Artistic Director Jen Ryle Says Goodbye to Olympia Family Theater

By Molly Gilmore There’s change coming to Olympia Family Theater: Though she’s as passionate as ever about children’s theater, co-founder Jen Ryle is stepping down from her role as artistic director to create space for new leadership. She’s involved with the search for her successor and will stay on to work with the new hire …

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Sky Bear Media: Olympia’s Indigenous Film Company

By Alec Clayton Olympia, the city of natural abundance, award-winning culture and celebrated diversity, is home to a video production that was founded by and is run by an indigenous filmmaker — Sky Bear Media. The company is housed in the Steamplant Building in the heart of downtown, described by company founder Jeff Barehand as …

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Creative Theatre All-Stars

By MOLLY GILMORE Creative Theatre Experience is a summer program for young people, yet its season offers a chance to see mature work by local, theatrical powerhouses. This summer, the program presents Footloose, based on the Kevin Bacon film about a teen who moves to a town where dancing is forbidden; Crush, an alien-invasion rom-com …

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Legally Blonde and Sleeping Beauty … Junior

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 …

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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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Apple Tree Showcases Musical Annie

by Tom Simpson for OLY ARTS South Sound children’s theater group Apple Tree Productions will open Annie for a limited run in mid-December. Annie is the first full-scale holiday musical for Apple Tree, in their new home in the historic Capitol Theater, owned by the Olympia Film Society. Heidi Fredericks, founder and artistic director of Apple Tree, …

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Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Olympians at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Shakespeare famously wrote, “To be, or not to be? That is the question.” In theater as in life, this line from Hamlet always applies. Opportunities to grow in the craft present themselves to those actors passionate enough to heed their calling. Thus, under the dedicated artistic direction of Kathy …

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Will Lippman, Bruce Haasl, Christie Oldright and Carolyn Willems Van Dijk in First Date. Photo courtesy Harlequin Productions

REVIEW: First Date at Harlequin Productions

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions’ First Date is a romantic comedy in the tradition of Hepburn and Tracy, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, updated for the digital age. Updated how? For starters, the search engine Google appears in the guise of a woman, and there’s …

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Ted and Jen Ryle

Jen and Ted Ryle: Olympia Family Theater’s Dynamic Duo

by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Meet Jen and Ted Ryle, the couple behind Olympia Family Theater. Theater is a touchstone for the Ryle family. Fittingly, the Ryles met each other at an audition at Shoreline College. “I nudged my friend when Ted walked in, and said ‘Who’s the straight guy? I want him!’” Jen …

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Starry Messenger, art by Nikki McClure

Starry Messenger at Olympia Family Theater

by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS Heliocentrism isn’t a radical idea anymore, but that wasn’t the case 400 years ago. Olympia Family Theater will premiere its production of Kari Margolis’s Starry Messenger, with Brian Tyrrell directing. Starry Messenger is a historically based play about imagination and discovery. It follows the life of Galileo Galilei as …

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