By ALEC CLAYTON This summer Harlequin Productions celebrates 30 years of music by Bruce Whitney, who started as a rock musician and has arranged, conducted and performed music for the company since its beginning. “As of August this year,” says Harlequin cofounder and Bruce’s sister-in-law, Linda Whitney, “Bruce will have been composing music for theater …
By NED HAYES This summer, Pacific Northwest Theater will host summer-theater camps and workshops at a new venue. The camps and the two summer productions, Sleeping Beauty Kids and Legally Blonde Junior, will be showcased at the United Churches of Olympia. The change was made partially for financial reasons. PNT does its best to keep …
By TOM SIMPSON Late in June, Lacey in Tune hosts the 133rd Army Band’s rock group, Full Metal Racket, which performs Top 40 hits, classic rock, country, grunge, pop, hard rock and patriotic songs recompiled as rock medleys. Members of the 133rd Army Band range in age from the late teens to mid-50s. Among them …
By REBEKAH FINN Olympia Family Theater has been inspiring young minds for over a decade. This summer that legacy continues with camps and workshops for every age, ranging from 5-year-olds to teenagers, first-time campers to seasoned theater veterans. “One of the things that always excites us is the mix of returning students and new kids …
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL An audacious theatrical venture is about to debut at Olympia’s Capitol Theater. Under the guidance of impresario Kyle Murphy and artistic director Lexi Barnett, Broadway Olympia Productions plans a full season of five Broadway musicals derived from or popularized by cinema. The company’s mission statement promises “a sustainable program which operates on …
By Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Christopher Gerber, an aesthetic engineer with Artists With Ecology, sees the dilapidated old Olympia Brewery building in Tumwater as an eyesore and a blight on a beautiful area, and he wants to do something about it. His proposal is to beautify the abandoned brewery by replacing the broken doors …
By TOM SIMPSON Musical Family Adventure The Harmonica Pocket is a family-friendly band from Port Townsend, Washington, that comes to Lacey in Tune as part of the Timberland Regional Library’s summer-reading program. Songwriter Keeth Monta Apgar leads the group with thick, jazz chord progressions and thoughtful, storytelling lyrics merged into songs that entrance audiences young …
VISUAL ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Childhood’s End Gallery’s latest show is clearly different from their usual group show. Oaxaca to Washington is an exhibition of more than 30 prints by Mexican artists from the state of Oaxaca. Local artist Mimi Williams became friends with Mexican artist Edgar Martinez (not the baseball …
by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS OLY ARTS reported in June that The Evergreen State College was cutting heavily into staff and facilities that made theater possible at Evergreen. The Experimental Theater (COM 124, a 200-seat, black-box venue) and its costume and scene shops will close at the end of the spring 2018 semester. Faculty and staff members …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Internationally renowned artist Christian Moeller is a professor of art at UCLA in Los Angeles. This German artist’s large media installations are of architectural scale and are kinetic in nature. Moeller’s site-specific works have been exhibited worldwide, including installations in Tokyo, London, Singapore, Silicon Valley – and now Olympia. …