy, Suzy Hunt, Marianne Owen, Annette Toutonghi in The Women by Clare Boothe Luce at ACT-A Contemporary Theatre. Photo: Chris Bennion.

Annette Toutonghi has been living, teaching and performing in the Northwest, on stage and in film, for the last 15 years. Annette is performing in the ACT's production of The Women which is running through December 2nd. She performed with Megan Murphy and Company for the Theatre De La Villette at the National Center for Dance in Paris. Annette will be teaching Intro to Acting and Scene Study Text at Freehold this Winter Quarter.

When Warner Shook gave me a call a few years ago and asked if I wanted to join a group of actors in a casual living room reading of The Women, I thought it sounded like a fun way to spend the evening. I'm crazy about reading plays out loud. It never occurred to me that this particular script would be produced.

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Paul Mullin is a renowned playwright whose works includes Tuesday as well as Louis Slotin Sonata which won the L.A. Drama Critics Award. Paul's play, The Sequence, about the race to decode the human genome, was commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and won First Prize for Stage Play in the 2005 Writers Digest Competition. His latest play The Ten Thousand Things will be playing at WET from May 23 - June 16, 2008. Paul will be teaching Playwriting I at Freehold this Winter Quarter.

One of the kindest things a writing teacher can pass on to his or her students is the time-tested advice: "murder your darlings." If, as a writer you've created a scene or section, a monologue or even a tiny turn of phrase, that you find yourself particularly proud of, then you're almost always better off deleting it outright and sparing your audience having to suffer through that which ultimately only you, your precious darling's mother, could love.

In my last class at Freehold (Summer New Play Lab, which I co-taught with the inestimable Elizabeth Heffron) I stumbled upon a pithy addendum to this admonition, particularly apt for the specific context of play development. "Murder your darlings," I told my students one night off the cuff, "Or sure enough some actor will torture them to death anyway."

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Acting for me began with a list. At the end of a relationship, I decided to compile a list of everything I wanted to do with my life, as well as everything I wished not to do with it. I'll admit, it is a tad bit corny and self-helpish, but following a 5-year relationship, there was a need for me to adjust to thinking of myself as no longer a part of "we." It's interesting to look back on this capsule of myself, brimming with the optimism that up swelled over the initial sense of disjointment following what was a very long relationship for a then 24 year old. Some of my entries are patently ridiculous (spend a year roaming the midwest as a ranch hand; learn Brazilian-style judo), idealistic (make sure my representatives know my name; become a more conscientious citizen), and some are just plain and boringly practical (learn more about cars; speak Spanish). In all, there were 78 items on that list, and standing right there at the top was acting.

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SAVE THE DATE - BENEFIT FOR FREEHOLD

Monday evening, December 17th will be THE event of the fall season. Faculty performances for one-night only! Featuring: Lauren Weedman, Robin Lynn Smith, George Lewis, Geof Alm, Daemond Arrindell, Gin Hammond, Matt Smith, Amy Thone, Annette Toutonghi and more! $25/current students (Freehold students enrolled in Fall 2007 or Winter 2008 classes), $50/others. To purchase tickets, email us at info@freeholdtheatre.org or call us at (206) 323-7499. This is a night you will not want to miss.

Winter Classes at Freehold

Freehold Theatre's Winter class registration will be available online on Monday, November 19th. Be sure to mark your calendar and get a jump on registering for our winter classes. An early 5% registration discount will be in effect from November 19 through Friday, December 14th. Winter Quarter begins January 7, 2008.

Give the Priceless Gift of the "Freehold Experience"

Do you have someone in your life that has thought of taking an acting, directing or playwriting class or perhaps you see that potential in them but they haven't yet acted on those talents? Freehold gift certificates are the ideal gift for the actor, playwright or director in your life. For information, call our registrar at (206) 323-7499 or info@freeholdtheatre.org.

