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posts that contain mini-bios of our writers

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.

Copper Wolf 10th Anniversary Exhibit and Celebration

Copper Wolf Studios and Gallery, nestled off 2ND Avenue in Tumwater, is in a craftsman house with much of the old-world charm of the original house made into a beautiful gallery with great lighting and welcoming communal space, alongside the tattoo artists’ personal studio spaces. Danny Gordo says, “Copper Wolf creates a space showcasing art, bringing people together to further conversations and bridge gaps.” Aimee Schreiber rightly points out, “Art needs walls and space.” Gordo and Schreiber are board members of Olympia Artspace Alliance.

The Musical Chemistry of Garrett & Gunn

On Saturday, October 24, the acoustic duo of Reggie Garrett & Christine Gunn will perform for the fourth time at New Traditions, this time celebrating the release of The Road Taken, their first collaborative CD.
“We’re always so moved and engaged by both of them,” said New Traditions co-owner Jody Mackey, who expects the event to sell out.
The two share a similar musical sensibility, according to Garrett. “Christine is one of those musicians for whom the thing that’s important is the song,” he said. “There’s not a lot of ego involved. She listens, plays what the song calls for.”

Patton Oswalt Presents Pig and McCabe & Mrs. Miller

These two films depict the Pacific Northwest in two radically different times. In Robert Altman’s classic revisionist Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Warren Beatty moves into a mining town in 1900s Washington, trying his best to become a big shot in the middle of a boom period. Michael Sarnoski’s new classic, Pig, explores the fringes of modern-day Portland, with Nicolas Cage starring as a reclusive former chef whose truffle pig gets stolen. The films – showing at Capitol Theater November 15 & 16 – showcase the Pacific Northwest’s natural wonders as an overwhelming force that has to be bent to, not conquered; and both films have an elegiac atmosphere that hangs over them.

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