Led by Shana Bestock, Alex Reed, Sara Albertson, and Annika Prichard

This weekend centered relationship and collaboration, as we deepened our theatrical toolboxes and explored ideas for performance, storytelling, and the future of Penguin’s partnership with Seattle Rep. 

Writers Teen artists came with open minds, willing to step out of their comfort zones and into new roles as directors, writers, and storytellers. After this weekend, we were overflowing with ideas—ready to follow up with the Bonfire Collective Writer's Cohort and New Play Festival!

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Anna Klein

Live and in-person, join us as we  re-enter a brave new world or connection, magic, and reconciliation. Exiled to a fantastical island, Prospero unleashes a churning storm to shipwreck the traitor who stole the throne, and settle the score once and for all. But bitter revenge is upended by newfound love. Filled with comedy and rich with poignancy, our production will awaken you from the dreary sleep of quarantine. Refuel your artistic sensibilities as we come together to explore the magic of outdoor theater!

Directed by: Aishé Keita
Support from: Anna Klein 

A performance of co-created short theater pieces created to explore how theater shapes our lives and how our lives can shape the future of theater. Let’s create our future, one act at a time!

By William Shakespeare
​Directed by Anna Klein

Toxicity, nurture, growth, love, rage, and plague. Two polarizing houses - Montague, gritty and raw, Capulet, erratic and bright. When they meet, their power is immense. Will it create or destroy? 

This is a truly fantastic play - equal parts comedy, romance, and tragedy, with brilliant characters and language.

By Pamela Hobart Carter
​Directed by Peggy Gannon

Paula, an art history doctoral candidate, wants the world to know about the artist Paula Modersohn Becker, the first woman to paint herself nude. 

By Kenneth Lonergan
​Directed by Shana Bestock

A powerful performance by three recent high school graduates in Lonergan's blisteringly resonant play. Our virtual production of This is our Youth is both a capstone to a decade of growing up together in the theater, and a full-throated artistic response to an uncertain world. Funny, painful, and compassionate, THIS IS OUR YOUTH is a living snapshot of the moment between adolescence and adulthood when many young people first go out into the world on their own, armed only with the ideas and techniques they developed as teenagers—ideas and techniques far more sophisticated than their parents ever realize, and far less effectual than they themselves can possibly imagine.

By William Shakespeare
​Directed by Shana Bestock

An unhinged world gone mad with narcissism and drunk on power. Rash decisions that tip the state into war and tragedy. Faked news. Madness, betrayal, forgiveness, tragedy.  How did a family get lost in its own storm?

This production started as a traditional process - rehearsing together in a shared physical space. However, upon the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show shifted to Zoom in order to continue forward, without really knowing anything about what that might mean. We discovered so much along the way - not only how to navigate collaborating artistically in a virtual space, but also how to develop an intimate relationship with this tremendous play. 

Preview and interview by Marcie Sillman on KUOW's All Things Considered.

Reviewed by TeenTix.

By George Brant
​Directed by Shana Bestock

Elephant's Graveyard is the striking tale of the tragic collision of a struggling circus, a tiny town, and the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge. By turns funny and heartbreaking, this deceptively simple play explores the demands and limits of empathy, and the deeply complex rifts between our actions and our morals. Based on a true story of events 100 years ago, Elephant's Graveyard vibrates with contemporary resonance as it asks, what is the price of entertainment?

Directed by Shana Bestock

Artistic and Education Director Shana Bestock and a creative, committed ensemble of artists explored theater around Seattle ! This class took a cohort inside diverse rehearsal rooms to sample different artistic styles and aesthetics, and allowed them to delve deeper into their own artistic processes through discussion, writing, reflection, and performance. The program consisted of field trips around town, and conversations about the meaning and means of art, as well as specific creative exercises designed to expand awareness of artistic goals.

by Lauren Gunderson
​Directed by Shana Bestock

I and You is a heartwarming and surprising story about two very different teenagers. Housebound because of illness, Caroline hasn’t been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only Instagram and Facebook for company. That is until classmate Toni bursts in – uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman’s poetry, and a school project due in the next day – Caroline is unimpressed all around. But an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework explodes into a journey of discovery about art, connection, and identity.

Profiled by Broadway World.

Reviewed by Drama in the Hood.

By William Shakespeare
​Directed by Shana Bestock

Shakespeare's thrilling, chilling, unstoppable ride full of dark magic and desperate deeds in an exciting multi-generational ensemble production. An army general receives a prophesy that they will be King, and is unable to resist doing all they can to capture and secure their promised power - even as it destroys them and all they hold dear.

By Matthew Barber
​Directed by Shana Bestock

A funny, poignant, and uplifting story of how travel can translate us back into our most real selves and restore the relationships that truly matter.

Unceasing rain and a gloomy nation beaten down by war are taking their toll on two housewives. When they impulsively rent a villa in Italy and ditch their husbands, recruiting two upper-class women to split the costs, they set in motion an adventure of a lifetime. 

Directed by Shana Bestock

Countless generations have formed fond memories through experiencing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (by Barbara Robinson) and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged (by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield). For BSPE, we rehearsed our favorite parts of both plays and performed them in a one-evening spectacular community celebration.

Directed by Shana Bestock

A theater-going teen cohort.

By Frank Garland
​Directed by Shana Bestock

When life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are under threat by the criminally inept United States Government, the future of our country lies in the hands of a motley crew: two petty thieves, a hacker, an acrobat, an ex-senator and whoever else they can scrounge up to help them save the day. Will they be able to break into the White House and steal back the original constitution before the Secret Service catches up to them? Heist!