English/Chinese combo in "Chinglish" a great evening in translation

Evan Whitfield and Kathy Hsieh (Michael Brunk)

Chinglish
ArtsWest (co-production with SiS Productions)
through March 29, 2015

The absorbing new work, Chinglish, by David Henry Hwang, at ArtsWest is a tightly written play with a top-notch cast, directed with panache by Annie Lareau. It's also challenging for the audience, because more than half of it is in Mandarin Chinese!

Daniel (Evan Whitfield) begins the play by showing us signage where Chinese translators have badly translated signs from Chinese into English. (see below) He warns us that if we learn nothing else from his "how to do business in China" talk, we should know this: Bring your own translator!

A screen then tells us that the time is three years earlier. We'll need that screen as almost another character, since we will need the translations that follow hot and heavy as rapid fire Chinese and halting bad translations fill the rest of the evening. 

Only 2 more weeks to see inventive SteamPunk Cirque

The musicians of Kurios (Martin Girard shootstudio.ca)

Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities

Cirque du Soleil

Marymoor Park

Through March 22, 2015

The gorgeous acrobatic, high flying antics of top-flight, international talent combines with a steampunk aesthetic and even some invisible acts in Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities at Marymoor Park.

Kurios is the 35th production in the line of inventions known as Cirque du Soleil. Similar to other shows, there is a very loose story here that ties the evening together. But you don’t really go to Cirque shows for story, you go for atmosphere, beautiful, intricate costuming, easy to assimilate international music without real words, and death-defying acrobatic and fly work.

Coming up: Theater in March 2015

Ryan Higgins in the 2011 production of Live! From the Last Night of My Life (Dave Hastings)

(as published in Seattle Gay News)

March theater is bringing some plays very very new (The Flick, New Century Theatre Company – 2014 Pulitzer Prize, and Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Lizard Boy – a world premiere musical) and some plays very very old (Tartuffe, Seattle Shakespeare Company). A 2011 play improbably comes back to life with almost the same cast and crew (Live! From the Last Year of My Life, Theatre22). And a lot in-between, as usual. Here is the list by date order.

NCTC opens its season at 12th Avenue Arts with The Flick by Annie Baker, 3/5/15-4/4/15. Avery, Rose, and Sam work at a rundown movie theater that still shows films reel to reel. They discuss life and movies in a journey of self-exploration through issues of race, sexual identity, and family.

http://www.wearenctc.org/#!the-flick/coqb

ArtsWest and SiS Productions co-produce Chinglish, 3/5/15-3/29/15. This comedy by David Henry Hwang (his Yellowface was presented by ReAct in 2011), explores the challenges of doing business in a culture whose language—and ways of communicating—are worlds apart from our own. A naïve American business man goes to China to score a lucrative contract for his family's firm, only to encounter miscomprehensions and malapropisms galore. But business miscommunications with dignitaries are easy compared to sexual misunderstandings.

https://artswest.secure.force.com/ticket

Locally Grown solo performances well worth the gamble

Sara Porkalob and duck heads (Truman Buffett)

Jose Amador (Truman Buffett)

Solo pieces are often stories that you've never heard before. They don't have to be "true" or autobiographical, but as with many types of writing, solo pieces are written by people who write "what they know." 

Sometimes, a one-person show will be performed only as one person, and sometimes the performer becomes multiple people in the story. In the recent "festival," Locally Grown, Jose Amador performs as himself throughout his piece and only becomes his father for a moment. In contrast, Sara Porkalob becomes many characters in a flurry of quick changes that sometimes are accomplished by slight movements from one side to another.

Both of these plays are autobiographical and both deal with cultures and families and traditions far from the white-bread American norm (she says tongue just a bit in cheek). Jose tells about returning for a visit to family in Puerto Rico and shares his growing emotional connection with a land he left. Sara recreates a bit of family history as she becomes her grandmother and tells a rather amazing tale of Filipino gangsters and single motherhood and hints at even more.

"Sweet Charity" has a lot of heart and some good dancin'

Cast of Sweet Charity headed by Megan Tyrrell (Jeff Carpenter)

Sweet Charity

Seattle Musical Theatre

Through March 1, 2015

The newest production at Seattle Musical Theatre, Sweet Charity, has a lot of heart and a lot of really nice choreography. It’s not the most polished production ever, but it’s an enjoyable way to see a musical that doesn’t get stage time very much anymore.

It’s definitely a throw-back to the ‘60s or in some ways even older. Charity Hope Valentine (Megan Tyrrell) is a taxi dancer – dancing for money with assorted men – at the Fandango Club. Of course, she’s really looking for love and finds it over and over again; even when the man in question is so ambiguous he actually steals from her!

The book (script) is by Neil Simon, so it’s fast patter and kind of funny, and the music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields has some of the most iconic musical songs in it, including Hey, Big Spender and If My Friends Could See Me Now.

"Carousel" more dance extravaganza than you thought and spare, muscular production

Brandon O'Neill and Laura Griffith in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel (Mark Kitaoka)

Carousel

The 5^th Avenue Theatre

Through March 1, 2015

The fluid, muscular choreography of Donald Byrd and Spectrum Dance Theater makes this spare, engaging production of Carousel soar to new heights. Director Bill Berry both lightens and darkens the tones, bringing a depth of expression to this sometimes taken-for-granted musical.

The dance tone is set right from the start with the Carousel Waltz, a full on dance sequence introducing the amusement park and its attraction for the townsfolk. With few words, we meet Julie (a stubborn Laura Griffith) and her bestie Carrie (enthusiastic, bubbly Billie Wildrick) and see the attraction of rough-hewn carousel barker Billie Bigelow (powerful Brandon O’Neill). We note that amusement park owner Mrs. Mullin (Cynthia Jones) might be a bit jealous of the fawning girls.