For the first time in recent memory, Bellevue College will produce a play aimed primarily at children, called “Still Life with Iris.”
“This is a wonderfully imaginative play for both kids and their parents set in a fanciful land where they bottle thunder and put the spots on ladybugs with a girl pirate and a young Mozart,” said director Tammi Doyle.
Doyle says the idea to do a play for children and families came about when she was putting together the schedule for the 2012-2013 season.
In the past, the college’s theatre department has been known for covering a variety of very adult material. Last year, the department produced the controversial coming of age drama “Spring Awakening.”
“It just hit me that it would be fun to swing the pendulum,” Doyle said. “It would be so great for students to do something for children; some of the students even have children of their own.”
Written by American playwright Steven Dietz, “Still Life with Iris” centers on a little girl’s search for the simplest of things: home. Iris lives with her mother in the land of Nocturno, a magical place in which the workers make, by night, all of the things we see in the world by day.
Doyle also saw the production as an opportunity to train her students in Children’s Theatre, as BC doesn’t offer a lot of opportunity for the genre. She said a very high percentage of working actors work in the family spectrum – and she saw this production as a great introduction.
The college’s Department of Theatre Arts performed plays written Dietz in the past.
Although Bellevue College does not have a Children’s Theatre curriculum as part of the Department of Theatre Arts, Doyle hopes to incorporate more family-focused productions in the future.
“It [likely] won’t be a yearly thing,” Doyle said. “But it’s something that any company should have in their decade long cycle.”
“Still Life With Iris will be performed Nov. 9-17 at Stop Gap Studio Theatre on Bellevue College’s campus, 3000 Landerholm Circle SE. Tickets are $12 for general admission, $10 for BC students, faculty and staff, and $5 for children under 12, and can be purchased HERE.
