Intiman Theater of Seattle announced plans on Tuesday to hold its second summertime festival of plays and musicals in 2013, another step toward artistic and financial recovery after unpaid debts caused the cancellation of productions in 2011 and layoffs of the theater's staff.
The next festival of four productions, which will run in repertory from June 22-Sept. 15, will include a world-premiere musical, “Stu for Silverton,†billed as the unlikely story of Stu Rasmussen, the real-life transgendered mayor of the tiny town of Silverton, Oregon. The show has music and lyrics by Breedlove, a New York singer-songwriter, and a book by Peter Duchan, who wrote the libretto for the recent Off Broadway musical “Dogfight.†The two men and Intiman's artistic director, Andrew Russell, have been developing the musical for the last two years; Mr. Russell will also directing the show.
The other festival productions â€" which were chosen to reflect issues of race, sex, p olitics, and money â€" are “Trouble in Mind,†Alice Childress's 1950s play about race relations inside a theater rehearsal room; “Lysistrata,†the classic by Aristophanes about women withholding sex from their husbands in an effort to stop war; and “We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!,†a farce by Noble Prize winner Dario Fo about working-class housewives in an uproar over the rising cost of groceries.
Intiman leaders have no plans to return to a traditional season of theater productions, Mr. Russell said by e-mail on Tuesday, but added that he expected at some point to consider ways to have “a theatrical presence within the Seattle community throughout the year.†Intiman's current debts now total approximately $270,000, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday, citing local Seattle media reports.
According to a statement from the theater on Tuesday, the 2012 summer festival drew financial support from more than 1,000 donors who contributed a total of $1 million bef ore the productions were staged â€" an upfront financing strategy intended to assure that the Intiman shows did not end in debt if ticket sales were low. Intiman leaders have now begun a similar fundraising drive to help finance the 2013 festival.
