Pandemic Project
There are many ways to express the emotions people felt about the early 21st Century pandemic; some people took to violence and wife-beating, others spent time gardening and baking, the BGS Collective created physical theatre live at 18th and Union this weekend. N.B. streaming also available. 
O Joy, O Rapture Unexpected ! For two nights only, Monday and Tuesday, January 13th and 14th, a two person
Bret Fetzer’s Storytelling always delivers
Opening on Thursday, November 21, Bret Fetzer and his choral singers are back at 18th and union to entertain Seattle with old-fashioned story-telling mixed with choral singing.
In Sweetheart in a Chicken Coop, a young fellow falls in love with a girl who’s been transformed into a chicken — but his mean and feckless fiancee won’t let anyone take anything that’s hers, even though she’s not even sure if she likes him. This American fairy tale is told in the Moonshine Revival Tent’s fusion of storytelling and choral song, and accompanied by a few extra treats (including a short, sweet snippet of puppetry) and some delightful musical guests.
I heartily recommend this show to everyone, 18th and Union always picks winners and Bret Fetzer is a master storyteller. 
Edgar Allan, a play created and performed by Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan, was at 18th and Union Performing Arts
Girlfriends! We will be heard!
Opening October 24th, 18th and Union Arts Space, Mampsh Productions, and Starstrewn Productions will present the world premiere production of Overcoming, a collection of short plays by womxn (womyn) playwrights. Overcoming showcases work by up-and-coming female playwrights as well as Seattle favorites of the stage.
The Williams Project Walks into a Bar …
And sets two plays there: Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams and The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan. Same creative team led by director Ryan Guzzo Purcell, and the same actors.
How much can we guess Williams’s intentions from the title: Small Craft Warnings? As far as revealed during the play, none of the characters own a boat.
Good craft, professional acting, excellent direction. If you’re not expecting another Streetcar it’s an insightful evening of theater.
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.
On one surface, Framed investigates questions about art: What is art? What is talent? What do you see in a painting? Who makes a work valuable? On another surface this show is about spoiled, foiled, and soiled relationships.
Soon enough, we learn what each desires. Joanie wants her art to be respected and sold in legitimate galleries though she is more poseur than artist; May has natural talent and takes art lessons from Joanie to learn how to draw a particular face; Jake wants to work for Nick; and Nick wants to keep his wife happy, stay married, and a make money booking illegal bets.
In sound human relationships we desire ethics, truthfulness, and honesty. These characters don’t have these virtues so there’s double-crossing, lying, and deceit. What fun!
Artist’s Fall in Love with Despair
Red Rover’s new production at 18th and Union, Visiting Cezanne, explores many of the self-destructive as well as sustaining tendencies of artists, using a time traveling setting and plot. This vehicle brings together two discouraged artists and alters history.
Written by Duane Kelly, directed by Andrew McGinn, Visiting Cezanne introduces a contemporary frustrated American artist, Nora Baker, in the midst of a mid-life crisis, who is miraculously transported back to Paul Cezanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence, circa 1900, i.e. six year’s before his death, in 1906
Not your average Dr. Phil intervention
I must admit that when I first heard about Intiman’s new show Barbecue, by Robert O’Hara, about two families, one black, one white, having family interventions for drug-addicted sisters, written by guy with an Irish last name, I cringed. HELP !!!!
The only help I needed was help to stop laughing and occasionally crying, so that the actors on stage could get on with the play. Yes it was a) that funny b) that sad and c)that uplifting. Since nothing can top the eloquence of the director, so I will just quote her because it pretty much sums up what I took away from the play: “ People tend to embrace the things that make us different rather than the complexities that make us all human beings. We want to turn that idea on its head with this story.” And did it ever!!!!! Without ever sounding serious or pompous, the script itself was outrageously witty and the delivery was wittily outrageous.
