From the Artistic Director

Our 2009-2010 season is coming to a close. Tonight is the preview performance for Mat Smart's The 13th of Paris, and tomorrow night is Opening Night!

Candace Vance and Frank Lawler in The 13th of Paris - Photo by Paul Bestock

This beautiful and funny story of love and life was directed by our own Artistic Director Shana Bestock. She will be a regular contributor to Backstage at SPT, and here is her first offering, with thoughts on the show that closes out our season:

After a season of psychological complexity and tension, we deserve to celebrate Spring! You, our wonderful Seattle Public audience, journeyed with us this season to the dark recesses of the soul. Now we get dessert – a fresh new play that takes timeless themes and spins an original story filled with humor, beauty, and joy.

This play is about the unlikely ways we find love. When I think of love in Paris, I think of Casablanca, of splendor and sweep and passion. But the 13th arrondissement is a modest neighborhood of immigrant working classes, more functional than fabulous. Is this the place to set a romance?

The 13th of Paris is a playful, visceral, quirky perspective on timeless big questions. The play is about how love can be as simple and beautiful as an inside joke.

Love is possible anywhere. You don’t need Paris. Find your own words, put pen to paper. Love takes guts, and luck, but mostly just practice. Whether you are in love with a person, a place, a community - perhaps the joy of this play will inspire you to write a love letter. I hope so.

Trick Danneker and Emily Chisholm in The 13th of Paris - Photo by Paul Bestock