A Note from the Playwright

I started "The North Arcade" back in 1995. It was put on the back burner several times until in 2005, I was informed that the centennial would be here in two years. Market Master David Dickinson got the idea to have a reading on the Joe Desmoine Memorial bridge and boom...we were off. We did four readings over the next two years. We also did a benefit that funded a trip to LA for a workshop in Musical Theater with Steven Schwartz. The play went from a book musical to a review and then landed somewhere in-between a musical and a review so we are calling it a reviewsical, although there is a plot line involving the Market Master.

All the characters in this play are inspired by people I have known on the craft line in the North Arcade of Pike Place Market. The names are different of course and in one case someone named their own character because my name for them was "lame". The craft community has been incredibly supportive of me and my playwriting career from the very beginning. Jana Szabo and Kristie Ann Foss, fellow marketeers, were in my award winning "Women With Balls". Claudia Kelly permit holder number 41, inspired "Claudia Kelly's 500 Hats" which was co-produced by the craftline back in 1995 and won the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival in 2003. "The North Arcade" is a pay back for the love, support and nurturing I have received from my adopted family here on the north end of the Pike Place Market. This community has made a huge contribution to some of my best material. I didn't have to make anything up. The tourists, the crafters and the buskers have all inspired me to write a wide variety of songs that makes my heart soar when I hear them sung so beautifully by our cast. I am very blessed to be working with such a skilled composer and arranger, known to some as Robinski Jones, and I must say there is nothing more enjoyable than sitting down and writing a song with this man. We have written around 20 songs for this reviewsical and you will hear about 16 of them this evening.

I am so grateful to so many people who have put in countless hours on this play, but most especially the folks who live, breathe and have their being in the North Arcade.

Enjoy the show,
Donna Rae