Bryan Willis's Sophie at TLT

Bryan Willis’s play Sophie is coming to Tacoma Little Theatre for a special performance one weekend only, directed by Nyree Martinez.

Known locally for his many local, national and internationally produced plays, Willis is now playwright-in-residence at Northwest Playwrights Alliance at the Seattle Repertory. His plays have been workshopped and produced off-Broadway, on the London fringe, throughout the U.K., Israel, and in theaters across the U.S. and Canada, including ACT, New York Theater Workshop, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Unseam’d Shakespeare Co. and Riverside Studios in London.

Sophie is a one-act show that takes place at an outdoor railway station, where a young Sophie (age 13) talks with her older self (age 19). At age 19, Sophie was due to direct and produce a play at the Edinburgh Fringe (Scotland) but died before this ambition could be realized. In the ensuing weeks, her family decided to found a charity in Sophie’s name to give financial support to needy students of acting and of singing – ‘Sophie’s Silver Lining Fund.’ The charity published a book of Sophie’s own writings entitled Sophie’s Log – thoughts and feelings in poetry and prose. A few years later the trustees commissioned a playwright to write a short play based on Sophie’s Log.

Tacoma Little Theatre’s production of Sophie features a strong cast of talented young actresses sharing roles.  Young Sophie is played by Alexandria Bray and Olivia Burns, with Older Sophie being played by Kate Anders and Ayla Carda.

The play was commissioned by Sophie's Silver Lining Foundation (patron sponsor - Judi Dench) and premiered at the Edinburgh Festival. “Soon after, I was commissioned to adapt the work for BBC Radio 4 and had the great pleasure of being part of the production process in Manchester,one of three BBC studios devoted solely to new radio theater,” Willis says.   

“Sophie's family have become life-long friends and I couldn't have written the play without their 
encouragement and support. I've been to Sophie's house at least 15 times over the years and 
the family has visited here in Olympia many times, too. Their foundation (Sophie's Silver Lining 
Foundation) has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds dedicated for scholarships for students of drama and music. The play has been one of many projects developed to raise money for this worthy cause.  

“I tried to write the play in the theatrical style she advocated (similar to my own views), and with respect for who she was and what she still means to so many people. But it's not a play about Saint Sophie. She was a typical school girl in some ways, with many moments of absolute brilliance. The plot and story of the script are based on a poem she wrote at the age of 18, "On Being Alone at a Railway Station," which appeared to be written from the point of view of a spirit. ‘  

Willis says he is delighted to be reunited with his colleague, director Nyree Martinez, and he thanks TLT's artistic director, Chris Serface, “for taking a chance on a lesser-known work written by a local playwright.”

Sophie will run Friday, May 17, through Sunday, May 19, 2019.  Friday and Saturday evening showings are at 7:30pm with Saturday and  Sunday matinees at 2:00pm.  Sophie is recommended for all ages,

Tickets are $10.00 General Admission. Tickets may be purchased online by clicking here, or by calling our Box Office at (253) 272-2281. 

Hoke Coleburn drives Miss Daisy

Photo from left: Chris Biggs as Boolie Werthan, Meigie Mabry as Miss Daisy, Jordan Hall as Hoke Coleburn, photo by Scott Ellgen

An epic tale of the South

by Alec Clayton

Published in the Weekly Volcano, May 2, 2019

from left: Chris Biggs as Boolie Werthan, Meigie Mabry as Miss Daisy and Jordan Hall as Hoke Coleburn

Now playing at Olympia Little Theatre is the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry.

Recent conflagrations over the treatment of race relations on stage and screen in BlacKkKlansman and The Green Book cast doubts on the treatment of race in the Oscar-winning film version of Driving Miss Daisy, and by extension on the play. Never-the-less, the play is touching and funny and seems true to life. The three-person cast in Olympia Little Theatre’s is excellent, and the production moves quickly and smoothly despite some technical difficulties opening night that will hopefully be corrected for future productions (they could have used one or two more technical rehearsals). That and a tawdry set detracts terribly from an otherwise wonderful show. Miss Daisy’s home has cheap and ugly wallpaper not at all in keeping with what one might expect in the home of an aristocratic Southern Jewish lady, and there are moveable folding screens upon which other set locations such as a graveyard are badly painted and which are often moved about clumsily and unnecessarily.

Seventy-two-year-old Daisy Werthan (Meigie Mabry) is no longer able to drive safely, so her son Boolie (Chris Biggs) hires 60-year-old black man named Hoke (Jordan Hall) as her chauffeur. From the beginning, she fights against having some one chauffeur her. She is crusty, short-tempered, and has quite obviously spent her life in a safe little upper-class bubble and knows nothing about the kind of life Hoke lives. Hoke responds with a winning combination kindness, dignity and stubbornness, and Daisy and Hoke gradually learn to accept and even love one another. Hoke drives Daisy from 1948 to 1973. He was driving her to her synagogue when the 1958 bombing of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple in Atlanta took place, and her drove her to a Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel Prize recognition dinner in 1965.

