It began in a bar, with a journalist (former P-I science writer Tom Paulson) and a playwright (Stranger Genius Paul Mullin) were holding a two-man pity party:

"Paul and I were drinking beer one night," Paulson says. "And I was complaining about the death of the P-I. And Paul said: 'Fuck you, man. You think you've got it tough? I'm a playwright.'" They talked about their dire vocations and the idea—half comic, half tragic—of people turning to theater to learn about current events.

The play is a eulogy (one of the deeper, more nuanced eulogies of the P-I yet), but it doesn't romanticize the paper or the journalists who worked there.

"As I told Paul, don't make us look like heroes," Paulson says. "We were a goofy bunch and we did some things wrong, but we were still important to the community." In one scene, people who worked around the P-I offices talk about the reporters they knew. "They were cheap," a barista says. "They were principled," a florist counters. "The third-floor bathroom was a pain," a custodian offers. "Someone up there had... issues."

Six playwrights (including Scot Augustson of Sgt. Rigsby and His Amazing Silhouettes) interviewed journalists (and the occasional custodian) and wrote short scripts that jump into each other like stories on a front page.

One of the funnier recurring bits, by Dawson Nichols, is called "How to Press a Politician":

Cheryl: Hi, this is Cheryl Gilcrest from the P-I. I have a polite request for some information that should be publicly available.

Tim: Oh, hello, Ms. Gilcrest. Listen, I have an excuse to delay answering your polite request. I have some evasive answers as well, but I'd like to hold off on those until later. Can I get back to you?

Cheryl: That's fine. I'll continue with the polite line and be respectful for a little while longer. But Tim, you should know that I do have a flask of resolve that I'll be sipping at as I wait.

[The conversation intensifies over several phone calls.]

Cheryl: Direct question.

Tim: Insincere confusion about the point of the question.

Cheryl: Restatement of question.

Tim: Off-topic comment.

Cheryl: Same question.

Tim: Deep rumination and troubled contemplation.

Cheryl: Same question.

Tim: Complicated reasons that the question itself can't be addressed as posed.

Cheryl: Carefully. Rephrased. Question.

Tim: Counter question about the future of the P-I with the suggestion that the Pacific Northwest would be better off without so many questions.

Read the full preview of the play—and why it's premiering at North Seattle Community College instead of a downtown theater—here.