This Week in Arts: Weekly Roundup (6/24)
Recharge your soul this week with some great options for Pride, a variety of theatre and dance festivals, and some fun shows closing this weekend.
Ticketing links for most shows can be found on the Performance Calendar page here.
Openings & Short Runs
Hedwig & the Angry Inch @ Harlequin Productions
A Big Queer Rock Show
Runs through 7/30. In Olympia.
If seeing a show is more your speed than heading out to the big festivities, there are some good options on this weekend — starting with a cult classic with great music.
John Cameron Mitchell’s hit musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, opens this weekend at Harlequin in downtown Olympia. Harlequin tends to put on a nice big show anyway but, unique to this one, adds an opening act by a different local band every weekend. Its a fitting format not only for Pride weekend, but as a nod to a city that’s been core to the Northwest rock scene for decades.
Tickets for Hedwig ($46) are here. Schedule of opening bands, starting with Sugar and the Spitfires this weekend, is here; and info on four pay-what-you-choose performances (plus rush info and other ticket deals) is here.
More Pride Shows
For more queer-centric arts this weekend, check out Lowbrow Opera Collective’s #adulting2: here we go again at 18th & Union (read NWT’s review here); Party in the Bathroom, part of the Youth Works Festival at Seattle Rep (show descriptions here); and Belonging, a new concert from the all-gender chorus Puget Soundworks (held online, info here; read NWT’s review of a previous show here).
Contexpo @ Mirror Stage
Mirror Stage, the theatre company that deploys art to get people talking about pressing social issues, returns to in-person shows with a new series. Contexpo, a mashup of context and exposition, brings together visual art, spoken word, thematic speakers, and workshops, curated by artistic associate QuiQui Dominguez.
Its first installment — Incarceration and Redemption — opened with a poetry slam, and tomorrow will feature author, speaker, and community organizer Omari Amili, who “introduces new possibilities and challenges fear-based narratives through his exploration of a potential new pipeline that runs from prison to college” in his talk, Life After Prison: the Prison to School Pipeline.
Events are held at the Phinney Center in Seattle (Greenwood); see info here.
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Strawberry Theatre Workshop – Strawberry Jam Directors Festival: Make America Call My Mom and Tell Her I’m Doing Okay, Gaslighting, and Oscar Clyde Denman (opened yesterday, closing 6/25). In Seattle (Capitol Hill).
On the Boards – Fragmented Flow Festival: Vanessa Goodman – Core/Us (opened yesterday, closing 6/26). In Seattle (Lower Queen Anne).
On the Boards – Fragmented Flow Festival: Allie Hankins – By My Own Hand, Part 1: Ghosting (opens tonight, closing 6/26). In Seattle (Lower Queen Anne).
Just Us Girls & Co.: Lizzie – The Rock Musical @ The Give Inn (opens tonight, closing 7/2). In Seattle (Ballard).
Edmonds Driftwood Players: 11th Annual Festival of Shorts (opens tonight, closing 7/3). In Edmonds.
Closing Soon
Lowbrow Opera Collective: #adulting2: here we go again @ 18th & Union (closing 6/25). In Seattle (Central District). Read NWT’s review here.
Renton Civic Theatre: Hair (closing 6/25). In Renton. Read NWT’s review here.
Bremerton Community Theatre: The Cemetery Club (closing 6/26). In Bremerton.
Kitsap Children’s Musical Theatre: High School Musical (closing 6/26). In Poulsbo.
Lakewood Playhouse: Ragtime (closing 6/26). In Lakewood.
The Phoenix Theatre: Skin Flick (closing 6/26). In Edmonds. Read NWT’s review here.
Seattle Public Theater: Riverwood (co-production with Langston) (closing 6/26). In Seattle (Green Lake). Read NWT’s review here.
Continuing Runs
ArtsWest: miku, and the gods (co-production with Pork Filled Productions) (closing 7/3). In West Seattle.
Book-It Repertory Theatre: The Bonesetter’s Daughter (closing 7/3).
Seattle Rep: Bruce (extended, now closing 7/3). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).
Village Theatre: Mamma Mia! (closing 7/10 in Issaquah; runs 7/15-8/7 in Everett).
Cafe Nordo: Down the Rabbit Hole (extended through summer, and Sunday brunch shows added — closing 8/13). In Seattle (Pioneer Square).
Can Can Culinary Cabaret: Lola (closing 8/28). In Seattle (Pike Place Market).
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.