Powerful production of "A View from the Bridge" - great cast!

Kirsten Potter and Amy Danneker in A View from the Bridge (Alabastro Photography)

A View from the Bridge

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through October 18, 2015

Director Braden Abraham’s notes about his mounting of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge reference the timeliness of the play because of Syrian refugees and the issue of immigration. In that, I disagree with him. The play does revolve around a couple of Sicilian illegal immigrants coming into Eddie Carbone’s family. But immigration issues really only point to the power and privilege that Eddie wields over them.

Arthur Miller’s play is not important because of current events. The play is important because of its reflection of privilege and obsession and the power of self-destruction, and rooted in history. It is far more poetic than most plays, with a narrator lawyer (Leonard Kelly-Young) who tells us ahead of the coming tragedy that he can see it coming and cannot stop it. In fact, he does everything he can to advise Eddie (Mark Zeisler) to right his own ship before it sinks.

October Theater openings!

Bad Jews at Seattle Public Theater (Paul Bestock)

October  theater openings bring us biting religious comedy, a Thai superstar in a world premiere, a couple of cutting edge immersive theatrical experiences, and more.

Bad Jews, Seattle Public Theater, 10/2-25/15

Bad Jews is a biting comedy about family, faith, and contemporary Jewish identity in America. The night after their grandfather’s funeral, cousins engage in an explosive verbal (and sometimes physical) battle. Daphna is a “real Jew” who is volatile, self-assured, and unbending. Liam is a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiksa (non-Jewish) girlfriend, Melody, in tow. When Liam stakes his claim to their grandfather’s chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl ensues.

www.seattlepublictheater.org

Winter Bird, Eclectic Theater, 10/1-25/15 (world premiere) Equity Member Project

A Gothic fantasy about a librarian and a sub-arctic vampire. A world premiere by Stephen Delos Treacy (local playwright).

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2055241

Listening Glass, Seattle Immersive Theatre, 10/1-30/15 (at a warehouse at 2724 6th Ave S)

Jamie Bennett was the dishwasher on duty the night Jon Wurtz was killed. He was right there when it happened. So why is he lying about what he saw? Is he an unreliable witness, or a cold-blooded killer? Immerse yourself in a working homicide department. The performance starts the moment you set foot in the space, and is limited to a maximum of seventeen participants per night.

http://www.strangertickets.com/events/27889294/listening-glass

MAP's world premiere by Vincent Delaney presents an interesting true story

Peggy Gannon and Ben McFadden in The Art of Bad Men (Shane Regan)

The Art of Bad Men

MAP Theatre

(at INScape)

Through October 17, 2015

We’re all pretty used to POW films focusing on how hard it is/was to be a prisoner as a U.S. soldier. We don’t usually get a focus on enemy soldiers, but the world premiere play at MAP Theatre, The Art of Bad Men, by local playwright Vincent Delaney, brings us a trio of German POWs held in the pasturelands of Minnesota!

The “art” mentioned in the title refers to the fact, a true story, that German POWs in that Minnesota prison camp put on a Moliere play while incarcerated there! I guess it was because they could, and to ward off the tedium and have something to do. The bad men are, by definition, the German soldiers. They are a trio of different kinds of men: a stalwart Nazi (Ben McFadden) trying to keep working on escaping and undermining their captivity, a musician who entertained the German soldiers and never saw real action (Ben Burris), and a boy recruited to the Nazi Youth – too young to know what the whole war was about (Sean Schroeder).

Margie Bicknell - Veteran singer/performer on typical struggles for women actors and her new show at Eclectic Theater

Margaret (Margie) Bicknell (Kinnunen)

It’s a particular pleasure of mine to occasionally profile one of our older Seattle area performers. They have loads of experience and history in theater and get to an age where it becomes more difficult to share that, just when they have the most range and depth to provide. Such is our youth-obsessed culture.

Margaret – Margie – Bicknell is one such and the latest person to sit down with me to talk about her life in the arts. It also just so happens that you can see her strut her stuff, shortly, in the Equity Member Project Winter Bird, opening at Eclectic Theater October 1st.

"Bootycandy" is equal parts deep profane pain and great joy! Best Intiman show this season!

Tyler Trerise in Bootycandy (Jeff Carpenter)

Bootycandy

Intiman Festival

(at Cornish black box)

Through October 3

The challenging, engaging, challenging, funny (did I say challenging?) play finishing up the Intiman “season” is Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara. It is by far the best production in their list. The play is being presented through their newly-formed Director’s Lab with MFA-candidate Malika Oyetimein helming the project.

So, this review will skew toward discussing her success in directing this semi-autobiographical play. Many people may not understand a director’s job in the collaborative process of staging a play. I hope to clarify that a bit, too. To start that explanation, the director is what I think of as a “crystallizer” – someone who has a vision of what the play should look like, feel like, and help the audience experience. The director uses that vision to work with the designers of the set, costumes, lights and sound (and props) to determine the whole look and feel of a particular staging.

Azeotrope's new play "Sound" exemplifies Hearing-Privileged vs. Deaf Culture...Gracefully!

Lindsay W. Evans and Cheyenna Clearbrook in Sound (Jason Tang)

Sound

Azeotrope 

(at ACTLab – ACT Theatre)

Through October 4, 2015

There are so many graceful moments in the new play, Sound, presented by Azeotrope! That is not the intention of this intensely deep and interesting exploration of the deaf community, but it’s part of my opinion on the intentions of directors Desdemona Chiang and Howie Seago!

This play “speaks” two languages: American Sign Language and spoken English. Azeotrope was determined to learn how to accommodate an audience filled with both hearing and deaf members and they have done so with… grace! And intelligence! And success!

The play, before I get too far off on the “grace notes,” is a new one by Don Nguyen, on the really controversial use of the cochlear implant. If you’re a hearing person and know that it’s a pretty revolutionary device that helps deaf people hear, you might be surprised to know that it’s controversial in the deaf community. What could be wrong with that???