14/48 2023

I have lived in Seattle for 30 years and been an actor for the past 12, but I have somehow never been to 14/48. Tonight, I went. It was a revelation.

First, some impressions: There was an actor who I had only ever seen playing very serious roles but tonight played a wacky goofball. That was so fun. Wow, look at what they can do! Then there was another actor who played the same kind of character as I had seen before and I loved that too, because they are so good at it. Play that one again!

It’s never been more clear that the audience is responsible for the play. Everyone was ready. Ready to cheer. Ready to engage. Ready to love. I would guess that most of the audience was friends of the writers, actors, band members – theater people, eager to help make it a success.

I have seen many short play festivals. This is not to denigrate any of what I saw tonight, but if I had seen these same seven plays in the unusual short play festival set-up, I don’t know if they would have landed as well.

What made 14/48 work has something to do with it being 14/48 and not any other evening of short plays. But there are things, I think, that other short play evenings could import from 14/48.

The live band playing original music in line with the theme. Having live music as I walked into the space and took my seat gave it a party atmosphere. It was like a happening, or something.

The hype person. They gave the best house speech before the show that I’ve ever heard. Again, much of it was specific to 14/48. But if you are doing the speech for your evening of shorts, you can find what makes you passionate about what you are doing and take ‘em to church.

The thrust configuration of the space. Having the audience on three sides of the playing space makes us a part of them and them a part of us. Don’t let the audience keep any distance or else in their anonymity, they might fill that space with judgment. This is even more of a risk for a bunch of new works that no one has seen, where people are not automatically predisposed to like it.

There was more music during the transitions. It kept the party going, the energy going, reminded me of the theme, and prepared me for the next one.

I haven’t organized these thoughts very well, or made up some kind of theme or arc to this post, like I usually do. But I just wanted to get some things down about how much I liked what I saw tonight and how inspiring it was.

(Originally posted on Facebook in the very early a.m. hours of 8/6/2023.)