posts by Alec Clayton
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS This year Capital Lakefair celebrates 60 years of service to our community and the communities around Olympia. The history of Lakefair begins with the lake itself: Capital Lake was built as an artificial structure in 1950. Swimming, boating and other activities took place in the lake. Capital Lakefair was …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS There’ll be Too Many Cooks at Music in the Park, and that has nothing to do with food. “Too Many Cooks” (in quotation marks) was a rock song written by Willie Dixon and performed by Mick Jagger. Too Many Cooks (no quotation marks) is a rock trio from Gig …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions’ First Date is a romantic comedy in the tradition of Hepburn and Tracy, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, updated for the digital age. Updated how? For starters, the search engine Google appears in the guise of a woman, and there’s …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS “Christian Doyle is one of those rare actors who makes it look like anyone should be able to do what he does, it’s so effortless and natural,” says film and stage actor Scott C. Brown. Local theatergoers have seen Doyle in many shows, most likely singing and acting in …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Theater Artists Olympia’s 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche might be one of the most difficult reviews I’ve ever written, because I don’t want to give anything away, and this insanely funny romp is so full of surprises that I can hardly say anything without divulging something you …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The loft-gallery space above Buck’s 5th Avenue is awash with ink in the form of an exhibition of sumi paintings by members of Puget Sound Sumi Artists. Calligrapher and sumi artist Sally Penley, whose studio is in the same loft space, is spokesperson for the show. “Sumi is the …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS There are unique and quirky aspects of Olympia that are hard to put into words for even the best of authors, yet writer and social commentator David Scherer-Water rose to the challenge earlier this year as he published Olympia, a comedic, nonfiction book combining local history with humorous observations …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Three Rivers, California at the entrance to the Sequoia National Park is a long way from New Orleans, but it’s home to The High Sierra Jazz Band. Listeners to the band can focus on the stage, close their eyes and be transported into Preservation Hall on Bourbon Street to …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Three floors of the Department of Ecology building in Lacey are now aglow with chrysalis forms assembled from hundreds of plastic bottles. This art installation, Metamorphosis, was created by Barbara De Pirro, who says the forms represent “a transformation from the humble and forgotten into the exceptional.” Artist Jeffree …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The entire art gallery at The Evergreen State College is filled with artwork in many media in such a way that ceiling, floor and walls become a single, colorful, walk-through installation. It’s the work of an “interdisciplinary research and creative inquiry” from an academic program called CultureLab. That program …