Run to Taproot to “See How They Run”

 

"Best clowns" Sophia Franzella and Shanna Allman in See How They Run (Robert Wade)

See How They Run
Taproot Theatre
Through March 5, 2022
 
They’re back, bitches!!! You have no idea how good it feels to be able to sit back and relax to enjoy good theater again, especially when it’s in the hands of Karen Lund and her band of merry clowns! There are few people who can consistently pull off the form of farce on stage, and Karen Lund is one of those few.
 
Is it broad? Is it over the top? Is it groan-worthy? Is it door-slammiest? Is it predictably silly? Sure! And so it’s truly just to have fun! Lund has assembled, for the first farce post-covid, a band of some of the merriest in town! While everyone in this cast is on their game, Shanna Allman and Sophia Franzella are simply point-perfect in their timing, their grimaces, their pratfalling (Allman) and their conceit (Franzella).

Feminism Makes Waves - Review of 'The Fifth Wave' at Macha Theatre Works

 

Hugo Monday and Mari Nelson in The Fifth Wave (Joe Iano)

The Fifth Wave
Macha Theatre Works
At West of Lenin
Through February 27, 2022
 
Actors-turned-playwriting team, Lisa Every and Jenn Ruzumna, are tackling a complex subject with their new play, The Fifth Wave. You won’t find an actual “ending” in this piece because we are all in the difficult process of figuring out our changing society and how we’re going to navigate to a better place.
 
The title is important, though there are differing opinions about what the fifth wave – of feminism – should actually represent. Wave 1 was voting and the suffragettes, the ability of women to be elected to political office. Wave 2 was economic power for women, the right to have their own credit, work outside the home – and be paid equally for it, be unmarried if they wished, and a crucial right to manage their own bodily reproduction. Wave 3 was an embrace of diversity, LGBTQ rights, non-binary lifestyles. Wave 4 was (is?) combating sexual assault and harassment, and working against misogyny. Many people think we are still in the fourth wave. Those who postulate we are in or are in need of a fifth wave suggest that it flips the script to focus on and empower the bottom portion of the economic scale, 70% of which is made up of women.
 
The subject of this play is sexual assault and harassment. It’s a big topic. We’ve seen the breakout of the “Me, Too” movement about rape. There is definite change in the air and we’ve seen powerful people brought down due to accusation, even when there is no trial and the complaint is that accusations mean there is no “due process.”

Seattle Theaters Forge Ahead with Openings

"The Fifth Wave" at Macha Theatre Works

Despite the brisk wintery air of February and attendant struggles with in-person entertainments, Seattle theater companies continue to provide and protect as much as they can. Some are postponing, but others are forging ahead. We’ve got world premieres and a national tour to see. Get your ids and your shot records ready, mask up and go!

Dragon Lady/Dragon Mama, Café Nordo (in repertory), 2/1/22-3/6/22
Sara Porkalob, solo performer extraordinaire, began a planned trilogy of memoir/biography plays with Dragon Lady: It is the year of the Water Dragon and the eve of Grandma Maria’s 60th birthday. By the light of the karaoke machine, fueled by pork dumplings and Diet Pepsi, she shares a dark secret from her Filipino gangster past with one lucky grandchild. Traversing 50 years of faulty family memories, this timely new musical is about what it means to come to America.

Her second play, Dragon Mama, continues down the generation from grandmother to mother.

Maria Porkalob, Jr., yearns for a gayer, more POC-filled life than Bremerton, WA, can offer. When presented with an opportunity to make a quick fortune, Maria must make an important decision: leave her debt-ridden mother, four young siblings, and newborn daughter Sara for the wild unknown of Alaska, or stay close to home, family, and intergenerational trauma. Traversing 25 years filled with queer love in a barren land, Dragon Mama features ghosts, Filipino gangsters, and a dope ‘80s and ‘90s soundtrack.
These play in repertory, and can be seen without Nordo’s traditional “meal and show” and are offered on the eve of Porkalob’s departure (finally, after a covid-delay of many months) to perform in a Broadway show.
www.cafenordo.com
 
Photograph 51, UW School of Drama, 2/2/22-2/6/22
London, 1953. Scientists are on the verge of discovering what they call the secret of life: the DNA double helix. Providing the key is driven young physicist Rosalind Franklin. But if the double helix was the breakthrough of the 20th century, then what kept Franklin out of the history books? A play about ambition, isolation, and the race for greatness.
www.drama.washington.edu
 
Red Riding Hood, Seattle Children’s Theatre, 2/1/22-3/6/22 (world premiere)
Fairytale Farce! Wolfgang (Conner Neddersen), the greatest actor in the world, is preparing for the performance of his lifetime in the “true story” of Red Riding Hood when a Delivery Driver (Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako) carrying a mysterious package interrupts his rehearsal. She boldly calls into question Wolfgang’s story, adamant that he should only tell the classic tale. As their story flourishes, a madcap romp through the popular fairy tale ensues. This lively adaptation reminds us that when something is important, bravery knows no bounds.
https://www.sct.org/onstage/productions/red-riding-hood-2/

Voices and Talent Shine in “Songs for a New World” but the songs are not so shiny

 

Songs for a New World (Gabriel Corey)

Songs for a New World
Village Theatre
Issaquah: through Feb 13, 2022, Everett: Feb 18-Mar 13, 2022
 
My experience in attending this musical ran along two very, very different tracks. The first track was glorious! I was attending a musical again at Village Theatre and there were four hugely talented performers on stage. I didn’t feel like four was too few; I did not feel like the harmonies were “light” because there were only four singers.
 
