Moby Dick

The Tale Retold by Assemblage Theatre

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 15, 2016

Dennis Rolly (left) as Captain Ahab and Mark Peterson as Starbuck, photo courtesy Assemblage Theatre

It is hard to imagine a more difficult play to produce on stage than Moby Dick. To my way of thinking it would have to be done either on a huge stage with a multi-million-dollar budget or in an intimate playhouse with nothing but a handful of props. The former would perforce be an extravaganza in which all of the insights of Melville’s story would be lost to special effects; the latter would be the sensible way to do it, but would have its own daunting challenges.

Director David Domkoski of Assemblage Theatre had the good sense to know that a small version would make more sense — besides which, he didn’t have the bucks or the space to do it up big —  which is why he produced it in the small black box at Tacoma Youth Theatre with only a scattering of chairs, ladders and buckets on stage to be used as settings ranging from a New Bedford tavern to a whaling ship.

He also did it without regard to gender, with Heather Christopher, Jillian Mae Lee and Kaylie Rainer playing men’s roles.

In an interesting twist such as I have never before seen, the play begins with a prelude in which the entire cast came out one-by-one and recited facts about sperm whales and about Melville’s writing of the classic novel, which sold no more than a few hundred copies in his lifetime.

The cast is superb. Casting Dennis Rolly as Captain Ahab was a stroke of genius. His intensity, his craggy appearance with balding hair long on back and an old Quaker-style beard, and the mad look in his eyes —this is how I shall forever picture Ahab.

Casting Christopher as the cannibal harpoonist Quequeg was another stroke of genius. Nobody could look less like the huge man with the tattooed face than this attractive woman, but with a top hat and strips of colorful ribbon in her hair (and without the tattoos) it is her big, hypnotic eyes and her strong acting that make her into this frightening yet lovable character.

Tim Hoban is outstanding as the narrator, Ishmael. He delivers his lines with restrained passion and makes of Ishmael a sympathetic character.

Other actors of note are Mark Peterson as Starbuck, Rainer as Elijah and Flask (although her lack of clear enunciation in spots made her hard to understand), and Chad Russell as Stubb and Captain Gardner; he was especially good as Gardner), and Tyler Dobies as an unnamed sailor and Captain Boomer.

Two things bothered me about this production, even though I feel that both were somewhat necessary. I felt that there was far too much narration and wished they had followed the adage “show don’t tell,” but in this case, without the narration it would have been nothing more than an action-adventure and much of Melville’s insight into the human psyche would have been lost.

Similary, I was bothered by the amount of bombast. It was loud and in places chaotic. There was some overacting. But that was the way it had to be. These were rough, loud and lusty men in situations where there would, of course, be a lot of shouting. But in a small, enclosed space the noise was almost painful. In the most chaotic scenes I could not hear what anyone was saying as they shouted over each other.

If your taste runs to intense drama, this is the play to see.

Moby Dick, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 24, Tacoma Youth Theater, 924 Broadway, Tacoma, tickets $10-$15, available at the door or Brown Paper Tickets @ www.BrownPaperTickets.com

Woolworth Windows fall 2016

The latest installations by Spaceworks Tacoma

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 15, 2016

painting by Lauren Boilini, courtesy Spaceworks Tacoma

Spaceworks Tacoma’s latest installations in the Woolworth windows are big, bold and impressive.

In the northernmost windows on Broadway are wire animal sculptures by Eva Funderburgh, who says she uses her “simple, emotive animal forms to examine human motives and emotions.” Her animals are hybrid forms, somewhere between realistic and ritualistic, see-through skeletal like tumbleweed or tangles of wire turned into animal forms, in this case a deer-like creature and something between a howling dog and a hyena. They bring to mind sculptures by Deborah Butterfield, but with more expressive movement and less of an attempt to be naturalistic.

The next window down is filled with bold prints by various artists or groups of artists created during the 2016 Tacoma Wayzgoose Festival where artists make prints using a steamroller press on huge sheets of paper. The images are strong and often confrontational, some looking like scratchboard and woodblock prints, and many like revolutionary posters from the 1930s.

Lauren Boilini’s wall-size painting executed directly on the wall in the corner space at 11^th & Broadway is an open, brushy and drippy abstract-expressionist work. Since the painting rounds the corner, it cannot be taken in all in a single glance. On the wall are abstract shapes in blue on a white wall barely recognizable as a street scene with flying giant birds. The paint drips onto the floor to form islands and puddles of green and red. The artist says, “Recently I have been drawn to images of battles and duels, where opposing forces fight for the same space. I am interested in what drives us to violence and destruction of life.”

