West-coast premiere of award-winning show... almost here!

Here's the scoop for the next award-winning show Brownie Points at Taproot in Seattle. Sounds like great entertainment for the family as motherhood and racial assumptions collide. For more information check the Taproot website.

(Photos by Tanya Barber)

Taproot Theatre presents West Coast premiere of Brownie Points

Opening on May 20, premiere continues Taproot’s 35^th Anniversary Season

SEATTLE – “Brownie Points began with the question, ‘what is more powerful: the shared experience of motherhood or the divisiveness of race?’” says playwright Janece Shaffer of her new dramedy, making its West Coast premiere at Taproot Theatre this spring. Directed by Karen Lund, Brownie Points opens on May 20 and runs through June 18, with previews on May 18 and 19.

The girls' club pledge never promised camping would be easy...for the moms. In the late night mayhem of a backwoods campout a storm rages outside, while a squall builds inside the cabin. Set against tranquil mountains, the close quarters, diverse backgrounds and differing walks of life collide, spurring hilarious but meaningful conversations about race, religion and parenting.

“I love how this play gets to the heart of sensitive issues, by couching them in the comic moments of our everyday lives, making them accessible,” said Lund. “It basically comes down to what’s more important, people’s differences in things like race and religion, or what they have in common, which in the case of these women is the struggle to raise their kids the best way they know how.”

Brownie Points premiered to sold-out crowds at Theatrical Outfit in February 2010. Shaffer won the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award for Brownie Points in November (she also won the award in 2009 for Managing Maxine). In addition to writing, Shaffer serves as director of communications for the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Shaffer will visit Taproot Theatre for the week of Brownie Points’ opening.

Taproot Theatre’s production includes a talented cast of Karen Ann Daniels, Faith Russell, Nikki Visel and Casi Wilkerson. The production team includes scenic and sound designer Mark Lund, costume designer Sarah Burch Gordon and lighting designer Jody Briggs. Anne Hitt serves as stage manager and Sonja Lowe as dramaturg.

Following Brownie Points, Taproot Theatre presents Something’s Afoot, running July 13 through August 13.

 HERE'S MORE info:

Brownie Points

By Janece Shaffer

Directed by Karen Lund

WHEN: 

·         Previews: May 18 & 19, 7:30 p.m.
·         Opening night: May 20, 8 p.m.
·         Pay What You Can: May 25, 7:30 p.m.
·         Senior Matinee: June 1, 2 p.m.
·         Student Matinee: June 7, 10 a.m.
·         Post-play Discussions: Wednesday nights, excluding preview

WHERE: Taproot Theatre Company, 204 North 85^th Street, Seattle, WA 98103

TICKETS: Tickets are available online at www.taproottheatre.org/buy-tickets/ and through Taproot Theatre’s box office, in person or by phone at 206.781.9707. Tickets range from $20-35, depending on the performance. Taproot offers a $3 senior/student discount off regular priced tickets (excludes previews). $10 tickets are available for ages 25 and under. Tickets for the senior matinee are $20. Discounts are available for parties of 8 or more through Group Sales; call 206.781.9708. Tickets for the pay-what-you-can performance are available day of show at the box office only; contact the box office for details.

ABOUT: The girls' club pledge never promised camping would be easy...for the moms. In the late night mayhem of a backwoods campout a storm rages outside, while a squall builds inside the cabin. Set against tranquil mountains, the close quarters, diverse backgrounds and differing walks of life collide, spurring hilarious but meaningful conversations about race, religion and parenting.

                                                                                                                   

ABOUT TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY

Taproot Theatre Company is a professional, non‐profit theatre company with a multi‐faceted production program. Founded in 1976, Taproot Theatre serves the Pacific Northwest with Mainstage Productions, Touring Productions and the Acting Studio. Taproot exists to create theatre that explores the beauty and questions of life while bringing hope to our search for meaning. Taproot Theatre Company is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Theatre Puget Sound (TPS), and the Greenwood‐Phinney Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks to our title sponsor, Viking Bank, and our opening night sponsor, The Upper Crust. Support for Taproot Theatre’s 2011 Mainstage season is generously provided by The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, The Seattle Foundation, 4Culture, ArtsFund and PONCHO.

