For Immediate Release
October 15, 2009
Contact : Paul Mullin, Co-Executive Producer
206-679-5947 or paulmullin@att.net
Local Dramatists Grab their Reporters’ Pads to Cover
the Death of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in . . .
It’s Not in the P-I: A Living Newspaper About a Dying Newspaper
Who can Seattle turn to when its beloved local daily newspaper goes under?...
Playwrights, that’s who.
SEATTLE – On Friday, November 6, 2009, North Seattle Community College in collaboration with
NewsWrights United will present the world premiere of It’s Not in the P-I: A Living Newspaper About a
Dying Newspaper. Six of the Pacific Northwest’s best playwrights join forces to investigate, write and stage a
“living newspaper” theatrically reporting on the recent demise of the print version of Seattle’s beloved daily
newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. This innovative play explores how journalism is evolving and what
that evolution means for our culture and community, city-wide, nationwide and world-wide. NSCC’s own
Dawson Nichols directs this world premiere which includes “articles” filed by Scot Augustson, Kelleen Conway
Blanchard, Pam Carter, Bryan Willis, Stranger Genius award-winner, Paul Mullin and Nichols himself.
“I hate to sound cliché,” says playwright Paul Mullin, “Especially since we’re talking about a playwright and a
reporter, but it all started with Tom and I commiserating over beers. He was telling me all these great war
stories from his time at the P-I and we agreed it would make a great play. But I had no interest in doing it by
myself: too hard and I’m too lazy. But it would also take too long, and if we were going to cover this story, I
wanted to do it with something approaching the speed of journalism.” Mullin reached out to his long-time
colleague, Dawson Nichols, and a plan was hatched to recruit several of their favorite local playwrights to go
out, interview reporters, editors, and other folks affected by the P-I’s demise in order to collect “articles” for a
“living newspaper.”
“The Living Newspaper was a theatrical form employed widely in the U. S. by the Federal Theatre Project in
the 1930’s, during the last major depression,” Professor Nichols explains, “But it was actually invented a
decade earlier in Soviet Russia, in order to disseminate news and propaganda to a largely illiterate population
of rural villagers.”
The resulting show contains pieces exploring the 100 year-plus history of the P-I from fool-hardy writerexplorers of the Olympic Mountain range to the more recent Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the Seattle
Times and the ultimate decision by the Hearst Corporation to shut down the paper on March 17, 2009. A
collection of short plays or “articles” weave together, covering the same beats the P-I itself covered: local
politics, sports, music, and yes, even Seattle’s local theatre scene. Tom Paulson, former science reporter for
the P-I explains why he believes these stories need to be told: “The community has just lost over a hundred
people who, every day, called up politicians, police captains, business leaders and others and made them
answer questions. … Anybody can blog, post or pontificate. But only a newspaper has the clout to make
powerful people accountable. As goofy as the PI was --and it was--, we made Seattle a better place by making
people answer questions.”
Nichols, Mullin and Paulson shopped this show to some of Seattle’s prestigious regional theatres, but
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ultimately decided that those venues were not nimble enough to produce the piece. Says Mullin, “The big
houses were very gracious and unequivocally praised the piece, but unfortunately as institutions they are
piloted like supertankers. They can’t make a turn unless they plan to do so a year ahead. We were
determined to treat this project like journalism, not history. It’s sad that the Seattle’s theatre’s cannot respond
to what’s happening in the community in real-time, but that is currently the nature of the theatrical beast in this
town.”
The producers have not ruled out subsequent productions or “editions” of the It’s not in the P-I. “The world is
changing,” says Mullin “Who knows? If newspapers and other conventional news media are no longer
equipped to cover important local stories, maybe theatre artists will find themselves taking up the slack.”
WHERE:
Stage 1 Theater - North Seattle Community College - NW corner of campus
9600 College Way N., Seattle, WA 98103
WHEN:
Fridays, November 6, 13, & 20 at 7:30
Saturdays, November 7, 14, & 21 at 7:30
Sunday matinees, November 15 & 22 at 2pm
Special Wednesday matinee at noon on November 18
More information about the world premiere of It’s Not in the P-I: A Living Newspaper About a Dying
Newspaper can be had by contacting Paul Mullin at paulmullin@att.net, or 206-679-5947. General inquiries
about North Seattle Community College Theater will be answered at
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About the NewsWright Collective
The NewsWright Collective was founded in the Spring of 2009 by playwrights Paul Mullin and Dawson Nichols
along with Tom Paulson, former Science Reporter for the Seattle P-I, to generate journalistic theatre that tells
the stories not being told in the traditional, or even non-traditional, news. Members include celebrated Pacific
Northwest playwrights Scot Augustson, Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Pam Carter, Paul Mullin, Dawson Nichols,
Bryan Willis.
About the NSCC Theater
The Theater Department at NSCC offers students the opportunity to learn the various disciplines of theater in
the context of producing works for the stage. We offer a full range of theater courses which are based around
production work. Whether studying acting or design, playwriting or stage management, our students have the
opportunity to take their work from conception to performance. Students also have the option to pursue work in
film, television, and online media through department and campus resources as well as through collaboration
between the Theater Department and the on-campus studios of SCCtv.
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