by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS The 2017-2018 season at Olympia Little Theatre, by far the longest-standing troupe in Thurston County, kicks off August 31 with the astronomers of Silent Sky. After that cosmically inspiring drama, the company presents six diverse plays ensuring quality entertainment for every age and taste. All the King’s Women is …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS At a time when women and science are dismissed out of hand by a large segment of the population, Olympia Little Theatre presents Silent Sky, a play about pioneering, female astronomers a century ago — women who were called office “computers” and whose accomplishments were credited to men. OLT …
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS The epistolary format (i.e., a story told through a series of letters) is usually reserved for novels, but it can sometimes spring up in other mediums, as in A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer-Prize finalist Love Letters, coming to Olympia Little Theatre this summer. Co-directed by Toni Holm and James Patrick, the …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS What a wonderful play! Fishnapped! at Olympia Family Theater is a wildly rocking, sweet, touching musical, ostensibly for kids but a treat for all ages. It’s a world premiere, too, locally written by Amy Shephard and Andrew Gordon with music and lyrics by Daven Tillinghast and directed …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Imagine you’re on the set of a Hollywood movie made in 1934, with big-name stars filming A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and magically the real Oberon and Puck from the Shakespeare play show up on the set. If such a thing could happen, it would be a recipe for comedy…or …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS I watched a preview performance of The Trip to Bountiful at Olympia Little Theatre. This is a finely polished production. Written by Horton Foote and directed by James T. Patrick, Bountiful is a quiet, intimate, little play. There’s nothing bombastic or showy about the story or the …
Last week, Olympia lost one of its great local theater boosters. Kathryn Dene Beall died March 16, 2017, at her home, surrounded by friends, after a struggle with cancer. Her passing was a blow to local theater—especially the community of Olympia Little Theatre, where Beall invested years of encouragement and direction. Beall was born August …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS In storytelling and theater, some plays have themes threaded so deeply into their fabric that the audience can’t help but ponder them as the story unfolds on the stage. The Trip to Bountiful, a play about family relationships, loyalty and love, is one such play. It hits the stage …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Olympia Little Theatre’s latest production, entitled Or, (including the comma), involves sexual freedom, lime-green fabric printed with butterflies and an invitation to tune in and turn on. “It’s a bedroom farce with a more serious message of love and tolerance,” said director Toni Holm. Yes, it is set in …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS In mid-January 2017, Olympia Little Theatre will produce a staged reading of A Lollard in the Wind: Chaucer’s Dilemma by local actor-turned-playwright John Pratt. Pratt was most recently seen in the leading role, Arthur Putnam, in OLT’s An Act of the Imagination. Based in part on Chaucer’s stories from …