Local Jewell Productions’ take on Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Raitz at the Eclectic Theater on Capital Hill probably will get better with time. This is a family drama set at the desert home of the connected, Jewish, Republican, Wyeth family. Themes of loyalty, honor, love, justified violence, and creative freedom clash over two days around Christmas in 2004. I think Raitz wants us to feel a strong desire
Hold these Truths by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Lisa Rothe and featuring Joel de La Fuente in a stellar one-man performance, shows up the unique strengths of theater. This play’s mix of fact and fiction depicts Gordon Hirabayashi’s principled stand against racist WW II policies that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans.
Marianne Savell excels as the sole performer in The Amish Project about the shooting of school girls at the West Nickels Mines School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on October 2, 2006. Robert Quinlan directs this powerful fictionalized account by Jessica Dickey in the small and intimate Isaac Studio at Taproot Theatre. Isaac Studio is the right space for this, it seats 120 and with a bare set by Mark Lund of a hanging window and a simple wooden chair, it suggest the aggressive “simplicity” of the Amish as understood in our popular imagination.
The facts this play is based on read like yet another tragic school massacre:
Backyard Bard’s production of their abridged version of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well provided an energetic showcase for the four actors who played all the parts. Director Marc “Mok” Moser, however, should have kept a scene that made the ending intelligible.
The Synopsis: Helena is in love with Bertram, who is not interested.
The Seattle Shakespeare Company and Director David Quicksall have fun with Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare. This is a perfect play for a casual evening watching theater outdoors.
Theatre912 has brought Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar to Seattle. Using the intimacy of the Assembly Hall at Trinity Church to great advantage, Director Paul O’Connell gives the audience the sensation of examining the dynamics of these characters with the same close attention they want their writing to receive.
Sometimes during this writing seminar the character actually talk about the writing.
Hands Solo—Pianoman in the Bullitt Cabaret at the ACT Theatre is a delightful one man show starring Victor Janusz. It is directed by Lori Larsen. Featuring of a handful of original songs mixed in with cabaret standards, movie, and popular tunes, Janusz musically illustrates his lifelong love affair with the piano.
Terre Haute by Edmund White opened Friday, May 16 at ACT Theatre on one of their intimate stages. Veteran Director Aaron Levin brings military precision to White’s fictional meeting between the Oklahoma City bomber and a famous ex-patriot social critic. What are their motives? Do they share common ground? White’s script plunges right in and allows answers, and more questions, to surface. The leads are the show and we believe their performances.
If you know or look up the story, there are no surprise endings,
A New Brain—book and lyrics by William Finn, book by Finn and James Lapine and directed by Zandi Carlson—makes for uplifting musical theater about valuing every moment and making the most of second chances. Heart, time, and music are the main ingredients to “make a song” that recur in this energetic production from STAGEright Theatre in the tiny Black Box Theatre at Seattle Center.
William Finn set out to write a “musical documentary” in 1998,
Fifty-two years after its Broadway debut, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee’s alcohol infused comic-drama about couple dynamics, is experiencing a revival. The 50th Anniversary Broadway revival in 2012 was very well received. Making that the fourth time it has been on Broadway. Locally the Seattle Rep is offering this diamond in the rough directed by Braden Abraham with R. Hamilton Wright as George, Pamela Reed as Martha, Aaron Blakely as Nick, and Amy Hill as Honey. Returning home from a faculty party at 2 AM, George is surprised to learn that Martha has invited guests over who will be arriving soon. Abraham makes sure that the ensuing three hours keeps us laughing and also on the edge of our seats.
