by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS In storytelling and theater, some plays have themes threaded so deeply into their fabric that the audience can’t help but ponder them as the story unfolds on the stage. The Trip to Bountiful, a play about family relationships, loyalty and love, is one such play. It hits the stage …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS It’s a shame that more than half the seats were empty at Harlequin Productions’s opening-night performance of The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck. Potential audience members who could’ve been in those seats don’t know they missed the funniest comedy to grace South Sound stages this season. The Understudy …
WEEKEND PREVIEW is your weekly guide to events in Thurston County. This week, the Lacey Ethnic Celebration brings more stunning music, dance, and cultural performances to the stage than you can count. Don’t forget all the other amazing theater and dance around town, either. Just grab your tickets and find a seat to relax in, …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Actress Carolyn Willems Van Dijk was born for the stage. She’s all doe eyes and smile, voice and confidence. In short, she is something to behold. And behold her you can—if you haven’t already been lucky enough to do so. She’s performing in Harlequin Productions’s upcoming contemporary musical, First …
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS A riot is coming to town! Russian activist band Pussy Riot’s own Marina Alyokhina and Pussy Riot Theater will present the world premiere of their new, live, musical-theatrical performance, Revolution, at the Capitol Theater. Alyokhina, recounting her experiences with Pussy Riot, based Revolution on her book of the same …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The ever-popular The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty is coming to The Washington Center this spring, performed by the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Pirates is a witty comic opera in two acts, featuring what is popularly known as “The Major General Song,” a so-called …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS If Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom sounds more like the name of a horror video game than the title of a play, there’s good reason: Neighborhood 3, opening Thursday at South Puget Sound Community College, is a play about a video game—a creepy one in which reality and virtual …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS The first musical by Olympia Choral Society director Terry Shaw, opening Thursday, tells the stories of people living not in houses or apartments but in Tents. He describes the musical as “a story of stories” about the lives of eight residents of a homeless camp. Though performances are at …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Forget everything you know from Disney’s version of Alice in Wonderland. Olympia Family Theater is about to bring forth the world premiere of local thespian Kate Ayers’s original adaptation, and there will be nary a Tweedledee or -dum in sight. Things are about to get “curiouser and curiouser.” Ayers’s …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS “Leapin’ Lizards! Just look at this joint!” It’s an iconic line, one many people today still recognize even though it’s been 40 years since America’s sweetheart, Little Orphan Annie, first delivered it on the stages of Broadway. It won’t be long until Olympia residents are repeating it, as the …