For the second year, the Sandbox One Act Play (SOAP) Festival is returning to Fremont – and giving us a chance, here at home, to see three short plays produced to some of the highest-quality standards in theater. The limited run of this production (only five performances – June 3rd to 7th) at West of Lenin makes this ticket a must buy, right now.
“It’s going to be a fascinating evening,” observed Vincent Delaney, one of the three playwrights featured at the 2015 SOAP Fest. “It’s going to be interesting,” Delany said of the plays chosen for this year’s Festival, “they come from really different places. It is three very interesting journeys.”
SOAP Fest features plays chosen from submissions by members of the Sandbox Artist’s Collective – an invitation only organization of experienced, professional theater artists. SOAP Fest gives audiences works produced using the many of the most talented people in Seattle theater, but also three plays chosen through a double-blind process, and representing the best of what the Sandbox community has to offer.
“Each of these plays is different,” observed Carl Sander, another of the playwrights featured this year, “using different conventions to tell a story.” SOAP Fest offers a delightful treat for its audiences, “Wherever you’ve got multiple pieces,” Sander said, “you’ve got to come with a playful attitude. You are getting a bunch of appetizers.” This is not a smorgasbord, but it is a hearty repast. “Come have fun!” Sander encouraged.
The Local Playwright
Sander lives in Upper Fremont, and works at The Burke Museum, where he found the inspiration for the play he submitted to SOAP called, ‘Why do We Keep Broken Things.’ “I can’t sum it up,” he said.
In 2011, speaking with then-Educational Director Diane Quinn at The Burke, he asked her for the question the children most often ask. She told him it was, ‘Why do you keep broken things?’ Sander reflected on things we all have in our lives – objects, relationships, and even civic infrastructures – that we keep, even after they are broken or no longer work. “I wrote two scenes at that time,” Sander said about his inspiration, “and put it aside.” A new member of Sandbox, Sander got the call for SOAP Fest submissions in 2014, and thought of this piece, “Let’s see if I can make something out of it.”
“Luckily, I have a great director,” Sander said of Tim Hyland. The two had worked together before, at 14/48, “he’s very good at finding creative ways of staging things that are not straight narrative,” the Playwright observed. SOAP Fest deliberately brings playwrights, directors and actors – along with the rest of the crew – together to collaborate on the pieces, and Sander welcomed the chance to keep developing this play. . “This is a less fully realized piece than normal,” he said of ‘Broken Things’, “but I don’t really have a normal.”
Sander has had his plays produced before, but he doesn’t have a strong method to his process. He does have a real need for immediacy in his works. “What I am mostly trying to do is life as it is now,” he explained, “What people’s desires are, in present day.” With ‘Broken Things’, he felt the inspiration needed from 2011 might age if he left it any longer. “If I was going to do anything,” with this piece, Sander explained, “I would need to do it now. It is time to deal with this material.”
Sander was pleased to have his play chosen for SOAP Fest, and to have another chance to collaborate on bringing this work to the stage. “The talent pool that showed up to audition,” Sander said, “the passion and depth of the talent pool presented is astonishing.” It isn’t just SOAP Fest though. Sander is impressed by the whole of the Seattle theater community and, “this incredible pool of talent, that keeps reinventing itself, and keeps adapting.”
The Playwright Slash
Vincent Delaney works at B.F. Day Elementary School. He also acts and directs, “but I’m really a writer 90% of the time,” he explained, with about a dozen full-length, and a dozen one-act, of his plays produced, so far.
Delaney joined Sandbox shortly about four years ago, when another of its member projects – Sandbox Radio Live – began. He’s written for Sandbox Radio, but he had never submitted to SOAP Fest before. “I didn’t have any unproduced short plays,” he explained. “It wasn’t until I looked at this script,” he said about ‘Las Cruces,’ a full-length play that he’d had work shopped but never produced. “This is the only script I have that would work,” he decided, so he took the heart of it, and reshaped it, “specifically for this.”
