Stepping Forward: What’s Next in 2025
…A Note from the Artistic Director
I know you all have holiday shopping still to do, so this will be a short note from me (because I still have holiday shopping to do, and as much as I like the food, our family Christmas tree, and wrapping up in a blanket with a cup of tea and a Georgette Heyer romance, shopping is the genuinely horripilacious part of the season).
Thank you so much for being part of The Shattered Glass Project in 2024. This is our 5th year. We’ve become a 501c3 with your support as artists, volunteers, donors and audience members.
The bulk of this newsletter is about what’s next in 2025. We’re immensely grateful to the 33 individual donors who made gifts totaling $3280 on Giving Tuesday, to support our upcoming Plays in Progress workshops.
If you missed out on making a gift, there’s still time to help us reach our $5000 end of year goal - click here and help amplify the voices of the unique theatre makers who are part of TSGP’s programming. With your continued support for what’s next, we’re excited to step into 2025.
Happy holidays!
Rebecca
4Culture Grant
The Shattered Glass Project is thrilled to have received a sustained support grant from 4Culture, through the new King County Doors Open funding stream, totalling 65,493.00 over the next three years. Our immense gratitude to the entire King County Council, especially our own councilmember Girmay Zahilay, for ensuring that arts in our cities and neighborhoods not only survive but thrive in a way that allows us to give back to our neighbors, our communities and our local economy.
Festival of New Works
We are pleased to announce the six new plays which will be coming to you through our 2025 Plays in Progress script development workshops. And we need YOU in the audience to support and provide feedback for our playwrights as their scripts come to life on stage!
Every month through June, TSGP is pairing a playwright with a director and a cast to explore their script and see where it goes. Tickets are now available for our first reading of A Scythe and a Sandglass the Skeleton Bore written by 2024 Incubator/Mentor cohort members Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones, and directed by my dear friend Shana Bestock. The big marketing burst is coming soon.
A special, special thanks to board member Buddy Todd for leading the selection process and our selection committee including Emily Stone, Cara Thomas, and Alison Kozar, for all their help.
See more below about all our Plays in Progress:
January 24, 2025
A Scythe and a Sandglass the Skeleton Bore
Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones
The year is 1938. Dr. Lawrence Walton, the direct descendent of Capt. Robert Walton, has acquired his ancestor’s collected writings: the very letters and journal entries detailing the plight of Victor Frankenstein and his uncontrollable, murderous Creature. Dr. Walton is determined to rectify the calamitous failures of Frankenstein’s original experiment using modern science and a simple concept: he will tame his Creature by re-animating a female corpse.
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February 21, 2025
Rochefort Girls
Nelle Tankus
Animate and Brim have both survived massive loss. Now, they’re in The Hole, literally and figuratively. Animate can no longer feel pain, Brim forgot what happened to them, and The Hole is newborn and has no idea how to even exist. Their old way of living is gone. Now that these three have been thrust together, they must remember who they are, what happened to them, and how to grieve a pain they’ve never felt before.
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March 21, 2025
Inside the Head of Mimp
Miriam Tobin
In order to fulfill the obligations of a research grant, a scientist reluctantly presents a 12-year study of a human-like species on an outer planet that led to the devastating end of two groups of people; while the only survivor, a young child, learns to accept her evolutionary fate on her new home of Earth.
______
April 18, 2025
In Between Places
Carolynne Wilcox
Two strangers wake up in an unfamiliar and unsettling place that keeps changing as they try to figure out where they are, what they’re doing there. Every shift is a small clue…if they can stop arguing long enough to figure it out.
______
May 23, 2025
The Last Rites of Uncle Manny
Coco Justino
After years of estrangement, Claudia Dalog's brother shows back up in her and her daughter, Molly's, lives-- in the form of healthcare logistics to coordinate for his coma. In this distinctly Filipinx American tragicomedy, it is up to Claudia, Molly, and the comatose Uncle Manny to carve their autonomy out of hand-me-down American Dreams, Catholic Guilt, and a recipe for real Pinoy fried rice.
______
June 20, 2025
Shape of
Zoe Barker-Aderem
Description coming soon!
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The staged-reading format offers the playwright an opportunity to learn how their script is handled in a basic production format by a director and cast; collaborate with a director and cast to answer questions and guide the interpretation of their script; witness the impact on their story of minimal production elements, as determined by the director, and build connections with Seattle-based directors and actors.
Perhaps most importantly, the playwrights have the opportunity to see how their play lands with an audience. Post-show discussions following each staged reading integrate feedback from audience members as well as other theatre artists and give them usable information to refine their script. Your participation as audience members is key to creating polished stories for future production.
Local Holiday Theatre you can still catch
Thru Dec 22
Beauty & The Beast Holiday Panto - Centerstage
*Featuring work by SGP Associated Artists Meghan Ames, Jasmine Flora, Mia McGinn & Carolynne Wilcox
Victorian Christmas Cards - Latitude Theatre
*Featuring work by SGP Associated Artists Montse Garza & James Lyle
Thru Dec 29
Mary Poppins - 5th Ave Theatre
*Featuring work by SGP Board Member Cristin J. Hubbard
Thru Dec 30
A Charlie Brown Christmas - Taproot Theatre
*Featuring work by SGP Associate Artists Rhys Daly & Tessa “Cricket” James
#GivingTuesday Extends through Dec!
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who contributed to our #GivingTuesday campaign! With your help, we were able to raise over 3K of our ambitious 5K goal…but December’s not over, and the giving site is still accepting donations, and you know, the holidays are HERE, if you wanted to donate but didn’t, or feel yourself moved to spread a little more love our way, we will gratefully accept all donations, tiny and enormous - click the link below to visit our donation site!
…LAST BUT NOT LEAST, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ONE AND ALL!
It’s time…
…to get back to work!!!
November: usually a time to talk about gratitude.
I’m grateful to friends, family, and the Seattle theatre community for the support over this difficult week. I had high expectations for the election: I expected joy and the result was decidedly not what I had hoped for.
A wise board member told the rest of us “Time to get angry about shit and make loud art about it, same as yesterday and tomorrow.” Which reminded me that even if we had the joy of breaking the highest, hardest glass ceiling in the United States, there would still have been a lot of work to do. We don’t get that joy now, but we can still do the work.
I had the privilege of participating on a post-show discussion panel on women in plays for Mrs. Loman Is Leaving at ACT Theatre in October, just before the opening of A Lonely Realization. I was in the company of the playwright and director Katie Forgette and Julie Beckman, as well as Associate AD Shana Bestock, and I am grateful to have learned that the experience of women in theatre at all budget levels is very similar to mine.
Thinking back on that conversation clarified and reinforced a couple things for me:
It’s incredibly important to have a diversity of people writing our plays: women or non-binary or transgender writers can see and articulate a perception of how other people behave which is completely different than what a person socialized as male will see. They can provide the viewer an empathetic “aha” moment which they will not experience in plays written from the “mainstream” perspective.
We need to redefine and challenge the term “mainstream”. Why should we allow the plays which silence non-male, non-white characters, writers, directors and designers to be described as “the mainstream narrative”? There are more non-white, non-male people in the world than white male people, so by definition white/male centered stories are not the mainstream, they are simply one current in the larger stream.
We must engage in this work in community and on the stage. If I have learned anything from the late unjoyful election results, listening to the people we disagree with is the only way to change anything. Where better to engage in thoroughly unpleasant conversations between people who disagree with one another than on the stage? We can examine the consequences of all our actions in a thoughtful and detailed manner and invite the sibling, cousin or auntie we disagree with most to watch how the game plays out in community with us.
We cannot be afraid to ask for what we need. Even if we think the answer might be No.
So yes, it’s time to get back to work.
This is where I ask you to help us do our work. You’ve been asked for so many months to give money. Every text message from every campaign under the sun has asked you to give and give and give.
We are asking you to give, so that we can continue to provide career-development opportunities for directors and playwrights; produce new plays; pay designers and actors; and get back to the work of amplifying underheard voices. Giving Tuesday is coming on December 3rd. We welcome your gift of any size to help us reach our Giving Tuesday goal of $5000. You can donate here: https://www.wagives.org/organization/Shatteredglassproject.
In joy and with gratitude,
Rebecca O’Neil
Post-Mortem: A Lonely Realization
A note of gratitude for the cast, crew, and playwrights for A Lonely Realization from Rebecca:
It was amazing walking in with a vision for this script and being able to work with the beautiful three-human cast of Lexi, Darby, and Emily from tablework to closing night to achieve that vision. It was so interesting to see how that vision changed as each design element impacted what we were creating. I am incredibly grateful for the resilience of our team as we struggled with a COVID infection in the midst of attempting to run a COVID Safer production for our immunocompromised team members. Thank you for bringing your creativity and imagination and your ability to cope with difficult subject matter while we told this important story.
A few responses from our audience:
“It was an incredibly poignant and beautiful piece and we were grateful to be able to experience it.”
“Heartbreaking, heartwarming, heartfelt…”
“I cared for all the pieces of your story. Mort and Hattie and their rotting corpse in their 50’s room. Your athletic frog who just wants the show to go on without acknowledging the pain in the stage room. Legs who writes to save herself. Nadezhda. The stories with the happy endings. The stories with the bad ones. You gave us so much to think about.”
An impactful critical comment:
“There are plenty of examples of plays that deal with this particular and heavy subject matter. I find it hard to believe that there are many that do it as creatively as A Lonely Realization does.”
Emily Stone, Lexi Warden & Darby Sherwood in A Lonely Realization. Photography by Kirk Hostetter.
What’s Coming Down the Pipes in 2025!
Helpful Resources
After the election results came in, a fresh crop of help resources also showed up on social media. We consolidated a few of them all in one place, if they might be useful to have on hand as a means of arming yourself with knowledge. Please share others, if you’re aware of them!
What’s Happening for the Holidays!
We’re lucky the Puget Sound region is absolutely RIFE with entertainment all year, and holiday time is no exception! Lots of higher profile things going on, but we thought we’d highlight the holiday panto opening at Centerstage in Federal Way at the end of the month, since not only is it a different offering from the usual Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols, but includes several SGP Associate Artists: Jasmine Flora (Carmilla, Plays in Progress), Meghan Ames, Brad Cerenzia, Mia McGlinn (Carmilla, 2024 New Works Festival) & Carolynne Wilcox (SGP Social Media Coordinator; Various projects).
What is a holiday panto, you ask? It’s a well-loved tradition in the UK with roots in Commedia Dell’Arte. Click here for more extensive information on the form. Generally to be expected are outlandish costumes, broad comedy & song/dance and LOTS of audience participation. It’s definitely an all-ages event the entire family can enjoy. Go check ‘em out!
An Incomplete Textual Analysis of “A Lonely Realization”
Theatrical Representation of Bystanders and Their Response to Sexual Violence in the Academic Institution: An Incomplete Textual Analysis of A Lonely Realization
by Rebecca O’Neil, director, A Lonely Realization
Tree
...We have to wait until the official bodies say what we want.
Because I want them to say that he raped you
Of course I want him to have raped you
But we have to prioritize his humanity until they do.
A Lonely Realization, p. 38.
The opening line of Nicole Bedera’s article published in the Journal of Higher Education (entitled I Can Protect His Future, but She Can’t Be Helped: Himpathy and Hysteria in Administrator Rationalizations of Institutional Betrayal) states “It is well-established fact that sexual assault survivors who report the violence they endured are retraumatized by the reporting process.”
This is particularly noticeable in the institutional construct called a university. Universities deny that sexual assault is a problem on their campus, while at the same time their female students who are survivors of sexual assault are subtly and overtly discouraged by the individuals representing the institution from reporting through the established and federally required mechanisms defined by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Popular books like Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer, for example, outline the negative public reaction not only of students and employees at universities like Montana State but of townspeople when women accuse football players of sexual assault. The women are blamed. The university does as little as possible.
While officials running programs such as Title IX are nominally striving to create an environment where discrimination on the basis of sex is eliminated, the primary experience of students who have experienced sexual assault is one of uncertainty and fear created by the institution’s insistence on protecting everyone until all the evidence has been parsed out. Since the survivors are (statistically) mostly women and/or LGBTQIA+, mostly BIPOC, and mostly low-income, they are more likely than not to drop out of college to avoid their assailant, who is often still in the classroom with them; to avoid being re-traumatized.
In the context of A Lonely Realization, our survivor Legs is dealing with the insistence by the bureaucracy of her university and the individuals representing the university on a specious form of fairness. The character Tree (a university professor and the director of the plays Legs has written) tells Legs in no uncertain terms:
I am interested in believing survivors.
Especially when they can prove what’s happened
Because I’m not interested in pointing the finger at people just because they’re accused.
A Lonely Realization, p. 38.
We exist in an interesting time in Seattle (and Portland and possibly the Cascadia portion of the Pacific NW), where we frequently make statements agreeing with Tree’s comment about believing survivors of sexual assault. However our society especially in Seattle just as frequently engages in protest or political combat with the criminal justice system about how people accused of many different types of crimes ought to be treated. The system is wrong, the system is evil, the system should treat the defendant with kid gloves. And this attitude does not disagree with our Constitutional rights where the accused is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
What this equates to, very often, in the experience of the victim of a crime is that their rights are in abeyance until “proven guilty” is pronounced. The experience of most survivors of sexual assault is in absolute opposition to the concept of “innocent until proven guilty.” They are treated as if they are guilty of having been assaulted. Their assailants are allowed to be in all the spaces which their victim would ordinarily be occupying: the same classes, the same dorms and dining halls, the same social spaces.
