Last night we hosted the SOAP Fest 2015 Rent Party to celebrate the new playwrights and their captivating works. Our generous guests were treated to the musical genius of Jose “Juicy” Gonzales, yummy edibles by Patrick Frank of Cochon Catering, and of course sneak peeks by Vincent Delaney, Phillip Lienau, and Carl Sander (performed by Yesenia Iglesias, Larry Paulsen, Amy Love, and Richard Sloniker). As promised, the luckiest of partygoers walked away with a prize.

Vincent Delaney’s plays have been produced, commissioned and developed at the Guthrie, Humana Festival, Premiere Stages, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Florida Stage, InterAct, the Magic, Woolly Mammoth, Source Theatre Festival, Pittsburgh Public, New Harmony, PlayLabs, the Lark, and LAByrinth, among others. His awards include a McKnight Fellowship, a Jerome Commission, the Heideman Award, a Bush Fellowship, the Virtual Theatre Project New Play Award, and the Nathan Miller Award from the Sprenger Lang Foundation. He is a Core Alumnus of the Playwrights Center, and a proud alumnus of the Seattle Rep Writers Group. His recent work Foreclosure was developed at Seattle Rep, NCTC, Shakespeare and Company, and Florida Studio Theatre. Vincent’s plays are published by Applause Books, Smith and Kraus, Samuel French, Heineman, Dramatics Magazine, Theatre Forum, and Playscripts.com.

Phillip Lienau teaches scenic design at the University of Washington School of Drama. His recent design work includes Measure For Measure for Seattle Shakespeare Company, Wilson Mendieta’s piece in the UW Dance Faculty Concert, and The Bunner Sisters, written and directed by Sandbox member Julie Beckman. Chosen Less is his first produced play.

Carl Sander is a playwright, actor, producer, stage and production manager whose work in the Seattle theater community spans thirty-five years. In that time he earned an MFA from The University of Washington School of Drama, served as a Washington State Artist in Residence, and received grants from the Washington, King County, and Seattle Arts Commissions. His plays have been produced by Seattle Rep, ACT, Seattle Children’s Theater, and many others. He toured internationally as a playwright with the Seattle Peace Theater, creating new works with artists from around the world. Winner of the first ever New City Theater Playwrights Festival for Two Women TV, as well as the Stanley Kramer New Play Contest for American Lebanon. Carl is a Mazen Award-winning veteran of 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival, for which he has acted, directed, played in the band, served on the Steering Committee and written over 18 ten-minute plays in the last 15 years. He is currently the Public Programs Manager at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

The Sandbox One-Act Play Festival is proud to announce the new plays for 2015:

Las Cruces, by Vincent Delaney
Out in the New Mexico desert, not far from the casinos and the space port, Sheridan is camped out, hiding in a gutted trailer. Everyone knows he’s there, but no one knows why. Except maybe a card player named Soledad.

Chosen Less, by Phillip Lienau
A chance meeting on the street forces two men to face the consequences of their choices. They learn the hard way that leaving is not the same as escaping, and that dreams can change in the chase.

Why Do We Keep Broken Things, by Carl Sander
It’s 2011 in Seattle: Mike McGinn is in office, Bertha is in Japan, pot is illegal, and the Occupy Movement is camped in Westlake Park. Five inhabitants of the city by the Sound collide in a kinetic collage of civics, sex, and estranged friendship leading us to ask why some things change and others stay the same.

Stay tuned throughout the coming months for further details! We cannot wait to have the opportunity to bring these stories to life.

Backstage with Production Assistant Tracy Kirkpatrick and Assistant Stage Manager David Hsieh

A special thanks goes out to John Ulman for capturing moments behind the scenes and on stage. Here’s to another successful run, exceptional artists, a first-class production team, and enthusiastic audiences.

To view the entire album, please click here.

G. Valmont Thomas* in Yussef El Guindi’s “The Tyrant,” photo by John Ulman

“The play itself is brilliant, dark, challenging and thoroughly believable. G. Valmont Thomas is spectacular as the brutal and very sophisticated “barbarian”. Thomas brings such incredible range to the man’s experience and such insight to his complexity and contradiction… Perhaps the greatest achievement of this dense, challenging drama is the way in which it allows us to see entire societies, political forces and national histories, as embodiments of real human beings.”

To read Jerry Kraft’s review of SOAP Fest and all of the plays, click here.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Megan Ahiers and Brian D. Simmons* in Brendan Healy’s “Things to Say When It’s Too Late to Say Them, aka Proof You Were Here,” photo by John Ulman.

Tickets are still available for Thursday through Sunday’s closing. With only 5 performances, get your tickets before it’s gone!

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Sarah Harlett*, Seanjohn Walsh*, and Christopher Morson in tech rehearsal for Juliet Waller Pruzan’s Cumulus.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

With all this excitement, what are you waiting for?

Look out for up-to-the-minute details from West of Lenin’s social media maven, Rachel Delmar! For the coolest theatre updates, visit @WestofLenin.