There was a woman, born in 1902, who lived to be 101 years old. She became a dancer, then a film actor. In her early 30s, she directed two of the most acclaimed films in the history of cinema. She was friends with important people. Critics said she was as good as Eisenstein. But then something went wrong--no one would fund her films. So she became a photographer instead. There was a woman, born in......

The Seattle Outdoor Theatre Festival is over, but that just means that more plays are coming to a park near you, instead of congregating all up in the Volunteer Park area--except for two kid-friendly productions, that is: Theater Schmeater's Wind in the Willows (Bravo, Mr. Toad!) and Open Circle Theatre's Alice in Wonderland, both of which play at Volunteer Park Saturdays and Sundays through August 10. We saw Wooden O's very likable, well cast A......

Edge Theatre Ensemble's production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and All Her Children at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center runs through Sun., July 20. Tix available online. At some point around the beginning of hour three of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and All Her Children, you're finally overwhelmed. Perhaps it was the hot black box theatre, perhaps it was the uncomfortable seats, but as the play reaches it painful conclusion, despite the occasional weaknesses of......

HAVE SOME FAITH: George Michael wrote songs that informed the sexuality of millions of young girls around the world—songs that went on to become gay anthems, long before he came out. The 25Live Tour promises to be the hottest, funnest, gayest, screamy-est concert Key Arena has seen all year. Wave to this Seattlest who will be sitting in the second row. 8 p.m. // Key Arena, Seattle Center // $49.40-$250 A BIG NIGHT OUT: Columbia......

If you've been alarmed by the groups of people shouting at each other in Volunteer Park recently, it's for a good cause: those are actors rehearsing and, believe us, it's better if they rehearse. The free-to-the-public Seattle Outdoor Theatre Festival, presented by Greenstage, unites a number of companies (Theater Schmeater, SSC/Wooden O, Open Circle, and more) willing to brave the elements and the flight path to SeaTac. (Greenstage is not just in Volunteer Park, by......

When we first meet him, 40-something actor Andrew Weems has gotten lost on his way to a reading in New York, and his peripatetic, rootless existence catches up to him--broke, burnt-out, and frozen in place, not knowing which direction to go, he sounds like Jack Lemmon in Death of an Acting-man: bitter, wry, crabby, self-defeated. In stewing over being lost, other travails present themselves (including a rat barking all night in the walls of his......

When we walked into the Bagley Wright Theatre last night, we had absolutely no expectations from Aurelia's Oratorio. We'd seen the publicity photos and figured it had something to do with playful illusion, but that was the extent of it. What we saw was astounding. Curtains alive and in love, violent clothing, puppets watching a show starring Aurelia's head, and Aurelia's leg disappearing right in front of us, as a thread-hungry creature unravels the lace......

Get your dose of the Northwest’s latest and greatest performing artists at On the Boards Northwest New Works Festival the next two weekends, May 9-11 and 16-18. The festival showcases 20-minute sections of eight groups/artists’ works in progress, four on the mainstage, four in the studio. The segments include music, theatre, puppetry, dance, and drag. Whether you’re watching a simple solo narrative or a twenty-person musical extravaganza (and we’ve seen them!), you’ll be placing......

The Seattle Repertory Theatre has just announced its artistic director, David Esb...Esbjornson has decided not to renew his contract. When it expires on June 30, 2009, so will he. Esbjornson joined Seattle Rep in 2005, and we still have trouble with his name."Though we are genuinely disappointed with David's decision, we understand that a complex series of factors informed his thinking." said Marty Taucher, President of the Board of Trustees. "David is well into developing......

ECO-CHIC: Bike, walk, carpool, or take the bus to Girl Power Hour. This time they're exploring the intersection of sustainability and style. Highlights include Seattle's first green DJ, getting tips on a greener life, a "live" trunk show with sustainable fashions, and refreshments: organic cocktails, wine and food. It all happens at the Sole Repair Shop, a sustainable event space 6:30-9:30 p.m. // Sole Repair Shop, 1001 East Pike Street // $10 at the......

