by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Meet Jen and Ted Ryle, the couple behind Olympia Family Theater. Theater is a touchstone for the Ryle family. Fittingly, the Ryles met each other at an audition at Shoreline College. “I nudged my friend when Ted walked in, and said ‘Who’s the straight guy? I want him!’” Jen …
WEEKEND PREVIEW is your weekly guide to events in Thurston County. This week, there’s an amazing lineup of musical performances and theater around town for you to enjoy, plus a spectacular InNOVAvator’s Arts & Makers Market Fair where you can find hand-crafted goods. Click here to listen to our podcast version of Weekend Preview, sponsored …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Jason Haws is a shapeshifter. Whether onstage or in front of a classroom, he glides effortlessly between roles and is utterly unforgettable in each, always stealing the show. As director Brian Tyrrell, who’s known him for over twenty years, articulates, “Jason Haws is a chameleon.” Though Haws had dreams …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Occasionally, we all stumble across real places that make us feel like we’re in a fictional world, places where we can do or be anything we want. Olympia has at least one of those places tucked right into the heart of the downtown area. You can feel the shift …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Inspired by the sci-fi and fantasy conventions where she promotes and sells her work, Olympia author Lee French started her own convention focused solely on books. “I go to a lot of science fiction and fantasy conventions because that’s what I write,” French said in a phone interview Monday. …
WEEKEND PREVIEW is your weekly guide to events in Thurston County. This week, there’s no shortage of theatrical performances, classic dance and musicals to keep you out on the town. The only question is whether you’re in the mood for heart-pumping fun or looking a chance to relax as the curtain opens. Click here to …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS For many people, theater is a way of life. For Olympia-born Pug Bujeaud, it began as a way of staying alive. “I had social anxiety before those things were talked about,” Bujeaud says. “I was so shy in high school that I would walk around the outside of the …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Inspired by the sci-fi and fantasy conventions where she promotes and sells her work, Olympia author Lee French started her own convention — focused solely on books. “I go to a lot of science fiction and fantasy conventions because that’s what I write,” French said in a phone interview …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS One might think, if one pored through painter and gallery owner Susan Christian’s biography, that she’s the kind of creative being one might expect to have seen hanging out with Picasso and Hemingway at Gertrude Stein’s salons at the beginning of the 20th century, or later at gatherings of …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Evergreen State College alumna Amy Shephard has collaborated with Andrew Gordon and Daven Tillinghast to write Olympia Family Theater’s final show of its 11th season, Fishnapped! “It’s an interactive, musical mystery involving a missing goldfish,” says Shephard, who also choreographs the production. The musical numbers, composed by Tillinghast, are …