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It's been a tough month. What this rain-soaked weekend calls for most is one awesome round of head-banging, guitar-thrashing, devil-horn-signing indoor entertainment, away from all those candy-crazed toddlers. Let there be rock! Aussie ensemble AC/DC is still touring even as they crumble like arctic ice, but I can tell you
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The Magic Flute is set in an unnamed fantasyland, but this production benefits from local stylistic influences. Tacoma Opera drew inspiration from the art and culture of Pacific Northwest Salish tribes, with valuable assistance from the Puyallup tribe in particular. The event's web page notes the
Arts
Dressing to scare this All Hallows Eve? Of course you are. You're cool like that. So why not take your sexy, imaginative duds to a joint where they'll be appreciated? Damn right we're referring to ... the opera. We'll give you a minute to let that sink in. Surely we meant
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I want you to do something for me. I want you to surf over to YouTube and check out two Uncle Bonsai videos. Chances are you've never heard of the Seattle folk trio, so this'll be your first and second exposure. Their gorgeous harmonies and silly, singular lyrics remind me
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The Northwest Playwrights Alliance's Double Shot Play Fest is a chance for local scribes to show off and, just as important, for the organization to make a little spending cash. Consider this: eager writers go to work the evening before the festival, as that's when they're handed the topic for
![Through Oct. 19: "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]"](/uploads/articles/24887-thumb_wi100_he100_cr1:1.1412964825.jpg)
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If you're a regular theatergoer, chances are you've already seen a production, perhaps one starring Chris Cantrell. That popular Olympia actor directed a new version for Theater Artists Olympia (TAO), an avant-garde company freshly ensconced in its idiosyncratic, full-time venue, the Midnight Sun. The troupe did admirable
Arts
They walk among you, shaded beneath hooded vestments. You may not even know they're there. A hollow-eyed, pallid tribe, they watch from the darkness, listening to your every word. Then, like invisible vampires, they feed on your deepest thoughts and emotions before regurgitating them into the street. Sunlight drains them.
Stage
You'd be amazed how hard it is to find genuinely funny play scripts these days. A few decades ago, it seems to have dawned on budding Neil Simons that the real money's in TV, and off they went, never to return. So when, in 1987, three American dudes brought their
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While none of the Comic Strippers possess Chris Farley's shirtless je ne sais quoi, it's fair to say they'll never give Magic Mike a run for his sweaty singles. Truth be told, they may not even take off their pants. But once their shirts are off, they'll apply their trained
Arts
My undergraduate alma mater hosts a yearly offering called "Mr. ECU," in which male competitors vie for cash and prizes by stripping to their undies. One year Barbara, queen of the snobbiest sorority on campus, hailed me at an event the month prior to Mr. ECU. I didn't know Barbara
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As strenuously as I labor to remain ignorant, there are occasions working for this fine journal when I discover myself learning something inadvertently. Such was the case when editor Ron "Pappi" Swarner asked me to cover an upcoming performance by Hamell on Trial. Absolutely, I replied. Happy to oblige. Now.
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I think it'd be tough to argue Clybourne Park isn't one of the best-written scripts we've seen in years. It won the Pulitzer, the Tony, and the Society of London Theatre's Olivier Award. Playwright Bruce Norris does an exceptional job of allowing characters to talk themselves
Stage
I think it'd be tough to argue Clybourne Park isn't one of the best-written scripts we've seen in years. It won the Pulitzer, the Tony, and the Society of London Theatre's Olivier Award. Playwright Bruce Norris does an exceptional job of allowing characters to talk themselves into conflicts far deeper
Liquid
"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love." - Song of Solomon 2:5, KJV I'm a 2007 transplant to the South Sound. Even before I moved here, though, I knew Washington was famous for four things: designer coffee, incessant rainfall, sparkly vampires who dated mouth-breathing
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One of our most notable musical offerings this time around is a movie ... sort of. Y'know how a company called Fathom Events beams one-night-only screenings to movie theaters? In addition to RiffTrax commentaries and Metropolitan Opera productions, that service also transmits the occasional show from London's West End. This
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There's a thunder on the horizon, Gritty City, and it's not our inevitable return to a gray autumn rainscape. No, that ominous rumble you hear, pitched way, way down in the basso profundo hum of a gathering tremor, is nothing more than the return of the Dockyard Derby Dames: Tacoma's
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There's a thunder on the horizon, Gritty City, and it's not our inevitable return to a gray autumn rainscape. No, that ominous rumble you hear, pitched way, way down in the basso profundo hum of a gathering tremor, is nothing more than the return of the Dockyard Derby Dames: Tacoma's
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Her friends and family may call her Chan Marshall, but the music-loving world knows her better as singer-songwriter (and actor and model) Cat Power. I first encountered Power opening for Liz Phair in the mid-'90s, then crushed on her 2003 album You Are Free. I even followed her excursion into
Stage
Looking ahead to local companies' fall theater offerings, it'd take an NSA supercomputer to find anything resembling a trend. Thank the gods! All too often, theater troupes play it safe from September to December, packing 'em in for inoffensive comedies and heartwarming holiday shows, thus stocking their coffers for colder
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It'd be a waste of everyone's valuable time to pretend the biggest item in Tacoma music news this week isn't the arrival of Katy Perry and her Prismatic World Tour. Like, not only is Perry, like, one of the biggest names in Top 40, she's also brought Tegan and Sara