This is exactly what happens to Legs: her friends talk about her in front of her face; her professor is oblivious to her upfront declaration that the assailant is dangerous; her assailant is even cast in the play that she wrote. She is told by the professor, a representative of the university-as-institution, that the plays she writes and the words she uses to try and explain what has happened to her, is what is actually dangerous. Legs, who has been traumatized to the point of losing her voice and the rest of her body, is identified as the problem, and she is consequently silenced and traumatized again.
With her friends, we see the response that often individuals have when people they know either commit a harmful act or are subjected to a harmful attack. Our natural reaction to seeing someone else in pain is to cringe or turn away; to deny it exists or to resist being a part of that harm. We, as individuals, often do that by demanding to know why we also have to suffer. Frog and Mushroom have an extremely difficult time understanding Legs’s frequent changes of narrative (in the form of her different play scripts) because they are experiencing a common form of bystander syndrome known as “what’s in it for me?”
Plays are a form of storytelling which emphasizes the experiences of individuals, so aside from the occasional presence of Tree, the institution is mostly in the background of this part of the story. The experience of our friends Frog and Mushroom, the actor’s-nightmare afflicted EveryHumans of our play, are pretty revealing and pretty funny: they are self-centered, mono focused on the number of lines they get in the play, fully willing to gossip and complain about their friend Legs, and equally willing to show off for the first-year college students in their theatre program. They giggle at the cute assailant in their midst. They don’t understand why the script keeps changing on them - why should they suffer because the playwright is trying to make a point?
Mr. Baum
He didn’t get fired because of what he did, he got fired because he got caught.
Be smart and you can get away with anything.
A Lonely Realization, p. 51
We get a better look at the institution and the way people operate within institutional structures in the other part of the metadramatic storyline followed by A Lonely Realization. Hopping out of the rehearsal room and into an idealized 1950s world, we meet Hattie (a June Cleaver-esque housewife) and her husband Mort (Edsel driving breadwinner, attorney, and university flunky). They have a rotting corpse on their table - SOMEONE must know what to do about it! What? They don’t want you to do anything about it? Oh well, cover it with a tablecloth!
The faith Mort and Hattie have in the system becomes more and more degraded as they seek help to remove the corpse (played by Legs-the-puppet). Hattie struggles to maintain her perfect positivity, but when Mort is sucked back into the institution by promises of promotion from his boss Mr. Baum, Hattie comes to realize that Mort will not only abuse the corpse but her as well to fulfill his dreams of rising in the patriarchal hierarchy. Even though Mort’s abuse is verbal, emotional abuse is a strong leading indicator of future physical and sexual violence. When they entertain Mr. Baum for dinner at their house, the conversation between Baum and Mort clearly shows Hattie that her husband is not to be trusted, as Mort laughs at Baum’s misogynistic comments and his jokes about philosophy being right and wrong, but law being what you can get away with. A revelation that Mort is having an affair is the final blow that sends Hattie out of June Cleaver Land. She visibly abandons her stereotyped gender roles and goes in search of a new life independent of the chains of the system she has always believed in.
References
Nicole Bedera (2023): I Can Protect His Future, but She Can’t Be Helped: Himpathy and Hysteria in Administrator Rationalizations of Institutional Betrayal, The Journal of Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2023.2195771
THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT!
OR: October is both Halloween spooky season and also Domestic Violence Awareness Month
A Note from the Artistic Director
Content information: the newsletter and the play of A Lonely Realization reference sexual assault throughout.
Before you read this note, BUY YOUR TICKETS FOR A Lonely Realization!
I’ll wait.
OK. Now you can read. This note is a big old love note to a very special group of theatre makers including my dear friend Buddy Todd.
The Shattered Glass Project works with theatrical material about traumatic situations a lot of the time. Practicing our skills to do this in a safe way is always an intense experience. We have been fortunate to work with many local experts in intimacy over the past 5 years, including as intimacy directors (Jess K. Smith, Want, 2022); actors (Jasmine Lomax, All New Cells, 2023); and teaching artists (Kate Drummond, Ian Bond and Jasmine Lomax). Our production of A Lonely Realization, which will open in less than two weeks, deals specifically with the aftermath of sexual assault. The extensive use of absurdity and humor throughout the play doesn’t lessen the potential for traumatizing the actors in the process of rehearsing the play.
So it was exciting and very important for me as the director and for the cast as a whole to bring TSGP board member Buddy Todd into the room to help us establish ways of creating a safe rehearsal space for emotionally difficult storytelling. They also helped us to craft our cast agreements and left us with somatic exercises to release the tension of difficult rehearsal processes.
Buddy Todd, dramaturg and intimacy coordinator, A Lonely Realization
Being an intimacy director is a role in creating a play that is pretty invisible to the audience, along with being a dramaturg, which…hey! That was Buddy too! They worked with playwrights Darby and Emily long distance from Ireland for over a year, and helped grow the script of A Lonely Realization from the original 45 minutes to a full 100-minute play.
So this director’s note is to say, “Thank you so much, Buddy! We wouldn’t have a play without you and we are incredibly grateful for your creativity and the safe space you created where we could make art!”
Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director, Shattered Glass Project
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P.S. We’re sponsoring a post-show discussion on Sunday, October 20th with the playwrights and two of the fabulous folks who provide support for sexual assault survivors in our legal community. Please keep an eye out for an email with the full details!
A Lonely Realization Opens Oct 18!
L-t-R: A Lonely Realization Director (Rebecca O’Neil), Stage Manager (Clair Kaminsky) & Assistant Stage Manager (Hana Oh)
Director’s Journal, or The Top 10 Skills I Have Learned or
Practiced Really Hard While Directing A Lonely Realization:
by Rebecca O’Neil
I’ve been asking myself to write a lot of stuff about this production and this script, which sends me thinking in many different directions. Here’s a preview of the director’s note for our program. If you’re interested in a deeper dive into a more academic textual and thematic analysis of the script, check out this blog post:
Not everyone sees humor as a tool to drill deeply into something like sexual assault in artistic and educational spaces, but I think sometimes it’s better to laugh yourself sick than to scream and beat your head on the wall. You want to remember the things that make you laugh or go “ewwww...”. Hence, A Lonely Realization, which is a funny effing play employing humor, facetiousness, absurdity, jocularity, bad jokes, rotting corpses and the sometimes stupid and self-centered nature of being a human to explore some serious shit = institutional and individual responses to sex and gender-based violence in a way that reflects the experience of the survivor. We do this with three actors, one old pair of jeans, 15 characters, a lopsided set with a DIY vibe, voices from the ceiling, a bunch of puppets, a slew of toys, and reams of craft paper.
In a world where women (and many other people) are losing legal rights to their voices and to their bodies, especially their reproductive and sexual autonomy, a story about how individuals and communities learn to respond as bystanders and support the victims and survivors of sexual assault is an important creative teaching tool. We hope our tale will promote healing and recognition and galvanize our community members to be better friends, educators, and human beings. So please: laugh. And remember.
Here are the top ten skills:
Interrupting. It’s ok to interrupt the actors in the middle of a scene to give them a note. This is sooooo hard to do.
Being nit-picky without giving line readings. As an actor myself, I hear the words a particular way, but I can’t play the role for them.
Reminding the playwrights what their script says. These playwrights are acting in their own piece. They frequently ignore their own words and punctuation, which is an interesting conversation!
Making the cast do it again. They call it practice or rehearsal for a reason - doing it again is the only way to get it down.
Taking breaks. I’m just sitting here watching - my butt gets tired, but the rest of me isn’t. Thank heavens for the stage managers!
Saying no. I don’t always like what the designers are bringing me. It’s ok to ask for something different if I’m not seeing IRL what my head is imagining.
Telling myself no. Sometimes what I see in my head can’t be done that way.
Saying yes! OMG, that was fabulous, do it again!
Failing with style. Saying, well, that was a terrible idea, let’s try something else.
Being grateful. I get to work with a magnificent group of people
L-to-R: ALR Director (Rebecca O’Neil) & cast/playwrights (Emily Stone & Darby Sherwood)
YOU ARE INVITED!
…To Community Day at ACT Theatre, Co-Hosted by The Shattered Glass Project!
Includes a Post-Show Discussion at 4:00 PM featuring TSGP Artistic Director Rebecca O’Neil - “Women in Plays: a conversation”
Katie Forgette (Mrs. Loman is Leaving playwright); Julie Beckman (Mrs. Loman is Leaving director); Rebecca O’Neil, The Shattered Glass Project Founding Artistic Director; and Shana Bestock, ACT Artistic Associate share their experiences and reflections on what it means to be a woman in plays. We’ll talk about our work, how we get it it done, and what the particular experience of having been socialized as a woman in this culture has to do with how we make theatre together. Then we’ll open the conversation up to our shared experience of the women characters in Mrs. Loman is Leaving. Light refreshments provided.
Discounted tickets available for TSGP Fans
Community Partner Ticket offer: WOMEN25 for $25 tix
TeenTix - the usual, $5 each, 2-for-$10, available for pre-purchase online using codes TEENTIX or TEENTIXSUN (put code in before choosing seats!)
Lend your voice!
…& join us for this free play reading & discussion event!
1 pm, Saturday, October 19th
at the MLK FAME Center 3201 E. Republican St., Room 109
You are invited to the official WA state reading of the play GOOD LAZY WOMAN by Catherine Stewart. This reading is part of a national initiative to get readings in all 50 states before the election in November. This project is ambitious! exciting! and important!
Since 1789, only 3% of the 12,506 individuals in Congress were women, and less than 1% were BIPOC women. Catherine Stewart - writer, director, filmmaker, playwright - wrote GOOD LAZY WOMAN to honor and amplify the words of pioneering women who have shaped American history. Click the link below to learn more & accept your invite.
TSGP Observes Domestic Violence Awareness Month with production of “A Lonely Realization”
October 3, 2024
For immediate release
Local theatre company, The Shattered Glass Project, observes Domestic Violence Awareness Month with world premiere production of A Lonely Realization by Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone
This October, as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, The Shattered Glass Project will unveil an original, imaginative play: A Lonely Realization - a deeply personal, honest, and surprisingly funny investigation of the way that sexual assault impacts survivors and communities. Three actors will portray a talking Mushroom and Frog, a disembodied pair of Legs, an ideal 1950’s couple, a talking Clock, Jay Gatsby, and more!
With absurd humor (including a myriad of puppets) alongside a searingly personal story, A Lonely Realization explores institutional and individual responses to sexual assault in artistic and educational spaces. This story is important in our current political and cultural environment, where women are threatened with the loss of legal rights to their bodies and their reproductive and sexual autonomy. The creative team hopes to both entertain and invite audiences to reflect on helping make communities safer for survivors and more resilient against harm. Co-creator Emily Stone says, “When survivors are safe,
Beginning two years ago, co-creators Stone and Darby Sherwood began meeting in a rehearsal room on the UW campus to process their experiences with sexual assault through an ad hoc writing and performance workshop. “The first time Emily and I created this play, we didn’t know what we were making,” says co-creator Sherwood, “we just knew that we needed to process what we were feeling.” They shared their initial two-actor, 45-minute creation with an invited audience, and later took their piece to The Shattered Glass Project (TSGP) for a developmental reading as part of TSGP’s 2023 Script Development Festival.
The Shattered Glass Project, known for its role as an incubator for new works in Seattle, fostered the expansion of the piece into a full-length play, with the support of TSGP board member and dramaturg, Buddy Todd. TSGP selected A Lonely Realization as its 2024 mainstage show, with Artistic Director Rebecca O’Neil directing. Sherwood and Stone will be performing, alongside new actor, Lexi Warden.
A Lonely Realization runs from October 18-27 at Theatre 4 in the Armory, Seattle Center. This is a COVID safer event with masks required and provided, and with air filtration provided by Clean Air Collective Seattle. For more information visit: www.shatteredglassproject.org/a-lonely-realization . Tickets are on sale at: www.simpletix.com/e/a-lonely-realization-tickets-183401.
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Contact:
Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director, Director | rebecca@shatteredglassproject.org | 206.650.5396
Emily Stone, Board Member, Co-Playwright & Performer | empstone@gmail.com | 916.996.1256
Press room: https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/press-room-a-lonely-realization
Autumn is almost here!
A note from the Artistic Director
Dear Friends,
Rehearsals started last week for our production of A Lonely Realization. It’s a funny play for theatre people in particular - many of the scenes take place in the context of rehearsals for a play where the actors never know what script they will be handed next (sound familiar, anyone?) The subtext isn’t as funny: our main character is coping not only with the aftermath of sexual assault but also with the response of her community.
And thereby hangs a question:
“Is there any topic which is too serious to joke about?”
The overall response of the cast and myself as director is, “Probably not.” We all agreed, however, that the context matters. The context tells you who gets to make the joke and who gets to laugh. The rest of us get to wince or groan and/or squirm in our seats.
So, you’re all invited to see A Lonely Realization when we open October 18th at TPS’s Theatre4. (Get your tickets now!!) There’s more information below about the creation of this searingly personal, absurdly funny new play. We’ll set the context. Let’s see where you’re at with the jokes.
Warmly,
Rebecca
Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director (she/her)
Back to “School”
…with our Incubator-Mentor Cohort Alumni! What they’re doing now:
Alison Kozar (2020-21 Directing Cohort)
“Earlier this year I co-produced and tech directed immersive dance show Punchbowl with an entirely local team of choreographers. Look out for future dance parties! Currently I am designing sound for upcoming SGP production A Lonely Realization, and heading the sound team for an upcoming horror installation at the Annex Theatre.”
Aidyn Stevens (2023-24 Directing Cohort)
“I just got done with directing another production with SGT, Through the Window & (Into the Cabin), and really enjoyed the experience. Next I will be teaching movement and storytelling classes in Assisted Nursing Facilities over the next year. And costume designing a show with Bainbridge Performing Arts. Hoping to continue directing, teaching, performing, and designing as much as possible!”