Freehold Annual Fund Drive

Consider including Freehold in your fall contributions this fall! Our Freehold community will be receiving a request soon to contribute to our Annual Fund Drive. The generous contributions of our donors allows us to continue to offer exceptional classes at affordable rates, produce an Engaged Theatre Tour which brings theatre to underserved populations and provide rehearsal spaces at incredibly reasonable rates. We also always appreciate you checking in with your employers about matching gifts programs which make your dollars go that much further.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Performance and Rehearsal Spaces Available at Freehold

Freehold has two spectacular performance spaces: The East Hall Theatre and The Ground Floor Studio Theatre and two additional rooms, Walt and Workspace, for rent. The East Hall Theatre is a 92 seat theatre and is a popular performance space for long and short runs and also good for large group rehearsals and photo shoots. The Ground Floor Studio Theatre is an inviting and spacious venue with 16 foot ceilings and a 49-seat Black Box theatre. It has everything and more you would want and need for your upcoming production ... a new sound system, new seats, and new design for a price beyond affordable! Rental rates include an additional roomy dressing room. For more information, contact Jason Gorgen at Freehold: (206) 323-7499 x13 or email at rentals@freeholdtheatre.org.

	An Interview with Liza Comtois
Liza Comtois is Board President of Freehold Theatre. Here is your chance to get to know more about Liza's passion and commitment for the arts and for Freehold. Would you share with our readers your background in the arts? I have had an amazing journey in the field and feel very lucky for my experiences on the road less traveled. Growing up my sister and I spent our Saturdays at Mason Gross School of the Arts, one of the best professional training programs for theatre artists in the country - watching rehearsals, exploring the catwalks of empty theatres and sitting in front of dressing room mirrors in elaborate games of the imagination - waiting for Mom to finish working (she was Chair of the Theatre Department). Early on in my artistic life the bar was set very high - watching and learning from extraordinary theatre artists who were not only talented but incredible human beings. That is one of the best things about the theatre: the smart, intuitive and empathic people you have the privilege to work with. more ...

 

