The 90s at ACT saw three different artistic directors (from Steitzer to Shannon to Edelstein) and two
different theatre spaces. The theatre moved into the heart of downtown in the middle of this decade,
making the 90s a period of resettling and reimagining the possibilities for Seattle’s contemporary
theatre.
productions
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1999
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The Crucible (1999)
Stonewall Jackson's House (1999)
ACT's season continues in July with Stonewall Jackson's House, Jonathan Reynolds' caustic, comic tirade against political orthodoxy. Set in the Virginia home once occupied by the Confederate general, a museum docent leads a tour through the restored mansion, and ends up leading the audience on an outrageous series of twists and turns with hilarious and unexpected results.
Temporary Help (1999)
Curiosity can kill more than just cats. When the virile Vincent arrives at the Strebers' Nebraska farm-house, the stakes radically rise in Karl and Faye's cunning cat-and-mouse game. Spice this up with the local sheriff— suspicious of Karl and sweet on Faye — and see what brews. In this steamy psychological thriller, "payday" gets a whole new meaning as each player in this perilous game gets what he has earned. ACT's Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein will direct the world premiere in the Falls Theatre.
Side Man (1999)
The 1999 winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Warren Leight's Side Man enters the world of jazz, where promises are made to be broken. Jazz trumpeter Gene swore to his wife that if ever he couldn't book a Saturday night gig, he would get out of the business. Years later it is up to their son to pick up the shattered pieces of his father's empty promise. This poignant memory play strikes sympathetic chords as it documents the destruction of a family through one man's obsessive love of his music.
Communicating Doors (1999)
Ayckbourn's newest thriller comically backpedals into a menacing future. A jaded, young prostitute named Poopay ("It's French for doll") stumbles into a murder plot at London's Regal Hotel and dis-covers that the connecting doors in the suite hurtle her back and forth in time. As she pieces together the diabolical scheme, she uses the doors in an attempt to re-write history. And, as she is to find, this be-comes literally a matter of life and death.