Twins named Peace and Humility

"I want to get ahead and I'm trying to be noticed!" and "I am the BOSS around here and don't you forget it!" I've heard both at work. The speakers were anxious and controlling of their work and their authority. Not so much fun to be around.

Those ambitions reverberated as unpleasant memories when I read the morning's scriptural passage: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

I've never thought of humility and peace as twins. Yet, another verse came to mind: "Great peace have they that love your law, and nothing can make them stumble" (Psalm 119:165). The law of Jesus says that we must treat others the way we want to be treated, and our obligation is to love God first, then others the same way we love ourselves. Hate being bullied? Dislike the "I'm more important than you" in others? Don't do it yourself!

Who do you think of (maybe yourself) when you read this? How can God's care and peace envelop us, no matter what our -- or others' -- plans and goals...and prevent us from being eaten alive by human power struggles? (Read the verses below.)

Read more:

*Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:6-11  NIV

The prison of our fears

Speaker and author Carol Kent shared the devastation that followed "life-without-parole" sentencing for her only son. 

"A parent's worst nightmare," she described it. When she finished, she told us, "You can tell me your stories, but please don't say my pain is much worse than yours. Pain is pain is pain, whether that is from illness, financial trouble, or other traumas."

Afterward I talked to our daughter. Kirsten said people often told her that they felt badly for her, "and though we are suffering, we can't imagine going through what you do." (She has severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.)

"No one has to go through what I do," said Kirsten. "Everyone has their own pain. There's no comparison between experiences."

Comparing the weight of humanity and downplaying our own suffering sends a clear message to someone in the middle of devastation. "Our hurts are bad, but yours is definitely worse. We feel so sorry for you..."

Such a statement of "comfort" carries the implication that if something even more horrid happens to someone else, this suffering is less than the other person's. Yet, how can we measure the brokenness and hurts? What kind of increment or tool could show the physical, emotional, or spiritual toll of stress, worry, or grief?

"Everyone's cross is shaped to their own back," says my mother, who has gone through many sorrows and trials. She is wise, after watching life go by.

Though not everyone is behind physical prison bars, many of us inhabit a prison of our fears. We worry that life will be too difficult, that good times may not last, or that we are not strong enough to survive the future.

Only God is able to sustain us. "Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares for you," said the apostle. And, "Think on good things, and be thankful. And God's peace will surround you beyond your understanding." Such inner resilience and trust springs our prison gates open so we walk in freedom, no matter what our circumstances.

Wayward Wagner

Monday, the Rhine maidens lost their gold to a nasty dwarf, setting off a whole string of fantasy in song. Four nights and seventeen hours of music later (plus intermissions), we've come to the end of another season of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelung.

Watching the immorality of every Wagner creature - mortal and immortal, I was relived that our God who made the universe is not capricious or changeable. His nature is constant and Good. The Creator can be trusted and does not follow into temptation to satisfy the inclinations of an evil nature like Wagner's gods.

Opera is a medium where the basest desires can be paraded in full view. A composer can put all the flaws of human nature into song, exposing the depravity of the human heart. Detaching self from the characters of the story allows poetry and music to flow together in an orgy of events that in real life would be condemned by all but the foulest hearts.

I enjoyed the music. I delighted in the costumes and staging. But my heart was saddened at our acceptance of the fallen nature, not only of humans, but of the gods we invent. What beauty and wholesomeness could have been written though Wagner's gift, had the man been moral, upright, and interested in building up rather than tearing apart the fabric of society. Maybe someone pure-hearted and sincere is writing that kind of lovely music this year.