Literature Lives On At Book-It Repertory Theatre

Seattle, WA. The Book-It Repertory Theatre has been putting on all-audio productions throughout the pandemic. Now, Book-It is preparing for an in-person 2022 season. The upcoming productions are highlighted in the graphic above.

After making an early decision to switch from a proposed traditional in-person slate of shows to all-audio productions for the 2020-21 season, Book-It was faced with the choice of how to best move forward in a post-vaccine world for 2021-22. According to Marketing and Communications Director Torrie McDonald, these decisions were made in the “heady days of pre-Delta Variant breakthroughs and rising infection rates.”

McDonald notes that the world moves quickly, and Book-It administration is doing what they can to keep up while ensuring that the health, safety, and comfort of everyone involved–artists, patrons, staff–is top of mind.

With the information from the CDC, Governor Inslee, and other appropriate officials, Book-It is beginning the upcoming season with two audio dramas, beginning in October. Opening in late January, Book-It will offer three in-person productions in the Center Theatre at Seattle Center.

McDonald says that the response to an all-audio season was  “better than we hoped for.” While it can never replace the specific experience of seeing a show in-person, audio plays fit with Book-It’s particular niche and mission: adapting books into theatre experiences. As audiobooks are already a massive market, it was a pretty easy fit for Book-It, in “some ways.”

Of course, communicating the ways in which plays were different than strict audiobooks was important. McDonald feels that “audiences are savvy enough that they understood.” People appreciated the position Book-It, and the entire theatre industry were in. As a result, many of their patrons came “along for the ride.”

Many of Book-It’s colleagues have lost their jobs or had to shutter their organizations. “The lament that theatre is dead,” McDonald reflects, “has rung out. Again.” Book-It administration highlight that theatre is an artform that has survived for millennia; survived plagues and wars and changing climates, both political and environmental.

Theatre isn’t dead, or even dying, but it is evolving, according to Book-It. It “should” and “must” evolve–Book-It is ensuring this is the case through pandemic adaptations.

As a final note, McDonald observes: “We are being forced to look at ourselves in a mirror, without our makeup on, and see who we really are, to decide who we can and should become. Hopefully, that will be more equitable, more accessible, and just as creative as ever.”

For the 32nd season of plays, Book-It will present two Audio Dramas and three In-Person Mainstage shows. See below for the list of titles and links to more information on each. For further information not detailed below, visit the 2021-2022 season page.

The first two productions are Audio Dramas this season. Zen and the Art of an Android Beatdown is a short story and will have one download available that contains the entire story start to finish. The Three Musketeers is a longer book presented in two parts, that will be released over two weeks. You will be able to stream or download each title starting on its release date and until June 30, 2022.

Beginning in January 2022, patrons will be welcomed back to the Center Theatre in the historic Seattle Center Armory for three in-person shows: Beowulf, Mrs. Caliban, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter.

For these in-person productions, please note that to ensure health and safety protocols are kept up to date, all seating will be General Admission this season. You will not be able to choose your specific seat in advance. However, let Book-It administration know if you have an accessibility need, and they will do their best to accommodate it.

Pricing Information:

• Full Season Subscription Packages: $122-$185
  Audio Only Subscription for $40

From Book-It Repertory Theatre:

Book-It Repertory Theatre has built a 30-plus year legacy of creating new, evocative plays from some of the most compelling books on the shelves. By creating theatre exclusively from literature, Book-It strives to inspire a love of reading through a live, communal experience.

Today, with over 150 original adaptations to its credit, Book-It is widely respected for the consistent artistic excellence of its work. We are proud of our interpretations of classics by authors from the Western canon of literature—Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Bram Stoker, Miguel de Cervantes, Kate Chopin, and Herman Melville, among many. And we are thrilled to bring new, or often excluded, voices to that list of exceptional authors: N.K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Jamyang Norbu, Tochi Onyebuchi, and Mbolo Mbue, to name a few.

Though we produce our work primarily in the Center Theatre of Seattle Center’s historic Amory building, our work has been shown in multiple local venues including ACT, Intiman, Seattle Art Museum, Town Hall, Freehold, North Seattle Community College, Northwest Asian American Theatre, Hugo House, On the Boards, Café Nordo, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Book-It’s national reputation continues to grow with our adaptations being performed in theatres across the country including the Hartford Stage, Center Stage Baltimore, Minnesota Children’s Theatre, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Portland Center Stage, and others.

The joy of sharing stories with our community continues to inspire us, and we look forward to the growing the list of voices we will experience together.

Our Mission: To transform great literature into great theatre, through simple and sensitive production, and to inspire our audiences to read.

Our Vision: To be a nationally-known theatre arts center where Book-It’s partnership of theatre, literature, and education nourishes the literacy and the artistic vitality of our community.

Our Land Acknowledgement: We would like to acknowledge that our company works on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish people, past and present; and we honor, with gratitude, the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

For more info click here: Book-It Repertory Theatre.