Christie Zhao (2023-24 Directing Cohort)
Christie is about to open Passage with Yun Theatre at 12th Ave Arts (9/12-27).
Lisa A. Price (2023-24 Playwriting Cohort)
“I am honored to be included in the 10-minute Inspired By...Festival that will take place in early October. We were paired with an inspiring community activist to create a play. My play, Tituba, integrates two stories of hope and resistance: Tituba, the Carribean woman at the center of the Salem witch trials and the story The People Could Fly I'm proud of the work I did with this play, packing so much history, hope and resistance into 10 minutes with a surprise ending.”
We’re so proud of ALL our Incubator-Mentor Cohort alumni - and excited to see what they’ll put out into the world next! It’s sure to be powerful and thought-provoking!
A Lonely Realization
October 18-27 at TPS Theatre 4
Directed by Rebecca O’Neil, Written by Darby Sherwood & Emily Stone
Follow the trials and triumphs of a disembodied pair of legs, woodland thespians, a beleaguered stage manager, the ideal 1950s couple, Vladimir Lenin’s wife, Jay Gatsby, and more, as they detangle and process the impact of sexual assault on one survivor and the people in their community. Can they listen to each other? Can they heal?
Meet Mushroom and Frog, two aspiring professional actors. Their friend Legs has lost her voice and the gossip about what happened is interfering with rehearsals! Meanwhile, Hattie and Mort, the ideal 1950s couple, have discovered a distasteful object in their picture-perfect dining room - what can possibly be done to remove it? Someone in authority must know! Alas, the wife of Vladimir Lenin and Jay Gatsby have also come onto the scene – but, for what purpose?
A Lonely Realization teases out the comic absurdity of our fear and inhibitions around discussing sexual assault and invites the audience as well as the characters into a space where individuals and institutions are taught to listen, hear, and possibly even understand.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
This production of A Lonely Realization is being presented as a COVID-Safer Event to protect our actors and to welcome a broader spectrum of audience members into our space. All audience members will be asked to wear masks and to remain masked throughout the performance and within the walls of Theatre4. Masks will be provided on request. We are grateful to have air purifiers provided by the Clean Air Collective
Content Information: The play includes descriptions of the emotional impact of sexual assault and descriptions of inappropriate sexual behavior by teachers toward students. Check our website soon for a separate page of information sharing spoilers and support resources.
Emily Stone & Darby Sherwood wrote & will perform in A Lonely Realization
A Lonely Realization Journal
By Emily Stone (writer, performer & SGP Board Member)
“This is surreal!” I texted to Darby a few weeks ago during our very first design meeting for the production of our play. An entire team of artists, nearly 10 of us on a zoom call, all talking about how they were interpreting and envisioning the staging of our play?? How was this possible? How could the thing that Darby and I made in our free evenings together, with a construction paper and school glue set, be something that a costume designer, a props designer, a set designer, a sound designer, a lighting designer, a director, a stage manager, and an *assistant* stage manager, could all be pouring their creativity into, and collaborating to bring to life? I’m so flabbergasted, stunned, amazed, to see what other artists and designers are “seeing” in the script and inspired to make real! Something that particularly delighted me was the diagram that props designer Alicia Crowley made to show how she {check pronouns?} would use oatmilk cartons to execute our laughingly nebulous stage direction stipulating there would be stick puppets that transform from an auditorium into a chair.
Seeing where we are now, on the cusp of diving fully into rehearsals and a team of designers hard at work, I’m so grateful for the guidance of director Rebecca O’Neil and dramaturg Buddy Todd. When Darby and I were revising our script, they continually encouraged us to be descriptive and precise with our stage directions, to write down where and how we envisioned certain elements might be staged. I can truly see what they meant now when they said it would be helpful for designers, and I hope that what we wrote was useful! But there is no way we can claim credit for the brilliance of the oatmilk cartons.
On the day of our next design meeting, my grandmother passed away after over a decade of living with dementia. I rushed home to California to be with my family as, one by one, multiple family members began to test positive for COVID, which was unfortunately unsurprising given the huge wave — one of the largest summer waves ever that is cruising into an autumn back-to-school wave. While I chose to stay visiting family, I took every precaution I could to protect myself and others from getting it too — distance, delaying visiting certain family members, tests, masks, and air purifiers running. Coming out of that experience (and monitoring myself for any symptoms) is compounding the gratitude I have for the fact that our production will be covid safer during this ongoing pandemic. I love knowing that we are using all the tools we have to prevent the spread of disease while gathering together! Audiences and performers shouldn’t need to risk their health to experience art together!
I was thinking too about the legacy of my grandmother and my family, as I read our script during our first rehearsal table read over zoom from home. My family has all too familiar stories of abuse and harm. People I love deeply, beautiful people who raised me and made me who I am, have had their lives changed forever by sexual violence. My grandmother was an artist, who loved to walk on the beach, and paint landscapes, birds, and horses. I think about her creativity and her love for beauty, the ways she taught me to see as an artist. I’ll be thinking about her, just like I’ll be thinking of everyone I love who has been harmed, as we continue into rehearsals for our show.
Left: Tim Takechi, Leah Shannon & Rebecca O'Neil; Middle: 1-Act Titles; Right: Rebecca O'Neil & Molly Hall
THANK YOU!!!
…to those that braved a mostly chilly, rainy weekend and showed up at the MLK Fame Center to catch two world-premiere, one-act plays: Summer at the Window in the Cabin by the Lake in the Woods and Further Unexpected Events and also enjoy some light snacks and raffle giveaways, and on Sunday the friendraiser party after the shows! We ate yummy nibbles, drank a little wine and were serenaded by the Lucille Street Collective’s luxurious sounds following our final show, and most importantly, made lots of new friends!
Thanks SO much all to our intrepid cast & stage manager (Molly Hall, Rebecca O’Neil, Leah Shannon, Tim Takech & Ana Rusness-Peterson), who took the show indoors for the first two nights due to possible rain, adapting their blocking on the fly (no easy task) and were finally able to present the show as rehearsed outside on a very sunny Sunday! Thanks also to our playwrights, Miriam BC Tobin and Carolynne Wilcox, who wrote the pieces specifically for the event, all our volunteers (board members Kristina Washburn, Emily Stone, Cara Thomas; Darby Sherwood, Samantha Anderson & both playwrights) who helped run and facilitate, the band (Cyndi Morning, Peter O’Neil, Peter Wilson & Tom Malphrus) who supplied us with live music & a party atmosphere, and of course, the generous folks at local, CD businesses (Nancy Fiala, Nido Seattle, Madrona Wine Merchants, Cupcake Royale & Hi-Spot Cafe - go patronize them!) who donated to our raffles and snack table. We couldn’t have pulled it off without any of you, and hope you’ll join us for next year’s friendraiser too! Thank from the bottom of our hearts.
TSGP Presents The world premiere of A Lonely Realization by Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone.
September 9, 2024
For immediate release
Local theatre company, The Shattered Glass Project, to produce the world premiere of A Lonely Realization by Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone.
This October, The Shattered Glass Project will unveil an original, imaginative play: A Lonely Realization - a deeply personal, honest, and surprisingly funny investigation of the way that sexual assault impacts survivors and communities. Three actors will portray a talking Mushroom and Frog, a disembodied pair of Legs, an ideal 1950’s couple, a singing Clock, Jay Gatsby, and more!
Beginning two years ago, co-creators Darby and Emily began meeting in a rehearsal room on the UW campus to process their experiences through an ad hoc writing and performance workshop. “The first time Emily and I created this play, we didn’t know what we were making,” says co-creator Darby Sherwood, “we just knew that we needed to process what we were feeling.” They shared their initial two-actor, 45-minute creation with an invited audience, and later took their piece to The Shattered Glass Project (TSGP) for a developmental reading as part of TSGP’s 2023 Script Development Festival.
The Shattered Glass Project, known for its role as an incubator for new works in Seattle, fostered the expansion of the piece into a full-length play, with the support of TSGP board member and dramaturg, Buddy Todd. TSGP selected A Lonely Realization as its 2024 mainstage show, with Artistic Director Rebecca O’Neil directing. Sherwood and Stone will be performing, alongside new actor, Lexi Warden.
Director O’Neil, wishes to bring the audience into the world through creating a disorienting, off-kilter environment where participants snatch at normality: “Things are too large or small, too short, long, high, low, or the wrong shape. Out of balance, matching the way a survivor’s world has been thrown out of balance.”
With absurd humor (including a myriad of puppets) alongside a searingly personal story, the creative team hopes to both entertain and invite audiences to reflect on helping make communities safer for survivors and more resilient against harm. Co-creator Emily Stone says, “When survivors are safe, everyone is more safe, and able to thrive. That is the world we hope our play contributes to growing.”
A Lonely Realization runs from October 18 - 27 at Theatre 4 in the Armory, Seattle Center. This is a COVID safer event with masks required and provided, and with air filtration provided by Clean Air Collective Seattle. For more information visit: www.shatteredglassproject.org/a-lonely-realization . Tickets are on sale at: www.simpletix.com/e/a-lonely-realization-tickets-183401.
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Contact:
Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director, Director | rebecca@shatteredglassproject.org | 206.650.5396
Emily Stone, Board Member, Co-Playwright & Performer | empstone@gmail.com | 916.996.1256
Press room: https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/press-room-a-lonely-realization
Look Through our Open window!
A Note from the Artistic Director
Soooo, one fun thing about being a theatre company with a goal to uplift and amplify emerging playwrights and directors is that we get to showcase their work, their thought processes and their creativity. This month we’re lucky to have journals from two of those artists: Aidyn Stevens who is a recent alum of the TSGP Incubator/Mentor program (director, Carmilla) and the current director of Through the Window (& Into the Cabin); and Darby Sherwood, a cohort member from the 2021 I/M program (playwright, A Gallery of Perspective & Light) and one of the playwrights for our October mainstage show A Lonely Realization.
A Word or So About the Friend-Raiser
For those of you who follow our social media feed, you will notice that we (meaning my favorite social media maven Carolynne Wilcox) are talking about our upcoming Friend-Raiser Through the Window (& Into the Cabin), and what a Friend-Raiser is. Click here to RSVP before you forget.
We have several not-super-specific goals for putting on these two original pieces staged in front of the windows of an old elementary school classroom:
Goal 1. Theatre thrives on community - we love you and we want you to be our friend in making more theatre, so YOU are Invited to help us Grow and Build our community.
Goal A. Our old elementary school classroom is not just kinda cool, it’s GREAT and we want to share it with you - we want you to know where we are located so you can find us again when we do other fun things (like our Plays in Progress Script Development Workshop Performances, coming your way in winter 2025)
Goal Bullet Point. Being together in space will not only revive the arts, it will revive our neighborhoods - we think fun events like seeing a play on a playground will help us make theatre experiences as attractive as going to movies or live music.
Goal $. Money is nice. But for these not-super-specific purposes, it’s kind of not really the point (although you are welcome to donate at any time, right here: https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/donate)
Last (but not least) Goal. It’s time to CELEBRATE! We made it through another year (a remarkable feat!) and we are now a grown up 501c3 nonprofit organization!
A Word About A Lonely Realization
I spent 12 years planning events and continuing education programming at Seattle University School of Law, during which time I was privileged to produce an annual symposium and training on domestic violence for the social workers, lawyers & judges, mental health care providers, community advocates and police officers who supported and worked to heal the survivors of intimate partner violence. While I mostly handled logistics, I absorbed an incredible amount of information about the bravery and resilience of these survivors - mostly women - and their children.
Now I am privileged to be directing A Lonely Realization which will open in October 2024 (Tickets on sale at the end of August). This story centers the impact of sexual assault not only on the survivor of that assault but on the community and institutions involved. This story and this play is for those survivors.
Q: How do you entertain a playwright? A: Give them a writing challenge and watch them take off!
Playwrights Carolynne Wilcox and Miriam Tobin pulled a prompt out of a jar, mashed up 2 sisters and their hapless relatives with themes of space, time, family history, and the end of the world, and ended up writing two uniquely apocalyptic plays!
Join Us for One Evening or All Three!
FRI & SAT, AUG 23-24,
6:00 PM performance
SUN, AUG 25
4:00 PM performance / 5:15 PM Friend-Raising Party
*Live Music by the Lucile St. Collective*MLK FAME Center
3201 E. Republican St., Seattle WA 98112
YOU sit outside and WE perform in the liminal spaces found between the inside, the outside and of course, the window sill.
Check out our studio space, meet our current cast of theatre makers, and celebrate our new 501c3 nonprofit status. A raffle at each performance features fabulous wine and champagne glasses painted by Made in Washington artist Nancy Fiala. Sunday night, August 25, we will wrap up the festivities with a party featuring music by Lucile St. Collective.
Tickets are free, with plenty of chances to support us emotionally and financially (playwrights need love…and to eat also…)
Photo 1: L to R: Aidyn Stevens, Ana Rusness-Peterson, Leah Shannon, Tim Takechi, Molly Hall & Rebecca O’Neil; Photo 2: Lucile St. Collective
ABOUT THE PLAYS
Further Unexpected Events by Carolynne Wilcox
When a mysterious catastrophe strikes in combination with the ongoing climate crisis, estranged sisters (with unsuspecting family in tow) end up having an unexpected reunion at their remote cabin in the woods, where dirty laundry is exposed and painful truths come to blinding light…as the world is possibly crumbling around them.
____________________
Summer at the Window in the Cabin by the Lake in the Woods by Miriam BC Tobin
After their father dies, sisters Alex and Moose go up to their family cabin to remember him. But things are a little . . . off. The lights are out, the water’s off, the birds are gone, the neighbors are missing, and the lake seems a bit *alive* this time of year. As Moose tries to just get through the weekend, Alex feels a special bond with the lake through the window and starts to piece together the secrets of her family.
