Highway Glamour Shots

From Kiki, Audience Development Intern

When someone offers me a smoothie, I always say yes. Mama didn't raise no fool. Little did I know that I'd be hiking up a mountain afterwards.

The Rep's Communication department went on a little outing while our Director was away for the day (jealous much?). We boosted up on intense-power-enhancing-mega-AWESOME-rocket-fuel energy smoothies with B 12 and made our way down the Galer St stairs to behold our beautiful billboard on Aurora. Then, like the nerds we are, we took pictures to document our efforts. Look at those excited faces! They weren't excited for long...

Once we were done geeking out we proceeded to climb back up the 700 some stairs, some of us in heels and others of us in need of an oxygen tank. It's fine. Looks like we're improving our department's odds of winning the coveted "I Hate to See You Leave, But I Love to Watch You Go" Reppie Award.

Kevin and Simone on the radio

From Joanna, Communications Manager

Yesterday I got to take Kevin Kling and Simone Perrin to KUOW for an interview about Breakin' Hearts and Takin' Names. OK, they are probably the nicest two people you'll ever meet. Is it the Minnesota in them? I love it when you fall in love with performers on stage and then they're just genuinely awesome in real life.

At the risk of sounding totally Tiger Beat, I learned: Simone shops at H&M, they both like shrimp phad thai, and Kevin's a runner.

More importantly, while they were on the radio, I got to hear some amazing stories about what it was like for Kevin while he was in a coma (he dreamt he was in Italy having his face rebuilt by calcium deposits) and some fantastic new original songs that are in the show, based on poems by Kevin and then put to accordion music by Simone.

They also talked more about the show, which is, Kevin said, about "the flight away from trauma." Whereas their play last season How? How? WHy? Why? Why? dealt with the aftermath of Kevin's motorcycle accident, Breakin' Hearts is about healing, of all kinds. "Trauma is trauma whatever is is: the loss of a limb or a heart or a promise or a person," Kevin said.

Listen to the entire interview/performance on KUOW here: http://www.kuow.org/rss.php?program=weekday

Why do people still love Star Wars?

From Joanna, Communications Manager

It's been over 30 years since the first Star Wars movie was released. With Carrie Fisher at the Rep (and discussing the juicy details of filming Star Wars, as well as reciting some particularly notable lines in her show Wishful Drinking), we've been asking ourselves, "Why do people still love Star Wars?" (and by Star Wars, we mean the original trilogy).

Some theories:

• Sexy Han Solo.
• A female character that is pretty much a badass, even if she has astronomically weird hair.
• A good, clear story or good vs evil.
• A really bad guy, voiced by James Earl Jones nonetheless.
• The Force.
• Special effects that at the time were totally groundbreaking.
• It's not as geeky at Star Trek.
• Escapism.
• Quotable lines galore.
• Millions of YouTube parodies, including this one and this one.
• Light sabers.

Here's an article just posted on Slate: Why does Star Wars still take over the minds of small boys?

Breakin' Hearts and Boozin' it Up

From Joanna, Communications Manager

I just e-mailed Breakin' Hearts and Takin' Names Production Designer L.B. for some interesting morsels about designing the show, storyteller Kevin Kling's latest. His response?

1. We’re using a large chunk of one of the Seafarer walls for the main bar wall in Breakin’ Hearts.
2. We’re collecting paper coasters from bars all around Seattle and Minneapolis to hang on the walls.

I'm sensing a bar theme.

Speaking of...did you know you can now take your drinks into both of our theatres? AND we have credit card machines at the bar now (available for your charging pleasure pre show).

For a full interview with L.B. about designing the show, click here.

For our bar menu, click here.

Directors announced

From Joanna, Communications Manager

I just got word that three more directors for the coming season have been confirmed: Andrea Allen, the Rep's own very talented Education and Audience Development Director will direct Speech and Debate, a wild comedy about teenage life. Braden Abraham who is currently helming Breakin' Hearts & Takin' Names and who directed Betrayal will take on Opus. And Wilson Milam, who directed this season's The Seafarer, will be returning to direct another testosterone-fueled play, Glengarry Glen Ross.

For more info on the season, click here.

Carrie Fisher Likes Shiny Things

From Kate, Technical Production Intern

Things have definitely slowed down here in production. Betrayal and The Seafarer are up and running and the next two shows are not technically intense; seeing as Wishful Drinking is coming on a truck and Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names does not seem to have a very large set. Although today, I got to make a quick model of the Carrie Fisher set, so that we have something to look at instead of drawings.

I've also been making some artwork from the walls of The Road to Mecca set. The walls were covered in glitter, and apparently someone got word that Carrie Fisher loves shiny things, so we made parts of the walls into artwork for her dressing room. Random, I know.