At 2:03 on Monday afternoon, the Seattle Rep announced its next season would include I Am My Own Wife—the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning solo show about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an eccentric German transvestite who survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes in Germany. The Rep's production would open sometime in May.
At 3:57 that same afternoon, ArtsWest announced its next season would include I Am My Own Wife, opening in May.
It is highly unusual for a company like Dramatists Play Service, which holds the rights to I Am My Own Wife, to allow two theaters to produce the same play in the same city in the same year, not to mention the same month. But both theaters are convinced they have the rights. (At press time, Dramatists could not be reached for comment.)
"We secured the rights in November," said ArtsWest executive director Alan Harrison. "I think it would be good if theaters consulted with each other more. But at some point things got really secretive, back when Gordon [Edelstein, of ACT], Warner [Shook, of Intiman], and Sharon [Ott, of the Rep] were in charge. Maybe I'm just a mosquito to them."
The Rep hasn't announced a director for its production, but Rep spokesperson Ilana Balint said there had been some conversations with Allison Narver, former artistic director of Empty Space.
Narver had planned to direct I Am My Own Wife (rumored to star Nick Garrison and feature Jennifer Zeyl on set design) at Empty Space before that theater closed last October, leaving one last midsized theater left in Seattle: ArtsWest. (There's Taproot, but they're a different kind of fish with a dedicated niche audience.) "We can't both do it," Balint said. "Somebody has to move."
So, if the rumors are true: One midsized theater closed, a big theater took in the orphaned production, which is now in direct competition with another midsized theater.
"I'm not sure what's going on," Balint said. "Let the games begin!"
