Unique glimpses into San Juan Island’s history, people and culture come alive in San Juan Community Theatre’s 2010 Islands Playwrights Festival. The intimate Gubelman Theatre will serve as the staging for the event which runs Jan 28-31 and Feb 5-7 and 11-14.
The annual festival’s 2010 theme, Centennial Stories, marks the final event in the celebration of Friday Harbor’s Centennial. The festival’s four short plays, four monologues, staged reading and special lecture range from broad comedy to drama and mystery. Presented in three separate groupings, each runs over a different weekend (see schedule below).
The road to the Gubelman has been an extensive one. During the winter of 2008-2009, writers submitted play proposals based on an Island individual, historical place or event that occurred during the last 100 years. Once proposals were accepted, and due to a grant from the San Juan Island Community Foundation, the writers were trained last April in “story circle” techniques by Donna Porterfield of Appalachia‚Äôs Roadside Theatre. The process continued with more research, readings, production preparations and finally, auditions and rehearsals.
Playwright Greg Sutherland said the story circles and group sharing opened “the tap for stories to just come pouring out” and that it gave him the ability to add more details and textures to his play. Don Pollard, who crafted his short play around the value of memories and the loss when they are no longer remembered, hopes “the group of plays we produce will rekindle memories and record them for others to discover….and possibly remember.”
The Festival’s Business Partner is Best Western Friday Harbor Suites. Tickets are $17 for adults, $9 for student reserved, with $5 student RUSH one hour before the show, if there are still seats available. A special series discount is available at the Box Office for tickets to each of the three weekends. The Box Office is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or tickets may be purchased on-line at www.sjctheatre.org
