Orcas Center Presents in The Black Box Theatre:

The Lonely Plays

February 22-25 at 7pm (Wed-Sat)

Tiered Ticket Pricing: $59, $29, $15
Orcas Center charges a $2 per ticket fee

**Orcas Center’s Tiered Ticket Pricing is based on the needs of your family. The variant in pricing is not based on seat location or dates of performances, rather, what you’re able to afford to help us to maintain our facilities and create quality programming.

Tier A is the true cost per patron of putting on show at the Orcas Center, Tier B is our standard rate, also subsidized by our generous donors, Tier C is a rate subsidized by our generous donors. **

The Lonely Plays

A play by Heidi Heimarck
Directed by Ellen Graham

This collection of short plays was curated with an overarching theme of connection. So much of art grapples with the desire we have for finding kindred spirits through bonds of love, friendship, and anything that lifts us out from our self-imposed isolation.

The plays range from silent, non-verbal, to almost connecting and a bit of gibberish to false connections and finally to some verbosity that moves back down to actual connection at the end.

Music helps create the sense of connection between these pieces as well as for the characters themselves. As Harold says, “I have a song, my own. I have a melody, my own. My task is to… play it along or rather, at the same time, as someone else’s. To ebb and flow. To allow another song to drown me out. But, periodically. Certainly not at all times. No, sometimes I must play a solo.”

Each of these short plays could be produced on its own. Most of them were finalized after being written for The 14/48 Projects in Seattle. “Hello in There” was also commissioned to perform at The Triple Door during an evening of burlesque by Lily Verlaine. “Geri and Harold” was first performed during Mae West Fest, a festival of plays in Seattle written or directed by women.

Cast:

Jake Perrine –  Bob/Harold
Caleb Summers- Kenny/Gerard/Robert
Colleen Smith Summers – Joan/Geri
Kelsey Hamilton – Annabelle
Liz Doane – Hannah/Jeanine Janinegan/Megan
Luann Pamatian – Cynthia, Liz Bean
Bryan Benepe – Joseph/Carl Falsberg

About the Author – Heidi Heimarck
www.HeidiHeimarck.com

My theater career began at the age of 9, playing Joe in a summer stock company’s production of “Joe Egg”. I became a professional actress in Mpls, MN, then moved to Seattle, WA, and started producing new work. Currently residing in Everett, WA, I spent 4 years as Executive Director of The Dance School, and also write, direct, produce, and teach workshops.

In Seattle, my work begins with NCT’s “Fefu and Her Friends”, directed by the playwright Maria Irene Fornes, a number of original works produced by Intiman Theater and Theater Zero, and writing and directing at Annex Theatre during its formative years. I was a co-creator of Union Garage Performance Space, a founding member of Theatre Babylon, and the Founding Artistic Director of the Mae West Fest, an annual festival of performances written and directed by women. I am a regular playwright for the One World/Three-Card Monty theatrical extravaganza, “14/48”, and a proud recipient of the Glen Mazen award. I’ve received awards from Jane Chambers Int’l Women’s Playwriting Competition, Actors Theater of Louisville, and Vermont Studio Center, and am published by Rain City Projects, Platform Magazine and Jacob Brooke Press’ “Hill Poems”.

I’m so excited to see these plays go up as a collection in a single evening! Ellen (the director) and I have been discussing possible locations for this project for a few years. She and I have worked together on a number of creative projects in Seattle. I also admire Jake Perrine so much for his talent and the work he’s done at Orcas Center. I’m honored that the two of these amazing people are working together on something I wrote. Just awe-struck. The rest of the cast, of course, is proving to be incredible as well, and I can hardly wait to hike out to Orcas Island for a few rehearsals.