This Week in Arts: Weekly Roundup (4/21)
This week’s shows include works by Seattle-connected masters of theatre and dance. Plus, opportunities to get reacquainted with local theatre companies, and plenty of continuing runs all around town.
Ticketing links for most shows can be found on the Performance Calendar page here.
Openings & Short Runs
Meany Center: Mark Morris Dance Group & Music Ensemble
A modern dance icon returns home this weekend
Runs 4/21-23. In Seattle (UW main campus).
Mark Morris, the Seattle-born iconic choreographer of modern dance, moved to New York early on and made his career there. His New York-based company marked its 40th anniversary in 2020 — which, we all know now, wasn’t much of a year to celebrate. Perhaps it’s for that reason that his current tour, which makes a three-day stop at Meany Hall beginning tonight, has chosen a slate of “joyous works” to perform.
The Dance Group, accompanied by the Mark Morris Music Ensemble, will perform the 24-minute, 16-dancer Words (2014), set to Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words; the 14-minute, 4-dancer Rock of Ages (2004), to Franz Schubert’s Piano trio in E flat, Adagio; and the 25-minute, 14-dancer Grand Duo, set to Lou Harrison’s Grand Duo for Violin and Piano.
Tickets are $64-$76, here.
Acts on Stage: Two Trains Running
This Pulitzer-nominated play on displacement rings true today
Runs 4/21-5/1. In White Center.
August Wilson spent his final decades in Seattle, much of it in close collaboration with the Seattle Rep; the road behind the Rep is named for him. But his formative years were in Pittsburgh (and later the Midwest), and it’s his 10-play Century Cycle (also called the Pittsburgh Cycle) for which the prolific playwright is best known.
Two Trains Running, set in Pittsburgh in 1969, finds a restaurant owner staring down redevelopment among the widespread displacement of Black residents and business owners. It’s a theme that hits home in and around Seattle, decades later.
Tickets are $22, here.
Saturday Night’s Alright
Three fun (and free) events from three theatre companies
Runs 4/23 only. At various Seattle locations.
Three theatre companies hold welcome-back events, in various forms, this Saturday night.
At 6:30pm, Copious Love hosts a get-together, website unveiling, and season preview at The Canning Line, Reuben’s Brews’ private events space in Ballard. Copious has taken several forms over the years — mounting full productions of prominent local playwrights, holding works-in-progress readings, and most recently hosting small plays, variety shows, and burlesque in its own membership-supported space, simply called Copious, in the former Ballard Underground. It’ll be nice to see what they’re cooking up next.
At 7pm, Parley holds a workshop production of Clarissa Buys the Flowers Herself by Kate Schwartz, in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, performed at 18th and Union. Parley, a long-running local playwrights’ group founded by Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth, is known for its short-run productions of new works by member playwrights. This season, the group promises to show audiences more of how the play is wrought — the process behind the plays.
[Update: Following this post, Parley announced its performance will be postponed until June.]
And at 7:30 and 9:30pm, The 14/48 Projects returns with a youthful run of its flagship festival, in 14/48: HS. Aided by mentor artists, high schoolers take part in the frantic rite of writing, designing, directing, and acting short plays in a short time. Performances are held at South Seattle College in West Seattle.
All three are free and non-ticketed events, with donations accepted. See information for all three on the 4/23 Calendar here.
* * *
Village Theatre: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (previews 4/20-21, opens 4/22, closing 5/22 in Issaquah; runs 5/27-6/19 in Everett). In Issaquah & Everett.
ManeStage Theatre: Anne of Green Gables (opens 4/22, closing 5/8). In Puyallup.
Twelfth Night Productions: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (opens 4/22, closing 5/8). In West Seattle (Delridge).
Seattle Rep: Selling Kabul (previews 4/22-26, opens 4/27, closing 5/22). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).
Sound Theatre Company: Gaslight (Angel Street) @ 12th Avenue Arts (opens 4/23, closing 5/14). In Seattle (Capitol Hill).
Closing Soon
University of Puget Sound: Senior Theatre Festival (closing 4/23). In Tacoma.
Centerstage: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (closing 4/24). In Federal Way (Dash Point).
Pacific Northwest Ballet: Swan Lake (closing 4/24). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side). See NWT contributor Melody Datz Hansen’s review (in the Seattle Times) here.
SecondStory Repertory: Outside Mullingar (closing 4/24). In Redmond.
Valley Center Stage: The Foreigner (closing 4/24). In North Bend.
Continuing Runs
Taproot Theatre: The Spitfire Grill (closing 4/30). In Seattle (Greenwood). See NWT’s Quick Takes review here.
Bremerton Community Theatre: Something Rotten! (closing 5/1). In Bremerton.
Can Can Culinary Cabaret: Ooh La La (closing 5/1). In Seattle (Pike Place).
Dacha: Dice – Romeo and Juliet @ Sankofa Theatre (closing 5/1). In Seattle (International District).
The Phoenix Theatre: Mama Won’t Fly (closing 5/1). In Edmonds.
Seattle Rep: Ghosts (closing 5/1). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).
Village Theatre: The Book Club Play (closing 5/1). In Everett. See NWT’s review here.
Washington Ensemble Theatre: Tin Cat Shoes (closing 5/2). In Seattle (Capitol Hill). See NWT contributor Dusty Somers’ review (in the Seattle Times) here.
Seattle Children’s Theatre: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical (closing 5/22). At the Seattle Center.
Cafe Nordo: Down the Rabbit Hole (closing 5/28). In Seattle (Pioneer Square).
The Roundup is a weekly (ish) feature. Want to plan your show schedule further out? See NWT’s 2022 Shows list, which aims to list just about every theatre show in town. For shows by day and ticketing info, see the Performance Calendar.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.