Robert and Fannie Mitchell. Tribal affiliation: Dine. Photo by Matika Wilbur

Project 562 at South Puget Sound Community College

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Matika Wilbur’s Project 562 is a photographic document of every native tribe in the United States. She’s traveled more than 250,000 miles to photograph Native Americans from the 566 tribes in our country. A selection of her photographs will be displayed in the South Puget Sound Community College art …

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PJ Perry, photo by Robert Falk

Ups and Downs: An Aerial Valentine at Rhythm & Rye

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Look up, look up for acrobatic feats of aerial grace at Rhythm & Rye as Joanna Gibson and her troupe of nine aerialists offer an evening of dance above the bar and tables at the popular Olympia watering hole—home to entertainment ranging from music to burlesque to the ever-popular …

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“Simple Machine,” sculpture by Alair Wells, photo by Gabi Clayton

REVIEW: Faculty Art Show at The Evergreen State College

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Based on previous experience, I expected anything but traditional at in an exhibition of work by faculty and staff at The Evergreen State College. I expected political art and identity art and conceptual art, and I was surprised at how much traditional art there was—not that …

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Touloulou

2017: Touloulou at The Oly Old Time Festival

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Seattle-based Cajun band Touloulou will play for late-night dancers in the South Bay Grange on Feb. 18. The four-piece band is made up of Elena DeLisle on guitar, John Hurd on accordion, and Karen England and Steve Perry on fiddle. The festival website promises, “They’ll have you joyfully two-stepping …

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Kira Batcheller in My Name Is Rachel Corrie

REVIEW: My Name Is Rachel Corrie

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS At long last Rachel Corrie has come home to Olympia in the theatrical form of My Name is Rachel Corrie at Harlequin Productions. This is Olympia’s first-ever locally produced performance of the play, which is based on the life and writings of the Olympia native. Written completely …

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Postcard art by Jacci Butler

REVIEW: Wild Thing at South Puget Sound Community College

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS There are something like 360 art works by approximately 120 artists in the annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College. But who’s counting? Actually, I am. I counted 118 names on the announcement card, but I lost my place while counting and I multiplied …

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John Pratt in OLT's Educating Rita

Chaucer Comes to Life on Stage

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS In mid-January 2017, Olympia Little Theatre will produce a staged reading of A Lollard in the Wind: Chaucer’s Dilemma by local actor-turned-playwright John Pratt. Pratt was most recently seen in the leading role, Arthur Putnam, in OLT’s An Act of the Imagination. Based in part on Chaucer’s stories from …

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Jess Allan and Robert McConkey in The Physician in Spite of Himself

REVIEW: The Physician in Spite of Himself

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Once again Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) has taken a classic and updated it to make it, if not better than the original, then at least more enjoyable and laughable for contemporary audiences. Philip Wickstrom, Pug Bujeaud and the TAO collective have updated Molière’s 17th-century farce The Physician …

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Paintings by Bill Collins

Bill Collins Paintings at Allsorts Gallery

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Here’s a match made in heaven: Bill Collins and Allsorts Gallery. Olympia native Bill Collins has been painting pictures for 38 years. Allsorts is the living and dining rooms of artist Lynette Charters’ Olympia home, which every few months is turned into an art gallery. Charters says of Collins, …

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Paintings by Bill Collins

Bill Collins Paintings at Allsorts Gallery

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Here’s a match made in heaven: Bill Collins and Allsorts Gallery. Olympia native Bill Collins has been painting pictures for 38 years. Allsorts is the living and dining rooms of artist Lynette Charters’ Olympia home, which every few months is turned into an art gallery. Charters says of Collins, …

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