Arts Spaces & Companies

Kitsap Forest Theater: Fabulous Travel Destination

A visit to the Kitsap Forest Theater, an hour from Olympia, is as much about the place as the plays. The productions, often old-fashioned musicals on a grand scale, boast strong production values, winning performers and well-played live music. But the theater itself is arguably the star of every show. “The space is magical,” said Gala Lindvall, a producer for the theater, owned by the Mountaineers. “As you walk down to it, it’s like it was 100 years ago. We take audiences on a journey away from regular life.” Next up at the outdoor theater, on a 466-acre nature preserve near Bremerton, is Oliver, opening July 25.

Harlequin Productions Turns up the Heat with “Million Dollar Quartet”

On December 4, 1956, a “twist-of-fate” brought Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins into the same space for a once-in-a-lifetime jam session at Sun Records. Just imagine what that jam session must have been like! Historical memory, nostalgia, and imagination is brought to life as Harlequin Productions takes audiences back to that incredible night with the Tony nominated musical, “Million Dollar Quartet!”

Form a Line at Childhood’s End

Line is the way we first learn to make a mark. From crayon drawings of infants to Kathe Kollwitz to a Leonardo da Vinci cartoon, quality of line has varied ways of evoking and portraying our experiences of life around us. Line is subtly seductive in its simplicity or can be bold, dynamic, and dramatic. The emotions we can evoke using line are as varied as any gestural mark possibly could be. “Form a Line” at Childhoods End Gallery July 31 through September 20 s a visual exploration of observations from nature through expression in line.

Animal Fire and String & Shadow Go Out to Play

At summer’s height, when many theaters are dark, two South Sound companies go out to play in picnic-perfect parks. Both Animal Fire Theatre and String & Shadow Puppet Theater stage major shows when the days are long and the skies most likely blue. Animal Fire is producing the seldom-staged and seriously silly Love’s Labour’s Lost, opening July 3, and String & Shadow. is producing a return of 2025’s Night at the Grand Opera. These outdoor productions will be performed in Olympia’s Decatur Woods Park and Wonderwood Park.

Slow Work by Susan Christian and Steve Belz at Childhood’s End

Slow Work is an excellent art exhibition featuring paintings on wooden lathe with a sea full of blue by Susan Christian and bonfire fired pottery by Steve Belz at Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia — thought provoking, deceptively simple and beautiful art. This is a must-see exhibition through July 26.

Authors Among the Highlights of Washington Center Season

The Washington Center for the Performing Arts’ 2026-27 season, announced Tuesday, June 17, features the center’s traditional mix of Broadway shows, comedy, music, dance and family — plus two leading lights of literature.
“We’re very excited to have Amy Tan and Tim Egan coming in this season.” said Jill Barnes, the center’s executive director. Also among the season’s big names are satirical singing sensation Randy Rainbow (Oct. 15), comedy icon Tig Notaro (Nov. 13) and gospel giants The Blind Boys of Alabama (April 1).

Shoestring Circus: Joy, Magic, Whimsy and Heart

Shoestring Circus performs “Dreamland” in Olympia from June 19 to 28. Only in its fourth year, Shoestring Circus was founded in Bellingham by four veteran circus performers: Osterloh, Matthew “Poki” McCorkle, Justin Therrien and Nicole Laumb. “We try to have a different show each year, so it feels to people who come every year that they’re coming into a whole new world,” Osterloh said. Only 15 performers were chosen from the 320 audition videos the circus received last fall.

Puget Sound Book Artists’ 15th Annual Membership Exhibition

The Puget Sound Book Artists are highlighting artists who have transformed the bare bones of books into fractals, dioramas, sculptures, and stunning blossoms of origami. The exhibition is running through June 30 at University of Puget Sound, appropriately in the Collins Memorial Library; surrounded by thousands of bog-standard books, the books being exhibited are wild and frequently abstract. One uniting factor among the works is the theme of “15,” which is interpreted in various ways.

Olympia Peace Choir Enters a New Era Under Matthew Melendez — AND — ‘I Was a Stranger’

Matthew Melendez has been named the incoming Artistic Director of Olympia’s Peace Choir, assuming the role in September when the new season begins. He follows Kerri Lynn Nichols, who founded the choir in 2010 and has shepherded it for 16 years into a distinctive South Sound community chorus. Earlier this spring, Melendez stepped into his audition for the role of the Peace Choir’s new artistic director with a mix of excitement and nerves, despite his decades of experience as a conductor, educator, and nonprofit arts leader. AND ‘I Was a Stranger’ at FUMCO June 7.

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