Stage
I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, so my family didn't celebrate holidays. I wasn't obliged to sit though two-hour saccharine overdoses about the true meaning of Christmas. In retrospect, perhaps that wasn't so awful. See, Nuncrackers presents me with a dilemma. I hated it. I really, really hated it. You
We Recommend
If "you are 60, going on 70," The Sound of Music was one of the biggest pop culture events of your youth. It's a holiday standby on stage and TV, and I imagine it reminds you of happier, more innocent times. That's probably why the matinée lobby
Stage
Did you know that, adjusted for inflation, The Sound of Music (1965) is the third-biggest box office hit of all time? It made more money than Titanic, Avatar or any Star Wars movie since the first. (The all-time champ is still Gone With the Wind, which made the equivalent of
Stage
For the most part, Sesame Street taught me to read. Is it any wonder, then, that I love puppetry? I'm a huge Star Wars fan (go, Disney!), and in several screen incarnations, Jedi Master Yoda, Admiral Ackbar and Jabba the Hutt were sophisticated puppets. E.T. and Audrey II were puppets
Arts
If you've ever watched Frasier or Top Chef Masters, you're familiar with the concept of a TV spinoff: it's when a popular character is given his or her own show, usually in the same vein as the original program. Frasier Crane, for example, was a regular on Cheers before moving
Stage
When English playwright Caryl Churchill debuted Cloud 9 in 1979, it landed like a flashbang. In the mid-'90s, when I was in grad school, her work was still buzzed about in feminist theater circles. Top Girls made a similar splash in 1982. Then as now, a great deal of breath,
We Recommend
After watching three professional plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, my wife and I traveled six hours to catch the opening night of Night Must Fall at Olympia Little Theatre. As she drove, we dialed our expectations down. Community theater, including OLT, can and should be inconsistent
Stage
After watching three professional plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, my wife and I traveled six hours to catch the opening night of Night Must Fall at Olympia Little Theatre. As she drove, we dialed our expectations down. Community theater, including OLT, can and should be inconsistent in quality.
Stage
I was planning to see it, the play Go, Dog. Go! (It's an OFT joint, just in case you don't know.) My friends saw it early, on free preview day. They told me about it, this Go, Dog. Go! play. I said, "Will I like it? Do you think it's good?" "Take mushrooms before it!"
Stage
As much as I hate to spend an entire review listing the content of a show, it befits the nature of An Improbable Peck of Plays. That's because the show is actually seven little plays, each no longer than 15 minutes. It's a co-production of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance, Prodigal
Stage
Until the 19th century, theater didn't have what we now call directors. Performers led themselves and each other, or a playwright or company manager shouted suggestions. For millennia, actors got by without a single, commanding presence. I consider that often when I direct a show. It means I have to
Stage
"The Day the Music Died," as Don McLean put it, was February 3, 1959, when a small private plane went down five miles northwest of Mason City, Iowa. The crash killed pilot Roger Peterson and his three rock-star passengers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, aka the Big
Stage
With apologies to director Kendra Malm, I'm obliged to venture into spoiler country to review her latest effort at Olympia Little Theatre, Goodbye Charlie. The curtain rises on a room full of actors waiting for something to happen, and for most of Scene 1, we're right there with ‘em. Charlie
Stage
For artists and actors known primarily for work with competing Olympia theater companies to band together, a show would have to be something special, and 8 by Dustin Lance Black is one of a kind. The single digit of its title refers to California's Proposition 8, which sought to revoke
Stage
Usually in the Fall Arts Guide, I highlight upcoming shows from Capital Playhouse, Harlequin Productions or the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Rest assured, these worthy organizations will be promoted below. But this year, the Oly troupe of note turns out to be Olympia Family Theater, a company with
Features
If there's a perfect time to ingest pizza studded with grubs and slugs, I can tell you it's not 8 a.m. on Labor Day morning. Brian D'millo and Briana McGee, owner/operators of Ah Badabing Pizzeria in Lakewood, have opened their doors early to introduce me to their most intimidating toppings.
Stage
There are two theater superstitions even non-actors know. First, "good luck" is replaced with "break a leg." We theater folk have no idea why we avoid the phrase - John Wilkes Booth is sometimes credited - but the taboo spans the globe. In Australia, the alternate blessing is "Chookas!" In
Stage
Before writing a critique, especially of a play I'm on the fence about, I'm tempted to find reviews of previous productions and see whether my response was unusual. That wasn't an option this time, as Harlequin presents the first full production of The Americans Across the Street, a dramedy by
Stage
When American playwright A. R. Gurney wrote his Tony-nominated play Love Letters in 1989, he knew it'd be a draw for name-brand actors. That's because the play is in epistolary form, meaning it's constructed as a series of letters in the manner of many 19th-century novels, thus requiring less rehearsal
Stage
Ralph Fiennes's recent movie version of Coriolanus is set in "a city called Rome" - a blasted hellhole that looks more like 1990s Belgrade. It allows Fiennes to contemporize the action; what's more, it sidesteps the spectacle of bloodbaths in togas. Similar motivations compelled director Pug Bujeaud to transport Theater
