posts by Molly Gilmore
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Overnight theater festivals—for which playwrights, directors and actors create, put on and close a show in a single weekend—are popping up all over. This weekend, theater at light speed gets a twist when Northwest Playwrights Alliance (NPA) and Olympia Family Theater (OFT) team up to create children’s theater. “I …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Olympia comedian Sam Miller will compete in this year’s Seattle International Comedy Competition. He’ll compete in the first round of preliminaries Nov. 2-6, and if he finishes in the top five among that group, he’ll advance to the semifinals, including a Nov. 17 show in Olympia. The host of …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Ben Folds—he of the clever and oh-so-revealing lyrics and piano skill that’s earned the respect of Billy Joel and Elton John—will perform Oct. 26 in Olympia. And he’ll take requests. “People have been throwing paper airplanes with requests on them for the second half,” Nashville, Tennessee’s Folds said in …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Veteran vaudevillian Lord Franzannian is back in town. Franzannian is the host of Lord Franzannian’s Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show, the 10th edition of which opens Oct. 14. He’s also the alter ego of storyteller/actor/director/producer Elizabeth Lord, transformed with rosy cheeks, a fake mustache and a big belly she …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS The photo book Banned in DC, about the punk scene in the nation’s capital, was published in 1988—so quickly that some questioned whether it was too soon to document the scene. Nearly three decades later, co-author Cynthia Connolly has produced a seventh edition and is making stops around the …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Gallery Boom, opening Oct. 1 in downtown Olympia, has come a long way. Geographically, it’s moved only four miles from its first home in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Tumwater, where it began two years ago as part of the city’s business incubator program. The big change: The …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS “Look, don’t touch” is a general rule with art. But “Resonating Objects,” at The Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC), invites viewers to touch and then listen. The exhibition of Margaret Noble’s sculptures incorporating sound, along with a video installation, has its opening reception Sept. 23. Noble’s …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Bryan Willis’ I Love You, Flavilla–playing for one night only Sept. 19, International Talk Like a Pirate Day–might sound a bit over the top. “It’s a story about the meanest pirate in the history of the world,” the Olympia playwright said. “It’s about a bully who meets his match …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Two decades after he last directed The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Scot Whitney of Harlequin Productions is at it again. This show, featuring costumes and sets that call to mind the art of Maxfield Parrish, runs through Oct. 16. He has a new take on the early Shakespearean comedy …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Olympia loves Arts Walk, when businesses become galleries and people who crave culture stroll the streets. This Saturday, the city gets another walk: the first Olympia Jazz Walk, a fundraiser for JazzClubsNW, a North Bend-based nonprofit that aims to keep jazz alive and well through performance and education. Eleven …