by James O’Barr
An Improbable Peck of Plays Returns—to a new theater near you.
Theater Artists Olympia, for over two decades the South Sound’s avatars of edgy, often original and provocative yet accessible theater, has found what is hoped to be a stay-put home in downtown Olympia. After several years of making do in a variety of venues, the last of which was that store front at the Mall, the new Oly Theater, located in the Jefferson Street Arts Center (formerly the Johansen Olympia Dance Center), is open and ready to delight, elate, and surprise long-time audiences, and to challenge new ones.
Thanks to a grant from the City Council’s Inspire Olympia program, the Dance Center’s rehearsal space has been transformed by TAO stalwarts John Serembe, Marko Bujeaud, Michael Christopher, George Dougherty, Pug Bujeaud and assorted volunteers into an intimate, easily adaptable, 77-seat studio theatre. They opened in late April with a three-week run of “Anna Considers Mars,” a near-future sci-fi comedy by the S.F. Bay Area’s star-spangled young playwright Ruben Grijalva. In mid-May, Annie Elizabeth, a no-holds barred stand-up comic, came up from L.A. for a one night stand. Come June 12,13, and 14, Olympia’s own Elizabeth Lord will be directing “Crazy Dinner,” a new musical by the performance collaborative Nightmayor (fun fact: a “mayor of nightlife” has been appointed or elected in cities around the world, from Amsterdam to Ulyanovsk). Based in both Olympia and Seattle, Nightmayor started life as a punk rock band that morphed into a theatre collective known for its original, eccentric musicals, of which “Crazy Dinner” is the latest.
In late August, TAO will be bringing back one of their signature productions, “An Improbable Peck of Plays, Volume VI.” which they have been staging in collaboration with The Northwest Playwrights Alliance since 2012, when “home” was the late, lamented Midnight Sun. According to Bryan Willis, Artistic Director of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance, the “Peck of Plays” concept evolved over many years in Olympia and elsewhere, featuring collections of short plays, usually about 10 minutes in length, with a variety of themes and styles that offer opportunities for playwrights, directors and actors to try, and audiences to experience, a creative theatrical kaleidoscope that quickly changes from the ridiculous to the sublime. Commenting on the choice of the whimsical title (a peck is, more or less, eight of something), TAO Artistic Director pug Bujeaud says, “We felt that the title gave us leeway as to the number of plays in a show—the first year there were seven, some years it’s been nine, this year we’ll have eight. It’s also allowed us to make unusual pairings—comedy with tragedy, absurdity with realism, melodrama with farce. It could be anything.” Must be where the “Improbable” comes in.
Northwest Playwrights Alliance’s Bryan Willis is still in the process of pulling together the scripts for the show. Auditions for the actors are scheduled for July 6, 7, 8, and 9, with rehearsals starting the following week. The directors, however, an all-star assemblage of Northwest theater talent, are already on board. They include Kate Ayers, Teresita Brimms, Bujeaud, Andrew Gordon, John Longenbaugh, Gabriel McClelland, Dennis Rolly and Brennan Tucker. Tickets are now available on the TAO website.
WHAT:
“An Improbable Peck of Plays: Theater Artists Olympia & The NW Playwrights Alliance”
WHEN:
Friday, August 21 to Sunday, August 30 – Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m.
WHERE:
The New Oly Theater, 412 Jefferson St SE, Olympia
COST:
$20
LEARN MORE:
info@Olytheater.com
youtube.com/@theaterartistsolympia6480