by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS For many people, theater is a way of life. For Olympia-born Pug Bujeaud, it began as a way of staying alive. “I had social anxiety before those things were talked about,” Bujeaud says. “I was so shy in high school that I would walk around the outside of the …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS For those familiar with the classic fairy tale — or Disney’s animated takes on it — Ballet Northwest’s The Sleeping Beauty has a few surprises. After the wicked fairy curses her, after she pricks her finger on a spindle, after a kiss ends her long sleep, the Aurora of …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Singer and actress Lauren Fox, who’ll sing the songs of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen on Friday, is 39. But musically, at least, she’s an old soul — obsessed, she says, with music made in the decades before she was born. “That’s the era I’m stuck with,” Fox said …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS The arts are for everyone to create and to enjoy. The Washington Center for the Performing Arts’s Young Arts Ambassadors are learning about the arts from the inside out, and they’ll share their knowledge and creations at a showcase this Saturday. A benefit for the program, the showcase features …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Evergreen State College alumna Amy Shephard has collaborated with Andrew Gordon and Daven Tillinghast to write Olympia Family Theater’s final show of its 11th season, Fishnapped! “It’s an interactive, musical mystery involving a missing goldfish,” says Shephard, who also choreographs the production. The musical numbers, composed by Tillinghast, are …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Imagine you’re on the set of a Hollywood movie made in 1934, with big-name stars filming A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and magically the real Oberon and Puck from the Shakespeare play show up on the set. If such a thing could happen, it would be a recipe for comedy…or …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Heather and Michael Christopher are a power couple in the Olympia theater scene. Heather is a teacher and director with Olympia Family Theater’s children’s programs and a near-ubiquitous actor. Michael is an actor, director and set and lighting designer. Michael most recently directed Theater Artist Olympia’s Playhouse Creatures and …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Prepare to laugh when Harlequin Productions stages the Noel Coward comedy Present Laughter — with “Present” pronounced as the adjective, not the verb. Written in 1939 and first staged in 1942, this classic farce is about the successful, self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he confronts a midlife crisis while …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS “Who can take a sunrise / Sprinkle it in dew?” We suspect any child of the 1970s, or of any decade since for that matter, could immediately answer that musical question. It’s “The Candy Man,” of course—in this case, a very specific candy man, the mischievous (and ostensibly homicidal) …
Linda and Scot Whitney, respectively the artistic director and managing artistic director of Harlequin Productions, announced that company’s upcoming season at their annual Eclectica! benefit on April 1. “You will note,” says Linda Whitney, “that rain appears to be theme. Rain cools, cleanses, restores, depresses, compresses, challenges and can even delight.” It sounds like it’s …