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"So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause." - Star Wars, Episode III Like The Crucible or, for that matter, The Hunger Games, George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) is an allegorical novel - meaning it isn't about what it seems to be about. If you skipped it in high school,
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It's been dumping rain on the South Sound, so you're probably desperate for a sunny vacanza in Lombardy. Enchanted April at Harlequin Productions is just the thing. There's pretty much no way I can summarize Matthew Barber's charming idyll in a way that'll make it inviting to straight men, but
Stage
I don't want to take anything away from the unassailable work of Hello, Dolly!'s cast and crew at Capital Playhouse. Almost to a person, they're knocking themselves dead out there. It's amazing, truly, what these performers can do. Gwen Haw inhabits the role of matchmaker Dolly Levi, so closely identified
Stage
It's been dumping rain on the South Sound, so you're probably desperate for a sunny vacanza in Lombardy. Enchanted April at Harlequin Productions is just the thing. There's pretty much no way I can summarize Matthew Barber's charming idyll in a way that'll make it inviting to straight men, but here
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The musical Hello, Dolly! has always seemed somewhat old-fashioned, despite the fact that it hit Broadway in the mid-'60s. It's set in the early 20th century, granted, and brassy original lead Carol Channing will never be confused with Selena Gomez. But would you be more excited if we told you the show was
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Ariana Throne's one-woman "dance drama" Collision looks at rape culture in American college life. She herself was involved in two such collisions, and much of her performance is uncomfortably autobiographical. Throne uses a variety of performance skills to examine our views about rape - and to tell her own story
Stage
If you've been out of college for a while, you're probably unfamiliar with the phrase "rape culture." It's a feminist term, circa 1975, which classifies entire regions as supportive of sexual violence. Such a culture considers women public sexual utilities, then blames victims of whatever abuse is inevitably suffered. In
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The bitch of directing Shakespeare is the number of plates that must be kept spinning: a text packed with outdated language, a chorus of actors running on and off stage for dozens of scenes, and probably a concept Shakespeare never intended. If this daunting effort fails, the director gets most
Stage
The bitch of directing Shakespeare is the number of plates that must be kept spinning: a text packed with outdated language, a chorus of actors running on and off stage for dozens of scenes, and probably a concept Shakespeare never intended. If this daunting effort fails, the director gets most
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Ads for Theater Artists Olympia's A Bucket of Blood pose the question, "Who is Walter Paisley?" It's unlikely you've ever seen Roger Corman's 1959 B-movie original, so I'll fill you in. Walter Paisley is a miserable busboy in a late-‘50s Beat club called the Yellow Door. He's
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Ads for Theater Artists Olympia's A Bucket of Blood pose the question, "Who is Walter Paisley?" It's unlikely you've ever seen Roger Corman's 1959 B-movie original, so I'll fill you in. Walter Paisley is a miserable busboy in a late-‘50s Beat club called the Yellow Door. He's not the sharpest
Guides
It's no exaggeration to say Orca Books is part of the reason I moved to Olympia. When my family was desperate to lure me to the Pacific Northwest, one of the first places they took me was Orca. Two years later, when my novel Lightfall was published, I held my
Stage
In the fall of 2000, Houston's Enron Corporation claimed revenues of $101 billion. A year later, it was discovered to be worth exactly nothing, and 20,000 employees were out on their asses. The fallout cost fortunes and lives; we're living with it still. Yes, we know that. But just as the
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Given my lifelong adoration of facts and figures, it's a wonder I've never read The Phantom Tollbooth. Written by Norman Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, this 1961 kid-lit classic is oft referred to as an American Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It tells the story of Milo, a boy given
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Do you enjoy comedy? Do you like bliss? Then you'll want to catch the musical Newsday called "blissfully funny," Mel Brooks's adaptation of Young Frankenstein at the Washington Center. It was developed in Seattle in 2007 and hit Broadway two years later. A mostly faithful translation of the
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The musical Hair is much like a jam band concert: it's multi-sensual, it elicits an emotional ride, and it's probably about 15 minutes too long. That said, director Heidi Fredericks shakes every last nugget from Hair's theatrical dime bag at Capital Playhouse. If directors are reading, please take note of a
Stage
The musical Hair is much like a jam band concert: it's multi-sensual, it elicits an emotional ride, and it's probably about 15 minutes too long. That said, director Heidi Fredericks shakes every last nugget from Hair's theatrical dime bag at Capital Playhouse. If directors are reading, please take note of a
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We often speak of a movie or play as a "rollercoaster ride," but it's easy to forget that even the best rides begin with a slow, clanky climb up a hill. In the latter Harry Potter novels, Jo Rowling seemed to relish torturing readers with hundreds of
Stage
We often speak of a movie or play as a "rollercoaster ride," but it's easy to forget that even the best rides begin with a slow, clanky climb up a hill. In the latter Harry Potter novels, Jo Rowling seemed to relish torturing readers with hundreds of actionless pages, the
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For years, the Greta Jane Quartet played every Monday at the Royal Lounge. "Quartet of what?" you ask, as yet unhip to Ms. Greta Jane Pederson's jazz combo featuring Cary Black, Vince Brown, and Andrew Dorsett. In your world, jazz is the Pandora station your boss makes
