Almost exactly this time last year we were gearing up to open the world premiere of Ballard House Duet, with Custom Made Play Project and Washington Ensemble Theatre. Not many people saw the show, and between now and then, the production sort of got lost in the very fun, ever shifting, always sexy shuffle that is Seattle Theatre.
For me, however, the production will always loom large and poignant. The play came from a very personal place, and represents the last world premiere for the stage in which I expect to participate. And so, remembering back to a year ago, I am deeply grateful to Rebecca Olson for asking me to write Ballard House Duet; and for then agreeing, along with Hana Lass, to an unconventional process of development that began with me prying into their personal and professional biographies. I am grateful Erin Kraft for agreeing to direct it and giving me so much desperately needed developmental feedback. I am grateful to Annie Lareau for taking the helm when Erin had to step away for personal reasons. And I am grateful to all the people who gave freely of their time and talent to make sure the play went up and succeeded as a work of art. I’m looking at you Brandy Beauchamp, Peter Dylan O’Connor, Hannah Victoria Franklin, Doug Mazzeo, Betsy Schwartz, Jen Taylor, and everyone else that I know I’m forgetting in my encroaching senescence.
I hope you all have had a great year, and will go one to an even better one in 2014.
Ain't got no rain barrel,
Ain't got no cellar door.
But we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more, more, more, more, more.
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