There really is a Santa Claus
Tacoma Little Theater, a 98-year old community theater, presented one of the best of the modern Christmas tales this past weekend, Miracle on 34th St. Like many Christmas tales, it deals with questions of morality and generosity through an unrealistic plot. Originally a film in 1947, starring Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood, there is also a fair amount of wit and humor.
It’s an incredible tragedy that when Americans remember our modern war heroes we largely forget about the thousands of heroines that served along with them.
During the Vietnam War, about 11,000 women were stationed in the country, according to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation. The majority served as nurses, about 90 percent, but some also served as physicians, intelligence officers and air traffic controllers.
Nearly all the women in Vietnam were volunteers.
“A Piece of My Heart” follows six young women thrown into a war zone on a story of calamity, confusion and inner conflict that is rarely seen in popular war stories. This story is unique not only in that it shows the war through women’s eyes but also because it focuses on battles behind the frontlines.
Who could blame you for thinking that tales about blood-sucking vampires nowadays seem a bit tired and trite. After all, it has been almost 120 years since Bram Stoker introduced us to Dracula. It’s no wonder we hardly fear Count Dracula anymore. And it’s hard to imagine if any theatre company could make us fear him once again.
But the Tacoma Little Theatre can.
In its entire 98-year history, the Tacoma Little Theatre has never performed any adaptation of the classic story. But the performance they’ve put on this year would make you think they did it every year.
Drama and Dreams in the Café
Dukesbay Productions, a wonderful Theatre company in Tacoma opened its fifth episode of an ongoing series, Java 5 Tacoma -Game of Scones, at the Merlino Arts Center in downtown Tacoma. Be prepared for an evening of laughter, irony and poking fun at just about everything fashionable in the Northwest; it is all there, jokes about how bad vegan cooking is, how detestable gluten-free baking is, online entrepreneurship, how nasty even local politics can be and some Monty Pythonish dream sequences.
Of all the Army bases in all the World, why’d you have to end up in Ft. Riley, Kansas
Tea, a play by Velina Hasu Houston, opened this weekend at Dukesbay Theater in Tacoma. Taking place in 1968, it tells the story of five Japanese women who came to the U.S. after World War II as “War Brides.” Unfortunately, these married “lifers” ( soldiers who stayed in the army after the war for 20 years). As a result, they all ended up at the infamous place all servicemen avoid: Ft. Riley, Kansas.