The play handles race issues in a surprisingly gentle but understanding manner, with a plethora of humorous one-liners. One of the most telling and incisive scenes of racial strife is when Boolie decides not to go to the MLK recognition dinner because being seen there might adversely affect his business relations.

Mabry is absolutely believable as Miss Daisy. Her crisp wit, subtle facial expressions and slow and painful movements as she grows older are beautifully done. Biggs pushes his depiction of a proud Southern businessman almost to the edge of being stereotypical without going over that line. In the opening scene he directs one dramatic speech at the audience when it should have been directed at his mother, but that mistake doesn’t happen again.

Hall simply is Hoke in his every movement and expression, beautifully underplayed in every scene but in a few scenes not projecting well enough to be clearly understood. Also beautifully underplayed by all three cast members are the Southern accents. Credit the cast and first-time director Randall Graham for perfectly handling the accents.

Driving Miss Daisy

7:25 p.m. Thursday- Saturday and 1:55 p.m. Sunday through May 12

$11-$15, $2 student discount

Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia, (360) 786-9484, http://www.olympialittletheater.org

The teachers show their stuff

Faculty exhibit at Tacoma Community College

by Alec Clayton

Published in the Weekly Volcano, May 2, 2019 

Model for commission sculpture by Kyle Dillehay, courtesy Tacoma Community College

Today and tomorrow are the last two days of the art faculty exhibit at Tacoma Community College (posted 4/2/19).

A college faculty art exhibit is where the teachers get to put their art where their mouths are — to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Kyle Dillehay and Marit Berg certainly prove they can walk the walk, and there are flashes of greatness or at least originality in the works of a few others, notably AIice DiCerto and Frank Dippolito. Every artist in the show is an accomplished practitioner in their chosen field, but few of the works displayed have the power of the best work in previous shows in this gallery, such as Hart James’s landscapes, sculpture by Irene Osborne and Bobbi Ritter’s series on the micro-brew culture of the Pacific Northwest seen in TCC’s previous exhibition.

Berg continues to surprise me, because every time I see her work it is different than anything previously seen from her. This time she’s all about picturing animals. There are four etchings of hares and jackrabbits and a painting of a lion repeated 16 times in oil, each slightly different and arranged in four rows of four. The lion painting is impactful mostly because it takes up an entire facing wall at the gallery entrance. Had it been silkscreened, it would be a great homage to Andy Warhol, although, of course, Warhol never painted, only photographed and then reproduced all his images.

Berg’s most outstanding works in this show are a pair of oil paintings of angora rabbits, one rabbit per painting, each facing forward and filling almost every inch of space in its large canvas. One is painted in shades of gray, the other in white and light beige. They are expansive and seem to hover in space, a terrific use of space and color, nuanced and confrontational.

Dillehay has two painted constructions called “Rapto de La Sabines” (translation: rape of the Sabines), a popular subject in Roman art and  all the way through the Renaissance, and interpreted by many artists from Peter Paul Rubens  to Jacques-Louis David to Pablo Picasso. Each image is printed by a process called cynotype on a rough surface that looks like cast glass or like water in a stormy sea, with sensual human figures and something that looks like a negative image of flying dragons inside a constructed box with a crank handle like some kind of steampunk slide display.

Also from Dillehay is a model (¼ scale) of a sculpture commissioned by the state Arts Commission to be erected on the Yakima Valley Trade School Sunnyside campus. It is a precarious-looking stack of boxes, wooden in the model but to be constructed in metal, with student workers in each box hard at work on their respective fields of study. The complexity of the images wraps up the entirety of the college’s offerings in a single tower of sculpted images and objects associated with the college: a mortarboard, nurses, scientists, welding equipment and lots of food, especially spears of asparagus, a crop widely grown in the region. The complexity is fascinating, and the sculpture succeeds in being different from every point of view as you walk around it, something far too few sculptors succeed in doing.

There is much more to see, including an intriguing painting by Frank Dipollito called “Mile Post (12 part series),” Jenny Roholt’s sensual drawing “Contemplation Grove”, and Melinda Liebers Cox’s “Uncle Bill,” a series of studies after a Rembrandt self-portrait.

TCC Art Faculty, noon to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, through May 3, Tacoma Community College, Building 5A, entrance off South 12th Street between Pearl and Mildred, Tacoma, visitor parking in Lot G. 