	Freehold Faculty/Alum Shows and News
FREEHOLD FACULTY NEWS Geof Alm did the fight direction for To Kill a Mockingbird at INTIMAN www.intiman.org and is working on Birdie Blue at the Seattle Rep running November 15 - December 16. Info: www.seattlerep.org and The Neverending Story running December 7 - January 27th. Info: www.sct.org at Seattle Children's Theatre. Daemond Arrindell. Seattle Poetry Slam's Annual Halloween show: DEAD POET SLAM. 10/31 8pm - at Tost - 513 N. 36th St. in Fremont All slammers must perform the work of a deceased poet. In character and costume gets bonus points! $5 cover, 21 and over, ID required www.seattlepoetryslam.org. Gin Hammond will be performing in a contemporary French play, performed in French with English supertitles, which will be staged at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre (3940 Brooklyn Ave, NE, Seattle, 98105) Thursday, November 8th through Sunday, November 11th. For more information, www.seattleperforms.com. Tim Hyland will play the title role in The Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht for Strawberry Theatre Worshop at The Lee Center for the Arts, opening October 26 and running through November 18. For more information, go to www.strawshop.org. Tim is also directing The Santaland Diaries at Seattle Public Theatre, opening November 30 and running through December 24. He will also be appearing in The Neverending Story at Seattle Children's Theatre opening December 7 and running through January 29th. John Jacobsen just completed his screenplay adaptation of E. Nesbitt's "House of Arden" for a Los Angeles production company and is starting research for a studio feature, a film based on the infamous WWII battle in Huertgen Forest. He is also scheduled to start production in '08 on "Sweat", a PBS documentary on the history of the famous saunas and spas around the world. Marya Sea Kaminski will play Hedda in WET's interpretation of Hedda Gabler, called Blah Blah Blah Bang: A Pistol Fit in One Act at On the Boards running December 13-17. Paul Mullin's latest play The Ten Thousand Things will be playing at WET running May 23 - June 16. A mysterious messenger. A frustrated writer. A clock in the desert that will keep time for 10,000 years. A play that changes itself over time. Inspired by the 10,000 Year Clock Project of the Long Now Foundation, local playwright Paul Mullin weaves science, futurism, philosophy and politics together in this world premiere exploring the deep future, directed by Braden Abraham My Name is Rachel Corrie. For more information, www.washingtonensemble.org. Judy Shahn coached To Kill a Mockingbird at Intiman Theatre and is now working on a subtle Cuban accent for The Cook at The Seattle Rep. At the UW, Judy is coaching Our Lady of 121st Street. Matt Smith can be seen in the recently nationally released feature film "Outsourced" produced by local film company Shadowcatcher. For more information, go to Outsourcedthemovie. Annette Toutonghi will be in The Women at ACT running from October 5 through December 2nd. For more information, www.acttheatre.org. FREEHOLD STUDENT/ALUM NEWS Jen Anderson will be in a Work It Production entitled Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, written by Alan Ball and directed by Amy Irvin. November 2-December 1st, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. at the Ground Floor Studio Theatre, 1529 10th Avenue, 1st Floor. Tickets: at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets www.brownpapertickets.com/event/20592. Ben Cournoyer will be performing in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with Ghost Light Theatricals, opening Friday, November 2nd. For information, www.ghostlighttheatricals.org. Jason Gorgen will be sound designing Book-It's Peter Pan, www.book-it.org, and Macha Monkey's Franklin and Figaro, www.machamonkey.org. David Kubiczky will be appearing as Clov in Samuel Beckett's Endgame at Stone Soup Theatre in Wallingford with Two Hours Traffic Theatre Company - Nov 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 and Dec 1, 2. For more Information: www.twohourstraffic.org. Sachie Mikawa will be performing in an upcoming Unicycle show called MonoLodge III, All New and Original Material, November 9th & 10th Friday and Saturday, Theatre Off Jackson, 409 7th Ave South, Tickets: $10, Brown Paper Tickets, $12 at door/ $8 students. George Lewis directed Sachie Mikawa's original work, www.unicyclecollective.org. Louise Penberthy is playing Gertrude in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with Ghost Light Theatricals, opening Friday, November 2nd, www.ghostlighttheatricals.org. Kristina Sutherland's original play Franklin and Figaro: A Revolutionary Farce is being presented by Macha Monkey Productions and will be performed October 26th - November 17th at the East Hall Theatre, 1525 10th Avenue. Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com.     Freehold Theatre Guild   Freehold Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is composed of a group of Freehold students and alumni who have shared in the unique Freehold experience. Freehold Theatre Guild's (FTG's) stated mission is "To help members of the Freehold Theatre Guild make the transition from student to active participant in the greater theater community". For those interested in joining Freehold's Theatre Guild, email Andy Tribolini at atribolini@hotmail.com with your desire to join. You will receive confirmation of membership by receiving notices about monthly meetings and activities in which you are strongly encouraged to participate. The Theatre Guild would love to have you be a part of the group!         