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Happy Days: Beckett play warns against blissful ignorance

13 Mar

Only Samuel Beckett‏ would write a play about a woman buried up to her chest in a

Mary Ewald and Seanjohn Walsh in "Happy Days." Photo by Lindsay Smith.

Mary Ewald and Seanjohn Walsh in "Happy Days." Photo by Lindsay Smith.

massive hill of sand, her only companions a taciturn old man and a bag containing drugstore goodies and a gun … and call it Happy Days.

On its surface, the play, now on stage at New City Theater, is little more than a faintly optimistic two-hour monologue, delivered by a Pollyanna-ish older woman, Winnie (Mary Ewald). Lurking just beneath the typical Beckett circumlocution is a profound treatise on loss and physical decay that disturbs as often as it illuminates.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

Strong talent infuses Red at Seattle Rep

4 Mar

The color red means different things to different people. Red can be passion or apples or

Denis Arndt as painter Mark Rothko in the Tony Award-winning play, Red, onstage at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Photo by Chris Bennion.

Denis Arndt as painter Mark Rothko in the Tony Award-winning play, Red, onstage at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Photo by Chris Bennion.

lipstick. It can be a sunset or fire or rage. Or, as painter Mark Rothko reveals in Red, currently on stage at Seattle Repertory Theatre, it can represent both your life’s blood and your life’s work.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

A Single Shard debuts at Seattle Children’s Theatre

26 Feb

What happens when a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright takes on a Newberry Award-

Jason Ko as Tree Ear in "A Single Shard." Photo by Chris Bennion.

Jason Ko as Tree Ear in "A Single Shard." Photo by Chris Bennion.

winning author’s story about 12th century Korea, Single Shard? Something refreshing.

As tastefully restrained spectacles go, there aren’t many shows that can compete with the new play, A Single Shard, which had its world premiere at Seattle Children’s Theatre on Feb. 24. Clay pots are created and destroyed on stage; life-size crane, deer and fox puppets alternately menace and enchant; and dancers in swishing silks enact 12th-century Korean dances to music that is both spare and haunting.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

‘The Young Man from Atlanta’ asks, does the truth help us?

23 Feb

The American dream as a guiding star, historic relic, or unreachable aspiration has been

Will Kidder is confronted with unpleasant truths in "The Young Man from Atlanta." Photo by Armen Stein.

Will Kidder is confronted with unpleasant truths in "The Young Man from Atlanta." Photo by Armen Stein.

both studied and sullied by playwrights for decades. Never more so than in Horton Foote’s powerful opus, The Young Man from Atlanta, which made its Seattle debut at Stone Soup Theatre on Friday (Feb. 17).

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

Poetry+Motion at Town Hall combined poetry, dance, and African-American experiences

21 Feb

February is the month of love and the month of African American history. On Feb. 19, the

Dancer Scott Bartell and poet Alvin Lloyd Alexander Horn. Photo courtesy of Jack Storms/Storms Photographic.

Dancer Scott Bartell and poet Alvin Lloyd Alexander Horn. Photo courtesy of Jack Storms/Storms Photographic.

Seattle-based performing arts project, Poetry+Motion, presented the results of an innovative collaboration between local black poets and dancers. “Love, Our History” featured dancers performing self-choreographed numbers inspired by original poems, which were read aloud by the poets as accompaniment to the dance performances in lieu of music.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

Let’s get naked … on stage

17 Feb

The difference between being naked and being nude lies at the crux of “See Me

Award-winning actor and playwright Maria Glanz exposes her body and soul in her comedic monologue, “See Me Naked.” Photo by Omar Willey.

Award-winning actor and playwright Maria Glanz exposes her body and soul in her comedic monologue, “See Me Naked.” Photo by Omar Willey.

Naked,” an award-winning monologue by Seattle actor Maria Glanz that has been remounted at West of Lenin this month, more than a decade after its debut.

Being naked means being embarrassed, deprived of covering, and ultimately ashamed. Nudity, on the other hand, is without discomfort; a condition of utter confidence. As Glanz struggles throughout the hour-long piece to get out of her clothing, she is in truth wrestling with the dichotomy of her fear of nakedness and her desire for nudity.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

Seattle Public Theater finds meaning in Stoppard’s Beckett-like play

29 Jan

Remember Rosencrantz? From Hamlet? How about Guildenstern? In Shakespeare’s play,

Games of chance sustain Rosencrantz (Alyssa Keene, left) and Guildenstern (Angela Di Marco, right) in Seattle Public Theater's gender-bending production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead."

Games of chance sustain Rosencrantz (Alyssa Keene, left) and Guildenstern (Angela Di Marco, right) in Seattle Public Theater's gender-bending production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." Photo by Paul Bestock.

these childhood friends of the titular character are commissioned to spy on the Prince of Denmark in order to find out what’s ailing him, then escort him by sea to England where he is scheduled to be killed. But then the pirates attack …

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

 

New play by Stranger columnist confronts mortality with Youtube

24 Jan

The Stranger’s “Last Days” columnist, David Schmader,is morbidly

David Schmader is performing his one-man play, A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem at Richard Hugo House. Photo courtesy of Richard Hugo House.

David Schmader is performing his one-man play, A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem at Richard Hugo House. Photo courtesy of Richard Hugo House.

fascinated by “found” comedy: those moments in life where things go so cosmically awry that the only possible response is laughter. In his new solo play, A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem, which opened Jan. 20 at Seattle’s writing haven, Richard Hugo House, Schmader delves into the decade-long period when he attempted to mitigate the emotional damage from his HIV diagnosis by indulging his eclectic and idiosyncratic sense of humor.

- Read review at crosscut.com.

‘Spring Awakening’: A boldly passionate bourgeois critique at Balagan

13 Jan

There are several reasons Balagan Theatre isn’t letting anyone under the age of 14 into

Melchior (Brian Earp) and Wendla (Diana Huey) discover each other in the regional premiere of Spring Awakening at Balagan Theatre. Photo by Pamela M. Campi.

Melchior (Brian Earp) and Wendla (Diana Huey) discover each other in the regional premiere of Spring Awakening at Balagan Theatre. Photo by Pamela M. Campi.

its production of the musical Spring Awakening, which made its regional premiere on Jan. 6. Namely, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, abortion, incest, suicide, and a graphic sex scene enacted in full view of the audience. All this made-for-TV controversy is packed into a two-hour musical based on an 1892 German play, whose characters are barely older than those banned from attending the Seattle performance.

- Read review at crosscut.com.

Seattle’s naughtier Nutcracker flaunts class amidst nudity

16 Dec

Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker is pure adult holiday

Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker runs through Dec. 24 at The Triple Door. Photo by Chris Blakeley.

"Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker" runs through Dec. 24 at The Triple Door. Photo by Chris Blakeley.

entertainment. Good humored and farcical, with a stocking-full of sly winks to the audience throughout its two acts, the real gimmick of the show is the unexpected fact that these ladies (and gentlemen) of burlesque really can dance.

Now in its sixth year, the show, while not quite tasteful, is never vulgar or crude. Stocked with veterans of Seattle’s burlesque scene, as well as former dancers from Spectrum Dance Theater and Ballet Bellevue, there’s a polish and panache to this deconstructed (and denuded) version of The Nutcracker. Men and women alike engage in impressive pointe work, with fluid port de bras (no, not those kind of bras) that bring unexpected elegance to the production.

- Read review at Crosscut.com.

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