“How I Learned to Drive” – One Big Trigger (See it anyway)

Amy Danneker and Frank Boyd in How I Learned to Drive (John Ulman)

How I Learned to Drive

Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Through July 7, 2018

I can, by no means, claim any kind of encyclopedic knowledge of modern plays, but I cannot bring to mind any play that is focused on incest besides How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. There are plays, like August: Osage County, that contain it as a sort of sub-plot (among many), but this play has no other sub-plot, only context. It’s a remarkable play, partly because while it deals with a deeply odious subject matter, it allows an audience to experience it without maudlin lingering in the miasma. There is a sort of “breathing room” for audiences.

Partly that is because Vogel tells the story in a back-and-forth manner through time. Her point is not to wallow in the darkness of human nature, it’s more to instruct those who may not know the “how it happens” aspect – the grooming.

“Wild Horses” tells a 13 year-old’s tale

Wild Horses

Intiman Theatre

At 12th Avenue Arts

Through June 24, 2018

Dedra D. Woods in Wild Horses (Naomi Ishisaka)

Allison Gregory has created a play that turns the idea of a short story, told around a campfire, into a visceral experience and a solo performance. She crafts a memoir told from the point of view of a woman who has survived some difficult moments in life, yet who can remember a seminal summer at the age of thirteen and implies that summer formed much of who she later became.

Dedra D. Woods takes on that role and Sheila Daniels makes sure that Woods’ transitions into the various people intersecting with her teenage self are portrayed with clean, clearly individuated characters.

The woman at the bar has no name. She begins telling the story of her thirteenth summer by relating that there was a radio contest to “name” A Horse With No Name, a song by the band named America. It was released in 1972, so that links it to a very specific time. In fact, if the woman is supposed to be telling the tale in 2018, that would have to make her 59ish and Ms. Woods is not nearly 59. However, the atmosphere in this bar is a little unmoored in time, so maybe it’s being told a few years ago, too. The indistinct nature of theatre time…while being very distinct.

June Theater Busts Out Singing

The Picture of Dorian Gray (John Ulman)

June is bustin out with musicals in our fair town. Classics and world premieres seem to demand that we sing all month long!

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 5th Avenue Theatre, 6/1-24/18 (opens 6/8)

Joshua Castille stars as Quasimodo in this local edition of this remarkable work, complete with a 30-person choir. A reimagining of Victor Hugo’s epic masterpiece, this powerful tale of love, faith and prejudice will provide a lush, beautiful score. Songs are included from the Disney animated feature along with new music from legendary composer Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. This 5th Avenue staging will be directed by Glenn Casale, who staged the acclaimed production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid at The 5th Avenue Theatre last winter.

www.5thavenue.org

Journey West! The Legend of Lewis and Clark, Copious Love Prods., 6/1-23/18 (at Theatre Off Jackson) (world premiere)

Andrew Lee Creech (book and lyrics and music) and Evan Barrett (music) have created a new musical skewering the story of the westward journey of Lewis and Clark that we’re taught in history class in school. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson enlisted Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's Corps of Discovery to explore the uncharted West and find an all-water route across North America to unite sea with shining sea. This whimsical and irreverent send-up re-blazes the historic trail to the Pacific through song, dance, and Sasquatch. If history is written by the victors, then what does it look like through the lens of the disenfranchised? Who gets to tell their story vs. who gets their story told for them? …and who becomes a footnote? Our diverse, genderqueer cast and crew bring this adventure to the stage.

www.copiouslove.org/

“5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” is a fluffy dish

The cast of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Alex Garland)

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche

Fantastic. Z Theatre

(at Ballard Underground)

Through June 2, 2018

You are cordially invited to attend the 1956 Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein Annual Quiche Breakfast. Bring your quiches to be judged. Their Golden Rule is “No Men. No Meat. All Manners.”

A semi-interactive playlet (I’m not sure you can call it a full-fledged play), 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, is being produced by the LGBTQ-focused theater company, Fantastic.Z Theatre. You make your way to the basement known as The Ballard Underground, and get a name tag with your assumed name for the evening. This allows the leadership of the SBASFTSOGS to call you by your name.

If you want to be extra sweet, you might bring them gifts of boiled eggs. Eggs are about all these ladies can talk about, putting aside all the horrid politics outside their hermetically sealed bomb shelter that is guaranteed to protect them from the invasion of communists that might happen At Any Moment!

“Arroyo’s” is a Great Place to Visit

Welcome to Arroyo's (Dave Hastings)

Welcome to Arroyo’s

Theater Schmeater

Through June 2, 2018

It’s hip hop and altruism and history and idealism and art. It’s finding out what you’re made of and finding out how to see what is offered right in front of you. It’s so many things rolled up into one small, delightful play: Welcome to Arroyo’s by Kristoffer Diaz, and it’s at Theater Schmeater, right now.

Expertly guided by director Jay O’Leary, this kick ass cast tells the story of a brother and sister reeling from the recent loss of their mother. The sister, Molly (Ashley Salazar), after years of hiding her graffiti-art-spraying identity, has suddenly started openly tagging, daring a local beat cop (Naa Akua) to arrest her. The brother, Alejandro (Tony Magana, Jr.), has turned his mother’s deli into a bar, in the tradition of “if you build it, they will come,” but so far no one’s coming.

Two budding DJs, Nel (Michael Cercado) and Trip (Richard Sean Glen), keep trying to convince him to add their hip hop flare to draw the neighborhood, but they have trouble getting through to Alejandro. Into the bar walks Lelly (Anasofia Gallegos) and Alejandro immediately wants to know what she thinks.

God blessed us with a great puppeteer in “Hand to God” at SPT

Hand to God (John Ulman)

Hand to God

Seattle Public Theater

Through June 3, 2018

For most people, puppet shows are mostly for kids, these days, though if one takes a turn through theater history, puppets have been used for thousands of years to augment stories and are celebrated art forms in many cultures.

In Seattle, a handful of folks have steeped themselves in puppetry in a variety of forms. Three that come to mind cross the gambit of puppetry formats. Brian Kooser has created some enormous puppets in shows, though he hasn’t created his own production in quite awhile. Scot Augustson uses shadow puppetry almost exclusively in his subversive political-social commentary plays. Jean Enticknap uses Bunraku puppets (with Kooser’s help) for her children’s Thistle Theatre. Ben Burris, a young performer who worked with Thistle for years, has graduated to making his own puppets and is now starring in Robert Askins’ Hand to God at Seattle Public Theater.

Burris has decamped to Los Angeles in the way of young actors seeking more fame and fortune and … acting, one supposes, but has returned here for a showing of his incredible mastery of this particular art. My personal impression of the focus of this very odd, funny, intense play is that the subject of the play is really “the mother,” but Burris’ ability to manage the subtleties of acting with a hand puppet – that really does seem to become The Devil while attached to a generally mild-mannered teenage boy – is a major blessing.