14/48 Winter 2013 Weekend 2: Thursday Orientation

Ahh, the orientation: as Mazen Award winner (and virgin playwright this weekend) Erik Van Beuzekom would put it, it's the lighting of the campfire. The conviviality and the jocularity is rolling.

It's a surprisingly rowdy group of people considering the number of virgins involved--in fact, there are more virgins than not this weekend....I'm betting that the Veterans are doing more than their share of rabble rousing. [Just confirmed it with Jodi Paul, the group is mostly made up of Virgins and Mazen winners. One guess as to where the malarkey was coming from.]

Let's take a second to marvel at the quality of virgins here, here's a small sampling: We have the Artistic Director of Annex Theatre as well as Sean Ryan, On the Board's Programs & Facilities Director...and that's just two of 'em.

Eric Lane Barnes is adding a unique wrinkle to the participants this weekend, as it was just seven days ago that he was writing for 14/48 (both of the closers, in fact), which is a very rare occurrence in the annals of the festival.

And we're on to the Mazen Award: Wayne Rawley, a humble and deserving soul, who spoke effusively afterward: "There is no reason this [the festival] should work. But the only reason it does, is because of the Seattle theater community. The community feeds the festival and the festival feeds the community."

Congratulations, Mr. Rawley!