THREE DIFFERENT PLAYS
The American Family
JUNE 23 - JULY 19, 2026
Three different award-winning and thought-provoking plays, all taking place in the historic Firehouse Arts and Events Center.
3 PLAYS, 6 NIGHTS A WEEK, FOR 4 WEEKS
Bellingham TheatreWorks, in partnership with The Firehouse Arts and Events Center and The Historic Fairhaven Association, presents three plays in repertory.
The state of the modern American family is put under a microscope in this trio of iconic plays. Tense, dramatic, hilarious at times, disturbing at others, these plays show how families respond to extreme events and pressures, drawing closer together, confronting trauma, flying apart. How much of your own family life will you see reflected in these stories?
We are pleased to be the only theatre in the Pacific Northwest that offers a summer repertory season.
We also invite the audience to stay and participate in the post-show discussions with community organizations that are addressing issues raised by these plays.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Our company works with many students and educators, parents and children, as well as guest artists from far beyond Bellingham Bay, all working together to bring these three plays to life.
1
Every estranged member of the Lafayette clan has descended upon the crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly dead patriarch. As the three adult children sort through a lifetime of their father’s hoarded mementos and junk, they collide over clutter, debt and a disturbing discovery hiding among their father’s possessions. This 2024 Tony Award winning play uses biting humor to explore a bruising family gathering.
Appropriate (2014)
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
directed by Kayla Adams
2
Fairview (2019)
by Jackie Sibblies Drury
directed by Charles Grant
This 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning comedy follows a middle class African American family as they prepare for a birthday dinner for their grandmother, an event watched by four white people. The mother wants the party to be perfect, her sister can’t be bothered, the father doesn’t seem to listen, her brother is missing, her daughter is a teenager! The first act hilarity quicky turns into a gripping examination of family and white supremacy.
3
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1984)
by Neil Simon
directed by Mark Kuntz
A comic memoir told through the eyes of 15-year-old Eugene, exploring the life of a struggling Jewish family in 1937. This semi-autobiographical play was written by Neil Simon who began writing his memoirs when he was 15! In typical Simon comic fashion, Eugene dreams about baseball and girls while learning about family, relationships, and an impending war.
SHOW GALLERIES
Fairview
Brighton Beach Memoirs
MEET THE DIRECTORS
Kayla Adams (Appropriate) is a director currently based in Iowa City where she is pursuing an MFA in theatre direction at The University of Iowa. She is thrilled to be returning to FRST this year! Favorite directing credits with FRST include Translations, The Thanksgiving Play and Wit. Other recent credits include Uncle Vanya at The University of Iowa, and Myocardium; Graphite at Dreamwell Theater. She is an ensemble member and teaches Meisner at The Artistic Home in Chicago, IL. kaylaadamsdirector.com
Charles Grant (Fairview) is excited to dive into the world of this play crafted so fiercely by Jackie Sibblies Drury. This is his first time working in the state of Washington and he is looking forward to connecting with more of the PNW community. As an artist who wears a number of hats (Director, Actor, Producer, Teacher, Writer), he’s worked with Portland Center Stage, Many Hats Collaboration, Third Rail, Profile Theatre, Fuse Theatre Ensemble, Broadway Rose, and Portland Playhouse where he is currently in the role of Producing Director. Recent Directing Credits include Fat Ham (Portland Center Stage & Portland Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (Portland Playhouse), Great Wide Open (co-dir. Jessica Wallenfels, co-production with Many Hats Collaboration & Portland Playhouse). He extends gratitude to the entire cast, creative team, crew, and staff for giving their all to this experience. May we continue to share our stories on our terms. Thank you for being here with us and supporting live theatre! Visit thecharlesgrant.com or IG: @thecharlesgrant to say hello.
Mark Kuntz (Brighton Beach Memoirs) has been on the theatre arts faculty at Western Washington University since 1996. Before then he was on the faculty at Eastern Oregon University. Mark’s BA in theatre is from the University of Washington and his MFA in directing from the University of Oregon. Mark was the artistic director of the Mount Baker Theatre Rep series where he directed over 20 productions and is currently in his eleventh year as artistic director of Bellingham TheatreWorks. Mark’s recent accomplishments include Venue Designer for Bellingham Exit, Scenic design for Bellingham Theatre Guild’s Play On!, and director of Deep Biosphere at BTW.
POST SHOW COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS
June 28th: “Appropriate” Facilitator: Bill Watson
Bill is the co-chair and head of the acting program of the Theatre Department at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where he’s directed many productions including Hair, As You Like It, 7 Guitars, Ruined, Our Town, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Hot L Baltimore, Hamlet, The Rivals, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and Pericles among many others. He has also directed The Boys Next Door and Two Rooms for the Marquette University Theatre department and acted professionally for the The Milwaukee Rep (West Side Story), Milwaukee’s Chamber Theatre (Deathtrap, Picnic); and, for In Tandem Theatre (The Chosen, Equus), and First Stage (Esperanza Rising). In 2013 Bill and his partners Nancy Smith-Watson and Jim Tasse, co-founded Feast of Crispian: Shakespeare with Veterans, an organization that uses acting processes and Shakespeare text to aid American service veterans with re-integration, substance/alcohol abuse and PTS issues.
July 5th: “Fairview,” Facilitator: Theodore (Ted) Pratt, Jr.
Ted served as the as Associate Vice President of Student Affairs/ Dean of Students in at WWU for 32 years, retiring in 2019. Born in Detroit Michigan in 1957, Ted moved to Tacoma Washington in the early 70's. He attended Mt. Tahoma High School and went on to receive a BFA from Western Washington University, where he was a theatre major and minored in psychology. Seven years later, while working in the insurance industry, he was invited back to WWU to help increase its diverse student population. While at WWU had received a master’s degree in Student Personal Administration. From there, Ted started a doctorate program in leadership at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
July 12th “Brighton Beach Memoirs” Facilitator: Emily Weiner
Emily Weiner has lived in Bellingham, WA since 1990, although she still feels like a New Yorker. Dance and theatre have been central to her life since starting modern dance lessons at age 4. She studied and performed modern dance (including in Bellingham with Dance Gallery), dances of India, and tap. In NYC, she was in the original 1972 cast of Jonathan Ned Katz’s play, Coming Out! She earned a B.S. in Journalism/Communications from State University of NY Empire State University. She works as a freelance grant writer, after several careers in journalism, fundraising, and teaching. In NYC in the 1970s, she was a leader in the Lesbian/Gay movement, and in the 1980s in the Women’s Caucus of the NY Times and The Newspaper Guild. In Bellingham in the 1990s she was one of the “Nine Mothers” who created the “Joining Hands Against Hate” campaign.