posts that contain mini-bios of our writers
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS WEEKEND PREVIEW is your new, Friday guide to events in Thurston County. This week, there’s enough live music and theater to keep you on the edge of your seat with your eyes glued to the stage. NEW EVENTS: Oct. 21-28 Live Music Ben Folds and a Piano at The Washington Center Douglas …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Bluegrass artist Sierra Hull and accompanying double-bassist Ethan Jodziewicz will perform at Traditions Café and World Folk Art this Saturday night. The musicians are touring through Oregon and Washington this week, playing acoustic bluegrass music from Hull’s newest album, Weighted Mind, featuring Jodziewicz as bassist. Born and raised in …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Local music scenes like Olympia’s can’t always support bands built on classical influences. From a purely economic standpoint, not many struggling musicians can afford string or woodwind instruments like cellos or oboes, and audiences tend not to be as inclined to come out on a weekend to hear music …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Now showing at Olympia Family Theater (OFT), Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” is a small play that packs a big wallop for kids. I was not familiar with Mo Willems’ series of Elephant & Piggy children’s books before reading about them in the program. …
VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The exhibition of drawings and paintings by Kathy Gore Fuss at Salon Refu offers proof positive that practice makes perfect. When she started plein air painting in the dense forests in and around Olympia, then later at the gritty, industrial Port of Olympia, she found her …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Geraldine Ondrizek, artist and professor of art in Portland, Oregon, works in the crossroad between visual art, architecture and medical research. Her ongoing exhibit, Tracing Genetic Inheritance, is a synthesis of three of her most-recent collections (Chromosome Painting Edition II 1-X, Shades of White and mtDNA) and addresses issues …
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 Jennifer Crain for OLY ARTS In November, Dillinger’s Cocktails & Kitchen will open an expanded dining room and bar. The cocktail lounge, modeled after the Prohibition-era speakeasy, has become a popular destination downtown. The new space will almost double the establishment’s footprint and capacity. Owner Sandy Hall says the business has outgrown the original …
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 …