Capital City Pride 2017 will be the first such celebration in decades without local activist Anna Schlecht at the forefront. In honor of her work over the years, here’s a retrospective of Schlecht’s social-justice work, co-presented by ThurstonTalk and OLY ARTS. by Heidi Smith for ThurstonTalk Anna Schlecht has been at the heart of the …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS “Resist hate. Celebrate love.” That’s the theme of the 27th-annual Capital City Pride, and it reflects the two sides of the event’s past and present. The festival, here and across the country, has long been both an opportunity to stand for LGBTQ rights and a celebration of that community …
by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Capital City Pride celebrates 26 years in 2017, and with this year’s celebration the torch of leadership has passed. Anna Schlecht has formally left her management role. Gina Thompson and Lucas Miller are co-chairs this year, alongside treasurer Christina White, board secretary Kai Abrahamson and volunteer coordinator Tiffany Casman. …
by OLY ARTS staff Each year, Capital City Pride recognizes local members of the community. Attendees at open Pride meetings throughout the year can nominate people for recognition, and the awardees are selected democratically as a community selection. This year, Capital City Pride chose to recognize the following three individuals: MEG MARTIN 2017 Pride Activist …
by OLY ARTS staff Pride is a public experience that affirms the presence and reality of the people in our community who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or gender fluid (LGBTQ). In fact, claiming the identity of “pride” is a radical act that confronts the idea of shame. It is a positive stance toward inclusion …
by Nora Kovacs for OLY ARTS “Once upon a time, there was a young woman who knew exactly what she wanted out of life.” That woman is Elizabeth Lord, and thus begins her story as an Olympia-based actor, teacher, vaudeville performer and, above all, storyteller. Lord describes herself as a “professional talker” who turned her …
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 …