This week's local premiere of Jon Robin Baitz's play "Three Hotels" will be the first full production by the troupe Our American Theatre Company. And don't sweat the ticket cost: For all nine performances, you can pay whatever you want or are able to pay.
But the company's actors and other personnel are no fresh-out-of-school novices. They are professional Seattle theater veterans, eager to plumb the past century's deep pool of American playwriting.
Founded several years ago by local actor-director Susanna Burney, the company started off by producing public readings of plays by such major American dramatists as William Inge, Lillian Hellman and Sam Shepard.
"It started with my passion for American writing," says Burney. "I've always loved Eugene O'Neill, and I've always been fascinated by that whole American canon of classic plays. What I'm really curious about is how these plays, which rarely get done anymore, connect to us today."
With her cohorts, Burney has raised $10,000 to present this run of "Three Hotels," a triptych of monologues set in hotel rooms in Morocco, the Virgin Islands and Mexico. Performed by Todd Licea and Lisa Carswell, the work ponders the cross-currents of professional and personal accountability in the lives of an executive of a multinational baby-formula company and his wife.
Burney, the director of the 80-minute piece, really wants to underscore that if you have only a couple of bucks to toss in the show's collection jar, no sweat.
"I feel you should be able to go to plays and pay what you can afford," she says. "This is about lifting barriers. I'd rather have an audience of 40 people who paid $5 each to get in, than six who paid $30."
Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com
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