by Guy Bergstrom for OLY ARTS The international hit Stomp—which first hit the London stage in 1991 and has been playing on Broadway since 1994—is coming to Olympia in January 2017. Creators Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas go back another decade to 1981. Cresswell is a self-taught drummer who left school at 15 for music. …
The audience is in control, and anything can happen during 30 Plays in 60 Minutes, this fall’s production by the Saint Martin’s University theater arts department. The program hails from Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, created by Greg Allen. Its two-minute plays were written by The Neo-Futurists, a Chicago-based experimental-theater company founded …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Now showing at Olympia Family Theater (OFT), Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” is a small play that packs a big wallop for kids. I was not familiar with Mo Willems’ series of Elephant & Piggy children’s books before reading about them in the program. …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Quoting director Scot Whitney’s notes in the program for Harlequin Productions’ The Two Gentlemen of Verona, “Probably no one had argued that it is (Shakespeare’s) best work. It’s not…The jokes are often cheap, strained or downright corny. And though Shakespeare always played fast and loose with time …
by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Harlequin Productions has recently been posting behind-the-scenes updates with the hashtag #BestCrewEver. There’s justification for these humblebrags. In 2016, the backstage crew at Harlequin, headed by technical director Marko Bujeaud, was fortunate to add the very capable Bruce Haasl as assistant technical director. Haasl is an accomplished actor who …
by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS During World War II, a young Jewish girl managed to document her survival and endurance through the travails of wartime Germany. Across five years and seven Nazi labor camps, Sala Garncarz Kirschner wrote over 350 hidden letters and kept them hidden. Sala kept hiding those letters for over 50 …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Bryan Willis’ I Love You, Flavilla–playing for one night only Sept. 19, International Talk Like a Pirate Day–might sound a bit over the top. “It’s a story about the meanest pirate in the history of the world,” the Olympia playwright said. “It’s about a bully who meets his match …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Two decades after he last directed The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Scot Whitney of Harlequin Productions is at it again. This show, featuring costumes and sets that call to mind the art of Maxfield Parrish, runs through Oct. 16. He has a new take on the early Shakespearean comedy …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) has announced its fall 2016 stage offerings exclusively to OLY ARTS. As it has for the past four years, the end of summer will bring An Improbable Peck of Plays to the Midnight Sun Performance Space, TAO’s home since April 2014. This evening of short, …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS The Last Five Years, opening Aug. 18 at Harlequin Productions’ State Theater, tells the story of a relationship told from beginning to end—and from end to beginning. The Jason Robert Brown musical opens with Cathy (Katherine Strohmaier) singing about the end of her marriage. Then Jamie (Aaron Lamb) sings …