Yahoo Your Way to Help Freehold Using www.goodsearch.com!   Here is a free, quick and painless way to contribute financially to Freehold! GoodSearch is a search engine (www.goodsearch.com) which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It's a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it's powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers - the users and the organizations do not spend a dime! To support Freehold, on the "Who do you search the web for?" type in Freehold and search away! Every time you do a search, money gets added to Freehold's account. Make "goodsearch.com" your home page and encourage your friends to do the same by going to: http://www.goodsearch.com/MakeHomepage.aspx. Thank you for your continued support!     About Freehold   A group of artists, who after years of professional work felt that the full potential of the theatrical event had yet to be realized, founded Freehold Theatre in the summer of 1991 when two prominent actor studios-the Pasqualini-Smith Studio (est. 1985) and the Mark Jenkins Actors' Workshop (est. 1985) joined forces. The founders, Robin Lynn Smith, Mark Jenkins and George Lewis, among others, are professional actors and directors whose credentials include recognized work on and off Broadway, as well as in major films, television, and regional theatre. They formulated the following mission: Freehold engages artists of all levels in training and experimentation so that they may become more innovative and heartfelt in generating theatre that has a lasting impact on the community we serve. As a center for the development and practice of theatre, Freehold Theatre is committed to art that embraces the full range of human experience and that inspires performers and audience to connect more deeply to themselves and to each other. We move toward this goal in four ways: Our Studio provides a place for actors, from inspired novices to working professionals, to train. Our Theatre Lab provides a forum for mature artists to research and develop new work and to re-interpret classics. Our Engaged Theatre Program reaches out to culturally under-served communities. Our rehearsal and performance facilities in the Oddfellows Bulding on Capitol Hill comprises of four rehearsal and performance studios, including a fully equipped 92-seat black box theatre. The facilities and equipment are available for rent at very reasonable rates. Here we strive to provide our artists with the tools necessary to make a deep and lasting impact on the community based on organic esthetics. Freehold has become an integral part of Seattle's thriving theatre community, having gained a reputation as the place for serious young artists to train and take the leap into performing and creating original work. In 2003 we developed an Engaged Theatre program in which we reach out to culturally under-served communities. The program comprises an annual tour to organizations that represent culturally under-served populations and a four-month residency at Washington Corrections Center for Women, in which the women create, rehearse and perform a theatre production. This year for the first time, George Lewis has developed a similar pilot program at the Monroe Correctional Center for Men. For more information about our programs and services see our website: www.freeholdtheatre.org.     What is the Freehold Forum?   The Freehold Forum E-Newsletter was born out of our desire to respond to requests from you, our Freehold community, to hear about the innovative and powerful work being done at Freehold Theatre by our incredibly talented and diverse faculty and alumni. The Forum will provide you with a wealth of information that will serve you in your work as an artist. The monthly Freehold Forum will include insightful interviews with talented actors, directors and playwrights, compelling articles on a wide array of topics to assist you in your artistic growth, cutting edge news on upcoming Freehold Faculty and alumni performances, highly newsworthy articles by Freehold's Theatre Guild and Freehold Calendar Highlights showcasing upcoming must-see Freehold Calendar events.     Become A Part of the Freehold Community!   Freehold is always looking for people interested in joining our team of committed and enthusiastic volunteers. Whether you have time, wisdom, strength, money, a desire to be involved in your community, or any combination thereof, we would love to have you join in our efforts. Here are some ways you can participate in our work at Freehold: Volunteer Opportunities Volunteers are highly treasured at Freehold!! We rely on and appreciate the invaluable and diverse skills our volunteers contribute which enable us to further our mission. We are currently seeking volunteers to help us with our administrative functions, staff performances and fundraising events!! If you have the desire to be part of a committed group of staff and other volunteers, please give us a call at 206-323-7499. Donations Freehold is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We rely on