Christmas in springtime

Inspecting Carol at Lakewood Playhouse

By Alec Clayton

from left: Dana Galagan as Dorothy, Tyler Petty as Bart, Tim Hoban as Phil, Brittany Griffins as M.J., Jed Slaughter as Wayne, photo by Tim Johnson

Plays about incompetent theater companies putting on bad plays are so common as to be practically a genre of their own. Some are as bad as the absurd performances they satirize, but there have been a few on stage and screen that are outstanding. The classics of this type are Noises Off and the mockumentary film Waiting for Guffman. The Puget Sound region has its own home-grown entry in the genre, Inspecting Carol by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Company, which premiered at the Rep in 1991. Now it comes to Lakewood Playhouse with an outstanding ensemble cast led by Dennis Rolly, Jed Slaughter, Brittany Griffins, Mark Peterson and Shelleigh-Mairi Ferguson, directed by Jen York.

The Soapbox Playhouse has put on the same boring production of A Christmas Carol year after boring year. But this year things go even more wildly awry than usual. The company is broke, the kid playing Tiny Tim (Gunnar Ray as Luther/Tim) is growing up and is way too big for the part, the actor playing Scrooge (Rolly as Larry/Scrooge) wants to do it in Spanish, and the actor play Bob Cratchit (Tim Hoban as Phil/Bob) has had a one-time fling with the company founder and artistic director, Zorah Bloch (Steffanie Foster) who is now trying to seduce the new guy, Wayne Wellacre (Slaughter). And for reasons that should make no sense to any of them, the entire company thinks Wayne is the inspector from the National Endowment spying on them incognito as a would-be actor — which is apparently why Zorah is trying so hard to seduce him.

Like many a farce, it starts off rather slowly. Conversations between M.J. the stage manager (Griffins) and Karen (Ferguson), who handles the dwindling-to-non-existent finances, are only mildly funny but are needed to set the stage for the mayhem to follow.

The comedy really kicks into high hear when Slaughter first appears on the scene as a confused would-be actor who bursts into an impromptu monologue: “Now is the winter of our discontent …” from Richard III.  This kind of comedy is something new to Slaughter, and it seems to be a role he was born to play.

Rolly is outstanding as the proud trouble maker Larry, who insists on changing everything and somehow gets away with it (up until but not including doing the play in Spanish). Rolly has been acting since the 1970s and has proven himself to be equally at ease with the silliest of comedies to the most demanding of tragedies, performing in more Shakespeare plays with Harlequin and the old Washington Shakespeare Festival than, probably, anyone. His range of emotions expressed in this performance is amazing. He assumes the character so completely that even when he’s just standing on the side while other actors are interacting, he is thoroughly being Larry/Scrooge.

Also outstanding in this play are Bloch (hilarious in the seduction scene with Slaughter), Griffins who  frantically tries to herd this company of misfits, and Peterson as the actor who hates everything about the show he’s doing and can’t learn his lines — partly because he was brought in at the last minute as a token black actor in Zorah’s new commitment to multi-culturalism and partly because Larry keeps changing the script.

Blake York has come up with a purposefully unremarkable scenic design that is perfect for this play, and Stu Johnson has devised some crazy costumes — most notably the costumes Wayne is forced to wear as the various ghosts, including one he says makes him look like the ghost of Liberace.

For a lighthearted evening of laughter, take in Lakewood Playhouse’s Christmas in springtime, Inspecting Carol.

Inspecting Carol 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through May 12, $26.00, $23.00 Military and seniors, $20.00 students and educators, pay what you can Feb. 28 and March 6-7, Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. Lakewood, 253.588.0042, lakewoodplayhouse.org.

The Power of Youth

Heartsparkle Players and STAND

Experience The Power of Youth, a Heartsparkle performance in collaboration with Students Together Avocating for Non-Violence and Diversity, May 10 at Traditions Café.

Heartsparkle is Olympia’s playback theatre.  Playback is a spontaneous collaboration between performers and audience. People tell moments from their lives, then watch them re-created with movement, music and dialogue. Heartsparkle strives to build community, hope and compassion.

Each month Heartsparkle invites guest artists, community organizations, arts programs or social service agencies to be a part of their performance. Through this collaboration they acknowledge and honor the work individuals and organizations do in our community. This month they collaborate with Olympia High School’s student club, STAND – Students Together Advocating for Non-Violence and Diversity. This campus club has been active over the years in our community on issues related to social justice. They have also participated in rebuilding homes in New Orleans.


Time:  7:30 p.m.

Location: Traditions Café – 300 5th Ave. SW (downtown Olympia)

Cost: Suggested Donation $7.00-$12.00 (No one is turned away)

Tacoma little theatre’s ‘Off the Shelf’ presents Mrs. Packard

Tacoma Little Theatre's Off the Shelf program presents Emily Mann’s, Mrs. Packard, directed by pug Bujeaud.

