Arts on the Waterfront

Article from The Clyde Fitch Report: Drag Cabaret in Seattle: To Russia, With Love (Interview with Mickey Rowe)

Article from New Queer on the Block Magazine: Theater Reacts to President Putin’s Anti-Gay Laws in Russia

Article from Playbill.com: All-Male Production of Cabaret, Reset in Modern-Day Russia, Will Play Seattle

Wes Hurley, author of the Huffington Post’s article “Growing up Gay in Russia”, is set to star as the EmCee in a modern new production of Cabaret. Arts on the Waterfront’s new production will be set in Russia instead of the usual Germany, combining theatre, drag, and short clips of the actual vigilantes/neo-nazis to comment on the recent events in Russia. The production will also feature Zachary Simonson of Seattle Repertory Theater’s “American Buffalo” as well as members of the Seattle drag community.

The production is being directed by Arts on the Waterfront’s Producing Artistic Director Mickey Rowe and choreographed by Velocity Dance Center’s Dylan Ward.

Cabaret will perform in the Lobby of Intiman (Cornish Playhouse) transforming it into a modern club with the audience sitting around cafe tables and on couches.

“With the play’s perfect fit for the situation in Russia, with songs like ‘Married’ and ‘If You Could See Him Through My Eyes’, as well as the plays ability to pull an audience in with laughs, jokes, and very hummable tunes, the script allows us to open our audiences minds to falling in love with characters they might not initially understand, and bring reality and recognition to situations miles away.”, states Rowe.

“Realizing I was gay in Russia felt like a terminal disease diagnosis. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. What did I do to deserve it? I was just a kid. Yet there I was, a secret pedik, one of the monsters I’d heard about so much yet knew so little about. Convinced that I was the only real gay person in Russia, I felt completely alienated from the human race. I’d look in the mirror and imagine a reptilian creature lurking beneath my skin. If I was so unpopular already, for no apparent reason, what would happen to me if they knew?”  stated Hurley.

The production will open before the Winter Olympics.

So far in Arts on the Waterfront’s two-year history the company has only received good reviews from The Seattle Times: “Inspired” “Recalling the great Shakespeare director Peter Brook. . . unmistakably alive.”, The Stranger: “Magical. . .”, “Wickedly Entertaining. . . Ingenious.”, City Arts Magazine, “A stellar intellectual play performed with quick wit, near-perfect timing, and smooth physicality. . . Within the first ten minutes of the play I was not only transfixed, but also incredibly impressed. . . Spectacular” and Seattle Magazine: “Perfect Summer Night in Seattle . . Pier Pleasure”.

“We have had an incredibly successful track record, not only raising thousands of dollars for charities around our community (Teen Feed, Sanctuary Arts, and The Trevor Project) at the performances, but also allowing homeless and low-income families to see plays outside of the Shakespeare canon that they might not usually get the chance to see. During Waiting for Godot, we had one homeless gentleman who felt such a connection to the show that he saw every performance and many rehearsals over the month, stating at the end that he even had many of his favorite sections of the play memorized”. States Artistic Director Mickey Rowe.

Performances are currently set to run November 28 Thurs (Preview), November 29 Fri (Opening), November 30 Sat, December 1 Sun, December 2 Mon, December 4 Wed, December 5 Thurs, December 6 Fri, December 7 Sat, December 8 Sun, December 9 Mon, December 11 Wed, December 12 Thurs, December 13 Fri (Closing) all at 8:00pm at the Cornish Playhouse (formerly Intiman) 201 Mercer Street, Seattle, WA 98109 at the Seattle Center.

Seattle Times Footlight Award Winner! *Check out the press we’ve gotten so far. Our press release can be read below.