philanthropic donations from the community to help us continue to be a part of the theatre community and to keep the cost of our classes affordable. Donations may be sent to: Freehold Theatre, 1525 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122. back to top       Working on The Women by Annette Toutonghi Then I heard how Warner's interest in this production started with his earlier production of Enchanted April. He had been working with four local actresses and was struck by the quality of ensemble and talent in this town - the gears started turning and The Women came to mind. After our initial reading, he spent the next couple of years garnering support and igniting enthusiasm for the production by meeting with people in the theatre community and putting together readings of the play. Thanks to his incredible tenacity as well as that of everyone at ACT Theatre, Kurt Beattie, the board members, the Seattle theatre community, designers, actors - I'm now in the midst of a very theatrically scaled run of a large play with 15 other local women - which seems almost like an impossibility in this day and age. On first glance, the script has so many strikes against it. You need to cast between 15-20 actresses. Take a look at local theatres' seasons these days and you'll see mostly small casts. With stresses on budgets, more plays are being written and produced for 2-5 actors. In addition, most of the actors in The Women would play multiple roles, which means many, many costumes. (The costumes for this production took a large group of artists over a year to build.) The play also has a myriad of locations - it's never in the same setting twice. All of this adds up to what is likely to be a sizeable production budget. In addition, the play was written in the early 40's and has a sometimes dated view on how women navigate relationships and issues of power in their lives. Take a second look at each of these liabilities, however, and you'll see that they are all actually assets of one kind or another. These things that make the piece so daunting - it's large scale and period sensibilities - are things we don't see very often anymore, and they make The Women thrilling. As for the large cast, when was the last time you saw sixteen women performing on stage together? For years I've worked on pieces with mostly men and one or two other women. I've met one after another talented actresses in Seattle - and rarely had another chance to work with them again - because most plays are weighted so heavily toward male characters. It's an amazing feeling to be working with so many of these women all at once. Because the play was written in the 40's when audiences were big readers, Luce's dialogue strikes sparks. It's acrobatic, and a delight to play with and hear. Warner approached the script with respect and enthusiasm, fostering a direct, straightforward approach without an overlay of contemporary judgments. The Women's biases and outrageous sense of play are presented full on, for the audience to digest. Personally, I find I land pretty far to the left socially and politically. This is a very funny play, but there are moments in this piece when the point of view is jarring. I find myself feeling surprised, entertained and disturbed by it. I think it's a very interesting process to watch this play and feel how it challenges you to determine where your lines exist around a variety of issues. It's both uncomfortable and delightful. We have an incredible pool of artists in Seattle and this show could be cast three times over. All in all, though, it's a miracle that it's being done - and the amount of talent and dedication involved on every level has been overwhelming to witness. Kurt Beattie's willingness to support local talent and to risk offering something on this scale is commendable - and it turns out that this kind of risk is good business too. We're on our third extension now -- local audiences want to see local talent. Ensemble, on stage and off, built from years of relationships working together is exciting to watch. I feel very lucky to be a part of it. back to top       "My Unmurderable Darling" by Paul Mullin So in the past few weeks I have been giving a lot of thought to the darlings I'll be murdering from my newest play. See, I just recently had my first public reading of my latest script The Ten Thousand Things and, as is almost always the case in such situations, I learned a lot about what doesn't work. But here's the irony I wanted to share with you here: what needs cutting is also exactly what I want to say most about why I think theatre is worth doing. The play is about a clock that some very smart, very forward-thinking people are actually planning to build in the remote high country of Eastern Nevada. The clock will keep time for ten thousand years, and I am attempting to build a play about it that will, in some ways, behave like the clock, and change along with it over the next hundred centuries. Why? Well because I am convinced that theatre as an art form is uniquely positioned to rise to the many challenges of long-term survival within the vastness of deep time. Why? Well, I explained it thus, in the last draft of my play: PLAYWRIGHT: There is no more inherently enduringly subversive art form than theatre. PRODUCER: Like hell. Punk Rock. PLAYWRIGHT: Are you serious? PRODUCER: