Southern storyteller and solo performer Jim Loucks
brings Booger Red to Theatre Off Jackson

Solo performer and playwright Jim Loucks brings his Southern storytelling style to Theatre Off Jackson with his one-man show Booger Red June 27-29, 2019 (Theatre Off Jackson, 409 7th Ave S., Seattle, WA 98104). Booger Red is directed by Lisa Chess.

“They stood perplexed in top hats, as if round the carcass of a vulture. Bewildered crows.”

Berthold Brecht about Franz Wedekind’s funeral

The musical version of a once highly controversial play, Spring Awakening, by Franz Wedekind, opened at Garfield High School’s Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center this week. Although the musical version, with music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Steven Sater. won numerous Tony awards on Broadway, in my opinion, it was the sort of play that should never be adapted into a musical.

Benefit Concert for Stella, daughter of Hans Alwies and Amy Thone

On Wednesday May 22, musicians connected with Seattle’s theatre community will offer a benefit concert at the Royal Room in Columbia City to help with this effort. This will be a great event to bring our community together in celebration of this amazing family, who have touched so many of us in beautiful ways.

My Minister is out there, with my Mother!!!!!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the way to save a weak play is to turn it into a musical. Why anyone would want to turn the material of the film, The Full Monty, which has a strong plot, based on human tragedy and social relevancy of a global nature, into a musical is beyond me. Yet three years after the 1997 film Terrance McNally and David Yazbeck did just that. This weekend Tacoma Musical Playhouse produced The Full Monty, the Musical.

Join The Funhouse Family and Theatre Off Jackson for Funhouse Tonight!, running for one weekend only, with a unique lineup of comedians, musicians, and special guests each night! Come for the entertainment, stay for the mysterious prizes.

strong>See ART in the original French, then in Translation

Sponsored by Tacoma Arts Live (formerly the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts) Theater on the Square will open ART by Yasmina Reza, using Christopher Hampton’s English translation. The English version will open exactly one week after Rue du Hazard’s French production opens in Kirkland. It makes for a great experience for theatre goers to see the show in the original French and then in translation.

Black Brilliance

The 16th Annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, opening Thursday April 25 and running through Sunday the 28th , will showcase stories from the African Diaspora through the lens of over 25 independent filmmakers.

Festival at 18th & Union Arts Space SpringShot is a grouping of live shows as fresh as a dewy morning in April. The series highlights diverse artists in a varied program that includes solo performance, magic, sketch comedy, clown, documentary theater, and more. Curated by José Amador, Andrew Lee Creech, and K. Brian Neel, SpringShot […]

Marisol Soledad opened a one-person show at 18th and Union, Here at Home, as part of the Springshot festival. The highpoint was her costume, which demonstrated that with a little big of imagination, an effective costume can be put together on a low budget. I think the basic idea, was that she was trying to present her clown persona as a bird. Her costume and her physicality certainly were effective in suggesting that.

However, she used a funny squeaky voice in this interactive show which drew on mime, storytelling, humming Edith Piaff’s La Vie en Rose and a bit of TV Talk Show type questions. Some people liked it. It was amusing in part but, in my opinion, as she seemed to be a talented performer, I was disappointed by the lack of form and structure. There just was not enough to hold audience’s attention for a full hour.

Welcome to For-Profit Hospital

One of the seven shows as part of Springshot A gue, (noun a fever or shivering fit,) opened this past weekend at 18th and Union. Written and performed by José Amador, it tells the tragic tale, which we hear so often in contemporary times: that of being laid-off, loosing health-care benefits, slowing sinking from couch-surfing to homelessness, while being seriously ill without health insurance.