Jason Haws and David S. Hogan in The Understudy at Harlequin Productions

REVIEW: The Understudy

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 …

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photo by Dan Barron

REVIEW: Dan Barron at Salon Refu

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, …

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The Pirates of Penzance

The Pirates of Penzance at The Washington Center

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 …

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"Mountain Lake," screen print by Sherry Buckner

Sherry Buckner’s New Works at Childhood’s End

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 …

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Jesse Morrow as Nell Gwyn in Playhouse Creatures

REVIEW: Playhouse Creatures

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis is a little-known play written in 1993 and set in Restoration England of the late 17th century. Prior to Charles II ascending the throne of England, women were not allowed to act on stage, but Charles II rescinded that law—much to …

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Becky Knold

REVIEW: The Ways We See

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Now showing in The Washington Center for the Performing Arts are paintings by Lois Beck, Becky Knold and Mia Schulte, three women whose paintings have a lot in common—so much so, in fact, that unless you’ve studied their paintings in detail over time you’d be hard …

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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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