PREVIEW Sandbox Radio
In like a Lion (Probably not out like a Lamb, either) Since their premier episode in June of 2011, recorded […]
Valentine’s Day-When Love Speaks
A Disease that has More Joys than Health
Many people nowadays think of poetry as little more than a disease, but Thalia’s Umbrella’s production of When Love Speaks will undoubtedly cure them of that notion, because more than any performance I have ever seen in verse, it honored the spoken word of the great English poets.
Six Degrees of Separation or Network Theory
A Late 20th Century Morality Tale of Political Dimensions.
Although Charles Waxberg, Artistic Director of Theatre 9/12, always presents thought-provoking plays, enhanced by his inspirational direction and staging, his production of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, was by far the most stimulating play I have seen there. A whole library could be filled with discussions about the psychological issues, the class conflict and now since it is almost 30 years after it was written, the historical background.
Animal Attack! Almost True Stories- Amusing, Intriguing and Incredibly WEIRD, yet engaging
All Creatures Great and Small Want you Dead!!!
Well, just when I thought 18th and Union Theatre had presented the best comedy show in town, they came up with another one, Animals Attack! Almost True Stories, by Scot Augustson, Kelleen Conway-Blanchard and Jennifer Jasper. The genesis for this particular gem was in 2016, when Kelleen contacted Scot and Jennifer and said, “Hey! Ya wanna do something about animal attacks?”
That something became a reading of stories about very weird and I mean VERY weird animal attacks with some improvisation and audience participation thrown in. It was a delightfully funny evening with some of the most creative writing I’ve heard in a very long time.
Raisins in a Glass of Milk or Raisins in a Rainbow
What it is like to be perceived as the “Other” and still try to get the part.
“I want to be a raisin in a rainbow” exclaimed one of the actors in Raisins in a Glass of Milk, a scripted performance by six Cornish students and alumi, currently playing Sunday nights at 18th and Union Theatre. The subject was the casting difficulties one’s appearance causes if one’s appearance deviates from the perceived ideal of “normal” in our society, which is still the Northern European blue-eyed blonde.
Shlong Song-Ironic Sarcasm is our Thing!!!
Sexual Bildungsroman
Yes, indeed Shlong does mean male appendage in Yiddish. That was about all I knew about the 9:30 Friday night play at 18th and Union, before an adorable young man dressed in combat boots, revealing short shorts and a car-coat length women’s fake fur coat, bounced on stage, like Tigger. Accompanied by what sounded like a female stripper’s song, he started dancing around, and showing off his “equipment.”
PREVIEW Questionable Content- A Comedy Panel Show
The hit comedy panel show, Questionable Content, returns to the friendly confines of The Pocket Theater on Friday, February 17th at 8:30pm. Questionable Content brings a cavalcade of comedians, performers and artists to compete in an uproarious battle of wit, deception and knowledge of off-beat pop culture and news.
PREVIEW Caught Red Handed-One performance only
Caught One-Handed Come home with Noah–a confused kid with sticky fingers who’s caught between a cross and hard place. Gleefully
Happy Hour-Delivers Laughter and Tears at 18th & Union
The Stars are no longer Spangled
It is often said that a good actor can take the telephone book and make it seem dramatic. Well, right here in Seattle at 18th & Union Theatre, two comediennes Keira McDonald and Erin Stewart, dared each other to write a sketch comedy to open on Inauguration Day 2017…a day which was decidedly unfunny, yet they kept us falling in the aisles with laughter. This is no mean feat, given the terror/disgust/boredom which people have felt after this long presidential campaign. Since the script did not depend on sophisticated language, the comedy was all in the delivery-sometimes very subtle, by these two comic geniuses, who could make the simplest sentence, seem unbelievably funny.
The Trojan Women-adaptation of Euripides Play, As relevant today as in 415 B.C.
The Trojan Women explores the Class, Racial and Sexual Politics of War
An intense but highly intriguing adaptation of Euripides’s The Trojan Woman, by Caroline Bird opened at Seattle’s favorite venue for plays taking place in prisons: The old Immigration Jail, now called The Slate Theatre. Produced by Civic Rep Theatre, the play offered a scintillating exposé of the interconnection between war and rape, of the rationalizations of the powerful as they evade their responsibilities and avoid making amends, how the wives of the powerful, accepting of their “feminine” roles, use power ruthlessly and of course, how the poor and disenfranchised pay the ultimate price for war. All this wrapped up in a coherent script, sprinkled with poetic witticisms, which honored the classical text and our modern theatrical conventions.