____________________
Both plays feature the talents of Molly Hall as Alex, Tim Takechi as Rain,
Rebecca O’Neil as Moose, and Leah Shannon as Jay.
Introducing our cast!
TTW Journal
by director Aidyn Stevens
It has been so exciting prepping for this project and gathering a team of people to work with. Some people that I have worked with before and others that I have not. There is so much anticipation that builds before getting to the first table read. As a director, you continue to read the scripts over and over and have conversations with the production team that begin the movement of design choices. But it is all done knowing that you can’t imagine how the script will come to life once you hear the actors get their hands on it. I am writing this after our first couple of rehearsals and it has been glorious supporting the actors as they have dug into these stories.
I love a story about a quirky family! And that is the first thing I thought when I got to read these scripts. It is so lucky that I get to play with this quirky family twice, with two different stories. When playwrights build truthful and thought-out character relationships all of us get to dig deep into the root of this story. And this family dealing with crises is full of deep emotional and truthful meaning. This production will be such a wonderful way to showcase Shattered Glass Theatre and the wonderful MLK FAME space. I am excited to play with the windows and do outdoor found space theatre. And transport our audience into this family’s chaotic cabin goings-on. I can’t wait for you to see these shows and witness this powerful work!
IT’S A FRIENDRAISER!
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Help us build audiences for the future!
R to L: A Lonely Realization playwrights/performers Darby Sherwood & Emily Stone…Emily Stone & Darby Sherwood
A Lonely Realization Journal
by Darby Sherwood
As we finish our friendraiser and head towards autumn, we’re also looking ahead to SGP’s 2024 MainStage production, A Lonely Realization, co-written/performed by Darby Sherwood (playwright member of the inaugural Incubator-Mentor Cohort in 2021) and Emily Stone (SGP board member and recent UW PATP graduate). We’ll follow along with their process over the next couple months as we ramp up to the production in October. ENJOY!
WHY NOW?
In the world of theatre, we’re always asked about why we’re doing a certain production exactly when we’re doing it. What makes it timely or relevant or interesting right now? As a playwright, it’s always hard to answer these questions because plays take time to percolate and develop - they’re often in the works for months or years on-and-off. The things that are important to us stick with us and grow as we do. The question of “why now?” is still relevant - although the specifics of the answer change all the time. A Lonely Realization is a play that seeks to discuss sexual assault in a contextualized, analytical, and compassionate way; the way that Emily and I have dealt with the reality of discussing this subject matter has grown around us as well. This production will be the third time we’ve visited the script and staging, so I wanted to speak a bit about the “why now” of each of our three iterations.
December 2022 - Straight from Reality to Stage
The first time Emily and I created this play, we didn’t know what we were making. We just knew that we needed to process what we were feeling. Why now? In the moment, we were attempting to understand what happened while attempting to influence positive changes in our artistic communities and running into massive hurdles. Everything was urgent and everything was immediate. Emily and I would meet in a rehearsal room and write what we needed to say. This first iteration was a collection of moments and images that were thematically related but otherwise independent. It was fragmented, scattered, and chaotic because that’s what it looked like to write something while actively experiencing it.
March 2023 - Weaving Strong Threads
The next time we visited A Lonely Realization was as part of SGP’s Developmental Reading Series. I felt both fresh and settled. Why now? We used this opportunity to see the bigger picture in a variety of ways. In our revising, we were able to braid our fragments into a few interwoven threads that followed more developed characters. As artists and humans, we were able to vividly remember what it all felt like while being able to step back far enough to make something that we would enjoy. The subject matter is difficult, yes, but it has always been important to us to lean into the joy and comedy that we experience even when we’re going through hard and heavy times.
COMING SOON - October 2024 - We’re Grateful for Our Village
We’re about to launch into A Lonely Realization for the third time and we couldn’t be more excited! Why now? We’ll be working on this iteration during the two-year anniversaries of the incidents that inspired it. We’re still passionate about creating positive change in our artistic spaces and we can still remember what it felt like to experience these things in the past two years. Yet time moving forward also means we’re more prepared to care for ourselves sustainably and find the right balance of heavy subject matter and absurdist excitement.
We’re so excited that this version of A Lonely Realization will showcase the work of some of our longtime collaborators and friends throughout this experience. We feel incredibly lucky to be working with a team of people who’ve been supporting this piece since its first iteration. A Lonely Realization tells a story of what happens when institutions abandon individuals. Getting this show to the stage has been a result of our community being there to support us sharing these difficult, worthwhile stories and we’re so grateful.
THOSE LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER ARE HERE...
July 3, 2024
A Note from the Artistic Director
Hi friends - The Shattered Glass Project has some REEELLY BIG NEWS! After 5 years as a fiscally sponsored program at Shunpike (a fabulous incubator for emerging arts projects and organizations of all kinds), TSGP has been approved for our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status by the IRS! We are a grown-up theatre company now! Or at least, we’re kind of like those adolescent crows you are probably seeing all around, bugging their parent crows for just one more piece of food (insert laughing/crying emoji here!!)
On that note - here’s your first chance to RSVP for TSGP’s 2024 Friendraiser, Through the Window (& Into the Cabin), featuring three performances of two short plays by those fun and wacky playwrights, Carolynne Wilcox and Miriam Tobin. They’ve been entertaining you with their adventures writing from a prompt for similar yet completely different plays performed in the same set of windows!
We’re thrilled to share that this evening of exciting site-specific theater will be directed by Aidyn Stevens, who just ‘graduated’ with the 2023-2024 Incubator/Mentor cohort! We also have 4 fabulous cast members, including Molly Hall, Leah Shannon, Tim Takechi and yours truly. More details below!
Incubator/Mentor Cohort Celebration
Photos from Cohort Graduation Party, 6/21/24 at the MLK Fame Center
It’s always fitting to celebrate the end of something triumphant with a party, and the graduation of the 2023-24 Incubator/Mentor Cohort of playwrights and directors seemed the perfect excuse to toast the culmination of their journey! With some light refreshments and finger food, the cohort as well as some invited friends did just that, and all present discussed their recent accomplishments (not only finishing the program, but production of the New Works Festival in May), their plans for the future, and even potential, upcoming collaborations (amongst cohort with each other as well as some of the party guests). It was a fine, beautiful night for a gathering!
Through the Window Journal
BY CAROLYNNE WILCOX
WELL. Quite a bit has transpired since the last posting about Through the Window in June…for one thing, we have dates, a director and a cast! Recent cohort directing grad Aidyn Stevens will take the helm as director, while starring in this four hander are Molly Hall, Tim Takechi, Rebecca O’Neil and Leah Shannon. Rehearsals are set to begin the last week of July, culminating in three performances August 23, 24 & 25, with a fundraising/friendraising event to follow each night.
A little more about the shows themselves: as you know, if you’ve been following along since the beginning of the year, these are two separate plays (by Miriam BC Tobin and me, respectively). The plays were written side by side, using the same four characters and the same jumpstart prompt (behold the ACTUAL PROMPT and the ACTUAL JAR it was selected from at random)
…a whole other play was even written that took place in the winter before we realized it would be produced in the summer and we didn’t want our actors to be hot in winter clothing! Using this prompt and those characters, two completely different plays were written (though the circumstances are a different, you can think of them as existing side by side in the multiverse) taking place in a cabin in the woods. While there are no footsteps (that we know of), there might be tentacles and other potentially destructive conceits that might’ve been inspired by the idea of those footsteps.
There will be more information about the plays, the production and the friend/fundraiser on social media in the weeks to come, and we sure hope you’ll join us for both the show, and the ensuing festivities!
Click HERE to reserve your spot.
Upcoming Opportunities
ABOLITION LEARNING CIRCLE
FROM SGP BOARD MEMBER EMILY STONE
Hi Shattered Glass Folks! I wanted to let you know, or maybe remind people who have already seen it, about a very cool opportunity for creatives happening next week on Monday and Tuesday! Given our commitment to equity and antiracism, as well as centering gender marginalized folks, I think this would be really fantastic for anyone in this group! I am a supporting member of Dunya Productions in Seattle, a MENAA+ led theatre company if you haven't already heard of Dunya. Next week, Dunya and Donkeysaddle Productions are putting together an amazing learning circle for artists and cultural organizers focused on abolition – dreaming about it, how to live it, how to incorporate it in our artistic practices! Tickets are on a sliding scale starting at $5. Read below for more info, I hope you can make it!
Dunya Productions is excited to invite your community to participate in an exciting opportunity!
What: Abolition Learning Circle
When: July 8 & 9, 6:30-9:00 pm
Where: Cherry Street Village, 720 25th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
For: Artists (all disciplines), cultural organizers
Sponsored by: Donkeysaddle Projects, Dunya Productions, and the Underground Theater
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/abolition-learning-circle-july-8-9-2024-tickets-922954089527
State violence is ramping up globally and locally, and the U.S. continues to pour billions into genocide, corporate pockets, police, and prisons, rather than investing in meeting people’s needs. More than ever, we need new ways to care for and protect each other. We all deserve so much more. Abolition of the police and prison industrial complex is not just about dismantling systems that cause harm, it’s also about building something new that centers care for all our people.
Who can better visualize this new world than artists and cultural organizers?
That’s why Dunya is inviting and members of your community to join an Abolition Learning Circle in Seattle, on July 8 & 9.
We hope you’ll join us as we explore resources and learnings about abolition with Seattle-area artists/cultural organizers, and create community with others interested in exploring abolitionist demands and visions. We hope folks will be inspired to use this knowledge to create some dope, revolutionary art.
Space is limited! Please register now to reserve your spot!
(There is a suggested donation to participate in the two-evening workshop. Please choose whatever tier is comfortable for you. If the lowest donation tier presents a barrier to you, please email our Community Engagement Manager at taylor@donkeysaddle.org. Light snacks will be provided. In an effort to keep our communities safer from the ongoing COVID pandemic, masks will be required and provided. )
This Abolition Learning Circle is sponsored by Donkeysaddle Projects, Dunya Productions Seattle, and the Underground Theater.
Donkeysaddle Projects works towards building a liberated world free from state violence in all its manifestations. We provide entry points into this movement work and nurture deep and sustained engagement by integrating political education, organizing and advocacy, and art/storytelling projects.
Dunya Productions Seattle creates art and performance that inspires and impassions our audience to engage with the global struggle for social and political justice. We seek to amplify the voices of the Middle East, North African, and Arab (MENAA+) people as well as other marginalized communities.
The Underground Theater develops new works that release shame and nurture community.
About the facilitators:
Nada Elia is a scholar-activist, a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective, a faculty member at Western Washington University, and regularly teaches and writes about abolition, gender, activism, and transnational struggles.
Taylor Lamb is a writer, theatremaker, and communications professional, who uses art and storytelling to impact social change.
We hope you will join us on July 8 & 9 at the Cherry Street Village! And, please do pass this onto your communities of artists and cultural organizers!
MONOLOGUE CONTEST FOR LOCAL PLAYWRIGHTS
FROM ACT THEATRE
PLAYWRIGHTS!!! A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle is holding a monologue contest, with the help of SCRiB LAB and Rain City Projects as part of the 2024 New Works Northwest Festival. Why not submit something?
Submission Form: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx..
Junuary is here!
…from the Artistic Director
Hi friends - welcome to June! (Insert favorite seasonal metaphor here: heat, longer days, festive summer cocktails, gardens growing, take your pick!) We just harvested the four plays of the New Works Festival, and on June 21st we will wrap up the 2023-2024 Incubator/Mentor Program! Pretty exciting to know that we have successfully concluded the first fully in-person iteration of the I/M program.
Coming up next we’re excited to bring you Through the Windows: Apocalypse Edition, two short plays by Carolynne Wilcox and Miriam Tobin that run on themes of family and the end of the world…maybe. Join us August 23, 24, and 25 for three performances of these wacky experiments with space, time, family history, and a bunch of windows! The audience sits outside and we perform in the liminal spaces between inside, outside and the window sill. This annual site-specific event (it’s annual after two years, right?) gives us a chance to share our space with you and to challenge some of our favorite playwrights to write new theatre pieces on a specific theme. Come to any performance and be welcome to the closing night reception and Friendraiser on the afternoon of Sunday, August 25th!
We’re also pleased to announce that The Shattered Glass Project will present A Lonely Realization by Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone, running October 17-27, 2024 at Theatre4 in the Armory Building at Seattle Center. This absurd and comical piece tries to answer the question of how you tell a story that's hard to hear? Maybe with a pair of disembodied legs, trying to find justice in a nonsensical world? Set in a forest and a rehearsal room and a bedroom and a 1950s sitcom-style dining room, A Lonely Realization follows the trials and triumphs of aspiring actors Mushroom and Frog, the disembodied pair of legs, a tree, a beleaguered stage manager, the ideal 1950s couple, Vladimir Lenin’s wife, Jay Gatsby, and more. Tickets will go on sale in September!
Incubator/Mentor Cohort News
Please enjoy the above gallery of production photos from the recent New Works Festival! We are so proud of our Incubator/Mentor Cohort graduates and their companies, as well as the entire ensemble of creatives for their hard work in their productions of Carmilla, The Uterine Files Part One: Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow, Out of Time and On the Train…and very excited to see what they’ll do next. …Especially since Christie Zhao (Director cohort) will be unveiling Passages (Christopher Chen) at StrawShop next week, The Uterine Files by Jourdan Imani Keith (Playwright Cohort) just finished a more fleshed-out run at Langston Seattle, and Lisa A Price (Playwright Cohort) has a new collaboration coming up at Mirror Stage - we’re beside ourselves at this embarrassment of artistic riches, and look forward to hearing more from everyone in this cohort, the last cohort, and all the cohorts yet to be!
