by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS After 24 years filled with performances of all kinds — from original plays to a concert by Modest Mouse — The Midnight Sun is slated to close at the end of this month. Theater Artists Olympia, the troupe that has operated the black-box theater for the past three years, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS When not appearing on area stages, Dennis Rolly can be found serving customers at Pellegrino’s Italian Kitchen in Tumwater or riding scooters (a Taiwanese SYM 200 and an Italian Piaggio 500) with his wife, Gail, or traveling cross country. The latter is an every-other-year excursion, usually going to Kentucky, …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Theater Artists Olympia’s 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche might be one of the most difficult reviews I’ve ever written, because I don’t want to give anything away, and this insanely funny romp is so full of surprises that I can hardly say anything without divulging something you …
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 Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS With her jazzy voice, inflamed red hair and that mischievous twinkle in her eye, Harlequin Productions’s resident secret weapon has for years been none other than actor Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe. She’s currently gracing Harlequin’s State Theater stage as both Miss Erikson and Lady Saltburn in Present Laughter. She describes this …
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 Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Heather and Michael Christopher are a power couple in the Olympia theater scene. Heather is a teacher and director with Olympia Family Theater’s children’s programs and a near-ubiquitous actor. Michael is an actor, director and set and lighting designer. Michael most recently directed Theater Artist Olympia’s Playhouse Creatures and …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The setting is bleak, harsh, cold. Everything is gray. When the lights come up we see a figure in a fetal position on a square riser. Four men and one woman come in, all wearing black suits and white shirts, with a skirt on the woman, the …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis is a little-known play written in 1993 and set in Restoration England of the late 17th century. Prior to Charles II ascending the throne of England, women were not allowed to act on stage, but Charles II rescinded that law—much to …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS Most theater fans are aware women were banned from the stage during the Elizabethan period, which meant all female Shakespearean roles were played by men in drag. Even lifelong Olympia theater artist Michael Christopher, however, knew little about the end of that male-only era. When the troupe for which …