Maybe not. PLAYWRIGHT: I know you're not seriously arguing that any sort of rock is still in any way subversive. PRODUCER: Maybe not. But so? PLAYWRIGHT: So theatre has limits. Limits of distance, scale. If I can't reach you with my own live voice, it's not really theatre any more. So there's only so many people we can serve a time. We max out in the four digits range, maybe ten thousand, and that's pushing it. PRODUCER: It's a boutique art form. PLAYWRIGHT: No. Screw that. At its best it's a cockroach art form: small, ugly, but there's no way you're getting rid of it. You can disperse it into shadows but it only breeds better there. Boutiques are bourgeois by definition. And boutiques can burn. PRODUCER: Theatres can't burn? PLAYWRIGHT: You're making a category error. A variation on the church/chapel confusion. Theatre houses can burn, like chapels. Churches can exist in the open wind. PRODUCER: Theatres are churches. PLAYWRIGHT: Nope. Better. Worse. Sexier. Darker. More dangerous. A lot more fun. Why a play? People like plays. Or they used to. There's a fair chance they will again. Plays are portable in ways giant stone clocks are not. Theatre is incredibly low-tech and resilient. Or it use to be. There's a fair chance it will be again. PRODUCER: Okay, I'm convinced. Plays are perfect time machines, and theatre is a brilliant cockroach. You're still poor. I hope you enjoyed that excerpt. This essay is the only place you will see it. These words won't be part of the play when we premiere it at WET next spring. Several people in the reading's audience talkback expressed their discomfort with this section. "Too earnest, too self-reflective," they complained. Plays about playwrights are bad enough, but theatre about theatre proclaiming why theatre is so important to human civilization? Well, it's just too much. And of the two groups of people in the audience -- theatre folks and "civilians" -- it was overwhelmingly the theatre folks that expressed this opinion. Rightfully so, they are particularly suspicious of anything that smacks of the insufferably self-congratulatory "What I Did for Love" interlude from A Chorus Line. That said, what the playwright asserts in the cutting above is undeniably true. And these notions of theatre's portability, malleability and, indeed, indestructibility are what I try most to get across to my students when we talk about how what we are writing is different from, say, novels, film or television. All of those media require - well - media to communicate them, i.e. paper, film, radio waves. Theatre needs nothing but human beings. And as long as we exist, so will it. No one's murdering my bedraggled darling without murdering us all. And should that happen, who'd be left to care? back to top       "It Began with a List" by Ryan Schallon Cliched as this is instantly going to seem, I had recently seen on "On The Waterfront." It still sends chills down my spine to watch Brando with that line "It was you, Charley," and then repeat that charge and watch his brother rip him to shreds. I remember rewinding that scene over and over again, experiencing everything from this deep, guttural empathy for Terry, to plain exhilaration and marvel at just simply watching Brando at his best. Silly though it may be, what registered for me was: "That's what I want to do." I was familiar with Freehold through several friends, and through their encouragement I enrolled in Step I with Annette Toutonghi. While completing the full run of Intro, I took Voice with Jack Greenman (from whom I learned that I can sound like a pack-a-day Muppet), and Personal Clown with George Lewis. I also recently completed the Movement Intensive with George again, and I'm currently a part of Alexander with Lynne Compton. And there, in a nutshell, is my first year at Freehold. I've done my best through the duration to commit whatever my time and funds will allow, and I've been deeply rewarded. Much of that reward has come from the teachers. What I've appreciated the most is the genuine interest they've shown in my development, and their willingness to make themselves available to an extremely eager and inquisitive student. This is a faculty who have a genuine desire to guide instead of simply teach, and they've been the secret to my endurance. To Annette I owe a special thanks, as she was so endlessly supportive and instrumental in the framing of my first year of training. To Jackie Moscou as well, who showed the generosity of breaking in a plucked-from-the-farms-green actor in the auditioning process. And George, with whom I wish we could revive a medieval tradition and have him gather around a cadre of students and simply teach them everything he knows. Here is someone who can reference Decroux, Daffy Duck and any number of other things too vast too mention. But if I must be specific, of all the classes I've taken at Freehold, the one that distinguishes itself is Clown. I credit that class with being a real tipping point for me. Without divulging much, Clown has a very profound way of opening you, of making you truly receptive -- an obvious asset for any actor. In it's own peculiar and oh-so painful way, it was an extraordinarily poetic experience for me, and a hell of a lot of fun too. It's a class that requires of you to enter the fog, and it's a thick one, but it's a journey well worth the