Theatre dept. to work with Fairhaven Middle School on 'The Monologue Project VII' Dec. 6 to 8

Western Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance will present “The Monologue Project VII” in conjunction with Fairhaven Middle School at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 6-8, at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center at 1314 Harris Ave. in Fairhaven.

Recipient of a 2008 Bellingham Mayor’s arts award by Mayor Dan Pike, the collaboration between WWU and Fairhaven Middle School originally began in 2005 and has been growing every year. This year’s production features nearly 50 never-before-seen original monologues containing a variety of topics, characters, and writing styles.

In addition to the college actors, a number of middle school students will perform their own monologues while others will perform monologues written by their classmates. Each evening’s show will be followed by a post-show discussion with the audience, during which the playwrights and actors will share their experiences.

Tickets for the performance are $8 general and $5 students (with ID) and are available at the door on the day of the show. Cash or checks only will be accepted.

“The Monologue Project VII” began this fall with Joel Gillman’s eighth-grade Language Arts classes at Fairhaven Middle School, where students learned a variety of ways to communicate their personal experiences, thoughts, and passions through the medium of dramatic writing. Exploring a range of voices, each student wrote up to twelve monologues.

The finished monologues were given to Associate Professor of Theatre Rich Brown’s Acting 260 class at WWU as part of the course’s service learning component. Each college acting student selected and performed two monologues for the playwrights in November in Western’s PAC Mainstage Theater. The Fairhaven students were able to hear not only the voices of their peers but also their own words come to life through the art of performance, and each actor and playwright were given the chance to meet and discuss their views on the experience.

For more information about The Monologue Project, please contact Rich Brown at (360) 650-7320 or Rich.Brown@wwu.edu or visit www.wwu.edu/theatredance.