What Is 14/48?

14/48 is a magical happy land where theater artists from the wide spectrum of Seattle talent gets together for four weekends out of the year (two in January, and two in the Summer - usually in July) and commit themselves to the act of creation.

During a given weekend, seven playwrights, seven directors and around 25 actors, give or take a few, create 14 new ten minute plays in 48 hours. There is a band that creates the soundscape and music for those plays. There are designers that make sure the plays are well lit, the properties are appropriate, and the actors are dressed properly. There is a running crew that makes sure it all runs smoothly.

14/48 is madness. It is addictive. It is fun. Mazen award winner Basil Harris once described it as "theater crack."

You say: "That's all well and good, but what can I, as a theater patron, expect from 14/48?"

Well, last Summer, there was an 80s pop culture spewing dragon, a talking tuba, a fairy who lacked wings, and a girl whose voice was stolen. That was all in the same piece. There were also disgruntled Beatles, murderous sexually ambiguous friends, musical cannibals, Nazis attending Dorkfest, avant-punk daters, a jazz-themed faerie tale, and the father of a teenage girl who had attended a kegger where sexual favors were dallied about.

Past shows have seen corporate men and women arguing about cooties, time travellers with vendettas against Judy Garland, a Lovecraftian noise in a cave, a Steampunk romance of sorts, kids creating rainbows, a family grieving a fallen soldier, Bellevue poetry slams, far-too-serious-theater-types tackling the Wizard of Oz, behind the scenes at a theme restaurant, a recreation of the first Sonics game against Gary Payton as a Laker, an actual rainforest on the stage, Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson in a plexiglas cube, talent show kids sabotaging the competition, and on and on and on...

You can't expect anything, because anything goes, and therein lies the fun. What will today bring?