Author name: Marie Bonfils

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PREVIEW Sandbox Radio’s New Year’s Show

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Sandbox Radio Returns to ACTLab with Some New Year’s Resolutions, December 30

Sandbox Radio returns to ACTLab with the latest installment of their one night only, wildly popular radio show. Sandbox Radio: Resolutions, will be recorded live for podcast in The Falls Theatre at ACT on December 30.
This latest episode will feature musical guests Puget Soundworks, a special appearance by Lisa Koch, writing from Scot Augustson, Elizabeth Heffron, Wayne Rawley and more. The Sandbox Radio players will include Eric Ray Anderson, David Gehrman, Sarah Harlett, Rachel Guyer-Mafune, Jason Marr, Pamela Reed, Karen Skrinde, Dan Tierney, Lisa Viertel, Bob Williams, and Marta Zekan, accompanied by the Sandbox Radio Orchestra featuring Angie Louise (Piano), Mike Catts and Dave Pascal (Bass), Troy Lund (Drums), Dave Marriott (Trombone), and Robertson Witmer (Accordion/Clarinet), with musical direction by Angie Louise of The Love Markets.

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Preview-The Twilight Zone Live

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“You’re entering another dimension…a dimension of sound, a dimension of signs, a dimension of mind.”

Yes, it is happening, the show we have all been waiting for since last December, Theater Schmeater’s annual live re-enactment of episodes from Rod Serling’s seminal sci-fi TV anthology series, The Twilight Zone. Directed by Rachel Delmar, the four episodes this year will be: To Serve Man, Deaths-Head Revisited, The Shelter and The Changing of the Guard.

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The White Snake-Stuns not with Venom but with Beauty

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Chinese Folktale-

The White Snake, React Theatre’s superb production of Mary Zimmerman’s play of the same name, now playing at 12th Ave Arts, was 95 minutes of sheer aesthetic beauty involving exquisite original music, incredibly creative visual effects, excellent acting and a truly amazing script. It was delightful in its simplicity and simply delightful.

One of the four great Chinese folktales, the tale of The White Snake has evolved over the years from a horror story to a romance. It has been performed as an opera in China, musical theatre in Hong Kong, and a dance piece in Taiwan. Zimmerman’s English version premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2012. React’s production is the first all Asian Cast in the U.S. And what a cast it was!!!

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A Bright Room Called Day-During a gloomy epoch called the Rise of the Third Reich

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You would sleep with a Nazi?????????
Well, you sleep with a Trostkyite!

The above quote sums up a lot about the multi-leveled conflicts, presented in A Bright Room Called Day, by Tony Kushner, produced by The Williams Project at The Hillman City Collaboratory on Rainier Ave, in South Seattle near Columbia City. Since Drama in the Hood’s mission has always been to review the shows in the neighborhoods, I was delighted to see this show in a place, south of the I-90 bridge, in a space which serves the community as a sort of “multi-purpose” room, at a cost anybody can afford. ( Pay What You Can)

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Hostages-Gallows Humor

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A play of mine called Hostages, written almost thirty years ago … I’m curious to see how it stands up after all these years…….Yussef El Guindi

Hostages, by Yussef El Guindi, which opened this weekend at 18th and Union is only tangentially about the political situation in the Middle East, the essence of Hostages is the relationship between two individuals, who do not like each other, stuck in an isolated situation for an unbearably long period of time.

It could have been written yesterday to remind us that even though the initial perpetrators of the current Middle East crisis, the two Bush presidents, have been out of office for a long time, presidents Clinton, Obama and the 45th have all been unable to create peace and stop the bombing of innocent civilians.

But, it also could have been written 100 years ago during the Russian civil war, about an aristocrat and a liberal democrat being imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, or 72 years ago when disgraced ex-concentration camp commandant Nazis were imprisoned with generals involved in the Stauffenberg plot to assassinate Hitler, because the play spoke about universal human emotions. I predict that this play will be just as relevant in 500 years as Shakespeare is today.

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I and You-Verbal Pas de Deux

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For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Walt Whitman

I and You, an utterly fascinating two person play, inspired by Walt Whitman’s poems in Leaves of Grass, opened at Theater Schmeater this weekend. The author, Lauren Gunderson, is currently the most produced playwright in the U.S., having won numerous awards; judging by this play, the awards seem well deserved. Varsha Raghavan, who played Caroline, is possibly the most accomplished actress currently working in Seattle.

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Brainpeople

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You want to know what the soul is like
This one’s in shreds. José Rivera

Written by Oscar nominated José Rivera, produced by Seattle’s Latino Theatre Projects, Brainpeople, an extremely interesting play, opened this weekend at Theatre off Jackson, complete with exceptional production values and a cast to match.

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The Moonshine Revival Tent: Revives Story Telling

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Modern Storytelling

Two delightful Storytelling shows are running this weekend at 18th and Union, Why the Moon Hides his Face and All Her Earthly Days (and other American Fairy Tales) both by Bret Fetzer’s The Moonshine Revival Tent crew, which is a unique fusion of storytelling and a cappella choral singing. Written by the eloquent Bret Fetzer, his fairy tales take place in a world half-Appalachian, half-Dust-Bowl, where magic springs from coal mines and cigarettes, where there is always a morality, wit, superb writing, delightful singing and an excellent performance from Bret and singer Sari Breznau, Mike Gilson, Christine Longé and Jillian Vashro

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The Diabolical Elixir-A Live Radio Show of the Gothic Variety

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The Diabolical Elixir

Thanks to Garrison Keiller and the downloadable internet, radio shows and radio plays i.e plays written specifically for radio, have had a revival. N.B. Competition with television made radios shows and plays dinosaurs in the U.S. in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In Seattle, there is not only Sandbox Productions, which has quarterly productions, but also Madcap Melodrama. On Tuesday, September 23, Madcap performed a live original radio play The Diabolical Elixir, a spoof of 19th Century melodrama, with an outstanding cast and exquisite sound effects

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The Good Woman of Setzuan

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Erst kommt das Fressen,
Dann kommt die Moral

(First ya gotta have a full belly,
Then morality follows.) Bertholdt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht’s Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, (imperfectly translated as The Good Woman of Szechuan, instead of the Good Person or more literally the Good Human Being ) opened at ACT Lab this weekend. It poses the great moral question of all time: “Is it possible for a morally good person to survive in a society ruled by egotism, corruption, exploitation and greed.” The answer Brecht, who died in 1956, would have given would be “not under Capitalism.” In 2018, knowing about the corruption of various Capitalist, Communist and Religious regimes, it seems there is no answer.

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