Stage
Henrik Ibsen's controversial classic A Doll's House as presented at Harlequin Productions, is stunning. And as relevant now as it was when it shocked theater-goers in 1879. Director Aaron Lamb has updated it with modern sets, costumes, music, and a highly stylized opening and closing that are breathtaking. For the first
Arts
Today and tomorrow (May 2-3) are the last two days of the art faculty exhibit at Tacoma Community College. A college faculty art exhibit is where the teachers get to put their art where their mouths are -- to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Kyle Dillehay and Marit
Stage
Now playing at Olympia Little Theatre is the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. Recent conflagrations over the treatment of race relations on stage and screen in BlacKkKlansman and The Green Book cast doubts on the treatment of race in the Oscar-winning film version of
Arts
The Evergreen State College graduate Ashley Miller has returned with a photography exhibition called Sweet Things in Galerie Fotoland, first floor Library Building. The press release and a printed statement on the gallery wall refer to her pictures as still-life photography, but although they are formally like traditional still-life arrangements, they
Stage
Plays about incompetent theater companies putting on bad plays are so common as to be practically a genre of their own. Some are as bad as the absurd performances they satirize, but there have been a few on stage and screen that are outstanding. The classics of this type are
Arts
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's In the Footsteps of My Ancestors at Tacoma Art Museum is a knockout punch to the emotions. Paintings and prints on display range from the 1970s to 2017, and from the earliest to the latest they are expressive and exciting. Upon stepping into the gallery, I immediately
Arts
Elise Richman and Nicholas Nyland are ubiquitous presences in Tacoma art spaces, but what they've done together at 950 Gallery is something one has to wonder if either of them could have done alone. Their site-specific and collaborative installation is one large piece of abstract art with individual pieces that
Arts
A warm and welcoming glow washes over you as you step into the gallery at Childhood's End. It's not just that the art on display is good, which it is. It's the spacing of the art and the dominant colors that flow wavelike from painting to painting from the warm
Stage
That's the way to do it, Centerstage. This is the way "Peanuts" should be produced on stage. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is based on the comics by Charles M. Schulz, adapted for the stage with book and music by Clark Gesner, and directed at Centerstage by Tyler Harr.
Arts
By definition, the Juror's Invitational at South Puget Sound Community College should be an exhibition of the best of the best. Featured are works from the award-winning artists from the 2018 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition, selected by juror Asia Tail. Absolutely, she did choose some outstanding artists, but she also
Stage
Tacoma Musical Playhouse is revising the tongue-in-cheek musical The Drowsy Chaperone from their 2010-2011 season with four of the actors from that earlier production: Mauro Bozzo as Robert Martin, John Miller as Mr. Feldzieg, John B. Cooper as Aldolpho, Nancy Hebert Bach as Chaperone and TMP Artistic Director Jon Douglas
Arts
I thought the art of landscape painting had reached an unstoppable point of redundancy at which original landscapes were no longer possible, and then Olympia artist Kathy Gore Fuss started painting in nature in all sorts of weather amongst the trees in Priest Point Park and the industrial business of
Arts
Pierce County AIDS Foundation has set aside a part of their offices as an art gallery, and for the month of March is showing a group of paintings by Robin Annette Jordan called She to bring attention to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Every year throughout the month of
Stage
The Lion in Winter by James Goldman is a riveting comic drama about King Henry II; his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine; his young ward, Alais (sometimes spelled Alys and sometimes Alice); and his three surviving sons: Richard, Geoffrey and John (the eldest, Young Henry, was killed when he and his
Arts
There are times when there is nothing in town for an art reviewer he hasn't already reviewed. But there are some exciting new shows opening in the coming days and weeks. The one I'm most excited about is Kathy Gore Fuss: Above, Below and Beyond, opening March 11 and running until
Arts
This year's 11th Annual Native American Art Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College is comprised of work from a year-long project called Yeha? that includes performances, videos, storytelling, and works of visual art. The exhibition title is And Now We Know: Indigenous Artists Write the World. An exhibition flyer
Stage
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and three Tony Awards for Best Play, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, now playing in repertory at Lakewood Playhouse, is a momentous and epic play, and very likely the best drama of the late 20th century. At seven-and-a-half hours in length, it is also a daunting
Stage
It's a tie. And rightfully so, because the theaters our readers chose as best in Olympia are two very different theaters that appeal to different audiences (with significant overlap), and they are each excellent in what they do -- easily equal in quality of production to the very best in
Stage
Last year, Olympia Family Theater was recognized with an Excellence in the Arts Award in a gala at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. This year, we choose the amazing couple behind the success of OFT as our Best Theater Couple: Jen and Ted Ryle. Founded in 2006 by Jen
Arts
Raven and the Box of Daylight at Museum of Glass is a dramatic presentation in glass art of one of the more enduring stories in the Tlingit tradition as created by internationally renowned artist Preston Singletary. Singletary is a Tlingit American from the Pacific Northwest. He studied glass art in residencies