Seattle Public Theater’s Back Back Back
In order to review Back Back Back, a play about three baseball players who struggle with the decision to use steroids, we appropriately sent a baseball fan with some knowledge of the issues at hand. That baseball fan also happened to be Star theater critic, John Allis.
Death, Sex: Election Season
In an espoused effort to direct attention to the talents of playwrights, the nine ten-minute plays that comprise Balagan Theatre’s shorts festival, Death, Sex: Election Season, draw from one pool of eleven actors, each of whom portrays several roles in the evening. Similarly, in further textual emphasis, all shows are directed by either Shawn Belyea or Jake Groshong, reining the evening’s offerings into a shared sensibility.
Romance in the air: Simon & Kirby Comics at Fantagraphics Gallery
The implication is that “vital superheroes” are the apex of comic book writing and that romance comics are beneath contempt for any artist of Jack Kirby’s stature. More accurately, though, a return to simple reality was in the air. Romance comics were the height of American realism in comics.
The Working Artist: Spotlight on The Cabiri—Phase 2
Even those who “support” the arts often treat the making of art like an optional activity in life, something to be reserved for the gifted. It isn’t. Art is not just about being crazy, weird, incoherent, and incomprehensible while expecting money for it. Being an artist requires massive amounts of self-imposed dirty work alternating with almost palpable tedium. This is for all those who do the dirty jobs.
Seattle Chamber Players team up with Olympic Ballet Theatre for The Kairn of Koridwen
Part of the exploration of the Seattle Chamber Players’ American Chamber Dance series aims to revive “rarely performed ballets conceived for chamber ensemble and dancers by maverick American composers.” Charles Tomlinson Griffes was certainly a maverick and his beautiful ballet is rarely performed–very rarely.
The Show Must Go On
In about eight weeks, I’ll be in a storytelling show, down here in Tacoma. And having signed up for this show, I am now cursed (or blessed) with abundant irony. I am terrified that I don’t know how to tell a story.
Word of Mouth and the Gatekeepers of Comic Art
The interesting question arose at the webcomics panel Thursday night at the Henry: “How do you find all this stuff?” I believe the woman who asked it genuinely wished to know more about webcomics. Between the five artists on the panel, the best answer they could manage was “Word of mouth, definitely.” While this sounds like a good marketing strategy, the answer can only be unsatisfactory to a novice. The answer “word of mouth” simply raises more questions.
Locavore: A Celebration of Art Meeting Fashion
Locavore aims to combine the creativity of both art and fashion in an exciting afternoon. Eastside boutiques will grace the runway, along with custom garments made from an artist/designer collaboration.
Mark Haim’s X2: Remarks in passing
I quite liked the first half of Mark Haim’s X2 at On the Boards. It is an inventive use of space and time all linked by Louis Andriessen’s music De Tijd (Time), inspired as much by the Confessions of St. Augustine (which form its text) as by Morton Feldman. I’m much less keen on the second piece.
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