LTR: Christine Shaw, Adrian Cerrato, Gwendolyn Quirk, Cricket James & Rebecca O’Neil read two plays about being in a cabin in the woods coming up in August for the annual Through The Window friendraiser.
Through The Window Journal
by Carolynne Wilcox
So, it had been awhile since Miriam and I met regarding this project, as the next step in the process was to hear the plays out loud. That finally occurred on Sunday, May 26, in the SGP space at the M.L.K. FAME Center. We gathered five actors to read the four parts plus stage directions.
I’ll back up here: it’s always an interesting exercise to hear your play being read aloud by someone else (five someone else’s in this case!) - it can sometimes be an out of body experience. As an actor myself, I’m always sitting in silence, and when a line comes out differently than I’d have said it, bite my tongue. Sometimes it changes the whole meaning of what I wrote, and it either makes me consider rewording it (as sometimes, it doesn’t trip off the tongue quite so easily as it did in my head), other times, though it wasn’t how I’d have said it, it ends up being something I hadn’t considered, and often, better than what I’d have done. This is why the collaborative nature of theatre is amazing - each part of an ensemble creates the final vision the playwright began - making it, ultimately, OUR play, not just *my* play.
Anyway, that being said, we had a little bit of an embarrassment of riches in our readers this day - four of whom I’ve worked with pretty extensively in the past, and one whose work I wasn’t familiar with - because they made my little play leap off the page, hitting most of the funny moments, the emotional touchstones, and the weird bits.
We read Miriam’s play after we read mine, and though I feel she maybe didn’t get as much time for feedback, the reading itself achieved what we were hoping - allowing us to see where the holes were (not many, and they were small), and getting to see if the plays held up emotionally (they did!).
Miriam and I got together for coffee to discuss two days later, and both came to the conclusion that, with just a few tweaks, these babies are ready to fly with the stork! Next step, to hone in on the right director and begin to plan for a rehearsal process. At any rate, we’re very excited to unveil these two new works, and hope you will join us in August in our “cabin by the lake” for the unveiling!
GiveBig is May 7 & 8 2024!
…from the Artistic Director
Hi friends!
We’re thrilled that the 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives will open next week, and run for 8 nights between May 9 and May 19th. Please put this #1 on your To-Do List: Get your tickets today! Advance purchase of tickets is important! Let us know you support our Incubator/Mentor Cohort Members who are bringing their brand new works to the stage for the first time. We recommend full evenings of theatre: check the schedule and buy your tickets here.
But, you ask, “What is #2 on my list of things to do today?” Make your early gift to The Shattered Glass Project for GiveBIG! The actual dates are May 7-8, 2024, but GO AHEAD! Donate TODAY! Check out our GiveBIG page!
Why should you donate when you’re already buying tickets? Ticket sales don’t cover all our costs, not for us or any other theatre company. Your additional gift not only amplifies the voices of the emerging directors and playwrights in the Incubator/Mentor Program, it provides stipends for our actors, designers, and stage managers! It pays the rent at our performance venue at 18th & Union as well as the rent for our rehearsal venues at MLK FAME Center and Theatre Puget Sound (and thereby indirectly supporting all three of these extremely important community resources!)
So we invite you to make your community investment now - GiveBIG Today!
Rebecca
P.S. We are also still looking for volunteer ushers for the Festival - support TSGP with four hours of your time, see the shows for free, and help pass out the popcorn for some of them! Sign up here!
Give. BIG!
Why should you give big now? Because…
Our Incubator/Mentor Program empowers new voices in Seattle theatre. It’s free to those who are accepted, but we still need to pay for classroom space, teachers & more.
TSGP has helped bring 19 new plays to life and we’d love to continue producing more!
Ticket prices don’t cover all our income.
You have a vested interest in a local, thriving arts community here in Seattle.
You like us and want us to continue running our programs and productions!
Early giving has already begun, so you don’t even have to wait until May 7th & 8th - won’t you help us get to our goal of $8000? We have a group of anonymous donors (cough…including the board!) offering a $4000 match - so we need help with the remaining $4K - whether you’re able to give a dollar or a MILLION dollars, (wishful thinking…) we’re happy to accept any amount you’re willing to send our way. Thank you, in advance, from the bottom of our hearts.
The 2024 New Works Festival Starts May 9
The Shattered Glass Project Proudly Presents The 2024 New Works Festival, with 4 Brand-New World Premiere Plays!
Laugh. Weep. Celebrate.
The Shattered Glass Project is pleased to announce the four world premiere plays opening for the 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives. Ranging in style from lyrical to camp to realism, all four plays elevate new and diverse voices re-examining traditional narratives and socially relevant topics through the powerful medium of live theater.
Featuring diverse, local casts & production teams of varying intersections, plays include The Uterine Files: Episode One, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow (by Jourdan Imani Keith, directed by Rebecca O’Neil), a choreopoem focusing on stories of disruption moving in time from 1863 to the present, asking the question “what are they doing with our uteruses?”; Carmilla (by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones, directed by Aidyn Stevens), a campy queer/female-centric horror play based on a pre-Dracula vampire novella; On the Train (by Lisa A. Price, directed by Christie Zhao), a tale of medical racism where 3women fight to secure women’s reproductive rights; and Out of Time (by Rachel Atkins, directed by Divya Rajan), where 3 women along different timelines struggle to make sense of their losses together and survive the aftermath.
Opening May 9 and running through May 19, 2024 at 18th & Union, the plays will perform in rotating repertory Thursday-Saturday nights; a marathon performance of all four shows will be offered on Sundays. Tickets are now on sale (sliding scale, suggested donation of $15 per show, festival passes available).
Through the Window Journal
Well, we’ve written first drafts, revised them, met a few times and have now come to the conclusion we really need to hear them aloud to revise or change them further. Towards that end, we’d love to have an in-person reading of both pieces on the afternoon of Sunday, May 26th, at the SGP space in the MLK Fame Center, and we need actors! Four or five actors of all genders, to be precise, for the following Roles:
Alex: F, 50’s
Rain: M, 40’s
Moose: F, 50’s
Jay: F/NB, 20’s/30’s
Stage Directions
The same characters are in both plays (though there is some variation between them). Please send an email to carowilcox@earthlink.net if you’re interested in reading one of these parts, and are available on the 26th, we’ll meet from 2-5 - might get done before then, but this gives us a little wiggle room. There is no pay as it’s only an informal reading for now, but you’ll have our undying gratitude and there will be SNACKS! Plus, we’ll think of you first when casting the production later on this summer, if that’s something you might be interested in.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
Here are a few opportunities and events to attend! If you’re a local playwright, not only can you submit a monologue to ACT Theatre, but you can also register for and attend the Seattle Playwriting conference coming up in July - more info below! Also, catch former cohort member Alannah Pascual at Seattle Public Theatre in Unrivaled, and catch SGP Associate Artist Kirsten McCory in The Savannah Sipping Society coming up at Driftwood Players in Edmonds. May promises to be a month of wonderful shows to attend and opportunities to take part in as the rains dry up and the sun shines down - go out and take advantage of this embarrassment of riches!
ACT Contemporary Theatre invites local playwrights to submit monologues for our 2024 New Works Northwest Festival!
Following the inaugural success of ACT's New Works Northwest last year with sold out houses - and 3 festival plays making it to full productions! - we are expanding the festival with an exciting kick off event spotlighting local talent.
Welcome to: Monologue Night: The Choice! October 30, 2024
Our 4-day NW2 festival will kick off with this night of 12 amazing monologues curated in partnership with our partners SCRiB LAB and Rain City Projects.
Please send your 3-minute monologue based on the theme “The Choice” via THIS FORM. Submission Deadline August 1st. Monologues will be anonymized for the selection committee. Please limit your submissions to no more than 5 per playwright.
Selected monologues will be paired with a professional actor and director. Writers will receive a $50 honorarium and 2 tickets for all festival shows.
ScribLab and Parley Productions Present a Seattle Playwriting Conference
Hello playwrights and friends,
SCRiB LAB is partnering with Parley to bring you this all-day conference aimed at professional development, resource sharing, and networking. There will be representatives from companies around the Seattle area, workshops and panels, lunch will be provided, and we'll end with a party.
date: Sat 7/13
time: 9 am - 5 pm
location: Hugo House on Capitol hill
more info: www.scriblab.org/event/playwritingconference
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE:
as an individual: Go to the website below and register. Tell your friends, like us on social media, and share the info with every- and anyone!. Volunteer on the day of and help us set-up or clean-up.
as an organization: Share a table with other locals orgs and bring all your best swag and info to handout. Meet local playwrights and introduce what your org does. Contact me if you'd like to be on a panel.
The Shattered Glass Project Presents The 2024 Northwest New Works Festival
For immediate release
Local Talent Featured in The Shattered Glass Project 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives: Four original plays elevating new and diverse voices: 8 nights by 9 directors and playwrights, 16 actors, and 5 designers. Laugh. Weep. Celebrate.
The Shattered Glass Project is pleased to announce the four world premiere plays opening for the 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives. Ranging in style from lyrical to camp to realism, all four plays elevate new and diverse voices re-examining traditional narratives and socially relevant topics through the powerful medium of live theater.
Featuring diverse, local casts & production teams of varying intersections, plays include The Uterine Files: Episode One, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow (by Jourdan Imani Keith, directed by Rebecca O’Neil), a choreopoem focusing on stories of disruption moving in time from 1863 to the present, asking the question “what are they doing with our uteruses?”; Carmilla (by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones, directed by Aidyn Stevens), a campy queer/female-centric horror play based on a pre-Dracula vampire novella; On the Train (by Lisa A. Price, directed by Christie Zhao), a tale of medical racism where 3 women fight to secure women’s reproductive rights; and Out of Time (by Rachel Atkins, directed by Divya Rajan), where 3 women along different timelines struggle to make sense of their losses together and survive the aftermath.
Opening May 9 and running through May 19, 2024 at 18th & Union, the plays will perform in rotating repertory Thursday-Saturday nights; a marathon performance of all four shows will be offered on Sundays. Tickets are now on sale (sliding scale, suggested donation of $15 per show, festival passes available), with additional information available at https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/2024-new-works-festival.
About us: The Shattered Glass Project is a theatre company with a mission to amplify the voices of theatre artists who have been marginalized on the basis of their gender or sex by offering unique opportunities to create and grow professionally. The 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives is the culminating presentation by the participants in our core activity, the Director and Playwright Incubator/Mentor Program. The Shattered Glass Project is unique in Seattle’s rich theatrical ecosystem in presenting a festival created by a cohort of women and non-binary directors and playwrights supporting one another through a year of skill building and play development workshops.
Press Room: https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/press-room-2024-new-works-festival
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l to r: Mia McGlinn as Carmilla and Jessica Marvin-Romero as Laura, in Carmilla by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones | directed by Aidyn Stevens
Ziara Greathouse as Professor Carmel Wes in The Uterine Files: Episode 1, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow by Jourdan Imani Keith | directed by Rebecca O’Neil
l to r: José Amador as Daniel, Alba Davenport as Nia, and Audrey Herold as Melinda in On the Train by Lisa Price | directed by Christie Zhao.
l to r: Azadeh Zanjani as Sarah and Tessa “Cricket” James as Angelina in Out of Time by Rachel Atkins.
New Works Festival 2024: New Voices, New Narratives
…From the Artistic Director
There's so much going on at The Shattered Glass Project. We are in full swing of rehearsals for the 2024 New Works Festival, which now features FOUR never-before seen works of theatre focusing on New Voices and New Narratives! Get your tickets today! Festival passes are $40.
We are also looking for volunteer ushers for the Festival - support TSGP with four hours of your time, see the shows for free, and help pass out the popcorn for some of them! Sign up here!
Don't forget that GiveBIG is coming on May 7-8, 2024. We would love to have your volunteer time, but we can also use your financial support. Check out our GiveBIG page!
To give you an update on what's going on in the rehearsal room, we wanted to share a note from our Production Stage Manager Jasmine Ritter.
Thanks so much - we'll see you at 18th and Union on May 9th!
—Rebecca
The 2024 New Works Festival is Nearly Here!
Jasmine Ritter - Stage Manager
“The real magic of this program is seeing how in depth the process can be with the payright and directors both in the room with the actors. There's a sense of support that goes on in the room. It's an intense process to get four shows going all at the same time, but the rehearsal rooms stay light due to the hard work of the entire team. It might be a whirlwind, but it is also fun and creative.”
THE PRODUCTIONS
The Uterine FileS, Episode One: Voices SPitting out the rainbow by Jourdan Imani Keith, Directed by Rebecca O’Neil
The first part of a trilogy telling the story of Virgina Mary, an enslaved African American woman transformed after her death by an unquiet and demanding dybuuk. Virginia Mary’s trauma haunts her descendants throughout time. Through her voice and vignettes of women in her family, this choreopoem, rooted in dance, music, and the lineage of African American narratives, explores the connections between the stories and histories our bodies tell, demanding an answer to the question, “What are they doing with our uteruses?”
1st read-through take from the Stage Manager:
“The beauty of The Uterine Files is watching the actors, director and the playwright really getting to take the time to go so in depth with this piece. This is a piece that really needs care in the rehearsal room, and this team is taking the time to set that safe space up. I'm excited to see how the choreopoem aspects of the piece come into play.”
On the Train by Lisa A Price, Directed by Christie Zhao
Shortly after the overturning of Roe, political correspondent Nia Anderson has a brief confrontation with Senator Chad Fox, the pro-abortion ‘face of morality’, about the pending increase in African-American maternity and infant mortality rates; his public insult leads to the damaging of her career. A serendipitous meeting between Senator Fox’s estranged daughter and his African American campaign assistant facilitates possible retribution as Nia seeks a second interview with the politician. The three conspire, exposing the ways in which the Senator has been clandestinely incorporating a new form of eugenics into his legislation. Years of dishonesty, hypocrisy and sinister politics finally catches up with Senator Fox at the hands of three women.
