I make a lot of outrageous claims about Seattle as a theatre town, and a lot of outrageous demands, too. I stand by all of them. But the claim I am most eager to defend at the moment is that Seattle is the best city in the world for locally grown plays: that is, new work written for Seattleites, by Seattleites, with Seattle audiences in mind. We do it quarter after quarter over at Sandbox Radio, Annex Theatre has been doing it for decades, and Printer’s Devil for only slightly less than that. Recently, local actor Rebecca Olson founded the Custom Made Plays Project dedicated solely to matching Pacific Northwest playwrights with local actors to develop and produce new plays of regional significance. (More on that exciting new wrinkle in a later blog.) Even the big lumbering mastodons are starting to get into the act, with A Contemporary Theatre recently world premiering Yussef El Guindi’s Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World to great success, and the Seattle Rep fostering a ongoing workshop of local playwrights, though, in fairness to companies fully fighting the good fight, the Rep has yet to really put its producing money where its workshopping mouth is.
In this spirit of making theatre which is a custom fit to performers and audiences alike, allow me to introduce to you The Betty Plays, world premiering this Sunday at Theater Schmeater. These are four new short plays written for actor Betty Campbell by Scot Augustson, Pamela Hobart Carter, Paul Klein, Jim Lapan and myself, plus a short film, “Lethal Cotillion”, which was featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Says the Schmee in their press release:
The playwrights embarked on this project because of their love for the acting talents of the brilliant Betty Campbell and their desire to see her on the stage again. Stylistically distinct, the four plays demonstrate the prowess of Seattle’s reigning thespian septuagenarian.
And here’s what contributing playwright, Scot Augustson said recently on Facebook:
I’ve got a show coming up that won’t get a review, is playing just 3 Sunday afternoons. I’m guessing less than 150 people will see it. It will never be nominated for anything. The taste makers won’t declare it The Hot Ticket In Town! And yet, it gets to the core of why I stay in Seattle and make theater. . . . Betty Campbell is an incredibly talented woman who has given immeasurably to this town and this community. But, she’s been facing some physical limitations lately that make doing a whole show difficult. Pamela Hobart Carter realized that to not have Betty up in front of an audience was ridiculous. So she got a hold of a few of Betty’s fans who were also writers to create an evening of shows . . . . It’s gonna be great, check it out. (Hmm, if we can’t get Hot Ticket, maybe we can be Best Kept Secret. )
As for me, I first saw Betty Campbell six years ago when were both making our “virgin” appearances in the 14/48 instant theatre festival: her as an actor, me as a writer. I watched wide-eyed as Betty stalked around the arena stage, opposite another actress, as they both shouted competing boasts to the audience about the depraved pornographic acts they were about to perform. Now, you don’t need to know Betty well to know she’s a consummate lady with a deeply sweet and genteel heart. She was playing fiercely against type. But more importantly, she was playing fiercely. She was not cowed by material. She rose to it. And then she rose above it. She is the kind of performer that makes a playwright’s fingers itch for his keyboard.
Here are the details for the Theater Schmeater run of The Betty Plays, should you choose to avail yourself of Scot’s delightful “secret”:
