The Washington Center for the Performing Arts Kicks Off 2019-20 Season

By Molly Gilmore This season, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts has the blues — and the world music, and the dance, and the touring musicals, and the comedy, and so on. “We’re continuing to provide something for everyone,” said Jill Barnes, the center’s executive director. “I say that every year, and I feel …

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Theatre Preview: Lakewood Playhouse at 81

By Melinda Minton Lakewood Playhouse celebrates its 81st anniversary season with five shows. “All of next season’s shows,” says artistic director John Munn, “embrace some of our established past productions as we evolve into a playhouse that produces modern works fresh off of Broadway and off Broadway. We are very excited about this year’s lineup …

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Women With Wings

By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL Starting in January of 1942, Wonder Woman took to the skies in her Invisible Plane. Nine months later, nonfictional superheroines took flight. Sadly, it was their story rather than their aircraft which soon became invisible. On September 10, 1942, Nancy Harkness Love recruited over two dozen female pilots to form the Women’s …

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Pampered Lives and Power Struggles: The Women at Harlequin Productions

By MELINDA MINTON The Women is an American play, a comedy of manners by Clare Boothe Luce from 1936. It’s billed as a commentary on the pampered lives and power struggles of various wealthy Manhattan socialites and up-and-comers, and of the gossip that propels and damages their relationships. While men frequently are the subject of …

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At Olympia Family Theater, No One’s Too Small to Make a Difference

By JONAH BARRETT “Picking the new season is one of the hardest parts of my job,” said Jen Ryle of Olympia Family Theater (OFT), “and I really agonize over it. I want it to fit the time and place we are.” OFT’s 2019-2020 mainstage season has been announced. Ryle mentioned there were a handful of …

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Actor Scott Pinkston

Updating Volpone for the 21st Century

By Alec Clayton Actor, director, writer and educator Christian Carvajal has written a play that will have a reading at La Vida Wine Bar in Lacey. Carvajal’s brand-new, comic script is loosely based on Volpone by Elizabethan and Jacobean playwright Ben Jonson and features the talents of actors Heather Christopher, Michael Christopher, Gabe McClelland, Scott …

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Choice Comedy at Rhythm & Rye

By Alec Clayton Local comedian Sam Miller has teamed up with storyteller and StoryOly co-founder Elizabeth Lord to bring to Olympia “Choice Comedy,” an evening of all-female standup comedy to benefit reproductive rights in Alabama. The show will be hosted by Lord and will feature Amanda Biddle from Olympia plus Jill Silva from Tacoma, and Portland’s Tory …

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Shakespeare’s The Tempest Storms into Olympia’s Port Plaza

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The Tempest — third and final of this area’s outdoor-summer-Shakespeare plays — opened Thursday, August 15 at the viewing tower at Olympia’s Port Plaza. It opened with the crash of thunder and lightning in a chaotic scene of a storm at sea performed in front of the …

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The Tempest at Port Plaza

by Tom Simpson William Shakespeare will return to the South Sound this summer with an exceptional production of his classic, magical romance The Tempest at Olympia’s Port Plaza. The production will feature professional stage actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and is co-sponsored by Olympia Harbor Days, which will bring tall ships as stage scenery …

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All 100 Fires: Experimental Theater by Theater Maestra Donna Oblongata

by Ned Hayes Olympia has professional theater, amateur theater, family theater and community theater. Yet we are often bereft of truly experimental genre-busting theatrical adventures. In late July, on one night only, writer/performer/puppeteer and underground wandering clown-minstrel Donna Oblongata will grace Olympia with her presence and fill your need for an experimental journey to the …

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