1st read-through take from the Stage Manager:
“On The Train from the beginning has really been taking its time to delve into the material, and being able to have the playwright in the room with the actors. There's been a lot of collaborative background work put into this piece. Christie, the director, has really had a focus on bringing the realness to each of these characters.”
Carmilla by S.W. Jones and Mariah Lee Squires, Directed by Aidan Stevens
While Count Dracula is often seen as the father of the modern vampire, Carmilla is the 1872 Gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu that inspired his inception - predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years. Based on the book of the same name, Carmilla tells the tale of the isolated Laura and the mysterious young woman she falls in love with. But what happens when infatuation turns into obsession? Shattering the mold of male protagonists in horror, the mother of the modern monster is waiting for you.
1st read-through take from the Stage Manager:
“The first time I was in the Carmilla rehearsal room with the actors, director, and the playwriting team there was so much energy. Everyone is so committed to the humor of the show and the teamwork to make these big physical moments. Just from the read-through there has been a lot of laughter and hard work going on in every rehearsal.”
Out of TIme by Rachel Atkins, Directed by Divya Rajan
Moving back and forth through time and place, 3 different pairs of women fight for their lives. Angelina and Sarah are immigrant sweatshop workers who have both escaped dire circumstances in their home countries, trying to escape the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. A century later, Angelina’s great-granddaughter Angie is trapped with co-worker Miranda in a post-9/11 office skyscraper disaster. Angie’s Muslim-American roommate Sera and Miranda’s sister Trish struggle to make sense of their losses together. All are strangers forced to develop connections under extraordinary circumstances—each, in their own way, in the wrong place at the right time. It’s a play about life and death, choices and consequences, chance, hope, grief, loss and survival. And sometimes, it’s funny. Really.
1st read-through take from the Stage Manager:
“There is a real feel of collaborative work with this piece. The whole team has been focused on bringing together a sense of comradery to bring this piece up. Balancing the darkness and the humor of the piece while keeping the energy up in the rehearsals.”
Alison Kozar, 2020/21 Cohort Alum
on Returning as a designer
Ever come back to school after having graduated? It's weird, right? There's this feeling that it's past you, a sense of not belonging, not anymore. Coming back to the I/M program in its latest incarnation as a designer hasn't felt anything like that.
New works are always exciting; there's an energy to collaboratively birthing a new world that's addictive. Add to that working with directors and playwrights who are coming fully into their power as creatives and it's energizing in a way I can't describe. It's like they're leaping off a cliff with us standing on the ground, eager to catch them. We're helping them learn to fly.
TICKETING
There are several flexible options and packages available so you can mix and match your viewing experience - see just one, all four, or anything in between.
Click HERE for all possible ticketing packages!
Through the Window
Journal by Miriam Tobin
We made it! We're finally at our first major deadline! Carolynne and I have been writing, both together and alone, for the past four months. We meet in coffee shops to compare drafts, give one another feedback, and go back to our own spaces to revise. And now, after all these months, we have completed drafts to share! We've sent them off to Rebecca for review, and she's working on finding actors to read them. Our next step is to gather together with the actors and listen to our plays out loud. Carolynne and I need to hear them out loud before we know how to get to the next draft.
Shall I give you a little preview of what we're cooking? Well, think apocalypse. Only not really. Imagine a cabin by a lake in the woods, but a little creepier than that. Sisters, mothers, the planet Venus, a childhood dog named Lacey . . . get ready, friends, these plays are gonna take you somewhere new.
Runs & Openings
Don’t miss all the live theatre happening in Seattle in April/May, including offerings from our friends and associates. Two more weekends of performance for The Plague Master General, featuring SGP Associate Artist & donor Sara Schweid (Nevertheless, She Persisted); and Fat Ham is up and running at Seattle Rep, featuring SGP Associate Artist, Jasmine Lomax (All New Cells) & The Savannah Sipping Society opens at Driftwood Players in May, featuring SGP Associate Artist Kirsten McCory (A Series of Small Cataclysms) - go support these local companies both large and scrappy - these stories are sure to resonate!
Reawakening into Spring
From the Artistic Director…
Technically, it’s somehow supposed to be Spring - I would argue that our Seattle weather doesn’t agree with this statement since I ran a race on Sunday in sporadic snow! - but nevertheless Spring is coming.
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal and the sprouting of new things. In the case of The Shattered Glass Project, we are holding auditions for the three remarkable new plays written and directed by the Incubator/Mentor Cohort for our 2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives. Many of the cohort members attended and participated in the Theatre Puget Sound Unified General Auditions and callbacks for the Festival will be this coming weekend! Casting a play is a bit like putting seeds into the fresh earth in the garden - you have seeds, you roughly know what the plant will look like when it grows, but you must add the actors to actually move onto the sprouting and growing part. I’m super excited to find out who the actors will be in each one of the shows.
I’m thrilled to announce that TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE (https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/ticketsales) for the 2024 New Works Festival. Please! Buy your tickets today! Let us know how excited you are to see our new works sprout and grow!
Lastly, GiveBIG will be coming soon! This is another fine way to show your support for the work being done by The Shattered Glass Project and our unique theatremakers. Please help us kickstart our fundraising goal of $8000 for GiveBIG by making your gift today. Click here to donate!
Warmth and sunshine!
Rebecca O’Neil, artistic director, TSGP
From the Cohort
Christie Zhao - director, 2023-24 Cohort:
What new thoughts, ideas, projects, space-learnings (etc) are you cultivating for the future?
I am thinking of directing something from Brecht with Yun's ensemble! Maybe Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, maybe The Exception and the Rule. I am thinking about translating it to Mandarin and presenting the show in Mandarin with English subtitles. I think it would work very well for the alienation effect and people can watch it and think and reflect on their lives in this chaotic and turbulent capitalistic world. I also crave ENSEMBLE.
Rachel Atkins - playwriting mentor, 2023-24 Cohort:
What new work is coming up for you?
I'm doing 14/48 next weekend, March 8-9 2024, as well as State of the Students at Seattle Rep, including these upcoming performances:
More information is available here.
Mariah Lee Squires, Playwright, 2023-24 Cohort
What are the ways you have been “reborn” as an artist in the past or recently?
I was “reborn” as a theatre artist when I became a playwright in 2020. Playwriting had been no part of my artistic life, even academically, before I jumped right in and began writing almost 3 1/2 years ago.
Through the Window Journal Update
by Carolynne Wilcox - SGP Associate Artist
It never ceases to amaze me, as a playwright, how things invariably always seem to come together as you slowly plug away at them. This project has thankfully been no different!
We all have our own process and ways of working…I know many playwrights who scoff at anyone who doesn’t use an outline, for example, and I’m COMPLETELY the contrary. I often like to write in what I call a “collage-y” process: if I have an idea about something that is kind of fuzzy in many parts, I’ll start writing the scenes I know about, no matter what part of the story they’re in. Much of the time, I like the characters to do the talking…I just open up a blank document and see what they might have to say to each other, and more often than not, they reveal things to me that maybe I didn’t know before. Of course, they talk a lot of nonsense in between, as we figure out the story together, but the beauty of editing is, you can cut, paste, and condense this nonsense later, if it doesn’t serve the script, and stick with the revealed golden nuggets that do.
Miriam and I met in West Seattle at C&P coffee in late February to share and reflect upon our developing scripts. At this point, Miriam had written one first draft and completely scrapped it (it took place in winter, and this project will be performed in the summer, so she didn’t want actors to have to sweat in heavy coats!), then brought something new to our meeting. I continued to write and refine what I started at our previous meeting. Was excited for the meeting, as the characters had finally revealed to me what was at the center of their BIG BEEF!
It's always fun to come together and share/discuss, because invariably, we end up with many weird similarities, which we can then choose to lean into even more (or not). We both left feeling inspired and energized with new ideas and directions to go in for further development. I was able to finish a first draft of my piece, and am excited to share it tomorrow at our next meeting. It is definitely a first draft, though...things still need to be tweaked and refined, ideas and metaphors need to marry more closely together, but again: it never ceases to amaze me how a thing that was born from the ether with a deadline will come together as readily as something you’ve got more time on...probably even faster and more succinctly, because of that deadline!
We’re getting excited to share these with the SGP community later on this year. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop these playlets!
Coming Soon
14/48 is this weekend, boasting several SGP-associated artists past and present - it’s the toast of the town, so go check it out!
More info/tix available here.
Playwrights! There’s still time to submit to Driftwood Players’ (Edmonds, WA) Festival of Shorts - March 17 is the deadline!
More info/guidelines available here.
Things we LOVE
From the Artistic Director
If January is a month to look forward to new things, February is a month to consider and reflect on the things we already love. I love live theatre. Live theatre is tactile and visceral - it is an experience which is deeply felt in all my senses. This is not just true when I’m onstage, embedded in the character, and reveling in the response of the audience, but also true when I am one of the connected threads in the audience. I love being in the audience responding to the story being told in front of me AND to the joy, tears, enlightenment, and other emotions my fellow audience members are projecting.
I love making theatre because I learn more about other people and about myself in the process of creating than in any other environment. I’m a performer at heart and every character I play is a new part of myself which I have had the opportunity to discover - some of whom I keep and some of whom I may ultimately reject. Live theatre is the methodology for that discovery. It is a place for honesty and for celebration and for telling stories new and old.
This month we wanted to share more with you about Things We Love in live theatre, from our playwrights, directors, mentors, and associate artists. For those of you who support and love the live theatre in general or the theatre we create at The Shattered Glass Project specifically, take a moment to think about what you revel in when you are attending a play. We would love to hear from you. Send us a note at info@shatteredglassproject.org.
With love,
Rebecca O’Neil, artistic director, TSGP
What the Cohort Loves!
Christie Zhao, Director Cohort
What play(s) do you love and why?
These contemporary plays are deeply rooted in their ability to present diverse perspectives and humanize individuals across cultures. They stand out for their relevance and the compelling way they challenge audiences to think and feel deeply about the world around them. They artfully center human experiences in a turbulent global context, addressing a spectrum of social, political, and cultural themes. Their experimental approach to theatricality breaks conventional barriers. What resonates with me is how these plays foster a deeper understanding and empathy across different cultures, drawing people into shared experiences and discussions, and in doing so, narrowing the gaps that often divide us.
What has been your favorite part about creating/directing a new play during your process so far in the SGP cohort?
My favorite part of directing a new play in the SGP cohort has been the rich collaborative experience with various playwrights. The diversity within the cohort has been incredibly enlightening, allowing me to see a range of directing styles and approaches. This exposure has not only broadened my own perspective but also fostered a supportive and trusting environment within our group. Being able to be honest and authentic in my approach has been both liberating and deeply fulfilling.
Adrian Prendergast, Playwriting Cohort
Which playwright(s) do you love and why?
I love so many playwrights! It's such a personal medium, I love to see how different styles and voices come together. Some favorites floating around in my head right now are Jessica Moss, Maggie Lee, Sarah Kane, and my fellow cohort members Jourdan and Lisa.
What play(s) do you love and why?
I just recently had the chance to see Once More, Just for You at Seattle Public Theatre. Maggie Lee writes such gorgeous stories, and I'm always a sucker for Sci-Fi.
Which play(s) are you itching to direct and why?
I would love to direct I will miss you when you're gone by Jessica Moss. I was able to direct a staged reading of the script for Macha's Distillery Series last year, and haven't been able to get it out of my mind since.
Is there a playwright/director whose style you’ve emulated? What inspires you about their style/process?
Sarah Kane and Sarah Ruhl's stage directions. It feels like part of the collaboration- a non-verbal extension of the world and storytelling that's just as important as the dialogue.
What do you love about the writer/director collaboration?
I love the opportunity to build on each other and see how different interpretations feed a greater collaborative story.
What has been your favorite part about creating/directing a new play during your process so far in the SGP cohort?
Honestly the chance to meet everyone in the cohort and get to know them. Everyone has such unique perspectives and I love getting to see their work develop through the process.
Aidyn Stevens, Director Cohort
What do you love about the writer/director collaboration?
What I love about the writer and director collaboration is getting to work with people who are so passionate about their creative work. It is so exciting to be a part of a project where the people who have made it are full of knowledge about the entire world of their play. It’s an adventure to dig into the nuances of a new work. And that adventure is made even better by getting to have the playwrights as a resource.
Thru The Window Project Journal
by Miriam Tobin
After a couple weeks of writing independently, Carolynne and I met over lattes and raspberry scones to share our work. We had each written a hearty chunk of a play that incorporated the setting and themes we had chosen in our previous session. We had also selected several writing prompts at random to give us a starting off point. Here are those elements and the work we made with them:
Setting: cabin by a frozen lake in the woods in winter
Themes: aging, immigration, communication, technology, passing on knowledge
Prompts: footsteps leading to nowhere, a happily miserable marriage, close call, monster under the bed
Carolynne is all about dystopia! Her play begins with a mystery: a world where winter feels like summer, where technology isn’t working, and where people are scared of something they can’t name. A family gathers in a cabin and two strangers show up needing help . . . but maybe they aren’t strangers after all? Her play is rife with suspense, secrets, and family drama.
My play is all about the absurdities of family! It begins in the dead of winter with a family gathering after a terrible tragedy. No one’s on their best behavior, the grandmother keeps getting confused, the grandfather would rather not wear his hearing aids, their daughter’s angry at the world, and their grandchild would prefer to be on their phone. But then, something happens, and their world becomes bigger than just them. To rescue themselves they must come together to rescue someone in need.
