Ursa Major Theatre Company--Big Theatre, Small Venues
 

Ursa Major Theatre

 
 

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Ursa Major Theatre Company: Subverting Popular Entertainment Since 1993
Welcome to Ursa Major Theatre's site, which gives you information about our current and upcoming productions. Lucky you for being so web-savvy as to come here! We love you for that.

artwork by Rebecca Poulson 		You can get information on the "What's New" link at the top of this page about "Marvolo the Anti-Smoking Magician," our upcoming show about a magic show that goes very, very wrong.

Or read on for some information on the company, including a bit about our history, our philosophy, and what sort of pie we like.
  • Ursa Major was founded in 1993 in London, soon after its artistic director, John Longebaugh, graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama’s directing course. Here’s our mission statement:

    The Company aims to provide professional theatre in an exciting and original manner, with an emphasis on new plays (performed as playreadings and full-scale productions) and reinterpretations of the classics, particularly the plays of the Ancient Greeks and those of Shakespeare. The Company will promote cross-cultural exchange between the best of new British writing and the best of new American writing.

    After a two-year hiatus while John worked as the Artistic Director of the late, lamented Theatre Babylon, Ursa Major is proud to begin 2006 by partnering with Remember Theatre to produce our new show "Marvolo."
  • Here’s a list of past productions, all directed, unless otherwise noted, by John.

    INFLUENCE
    Tom Folger
    3rd Annual FringeACT Festival of New Works, ACT Theatre, April 2-3 2004

    HOW TO BE COOL
    John Longenbaugh
    Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival Sept 2003, then Paradise Theatre School and Salon, Chimacum, Oct 2003
    Union Garage, Seattle, and Peninsula College, Port Townsend, Spring 2004
    Bumbershoot Theatre Festival, Summer 2004

    LITTLE WHITE PILL
    John Longenbaugh
    ACT Theatre, part of the FringeACT Festival of New Works
    March 2002. Then a run at Union Garage in July 2002.

    CARLOTTA'S LATE NIGHT WING-DING
    Created each night by the company
    Northwest Actors Studio Cabaret Space
    December 2001, November 2002-Jan 2003, April-June 2003

    LILAC WINTER, by C.L. Johnston
    Seattle Fringe Festival, March 2001
    (directed by the playwright)

    GRACE, by C.L. Johnston
    Speakeasy Backroom, Nov 2000

    LIVING WITH BETTY, by Heather Benton
    Speakeasy Backroom, Aug-Sept 2000

    THE ETERNAL VAUDEVILLE, by John Longenbaugh
    Moore Theater, Feb 2000
    (in association with the Seattle Theater Group)

    STANDING GROUND, by Beth Amsbary
    Mae West Fest, Union Garage Aug-Sept 1998

    WAKE, by Ted Dace
    Brown Bag Theater Jan-Feb 1998

    SCOTCH AND DONUTS, by John Longenbaugh
    Brown Bag Theater Jan-Feb 1997

    CAFE ANGST, by John Longenbaugh
    Moe's Mo'Roc'n Cafe Jan 1996

    TIMON OF ATHENS, by William Shakespeare
    Whiteley's, London October 1994

    BRILLIANT TRACES, by Cindy Lou Johnson
    White Bear, London July 1994

    THE WHITE DEVIL, by John Webster
    Southwark Playhouse, London May 1994

    TITUS ANDRONICUS, by William Shakespeare
    Hornsey Baths, London, Sept 1993


  • These productions won a number of critical awards, including Critic’s Choice from London’s Time Out Magazine (Titus Andronicus), weekly theatre pick from the Seattle Times (Scotch and Donuts), and semi-finalist for Artistic Pick at Seattle’s Fringe Festival (Lilac Winter). We are proud of producing original works that respond directly to our local community, as well as original adaptations of classical texts that focus on the piece’s current social and political relevance. Our productions have been well-attended, well-respected, and at times have even made something approaching a profit.

    In addition, we co-sponsored with the Northwest Playwrights Guild a long-running bi-weekly playreading workshop, which ran from mid-1996 to late 1999. Playwrights whose works went on to full productions with Ursa Major or other theatre companies included Patrick Scott, Vince Delaney, Ted Dace, Brent Hartinger, and Jusef El Guindi.