Stage
I don't think I've ever seen an arts organization make a more swift and dramatic turnaround than Capital Playhouse. Is it weird to say I'm proud of them? For years I sat through shows that could've, should've been better, with listless or dissonant performances from actors I knew could act.
Stage
In the words of director Jeffrey Painter, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night "celebrate[s] the world turning upside down." I've seen it produced as an antic farce, and I've seen Kenneth Branagh's downhearted production. The Evergreen Shakespeare-Animal Fire co-production running this weekend and next in The Evergreen State College's Experimental Theater draws from
Arts
It was 20 years before Frank Wedekind's 1890 play Spring Awakening: A Children's Tragedy could be performed in its native Germany. At first only legendary director Max Reinhardt had enough juice to produce it. The play was considered so pornographic that only a single performance was allowed for a limited
Music
For roughly a decade, one of the most compelling live acts in Washington has been a two-piece alt-metal band called Lozen. With just drums and guitar, Hozoji Matheson-Margullis and Justine Maria Valdez composed bone-rattling, minimalist bits of stomping sound. Unimpeded by the complications of other instruments, Lozen was able to
Arts
"Always in motion is the future," a wise philosopher once noted, "difficult to see. Alan Kay added, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." With that in mind, we look forward to a new year of expression, innovation and imagination in our thriving local arts scene. Thriving? Wait, isn't
Stage
As promised last week (with serious caveats), here are my nominees for the Carvy Olympia Theater Awards for 2010. I was obliged to pick a winner; my gut choices are printed in bold. This was a busy year for local theater, so if you didn't win, think of it as
News Front
A curious visitor dropped in on his local church to hear a Sunday sermon. Later, a friend asked him how it had gone. The visitor's reply: "A preacher is a mild-mannered man, standing up in front of mild-mannered men, telling them they gotta be more mild-mannered." A preacher like that
We Recommend
As you know if you've seen the erstwhile Opie's 2008 movie version, Frost/Nixon is Peter Morgan's dramatic distillation of David Frost's historic 1977 TV interviews with Tricky Dick, in which our 37th president finally admitted to being a nefarious crapsack. As good as Michael Sheen and the Oscar-nominated Skeletor
Stage
Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the greatest American movie ever made, was nominated for but didn't win the Academy Award for Best Picture. United 93, to my mind one of the best films of the last decade, wasn't even nominated. Naming the "best" movie of the year says more about
Military Life
Going to war can be hard on the body, mind and spirit of the soldier and his or her spouse and children. Derrick Bostic, a retired U.S. Army sergeant first class, said he knows this all too well from personal experience. "I'm on my third marriage," he said. "When you look at
Stage
Two weeks ago I expressed my hope that there would be room in Olympia for two productions of Little Women. Turns out I didn't need to worry, as Olympia Family Theater's version sold out on opening weekend. Unlike Capital Playhouse's ongoing production, OFT's is a "straight" (non-musical) version of the
We Recommend
Two weeks ago I expressed my hope that there would be room in Olympia for two productions of Little Women. Turns out I didn't need to worry, as Olympia Family Theater's version sold out on opening weekend. Unlike Capital Playhouse's ongoing production, OFT's is a "straight" (non-musical) version of the
Reviews
Three words come to mind at the end of a meal at Aviateur in Tacoma: authentic, eloquent and simple. I admit, the atmosphere may be a little distracting as you're immersed in a confusing mix of retro-modern décor interrupted by pieces of typical French-bistro styled art, but where the eatery
News Front
Robert Fulghum wrote a witty book for us, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. That's funny, and true, too. Play fair. Don't hit people. Clean up your own mess. Goldfish and hamsters die, and so do we. Yep, you learn a lot when you go to kindiegarten,
Stage
In the underrated Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly revisits the sequel's predecessor, observing them from a few yards away. It's as if the events of the previous story are being retold by a second Marty, who sees them from just out of frame. That's the narrative conceit
We Recommend
It's the night before Christmas, so our story begins in darkness, both literal and metaphorical. Jacob Marley, played with empathy by Christopher Cantrell, is in Hell. Providentially, there's a way out, but it's nigh on impossible: He must find a way to get Ebenezer Scrooge (Dennis Rolly), the only
Stage
Here's what most of us "know" about Massachusetts spinster Lizzie Andrew Borden: In 1892, she took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks, then dispensed another 41 whacks to eliminate her father. As with so much common knowledge, it's mostly wrong. Borden's stepmother received fewer than 20 blows, her
