TAO Returns to the Dark with Mystery

“It’s a little bit of Halloween in the summer,” said Pug Bujeaud, the play’s director and a TAO mainstay. “It’s fun and quirky and dark. It’s very much an old-school TAO show. The basis of the show is ‘What is a forgivable sin? … What lines do you draw? How do you decide what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors — or people — you have to cut out of your life?”

Review: The Half-Life of Marie Curie at Oly Theater

The Half-Life of Marie Curie, written by Lauren Gunderson and produced by Theater Artists Olympia, is a joyful exploration of a pair of turn-of-the-century women scientists, the celebrated Marie Curie and the less well-known Hertha Ayrton.

Broadway Olympia Productions ‘Taking a Break’

Broadway Olympia Productions is back — but not for long. The black box theater in Capital Mall will remain open. Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) will take over the lease for its own productions and as a space for other performing arts groups.

Review: Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

A classic reimagined. So yes, Marley is dead. To save himself from eternal damnation, he is told he must find a way to redeem Ebenezer Scrooge. “Impossible!” TAO’s Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is a journey of laughter and terror, redemption and renewal.

Broadway Olympia Productions and Theater Artists Olympia Pair Up in The (One-Act) Play That Goes Wrong

By Alec Clayton and Molly Gilmore Like a theater version of The Odd Couple, the dark and edgy Theater Artists Olympia and the song-and-dance-fueled Broadway Olympia Productions are sharing a home. The theater companies, both sidelined since the pandemic, will each produce work in Broadway Olympia’s black box theater in Capital Mall. The partnership — …

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The Theater That Refused to Die

By Alec Clayton From Reefer Madness and Cannibal the Musical to lots and lots of Shakespeare, and performing in such diverse spaces as Olympia Little Theatre, the basement of the Elks Hall and the Midnight Sun in downtown Olympia, Theater Artists Olympia had its genesis in the early 2000s; and every time it looks like …

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Theater Artists Olympia’s Digital Performance of ‘The Culling’

THEATRE REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS In showbiz they say, “the show must go on,” and not even a worldwide pandemic can stop Pug Bujeaud and Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) from creating theatre. Bujeaud, a highly respected actor and director who has adapted many works for the stage, tackled her first ever completely …

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Shakespeare’s The Tempest Storms into Olympia’s Port Plaza

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The Tempest — third and final of this area’s outdoor-summer-Shakespeare plays — opened Thursday, August 15 at the viewing tower at Olympia’s Port Plaza. It opened with the crash of thunder and lightning in a chaotic scene of a storm at sea performed in front of the …

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The Tempest at Port Plaza

by Tom Simpson William Shakespeare will return to the South Sound this summer with an exceptional production of his classic, magical romance The Tempest at Olympia’s Port Plaza. The production will feature professional stage actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and is co-sponsored by Olympia Harbor Days, which will bring tall ships as stage scenery …

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The Midnight Sun Performance Space

A Farewell to the Sun

by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS After 24 years filled with performances of all kinds — from original plays to a concert by Modest Mouse — The Midnight Sun is slated to close at the end of this month. Theater Artists Olympia, the troupe that has operated the black-box theater for the past three years, …

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