Limited Perspective

Facebook told me I wrote about the show Come From Away nine years ago today. Here (with some editing) is what I wrote, Regarding Come from Away, at Seattle Repertory Theater, there is something missing from the reviews. There has not been enough written about what the show is about. I hope to start some talking about that. Nick and Diane sing Stop the World while standing literally on the edge of a fault line between shifting tectonic plates, taking photos. They look into each other’s eyes and out over the divide. In the context of them building a relationship in the middle of a tragedy, they beg the world to stop spinning. In one sense you hear them saying, stop the world we want to get off, it’s too much pain to bear. In another sense, they are saying the world is so transcendingly beautiful in that moment, so precious and perfect that they want to stop time so they can experience the moment forever. That really hit me. This number was, to me the perfect summary of the show’s theme ...

There is a Kurt Vonnegut quote that goes, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” It’s from the book, Mother Night where the lead character takes on a false identity to go undercover as a spy in Nazi Germany. Eventually, the false identity becomes the real one.  Pony World Theatre’s Edgar and Annabel, which just closed, turned that on its head.  The play takes place in a country on the threshold of dystopia. The government is eliminating all opposition. Among their tools is surveillance. They are listening, always listening. When their A.I. hears anomalies in conversation, they move in.  To thwart this, the opposition has set up safe houses to conduct their activities. They avoid suspicion by scripting everything the occupants say, literally. The most ordinary conversations are written out, from ‘Hi, honey, I’m home,” to, “I’m going to bed.” This allows them to pass secret messages, and to cover for subversive activities, all wh...

I've been acting since 1990. (I took a long break from 1991 to 2011.) I've played many, many characters. Here are three of those roles I would jump at, if offered again. Caden in The Thanksgiving Play (Woodinville Rep., 2024) I understudied and had two performances on the final weekend. I could see so much more that I could do. This happens with almost every show. You do something new in the final performance then smack yourself in the forehead and think, you should have been doing that all along. In TTP, with just the two shows, and less than normal rehearsal and stage time to grow the character, I really felt that. Plus, so many of the lines and bits were just so fun to do. Regis in Ghost Party (Dacha, 2018 and 2019) In this immersive, interactive show, Regis (and all of the other characters) were doomed to relive the same ten minutes of a fateful party over and over again, on a loop. But it never got old and it was never really the same because the guests could intervene a...

The Stupidest Scariest Time calls itself, “a new work of interactive theater parodying the joyless productivity of modern life.” It is that. And it’s more than that. I found a heart in it. The show is both beyond immersive and somehow also prior to it. If you have ever been to an office retreat, a Landmark Forum session, an Amway meeting, or seen a Tony Robbins talk – or done all of those things, as I have, you will know exactly what is going on from the very start, when you are directed to your seat. I found myself at a table with a neat, professional-looking folder in front of me. A branded pen was next to it. A bowl of branded stress balls was in the center of the table. I looked at the table-mate across from me and said, “I feel like I’m at a staff retreat.” “I just came from a conference this morning,” they said. We smiled. I won’t say too much about the content but there are timed exercises where you write your life goals and prioritize them. There is “you can do it!” -style che...

Key plot elements, if you don’t know the show: Antonio, a Venetian merchant, borrows money from Shylock, who is Jewish. The money is to help Antonio’s friend, Bassanio, to woo Portia, a sort of wealthy heiress. Meanwhile, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, yearns to escape her father and her Jewish identity by marrying Lorenzo, a Christian. When Antonio is unable to pay back the money, Shylock believes he finally has the chance to have the power of the law on his side. It’s an illusion. Shylock loses everything.  My first thought, halfway through Act One was, I want to go out to the lobby at intermission and buy the soundtrack. The music grabbed me from the very first number and never let me go.  This is not Phantom or Rent, though, where you can just do that. It’s a brand new show, and I saw its first public performance. But it had that quality. I wanted to be able to shove the CD into my car’s player and listen on the way home. It's a staged reading. At the same time there are pro...

I found this on my Facebook from ten years ago today. Liked it. Thought I should post it. So, I did (with a little bit of editing.) Music! If you know anything about music, get ready to laugh because I am about to review tonight's performance by the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall. I can't read music, I can't play an instrument. But I am as big a fan of the Brandenburg Concertos and the Four Seasons (no, not those Four Seasons) as the next guy. So it is with all modesty (and only about 10 to 15 percent of it false) that I begin my review. I loved it! On the way in to the hall tonight, I told my companion that I never know what I am supposed to do at a live music performance. Do I hum along? Do I sit or stand in respectful silence? Do I dance? What? The answer for tonight was: just take it all in. We sat in the front row, off toward stage left. I could see the faces of several violin players and also sometimes the conductor, depending on where he was directing his attent...

  I’m in a show right now at Annex Theatre at 11th and Pike on Capitol Hill called Leave Only Footprints. It’s an immersive show, blending elements of haunted house and escape room with an overarching vibe about a fictional state park in Washington. I play “The Camper,” who tells scary, spooky stories around a fire.  The audience is free to explore the space however they please and interact with the various characters. One recent night, when the very first pair of audience members came into the campground and sat down, I asked one of them what they are afraid of, as I am supposed to do. “Death,” they said. OK. Fair. Many of my scary stories include references to death. But then they went deep into it, talking about someone they knew, who had died recently. Maybe it was a family member. I don’t know because it really threw me. Like, this is too heavy! I’m not your therapist! I’m not your pastor.  It was so earnest and heartfelt. I didn’t think they were making it up. And i...