43 Tickets Left for the 8pm Show

All artist comps, All-Fest Pass, two-for-one tickets are allocated.

If the 8pm is the only one you can make, call ACT's Ticket Office at (206) 292-7676.

If you can make the 10:30pm and like to party, you still should get your tickets at the number above or click here.

See those two seats on the left?  Those are probably gone now. If $20 is a little steep for you to see 7 plays based on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" you can get $10 tickets for the 10:30pm show while supplies last at Goldstar.com.

And if you think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a lame theme, then you hate this child.

He picked the theme at random after the 8pm show.

Unsung Heroes

When you come to ACT tonight or Saturday, there are two or three amazingly patient folks: The Box Office Staff.  When you bought your tickets online or over the phone, they make sure your tickets are waiting for you.

They say most everyone is really nice when buying or picking up the tickets but here are some tips:


If you've got tickets reserved, just your name & which show you're seeing is necessary.

Having your payment method ready to go is always helpful

Get here around 7:30 and have a drink.  The bar is open at 7pm and the lobby is a great place to hang out before the show.  Take your time.  Relax.

Don't talk on your cell phone while getting your tickets.  It's really just rude.

But most importantly..

Just because you know someone in the show doesn't mean you're on "the list."  If you're not on "the list" yell at your friend, not the staff.  That's never happened with 14/48 folks so we're good.  But just so you know.

Call 'em at (206) 292-7676.  They'll take care of you.

As We Speak

Seven playwright elves are working on seven ten minute plays based on the theme: Into The Fire.

The bloggers await your predictions in the comments.

My prediction: One scantily clad fireman. Ladies, get your tickets at HERE at ACT Theatre's web site.  You can also call the ticket office at (206) 292-7676. 

14/48 is Morse Code for LOVE.

Lunch, tech design, and rehearsal photos: (things are picking up speed so forgive the lack of captions - just enjoy, and come see 14/48 tonight and tomorrow at 8pm and 10:30pm! Get your tickets HERE.

Who photographs the photographer?

Well, I do. But not very well.

John Ulman looking into his camera. Harvey on the sidebar.

Becky Hellyer

Photos from 14/48 Artist Meeting

Live from the Central Heating Lab at ACT:

As Becky hath reported, all the artists of this weekend's 14/48 Festival met last night, in ACT's beautiful Bullitt Cabaret. Names were exclaimed. Slips were drawn at random. Beers were fetched. Photos!
Jodi-Paul Wooster, host of last night's Artist Meeting, shows us what we're missing if we're not on Facebook: his renegade rocker of a son, Harvey.
Me, one of your proud bloggers. I work here at ACT as well, so I have even more keys than the stage manager, James Frounfelter. Come see everything at ACT! Especially 14/48, tonight and tomorrow, at 8pm and 10:30pm. Can't come this weekend? We're doin' the same thing all over again NEXT Fri and Sat, 1/16 and 1/17. Get your tickets HERE and find out more about 14/48 HERE.Jodi lines up the 14/48 virgins, to declare ourselves and be hazed. I was one of them. It's...really not appropriate to say what they did to us. I'll never forget it. And my dreams of being a nipple model are over.
Veterans like Andy Jensen sip their beer in general disgust of us pitiful 14/48 virgins. It's like boot camp, but funnier and more sitting down.
Also, after introducing John Ulman, the 'virgin photographer' who took all these beautiful pics, Jodi stopped us and declared, "I'm sorry, you can't say 'virgin photographer'..."

He was just trying to keep things appropriate.


As opposed to Shawn Belyea here, who joined us via satellite to say good luck, welcome virgins, and fuck Paul Mullin. Sorry Paul, i love your work, but i'm here to report the news.

Brian Faker accepts the Mazen Award, awarded to "veteran participants of 14/48, for their contribution to the spirit of risk-taking and camaraderie embodied in our process". I tried to upload the video of Brian's inspiring speech, but it didn't work. I'll try again later. If i make it happen, you better fucking watch it, cuz it's better than when Cuba Gooding Jr. freaked out at the Oscars.
Brian stands directly in front of the projector and reaches into the pile of slips. Guess what he's doing? If you said 'Drawing the Theme', you win a prize: buy one ticket to 14/48 for the price of two and get the second one FREE! Click here to buy tickets. Here's Peter Dylan O'Connor, displaying the theme of tonight's shows: NEUTRALIZE THE THREAT. I predict at least one show in which someone wakes up after a one-night stand and applies anti-each cream. Beer. I've waited my whole life to see "Free Keg in Rehearsal Room" as an official rule of the theatre. It's always on tap during 14/48 rehearsal, tech, and performance. Jodi tells us, "Hey, if you show up tomorrow morning at 9am, shaking, and you just need a beer, we're not going to ask questions."The downside: Whenever a 14/48 veteran holds their cup aloft like above, a virgin has to get them a refill.ACT's Event and Venue Manager, Alyssa Byer, lays the rules of the theatre down: TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVE. Perhaps I heard her wrong. Alyssa had a huge role in bringing 14/48 to the Central Heating Lab here at ACT. Round of applause, please. Thank you.Writers select the breakdown of actors vs actresses for each show. Lucky Louis Broome got 0 men, 5 women. His play is called Revelations. Enough said. From Left: Celene Ramadan, Paul Mullin, Glenn Hergenhahn, Jerry Kraft, Peter Dylan O'Connor (Artist Liaison), Louis Broome, Paul S., Brian Neely, and Anita Montgomery. Anita is also ACT's Education and Outreach Director, and head of their amazing Young Playwrights Program.Tim Hyland practices putting the smack down.Opal Peachey broke both handles off the women's restroom. She says they 'just came off', but I sense some deception. Watch out for this one.The star of the night: Harvey Brown Wooster, with his dad Jodi-Paul.
Come to the Bulllitt Cabaret, tonight and tomorrow, 8pm and 10:30pm, for 14/48: The World's Quickest Theatre Festival! Get tickets NOW!