After reading both plays out loud, we marveled at how different our writing voices are but also at how many similarities we have. We’re both interested in interpersonal relationships, memory, environment, and emotional truths.
Then we started all over again! Ha. Playwrights: always making more work for themselves. We refined the four characters we're writing (two plays, same characters, totally different scenarios) and discussed how to make their motivations and actions more specific. I’ve decided to start a completely new play see what happens, whereas Carolynne is revising the work she already started.
Next step: We come together with two new scripts and read them again.
Yun Theatre - COMING SOON: Young People Social Death Archive written by Siming Lu, directed by current directing cohort member Christie Zhao
Who: Yun Theatre, www.yun-theatre.com
What: 年轻人社死档案室 (Young People Social Death Archive); in Mandarin with English subtitles
When: Feb 16 (Fri) at 8:00 PM, Feb 17 (Sat) at 2:30PM & 8:00 PM, Feb 18 (Sun) at 2:30 PM.
Where: Theatre Off Jackson (409 7th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104)
Ticket Info: https://yuntheatre.simpletix.com/ ($16 - $35 sliding scale)
Edmonds Driftwood Theatre - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Playwrights! 13th Annual Festival of Shorts , “Silver Linings: A consoling or hopeful prospect.”Edmonds Driftwood Players is a volunteer-based nonprofit community theatre based in Edmonds, WA that has been entertaining and educating the community since 1958, making EDP one of the oldest continually operating community theaters in Washington State.We are pleased to announce our theme and call for submissions for our 13th Annual Festival of Shorts. Our annual playwriting festival provides an opportunity for playwrights to have their works brought to life on stage, as well as gain recognition and potential awards. Some past winners have later been developed into full-length award-winning plays! The Festival this year will be presented in five performances June 27-30, 2024, featuring eight shorts finalists. The theme for 2024 is “Silver Linings: A consoling or hopeful prospect.” We would love to see both comedic and dramatic stories with uplifting endings. The finalists are selected from submissions from around the globe. Our volunteer readers and judges are local Seattle-area theatre lovers and playwrights. To keep the process as fair as possible, our readers are given blind copies of script submissions for judging. Deadline for submissions is 3/17/24. More info/submission guidelines: https://edmondsdriftwoodplayers.org/festival-of-shorts/
At the dawn of a new swine flu pandemic, Lemon Lymes is a retired pop star and aspiring fascist looking to collaborate on a secret project with an adoring fan. Meanwhile, three Queerdos are planning for their uncertain futures as artificial intelligence renders their jobs obsolete. When a parasocial Lymes fan takes things too far and billionaire industries begin to collapse, the queerdos have to outsmart the state and keep their loved ones cared for. Tenderness is an anticapitalist cyberpunk experience you can enjoy from the comfort of your home computer or the theatre.
Written by Nelle Tankus (she/her), and featuring SGP Associate Artist Kasper Cergol (All New Cells), runs from Feb 9-17. Tix available: https://annextheatre.thundertix.com
Other things we love
Receiving actual donations: no donation is too small (or too large!) for us to accept! They are tax deductible and even the smallest amount will be put to good use. Click here to donate!
Receiving in-kind donations: Photography services; Give SGP and/or one of our shows or programs a shout-out on social media; Printing paper; acting blocks; space heaters; other basic furniture to dress a set; email us at info@shatteredglassproject.org.
Volunteers - a non-profit theatre company is ALWAYS looking for volunteers: board members; ushers; box-office assistance; help loading in and/or striking a set. Information about board membership is available by clicking here or email us at info@shatteredglassproject.org.
We are currently recruiting ushers and box-office help for the 2024 New Works Festival in May - sign up by clicking on the button below!
New Year, Creativity is Brewing!
…from the artistic director
Welcome to 2024! New Years are a time to make and experience New Things. Speaking from a thoughtful and philosophic perspective, this is the 4th year of our existence as an organization. I would never have expected to spend so much time helping theatre makers create so many New Things, and it’s incredibly exciting to share the new works coming your way from The Shattered Glass Project in 2024.
On Monday, December 11th the members of our Incubator/Mentor Cohort presented a staged reading of excerpts from their Plays In Progress. Each play generated a robust followup conversation and we are immensely grateful for the time and thoughtful feedback provided by the folks in the audience. More on that, as well as what’s to come for these plays-in-development below.
I want to introduce our newest board members, Cara Thomas and Emily Stone. Cara is an actor and a stand-up comedian who appeared in TSGP’s pandemic era Zoom production of Loom by Carolynne Wilcox. Emily is a recent graduate of UW’s PATP MFA program and is a co-creator with Darby Sherwood of A Lonely Realization. We are thrilled to have them aboard our little ship - welcome, Cara and Emily! (P.S. Board membership is a fabulous way to support live theatre. Please consider joining the TSGP board! Click here for more info on our website!)
-Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director
Incubator/Mentor Cohort NEWS
Snapshots from the Plays in Progress readings on Dec 11 at Seattle Public Theatre
Congratulations to the entire current cohort for the success of the Plays In Progress showcase on December 11 - it was a pretty packed house at Seattle Public Theatre, and each of the plays were well-received and commented on by the audience, who wasn’t shy about giving critical and constructive feedback for the writers to take into their continuing writing practice and for the directors to contemplate going forward. We are so proud of the work that’s been done so far and we are chomping at the bit to reveal the final stagings in May 2024. Thank you so much to the talented performers who contributed their acting talents, to the staff & volunteers who helped bring the everything together, the remarkable audience for attending, and extra special thanks to Amy Poisson & Seattle Public Theatre for hosting the event!
We’re thrilled to announce the creative partnerships for the New Works Festival which will bring these Plays in Progress to complete fruition onstage at 18th and Union, opening May 9, 2024.
On the Train, written by Lisa A. Price and directed by Christie Zhao
The Uterine Files: Episode One, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow, written by Jourdan Imani Keith and directed by Divya Rajan
Carmilla, written by Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones and directed by Aidyn Stevens
The cohort will be working with a fabulous team of emerging and established designers as well: scenic designer Bella Rivera (Want, Aug 2022), sound designer Alison Kozar (Want & director, All New Cells, June 2023), lighting designer Montse Garza, and costume design team Elizabeth Shipman and SusanAnne Luchenta.
A Lonely Realization by Darby Sherwood & Emily Stone
The Shattered Glass Project is extremely pleased to be part of the development of A Lonely Realization, a play which detangles and processes the individual and community trauma caused by sexual assault through comic absurdity. Look for it in October 2024 at a theatre venue near you!
Works-In-Progress Journal - Untitled Projects Being Created NOW
L - Carolynne Wilcox; R - Miriam Tobin
SGP Associated Artists Miriam Tobin and Carolynne Wilcox will be writing/creating 2 one-act plays in tandem to be performed in the SGP space (or immediately outside it) at the MLK Fame Center in July 2024. In the coming months, we’ll chart, from their point of view, their process of creating these works, from inception to writing to full, onstage fruition! Take a glimpse into a unique, partially partner-driven creation experience.
December 21, 2023 Writing Session by Carolynne Wilcox
Miriam and I met in the space today, it was chilly, and we had to bother Rebecca with a text all the way in Hawaii so we could figure out how to turn on the heat! Once that was done, we sat and talked through how we envisioned this process to be.
We talked over various things, like our own backgrounds and upbringings, finding some interesting common ground in our relationships to Spain and South America whilst eating Sun chips and waiting for the room to warm up.
The idea is to create two, roughly half-hour long plays using the same characters. We both agreed we were more interested in writing something thematic as opposed to issue-driven, as current events always seem to bleed through in a more authentic, universal way when creating from this perspective.
We tossed around themes like protest, migration and linguistic anthropology, alongside food and fables. I’ve written pieces with other playwrights in the past, but never quite in this way before. We didn’t get any writing done, but we got a good start in terms of feeling each other out, and planned our next writer’s meeting for January 5th, where we may pull themes, characters and prompts out of a hat! Stay tuned…
What our friends are doing
Strong Waters - SGP collaborator Maureen Hawkins (director, Want) stars in this tale of loss and love and family written specifically for these players, focusing on being artists in life’s third act. More info & tix here.
The Moors - Annie Lareau (Current Cohort Directing Mentor) directs this story dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility. More info & tix here.
The Plague Master General Greg LoProto (frequent SGP supporter) & Sara Schweid (actor, Nevertheless, She Persisted) will be producing this “bubonic comedy” through Blue Hour Theatre in April Auditions coming up in February - more info here.
The Shattered Glass Project Announces Staged Readings of New Works
For Immediate Release
November 27, 2023
Plays In Progress - Staged Readings of New Works by the 2023 Incubator/Mentor Cohort
The Shattered Glass Project is pleased to invite you to join us on December 11th, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at Seattle Public Theatre for the unveiling of three new Plays in Progress, as the 2023-24 Incubator/Mentor Cohort presents staged readings of 20-minute excerpts from brand new scripts for our New Works Festival May 9-19, 2024. Each reading will be followed by a post-show discussion with the director, playwrights, actors, and audience. All tickets are pay-what-you-will; tickets and information are available at https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/plays-in-progress-2023
About the Plays
On the Train
Written by Lisa Price and directed by Christie Zhao
Shortly after the overturning of Roe, political correspondent Nia Anderson has a brief confrontation with Senator Chad Fox, the pro-abortion ‘face of morality’, about the pending increase in African-American maternity and infant mortality rates. A serendipitous meeting between Nia, Senator Fox’s estranged daughter and his African American campaign assistant facilitates possible retribution as Nia seeks a second interview with the politician. Years of dishonesty, hypocrisy and sinister politics finally catches up with Senator Fox at the hands of three women.
Playwright Lisa Price is a scientist and a physician, whose creative writing focuses on the deconstruction of calamities as well as joy, through examination of the paths which lead to them. Director Christie Zhao is an interdisciplinary artist and art leader with a passion for developing new works; as the artistic director of Yun Theatre she tackles complex social issues and exploration of identity and culture.
Carmilla
Written by Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones, and directed by Divya Rajan
While Count Dracula is often seen as the father of the modern vampire, Carmilla is the 1872 Gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu that inspired his inception - predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years. Based on the book of the same name, Carmilla tells the tale of the isolated Laura and the mysterious young woman she falls in love with. But what happens when infatuation turns into obsession? Shattering the mold of male protagonists in horror, the mother of the modern monster is waiting for you.
Playwrights Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones are a writing team with a particular interest in developing new works focused on femme and nonbinary identities and a keen interest in storytelling that explores the theatre of questions. Director Divya Rajan is a creative practitioner/warrior who loves creating site-specific, immersive, experimental, and devised work.
The Uterine Files: Episode One, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow
Written by Jourdan Imani Keith and directed by Aidyn Trinity Stevens
The first part of a trilogy telling a story of reproductive disruption through the lives of the women whose wombs take us through slavery’s Door of No Return up to the present day. This choreopoem explores the connections between the stories and the histories our bodies tell, demanding an answer to the question, “What are they doing with our uteruses?”
Playwright Jourdan Imani Keith is an award-winning poet who served as Seattle’s Civic Poet from 2019-2022. Director Aidyn Trinity Stevens is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist whose study has focused on applied and community-based theatre. The cast includes Ayo Tushinde and Deja Culver.
Full biographies and cast information are available at https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/plays-in-progress-2023
About the Incubator/Mentor Program
The I/M Program is a 12-month tuition-free program for emerging playwrights and directors, focused on women, non-binary and trans theater artists, designed to offer participants the opportunity to build their professional skills and confidence as a practitioner, the tools to create and maintain a safe, inclusive, anti-racist and consent-based space for creating theatre, and a network of relationships within the cohort and with the broader Seattle theatre community. Full details about the program are available at https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/2023-incubator-mentor-program .
The 2023-24 program is the second full iteration of TSGP’s Incubator/Mentor Program, and was selected as one of only two theaters funded by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant. The cohort is guided by two local theatre leaders, playwright Rachel Atkins and director Annie Lareau.
About The Shattered Glass Project
The Shattered Glass Project is a theatre company with the mission to amplify the voices of theatre artists who have been marginalized on the basis of their gender or sex, including but not limited to cis and trans women, non-binary folks, and trans-masculine/trans-feminine folks, by providing unique opportunities to create and grow professionally. TSGP offers the Incubator/Mentor Program for emerging directors and playwrights every other year, and produces 2 mainstage productions, a one-act play festival, and 3-4 developmental readings or other developmental theatre projects each year, serving 50-100 artists and 500-1000 audience members.
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November is for Gratitude
From the Artistic Director…
You can’t make theatre without a bunch of people who do a lot of hard, inventive, interesting, artistic, and brilliantly collaborative work, often above and beyond the call. I’m grateful to every single blessed person who makes The Shattered Glass Project happen.
One very special group of people who have all my gratitude is the indistinguishably intertwined folks who make up our board and our mostly volunteer staff. These are the people who took the wispy ideas out of my head and heart and made them come to life:
director and sound designer Alison Kozar;
director and educator Sophe Friedman;
director, teaching artist and actor Buddy Todd;
community organizer and world traveler Kristina Washburn;
grant writer and killer soprano Cristin Miller;
graphic design and papier mache maven Lara Kratz;
and finally playwright, actor, marketing coordinator, master of all they survey on Facebook, AND my fearless collaborator in our ongoing efforts to dominate world theatre, the outstandingly talented Carolynne Wilcox.
Three other folks, who were in at the beginning include Jill Hostetter, Roxy Hornbeck, and Sabel Roizen - we miss your collective sagacity!
