Seattle Rep

Past

Shout Sister Shout-Sing Sister Sing

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“Like Rosetta, I want to leave an audience with joy and perhaps a deeper realization that there’s power in love,”

Playwright Cheryl L. West

There is no doubt that playwright Cheryl L. West’s intention was completely successful, everybody in the audience of Seattle Rep’s production of Shout Sister Shout on opening night left with an incredible feeling of joy and love. Everything about this musical was magnificent beginning with the fabulous script chocked full of witty yet profound dialogue, superb acting, singing and dancing, beautiful costumes and a flawless production, directed by Randy Johnson

Past

Raucous Ride with Pride and Prejudice at the Rep

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Not one to mess too much with universal truths, I can confirm that it’s true; everyone loves a great comedy. Seattle Repertory Theatre presented the west coast premiere of Kate Hamill’s adaption of Pride and Prejudice last night. The play is directed by Amanda Dehnert, an experienced director who recently directed Westside Story, at Carnegie Hall. Kate Hamill shows her versatility and energy with this reimagined, sharp and humorous take on Pride and Prejudice. As Lizzy Bennet astutely states, “playing games keeps one sane.” Once the actors set foot on stage, there is no stopping the humor and fun.

Past

(IM)Pulse—Spectrum Dance Theater Disrupts Complacency

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Spectrum’s Dance Company’s “Theater of Disruption” lives up to that handle with dual World Premieres

Cruel, life-changing, and—too often—deadly violence suffered by LGBTQ people formed the basis for this 90 minute dance/dramatic performance by the Spectrum Dance Company + Donald Byrd. Though the press release mentions the killing of 49 people and injuring of 58 others in the machine gun attack by Omar Mateen a year ago at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Byrd drew upon the sadder and much older outlaw “tradition” of anti-gay violence. Evoking the artistic monologuist styles that emerged in the 1990s during the peak of the AIDS Plague, Byrd continued his exploration of a “theater of disruption.” This style of theater uses all the tools available for performance on stage to, in Byrd’s words, “engage audiences in issues that are difficult and intractable, and importantly to move closer to disrupting the artificial and often arbitrary boundaries between dance and theater.”

Past

Here Lies Love: Disco Down at Seattle Rep-Extended thru June 18

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Here Lies Love is one of the first songs and it is was what Imelda jokingly said should be put on her tombstone. Despite the conflicts she had that are the story arcs of the show she may well get her wish. Currently 87, she returned to the Philippines and served four terms as a congresswoman after her husband died in 1989.

Okay, Imelda (Jaygee Macapugay), having called out love, what does it mean to be loved by one person who is not treated fairly by your family, and later by you? I’m referring to the poor woman who helped to look after her when she was a child, Estrella Cumpas (Melody Butiu). In several songs moving from their nearly shared poverty (Imelda may have been materially poor, but her family had some better-off members and social prominence), through Estrella being blocked from Imelda’s wedding party, to Imelda insisting on a meeting and offering a bribe for silence after Estrella writes a book about their mutual origins. Imelda lived the jet-setter life while Estrella’s was still mired in poverty. Still, as Estrella sings in their last encounter, there’s no shame in being poor.

Or again, what does it mean to draw the romantic attentions of both the future dictator of your country and the man who will lead the Opposition?

Past

“Shot” Disrupts Our Comfort Zones

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World Premiere
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~ James Baldwin

Law enforcement officers—police officers—now have an infamous reputation for killing unarmed people of color of all ages and genders. This s not new, of course, essayist James Baldwin wrote about it decades ago, and comedian Richard Pryor joked about police accidentally “breaking” black suspects by using the illegal strangle hold. But the murder of Michael Brown and the spontaneous birth of Black Lives Matter has held a spotlight on this problem unlike any attention paid to it before now.

Past

Sherlock Holmes and The American Problem—The Game’s Afoot at the Seattle Rep

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The Seattle Rep’s closing piece for this season was actually born from the overwhelming success of its 2013 production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Apparently the cast, crew and audiences had such a great time with that show it was a no-brainer to bring back the famous British sleuth for another go. Rather than returning to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon, the Rep has turned to local actor and playwright R. Hamilton Wright to create an original Holmes story that has the detective immersed in a wild tale featuring some of his most famous antagonists as well as matching wits and skills with America’s very own Annie Oakley. The imaginative blend makes for a fun spring evening at the theater.

Past

‘brownsville song’ shows the ripple effect of tragedy

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Grief and Trauma are Anything but Tedious

Kimber Lee set for herself in brownsville song: b-side for tray the task of rounding out for the public the “other story” of someone like Tray Franklin. In the play Tray is 18 and working on his scholarship essay. In real life, Franklin was a black college student and winning amateur boxer who was one of three youth shot by gang members in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 2012. His friends survived, he did not.

Listen carefully to the opening soliloquy by Lena, Tray’s grandmother (Denise Burse) as she speaks apparently to the “press” or non-Brownsville society in general—”Tray was not …” she insists and repeats. Burse cries by the end of her long speech.

What is the b-side?

Past

‘Luna Gale’ Spotlights Fraught Daily Dramas

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Caught between the Headlights & the Headlines

Rebecca Gilman says it took her 10 years to find the plot for Luna Gale. From the performances of the extremely talented cast directed by Braden Abraham at The Seattle Rep, one can see why. This play is written from the lives of overworked social workers, young, earnest parents hooked on crystal meth, plus rippling entanglements with parents, courts, and Christians. All considered, ten years is pretty fast.

The plot Gilman found follows Caroline, a veteran social worker in Iowa’s Department of Human Services as she deals with a single case out the 80 she’s assigned.

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