The Fall Cookbook Club at Browsers Bookshop

by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Few people associate bookstores with intimate potluck dinners, food blogging or local food critics. Yet Browsers Bookshop has been quietly building a reputation for just that with its seasonal Cookbook Club: an intimate dinner event where lovers of the culinary craft gather to share delicious food, recipes and insightful …

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Jeffree Stewart’s Breath and Bone Songs

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jeffree Stewart has been making art in the Olympia area since the 1970s. Just off a month-long solo show at the Pierce College Steilacoom Fine Art Gallery, he is now showing a group of some 10 to 15 paintings at Allsorts Gallery in Olympia. Stewart is nothing if not …

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Saint Martin's University Theatre Arts

Four Shows From Saint Martin’s University

by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS Saint Martin’s University’s theater department usually produces shows twice a year, once per semester. This year, things are a bit different. Instead, SMU will (technically) produce four, three of which are student-directed, one-act plays. Saint Martin’s students gain experience in a variety of roles: acting, playwriting, set design and …

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Lauren Love

Goodnight Desdemona (Hello, Comedy)

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Practically everything William Shakespeare wrote has been subject to parody. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann Marie MacDonald mines some of the bard’s great tragedies to comic effect. English professor Constance Ledbelly decides Othello and Romeo and Juliet were originally written as comedies, and not by Shakespeare. This …

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Nathan Rødahl

Expect the Unexpected From Olympia Chamber Orchestra

by Rosemary Ponnekanti for OLY ARTS Improvisation isn’t usually a thing for classical orchestras, so this year’s season for the Olympia Chamber Orchestra shows just how nimble that ensemble can be. After last year’s conductor search ended in disappointment, the orchestra is once again trying out two candidates, with some of the season’s music — …

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Capitol Theater, photo by Jaima Lyons

Olympia Film Festival: A New Perspective

(photo by: Jaima Sadira) by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS It’s no secret the filmmaking world is male-dominated. With every straight, white, college boy setting out to make the umpteenth homage to The Godfather or Pulp Fiction, it can feel as though the industry is running out of ideas. It doesn’t have to be that …

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Tales Told in Ten: A Theater Festival

by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Gather three dozen creative people. Give them a prompt and some help with props. The following day, they’ll serve six fresh bite-size plays, each 10 minutes or less and suitable for all ages. That’s the recipe for Olympia Family Theater’s Tales Told in Ten, the theater’s second annual festival …

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A Change in the Air for SOGO

by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia is starting its 2017–2018 season with exciting, notable changes. Some, like the addition of alumni soloists to SOGO’s fall concert, hint at the organization’s evolving role in Olympia’s arts community. Others, like the announcement that this season will be conductor and music director John …

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The Pumpkin House

by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Pumpkin carving is an annual tradition at the Halloween season. In Olympia, the act of pumpkin carving has become a refined art form for one family who have become legendary for their devotion to the practice. At the “Pumpkin House” in the South Capitol Neighborhood, the Sheeran family create and display …

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Poet Nikkita Oliver Returns to Olympia for 2017 Women of Achievement Celebration

by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS In November, YWCA Olympia is welcoming back nationally known slam poet Nikkita Oliver to Olympia. Last spring, Oliver was keynote speaker at the YWCA’s inaugural Racial Justice Summit. This fall, Oliver returns for the Annual Women of Achievement Celebration at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. The event will …

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