New Play Café reading series – donations at door

Six new plays by Pacific Northwest playwrights, selected from 75 submissions, are featured in the launch of the New Play Café reading series, presented by Bellingham TheatreWorks. The New Play Café continues Bellingham TheatreWorks mission to produce stories of significance to the Pacific Northwest, with an emphasis on local actors, directors, and playwrights.

The inaugural New Play Café series is March 3,4,5 and 10,11,12 at 7:30 pm at the New Prospect Theatre, 207 Prospect Street, Bellingham. Donations are accepted for admission.

The plays will have one or two rehearsals, and are presented without staging, props or sets.  The actors are at music stands, reading from the script.
“This is an exciting new step for Bellingham TheatreWorks, (BTW), one that’s been made possible thanks to our expanded community-member board,” said Mark Kuntz, BTW artistic director. “My producing partner Steve Lyons and I have both written and directed plays for BTW in the past. Now we have the organizational capacity to expand our programs to showcase and celebrate the work of emerging local artists and foster their growth.”

The playwrights come from throughout the Pacific Northwest, including two from Bellingham, two from Seattle, one from Camano Island, and one from Portland.

Themes in the plays include the complexities of family dynamics, and monsters; an exploration of sex, power and unrequited love; belonging, connection, and the barriers we experience with each; and, two plays inspired by real events: one of a famous Seattle Madam and a second play about a lighthouse keeper.

Sunday, March 5th  

Madame by Kate Danley
Madame Lou Grant was a “Founding Mother” of Seattle.  Although this tenacious and big-hearted woman was largely responsible for rebuilding Seattle after it burned to the ground, she has been erased from history books because of her trade.

Kate is a USA TODAY bestselling author.  She was honored with the Garcia Award for Best Fiction Book of the Year (The Woodcutter, 47North), McDougall Previews Award for Best Fantasy Book of the Year (Queen Mab), and her series Maggie MacKay: Magical Tracker is optioned for television.  Her book, The Woodcutter, is being left on the moon in a lunar time capsule in February 2023. Her plays have been produced internationally.  Building Madness, won the Panowski Playwriting Award; Power won the Renegade Theatre Festival; and Kings of the World was voted an audience favorite in the 10x10x10 Festival.  She graduated from Towson University and is a Maryland Distinguished Scholar in the Arts.  She performed her original stand-up at such clubs as The Comedy Store and The Icehouse, and wrote sketch for a weekly show at the Acme.  www.katedanley.com