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Marty McFly was a high school senior in 1985. So was I. Marty's dad wrote science fiction and bought him a sweet pickup. Mine, on the other hand, discouraged me from writing science fiction and borrowed radio parts from my hand-me-down Chevy Malibu, a car that couldn't have achieved 88
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The characters in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning dramedy How I Learned to Drive are so multidimensional and real, it's shocking to learn the play isn't autobiographical. Vogel told PBS's NewsHour she wanted to approach "Lolita from Lolita's point of view," so yes, this is a play about pedophilia. Uncle Peck (Tim
Stage
The characters in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning dramedy How I Learned to Drive are so multidimensional and real, it's shocking to learn the play isn't autobiographical. Vogel told PBS's NewsHour she wanted to approach "Lolita from Lolita's point of view," so yes, this is a play about pedophilia (and yes,
Stage
There's much to admire in the Outfit Theatre Project's The Transylvanian Clockworks, a co-production with Tacoma Little Theatre. The cast, a virtual reunion of Theater Artists Olympia‘s Othello from earlier this year, labors mightily to invigorate Don Nigro's talky script; but, like a 160-pound vampire bat, it never quite gets
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What really gets OLT's Harvey off to its endearing start is Marsha Guilfoyle's nuanced work as Elwood's tortured sister, Veta. The program says this is Guilfoyle's third play after years away from the boards, but aspiring actors would do well to study her adroit marriage of 1940s-style acting with naturalistic
Stage
When people complain about critics - which, come to find out, they do with some regularity - one of their first accusations is usually, "They make up their mind before they ever see the show." Well, perhaps some do. Personally, I haven't been able to make it work. Take, for example,
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Chatting with Miss Lily Verlaine, ballet-trained burlesque artist extraordinaire, two things become instantly clear. First, she and her partner, Jasper McCann, have exceptional phone voices. Seriously, these folks should moonlight (daylight?) on FM radio. Second, they're about to give Oly one hell of a show. They've reimagined Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic,
Stage
Chatting with Miss Lily Verlaine, ballet-trained burlesque artist extraordinaire, two things become instantly clear. First, she and her partner, Jasper McCann, have exceptional phone voices. Seriously, these folks should moonlight (daylight?) on FM radio. Second, they're about to give Oly one hell of a show. They've reimagined Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic,
Stage
Musicals are hard. Let's acknowledge that first. They take so much more work than most "straight plays" (the jargon, by the way, has nothing to do with orientation) that it's impossible not to root for them. We've taken heat here at the Volcano for being less than overwhelmed with recent
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Riot to Follow's take on Hedda Gabler is an ambitious effort that eases its way into a frothy cloud of Mr. Bubble. The title character has often been called "the female Hamlet," but that's superficial; granted, the melancholy Dane has his perfect "self-slaughter" soliloquy, but his primary goal is vengeance
Stage
Anton Chekhov once famously opined, "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." In Henrik Ibsen's 1890 classic Hedda Gabler, a pair of loaded pistols have indeed been introduced into the
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Now, you listen here, hombre. You and me, we done rode through all that "talk like a pirate" bosh, but all that balled-up palaver didn't hold a candle to talkin' like a cowboy. And you might think such frontier lingo wouldn't rightly fit into the flannel-mouthed Elizabethan purty-talk of one
Stage
Now, you listen here, hombre. You and me, we done rode through all that "talk like a pirate" bosh, but all that balled-up palaver didn't hold a candle to talkin' like a cowboy. And you might think such frontier lingo wouldn't rightly fit into the flannel-mouthed Elizabethan purty-talk of one
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There are elements I've come to expect from Olympia Family Theater: technical polish, figurative costumes, jokes for adults and, above all, an auditorium full of gleeful kids hopping in their seats. OFT and director Jenny Greenlee continue that reliable tradition with a reprise of A Year with Frog and Toad.
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There are elements I've come to expect from Olympia Family Theater: technical polish, figurative costumes, jokes for adults and, above all, an auditorium full of gleeful kids hopping in their seats. OFT and director Jenny Greenlee continue that reliable tradition with a reprise of A Year with Frog and Toad.
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"There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." In December 2008, with these words, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) declared the war on Christmas that Bill O'Reilly
Stage
The sad fact is my memory isn't as good as I remember it being, so take it with a grain of salt when I say last year's installment of Lord Franzannian's Royal Olympian Spectacular was described, in Oly theater circles at least, as "the talent show." Lord Franzannian is, in
Stage
The history of the musical Hairspray is a convoluted one. It's based on a 1988 film comedy by noted oddball John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom), in which drag artist Divine plays mom to Ricki Lake. The young, pre-diet Lake plays Tracy Turnblad, a bright-eyed teen-age girl in 1962 Baltimore
Arts
When Broadway, film and TV dynamo Ben Vereen opened the Washington Center a quarter-century ago, he was already one of the world's proven talents. He won a Tony for Pippin in 1973, a year after playing Judas in the Broadway debut of Jesus Christ Superstar. He's still recognized for playing
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This isn't Hinson's first show at Minnaert Gallery, but then again, he used to teach art history there. (Membership has its privileges.) According to the college website, "Palminteri often paints large, colorful narrative pieces highlighting domestic life, while Hinson works more in abstract painted constructions. ... Born of this relationship
