posts that contain mini-bios of our writers
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS Some theatrical musicals originate as great novels (Les Misérables), others (The Lion King) as beloved cinema. Some come to us by way of historical biographies (Hamilton) and some, believe it or not, are still written from scratch. But only one popular musical began as a story in the Weekly …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS The next production from Theater Artists Olympia is the product of a series of unexpected events. Last fall, the scrappy troupe announced it’d present a “season of sex,” typified by The Physician in Spite of Himself and Playhouse Creatures. Then TAO lost the rights to a few desired scripts, …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS This summer at the Hands On Children’s Museum, kids can fight fires, meet superheroes, climb a rock wall and explore the wonders of outer space. All this and more are part of the museum’s second-annual “Summer Splash,” a summer-long series of special events and activities that last year drew …
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS The epistolary format (i.e., a story told through a series of letters) is usually reserved for novels, but it can sometimes spring up in other mediums, as in A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer-Prize finalist Love Letters, coming to Olympia Little Theatre this summer. Co-directed by Toni Holm and James Patrick, the …
WEEKEND PREVIEW is your weekly guide to events in Thurston County. This week, there’s enough live music in Olympia to keep your toes tapping all night long, not to mention author readings at some of your favorite bookstores. Click here to listen to our podcast version of Weekend Preview, sponsored by Shur-Kleen Car Wash. Follow the links …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS “And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Written by T.S. Eliot, this sentiment is particularly well-suited to the life and writings of author Stephen Holgate, who’ll give an author talk and reading from his …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS It’s easy for one’s ears to get comfortable listening to the sounds that regularly come drifting off the radio — background music, singalongs, crowd-pleasing jams that everyone with a head and heart can get on board with. This complacency can form a barrier in the head, a moat around …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Few genres inspire more passion and reverence for tradition than jazz. A quintessentially American art form, jazz and its permutations have been around in one form or another since the late 19th century, with roots in New Orleans. In the ’40s, jazz found a vibrant resurgence in the form …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS This summer, Harlequin Productions is hoping audiences will fall in love with First Date. The musical, which premiered at Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre in 2012 before heading to Broadway, opens June 22. The daters referred to in the title are Casey (Christie Murphy-Oldright) and Aaron (Bruce Haasl), and the …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Three floors of the Department of Ecology building in Lacey are now aglow with chrysalis forms assembled from hundreds of plastic bottles. This art installation, Metamorphosis, was created by Barbara De Pirro, who says the forms represent “a transformation from the humble and forgotten into the exceptional.” Artist Jeffree …