Annex Theatre – Seattle's longest-running fringe theatre in Capitol Hill – returns with a new season of four world premiere plays featuring some familiar artists. All performance runs will be held in-person and have a performance available to stream online. Ticket prices will start at $10 and be available one more before each opening night. Check out what one of the neighborhood's best-kept secrets in local fringe theatre have been working on!

October 13 - 21, 2023

Battle Crow Radio
Written by Kelleen Conway Blanchard
Directed by Sam Ro
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

About The Show:

An evening of diabolical radio mysteries by Kelleen Conway Blanchard with swoony live music and haunting shocks. Like the enchanting goth cousin of Dragnet and Scooby Doo, the full-length edition of Battle Crow Radio presents four terrifying tales both live and streaming to freeze your blood! Join Detectives Palverson and Jiggles as they follow the trails of murdering fiends, other worldly creatures, and spine-chilling evil!

About The Artists:

Kelleen Conway Blanchard is a writer with a penchant for the creepy and monstrous side of humanity. Her work has been produced at Annex Theatre, 18th & Union, Macha Monkey, Pony World, Seattle Playwright's Collective, the 14/48 Festival, Spitn’Vigor, The Strand, FringeACT and many others. Her 2012 femme-sploitation women’s prison takeoff Kittens in a Cage received rave reviews and spawned an acclaimed webseries. Her well-received gothic comedy Blood Countess premiered at Annex as did her surreal horror comedy, The Neverborn. Check out her Radio Plays online at Annex and her work as part of the Ugly Radio on Spotify. She has been nominated for Gregory awards four times. Blanchard is constantly generating new work that prominently features strong women and lurid circumstances.

Sam Ro (they/them) has been an Annex company member since 2015, taking on the role of Artistic Director in 2021. Their previous directorial credits at Annex include The Devil and Sarah Blackwater and the 2020 edition of Battle Crow Radio. Sam has also acted in Annex productions such as Bunnies (Keiko Green), Silhouette (Scotto Moore, 2018 Outstanding New Play Gregory Award Recipient), and several iterations of Spin the Bottle. Sam is eager for Annex's new era of bold new work.

February 9 - 16, 2024

Tenderness
Written by Nelle Tankus
Co-Directed by Grace Carmack & E. Pike
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

About The Show:

At the dawn of a new swine flu pandemic, Lemon Lymes is a retired pop star and aspiring fascist looking to collaborate on a secret project with an adoring fan. Meanwhile, three Queerdos are planning for their uncertain futures as artificial intelligence renders their jobs obsolete. When a parasocial Lymes fan takes things too far and billionaire industries begin to collapse, the queerdos have to outsmart the state and keep their loved ones cared for. Tenderness is an anticapitalist cyberpunk experience you can enjoy from the comfort of your home computer or the theatre.

About The Artists:

Nelle Tankus (she/her) is a playwright & performer whose work explores queerness, the absurd, and metamorphosis. Her full-length work has been seen in Seattle at 12th Avenue Arts (The Untitled Play About Art School, dir. L. Nicol Cabe), The Umbrella Project (Slack Water, dir. QuiQui Dominguez), and Parley Productions (Yom Kippur, dir. Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth). Her shorter works have been seen most recently at 12 Minutes Max, Parley, and MirrorStage. She loves grindcore, black licorice, and diet Dr. Pepper. She is based in Seattle.

Grace Carmack grew up in Columbus, Ohio and moved to Seattle in 2010 to attend Cornish College of the Arts. Upon graduation they stayed in Seattle and mostly focused on performance. From 2014 to 2019 they also had the privilege of being a teaching artist with Freehold’s Engaged Theatre program. Grace will remain in Seattle a bit longer to continue or finish various adventures before moving home to complete a degree in Civil Engineering.

E Pike is a Seattle-based theater-maker. They graduated from Cornish College with a BFA in Acting. They have a special passion for the development of new work, and are deeply inspired by ritual and lore. They’ve recently appeared onstage in Europe (Thalia’s Umbrella), and they are a frequent collaborator with local playwright’s group Parley. In the past, they’ve performed in multiple Annex productions (Scary Mary, Silhouette, Sarah Blackwater). Tenderness will mark their debut as a director for the company. This fall, you can catch them in Annex’s Battle Crow Radio.

March 15 - 23, 2024

The Participants!
Written by Jesse Calixto
Directed by Catherine Blake Smith
Thursday - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

About The Show:

Four strangers are invited to participate in a focus group where they are asked to watch a trailer about an infamous hidden-camera prankster. Despite being told “Your opinion matters!” they suddenly begin to wonder if they themselves are the subject of a sick joke or a life threatening disaster.

