Michael Barker Productions

14/48: World’s Quickest Theater Festival

A co-production by Vashon Center for the Arts and Open Space for Arts & Community, 14/48 is an octane-fueled roller coaster ride that brings together seven writers, seven directors, and a host of actors, designers, musicians and volunteers to create 14 original 10-minute plays over the course of 48 hours! Writing, casting, rehearsing, designing, scoring and performing the plays occur within 24 hours, and then this all is repeated the next day. Due to the incredible time limitations, second-guessing is largely eliminated, leaving a product distilled from instinct and raw energy.

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A favorite of the Seattle theater community for nearly 20 years, the festival creates intense working conditions for artists, who are bound by a pressure-filled series of deadlines and freed by the whimsy of random chance—themes are selected from a hat, and actors and directors are also paired by random selection. The results of this process are consistently the freshest and most unexpected theatrical experiences to be found, as the audience is both witness and participant in this fast-paced theatrical treadmill.

This festival received the Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award in 2008, and critics routinely place 14/48 on their favorites lists. Participants who survive the ordeal testify to the inspiration and camaraderie they feel coming out of the weekend marathon. Iterations of 14/48 have spread across the country and to the UK; now Vashon Center for the Arts, in collaboration with Open Space, hosts Vashon’s first—combining 14/48 veterans with intrepid Vashon newcomers!

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