posts about live theater, live performances, actors, acting, shows, and other theatrical things…
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS Time is of the essence in English playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s 1995 thriller Communicating Doors, opening this weekend at Olympia Little Theatre. The title is a British phrase meaning a passage between two adjoining hotel suites. The story begins 20 years from now, when executive assistant Julian procures the services …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS I carried delicious anticipation and a measure of trepidation to the opening of American Idiot at Lakewood Playhouse – anticipation because it is such a highly praised musical, and trepidation because what little I had heard of Green Day’s music seemed ear splitting with garbled lyrics. I …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions will bring Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play I Am My Own Wife to Olympia for their first play of 2018. It is the true life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an eccentric and elegant German transvestite who hid from the Nazis in plain sight by presenting as a …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions’ The Stardust Christmas Fandango is the 22nd show in the series of locally written and produced holiday musicals that has been thrilling audiences for decades. Harlequin co-founder Linda Whitney calls it a Christmas card to Olympia. The series started in 1994, and Harlequin has done …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Olympia Family Theater has never done a bad play. Their performances are professionally produced with top-notch adult actors and crew, sometimes with child actors thrown into the mix, and they range in quality from good to very good to knock-your-socks-off excellence. That is to say, some of …
by Tom Simpson for OLY ARTS South Sound children’s theater group Apple Tree Productions will open Annie for a limited run in mid-December. Annie is the first full-scale holiday musical for Apple Tree, in their new home in the historic Capitol Theater, owned by the Olympia Film Society. Heidi Fredericks, founder and artistic director of Apple Tree, …
by Jerry Berebitsky and Lori Lively Charles Dickens’ classic play, A Christmas Carol, will be performed by 8th grade students from the Olympia Waldorf School (OWS) on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 8 and 9. Through a unique partnership between OWS and The Evergreen State College (TESC), the play will be performed at The Evergreen State …
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS Olympia meets the Hundred Acre Wood this fall season at Olympia Family Theater. The family production company will perform a theatrical rendition of Winnie the Pooh from November through December. Heading this play is one of OFT’s co-founders and regular directors, Samantha Chandler. Pooh Bear, created by English author …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS This season’s The Stardust Christmas Fandango at Harlequin Productions is a Christmas card of comedy, nostalgia and great ’60s music. This year will mark the 22nd installment of this locally written and produced entertainment, centered around the Stardust nightclub in New York at Christmastime. “It’s a great alternative holiday …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS The number 3 is auspicious, whether we’re talking about the holy trinity, the mind-body-spirit triad or the “lucky number 3.” Perhaps that’s why the South Puget Sound Community College drama department will present three brand-new productions for the 2017-2018 season: Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), The Glass Menagerie and …