Bloom at Childhood's End Gallery

REVIEW: Bloom at Childhood’s End Gallery

As summer creeps in and as we begin to see hope for an end to the COVID pandemic, Childhood’s End Gallery celebrates rejuvenation with an exhibition called “Bloom.” It features flowers, flowers and more flowers by local artists, plus paintings, etchings, sculptures and a cascading curtain of living flowers by Olympia artist Kathy Gore Fuss.

Debbie Sampson and Jeremy Holien in Falling

REVIEW: Falling at Olympia Little Theatre

Falling, now playing at Olympia Little Theatre (OLT), is 70 minutes of edge-of-your-seat intensity, a roller coaster of love, fear and laughter with no intermission. If there were an intermission, the audience’s total immersion into the Martin family would be weakened; if it were any longer than 70 minutes, the actors would be physically exhausted and the audience emotionally so. As it is, the time flies by at warp speed and the audience is left depleted, yet thoroughly satisfied.

REVIEW: Black Love: Community Building Through Mentorship

Five experienced artists have been asked to mentor younger artists and exhibit their own work alongside works by the artists they’ve mentored. The resulting exhibition, Black Love, is currently on display at SPSCC’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery.

REVIEW: Childhood’s End 50th-Anniversary Exhibition, Part 2

By Alec Clayton For half a century, Childhood’s End Gallery has been Olympia’s paramount art gallery. Bill and Richenda Richardson opened the gallery and gift shop in 1971. Since then, they’ve introduced many of the region’s best painters, sculptors and craftspersons to our town. Today, they continue to display works, not only by outstanding local …

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Theater Review: Three Days of Rain at Harlequin

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions’ latest offering is Three Days of Rain, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama by Richard Greenberg, author of Take Me Out. Without a clear picture of who’s who, this play can be confusing. Here’s a brief overview of the plot: In act one, 1995, Walker Janeway (Fox …

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VISUAL ART REVIEW: CJ Swanson paintings at Batdorf and Bronson

VISUAL ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton FOR OLY ARTS Years ago, CJ Swanson and her husband, the painter David Noah Giles, opened the now defunct Art on Center Gallery in Tacoma. Back then, her paintings were reminiscent of Sonia Delaunay’s work — a kind of soft and decorative cubism with circles and interlocking, almost kaleidoscopic or …

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“Intimacy Happens,” mixed media by Marilyn Frasca, photo courtesy of the artist

REVIEW: Marilyn Frasca at Childhood’s End

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Marilyn Frasca is a marvel. If there was ever such a thing as a must-see show, it’s Frasca’s show of some 56 drawings at Childhood’s End Gallery. This exhibition is the result of a lifetime, so far, of making, studying and teaching art. Her drawing style …

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Heather R. Christopher as Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat

REVIEW: Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat at OFT

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat at Olympia Family Theater is a fun play that breezes nonstop through almost-constant motion in less than 40 minutes. As everyone who remembers the book knows — and who doesn’t remember the book? — there aren’t a lot of words. …

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Silent Sky

REVIEW: Silent Sky at Olympia Little Theatre

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Before there were machines called computers, there were women called computers, meaning, according to Peter Shaw (Drew Doyle) in the play Silent Sky at Olympia Little Theatre, “one who computes.” Female scientists who were highly overqualified and severely underpaid were hired to do dull, routine jobs the …

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