while. Plus, after Clown, I can all but obliterate nervousness in auditioning. I simply think of a few words: "Excuse me? Excuse me, Clown?" Somehow then, it all just slips away. back to top       Interview with Liza Comtois Growing up just a commuter train away from Manhattan I was going to be an artist in New York. Then, I visited the Northwest and my path changed. Much to my surprise I made Seattle my artistic home. I had an amazing tenure at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, under the artistic direction of Steve Sneed, I worked on Sherman Alexie's film "Smoke Signals" while at ShadowCatcher Entertainment, and I spent seven very valuable years at Intiman Theatre where I became an Artistic Associate under Bartlett Sher. During that time I discovered the best job in the theatre - dramaturgy and in particular new play development. Once I discovered it, there was no turning back. I struck out on my own as a freelance dramaturg and while not lucrative it has been a great joy. I have a huge respect for playwrights and supporting them in their work is very exciting. Making good theatre is really hard; projects can derail at every turn - a problematic third act, a character's competing objective, too much exposition and not enough action. These problems however are a pleasure to share in the solving. You just joined The Ethereal Mutt as Associate Producer. What is that like? Joining Emutt has been great. Along the way I have developed producing skills because somebody has to do it and I enjoy it. Using these skills to make exciting work happen is very satisfying. We just produced a one-woman show at ACT called My One Night Stand with Cancer by Tania Katan. Tania is an old friend of AJ Epstein, el presidente of Emutt, and she approached him about turning her memoir into a one-woman show. AJ knew Tania's talent as a writer and saw that this was an important story to tell. I got the added pleasure of dramaturging the show and Tania is fantastic to work with. She is very clear about what she wants as a writer and I had no fear when I asked questions or shared thoughts that she would lose her way with the piece. She took input eagerly but very clearly filtered it through her own internal guide of what she wanted to say in this piece. How did you get involved with the work being done at Freehold? I am a huge fan of Robin Lynn Smith. We began to work together when I was at Intiman and in her I found a mentor and artistic collaborator. I took her directing class at Freehold and it was the hardest class I ever had - she challenges you in ways that you never thought possible and you know you are going to fail except that you don't. She has a way of pushing you past that failure into a whole new place. I came out of her class with such respect for the craft of directing and that has served me immeasurably. She approaches the work with so little ego. It is not about recognition but about profoundly affecting an audience. That approach speaks to me and is the approach that Freehold adopts - the highest quality and rigor in craft, in service of the art and the audience, giving 100%, 100% of the time. As Board president, what hopes or plans do you have for Freehold in the coming years? This is a very exciting time to be a part of Freehold. We are in the process of an intense strategic planning process. Robin has created a new artistic team of faculty who are in the process of re-visioning. We are talking about instituting a lab for mid-career artists that want a place to explore work and challenge themselves artistically, a new integration of curriculum in classes, more opportunities for Freehold students to progress to performance and more closely integrating the Engaged Theatre into the Studio program. We have spent the last 10 months talking to staff, faculty, students, artists and colleagues in the community. We realize that Seattle is on the verge of an artistic renaissance and Freehold can be integral in giving artists a place to create the work they are compelled to create here in Seattle. Are you working on any artistic projects currently? Along with My One Night Stand with Cancer, I am also the production dramaturg for Strawberry Theatre Workshop's production of Brecht's The Life of Galileo, directed by Rosa Joshi. Rosa and I worked together last year on upstart crow's King John and found we really enjoyed the collaboration. She is super smart and a great artist and Seattle is lucky to have her. I am about to go back to Book-It to work with Myra Platt on a new adaptation of Jane Austin's Persuasion by Jen Taylor and Colin Byrne. Book-it is a great place to work on new plays. They do more world premiers in a season than many theatres do in a decade. What excites you about the arts scene in Seattle? What do you hope to see more of? I think the resurgence of an independent theatre movement. There are some very interesting new companies and artists putting up very good work - companies like Strawberry Theatre, WET and upstart crow. Artists are making the work that inspires them - and audiences are coming. There is also energy behind some new play development programs like the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival that launched this summer. I am holding my breath a little but I think there is a page turning in Seattle and that is very exciting. back to top