• Brillaint write up by Brendan Kiley at the Stranger.
• “Wickedly entertaining. . . ingenious” -Anna Minard, The Stranger
• “Recalling the great Shakespeare director Peter Brook. . . unmistakably alive.” -Misha Berson, The Seattle Times
• Seattle Magazine – “Perfect Summer Night in Seattle . .  Pier Pleasure”
• “A stellar intellectual play performed with quick wit, near-perfect timing, and smooth physicality. . . Within the first ten minutes of the play I was not only transfixed, but also incredibly impressed. . . Spectacular” -Rachel Gallaher, City Arts Magazine
  
• “Inspired. . . [a] keen understanding of the existential dilemma and absurdest humor of the play’s hapless pair, framed by an Elliott Bay setting that is spectacular” -Misha Berson, The Seattle Times
• We made the front page of New York theater blog, The AndyGram!

We are so excited to announce that we are working with The Ballard Branch of The Seattle Public Library on something very exciting. We can’t wait to announce it officially! Keep your ears open. Thanks Jonathan!

I am so excited to announce that we got a generous grant! Thank you so much, Pollination Project! It’s people like you that make projects like this possible! Thank you thank you thank you!

“The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Letus not speak of it at all. (Judiciously.) It is true the population has increased.”

August 16th, 17th, 18th, 23nd, 24rd, 25th, 30th, 31st, and September 1st at 7:00pm. Waterfront Park, 1300 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98101.

When asked, “Why Waiting for Godot”, actor Jay Myers poignantly said, “After losing the harbor of a school system in exchange for a degree last year, my life’s changes have taken some getting used to. Disillusioned, directionless, and desperate I’ve been wandering around trying to rediscover who I am and what I am doing. In my adolescent bliss, I had been under the impression that grownups knew what was going on, and once I became a certified adult I would be let in on the secret to life. Rather anticlimactically, I’m coming to the conclusion that nobody really has any idea what he or she is doing. We are all just trying to get by doing the best we can. That is why this project is so important to me. We are all waiting for something, often with nothing but hope holding us together. Whether it is a college degree, a place to sleep, a proposal, a job, validation, salvation, a paycheck, or a man named Godot. Under a lone tree, at a desolate crossroads, the characters in Waiting for Godot have me asking myself, “What am I waiting for? Should stay here a bit longer? Or should I test an unknown road?” 

This production, gives new life to Estragon and Vladimir, exploring themes such as economic collapse and youth homelessness, developed through the perceptions and experiences of recent college graduates and struggling young people. We are so excited to share this production with you.

Waiting for Godot taking a young urban Seattle scene and turning the conventions of storytelling upside down with this edgy retelling using Puget Sound, the sunset, and the Pier as it’s back drop starting at 7:00pm. Art will be displayed before and after the show on the Pier by a dozen local artists with music before the show starts!

The event is totally free for all but all donations made at the event and proceeds go to Teen Feed.  Teen Feed provides meals and supportive relationships to homeless young people 365 days a year. Teen Feed’s programs work to provide for young people in need ages 13-25 in University District, South Seattle and Auburn areas. For more information, visit http://www.teenfeed.org.

All though we are still young, ranging in age from 20 – 24, we have performed on some of Seattle’s biggest stages, Seattle Opera, Book-It, SCT, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, and more. Last year our production of Romeo and Juliet was called, “Wickedly entertaining. . . ingenious” by the Stranger, “Recalling the great Shakespeare director Peter Brooks. . . Unmistakably Alive” by the Seattle Times, “Pier Pleasure” by Seattle Magazine, and more. But we can’t do it with out your help! This project is made possible in part by a grant from The Pollination Project. http://thepollinationproject.org/

We strive to create incredible theater for you! Yes! You! We also aim to bring quality free theater and arts to families with financial difficulties in the heart of downtown Seattle. We produce free theater in a down town park where many homeless community members live. We feel that great plays and literature brought to life on stage should be available to everyone, not just those who can pay $30 for a ticket like most Seattle Theater’s charge or those who can get dressed up to fit in with the audiences at these theaters. We think it is important to enrich people’s lives with these experiences.