The most awesome (in the sense of fearful) installation is Nola Avienne’s “Ashflow” in the Commerce Street window. It depicts a pyroclastic eruption made of rocks, iron filings, wool, spray foam, fabric and sand. It depicts a still moment with lava flow and ash as in a stop-motion photograph. It is dark, gritty, heart-stopping. And beyond my descriptive abilities. You must see it for yourself. Take your time, let it sink in. And perhaps keep in mind that within sight of where you are standing is an active volcano.

Woolworth Windows, 11^th and Broadway and 11^th and Commerce, seven days, 24 hours, through November 17.

TLT's Off the Shelf

TACOMA LITTLE THEATRE’S ‘OFF THE SHELF’ PRESENTS
THREE ONE ACTS: LEMONADE, THE CAT CONNECTION & SECOND CHANCE

Tacoma, WA- Tacoma Little Theatre presents an evening of one acts for the first OFF THE SHELF of their 98th Season, on Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 7:30pm.  The production will be directed by Chris Serface.

Lemonade introduces us to a pair of Peoria matrons who seek respite from the doldrums of middle age by selling spiked lemonade to highway travelers and trading tales; Second Chance tells the story of a widow who has decided to begin a new life in the theatre and her married neighbor who tries to put a damper on her aspirations; and The Cat Connection which takes us to a park, where two older women have little in common—except they feed the same cat.

All three stories bring together the theatrical powerhouse of Sharry O’Hare and Carol Richmond, reuniting on the TLT stage for the first time since they were in Auntie Mame.

Tickets for the September 22, 2016 performance at 7:30pm are $10.00 for non TLT Members, and FREE for those who are members. Tickets may be purchased online at www.tacomalittletheatre.com, or by calling our Box Office at (253) 272-2281.

Retro Colby

 A Bill Colby retrospective at UPS

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 8, 2016

“Blue Stairway,” watercolor by Bill Colby, courtesy Kittredge Gallery

Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound kicked off the building’s 75^th anniversary year with a retrospective of works by printmaker and longtime UPS art professor Bill Colby, who taught there from 1956 to1989.

On display are 26 works, mostly prints and a few watercolors. The works chosen for this exhibition display a wide range of Colby’s subject matter and style, including works from the 1950s right up to this year.

“Sun at Short Sands” woodcut 1956, by Bill Colby, courtesy Kittredge Gallery

Much of his early work puts me in mind of the early Northwest School painters from the 1930s and ’40s (Mark Toby, Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves). These painters were also called mystics, and there is much of the mystic in Colby’s prints, to be seen in his simplification of form and in color schemes based on the dull light of the Northwest as seen in mountains, clouds and water. Among his earlier prints are scenes with people in interior settings, which hint at narrative without explicitly telling stories. In later works he depicts landscape in various degrees of abstraction, from simply stylized to almost purely symbolic or emblematic shapes.

“East Door” is the largest piece in the show at approximately seven feet tall. It is a simple abstraction with both Native American and Asian influences. Near the top a stylized wreath of leaves that encircles a cold moon. Below that is a mountain range simplified to little more than a line of triangles, and below that larger and similarly abstracted mountains and trees. This piece is on loan from Roger and Andrea Smith. It is restful, contemplative.

“Ravine,” a large woodcut, is one of the strongest images in the show. It is a highly expressive landscape with broad and energetic marks that appear to have

been gouged out with wide swipes of some kind of trowel. Next to it is a watercolor study for the same piece that is even more expressive, with loose and energetic brushstrokes. It’s one of my favorites, and it exemplifies something I’ve often observed; and that is that studies for larger works of art are often more compelling than the more “finished” pieces due to their sheer exuberance and spontaneity. 

“Quiet Time,” a black and white etching from 1965, pictures a group of women seated in what appears to be a bar. The interior scene is done with squiggly lines and organic shapes that are close to pure abstraction, and the women’s figures are hidden among these shapes. It’s like a Tobey painting with peek-a-boo figures.

“Downtown Swing,” a woodcut from the same year, depicts a scene very much like that in “Quiet Time,” but the figures are less abstract, and the scene is anything but quiet. It is a rambunctious, rhythmical scene of figures drinking, dancing and arguing with jazz-age exuberance. 

