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.

Saturday March 11th: 

Marcus by Aaron Allen Ussery
After suffering a head injury during a game, 20-year-old college football player Micah McDaniel faces internal and external pressure to force his way back into the game.

Aaron is a Western Washington University alumni, where he studied theater with an emphasis on directing. “Marcus” is his first and currently only full-length work. Past directing credits include Noah Haidle’s “Rag and Bone” and Craig Wright’s “Orange Flower Water.”

In addition to writing and directing plays, he also enjoys making music, playing drums, and designing tabletop RPG campaigns. He currently lives in the Lake City neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. He’s grateful to BTW for this opportunity to share his work with the community.