The City of Lakewood Celebrates Lakewood Playhouse Theatre Day

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 3, 2015

poster for A Few Good Men, art by James Stowe

By way of celebrating a local treasure, the City of Lakewood has proclaimed Sept. 18 Lakewood Playhouse Theatre Day. The day will be celebrated with a special ribbon cutting ceremony presented by the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce and with a reception with food provided by Carr’s Restaurant and a house full of local dignitaries and actors from previous and current Playhouse shows.

The company was founded in 1938. The building that now houses the theater was built in 1965 by the Lakewood Community Players and the Lakewood Arts Foundation. Since opening its doors 50 Years ago, it has presented more than 300 productions on both its main stage and through its Lakewood Institute of Theatre Education Program (established in 2002). 

During those 50 years, the Lakewood Playhouse has hosted special presentations by hundreds of local groups including The Lakewood Senior Players, the Pierce College Theatre Group, Last Ditch Efforts, New Muses Theatre, The Outfit Theatre Group, the Asian Film Festival and countless number of music groups.

A true community theater that provides education for youth and performance opportunities to local actors, Lakewood Playhouse has always striven for professional level performances. Former Managing Artistic Director Marcus Walker, who died March 11, 2011 of metastatic melanoma, often told me he wanted me to review their shows with the same strict criteria I would use when critiquing a professional company such as Seattle Repertory Theater. That is indicative of the level of professionalism Lakewood Playhouse has always insisted on. And by-the-way, I reviewed My Name is Asher Lev, the last play Walker directed, at both Seattle Repertory Theater and Lakewood Playhouse, and the Lakewood play was the better of the two.

The theater’s current manager, John Munn, is only the sixth managing artistic director in the theater’s 50-year history. This season is Munn’s fifth at the helm. He says he is proud to be supported by a staff of “incredibly creative and dedicated professionals and artists.”

“We have assembled an amazing array of shows this season with something for everyone,” Munn says. “The directors for each of the productions have such a passion and vision for their shows that we can’t wait to share them with you.”

Munn says he has no formal training as an artist. Outside of a few years in college and in high school, 

his training comes from working in local community theatres over the past 40 years in more than 100 shows as either an actor or director. 

 “When I sit inside our 172 Seat Theatre, and I start to think about all of the shows that have happened under its roof, it is both staggering and humbling to know that we are the caretakers of that. Just stop and think of the lives that were changed here by either being in a show or by seeing one. I know that almost sixty thousand people have seen our shows over the last four seasons that I have been here. Imagine that number over this Playhouse's 50-year history. Consider all of the actors whose lives were forever changed by being a part of that "one show." There you have to realize all of the amazing stories that have been told by the thousands of creative artists who have made them possible. Fifty years. One building. Only made for one purpose. To house a rich theatrical history. We are all a part of that. You. Me. Folks that are reading this article and smiling. All of us. With this next season, we begin the journey of the next 50 years ... and who wouldn't want to be a part of that?”

The 2015-2016 season kicks off Sept. 11 with A Few Good Men, the military court drama by Aaron Sorkin, winner of the 1990 World Theatre Award. A Few Good Men will be followed by the live radio show of the horror classic The Birds Oct. 23-25. This will be the eighth of the Playhouse’s live radio shows. They are always wonderfully fun entertainments. Next up will be Treasure Island, followed by Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the ever-popular Noises Off, and finally the Tony Award-winning Avenue Q.

“We have so many other 50^th Anniversary Surprises in store for you,” Munn continued, “You won’t want to miss a single thing.  And, as you know, we always look forward to welcoming you home soon!”

The ribbon cutting ceremony and reception on Sept. 18 is scheduled for 5:30-6:30 p.m. Guests are invited to come back later that evening for the 8 p.m. performance of A Few Good Men.

Lakewood Playhouse Theatre Day, Sept. 18, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood, 253.588.0042

A Fun New Pop-up Show at B2

New show has a Little of Everything

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 3, 2015

“Love Forty,” acrylic on cotton rag by Hiawatha D. Courtesy B2 Gallery

The difference between what B2 Gallery is calling it’s “Pop-Up” shows and its regular shows is 1) the Pop-Ups don’t run as long and 2) the art is more reasonably priced. As for the quality of the art, there is little or no difference.

The Pop-Up running through Sept. 26 features art by Hiawatha D, Leah Fitts, Francesca Fuller, Joe Gallagher, Hossein Peigahi, Becky Knold, and jeweler Delores Weir. It’s a fun show.

Peigahi’s colorful and stylized landscapes dominate the large front room. They are playful and simple with few details, and look a lot like they could be children’s book illustrations. One of his nicest pieces is “Twin Barns of Nisqually.” The barns are ghostlike in pales tones of yellow, blue and green that are almost white. They seem to be shimmering in the heat. They sit on a field of hot orange grass. 

