Visiting Hours

Visiting hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for general patients, two hours a day in the psych ward, Sundays and a metal detector at the detention center. Institutions that create rules for visiting hours give us some idea of what to expect when we're inside. But what of those other visits--Thanksgiving with the family every year at 1 p.m.; the kids' unsupervised visits with the other parent; or an unexpected encounter with an old flame at the 20th high school reunion. How do we behave when the hours are flexible and there is no plate of Plexiglas to shield us?

Tickets for Visiting Hours are $15-25 and may be purchased at brownpapertickets.com.

Benjamin Parzybok is the creator of Gumball Poetry, a (now defunct) journal published through gumball machines, the Psychic Book Project and the Black Magic Insurance Agency, a city-wide mystery/treasure hunt in Portland. His projects have twice been selected as Best of Portland for the Willamette Week: Best Guy Who Walks His Talk and Best Quarter's Worth of Culture. His first novel, "Couch," a 2009 Indie Next List selection, was published by Small Beer Press.

 
Elizabeth Austen served as the Washington "roadshow" poet for 2007, giving readings and workshops in rural areas around the state under the auspices of the Washington State Arts Commission. Her author interviews and recordings of Seattle-area poetry readings can be heard on KUOW, 94.9, public radio. Her poems have appeared in Verse Daily, Willow Springs, Bellingham Review, Swivel, the Seattle Review, DMQ Review and the anthologies "Poets Against the War" and "Pontoon." An audio CD, "skin prayers," featuring 26 original poems recorded with a live audience in the KUOW Studios, is available on her Web site, www.elizabethausten.org.
 
 
Matt Smith is an actor best known for his solo performances; "My Last Year with the Nuns," "Helium," "My Boat to Bainbridge" and "Beyond Kindness: A Childcare Guide."  His screen credits include "Outsourced," "The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle," "Spiderman," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Whiteface," "Northern Exposure," "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and "Almost Live!" In 1988, Smith founded the legendary Stark/Raving Theatre with Edward Sampson.

 
 
Molly Rose is a Seattle-based singer/songwriter originally from Fresno, CA, whose scorching foothills and orange blossoms have inspired her music. In 2006, Molly Rose released her debut EP, "My Skin, Your Bones." Her first full-length album, "Clandestine," was released in 2009.