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

Elegant Slapstick from Tavares in ‘Barefoot in the Park’

Pande, Garcia, and Tavares (photo by Giao Nguyen)

Barefoot in the Park
Taproot Theatre
Through 6/20/26
 
Neil Simon’s plays seem to pass the test of time; his humor succeeds to make us laugh, decade after decade. Barefoot in the Park skates along as a fluffy, fun story that hints at topics like empty nest syndrome, self-liberation, surviving new marital spats, but beguiles the audience to relax and enjoy the fluff. It may even feel as if the 1963 movie or play is contemporary.
 
Paul Bratter (Arjun Pande) and his new wife, Corie (Ays Garcia), move into their first apartment. She picked it out and he discovers it's five flights up (if you don't count the stoop), drafty (there's a hole in the skylight), empty (the furniture didn't get delivered) and tiny (there's only enough room in the bedroom for the bed and there's no bathtub). Still, it's their first place.

Klezmer Starts Here

Benefit for Amara with Seattle Fiddlesticks and the Music of Herman S. Shapiro
5/17/26 at 7:30pm (at Royal Room, 5000 Rainier S www.theroyalroomseattle.com)
Klein Party, https://thestranger.boldtypetickets.com/events/183437520/klezmer-starts-here
 
The Klein Party has been providing Yiddish music concerts at the Royal Room for the past few years. This series is coming to a head with a special concert featuring the music of Herman S. Shapiro on Sunday May 17 at 7:30 pm.
 
A search for rarely played early 20th century music for The Klein Party led to three scores at the Library of Congress. Copyrighted between 1902 and 1906 in the United States, they were the compositions of one Herman S. Shapiro. All three, but particularly The European Jewish Wedding, were clearly derived from the music we call klezmer.

May Seattle-Area Theater Includes Fresh, New, and Classic!

Jesus Christ Superstar at 5th Avenue Theatre (Michael B. Maine)

Take a look at this spread of lovelies and get out yer calendars for some fresh and new world premieres and some classic tales.

Bark the Musical at Key City Public Theatre (Mel Carter) 

 
Bark! The Musical
Through 5/24/26
Key City Public Theatre, www.kcpt.co
This musical explores the world through the eyes of six dogs waiting in a neighborhood doggie daycare while their owners remain unseen. Through playful storytelling, the dogs reveal their hopes, fears, quirks, and longing for connection - creating a charming and deeply human theatrical experience.

April Theater! Pick a Daisy!

What to Expect (Bonnie Leung)

An International Festival, an all-femme-presenting Man of La Mancha, and new Chekhov shorts adaptations are just a few of the productions on tap for April. Get out yer calendars!

What to Expect

4/1-8/26
Pork Filled Productions and Seattle Public Theater and Dunya Productions, www.porkfilled.com and www.seattlepublictheater.org
In the year 2080, Candace is experimentally pregnant. As she waits for her husband Ahmed to adopt a child to round out their “homogeneous” Egyptian nuclear family, she starts getting pains that her doctor can’t explain, and she meets an intriguing new friend named JeeYoung. The clock ticks as The Big One approaches to wash away Candace's plans, but she is determined to fly away in time.

Bhama Roget (courtesy Intiman Theatre)

Mother Nature, The Farewell Tour
4/2-5/26 (at Erickson Theatre)
Intiman Cabaret, www.intiman.org
Bhama Roget as Mother Nature herself takes the stage with a guitar in her hands and a mic turned all the way up for one last tour. Backed by a live on-stage band, Roget channels a cosmic, sharp-tongued, heartbreakingly funny force of creation to explore beauty and power, grief and invention through the eyes of a mother who has watched many species come and go.

Warm and Loving "Mary Jane" at Seattle Rep

Shaunyce Omar and Brenda Joyner (Sayed Alamy)

Mary Jane
Seattle RepertoryTheatre
Through April 19, 2026
 
I think of playwright Amy Herzog as a naturalistic writer, a slice-of-life storyteller, and one who lets the audience get to know her characters as they interact with each other’s lives. Mary Jane, now playing at the Rep, is very much a character reveal. The five lovely actors, led by a luminous performance by Brenda Joyner in the title role, present a story any of us might identify with in some aspect.

March Shows Around Town

It might be a bit rainy outside, but inside Seattle area theaters there is plenty of variety to be had! Get out yer calendars!

"I will miss you when you're gone" - Shattered Glass Project (Kirk Hostetter)

I will miss you when you’re gone

3/5-21/26 (at Theatre Off Jackson)
Shattered Glass Project, https://www.shatteredglassproject.org
Celeste tries to contact her dead mother Theresa, but instead is haunted by Evelyn. Evelyn jumped off the top of her office building, run by Robin. Robin just wants to get these files in order, until the spirit of Theresa shows up. Is it an administrative filing error from the afterlife? Or can the living and the dead help each other find the connections they so desperately need? A comedy about sad things
 
I Love You, I Miss You. I’m Glad You’re Gone.
3/5-15/26
Key City Public Theatre, www.keycitypublictheatre.org
Join Filipina-American Master Magician Maritess Zurbano as she confronts her family's sudden abandonment after her Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis. Blending humor, enchantment, and audience participation, Maritess finds hope and peace in the most unexpected places.
 
The Foreigner
3/6-29/26
Harlequin Productions, www.harlequinproductions.org
When a painfully shy Englishman lands at a rustic Georgia lodge, his fear of small talk inspires a harmless fib: he doesn’t speak English! But as locals pour out secrets, Charlie becomes the perfect confidant—and whispers of a secret society stir old resentments beneath the lodge’s pastoral calm. As laughter turns to high stakes, Charlie must summon unexpected courage—and maybe foil a sinister plot.
 