Based on historical events, Emily Mann's play tells the story of Elizabeth Packard, who in 1861 in Illinois was committed by her husband to an insane asylum even though there was no proof of insanity. It is the story of one woman's struggle to right a system gone wrong, winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award.

Mrs. Packard features the talents of: Heather R. Christopher (Elizabeth Packard), Brian Jensen (Rev. Packard), Michael Christopher (Dr. McFarland), Shannon Olivia Agostinelli (Mrs. Bonner), Ellen Peters (Mrs. Tenny, Sybil Doyle), Kate Ayers (Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Ramsey), Drew Doyle (Mr. Smith, Mr. Haslet), Rodman Bolek (Dr. Brown, Mr. Dole), Robert McConkey (Judge, Dr, Knott), and Andrea Weston-Smart (Mrs. Stockton, Libby).

Tickets for the May 2, 2019 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.

Preview: Laura at Tacoma Little Theatre

By Alec Clayton

Published in The News Tribune, April 19, 2019

Rehearsal photo from left, Robin McGee, Rodman Bolek, Joel Thomas, Randon Welch, Ben Stahl. Photo by Randy Clark

The 1940s noir mystery “Laura” is coming to Tacoma Little Theatre. Written by Vera Caspary. It was first a book, then a film by Otto Preminger with Jean Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb, and then finally a play. The book was not well received, but the film was one of the most celebrated of the era.

Laura (played by Victoria Ashely, who is listed as simply “a girl” – you’ll see why) has been murdered. Her face was shot away by a shotgun blast. Mark McPherson (Rodman Bolek), is the detective on the case. He finds her more and more beguiling the more he learns about her. He listens to her music, stares at her portrait, and interrogates the men who loved her. All he finds are contradictions. Who murdered her, and why?

At TLT, “Laura” is directed by Randy Clark, co-founder and artistic director of Dukesbay Theatre. Clark can boast of 35 years acting and directing and has been seen on local stages in such plays as “Our Town,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” 

“Yes, this is a mystery, but like all good plays, it also has terrific characters and we have a cast that make them fun to watch,” Clark says. “I can’t say enough about this cast. I’m so lucky to have these actors. I can’t stress that enough.”

In addition to Bolek and Ashley, the cast is comprised of Robin McGee as Mrs. Dorgan, Valeria Sanchez-Jimenez as Bessie Clary, Ben Stahl as Waldo Lydecker, Joel Thomas as Danny Dorgan and Randon Welch as Shelby Carpenter.

Speaking of the detective, Bolek says, “The case is a demotion for Mark, and he resents it until he falls in love with the image he builds of the woman whose murder he is investigating. It's a provocative example of something we all do to varying degrees –build the image of someone or something that then competes with reality. Exploring the dynamic between his role as detective on the murder case and his romantic feelings for the victim has been a delightful challenge.

“It's easy to categorize the play as just another murder mystery, but, in addition to other distinctive twists, Vera Caspary gives us an ambitious, intelligent, independent woman where there is more commonly a damsel in distress. In a genre that is male-centric in a world that, unfortunately, seems bent on remaining male-dominated, it is crucial that strong female writers and strong female characters take the stage. With ‘Laura,’ Vera Caspary took a leap in the right direction in the 1940s, and I hope the play inspires others to do so in the twenty-first century.”

Tarry, whom Tacoma theater goers will remember from his reviting role as Richard Nixon in TLT’s “Frost/Nixon,” says “Laura” is “a classic noir mystery with lots of suspects, a couple subplots, attractive but flawed leads, and more than a little dangerous romantic attraction. I play Olsen, a cop who does leg work for the lead investigator. I'm also the assistant stage manager, which tells you how small Olsen's role is. After doing some of those huge line roles a few years ago, though, this feels nice and comfortable. It feels good to be on stage again, no matter how briefly.

A relative newcomer to the South Sound, Ashley is a Mississippi native with a B.F.A. in Theatre. This is her second show with TLT. Her first was as Gillian Holroyd in “Bell, Book and Candle.” She was also seen in New Muses Theatre’s recent production of “Hamlet.”

“Laura is the most intriguing and complex character I’ve worked on so far,” Ashley says. “She’s not your typical chaste, damsel in distress. Through the subjectivity of those she knew, a portrait is painted of a successful, worldly woman in a male-dominated business world. Yet, there was so much more to her. At the heart of this character was a confident woman who expressed warmth, generosity and vulnerability; which is what invites Mark, and of course the audience, to want to know more about her.” 

WHAT: Laura

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday, April 26 to May 12

WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N “I” St., Tacoma

TICKETS: $25.00 adult, $23 seniors, students, military, $20 children 12 and younger
INFORMATION: (253) 272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.com.