Also by Peigahi is a little 12” x 12” untitled landscape that is pseudo-pointillist but not as precise as the pointillism made famous by  Georges Seurat. Above this painting is “Garden,” an oil and monotype of about the same size with flowers depicted in large strokes as if the pointillist dots from the painting below have blossomed into fast strokes like a section ripped from a Van Gogh. His “Summer Day” has marvelously hot: orange, blue, pink and green colors. Near it is the hottest and best of his paintings, a Giclée print called “Fall” picturing a single line of trees with orange leaves on rolling hills that are almost the same color as the leaves. This is a stunning little painting.

Hiwatha D’s acrylic-on-cotton-rag paintings of jazz musicians look more like illustrations than serious paintings, but they grow on you in a wonderful way. These musicians (as well as the people in all his other paintings) are almost genderless, and they don’t have faces, hands or feet. They are decorative and nicely composed. His other paintings are scenes that have the feel of the jazz age. Among these is a matched pair, “Bastile” and “Love Forty” — a man in one painting and a woman in the other, seated in a bar with wine glass and bottle on the table and their chins rested on see-through hands. The contours of these figures are nicely curvilinear, which is stylistically enhanced by the see-through aspect of the hands. His other paintings depict groups of people in urban settings. 

 

Fuller is showing a set of paintings of flowers with metal sheets screwed to the surface, combining delicate flower petals in transparent washes with minimalist abstract forms created by the metal sheets. The combination is original, startling, and quite attractive.

Fitts’ work is mostly abstract. She has nine paintings of expressive circles and lines and other highly gestural marks on fields of shallow , amorphous spaces and one outstanding landscape of a line of trees with almost identical clumps of orange leaves and sky and ground that look like the background on her abstracts but more nuanced. (I understand that my description of this painting might read like my earlier description of Peigahi’s “Fall,” but the only thing they have in common is that they are two of the best paintings in the show.

Gallagher’s paintings of humorously surrealist bodies, faces, fish, octopi and mermaids are colorful and childlike, although I can see that to many viewers they may look ominous. 

Knold is showing a group of paintings from her recent show at B2. They are all nice paintings, but not among her best. The richness of texture and the contrasts of thick-thin, opaque-transparent that is a trademark of much of Knold’s paintings are not so much in evidence here. Weir’s jewelry nicely combines tribal and contemporary looks with images such as faces and complex beadwork.

Summer Pop Up at B2, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, till 9 p.m. Third Thursdays, through Sept. 26, 711 St. Helens Avenue, Tacoma, 253.238.5065.

Apple Tree enrolling students

Apple Tree Productions in Olympia starts children's theater classes in September. Apple Tree is Heidi Fredericks, Colleen Powers and other theatrical educational professionals.


Follow ATP on Facebook and Twitter:  Apple Tree Productions and @TumwaterDrama or email Heidi at heidilf8@gmail.com

Psycho-Moto-Psycho at Brick & Mortar

"Hyper Medico Della Peste," mixed media installation by Marty Fehl. Photo courtesy Laura Hanan

 Published in the Weekly Volcano, Aug. 27, 2015

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen art by Marty Fehl, and his new show at Brick & Mortar Gallery is quite a departure from the paintings of his I saw years ago — a good and exciting departure.

Fehl’s new work consists of paintings and installations based on motorcycles and motorcycle culture, or as the gallery refers to it, moto-inspired art. The repeated term “psycho” in the show title should also give readers a clue as to what to expect.

Anchoring  the left-hand wall as you enter the gallery are two six-foot-by-four-foot realist paintings of parts of vintage Ducati motorcycles. From five feet away they look like photo-realist paintings, but closer-in, brush strokes and paint build-up become evident. The artist wanted these paintings to look almost like photographs but still be about paint and the arrangement of shapes and colors on canvas rather than just about the appearance of the machines, which he obviously loves.

"Hypersensitive," acrylic on canvas by Marty Fehl. Photo courtesy Laura Hanan

The first of these paintings is called “The Bevel Make Me Do It,” a clever pun. It is an extreme close-up with great luminous metallic colors. It seems to the be cowl and parts of the motor. There is a curved section that looks like tinted glass. I thought it might be a montage of different parts, but I asked the artist and it is not. The extreme close view makes it into something abstract and confusing, at least to me, but attractive and beautifully painted.

The second of the two paintings is an even more extreme close-up, so close that the motorcycle becomes an abstract configuration in black and white with a few small areas of brown and tan. Imagine a Franz Kline painting in which all the brush strokes are precise and hard-edged. This is a strong painting.

There are two actual motorcycles in the show. One of them is mounted by a leather-clad rider with a leather mask that looks like a bird’s face with a long and menacing beak. He’s wearing goggles, and there is a red light behind one of the lenses. The figure inside the clothing is completely covered with leather: boots, helmet and gloves, so it is impossible to tell what the figure is made of. It could be a mannequin, or it could be sculpted of papier mâché or clay or almost anything. It is life-size and convincingly human and surrealistic. According to a printed statement, the beak-like mask is based on the masks medieval plague doctors wore. The leather jacket is the remnant of one Fehl was wearing when he had a recent motorcycle accident; the crash was captured on video and the video is also in the show, projected on the back wall.

