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Matilda the Musical at Tacoma Little Theatre

Given the flights of fancy of both the Roald Dahl novel and the Danny DeVito film of Matilda, it seemed only a matter of time for Matilda to get the musical treatment, which it did in 2010 with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and book by Dennis Kelly. Now, Matilda the Musical is hitting Tacoma Little Theatre through December 28, directed by Jennifer York, with a sizable cast of child and adult actors, led by Hazel Barnett and Nell Edlund, trading off performances as Matilda.

The Carpenter’s House — A New Multidisciplinary Events Space

The Carpenter’s House was envisaged by Justin La Gra, who wanted to manifest a warm, intimate, and inclusive community space for creativity and art made for real people with real materials. Murphy and Ruiz joined the project, with their own specialized skills, resulting in a creative venue, involving a functioning carpentry studio, an art gallery, a live music venue, a community gathering space, and a developing broadcast and media studio. They say that it began as one person’s original idea that grew stronger with a collaborative vision, which was shaped by the community around them.

Creative Theatre Experience Celebrates 45th Anniversary, New Leadership

In preparation for next year’s 45th anniversary season, the Creative Theatre Experience Board of Directors has announced the selection of Kristina Cummins as their new program director and Kyle Murphy as executive director. In addition to these staff leadership changes, the CTE Board of Directors has elected new officers to its executive team, with Nora Gant as president, Jerod Nace as vice president, and Louise Doran as treasurer/secretary. Together with Murphy’s new-fashioned thinking and old-fashioned commitment to community theatre arts, and Cummins’ long experience teaching and directing theatre with young people and actualizing in them her love for the craft, Creative Theatre Experience looks ready to go boldly into the future.

Studio West launches holidays with Nutcracker

Studio West Dance Theater kicks off Olympia’s holiday season with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker on the weekend after Thanksgiving at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. “The music is delicious,” said Studio West co-owner/co-director Stephanie Wood-Ennett. “People are drawn to it — the costumes, the dancing. The story is timeless. It’s a classic.” The Nutcracker cast includes about 200 people, mainly children. “There’s such a sense of community,” she said. “I think people end up loving the community as much as the dance itself.”

Can you crack the case?

Tacoma Little Theatre’s Murder Mystery Dinners return with Knock ‘Em Dead.
If you fancy yourself a part-time gumshoe, you may be interested to know that the game is once again afoot. These evenings of interactive theatre began in 2017 as fundraisers for TLT before they broke out and became regular productions. TLT put on three of them a year until the COVID pandemic forced them to go on hiatus. 2024 saw their return, and November 20, 2025, marks the opening night of the first Murder Mystery Dinner of the season.

Refuge and Remedy — Marilyn Frasca at Childhood’s End

Marilyn Frasca’s drawings, on view through Nov. 16 at Childhood’s End Gallery in downtown Olympia, exist at the intersection of dreams and stark reality, “I had arranged to do this one-person show years ago,” she said, “and in the process, the world fell apart. I’d look at the abstract images and I’d see horrible things because I’d been hearing about them. … I thought, ‘I’m going to have to cancel this show. I can’t work.’ ”
(And then) Frasca found her way through after she heard historian Heather Cox Richardson encouraging artists to work. “She said many artists she knew had trouble working during that time and that what the world needed was for them to work,” Frasca told Oly Arts.

What Does Political Theatre Do?

Tony Kushner has never shied away from theatre with a political message, as evidenced by his landmark two-part masterpiece Angels in America. As it turns out, politics was in Kushner’s theatrical DNA beginning with his first play, A Bright Room Called Day, which runs from November 14 to 23 in a revival by the South Puget Sound Community College Theatre Collective.

Legacy & Stories That Shaped Us — Celebrating 50 Years of Playback Theatre

Heartsparkle Players began doing Playback Theatre in 1991 as a way to support
elementary school children in developing empathy and reducing bullying. Students told stories about when they received and gave acts of kindness. In the beginning, they performed primarily in schools and later began commissioned performances for organizations, faith groups, and finally they added public performances. They have held their public performances at Traditions for 28 years, often collaborating with other community groups. Founding member Debi Edden said, “We want to bring hope, stories and community to our gatherings.”

Dead Man’s Cell Phone at OLT

Theater, from the beginning, has been a space for confronting death and life’s existential questions. Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar, has much to say about both. Fast forward to the current zeitgeist, and the evil that men, mostly men, are doing, from one side of the earth to the other—climate derangement, a new ICE age, nuclear proliferation, war crimes and lawlessness from sea to shining sea—looks very much like it will have enduring if not undying consequences. Olympia Little Theatre’s September 2025 production of Sarah Ruhl’s quintessentially quirky comedy, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, was directed by Kendra Malm and Toni Holm. It contained pertinent messages for today.

Ballet Northwest’s 55th Season

Ballet Northwest boldly enters its 55th season with highly innovative, inspirational and diverse programming in store. Time flies by quickly, so mark your calendars now. After a performance of Crescendo on October 11, comes The Nutcracker, Olympia’s favorite December tradition that invites the whole family into a land of sweets and all others we create in our imagination. We are excited to give you an inside glimpse into everything that is in store.

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