For about the price of a matinee movie theater ticket, enjoy two award-winning and thought-provoking new plays live in April and May during the Playwrights Festival at Burien Actors Theatre. The 2017 Bill & Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival offers four weekends of four engaging new shows written by Washington State Playwrights from April 14 through May 7. Tickets are just $10, and each ticket includes admission to two plays–a one-act followed by a full-length. From April 14-23, the one-act They Walk Among Us is paired with the full-length Escorting Tom. In the comedy They Walk Among Us, written by Kirsten McCory and directed by Laura Shearer, Zeus and Hera start a whole new myth after falling into a suburban therapist’s self-serving plot. In the comedy-drama Escorting Tom, written by Duane Kelly and directed by Calen P. Winn, to soften the blow of leaving her socially inept husband Tom, Carol hatches an audacious plan. The project promptly fails—and succeeds—in ways she did not see coming. From April 28-May 7, the one-act Winter People is paired with the full-length The Law of the Sea. In the drama Winter People, written by Devin Rodger and directed by Tabitha Angier, two recovering addicts struggle to find the truth—and healing—in the connetion they once shared. In the drama The Law of the Sea, written by D. Richard Tucker and directed by Rochelle Flynn, Andrew Irving died in a shipwreck, and his widow can’t believe the explanation given by the surviving crew. What really happened, and just what is the “Law of the Sea”? After each play is performed, audience members are invited to participate in a talk-back with the director and playwright. These talk-backs are an opportunity for the audience to discuss the show with its creators and for the playwrights to get an honest audience response to their work. These shows are suggested for ages 13-plus due to some adult content and language. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. at Burien Actors Theatre, 14501 4th Ave. S.W. in Burien. The Playwrights Festival is sponsored by 4Culture, the City of Burien and Pickled & Preserved. HOW TO BUY TICKETS For tickets and other information, go to www.burienactorstheatre.org or call 206-242-5180. Burien Actors Theatre is located at 14501 4th Ave SW in Burien. ABOUT THE BILL AND PEGGY HUNT PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL The mission of the Bill & Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival is twofold:  to encourage Washington State playwrights to pursue their craft and to showcase previously unproduced plays written by Washingtonians. Playwrights are invited to submit their scripts, which are evaluated by a panel of judges who select the winners. Burien Actors Theatre (BAT) produces the winning plays in the festival. Top winners in the one-act and full-length script categories are produced as fully staged performances on BAT’s main stage. The Festival was named to honor Bill and Peggy Hunt’s dedicated service to theater and their devotion to and involvement with BAT. Peggy Hunt joined Burien’s theater scene in 1960. Over the next 35 years both Bill and Peggy appeared in and directed plays, designed and built sets, served on BAT’s Board of Directors, and were involved in some aspect of every theater project. BAT officially launched the Bill & Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival in 1999. This year, BAT has chosen four playwrights to be honored with awards. ABOUT BURIEN ACTORS THEATRE Exciting live theater has been a tradition in Burien since 1955. Incorporated in 1980, Burien Actors Theatre (BAT) has been a leading producer of quality live theater serving residents of the Seattle and south Puget Sound areas. Burien Actors Theatre gives audiences an intriguing and invigorating theatre experience with unusual and fantastical productions they can’t see on film or see anywhere else. The company’s mission is to treat audiences to productions of the highest artistic integrity that excite, engage and involve both the local and expanding theatrical communities in the Puget Sound region. BAT is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) entity and operates on revenue from ticket sales, donations, grants, sponsorships and volunteers.]]>

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