Bunny
3/12-21/26 (at Jones Playhouse)
UW School of Drama, www.drama.uw.edu
For most of Sorrel’s high school career, she was friendless and quietly weird. She didn’t even seem to fit in with the geeky kids. When she turned seventeen, and late puberty produced a supermodel physique, she became seen as a “hot dork”. Bunny spans twenty years of Sorrel’s life. Unencumbered by the burden of shame, she journeys through the complex social expectations surrounding female sexuality.

It's Not a Wedding -- Yes, It Is // Thalia's Umbrella isn't sure

Actors in A Mirror (Annabel Clark)

A Mirror

Thalia's Umbrella 

through March 14 at 12th Avenue Arts

www.thaliasumbrella.org 

 

 It's not easy to discuss a play full of lies when the reasons those lies are told should be secret. This play, presented by Thalia's Umbrella, is such a play. You're invited to a wedding, but the wedding is a lie. And you, the audience, become complicit in that lie just by attending. 

 

I think you'll think, as I did, that your participation is well worth attending. Author Sam Holcroft has devised a theatrical "event" that is quite different from a straightforward production. 

 

I can say that the reasons for the secrecy enfold current events obliquely but definitively. Much like any secret society meeting, the wedding might be a cover. Or maybe the meeting is a cover. 

 

There is, however, a real story to suss out. The strong cast includes Quinlan Corbett as Čelik, who might or might not be a high government official, Jon Lutyens as Bax, who may or may not be a real playwright, Adam Tapp as Adem, who could be the groom, or an aspiring playwright, and Emily Verla as Mei, the bride or a soldier turned office worker.

 

The playing time was about 2 3/4 hours, but it flew by. That's a great feeling to have when there is so much to pay attention to. Please do dress for a wedding and have fun. 

For more articles and reviews, go to www.facebook.com/SeattleTheaterWriters. Subscribe to your inbox at https://MiryamsTheaterMusings.blogspot.com

 

 

February Theater in Seattle

Ada Twist, Scientist and Friends at SCT (Truman Buffett)

February stages in the Seattle area present quite a few world premieres, which is exciting! The Brown Derby is back again (ifkyk *cough* ReBar) with a brand-new take on Twilight. It's a full slate of entertainment. Get out yer calendars!

Ada Twist, Scientist and Friends
To 2/22/26
Seattle Children’s Theatre, www.sct.org
Ms. Greer’s classroom includes three inquisitive out-of-the-box thinkers. Rosie Revere has big dreams. Iggy Peck has a relentless passion for architecture. And Ada Twist’s curiosity can lead her to solve any problem. (Ages 5+)
 
Monty Python’s SPAMALOT (tour)
2/4-15/26
5^th Avenue Theatre, www.5thavenue.org
The musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, has everything that makes a great knight at the theatre, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the Lady of the Lake. SPAMALOT features well-known song titles such as “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “The Song That Goes Like This,” “Find Your Grail” and more that have become beloved classics in the musical theater canon.
 
Twilight (movie adaptation/spoof)
2/4-7/26 (at Theatre Off Jackson)
Ian Bell’s Brown Derby, www.strangertickets.com
The Brown Derby Series has presented "Ridiculously Staged Readings of Your Favorite Screenplays" since 1999, becoming a Seattle comedy institution with a loyal following. Now TBD sinks its teeth into Twilight, the brooding world of sparkly vampires, angst-ridden teens, and one very intense biology class. When a shy newcomer arrives in the gloomy town of Forks, she falls for a mysterious classmate with an even more mysterious thirst for…well, you know.

Anticipate Great Theater in 2026 – Ready, Set, January!

Bohemia (courtesy Marxiano Prods.)

We’ve survived another year! January is certainly bringing world premieres and enticing shows our way. Also a couple of reprises you might want to check out having missed the last time. Get out yer calendars!
 
The Heart Sellers
1/2/26-2/1/26
Seattle Rep, www.seattlerep.org
Young immigrants Luna and Jane meet as strangers over the frozen turkeys at the grocery store on Thanksgiving in 1973, while their husbands work long hours. They decide to celebrate this unfamiliar holiday together. As they bond over their new lives in America and their longing for faraway family in Korea and the Philippines, they discover a kinship that overcomes any language barrier. (Recommended for ages 13+.)
 
Walking on a Paper Moon and Lear (alone)
1/10-19/26 (at ReACT Theatre, 562 1st Avenue South #400)
Baker Theatre Workshop, https://www.bakertheaterworkshop.com/
Walking on a Paper Moon is a one-act play about a father and his daughters coping with grief while watching the first moon landing. Lear (alone), an adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy, focuses on the original play’s third act, with Lear alone in the wilderness and slowly descending into madness. (Free with reservation)
 
SHe Said, Stories & Songs by Jen Ayers
1/13/26-2/1/26 (at Erickson Theatre)
Intiman Theatre, www.intiman.org
When Jen’s partner of 25 years came out as transgender, their relationship entered uncharted territory, sparking a journey of self-discovery, growth, and fierce devotion—as partners, as individuals, and as parents of an 8-year-old. Jen then turned to her piano, creating what would become SHe Said—a deeply personal, genre-defying story about navigating transition together as a family.
 
Li (world premiere)
1/16/26-2/8/26
Seattle Public Theater with SiS Productions, www.seattlepublictheater.org and https://celebr8women.wordpress.com 

Li, a mid-career thief from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, suddenly finds herself taking on too much responsibility. She breaks into an apartment and ends up emptying her pockets to feed its old, blind and starving resident. She gets a phone call from her estranged brother, a college professor in New York City, who tells her that he’s dying from cancer and now it’s her job to take care of their mother. With three mouths to feed, Li has to reconsider her career choice. Can her street smarts help her survive? A play with a radio, a hen, and a really good fart joke.