There's a rotting foot at the heart of The Cure at Troy (through May 3 at the Rep, tickets: $10-$59); you can almost hear Philoctetes's leg oozing as he walks. The stench is described well enough to draw flies to the theatre. And when he loses his mind with pain, screaming about his wound cracking open, blood everywhere, you'd really like to be elsewhere, and maybe less nauseous. That's the point--there are times it's not......

Ghost Light Theatricals' The Beaux' Stratagem (at TPS, through April 20, $12) has confirmed a suspicion we've been harboring for a while: If you're a small theatre company with a shoestring budget, a perhaps less than desirable venue, and a cast of talented actors you want to showcase, you need to be doing a farce. Because The Beaux' Stratagem is two-and-a-half hours of thoroughly enjoyable theatre, featuring a talented cast and good use of limited......

DANCE: George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in a Francia Russell staging, opens tonight at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Scenery and costumes are by the irrepressible Martin Pakledinaz, evoking a primeval Pacific Northwest. With Shakespeare's play as the basis, Balanchine turned to Felix Mendelssohn's music to dream on the childhood relationship to nature, and the nature of relationships. Here's the video preview. (Photo: Carrie Imler and Timothy Lynch; © Angela Sterling) 8 p.m. //......

The Puget Sound area boasts a blossoming theatre and art culture with a variety of up-and-coming artists. It keeps us very busy, and this weekend is no exception, when Seattle Opera’s talented Young Artists are presenting Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Ravel's Enchanted Child. The two one-act productions open this evening at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center in downtown Bellevue. Photo from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi with Eugene Chan (Marco), Ani Maldjian (Ciesca), Noah Baetge (Rinuccio), and......

MUSICAL: Cabaret opens tonight at the 5th Ave. They have a mess of video clips up if you want a preview. It stars "Broadway’s Tari Kelly, Seattle favorites Louis Hobson, Suzy Hunt and Allen Fitzpatrick, and fringe star Nick Garrison as the Emcee." We're big Nick Garrison fans, despite not even having seen his turn in Hedwig and the Angry Inch--we're pretty sure he's reason to see the show all by himself. However, the......

ACT says White White Black Stork (through April 6, tickets: $15-$55) is a "Romeo and Juliet" story, but that's stretching it. This play says more about what people will do to survive than what they will die for. It's sometimes dazzling, sometimes stark. Pitchers hanging in mid-air disburse surprising contents, characters whirl around a central tree shouting epiphanies, and a courtroom scene pitilessly exposes two families' shame and suffering. Seeing it is oddly like watching......

What are you supposed to say about a play that bored you to tears but isn't exactly bad? This was the question we were mulling over last night after seeing Kevin Kling's How? How? Why? Why? Why? at the Seattle Rep. Kling is best known as an NPR contributor, which explains the audience's lustful appreciation of the show; How? How? Why? Why? Why? is basically an amalgam of This American Life and Prairie Home Companion,......

We laughed ourselves silly during the buoyant slapstick farce that is The Miser (through April 6, tickets $20-$34), which was not really our plan. We'd meant to be stern with the Seattle Shakespeare Company--Moliere isn't Shakespeare. It's an obvious bait and switch. But a number of things came together: the contemporary, sharp-as-a-tack translation by David Chambers, Todd Jefferson Moore in the role he was born to mug, and the Mel-Brooksian direction of Robert Currier. (Oddly,......

FRIDAY ART: Roq la Rue and its sister gallery BLVD are having joint openings tonight. At Roq la Rue, San Francisco artist Robert Burden explores the joys and soulless commercialism of the toybox. At BLVD, Wastelands and Wilderness features new work by Parskid and Chip 7. Parskid's work evokes the mystical dark forests of the Pacific NW, while Chip 7's work is a paranoid exploration of sci-fi fantasy and globalism. Plus, at BLVD you......

ART: We hear Goldmine Shithouse is visiting the Grey Gallery, but you wouldn't know it from either of their sites. The GMSH calendar ends in February, while the Grey Gallery still invites you to their January grand opening. Thank god they have booze to draw you in anyway. Now, about the scruffy guests they're expecting. Goldmine Shithouse is an artist cooperative: They focus primarily on painting, drawing and collage, and have extended into the......

