This Week In Theater: Familial Mamet & The Excitement of the Untried

While we prepare for the next massive wave of new productions that will be arriving in the days ahead, this week we are looking at two productions, both of which speak to the wealth of talent found in our fair city.

Up first is the latest offering by New City Theater, which, in turn, is paying tribute to an aspect of its own recent past: The White Days is written and directed by Curtis Taylor, who used to curate the storefront known as Vodvil located next door to New City's space on 18th Avenue. The White Days is a new piece concerning the various forms of alienation and loneliness one encounters "across ephemeral modern spaces"; in bringing the work to the stage, Taylor has engaged the talents of a large number of Seattle's finest alternative/experimental/design talents: Paul Budraitis, Richard Lefebvre, Erika Mayfield, Ben Zamora and more.

Thursday through Saturday at 8:00p.m.; September 30 through November 12 // New City Theater, 1404 18th Avenue // $20

Meanwhile, Seattle Public Theater begins their 2011 - 2012 season with The Cryptogram, David Mamet's 1995 play takes place in the late '50s, the night before an important father-son camping trip -- the son can't get to sleep. Slowly, he picks up that there's something the adults are talking about, but they aren't letting him in on it. from there, the play charts the progress of a cataclysmic event and its effect on the boy. One of Mamet's less trumpeted plays, and his first foray into familial drama.

Thursday through Saturday at 7:30p.m., Sunday at 2:00p.m.; September 30 through October 23 // Seattle Public at the Bathhouse Theater in Green Lake, 7312 West Greenlake Drive North // $15 - $27