“Blue Stairway,” a watercolor from 1965, is a mystical and lyrical painting that I see as Colby’s take on Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” (obviously not intended as such since it was painted before the Zeppelin song was published). It is lovely, delicate, atmospheric, and otherworldly.

The most recent picture is “Crow Watch,” a mixed watercolor and woodcut from this year depicting a large black crow in flight with a much smaller murder of crows on what appears to be a power line.

Bill Colby, Kittredge Gallery, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m., through Sept. 24, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma, 253.879.3701.

Mr. Klein’s Wild Ride

Photo: cover of Mr. Klein’s Wild Ride, courtesy Mud Flat Press

Christian Carvajal writes about a theme park for swingers

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 1, 2016

Volcano scribe Christian Carvajal —voted Best Writer in the Weekly Volcano’s Best of Olympia — has published a new novel under the pseudonym Lynn Savage. It is called Mr. Klein’s Wild Ride (Mud Flat Press, 2016), and it is the story of the building and cataclysmic opening of a theme park for swingers on an island near Los Angeles.

Mr. Klein’s Wild Ride is the tale of Gary Klein, a marketing guru who accepts the job of brand manager for a sexy new theme park . . . at which point his life and his marriage spin into chaos. His tragicomic downfall culminates at Bliss Panerotic, a paradise for lovers and a feast for the senses. Carvajal says, “It's an island playground for couples whose lust for adventure knows no bounds. Mr. Klein's Wild Ride is a satire that calls to mind Jurassic Park and Exit to Eden, yet merges its own cutting-edge technology with polyamorous sexuality.”

This is Carvajal’s second novel. The first, not written under a pseudonym, was a story of the apocalypse set in Oklahoma.

Carvajal grew up in Los Angeles, Northern California and small-town Oklahoma. “We were a family of Jehovah's Witnesses back then. I'm not in that faith anymore, but it inspired my continuing fascination with subcultures. I promised myself I'd write three novels: one about religion, one about sex and the other about politics. I think those are the biggest taboos in American conversation, hence the subjects we want to talk about the most. Lightfall (Campanile Books, 2009) was my religion story. Mr. Klein's Wild Ride is my novel about 21st-century sexuality. I have the setup and characters for the third book on paper, but I keep getting distracted by pressing obligations. I can tell you it'll be what science-fiction fans call a ‘first contact novel.’ In many ways, I've been planning it since I was a teenager. Now I just have to find the time and head space to encourage its birth.”

Those “pressing obligations” that keep distracting him include directing and acting in numerous plays, including the recent Credeaux Canvas, which he directed for Theater Artists Olympia, storytelling at Story Oly, editing Oly Arts, and both hosting and reading at several Creative Colloquy events.

Carvajal will do a reading at Creative Colloquy Olympia Sept. 5. In October, Mr. Klein will be part of the Creative Colloquy Crawl in Tacoma and will be in an Off the Shelf reading and discussion at Tacoma Little Theatre (full disclosure: I will also be a part of that event, along with Tacoma writer Melissa Thayer). Watch christiancarvajal.com for details. “I’ll sign copies at every event, and some will get downright steamy,” he says.

Creative Colloquy Olympia, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 5, Forrey's Forza in,130 Marvin rd. SE #130, Lacey.

Mr. Klein’s Wild Ride Book Launch Party, 7- 8:30 p.m., Sept. 6, Browsers Bookshop, 107 Capitol Way N, Olympia.

The Last Five Years at Harlequin

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 1, 2016

Aaron Lamb and Katherine Strohmaier, photo courtesy Harlequin Productions

The Last Five Years is a little musical with a big heart, and actors Aaron Lamb and Katherine Strohmaier, directed by Linda Whitney, make of it a mesmerizing evening’s entertainment.

Composer, lyricist and playwright Jason Robert Brown has created a story told in song that is heart-wrenching and real — no fairy tale romance this, but rather a look at five years in the life of a couple who meet, fall in love, and live through the tears and laughter of reality; with humor, with sadness, with conflict.

The truly clever thing about Brown’s story, which could come across as contrived and corny in the hands of a lesser playwright, is that the story is told both forward and backward. Catherine Hiatt (Strohmaier) begins the telling of their story from the present moment and works her way backwards to when she first met Jamie, who tells his version of their story from the beginning. It’s two stories of the same five years told from two points of view and told entirely through song. There is a single piano set on a revolve in the center of the stage, and the two performers take turns on it accompanying each other as they each sing solos. There are two songs sung as duets, one when their stories (told from beginning to end and end to beginning) inevitably intersect, and that moment of intersection is one of the most beautiful moments in the play — and one other duet at the end.

