posts by Alec Clayton
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Musical theater has returned to Olympia with the staging of Legally Blonde by the capital city’s new theater company Broadway Olympia Productions, performing this weekend only in the historic Capitol Theatre. I attended the first full rehearsal three days before opening night. I won’t criticize technical aspects …
ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Olympia’s Art House Designs is not your typical art gallery. They seldom have regularly scheduled shows. Rather, it is more like an art fair or a funhouse of contemporary art with prints, paintings, ceramics, and sculpture by more than 30 artists, including such popular local artists as …
VISUAL ART REVIEW By Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Christopher Mathie is a frequent exhibiting artist at Childhood’s End. It’s been long enough since I’ve seen his work that it’s a pleasure to see it again, even if the paintings in his current show are a tad too much like ones I’ve seen before. Is …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Animal Fire Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale is the way Shakespeare in the Park should be done. The outdoor setting is a clearing surrounded by sky-high evergreens, and on the perfect summer’s evening when I attended, even the mosquitoes cooperated by going somewhere else. Despite a peculiarity, which …
VISUAL ART REVIEW By Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Works by man of the best area artists can be seen at the Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College. Old friends and familiar names are represented, such as Susan Aurand, Melissa Barnes, Lynette Charters, Doyle Fanning, Lisa Kinoshita, Mary McCann and Jason …
ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jacci Lynn Butler’s Holy Trinity and Other Tales in Abstract at Browsers Book Shop is this artist’s first solo exhibition in Olympia. When I visited, there were half a dozen small works on a couch waiting to be hung. In the staircase ascending to the upstairs gallery …
By ALEC CLAYTON Every year, Capital Lakefair gives the South Sound its own royal court, chosen in the spring from among junior girls at local high schools. Here’s a look at the royal court for Capital Lakefair 2018: Lakefair Queen Juliet Huttar Juliet Huttar says she was shocked when given the title of Capital Lakefair …
By ALEC CLAYTON This summer Harlequin Productions celebrates 30 years of music by Bruce Whitney, who started as a rock musician and has arranged, conducted and performed music for the company since its beginning. “As of August this year,” says Harlequin cofounder and Bruce’s sister-in-law, Linda Whitney, “Bruce will have been composing music for theater …
By Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Christopher Gerber, an aesthetic engineer with Artists With Ecology, sees the dilapidated old Olympia Brewery building in Tumwater as an eyesore and a blight on a beautiful area, and he wants to do something about it. His proposal is to beautify the abandoned brewery by replacing the broken doors …
VISUAL ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Childhood’s End Gallery’s latest show is clearly different from their usual group show. Oaxaca to Washington is an exhibition of more than 30 prints by Mexican artists from the state of Oaxaca. Local artist Mimi Williams became friends with Mexican artist Edgar Martinez (not the baseball …