Island Theatre at the Library
POWERFUL THEATRE IN AN INTIMATE SETTING
Island Theatre at the Library is a series of dramatic, staged readings presented in the intimate community meeting room at the Bainbridge Public Library.
Saturday , September 28 at 7:00 pm:
FIRST CLASS by David Wagoner.
Sunday, September 29 at 3:00 pm:
FIRST CLASS by David Wagoner.
Saturday, October 19 at 7:00 pm:
IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE by Sinclair Lewis
Sunday, October 20 at 3:00 pm:
IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE by Sinclair Lewis
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ISLAND THEATRE at the LIBRARY
and the
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND POET LAUREATE PROGRAM
present
“FIRST CLASS”
Saturday, September 28 @ 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 29 @ 3:00 p.m.
Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave. N.
FREE, no reservations required
Island Theatre and the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program present “First Class,” a one-man play about the iconic Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award- winning poet Theodore Roethke. A beloved teacher at the University of Washington, Roethke’s students included prominent poets Richard Hugo, Tess Gallagher, David Wagoner, and Carolyn Kizer.
“First Class” was written by U.W. Professor Emeritus and poet David Wagoner and stars Steve Stolee as Theodore Roethke. The one-act play is staged as if in Roethke’s UW classroom, with audience members sitting in as the popular teacher’s students. It is recommended for high school age and up.
Performances take place at the Bainbridge Public Library on Saturday, September 28th at 7:00 pm and Sunday, September 29th at 3:00 pm. Admission is free. No reservations are necessary.
“This is a poetry workshop, God help us,” begins “First Class.” In his introduction to the play, David Wagoner wrote: “Most of the teaching methods of artists in all categories have gone unrecorded. We know very little about what great painters and great composers, for instance, said to their pupils. In “First Class” I've tried to re-create the atmosphere of one of Roethke's poetry workshops, working mostly from my memories of him and a number of examples of the kinds of poems and opinions he admired, some of the near rituals he used both on students and himself, some of his unique spirit, and some of the hectic ways Time and Place would leap over each other for him as if he were in charge of both.”
In the process, the audience is swept into not only the exhilarating milieu of Roethke’s classroom, but also the terrible landscape of the mental illness that clouded most of his life.
* * *
“Theodore Roethke and Bloedel Reserve: A Poet’s Place”
featuring
Tess Gallagher, Linda Bierds, Pimone Triplett &
Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Michele Bombardier
at the Bloedel Reserve
7571 NE Dolphin Dr, Bainbridge Island
Saturday, September 28th
3:00-4:30 pm
Tickets: $14 for Bloedel Reserve members, $40 for non-members;
https://bloedelreserve.org/event/roethke-poetry
Island Theatre’s presentation of “First Class” is offered in conjunction with “Theodore Roethke and Bloedel Reserve: A Poet’s Place,” an afternoon of poetry in commemoration of renowned northwest poet Theodore Roethke and his connection to Bloedel Reserve.
Theodore Roethke is recognized as one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century. That Roethke died while swimming in the pool (now the rock garden) at the Bloedel Reserve during a 1963 visit with Prentice and Virginia Bloedel is an important part of Pacific Northwest history; the site is visited by poets and writers from all over the world. Roethke, who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, produced a body of work and a teaching legacy that continues to influence poets today. His students include David Wagoner, Richard Hugo, Carolyn Kizer, Jack Gilbert, Tess Gallagher, and other luminary poets.
Featured poets at the event are:
Tess Gallagher, possibly Roethke’s only still-living student, is a widely published and esteemed poet with numerous awards for her work, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation Award.
Bainbridge Island poet Linda Bierds is a recently retired U.W. Creative Writing professor whose honors and awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, and the MacArthur Foundation. She has received the PEN/West Poetry Prize, the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award, the Consuelo Ford Award from the Poetry Society of America, and four Pushcart Prizes.
Pimone Triplett, a finalist in Narrative journal’s Fifteenth Annual Poetry Contest, is the author of four poetry collections and a professor of creative writing at the University of Washington’s MFA program.
Bainbridge Island’s inaugural Poet Laureate Michele Bombardier is the winner of the 2024 New Ohio Review Prize. Her poetry collection, What We Do, was a finalist for the Washington Book Award. She holds an MFA in poetry from Pacific University and has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Mineral School, and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre.
“Theodore Roethke and Bloedel Reserve: A Poet’s Place” takes place at the Bloedel Reserve, 7571 NE Dolphin Dr, Bainbridge Island on Saturday, September 28th from 3:00-4:30 pm. Tickets, which cost $14 for Bloedel members and $40 for non-members, include entrance to the Bloedel (tour the gardens before the event) as well as post-event refreshments in the Japanese Tea House.
Tickets are available at https://bloedelreserve.org/event/roethke-poetry/. Only 60 tickets are available.
“Theodore Roethke and Bloedel Reserve: A Poet’s Place” is made possible through by a grant from the Bainbridge Community Foundation and funding from the City of Bainbridge Island. Other Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program support comes from the Bainbridge Public Library and Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN).