By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Before ArtsWest looked ahead last night with the grand unveiling of its 2015-2016 season, there was a moment to look back:

Artistic director Mathew Wright said that season-to-season, attendance had jumped dramatically, for “an incredibly record-breaking season” – from just under 11,000, to just over 14,000, and that for “2,689 of those folks, it was their first time coming to see a show at ArtsWest.”

But the spotlight was on what lies ahead – the first full-season slate Wright has chosen as artistic director, a role he has had since last summer. In her introduction of Wright, managing director Laura Lee hailed the “collaborative process” of theater making “great and wonderful things happen. .. I’m incredibly proud of what we’re going to do next year.”

In addition to excerpts and songs, the announcement show included sit-down conversations with guests from other theaters around the city. The stage was set with the first guest, Kristin Leahey of Seattle Rep, for a conversation about season planning: “It can be tricky to figure out what kind of theater to put on our stages.” They talked briefly about the place of live theater in today’s society. She listed its attributes as connecting with other audience members, a “utopian moment” during a performance, “that we’re feeling with others in the audience.”

And then, to the slate: Six works “organized around a central question” that he said dated back to his time in college “in post-9/11 America.” Wright and friends tried to effect cultural revolution but didn’t. Eventually, he said, he took a cross-country road trip to Seattle. “I discovered how huge America is, and how beautiful it is.”

The question – “what is it that unites us as a people today in this country?” The answer, on a screen behind him: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness/or/Success.

First, a Tony-nominated musical as the season-opener, “Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’,” September 10th-October 11th, based on the group’s platinum album, telling the tale of friends struggling to find meaning in the post-9/11 world. ArtsWest will be one of the first regional theaters to stage it, Wright said. Two numbers from “American Idiot” were performed for the full house of invited guests last night – here’s “21 Guns”:

(The singers were Devon Busswood, Diana Huey, Chance Michael Eldridge, EmilyRose Frasca, Isaiah Crowson, Jeff Orton, Tori Spero, Sara Porkalob, Stacie Calkins, Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako, Ann Cornelius, Chelsea LeValley, Brian Lange, Brent Moury, Mark Tyler Miller, Frederick Hagreen, Saxton Walker, Janet McWilliams.)

The production will be directed by Eric Ankrim, who sat down to talk with Wright. “It is one of those pieces … asking what is in general, a more mature audience, to try to connect to maybe what the teenagers are going through, and I think theater has a hard time telling the story of today’s teens” because they’re priced out of being in the audience. He listed questions such as “Why should I go to college? Why should I believe in anything? … There is some power to feeling lost.” He described the characters as having a “sense of independence combined with an absolute lack of knowledge.”

The score is already “brilliant art,” having been toured on a “high level” by Green Day, he explained. “When you begin with something that already is so brilliant, and add something to it,” a theatrical performance – that takes it to another level.

Second production of the season, “My Mañana Comes,” October 22-November 15th, a new play – premiered last year – by Elizabeth Irwin, telling the story of four men who are friends – two of whom are undocumented immigrants – as they slug through work as busboys, and life. A video clip of the playwright was shown on the screen over the stage, with Irwin saying it’s about their relationship to each other and to their dreams. Wright described her work as “some of the most truthful writing” he’s seen this year.

Third production of the season, the holiday production, will be “Wonderful Life,” December 3-27, a one-person retelling of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” by Helen Pafumi and Jason Lotts. The preview came in this monologue by actor Mark Waldstein:

Fourth: January 21-February 14, “Really Really” by Paul Downs Colaizzo, described as a “contemporary drama that … embraces the edges of today’s youth,” set at a college where “the party of the year results in the regret of a lifetime.” It’s a “comic tragedy about Generation Me,” Wright said, adding the description, “‘Lord of the Flies’ with smartphones.” Chelsea LeValley returned for a monologue as Grace Burns, discussing the attributes – seen perhaps by the audience as the downfalls – of that generation, addressing the “Future Leaders of America.”

As you can hear in the clip, her monologue built to a sort of snarky rage as “the generation this America is getting is not the one we were told we would get.” Wright said this play kept him up all night, reading it in one sitting, describing it as something keeping you wondering what comes next.

Fifth, March 3rd-April 4th, the regional premiere of the Tony-nominated “newly revised version of ‘Violet‘.” a musical, with lyrics and book by Brian Crawley. It’s set in 1964; the title character, “disfigured in an accident,” travels in hopes of healing, and finds love. Andrew Russell, artistic director of the Intiman Theatre Festival, sat down to talk with Wright, who said “Violet” had mostly been a “treasure of musical theater geeks” since premiering off-Broadway in 1997 – until this revival emerged last year. Discussing the value of musical theater, Russell noted that from the start, you know “you’re not in your normal life … I think people are hungry for the event. If you’re going to leave your home, unplug from social media, you’re hungry for … something that draws you out of yourself. … It’s the magic that’s left on the planet, and we’ll take what we can get at this point.” In this clip, their conversation, plus the song “On My Way,” performed by the cast of ArtsWest’s upcoming “Angry Housewives.”

(The performers: Diana Huey, Ann Cornelius, Chelsea LeValley, Janet McWilliams, Tori Spero, Brian Lange, Trent Moury, Mark Tyler Miller, Jeff Orton.)

Before announcing the final production of the upcoming season, Wright sat down with ArtsWest’s award-winning visual-art-gallery director Susanna Bluhm to talk about what she has scheduled:

Wright pronounced it “amazing” to have a visual-art gallery right outside the theater as they work on performance art.

The final production, April 28-May 29, 2016 – “one of the seminal works of 20th-century American theater.” Arthur Miller‘s 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Death of a Salesman.” Wright said reading that play made him cry. “We’ve not seen that play in Seattle in more than a decade, and I think it’s time to bring it back.” Our clip starts with an excerpt performance by Jeff Orton and Mark Waldstein and continues with Wright’s conversation with ACT Theatre associate artistic director John Langs:

Classic plays “remind us of a time when, as a country, playwrights had a chance to be great,” said Langs. Right now, so much “go(es) straight to film and television.” But Miller and others “were writing in a time when playwriting was king …” and revisiting their work will challenge and inspire those in today’s theater. He called it a “stunning” piece and congratulated Wright: “What a season you’ve picked.”

Season subscriptions are already on sale – see the options here.