Stage
Can you believe I’ve been doing this for over three years now? Behold my picks for the best in Olympia theater this calendar year, culled from more than 30 reviews. Once again, performers are listed in alphabetical order, with winning choices printed in bold. This was another banner year for
Arts
The sound wave tears through first, shredding my eardrums in a white-hot explosion of pain, leaving only a dial tone. The remains of Mount Rainier advance on Puyallup at 40 miles an hour, in the black wall-like form of a thousand-degree pyroclastic flow of mud, ash and pumice. The P-wave
Stage
What do you want from a Christmas play? If you're like most people, you want sparkly lights, a jolly Saint Nick with a real beard, tiny tots with their eyes all aglow, and a reminder of the true, commercial-free meaning of Christmas (brought to you by Coca-Cola). If the lobby
Stage
I'm an actor and director myself, so my job spawns its share of awkward moments. Over the last three years, I've reviewed the work of friends, respected colleagues, and folks who've been unkind to me. I've done my best to turn an equal critical eye on everyone. I believe in
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What do you want from a Christmas play? If you're like most people, you want sparkly lights, a jolly Saint Nick with a real beard, tiny tots with their eyes all aglow, and a reminder of the true, commercial-free meaning of Christmas (brought to you by Coca-Cola). If the lobby
Stage
After 17 years of Stardust holiday schmaltz-fests, Harlequin director Linda Whitney outsourced her holiday revue-writing to James Hindman and Ray Roderick of Miracle or 2 Productions, authors of 2003's A Christmas Survival Guide. From a critical standpoint, it's a welcome change, especially since this anthology's aimed squarely at cynical adults
Stage
I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, so my family didn't celebrate holidays. I wasn't obliged to sit though two-hour saccharine overdoses about the true meaning of Christmas. In retrospect, perhaps that wasn't so awful. See, Nuncrackers presents me with a dilemma. I hated it. I really, really hated it. You
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If "you are 60, going on 70," The Sound of Music was one of the biggest pop culture events of your youth. It's a holiday standby on stage and TV, and I imagine it reminds you of happier, more innocent times. That's probably why the matinée lobby
Stage
Did you know that, adjusted for inflation, The Sound of Music (1965) is the third-biggest box office hit of all time? It made more money than Titanic, Avatar or any Star Wars movie since the first. (The all-time champ is still Gone With the Wind, which made the equivalent of
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After 17 years of Stardust holiday schmaltz-fests, Harlequin director Linda Whitney outsourced her holiday revue-writing to James Hindman and Ray Roderick of Miracle or 2 Productions, authors of 2003's A Christmas Survival Guide. From a critical standpoint, it's a welcome change, especially since this anthology's aimed squarely at cynical adults
Stage
For the most part, Sesame Street taught me to read. Is it any wonder, then, that I love puppetry? I'm a huge Star Wars fan (go, Disney!), and in several screen incarnations, Jedi Master Yoda, Admiral Ackbar and Jabba the Hutt were sophisticated puppets. E.T. and Audrey II were puppets
Focus
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Army Sgt. Sergio Calderon Diaz looks back at his 17 years in the Washington State National Guard, knowing he made the right decision to join. "It just happened. I wasn't sure I would like the military, so I picked the guard. I started with a three-year
Arts
If you've ever watched Frasier or Top Chef Masters, you're familiar with the concept of a TV spinoff: it's when a popular character is given his or her own show, usually in the same vein as the original program. Frasier Crane, for example, was a regular on Cheers before moving
Stage
When English playwright Caryl Churchill debuted Cloud 9 in 1979, it landed like a flashbang. In the mid-'90s, when I was in grad school, her work was still buzzed about in feminist theater circles. Top Girls made a similar splash in 1982. Then as now, a great deal of breath,
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After watching three professional plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, my wife and I traveled six hours to catch the opening night of Night Must Fall at Olympia Little Theatre. As she drove, we dialed our expectations down. Community theater, including OLT, can and should be inconsistent
Stage
After watching three professional plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, my wife and I traveled six hours to catch the opening night of Night Must Fall at Olympia Little Theatre. As she drove, we dialed our expectations down. Community theater, including OLT, can and should be inconsistent in quality.
Stage
I was planning to see it, the play Go, Dog. Go! (It's an OFT joint, just in case you don't know.) My friends saw it early, on free preview day. They told me about it, this Go, Dog. Go! play. I said, "Will I like it? Do you think it's good?" "Take mushrooms before it!"
Stage
As much as I hate to spend an entire review listing the content of a show, it befits the nature of An Improbable Peck of Plays. That's because the show is actually seven little plays, each no longer than 15 minutes. It's a co-production of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance, Prodigal
Stage
Until the 19th century, theater didn't have what we now call directors. Performers led themselves and each other, or a playwright or company manager shouted suggestions. For millennia, actors got by without a single, commanding presence. I consider that often when I direct a show. It means I have to
Stage
"The Day the Music Died," as Don McLean put it, was February 3, 1959, when a small private plane went down five miles northwest of Mason City, Iowa. The crash killed pilot Roger Peterson and his three rock-star passengers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, aka the Big