About The Artists:

Jesse Calixto (He/Him) is a Latinx actor, musician and playwright who graduated from the University of Idaho with a BFA in Theatre Performance. THE PARTICIPANTS! is his first full length play to be produced and he is grateful to Annex Theatre for the opportunity. Companies Jesse has worked with as an actor include: The Seattle Rep, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Intiman, Book-it, Reboot, Greenstage, Island Shakespeare Festival, Short Order Theatre, and Burien Actors Theatre. He was also a member of the cast of Deers (Annex Theatre) which won The People’s Choice Gregory Award for Best Ensemble in 2017. 

Catherine Blake Smith is a theatremaker and web designer. She is the former Artistic Director of Annex Theatre (2016-2019) and Curator of Spin the Bottle (2015-2020). Her full-length directing credits at Annex Theatre are The Neverborn (Kelleen Conway Blanchard), Row Yr Boat (Achievement Unlocked) (Wesley K. Andrews), and Eat Cake (Nelle Tankus). Curating credits include Script Tease (Unexpected Productions), Research & Development Wing (Annex), and The Zig Zag Festival (Annex). She has written short plays for The Zig Zag Festival and Centrifuge 2023 (Infinity Box Theatre). She is also a member of Deconstruct Collective, worked on Seattle-area performance arts site nwtheatre.org, and holds a BA in Theatre Arts and History from Illinois Wesleyan University.

May 30 - June 8, 2024

Gunked!
Written by Marcus Gorman & Jo Jo Stiletto
Directed by Tootsie Spangles
Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

About The Show:

It’s Double Dare meets Noises Off! Coming off a PR disaster, the creative team behind an early-1990s kids’ cable network is on the eve of launching a high-energy, neon-colored competition series. Will they succeed, or will it be a slime-a-riffic, televised, darkly comic catastrophe? Get Gunked!

About The Artists:

Marcus Gorman is a Seattle-based writer and film programmer. His original plays include Deers, Natural, Peggy: The Plumber Who Saved the Galaxy (co-written with Jacob Farley), Space Race 5000, and the upcoming How to Leave (co-written with Kiki Penoyer). In the world of devised theatre, he has worked as an actor and writer with interarts gang The Libertinis (Gone Wild!, Atomic Falls USA, The Fantastic Misadventures of Twisty Shakes) and physical theatre troupe DangerSwitch! (Mad Scientist Cabaret, Big Bad). His one-acts have been produced by the 14/48 Projects, Askew Theatre Company, the Talking It Out Festival, Play On Words, the Funhouse Family, As If Theatre Company, Unnatural Redhead Productions, the Seattle Play Series, and the Del Rey Players. Marcusgorman.com.

Jessica Obrist, also known as Jo Jo Stiletto, is a burlesque producer, performer, and historian, and is known as the Professor of Nerdlesque—the leading authority on all things nerdy in burlesque. Her successful co-productions at Theatre Off Jackson included The Burl-X-Files: The Truth is Down There, Westminster Daddy Show, and Aunt Franzea’s Party Box. She has also been a popular fandom-con collaborator, with Guardians of the Sexy in partnership with Emerald City Comic Con and Bechdel Test Burlesque in partnership with GeekGirlCon.

Tootsie Spangles is a queer clown about town, sketch comedian. director, and an actor who approaches Chekhov and erotic fanfic performance art with equal aplomb. As an emcee, Tootsie has hosted events and story slams  for MoPOP, The Moth, She is Fierce, The Pink Door, P(ART)Y, and numerous variety shows and burlesque spectaculars. She is 1⁄2 of the comedy duo The Salty Licks and one of “America's probably only stoner bear entertainers: The Bearenstoned Bears!" Tootsie serves as the artistic director for The Libertinis, and as an associate producer for The Stay Up Late Show and for Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot with Flossy Beatrice Entertainment. Her latest project includes an intergenerational queer comedy/variety show and community event called The Fruit Salad Show. Get fruity at www.TheFruitSaladShow.com  and Dig Deeper at www.TootsieSpangles.com

About The Venue:

Annex Theatre is located at 1100 E. Pike St., at the corner of 11th & Pike in Capitol Hill, Seattle. It is accessible by bus and light rail and located up two flights of stairs. Annex will have a 49-seat capacity house and light concessions will be available to purchase. Audiences are required to mask, in order to protect the performers.

For questions or further details, please contact [email protected].