By Luan Schooler
Interim Artistic Director
We’re so excited to produce three bold new plays by women with strong Pacific Northwest ties this season! Building on the energy of last year’s all-premiere season of locally created plays, the year ahead features another world premiere (E.M. Lewis’s Apple Hunters!, a bighearted comedy about loneliness and connection) and two second-productions (Keiko Green’s social media-fueled bedroom farce, The Bed Trick, and Kallan Dana’s surreal family thriller, Racecar Racecar Racecar). ART’s mission is “to produce intimate, provocative theatre and provide a home for a diverse community of artists and audiences to take creative risks” – and new plays are our most exhilarating, direct path to fulfillment.
We love a timely classic – and know that today’s new play can be tomorrow’s classic. That’s why we’re driven to support living playwrights attempting to make sense of today’s crazy, tumultuous world. Their rigorous exploration of current issues often comes wrapped in playful, irreverent storytelling that catches us off guard, and those moments of surprise can shift our hearts and minds, opening us to a richer understanding of the world. We love a play that feels both unexpected and inevitable, that gives us a fresh look at something we thought we knew!
ART has a strong national reputation for developing and premiering new plays like Magellanica, The Storyteller, Sapience, American Fast, plus many others, including The Thanksgiving Play and Wolf Play (which both went on to Broadway and Off-Broadway). But here’s something people don’t always realize: while world premieres get the headlines, second productions might be even more important to a play’s life. A play can only be fully understood once it’s staged, and writers don’t always have the chance to completely refine the script during its first run — that chance comes with the second production. We’re thrilled to have all of our playwrights in rehearsals with us this season, giving them time to strengthen their work and take it to the next level – so that you will see the best version possible!
At ART, we’re drawn to plays that stand at an angle to the world and show us something anew, that risk failure rather than repeat formula, and that spark surprising, essential conversations. New plays are living, breathing explorations that take both artists and audiences on an adventure of discovery – and that’s the journey ART invites you to join!