Also on the back wall is a green-faced painting of Frankenstein’s monster, face only, floating in space with a little red Ducati gas tank for an eye.

And there are dada-esque motorcycle helmets on sculpture stands and a sculpture made from a strange motorcycle handle bar that reaches almost floor to ceiling.

This show contains elements of pop art, surrealism and dada, and is unlike anything else you’re likely to see in Tacoma.

Also included in the gallery are works by ceramic artist Steve Portteus, welder Josh Lippencott, and painter Laura Hanan, all of which were in the previous show at Brick & Mortar. I would prefer seeing more of Fehl’s work, but the inclusion of the other pieces is good for people who missed the previous show.

Psycho-Moto-Psycho, Thurs-Sat. noon to 2 p.m., Fri.-Sat., noon to 9 p.m. through Oct. 15, Brick & Mortar Gallery, 811 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.591.2727.

To Kill a Mockingbird at Harlequin

Published in The News Tribune, Aug. 28, 2015

Loren Kattenbraker as Scout and Aaron Lamb as Atticus Finch.

David Wright as the judge, Helen Harvester as Mayella Ewell, and Russ Holmes as Bob Ewell. Photos courtesy Harlquin Productions

The bar is set impossibly high for the stage play of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee and the Oscar-winning film are each among the most popular and highly praised in the history of American film and literature.

Playwright Christopher Sergel took on the challenge of adapting “Mockingbird” for the stage, and Olympia’s Harlequin Productions is now running it under the direction of Linda Whitney with three outstanding child actors supported by a large cast of some of Southwest Washington’s finest.

Eight-year-old Loren Kattenbraker plays Scout, the loveable central character in the book and movie. She is amazingly expressive and a joy to watch. Nick Hayes, a 7^th grader who has appeared on every stage in the Olympia area and even appeared in “Oklahoma” at Seattle’s prestigious 5^th Avenue Theater, is Scout’s big brother Jem. His performance is near flawless. Fifth grader Annabelle Samson plays Charles Baker Harris, aka, Dill, and she is delightful. It is also her second cross-dressing role, the previous one being when the played a girl pretending to be a boy in Olympia Family Theater’s “Orphan Train.” All three of these kids are terrific.

To say all that should be said about the rest of the cast would take twice the space I’m allowed for the column. Aaron Lamb is solid and believable as Atticus Finch. Scott C. Brown nails the role of Sheriff Heck Tate. (He confessed to this reviewer, who grew up in Mississippi, that he was unsure of getting the Southern accent right. His accent is perfect.) Helen Harvester turns in a performance as the emotionally crippled Mayella Ewell that is worthy of a Tony Award, and Russ Holme, a longtime favorite of Harlequin audiences, pulls off one of his best performances ever as Bob Ewell. Comedian and actor Morgan Picton shows just what a great actor he can be in the challenging roles of the public prosecutor and as Boo Radley. (If he were not the only bald actor on stage, nobody would suspect these two characters are played by the same actor.) David Wright also does a superb job of playing two quite different characters, the poor farmer Walter Cunningham and Judge Taylor. And Robert Humes puts his heart into a heart-wrenching portrayal of the falsely accused Tom Robinson.

Rounding out this terrific cast and each performing at the top of their game are Edsonya Charles, Ann Flannigan, Korja Giles, Walayn Sharples, and DuWayne Andrews.

In adapting the story for the stage, Sergel made the dubious choice of having the neighbor, Maudie Atkinson (Flannigan) narrate the story, which in the book and movie was done by Scout. Maudie is a wonderful character, likeable and a rare voice of reason in a town full of bigots and ignoramuses. But her narration was totally unnecessary, serving only to moralize and slow down the flow of the story. Likewise, Sergel’s decision to freeze the action during the mesmerizing court scene for a little scene with Scout and Dill disrupted the story in a way that added nothing.

One other thing that marred an otherwise marvelous play was overdoing the dumb-Southern-hick bit in the scene where the townsmen are intent on lynching Tom Robinson. They turned a frightening scene into a comic parody of stereotypical rednecks. Fortunately, Scout stepped up to talk one-on-one with the lynch-mob leader and turned the scene into one of the most touching in the play.

The set by Jeannie Beirne captures the feel of 1930s Maycomb, Ga., in a beautifully stylized fashion and allows for complicated set changes with actors moving pieces in full view of the audience in such a way that is not at all distracting. Costumes by Darren Mills are authentic, and Amy Chisman’s lighting is wonderful.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is 2½ hours long with a 20-minute intermission. It includes mature content and racially-charged language.

WHAT: To Kill a Mockingbird

WHEN: Thursdays through Saturdays, 8p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. through Sept. 12

WHERE: State Theater, 202 E. 4^th Ave., Olympia

TICKETS: prices vary, call for details

INFORMATION: 360-786-0151; http://www.harlequinproductions.org/