The 2011 Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival may be wrapping up this weekend, but Burien Little Theatre may be saving their best for last.
The final two weekends open with "Bold Grace: The Voyages of the Pirate O'Malley," a well crafted one-woman show starring Anna Richardson as Grace O'Malley, one of the most famous and dynamic seafaring adventurers in Irish folklore.

Richardson delivers a virtuoso performance as the feisty, intelligent and formidable Grace O'Malley, whose story spans nearly seven decades of her unforgettable life. Written by recent Seattle Pacific University graduate Ashley Schalow, Bold Grace tells of O'Malley's struggles and successes as a female pirate making her way in a male-dominated world.

But Grace lets nothing get in her way of seeking out a life at sea. We see her journey from being a tomboy desiring to travel with her pirate father to her unlikely meeting with Queen Elizabeth I.

Richardson seamlessly narrates Grace's adventure-packed life as she moves from one amazing story to another. We forget that we are watching a play as Richardson captivates us with every word and action. This is definitely a compliment to director Steve Cooper, whose heroine is as fascinating a character as you will ever see at the theatre.

Whether Grace O'Malley's life was really this exciting (folklore has a way of exaggerating the truth as stories are passed down from generation to generation) is unimportant. What is important is that we find her tales of plunder, love and glory a pure spectacle to watch.

The second play, "Unfound Fossils," has absolutely nothing in common with "Bold Grace." This is not a complaint. Unfound Fossils, written by Christopher Bailey and directed by Zachariah Robinson, tells a story that I am reluctant to give away.

I chose not to read the director's notes before the show because I wanted the plot to unfold before me naturally. I recommend you do the same.
So without giving away too much, the story opens in 1969 San Francisco during the height of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture movement. Two men, one an ambitious congressman (Don Crawley) and the other a more mysterious figure (Nathaniel Jones), meet under less than normal circumstances. What happens next leads to the play's second act where another unlikely encounter between two characters takes place.

Throw in a psychologist with unresolved problems of her own (Alexandra Novotny) and you have some very gripping drama unfolding on the BLT stage. Bailey's sensational script will leave you walking out of the theatre with more questions than answers.

The beauty of a playwrights festival is that you get the chance to watch great theatre you never would have the chance to see otherwise. "Bold Grace" and "Unfound Fossils" are two completely different works; but that is the very reason why you should come see it.
Both plays contain adult language that may not be suitable for younger audiences.

A free staged reading of Katherine Luck's The Fishbowl will be read on April 30 at 2 p.m. Tickets to the fully staged productions are only $10. Performances are April 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. and April 31 at 2 p.m. You may purchase tickets online at www.burienlittletheatre.org or call 206-242-5180.