Image: Photo Courtesy NCTC
Pipeline reading at the Solo bar
New Century Theatre Company’s Pipeline staged play-reading series confirms what everyone from Chaucer to Tolkien has already intuited: stories are best told amongst friends in the comfortable glow of an after-work beer. The third Monday of every month, NCTC actors and guest performers head to the Solo Bar on Queen Anne for a staged reading of a specially selected play, which is open to all members of the Seattle community for free. “It lends itself more to that air of conversation. We want people to be comfortable,” says Kayti Barnett, managing director at NCTC. “It’s a really a natural environment for that kind of sharing.”
What is being shared at Pipeline is good literature, good company, and good conversation. “Some folks come every single month, other people a few times a year. It’s quite lovely,” Barnett says. “We have this really wonderful community around us and folks that are really devoted to this process.”
NCTC gravitates towards plays that put forward difficult questions and confront rich ideas. This month at Pipeline, the company tackles Jim Leonard Jr.’s haunting Depression-era prairie melodrama, The Diviners. We won’t give away the ending, but with its themes of lost faith, disability, and coming of age, get ready to encounter some truly stimulating and challenging material.
Patrons can participate in every Pipeline reading after the performance, when the actors and audience sit down together for a guided talkback. The NCTC’s devotion to thought-provoking work, paired with its emphasis on community interaction, is what makes the NCTC truly unique, says Barnett. “I’ve never worked for a company that’s done something like this before.”
Pipeline: The Diviners
Nov 18 at 7:30, Solo, free
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