posts by Alec Clayton
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Artist and costume designer Lucy Gentry Meltzer is the next artist whose works will grace the interior of Salon Refu Galley. Described as couture or as sculptural dresses, Meltzer’s art is unlike anything commonly seen in galleries. People who frequent Salon Refu will recognize her as one of the …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Come out of the rain to kick off spring with Olympia Family Theater’s production of Alice in Wonderland—a lot of fun for kids from 3 to 73. Adapted from the book by Lewis Carroll by the multitalented writer, actor and director Kate Ayers and directed by OFT …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The setting is bleak, harsh, cold. Everything is gray. When the lights come up we see a figure in a fetal position on a square riser. Four men and one woman come in, all wearing black suits and white shirts, with a skirt on the woman, the …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS South Puget Sound Community College and the Lacey-Mińsk Mazowiecki Sister City Association are hosting an evening of music by Frédéric Chopin, featuring the two local winners of the Chopin Competition held March 20-23. The winners are students from southwest Washington. Highlighting the concert will be a solo performance by …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Once again Susan Christian is showing her painted stick constructions at her own gallery, Salon Refu. The paintings are assemblages of various kinds of sticks, mostly lathe, which she puts together in rectangular shapes and paints as if they were stretched canvases. The last time I …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Running a theater company requires a large package of talents—artistic sensibilities, intelligence, management and people skills and enthusiasm. Meet Linda and Scot Whitney, founders and managers of Harlequin Productions, the celebrated local company that’s produced more than 170 shows since 1991. Linda directs, writes and designs sets. Scot directs …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS It’s a shame that more than half the seats were empty at Harlequin Productions’s opening-night performance of The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck. Potential audience members who could’ve been in those seats don’t know they missed the funniest comedy to grace South Sound stages this season. The Understudy …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS I was warned ahead of time by Salon Refu owner Susan Christian that Dan Barron’s pop-up exhibition of “extraordinary” photos was going to be “exceedingly unnerving” and “incomprehensible.” With words like that, how could I not be intrigued? So I took myself down to Salon Refu, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The ever-popular The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty is coming to The Washington Center this spring, performed by the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Pirates is a witty comic opera in two acts, featuring what is popularly known as “The Major General Song,” a so-called …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Sherry Buckner returns to her beloved theme of plein-air painting in new work for the March exhibition at Childhood’s End Gallery. Exploring large open spaces in mist and fog, she forges a new approach to her images in both screen printing and chalk pastels. “My new work uses color …