Kat Eggleston makes music fit for a Bird King

Due to weather, the performances are scheduled to take place at the Vashon High School Theater.

By Susan McCabe For Vashon Repertory Theatre • August 21, 2024 11:11 am
Kat Eggleston, Songwriter, Musician, Playwright, Author, Actor, Artist. Photographed at her home on Vashon Island, WA, USA. 10/7/21.
Kat Eggleston, Songwriter, Musician, Playwright, Author, Actor, Artist. Photographed at her home on Vashon Island, WA, USA. 10/7/21.

Along with an original script by regional playwright Bryan Willis, Vashon Repertory Theatre’s (VRT) fifth season opener, “Oscar’s Journey, the Fall and Rise of the Bird King,” will feature an original score by Vashon’s own Kat Eggleston.

Eggleston has generously lent her talent at composing and performing music to several Vashon Rep productions, including “Kissing The Joy As It Flies,” a performance of author Brian Doyle’s essays that was adapted for stage by Gerry and Michael Feinstein.

For “Oscar,” Eggleston has turned Willis’ play into a virtual musical — with multiple original songs and a variety of underscores to punctuate the play’s action throughout. And along with local harmonica virtuoso Mark Graham, she’ll perform the music at each of the four performances of the play on Aug. 23, 24, and 25, at the Vashon High School Theater. (The location has been moved, due to the risk of rain, from its original location of Heron’s Meadow of Vashon Center for the Arts.)

Eggleston is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and playwright who has performed and taught internationally for more than 30 years and created many solo and collaborative recordings of original and traditional music, distributed worldwide.

She has appeared onstage at the Steppenwolf Garage Space, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago’s Briar Street Theatre in “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” and in the historic Victory Gardens Theatre, as well as touring concert venues and festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. She makes her home here on Vashon, with her husband and what she calls one “sub-standard” poodle.

“I am grateful to Kat for her exquisite musical collaboration on my script,” said playwright Brian Willis. “It has been more than I could hope for in its enhancement of my work.”

“Oscar’s Journey, the Fall and Rise of the Bird King” — billed as a one-hour play for the whole family — will be performed at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Aug, 23-24; and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 24-25.

Admission is pay-what-you-will at the gate — bring your own chairs, beverages, and your sense of humor and wonder.

Find out more at vashonrepertorytheatre.org.