The talented quadruplet filled the stage, harmonized beautifully, and satisfied everything about the performance one could want. Maria Habeeb has a lovely soprano that flows easily and sweetly. Alexandria Henderson has an edge and a keen sense of drama that reflects in her voice. Tyler Dobie’s face showed every single emotion, even fleeting ones, as he felt each emotion in a song. Cal Mitchell is energetic and powerful and sometimes scene-stealing.

January Theater is Alive and Happening!

 

Bohemia (Truman Buffett)

It’s a bit later in the month than usual, but there are some great shows still scheduled for this blustery month. So far, no theater listed here has cancelled, but always check just in case! It looks like a pretty glorious month of shows.

Songs for a New World, Village Theatre, 1/12/22-3/13/22
(Issaquah 1/12/22 to 2/13/22 | Everett 2/18/22 to 3/13/22)
It’s actually the Puget Sound premiere of the show by Jason Robert Brown (which is a bit surprising), featuring powerful songs of life, love, the choices we make, and the hope they inspire. This production embraces life’s challenging events and strives to show us that renewal and survival is always within reach. This is an all-BIPOC cast of all-star performers.
www.villagetheatre.org
 
Fannie: The Music And Life Of Fannie Lou Hamer, Seattle Repertory Theatre, 1/14/22-2/13/22
Locally cherished playwright, Cheryl L. West, pens a bioplay. Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer tells the impassioned story of American civil rights activist and hero, Fannie Lou Hamer. Part theater, part revival, and all power – this play with music will have your head nodding and hands clapping from start to finish. From her humble origins as the daughter of a Mississippi sharecropper to co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and demanding recognition at the National Democratic Convention, Fannie is a story of justice that will not be denied. (Solo performer)
www.seattlerep.org
 
Bohemia, Marxiano Productions, 1/20-30/22 (at the Triple Door)
The story centers around famous Bohemian composer Antonín Dvorák who has hit a wall prior to composing his magnum opus. In a move of desperation he turns to a bottle of absinthe for inspiration. In this whimsical and mystical dream cabaret, Dvorák is visited by the ghost of late composer Frédéric Chopin and a host of green fairies. Chopin and many other famous Bohemians guide Dvorák as they search for the true source of inspiration and grasp at artistic immortality.
www.thetripledoor.net

An Entrancing World Premiere from a Masterful Musician

 

We've Battled Monsters Before (John McLellan)

We’ve Battled Monsters Before
Artswest
www.artswest.org
Through December 26^, 2021 (and virtually)

Justin Huertas was born lucky. He is perfectly positioned to take advantage of exactly this age of “becoming inclusive,” as theater works to widen and embrace diverse stories from diverse backgrounds. He’s Gay and Filipino American. He is also, luckily, a hugely talented musician/writer/actor/performer. And it’s lucky for us (particularly in Seattle) that we get to experience his art.

Huertas often writes from a perspective of a young person uneasy with their circumstance or background or family. His first major musical, Lizard Boy, set the table with a story of a boy who magically is turned into a lizard and has to manage how he stands in the world being so clearly different from everyone else. The genesis of the story is linked to Huertas’ journey of coming out Gay, and his Filipino-American heritage, and having to deal with feeling different than others. Like the stories he’s chosen subsequently, the boy triumphs in the end.

While his next effort, Howl’s Moving Castle, was not his own story (it’s an adaptation of a well-known book and movie), it, too, has magical elements and young people struggling with who they will be and how they will navigate life. His songs showed progress in sophistication and in how they move the story along and help the musical come to life.

The summer before Covid, Huertas teamed up with Mathew Wright and Artswest, where you can also see We’ve Battled Monsters Before until December 26^th or possibly virtually online, with his next world premiere, The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion. The premise for that story is based on real Puget Sound octopus wrestling! Around that, he crafted a family story of secrets, magic (of course), and learning about how to accept and be your real self.

With each new creation, his musician-ship matures a little bit more, his lyrics become more pointed, and the “reasons” things happen in his musicals continue to strengthen. And now, his latest world premiere, We’ve Battled Monsters Before, arrives. Based on a Filipino poem, Ibong Adarna, we have a family of generations of secret warriors with a young woman who doesn’t know her own power or what it’s to be used for.