The inner lives of EMOJIS – Emojiland: The Musical!

 

Emojiland: The Musical
SecondStory Repertory Theatre
Through July 19, 2026
 
Every great theater town needs a pipeline of performers, up-and-comers who need experience to polish up their talents. For musical theater, a particularly challenging pathway demanding triple threats – dancer/singer/actors – this is the most true.
 
Some might remember CLO – Civic Light Opera, that morphed into Seattle Musical Theatre before fading. Fortunately, we currently have both SecondStory Repertory and Reboot Theatre Company (at least) to help with casting new talents in their musicals.
 
Emojiland: The Musical, directed by Scot Charles Anderson, is overflowing with wonderful newish-to-us cast members, with powerful pipes and boiling over with enthusiastic talent. Emojiland gives some top-notch solos out like candy in this show. Some of the 13-member (!) cast that impresses include Emily Courcy (Construction Worker), Victoria Cooper (Princess), Mae Lederman (Smize), Evan Ponyah (Sunny), and Rebekah Nachman (Police Officer). Special shout out to Teddy Meyer (Skull) who is ripe for casting in The Rocky Horror Show, immediately!

July Theater – Free park plays and more

Ray Tagavilla stars in Seattle Vice (John Cornicello)

Summer! Means free Shakespeare and other plays in various parks. And a very Seattle-centric entertainment and a world premiere musical. Get out yer calendars!
 
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
7/8/26-8/15/26
Taproot Theatre, www.taproottheatre.org
Joseph is a dreamer. Betrayed and enslaved, he rises again with faith, forgiveness, and a dazzlingly colorful coat. This beloved family-friendly tale bursts with pop, gospel, calypso, and rock. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical comedy classic invites all generations to experience a vibrant, heartfelt celebration of hope.
 
Macbeth
7/9/26-8/16/26 (various area parks, free/donation)
Wooden O/Union Arts Center, www.unionartscenter.org
Three witches. One prophecy. A power-couple who will stop at nothing to seize the throne. Shakespeare’s most electrifying thriller has it all: dark magic, ruthless ambition, spectacular downfalls, and one of the most iconic predictions in the last 500 years.

Seda (and ArtsWest) Has Another Great Production

Cast of Wish You Were Here (John McLellan)

Wish You Were Here
Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble and ArtsWest
Through July 5, 2026
 
Sometimes a production of a play smacks you in the face with the urgency of “now,” even though the play was written before current history – even years before. Such a play is being performed at ArtsWest in a co-production with Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble. Wish You Were Here, written by Sanaz Toossi, focuses on five women who grow up together in Iran during crucial periods of Iranian history from 1978 to 1991.
 
Yet, there is no ignoring the present war the U.S. has engaged in and the complicity of our U.S. government’s history, as well, in creating the very foe we are fighting! It becomes clear that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
 
Written several years ago, planned for well ahead of February 2026, there’s no escaping the current war-of-choice and the interference, again, into Iran’s circumstances. The regime in place is there, largely, because this country made choices over 75 years ago!

SecondStory Rep performs an important musical

Cast of A Man of No Importance (courtesy SecondStory Rep)

 A Man of No Importance
(now closed – through 6/7/26)
SecondStory Repertory, www.secondstoryrep.org
 
Terrence McNally (book) Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) are the acclaimed team that created what many believe is one of the best musicals of the late 20^th Century, Ragtime. The team also created, just shortly after the debut of Ragtime in 1998, another important, but infrequently produced musical.
 
A Man of No Importance is about “the love than cannot be named,” and the confusion and shame in society imposed upon people who are so scared of homosexuality that they can’t even allow themselves to apply it personally. Alfie Byrne is a bus conductor who recites poetry, particularly Oscar Wilde’s work, to his regular bus passengers, who look forward to that ritual every day.

Riveting Severo becomes Frida Kahlo at Union Arts Center

Vanessa Severo as Frida...a self portrait at UAC (Zach Rosing)

Frida…a self portrait
6/6-28/26
Union Arts Center, www.unionartsccenter.org
 
Solo artists are a special breed, I think. They are alone on stage the entire time, they must draw the audience toward themselves, and bravely expose their very being at every moment. Such is Vanessa Severo, who wrote and performs Frida, as in Frida Kahlo, the now famous, but ignored and discounted Mexican painter.
 
When Severo runs onto the stage to introduce her play, she immediately beguiles the audience with huge energy and enthusiasm, and proceeds to lead us into why she’s telling us this story and what it means to her. In that process, she also tells us without words that we can relax now, she knows what she’s doing and she’s ready for us.
 

June Theater – New Plays, Festivals, and Interactive Improv

Vanessa Severo as Frida Kahlo at UAC (Michael Henninger)

Get out yer calendars for some fresh festival offerings and fun musicals.

Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic at Annex Theatre (Sayed Alamy)

Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic (world premiere)
6/4-20/26
Annex Theatre, www.annextheatre.org
Neurotic newcomer Lois attends the legendary sapphic kink retreat known as the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic—where she is absolutely, definitely not supposed to sleuth around. But when a picnicker goes missing on the ski slopes, Lois can’t resist the call of mystery. A sexy, spooky, screwball comedy that would leave Nancy Drew asking, “Who hid the flashlight?”
 
Dream, Carl, Dream!
6/5-27/26 (at 12th Avenue Arts)
Dacha Theatre, www.dachatheatre.com
It's five minutes 'till Sleepytime and the latest set of rewrites are even worse than the last. The Director of Dreaming is considering pulling the plug and putting up another rerun of "Teeth Fall Out (School Assembly Version)" but the truth is, everyone knows that the stakes are too high for that. In their waking life, Carl seems to be holding it together, but in the depths of their subconscious, Carl knows they could be – want to be – so much more. In fact, Carl’s dreams might just be the only connection they still have to their deepest self. That's where you come in. In this immersive, interactive piece, you will assist the beleaguered neurons of the Dream Department in programming each night's dreams. Work alongside your mental colleagues during the day, and then sit back, relax, and watch the show once the dreams start to play.
 
Pony World Theatre’s New Play Roundup
6/6-7/26 (at West of Lenin)
www.ponyworldtheatre.org
Welcome to Betty’s Diner by Marcus Gorman 6/6 2PM
The Unshored by Maggie Lee 6/6 7:30PM
Untitled Play About Life and Death by Holly Arsenault 6/7 2PM
Flight of the Psychopomp by Lizzy Bennett 6/7 7PM