Katherine Strohmaier

Without Strohmaier and Lamb, The Last Five Years could not have been produced, because finding a triple-threat duo, a man and a woman who can each sing, play piano and act, is next to impossible.

Harlequin audiences know Lamb from his performances as Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird, Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and many other non-musical shows, but we never before knew he could sing and play the piano — but oh can he ever belt out a song with beautiful pitch, range and seething emotion!

Strohmaier is new to the Harlequin stage, but she comes with an impressive resume, having performed in Guys and Dolls at the 5^th Avenue Theatre, in The Gypsy King at Village Theatre, and having performed as a vocalist with the Seattle Symphony Pops concerts. She is an instructor and music director at Cornish College of the Arts. Strohmaier has a clear and strong voice. She and Lamb both inhabit their characters in such a way that their songs are not just songs; through expression and movement the audience sees the characters they portray as real people who wear their emotions like battle scars.

Linda Whitney’s set design is simple yet stunning. There is nothing on the stage except for the single piano and two benches. Behind the piano are three projection screens upon which are still and moving images that correspond with the stories being told through song. Other than the changing projections, the only set change is lighting on the back wall (lighting design by Mark Thomason).

For two actors to command a stage for 80 minutes without an intermission, is quite a stunning feat. Strohmaier and Lamb do it with style and seeming ease as they become Jamie and Katherine, a successful writer and actress navigating careers and marriage in New York City.

The Last Five Years, Thursday through Saturday, 8p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. through Sept. 10, Harlequin Productions’ State Theater, 202 E. 4^th Ave., Olympia, ticket prices vary, call for details, 360-786-0151; http://www.harlequinproductions.org/

The Bold and the Black

“After the Storm,” Sumi painting by Selinda Sheridan, photo courtesy Matter.

 Sumi paintings by Selinda Sheridan at Matter

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 1, 2016

“After the Storm,” Sumi painting by Selinda Sheridan, photo courtesy Matter

Viewing Selinda Sheridan’s show at Matter is like walking into a group exhibition of Sumi painters. There are only six paintings in the show, and each of them is so different from all the others that they could easily be mistaken for the work of six different artists. And yet there are similarities that cannot be denied. There is an old truism that in great art there is always complexity within simplicity or variety within unity. Complexity within simplicity is the hallmark of Sheridan’s show, The Bold and the Black. These six paintings are as alike as they are different, and the title of the show underscores what they most have in common. They are bold, and they are black (and white and gray, but mostly black shapes and marks on a white surface). Most of them present a single image in bold strokes of the brush, but within these simple images are a variety of shapes and marks; and many of them refer to or resonate with forms seen in nature.

“After the Storm” pictures a line of five black balls in the deepest, darkest solid black. They are side-by-side with the most delicate of asymmetrical balance: three in a line, a slight space, and then a fourth, with a fifth on top balanced between numbers two and three, and in the space an outline drawing of an apple. This is a Zen-like painting. It is so calming I want to meditate while sitting in front of it.

“Dream Field with Blue” is a dense field of heavy, scratchy crisscrossed lines like barbed wire and sticks all in a tangle that form a square.  Within the square created by this jumble of marks are almost-invisible blue lines. The image is mostly flat but with layered levels that create an illusion of shallow space. There is a feeling of threat to this one.

“Before and After” pictures a single, curved, horizontal shape that makes me think of a boat, perhaps a Native American canoe. It is solid black with a thin white line that could be a seam in the boat’s hull. Sticking out on top of it like a series of broom straws are strokes of a different sort. The whole thing appears to have been painted with no more than seven or eight broad strokes of a wide brush.

Like all the others, “Another Side of Darkness” is an abstract painting that calls to mind things seen in nature, in this case a night sky or an explosion of galaxies. This astral field is painted on a white background with tiny gold flecks.

These are four of the six paintings in the show. I will leave the other two to the reader’s imagination and hope you will go see them for yourself.

Also showing with Sheridan is “Spectral,” a mixed-media installation by Elise Richman (reviewed in this column last week), and original ceramics by Melissa Balch.

The Bold and the Black by Selinda Sheridan, noon to 6 p.m., by chance and by appointment through Oct. 1, Saturdays and by appointment; for appointment call Lisa Kinoshita 253.961.5220, Matter, 821 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.879.3701. mattertacoma.com