“It asks a question I found disturbing as a parent,” Delaney explained, “Can you really know your kids? And what does that mean if the answer is no?” ‘Las Cruces’ takes place in the New Mexico desert where three characters examine the ways we recover from a tragic loss. “We don’t want to scare anyone away,” Delaney also explained, “there is a lot of humor in this play.”
Helping bring ‘Las Cruces’ to the stage is director Julie Beckman, and actors Haley Alaji, Terry Edward Moore and Amy Love (SOAP Fest’s founder.) “This is what I prefer,” Delaney said, “I really enjoy the collaboration. I like being in the room.”
“Really good actors dive in,” to a new work, Delaney observed, “and they will come to you with opinions. They will get to know the characters, better than you do.” He has had his plays produced, and one, ‘The Art Of Bad Men’, has been workshopped eight times, across the country, and yet at every one, “I’ll find new stuff.”
“It’s about coming together as artists,” Delaney said of Sandbox, “it’s the collaboration and community.” The work of the writer can be very solitary, but Sandbox (and SOAP Fest) gives him a chance to get out. As a husband, father, and teacher, “my life is a hamster wheel,” Delaney said, “this is kind of my social life.”
The Newbie Playwright
Phillip Lienau teaches theater at the University of Washington, specifically set design. Three years ago, he helped with set design on the first SOAP Fest, and joined Sandbox. “Last year, I submitted two plays I’d written over a decade ago,” Lienau explained. He didn’t change the plays at all, and neither was selected, but he got valuable feedback on both. “I took that feedback, and said, ‘I really want to do this.’” He sat down and wrote ‘Chosen Less,’ using the critiques to help develop the script.
“The main theme is reconciliation,” Lienau said of his play, and, “it’s partly about happiness.” The work examines the choices we make – the bigger ones, that is – and the reasons why. The reasons, as Lienau described them, can be about what we want, but also what others want, what we think is the right thing to do, or what we think is noble.
“I’m interested in what can connect people who seem impossibly far apart,” Lienau explained. The two characters in ‘Chosen Less’ come from very disparate backgrounds, but, “they feel they have chosen less,” the Playwright explained.
Still, Lienau believes his play brings hope. “I’m interested in the world being a better place,” he said, “it may be corny – this is a tiny, 20-minute play – I want to inspire people to treat themselves, and each other, better.”
As to collaborating at SOAP Fest, Lienau has found himself in a bit of a quandary. For philosophical reasons, he is torn about inserting himself in rehearsals and the work of director, Kelly Kitchens, and the actors. “I’m hands on this time because I was invited,” by the producers, he explained, “I’ve enjoyed being in rehearsals, and watching the discovery. I delight in that.”
“I would not have been [hands-on] in this case,” Lienau said, “but I know it is an important part of this production.” As a set designer, “I like to work with actors, directors and stage managers,” he said, but he actually prefers older, ancient plays, where the pages of instructions and stage directions have been lost. “The puzzle of figuring out is the most fun for me,” he said, “It’s not as much fun for me to have all the directions.”
For ‘Chosen Less’, Lienau wrote very few stage directions, incorporated only three props and set it so it could be performed anywhere. When the actors do ask his opinion, “I try to give live examples – textural examples,” he said, “I’m big on text.”
Lienau has also a big interest in this opportunity to work further with other members of Sandbox. Lienau came to Seattle eight years ago, and while he spent his first four years with Seattle Opera, working within Sandbox has expanded his network with the Seattle theater community. “I’m interested in set design, writing, directing and even acting again,” and with SOAP Fest, his opportunities continue.
The Culmination Of The Writing
SOAP Fest culminates a nine-month creative process, right here at West of Lenin. Expect to see something new when you step into the theater, and an experience of plays never before produced – staged by some of our theater community’s brightest talents.
Purchase tickets now to this limited run festival. WoL will sell out, and while another SOAP Fest may come again, this combination of plays, playwrights, directors, actors, etc. will not. Don’t miss out!
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