Limited Perspective

This was really fun (house)! The program says Funhouse IV is, "a series of short plays that, when viewed together, give audiences an experience similar to that of walking through a funhouse." The show does succeed on that level. Short play festivals usually seem like they are all over the map. The Funhouse folks created a sense of unity. Not that the shows aren't varied but there is a theme of absurdity and going-off-the-rails that runs throughout. Almost all of the plays aim for comedy. My favorite, though was the one that did not, Wish Fulfillment , written by David Simpatico and directed by Anna Ly, where a son waits in his room to talk to his father. I didn't know what was real or what was going to happen next. Like a funhouse, I guess. Photo by me  This was originally published on my Facebook page on 11/29/18. 

In Framed , produced by Snowflake Avalanche and now playing (for one more day, with a final show at 3pm on Sunday, November 25) at 18th & Union , Susanna Burney plays Joanie DaSilva, a painter desperate to succeed. To me, she approached tragic. I felt bad for her. To my companion, she was a deluded, reckless, unsympathetic fool. This is fine because the show plays with the idea of art interpretation. Each of the four characters also has their own take on painting,   what’s important and what’s real. You, the audience also can make of Joanie what you will. Joanie sells some of her work and also teaches painting. She measures herself against the opinions of the local art world, embodied by one particular gallery owner. Her work is never deemed good enough. May Carter (another incredible Maile Wong performance) is a young woman who shows up to learn to paint. She has a specific reason. Joanie stresses proper “technique” but it becomes clear that May has tale...

Last week, I read Theatre of the Unimpressed by Jordan Tannahill. The book rages – artfully – against plays that never ask themselves the question, why does this need to be done in front of a live audience. It’s a happy coincidence, then that the first play I have seen since reading the book was The White Snake , produced by ReAct and now playing at 12th Avenue Arts. The show knows exactly why it needs to be done in front of a live audience. It’s because it goe s back to the roots of theater, people telling stories to one another, to the audience, to me. It’s a beautiful story, simply told. At the top, three actors begin narrating directly to the audience, spooling out playwright Mary Zimmerman’s version of the Chinese legend, dating in written form to the Ming Dynasty. After the context is set, three other actors begin playing the parts of White Snake, Green Snake, and Xu Xian as the narrators and the rest of the ensemble begin playing various other parts, including a monk, a...

There is so much going on in The Liberation , a world premiere of a new play by Cate Wiley, directed by Kathryn Stewart, and produced by Ghost Light Theatricals and 14/48, now playing at the Ballard Underground. But it boils down to the title. It’s the story of Marianne Turner (Jenny Vaughn Hall) a university professor who is exiled, basically, to Paris for having had an affair. The story is set in this decade yet the chain of events that leads to Marianne h aving to leave the US is entirely believable. She’s a successful woman, but in a world where the rules are made and manipulated by men. Over time, treachery is revealed and Marianne has a choice to make. She chooses, of course, liberation. The stage is split in half. One side is Marianne’s apartment in Paris. The other side is Paris itself. Some scenes are played entirely on one side or entirely on the other. One scene used this dichotomy to full effect. Marianne’s assistant, Sunny Day, (Rebecca Erickson) is having a discussi...

Here is a short post that originally appeared on my Facebook on 11/02/2017 when I was in the middle of the rehearsal process for a show.  This is not, of course, a review which is the focus of this blog but perhaps it tells you something about my perspective on acting and that will inform your reading of my reviews.  Acting: Shall I compare thee to an escape room? Acting is like an escape room. You assemble clues. You work in a group. You encounter obstacles. Sometimes you feel like there is no way out. And then you find the keys, you overcome the obstacles and you're free. Free! Then you try another escape room and it's the same thing all over again. All the old clues are useless. The tricks that worked last time don't work this time. Stuck again! After a month working on my new show, Quick Bright Things , some doors that were hidden are opening. I've leaned on my companions to unlock other passages. And it's getting fun. I can see a few steps ahead. C...