It's all about MEN

I was thinking that the venue would influence 14/48 tonight but I've changed my mind. I got to go around and poke my head into all the rehearsal rooms (I felt like I was playing a game of Zelda trying to find them all in the lovely maze of ACT) and I think it will be much less influenced by space than by the theme (remember: Neutralize the Threat) and the mostly male playwright pool. (Lots of male actors, too, by the way.) My prediction (and I'm not giving anything away here) is that tonight will be a testosterone-rich experience. And, as Teri Lazarra said when I shared my guess, "I like it!" Pretty much sums it up.

Becky Hellyer

Letters from the middle of the night

I asked the writers (the writers I managed to track down!) to email me during the night and let me know how it all went. Or how it was going.

10:00pm - Jerry Kraft emails from Edmonds to say that he thought about his two men and one woman on the drive up and "now I need to settle on exactly what the threat is, and to whom, and what has to be done to neutralize it."

1:00am - Celene Ramadan emails to say she is done. She says she started by asking herself some questions: "what is the threat? Are the two men in my play opponents or on the same team? What style and mood do I want?" (Ya gotta love it that the writers are actually EMBRACING and WRITING ABOUT the theme, don't you?) Celene "made decisions and decided to just commit 100% to them" and now she's wondering if she should write another one - just in case. 100% commitment to 100% doubt at 1:00am. Yup, absolutely.

2:00am - Jerry emails to say he's done. He's going to go to bed and get up early to look it over and see what he thinks. And then he speaks the familiar phrase - that mantra of the 14/48 writer - "I have no idea if it's any good." Amen, brother.

3:00am - Brian Neel emails that he and Paul Shipp walked the streets of downtown Seattle riffing on the theme until they came up with an idea and then went to Paul's place to bang it out. It "flowed smoothly until about three quarters of the way through when two prominent concepts didn't take hold." They struggled with it until they had to just scrap the concepts and finish without them. "Right now, as I fade away, I just miss that doll's head. (I know it could have worked.)" We'll ALL miss the doll's head, baby! They send the above photo - "taken upon completion of script, one shot of whiskey toast." Kind of makes you want to try that co-writer thing, doesn't it?

No other emails from the middle of the night. We'll have to assume the playwrights all survived and that the scripts are on their digital journeys to ACT to find their directors and actors and come to life tonight. Can't wait!

Becky Hellyer

Talk to me, writers

My heart is with the writers. It always is. In some ways the entire festival is about the writers - they create stories overnight. In other ways, the weekend belongs to everyone but the writers. For instance, every non-writer at the Artists Meeting is chatting and laughing - they're a little nervous, sure. But they're having fun. The writers, on the other hand, normally confident, gregarious people, are not having fun. They pace. They glare. They clench their jaws. They laugh loudly and then go silent. They are like spouses in the maternity ward. And in the morning they will deliver the scripts into the hands of the directors and actors and then go home. No one will really want them around. Tonight, while we sleep, the writers will be having their shining moments. Alone. So, I ask the writers to email me tonight - when they're done or as they're working through their plots, developing their characters, struggling with what to say. "Just tell me anything," I say. Paul Mullin and virgin writer Jerry Kraft say they will email me. Brian Neel says, "Sure!" So does his writing partner, Paul Shipp. Anita Montgomery (also a virgin) looks doubtfully at me as I stop her on her way out the door to explain that I'm blogging and I'd like to hear from her - but she takes the piece of paper with my email address. I've missed Louis Broom and Glen Hergenhahn - they slipped out - I'll get them tomorrow. But Celene Ramadan is still here - lingering with friends. She also takes the paper from me. And then all the writers are gone and the directors are still meeting. Everyone else is drinking beer and talking quietly. As I head off to sleep, I'm thinking about our dear writers and I'm wondering what kinds of emails will be waiting for me in the morning. I'll let you know.

Becky Hellyer

Who do I know?

One of the first things I do when I walk into a 14/48 Artists Meeting is to look for who I know. Who have I worked with? I'm not alone in this. I like to see Stan Sheilds. He was in one of my most successful scripts therefore, he is one of my favorite actors. Same with Kate Jaeger. And I'm glad to see Paul Mullin and Brian Neel, both writers I admire. I embrace Karen Jo Fairbrook and Nicole Boyer Cochran. I see Teri Lazarra, Peggy Gannon, Lisa Viertel, Shawn Law, Tim Hyland, Anthony Winkler, Peter O'Connor, Mark Boeker, Alex Samuels. I love the kisses and the hugs - a reunion, of sorts. And then someone speaks what I'm thinking, "Isn't it nice to see all these faces we know?" And Andy Jensen says, "I like seeing all the faces I don't know. That's really what it's about." And, it's true. And now I'm looking at all the faces I don't know and looking forward to getting to know them.

Becky Hellyer