Bryan Willis

Bryan formerly served as Contributing Editor for OLY ARTS. Bryan is co-founder of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance at Seattle Repertory Theatre. His writing and plays have appeared throughout the U.K., Israel, Japan, U.S. and Canada, including New York Theater Workshop, Milwaukee Rep, Unseam’d Shakespeare Co., ACT, Book-It Repertory Theatre and Riverside Studios in London. His work has also been featured on NPR and BBC Radio. Bryan is the proud recipient of a Theater Fellowship from Artist Trust and has worked in the literary departments of many theaters, including Lincoln Center (NYU’s Playwright-in-Residence) and Playwrights Horizons.

Articles

  • Arts Walk 2023 Film and Dance
    Indicative of the vast art and entertainment to be found at Arts Walk, check out the OlyFilm and OlyAct film demo where You’re the Star!
  • Review: The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus
    Olympia Family Theater’s excellent production of “The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus” is exquisitely designed with consistently engaging work by the ensemble of 12 adult and kid actors. This is the story of a group of kids who discover an all-important connection and value to the natural world is a compelling tale for all ages.
  • Bryan Willis
    Bryan serves as playwright-in-residence for the Northwest Playwrights Alliance at Seattle Repertory Theatre.  His plays have appeared throughout the U.K., China, Israel, Japan, Canada and U.S., including New York Theater Workshop, Milwaukee Rep, Unseam’d Shakespeare Co., Riverside Studios in London and Seattle’s ACT. Bryan’s work has also been featured on NPR and BBC Radio.  He has …

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  • Some Stars Landing at the Washington Center
    Four Native American comedy storytellers carrying on the Native American trickster tradition share their comedic take on life at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.
  • Halloween at Harlequin
    You are about to spend an evening with Edgar Allan Poe in a play by Olympia playwright Bryan Willis, plus a reading of a new short story by Olympia’s own Jim Lynch in a one-night-only Halloween celebration at Harlequin.
  • The Return of the Celebratory Center Salon
    “I’ve been doing salons for about 20 years through the Northwest Playwrights Alliance,” playwright Bryan Willis explains. “I really love the format.” Happily for Willis, executive director Jill Barnes was eager to host a salon in The Washington Center’s black box theater, a utilitarian space adjacent to its main auditorium. It returns this May after a three-year hiatus.
  • The Brotherhood Takes Flight’s Season Finale
    By BRYAN WILLIS for OLY ARTS Olympia audiences have one more chance to catch free, aerial performances as The Brotherhood Takes Flight celebrates the end of its ninth season. Longtime fan Marcia Burnett offers excellent advice to anyone going for the first time: “Come early, especially if you’re going with friends.” Aerial performances are presented …

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  • Jeff Barehand at the Seattle International Film Festival
    by Bryan Willis for OLY ARTS How does a stay-at-home dad get bitten by the video bug and wind up with an invitation to the famous Sundance Native Lab? “It was my kids,” explains local filmmaker Jeff Barehand. “I made videos of my kids to send back to my parents. Without family I wouldn’t have …

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  • Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna at the Lacey Library
    by Bryan Willis for OLY ARTS Washington State’s new Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna, will be featured at the Lacey Library Monday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. at a free event for the public. Castro Luna will be joined by Olympia poets Dawn Pichón Barron and Emily Van Kley. All three poets will read from …

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  • Procession: Honk If You Love Dance
    by Bryan Willis for OLY ARTS Artesian Rumble Arkestra is teaming up with Radical Acts of Dance Company (RADCo) to create a movable meadow for the Procession. Mary Nelson, one of four women who started RADCo in 1999, described the performance as a “flora entourage extravaganza. We’re incorporating some mind-blowing mandalas originally created for the …

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  • Costumer Extraordinaire – Welcome to Mishka’s Playground
    by Bryan Willis for OLY ARTS If Einstein were a costume designer, his shop would look like the interior of Olympia’s own costume shop downtown: Costume Atelier Masque & Pettycote. Owner and costumer Mishka Navarre enjoys watching the expression on the face of a first-time customer: “If they haven’t been here before, I can always …

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  • Center Salon To Welcome Jess Walter
    by Bryan Willis for OLY ARTS Two of the Northwest’s most well-known novelists will be featured in events April 12 and 13 in Olympia. Jess Walter, the National Book Award nominee and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, will join Olympia’s own Jim Lynch as featured literary artists at the Washington Center Salon. They’ll …

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  • Bryan Willis
    Bryan formerly served as Contributing Editor for OLY ARTS. Bryan is co-founder of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance at Seattle Repertory Theatre. His writing and plays have appeared throughout the U.K., Israel, Japan, U.S. and Canada, including New York Theater Workshop, Milwaukee Rep, Unseam’d Shakespeare Co., ACT, Book-It Repertory Theatre and Riverside Studios in London. His …

    Read more

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