theater

CRAZY DINNER! by nightmayor

You may have seen the hugely popular Lord Franziannian’s annual Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show, featuring offbeat artists from in and around the Olympia area — hosted by Lord Franziannian, a character developed by polymath writer, actor, and storyteller Elizabeth Lord. In true vaudeville style, Franziannian’s showcases various local creative and quirky oddball acts, no two are the same, and they’re none like anything you’ve seen before. It was from this pool of peculiar unconventionality that Lord (Elizabeth) discovered the band nightmayor (lowercase ‘n’ intentional). Wild Child performance space, May 21 – 31, and June 6, 7.

Four Shows for the Spring

Similar to a vibrant garden, our arts scene in Thurston County is filled with a variety of artistic companies and artists who are consistently adding color, beauty, joy, and their own lovely fragrance to our lives. Let Oly Arts be your “florist” this spring and give ideas of what you can add to the bouquet of your lives: TAO’s Anna Considers Mars — Harlequin’s Where the Summit Meets the Stars — OFT’s The Hobbit — and SPSCC’s Anastasia the Musical.

There & Back Again: OFT 2026 Hobbit Themed Fundraiser!

Olympia Family Theater invites you to journey through Middle Earth on May 2, 2026 at 5:30pm for a night to remember as we celebrate storytelling and community! Step into an immersive experience as you enjoy drinks at the Green Dragon, feast in true Hobbit style in the Shire, and more! Throughout the evening, guests will …

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The Wizard of Oz on Ice

The Wizard of Oz on Ice is a stunning blend of storytelling, skating, and visual artistry that brings this timeless tale to life in a whole new way. The themes of friendship, courage, self-discovery, and the magic of home will continue to resonate with audiences, both young and old. As you watch Dorothy and her …

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Double Shot Theater Festival in Tacoma

Double Shot Theater Festival in Tacoma is a kind of theatrical 100-meter dash. For roughly 20 years (festival creator Bryan Willis isn’t quite sure when it all got started), Double Shot has been assembling directors, actors, and playwrights to complete the Herculean task of writing, memorizing, rehearsing, lighting, costuming, and eventually performing 10-minute plays, all in about 24 hours. Saturday, April 18, and Sunday, April 19.

Oly Arts Spring 2026 Print Edition

The print edition of Oly Arts magazine is published! This is our 10th anniversary edition and it includes The Oly Arts Origin Story and much more! Find out where you can pick up a free copy and/or read and download the PDF version.

Bold Voices: The Children

The Children is the first staged reading in the 2026 Bold Voices series. A post-show discussion will follow both performances Retired nuclear physicists Robin and Hazel attempt to maintain normalcy as the world outside teeters in the aftermath of a disaster. When a former colleague arrives with an unsettling proposal, they are forced to confront the …

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Preview: Anna Considers Mars, Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) Lands in a New Space

Theater Artists Olympia has a new home in downtown Olympia in what is now called The Jefferson Street Arts Center, at the former site of the Johansen Olympia Dance Center. In TAO’s first show there, Ruben Grijalva’s “Anna Considers Mars” (the very model of TAO’s trademarked “untamed theater” while speaking at the same time, to our fateful current condition) brings us to the not-so-distant future where the earth’s habitability is critically threatened by climate change, the human search for a new home is under serious consideration, and people are overwhelmed by having to live in a vividly augmented reality, in which they wear glasses that make them appear to others wearing the glasses to be better-looking than they really are.

House Fire at Dukesbay Theater

In House Fire at Dukesbay Theater in Tacoma through March 29, what we’re seeing isn’t technically the afterlife, but rather a kind of purgatorial weigh station where Laurie finds herself after dying at the too-young age of 29. When the titular house fire ends it all, she says she was this close to changing her life for the better. And so, in this purgatory, Laurie is assigned three deceased people to take care of her “orientation” before she can move on to whatever the afterlife has to offer.

Theater Artists Olympia presents “Anna Considers Mars”

In Ruben Grijalva’s Anna Considers Mars – a play part science fiction, part family drama, and part hilarious comedy with a dark streak – Anna faces the possibility of a life-long dream to go to Mars while bumping up against a host of moral dilemmas here on earth. Anna is hopeful that there, with a …

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