Center Salon at The Washington Center

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS

Billed as being “much like Parisian salons of old,” Center Salon at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts will fill the intimate space of the Black Box with art, literature, music and theater. Amy Shephard, actor, singer and co-founder of StoryOly at Rhythm & Rye, will emcee the evening’s entertainment, and she promises to sing “It’s a Good Day” by the late Peggy Lee. Visual art will be provided by animator, gallerist and painter Lynette Charters, who’s showing some of her drawn special effects from productions by, among others, Dreamworks, Warner Bros. and Richard Williams Studio.

Audiences will be treated to a scene from the popular touring play The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy by local playwright Bryan Willis. Willis is playwright-in-residence at Northwest Playwrights Alliance at Seattle Repertory Theatre. According to his best estimate, Lawnboy has been performed more than 500 times. This production will be directed by Andy Gordon, who played Fred the Loon in the original production. Scot Whitney of Harlequin Productions wrote the lyrics, and Bruce Whitney wrote the music. “I have to say,” Willis says, “those songs have aged really well.” The Harlequin Productions premiere was in 1994 at the Midnight Sun Performance Space, commissioned by the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority to create a springboard for discussion and education about non-point pollution.

Center Salon will feature prose poetry by Merridawn Ducker, an award-winning poet from Portland, Oregon, and poems by Patrick Dixon, Merry Jo Shaw and Bill Yake. There will also be a performance by Holly Reeves, principal cellist for Olympia Symphony Orchestra.

What: Center Salon

Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts,
512 Washington St. SE, Olympia

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13

How much: $25

Learn more: 360-753-8586 | The Washington Center

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