The curtain is about to rise on a new theater company in Edmonds.
The startup Edmonds Repertory Theatre makes its debut tonight with its first production at Artworks, a multifunctional house where the portable stage was created especially for Edmonds Repertory Theatre and where the audience will sit in an intimate setting in the round to watch performances.
Edmonds Rep debuts with a two-act comedy called “A Warp-ed Door,” that opens at 8 tonight and runs through Oct. 27.
The play was written by Jeff Stilwell. He is also the managing director of Edmonds Rep.
Stilwell believes that Edmonds is a community that embraces its arts. That’s one reason, and he’s got several more, why he believes that a new theater company will make it big in Edmonds, a town that already has two theater companies and a new performing arts center.
For one thing, this new nonprofit is starting out with more than 100 founding members. It’s also scheduled for five mainstage shows over the coming year, with opening night already sold out.
The newly created stage is already 75-percent sponsored, paid for with money from supporting members. It also helps that Stilwell has successfully launched other artistic venutes.
Stilwell and his wife, Manya Vee, opened Kindred Circle Art Gallery in 2000. The two also founded the Edmonds Third Thursday Art Walk, which now numbers more than 30 locations and, Stilwell said, has given rise to the careers of many Northwest artists.
Stilwell said he has learned to “navigate the arts as a business.” He has developed a three-legged stool approach for Edmonds Repertory Theatre with himself as managing director, David Bailey as artistic director and Ryan Jay Quimby as technical director. The two men have extensive theater experience. Stilwell said Quimby created “a technical marvel” in the unique 16-foot diameter stage platform at Artworks that breaks up into four pie slices in five minutes and can seat 50 people in the round.
Stilwell also chose to make Edmonds Repertory Theatre a venue dedicated solely to producing work of Northwest playwrights. There will be no “My Fair Lady” performances but only original, two-act works. The theater is accepting scripts and so far has had eight submissions. Rules for submissions can be found on the theater company’s extensive Web site, which also allows visitors to read the playwright’s script, at www.edmondsrepertorytheatre.org.
“So many painters have become stronger and better and have grown because of that monthly art walk inspiration, so I thought, ‘why not do it with playwrights?’ ” Stilwell said.
The first Northwest playwright to be showcased at Edmonds Rep is Stilwell himself, with his play “A Warp-ed Door,” a comedy involving Mallory, a tortured artist of a writer who displays her contrary, sarcastic humor to the many visitors who interrupt her incessantly as she’s trying to write the great American novel because the building’s janitor removed the warped front door of her apartment.
When visitors enter Mallory’s world, everything is a bit bent out of shape and unexpected, said technical director Quimby, who described the piece on the theater’s Web site.
“In addition to the warped nature of the lighting and furnishings, the use of bright vibrant colors will accent the number of very colorful characters who enter,” Quimby said.
Reporter Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com
@2. Breakout Header:”A Warp-ed Door”
opens at 8 tonight at Artworks, 201 Second Ave. S., Edmonds. Shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturdays through Oct. 27. $15, 425-776-3778.
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