Percival Restaurant Palate Pleasures

By Ned Hayes South Puget Sound Community College might seem an unusual place to find a five-course, wine-paired dinner. Yet the SPSCC culinary arts team is determined to turn its Percival Restaurant location into a desired destination for discriminating diners. In 2017, Scott McLean came on board as new executive chef for the culinary arts …

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Theater Review: Midsummer’s Magical Mystery

Theater Review by NED HAYES Harlequin’s summer revue — The Magical Mystery Midsummer Musical — has more depth to it than may first appear. The overarching thread is that of magic, and audiences might do well to think of themselves as being backstage at Queen Titania’s Royal Court of Fey, experiencing a midsummer amusement designed for the faerie. …

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Legally Blonde and Sleeping Beauty … Junior

By NED HAYES This summer, Pacific Northwest Theater will host summer-theater camps and workshops at a new venue. The camps and the two summer productions, Sleeping Beauty Kids and Legally Blonde Junior, will be showcased at the United Churches of Olympia. The change was made partially for financial reasons. PNT does its best to keep …

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Lynda Barry: Evergreen Cuts Are ‘Cultural Genocide’

by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS OLY ARTS reported in June that The Evergreen State College was cutting heavily into staff and facilities that made theater possible at Evergreen. The Experimental Theater (COM 124, a 200-seat, black-box venue) and its costume and scene shops will close at the end of the spring 2018 semester. Faculty and staff members …

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Top Actors to Perform The Eagle Tree on Stage at Lakewood Playhouse

By Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS In June, Lakewood Playhouse will host a staged reading of a play based on the best-selling novel The Eagle Tree by Olympia novelist Ned Hayes as a special presentation of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance. (Hayes used the royalties from his novel to found this publication, OLY ARTS.) * Set in …

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Harlequin Productions Plans 2019 Season Under New Leadership

by Tom Simpson and Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Early in 2018, the Harlequin Productions ship hit the shoals of the #MeToo movement. Alleged sexual harassment of actors and staff led to rapid changes in staff and policies. (Read more at OlyArts.com/harlequin) On June 1, at the company’s annual Season Announcement Gala, Eclectica!, Harlequin sets …

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Harlequin Productions Turns a Corner, Creates a Brighter Future

New updates to the Harlequin story include a public statement from Harlequin Productions Board of Directors,  the appointment of new leadership, and the announcement of a new artistic season for 2018-2019. by KAREN LUNDE and NED HAYES In the winter of 2018, Olympia’s own theatrical powerhouse, Harlequin Productions, weathered a significant storm. The theater’s Board …

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Harlequin Productions Apologizes for Past Missteps

New updates to the Harlequin story include a public statement from Harlequin Productions Board of Directors,  the appointment of new leadership, and the announcement of a new artistic season for 2018-2019.  by Karen Lunde and Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS In October, 2017, The New York Times published a report detailing decades of sexual harassment …

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Xander Layden and John Serembe

The Art of Racing in the Rain at Harlequin Productions

by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS In March, Harlequin Productions will bring to the stage “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” a play based on Garth Stein’s New York Times bestselling novel. The show will run at Harlequin from March 1 to 24. “The Art of Racing in the Rain” has a unique narrator: a …

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In Defense of the Arts: 2018

In January 2017, OLY ARTS published our editorial about possible defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Today, the President released a proposed budget that proposes exactly that full defunding. OLY ARTS is thus re-publishing our clarion call from 2017 to retain and expand funding …

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