Showtime! Come see "A Life in the Theatre"

 Working Class Theater NW Presents: "A Life in the Theatre" by David Mamet.
May 23, 24, 30 &31 at 8pm
Admission is Free!

1st floor of the Old Post Office (inside the DASH Center)

1102 A. Street, Tacoma

Warning: Contains some adult language.

"A Life in the Theatre" was chosen as our first script because it tells the story of why theater is important to its practitioners: the artists who chose to make their living treading the boards. David Mamet wrote "A Life in the Theatre" (LiT) in 1975. First produced in New York City in 1977, the play centers around the lives of two actors at different points in their careers. As the story of the relationship of two actors onstage and off, the play serves as an explanation of why artists choose the titular life in the theatre. 

This short run is the final graduate project of Christina Hughes. Here is what she has to say about why this play is important to her, and to Working Class Theater NW:

"With this play, we can show why we are passionate about theater, what it means to work in the theater, and why people choose theater as a profession. By positioning theater artists as members of the working class that we seek to engage, we are using similarity as a foundation for building trust. Mamet promotes the idea that actors work hard and are not abstract and above the working class but an integral part of it. While the script is not a direct reflection of any actor’s experiences, it helps address the question of what drives actors to act and in turn what drives WCTNW to open a theater. Themes of the show, which include the interdependency of artists with each other and the audience, mirror WCTNW’s dependency on the surrounding community and explain our goals of community building, education and outreach. Telling this story is a way to situate ourselves within a working class context as trustworthy narrators of community concerns.

It is idealistic to open a theater in a depressed economy, especially in an area that has an uneasy history with new theater companies. But I am not a theater person if I do no theater. There is a point where it is more constructive to open a new theater under challenging circumstances, than to complain endlessly about my inability to relate to existing theater. If my needs as an artist and audience are not being served, it is my responsibility to change that. I want to participate in modern, challenging, underperformed works of theatrical excellence. Working Class Theater NW is my opportunity to meet that goal."

 

       We  hope that you will join us. After all, what is life without theater?