I’m equally grateful to the dozen or more working theatre makers who are meeting, networking, and sharing ideas with the 2023/24 Incubator/Mentor Cohort members, including Shermona Mitchell, Maureen Hawkins, Claire Zaslove, John Langs, Yussef El Guindi, and Desdemona Chiang, who joined us on October 9th for an in-depth discussion about how to navigate the playwright/director relationship. There isn’t enough money to pay for the wisdom, experience and creativity in that room. Thank you all so much for your time and generosity - I’m grateful for the money from the City of Seattle Hope Corps grant which allows us to give stipends to all our teaching artists.
Lastly and most importantly, I am grateful to all of YOU - audience members, donors, friends and family. Some of you are also theatre makers. All of you are the multiplier in the equation which allows us to make theatre, share stories, and amplify and empower women, non-binary and trans artists as creative leaders and decision makers.
Thank you all for making this community what it is!
-Rebecca O’Neil
Artistic Director
The Shattered Glass Project
NOW STREAMING!
Clockwise from the top: Zenaida Smith (they/them) as Lux, Jasmine Lomax (they/them) as Aeon, Kay Taylor Yelinack (they/them) as Moody and Kasper Cergol (he/him) as Nils in Summer 2023’s All New Cells by Aliza Goldstein.
Streaming Online through November 20
All New Cells centers on Nils, a young trans man. When Nils's ex-girlfriend dies suddenly, he is dragged back into a toxic online roleplay scene he swore he'd never return to. He'd been doing okay sticking to his seven-year plan for getting over their breakup - but now, everyone either blames him or expects him to have answers, and he's getting nasty anonymous messages that might be coming from beyond the grave. A nuanced examination of identity, trauma, assault, grief, and mental health through an online world. Content Note: All New Cells contains references to suicide, child sexual abuse and self harm, which are discussed but not depicted; themes include transphobia and online bullying.
Why this show and why now?
The Shattered Glass Project is dedicated to bringing stories to the stage that are unique and which have been selected for telling by theatre artists whose voices have been suppressed. Trans and GNC folks and women are being suppressed like hell right now, all across the United States and the world. Every day, across the US, it is becoming less safe and less legal to simply BE. We as an organization and as members of the theatre community are not going to let this story go untold.
All New Cells is a powerful story of disconnection and a search for identity contrasting how we live IRL (in real life) and how we present to the online world. The importance of role-play gaming and the construction of new personalities in new bodies is woven through the fabric of Nils’ story and personal development, as is the theme of creating power for and over yourself in a world where people often feel powerless. All New Cells touches on the way in which the digital ghosts of our past come back to haunt us. Ultimately, as Nils’ story shows, not only can we find agency for ourselves in a digital world and carry that agency into the life we live in the real world, we can also create victory for ourselves through acknowledging and incorporating the trauma we have experienced rather than excising it from our experience. We have the power to define and redefine ourselves.
Director Alison Kozar also notes that in All New Cells we are exploring queer characters in a queer affinity space and there are aspects of these characters that have emerged or are emerging and are still in flux, as queerness so often is. They say that when they were growing up, “[the] internet connected me to people like me, and people who liked me for me… It was a place where I didn't have to be me, but at the same time, I could share my secret thoughts and feelings without myself getting in the way.”
Playwright Aliza Goldstein says in their playwright’s notes, “All New Cells (is) a play inspired by the roleplay forums of my youth, the people who I met there, and the people who I was there….(A) beautiful, desolate, anonymous hellscape-cum-wonderland where you and me were free to be a hundred thousand kaleidoscopic versions of ourselves…. I hope you’ll recognize the characters who inhabit it. They live, I think, in every community, and in fandoms especially. If you feel seen by this play, I’m glad: I want to see you.”
GIVING TUESDAY IS COMING NOVEMBER 28
Giving Tuesday is coming. Please join in this worldwide effort to practice radical generosity and support the nonprofits organizations in our community - as much as we would love to receive a gift from you, we simply encourage you to give from your heart. For more information about this unique annual event, visit https://www.givingtuesday.org/united-states/.
And if you feel like it, you can beat the holiday rush and give to The Shattered Glass Project on our donation page at https://poweredbyshunpike.org/c/PBS/a/shatteredglass/donate/.
You know we at SGP will be incredibly grateful.
NOVEMBER IS FOR GRATITUDE
Divya Rajan (current directing cohort)
Morning moments where I sip & savor my cup of coffee.
Support of my family that allows me to pursue the arts.
All the opportunities of learning & growth that have come my way this year - TAT Lab, Margolis Method, Shattered Glass Project, and to Pratidhwani for my first original-solo work.
Miriam Tobin (Associate Artist, Through the Window)
I'm grateful for Rebecca's energy, enthusiasm, and openness. She has created a space for artists to come play, and her willingness to try new things is greatly appreciated. Shattered Glass is a small but mighty company that is weaving its tenacity into the Seattle landscape.
Aimee Decker (Associate Artist, Loom)
I am grateful for the endless patience & stubbornness of the people who have refused to give up on me. 🌟
Jasmine Lomax (Associate Artist, All New Cells & Cohort Teaching Artist)
I'm thankful for family, both blood and chosen.
I'm thankful for my puppy, Griz.
I'm thankful for risk, both artistically and in life.
Aarti Tiwari (Associate Artist, Through the Window)
For TSGP- first of all thank you for that question, I hadn’t thought about it.
I am happy and grateful for incredible and meaningful new friendships I have been able to nurture and exciting stories I have been able to explore through theatre and film productions I have been part of in 2023. It’s been a kick- starter in many ways.
WELCOME, JASMINE RITTER!
Jasmine Ritter, SGP’s New Production Stage Manager
We’re thankful and delighted to announce our search is over! Join us in extending a welcome had to the 2023/24 cohort’s new production stage manager, Jasmine Ritter!
Jasmine (She/Her) is a graduate of Seattle University (SU) and local freelance Stage Manager. Her recent work includes Antigone: That Play I Read In High School with ACT's Young Core Company, Maybe with Book-It Theater, Nora: A Doll's House at SU, and the first Portable Play Festival at 18th & Union.
What’s Up Next!
Join us on December 11, 7:30pm at Seattle Public Theatre for excerpted readings (20-minute selections) of 3 short plays written & directed by the current cohort. Featuring work from Christie Zhao, Lisa A Price, Divya Rajan, Jourden Keith, Aidyn Stevens, Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones.
Info and PWYW tickets available HERE
October is for Incubating!
As things get chillier (and much WETTER) around the Puget Sound, it’s a great time to turn indoors and inwards as we gestate and incubate new ideas, new projects and new great works!
As things get chillier (and much WETTER) around the Puget Sound, it’s a great time to turn indoors and inwards as we gestate and incubate new ideas, new projects and new great works! Exactly what our Incubator/Mentor program is working on. These seeds will germinate and be born in the spring, culminating in our One-Act Festival of new work written and directed by this season’s cohort of writers and directors in the spring. Read on for all things brewing with our current cohort, previous cohort and associate artists now - Artistry (note the capital “A”) abounds this fall!!!
From the Artistic Director…
The 2023-2024 Incubator/Mentor Cohort has been meeting since July and is beginning to build important relationships for their future careers. September and October are centered around skills workshops that try to answer the hard questions: “What does it mean to be an anti-racist professional in theater?”; “How do I collaborate with a group of designers?”; and “How do we navigate the playwright/director relationship?”.
We’ve been privileged to have local theatre artists coming into the studio with us, including Kathy Hsieh, one of the founders of SIS Productions and of Theatre Puget Sound and the Racial Equity in Grantmaking Strategist for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. Kathy also appeared on the stage with The Shattered Glass Project in Want by Barbara Lindsay in August 2022. It was wonderful getting to talk with her for 3 hours about what we can do as theatre artists to make other people feel seen and heard in a way that builds respectful human relationships.
The cohort has also walked through a foundations of playwriting workshop with playwright mentor Rachel Atkins; engaged in discussion with a panel of local costume, lighting, properties and scenic designers; and gotten on their feet with director mentor Annie Lareau to explore the principles of directing a new script. Next up I’m really looking forward to a conversation with a panel of playwrights and directors, including TSGP directing alum Maureen Hawkins; Sound Theatre co-artistic director Shermona Mitchell; directors Desdemona Chiang and John Langs (ACT artistic director); and playwrights Claire Zaslov and Yussef El Guindi.
Our cohort is really involved in the local theatre community; not just as directors and playwrights but as box office patron support staff, actors, development professionals, and all kinds of other roles. Please go see their work. TSGP’s next performances will be in December, but you can support live theatre in many ways. And if you are interested in helping amplify the voices of women, non-binary and trans theatre artists, share this email with family and friends and invite them to join our mailing list.
(Check out the new Theatre Puget Sound membership for Patrons and take advantage of industry discounts on theatre tickets for TPS members.)
1.) What have you enjoyed the most (so far) in your I-M journey?
What I’ve enjoyed the most is the program’s comprehensive approach. It covers a wide range of topics and features various facilitators. As a director, I particularly appreciated the opportunity to delve into playwriting, which unexpectedly sparked a new passion in me. Additionally, I find great enjoyment in the readings and being a student.
2.) What things (so far) do you see yourself carrying away from the program?
I see myself carrying away different relationships with other theatre makers in Seattle.
3.) What would you like to do when you’re done?
I would love to document my learnings and my experiences with the program so I can always look back to it.
1.) What have you enjoyed the most (so far) in your I-M journey?
We've just got started with the program in earnest. September is when we put it in high gear and start moving past getting to know each other and start in with guests and also deadlines for writing. What I have enjoyed thus far is getting to know my fellow cohort members and also our three wonderful leads. The program is very well organized so I feel very secure moving forward. I am very excited for what's to come.
2.) What things (so far) do you see yourself carrying away from the program?
At this point, I am a storyteller who can convey this through writing. I have a few festivals where my plays have been presented under my belt at this point. I however, do not have the knowledge, expertise or experience to execute collaborations with set designers, lighting, nor how to engage producers for my plays. As well, though I have been able to work with a couple of wonderful directors, I am still a neophyte when it comes to utilizing the full breath of these interactions. I look forward to learning about all of these and more.
3.) What would you like to do when you’re done?
When I am done with the program, I would like to be able to find the right home for all four of my plays. I look forward to the collaboration aspects associated with this as well.
1.) What are you teaching at SGP?
I was asked to lead a workshop on "What does it mean to be a culturally competent, anti-racist professional in the theatre?
2.) Why is this topic important for you to share?
The evolution of my life and work has been about how to create more human centered spaces that support the well-being of everyone involved having a greater possibility of being able to engage to their fullest potential. For me, the foundation of being anti-racist is about being more human-centered.
3.) A little bit about your background (especially as it relates to what you’re teaching)
As a woman of color, born in America to immigrant parents, I don't think it's possible (yet) to not experience racism. We always have choices when experiencing inequity in life - either hide and avoid it, confront and fight it, or learn to understand why it happens and how to address it. I have chosen the third option as much as possible. In my career as a theatre artist and as a government grant maker, I have specifically taken on roles and work to observe and be in community with people so that I can continuously learn how to do better and then strive to inspire others to do the same while finding ways to actually change what hasn't worked so that we can all do better together.
4.) Have you worked for SGP in another capacity, and if so what was your favorite thing about that?
I had the opportunity to be in the original Zoom reading and then later perform as Ruby in the world premiere of Want by Barbara Lindsay and directed by Maureen Hawkins. My favorite part of doing that production was the chance to do a play by Babs because I have always admired her work as a playwright and to work with Maureen who is a true actor's director. I felt so blessed that they both trusted me to take on such a tough role, especially one that is so diametrically opposite from who I am in real life and so different from the types of roles I usually get cast in. It was a huge leap of faith, especially for me, to get the chance to sink my teeth into such a gritty role.
Tickets Available here: https://eseteatro.brownpapertickets.com
Hello Earth Productions are always free to the public, but donations are always welcome! More info: http://www.helloearthproductions.com
Tickets available here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=203670
Tickets available here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=190814
Tickets available here: https://pork-filled.ticketleap.com
Tickets available here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/strawberrytheatreworkshop/994759
AUTUMN AT SHATTERED GLASS
OUR FUND/FRIENDRAISER EVENT AUGUST 24!
Thank you so much to all who attended the event, from our skillful playwrights to our talented performers to our generous and captivated audience - it truly was a friendraiser in the best and most expansive use of the word! Art was created, food was eaten, conversation was had and most importantly, connections were made - not bad for a summer night in August.
We hope you’ll come (or return) to the next one!
Check out our photos from the event, below.
COME WORK WITH US!
The Shattered Glass Project is seeking a production stage manager to guide the production process, in collaboration with the producing artistic director, for the 2023 Incubator/Mentor Program One-Act Festival.
Position Summary:
The Production Stage Manager will be responsible for ensuring that the production process for the Incubator/Mentor Program One-Act Festival runs smoothly from cold reading to final curtain call.
Dates, Times and Hours:
Start date: November 1, 2023 | End date: May 31, 2024
This position is designed to require approximately 8-9 hours/week from November 2023-March 2024, and approximately 16-17 hours/week in April-May 2024. Cohort activities are scheduled on Monday nights from 6:30-9:30 p.m.; production meetings will take place during these hours, until rehearsals begin at the end of March 2024. Schedule and necessary working hours during production will be determined on agreement during the production planning process.
Compensation:
The Production Stage Manager will receive a monthly stipend of $1000 between November 2023-March 2024; the monthly stipend will be $2000/month for April-May 2024, for a total stipend of $9000. They will be employed as an independent contractor.
To apply:
Please upload the following to the Application Form at https://forms.gle/hqM948H2rDGNkDjcA - Letter of interest, Resume or CV, and, if available, Website or portfolio information. Applications submitted by September 22, 2023 will receive priority attention. Open until filled. If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca O’Neil at rebecca@shatteredglassproject.org
WELCOME TO OUR
Click on any photo, and scroll down to read more about all our teaching artists!
