Just Wrought

Recovering playwright, once won a STRANGER Genius Award for theater. Now writing a bloated novel about… G-d help me! Theatre.

Tag: Brandon Simmons

  • Exit/Entrance/Exit/Entrance… Imagination

    Exit/Entrance/Exit/Entrance… Imagination

    This week I started my new job working for the City of Seattle, Department of Transportation (aka SDOT). This coming Sunday evening, I’ll be reading a story I wrote called “Exit Interview” about getting laid off from my old job. At the time I conceived it, the plot was mere imagination, but I knew the ax would eventually fall. Additionally, the story morphs into being about the end of my life, and then, more eventually still, about the end of the world. And again, I used my imagination but I have a pretty good general idea of how these things will go.

    So why am I reading this story on Sunday evening (with the help of the truly excellent Brandon Simmons)? And why, in support of Bernie Sanders campaign to become the next president of the United States of America?

    So many think he doesn’t have a chance. Others think he’s inured to the injustice of American racism, puffed up on a cloud of clueless White progressivism.

    What do you think?

    Do you think he has a chance to become our next president?

    Here’s my suggestion: use your imagination; because like me— like all of us— you have a pretty good idea of what will happen otherwise.

    (more…)

    Posted at 8:09 PM in American History, Current Affairs, Seattle, short story, Writing | Comments (0)

    Tags: 2016 Presidential Race, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, Brandon Simmons, Brandon Simons, Cathy Sorbo, Dave Clapper, DonnaTella Howe, Exit Interview, Jennifer Burdette, Julie Mains, Kermet Apio, Paul Mullin, Songs of Filth, Ubiquitous They, WeekendsforBernie

  • Heaven Help Us All: I Will be Acting Tomorrow

    Heaven Help Us All: I Will be Acting Tomorrow

    As much as bang on actors, I feel like it is incumbent upon me to occasionally get back up on the boards to strut and fret, if only as an exercise in humility, and as a reminder of how, each year, it just gets that much harder to memorize my lines.

    Well, tomorrow is just a reading, so my failing memory won’t be an issue, but I still get nervous whenever I have to put my stage money where my big fat stage mouth is.  See details below.

    (BTW:  one of the last times I attempted to act this is what fellow cast members were forced to do   . . . )

    NPA & Seattle Repertory Theater present

    In the Poncho Forum – Seattle Rep – 155 Mercer St

    (please use main entrance)

    Tues. Feb. 9 @ 7 p.m. 

    Two Readings:

    Borders
    By Lenore Bensinger
    Directed by Carol Roscoe
    with
    Alycia Delmore
    Todd Licea
    Brandon Simmons
            &
    Lee Blessing’s, Reagan in Hell, directed by John Vreeke
    with
    Paul Mullin
    & Jim Gaul

    Free Admission

    About the Play

    BORDERS: A medical romance.  When Paul and Jean, two young Docs, sign up for hardship duty with Doctors without Borders, they find more challenges than short supplies, “friendly fire” and death lurking everywhere.  What’s it really like to test your idealism in the modern heart of darkness?  BORDERS penetrates the private lives of dedicated medical volunteers.What does it take to serve in the midst of terrifying conflict?  You don’t just give your skill.  What are the joys and costs of putting your life, your marriage and your heart on the line?

    About the Playwright
    Lenore Bensinger’s plays have been produced in Seattle, California, Canada and St. Louis.  She has worked as a dramaturg in most Seattle area theaters, with  a special fondness for new plays.  She worked at the Empty Space and The Group, co-founded Rain City Projects, produced the first US Fringe Festival locally, “On the Fringe.”  Next up, an adaptation of Sophocles THEBAN PLAYS with Jake Groshong and Ryan Higgans for Balagan late this spring.  Within the year, she’ll be bringing together an ensemble-
    developed exploration of today’s returning soldiers through a “medical lens.”  A near and dear project is the revival of NEW WAVES, the playwrights’ radio show happening SOON.

    About the Director: 

    Carol Roscoe most recently directed DEAD MAN’s CELL PHONE, THE VERTICAL HOUR and RETREAT from MOSCOW at Arts West, END DAYS and HALCYON DAYS at Seattle Public Theater, BUG at Theater Schmeater and many, many more shows in town.  She was seen most recently in Seattle Shakespeare Company’s TWELTH NIGHT and will be featured in the upcoming Seattle Children’s Theatre production of GETTING NEAR to BABY. Carol is currently teaching at Cornish College of the Arts.

    Posted at 8:09 PM in American History, Current Affairs, Seattle, short story, Writing | Comments (0)

    Tags: 2016 Presidential Race, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, Brandon Simmons, Brandon Simons, Cathy Sorbo, Dave Clapper, DonnaTella Howe, Exit Interview, Jennifer Burdette, Julie Mains, Kermet Apio, Paul Mullin, Songs of Filth, Ubiquitous They, WeekendsforBernie