THEATRE: Suzanne Morrison's one-woman show Yoga Bitch is the tonight's highlight at SPF 2-Sweatproof!, the solo performance festival ongoing at the Theatre Off Jackson. Morrison's show recounts her trip to Bali for a two-month yoga retreat that illustrates, if nothing else, that the path to inner peace and killer abs has some hairpin turns in it. We found a Yoga Bitch excerpt on YouTube and were persuaded to see the whole thing. 7pm //......

After Seattlest arrived at the office today, saw all of these big white trailers across the street, and had our little "Well, this is unusual" moment of tilted equilibrium, we got curious. Is this another episode of our friendly German invasion of last August? Not so, apparently. We asked the security guard in our lobby if he knew what was up. He said, "They're going to shoot a movie today." Then he smiled and said,......

The 4th Annual Care for the Market luncheon, held yesterday at The Paramount Theatre, was a wake-up call for us. When we think of Pike Place Market, we picture ourselves gorging on Beecher's macaroni and cheese. We envision ourselves carrying bundles of ginormous dahlias, sampling oh-my-god-these-are-good peaches, and listening to the funky sounds of street musicians. We don't necessarily think of meals and housing for low-income senior citizens, childcare for those who can't otherwise......

MUSIC: If you're not heading to the Gutter Twins, maybe try another direction. Almost exactly two years ago, we went to hear Trespassers William and their psychedelic folk pop. Said Audrey, "with the band's varied instrumentation and singer Anna-Lynne Williams' steady, hollow voice, their sound is haunting and hypnotic." The question is, have they found a hook to hang a song on? You make the call--check out one of their newest songs on the......

It's not often that we can tell just from glancing at the stage that we'll like a play, but with the Seattle Rep's The Imaginary Invalid, we felt like great things were in store the moment we caught sight of the silly, sumptuous velvet hatbox of a set. (Runs through March 22; tickets $15-$59, $10 for 25-and-under.) Much like its crazy old coot hypochondriac, Argan (Rocco Sisto), the play gets to its feet creakily, expelling......

POETRY: Eavan Boland is from Dublin, Ireland, and we take it that "Eavan" is a girl's name there. It's not immediately obvious, it it? She carries more of a charge in her than that boggy, peaty, old Seamus Heaney. One of her poems, The Pomegranate, begins: The only legend I have ever loved is the story of a daughter lost in hell. And found and rescued there. Love and blackmail are the gist of......

Lisa Confehr and Kaitie Warren are the co-directors of Balagan Theatre's Romeo & Juliet, and they deserve co-praise for the hectic, breathless pace of this 16-actor-strong production. (Now through March 22nd, Thurs-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Tickets: $15 advance, $20 at the door.) We don't need to recap the story of Romeo and Juliet, right? The direction of the Capulet party and the fight scenes is superb, edge-of-your-seat stuff, and we're not just saying that......

Friday Theatre: The Solo Performance Festival, SPF2: Sweatproof!, returns to the Theatre Off Jackson with a terrific lineup of uni-personned shows. In fact, tonight has a terrific lineup all on its own, thanks to the Unicycle Collective. Their MonoLodge 4 is an evening of solo shorts from Seattle veterans and up-and-coming talents: Keith Hitchcock, Jennifer Jasper, Troy Mink, K. Brian Neel, Becky Poole, Mary Purdy, Seth Rosenbloom, Mark Siano, and Jenna Bean Veatch. (Saturday......

Theatre: A production of Mr. Marmalade got introduced by Curtain Up thusly:If you've always associated marmalade with sweetness, you're likely to expect the title character of Noah Haidle's play to be a sweet, lovable guy -- just the sort of imaginary friend for a four-year-old moppet named Lucy. Well, think again. Playwright Haidle's Mr. Marmalade is a cocaine snorting, emotionally out to lunch businessman with a briefcase packed with kinky sex toys. Not a......

Theatre: We often short West Seattle because...well, we forget why, just like we forget they're over there, doing whatever they do in West Seattle. At the moment, though, they're doing Rebecca Gilman's The Sweetest Swing in Baseball and it's made critic Joe Adcock a believer:As a play crafter, Gilman is a wonder. Every scene, every character -- every speech, practically -- contains a surprise. The surprises build to neatly engineered climaxes and conclusions. But......