Stages

One of the things I love about acting is getting to perform in so many different spaces. I did Camelot at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, a fully fitted-out theater with multiple spacious dressing rooms and every possible amenity a performance space could have. I have also done a show in a backyard where we had to take care not to displace the other housemates (not involved in the show) when using the bathroom to do costumes and makeup.
And then there were the one-of-a-kind places like Kenyon Hall in West Seattle, a small space with a tiny stage. It is also the “Home of the 1929 Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ.” At intermission, the proprietor stoked up the thing with coal (or whatever one does to activate it) and gave a bravura performance. Or so I am told. We actors had to stand outside, so I couldn’t hear it. The small stage became a blessing, though. As we modified our blocking – it was a touring show, The Dybbuk, with Seattle Jewish Theater – and crammed nearly a dozen actors up there, it created beautiful stage pictures.
The outdoor spaces, as a whole, were probably the most fun. I did an interactive, immersive show, Who Killed Otter’s Babies, with Dacha Theatre, in Carkeek Park in north Seattle. We had scenes in the meadows and pathways and streams. Audience members followed (and sometimes chased) us up, down and around. We adjusted every night for the presence of unaware park-goers and the regular train traffic on the adjacent tracks. You might think a passing train would be an actor’s nightmare. But one time, the train was timed perfectly with a scene. I had my character seem not to hear the audience informing me of a key plot point. “Otto is dead,” they said. “What,” I said as the train roared by. Otto is dead! What! (cupping my ear.) Otto is dead!!!! and so on. It enhanced the moment so much. I hoped for it to happen again at every performance.
But my favorite place might have been the Neptune Theater. We did a show called The Music Marches On. It was a kind of newspaper theater play to introduce and provide context for a live music show. I had been to the Neptune several times over the years when it was a movie theater, seeing Manufacturing Consent, Fahrenheit 911 and other things. Then when it was being converted into a live performance venue, I had a chance to tour it. We saw the space where the film projectors lived. And they showed us the upstairs backstage and what appeared to be dressing rooms, which I really loved. I imagined all the performers over the generations who may have gone down those stairs when “places” was called. I may have been making that up, though. The Neptune had live performance over the years but primarily it had been a movie theater. So maybe I was mythologizing the booking office or the billing department but the point is, I felt the place had history. Maybe what I was feeling was the leftover excitement of the movie patrons, anticipating their hundredth viewing of Rocky Horror or their first viewing of Alexander the Great. So, for whatever reason, stepping into the lights that night was an extra thrill.
Picture: on stage at the Neptune.
Here is a list of places I have performed.
Capitol Theater
Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Wade James Theater
Redmond Senior Center
Blanche Lavizzo Park
Neptune Theater
Pocket Theater
Freehold Theater (Belltown)
A backyard in Wallingford
Denali Slab Studio (former location)
Kenyon Hall
University Prep
Stroum Jewish Community Center
Temple B’Nai Torah
Trilogy at Redmond Ridge
Fremont Peak Park
Ballard Underground
Carkeek Park
Russian Community Center
Magnuson Park
Theater 4, (Theater Puget Sound)

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