HAPPENINGSTHEATRE

This Week in Arts: Weekly Roundup (7/22)

The temperature’s really heating up, and so are your show options. Will this week find you enjoying the stage out in the sun, or beating the heat in an air-conditioned theatre? With so many choices, feel free to do a mix of both. 

Ticketing links for most shows can be found on the Performance Calendar page here.  

 

Openings & Short Runs 

 

Vashon Theatre Festival

A Smorgasbord of Theatre Is a Ferry Ride Away
Opened yesterday, runs through 7/31. On Vashon Island.

‘Somewhere Between’, a brand-new musical, will perform at Vashon Theatre Fest.

Shakespeare. A one-man folk-activist bio. Outdoor performance art. Six brand-new play readings and a new musical. It’s hard to think of a bigger variety of theatre on one slate, or a prettier journey to get there.

The festival from Vashon Repertory Theatre includes several performances each of Seeger (a multi-media solo show on the music of folk artist Pete Seeger and activism of the times); Somewhere Between (a brand-new musical in which a “cliché love-triangle drama will get turned on its head”); the Bard’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing; and 5-Minute Wonders, a showcase of shorts in physical theatre, dance, and more, all performed outdoors, curated by UMO Ensemble leaders.

Interspersed throughout the festival are one-time readings of brand-new works by well-known local playwrights, all performed in a cabaret environment. See the schedule for the Plays in a Snap! series here.

Tickets $15-$30 per show; see schedule and info here.

 

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The 5th Avenue Theatre: Come From Away  (touring) (opens tonight, closing 8/7). You might have seen it get its start here at Seattle Rep back in 2015, or caught it on Broadway, or a previous tour at The 5th. Here’s your chance to catch this feel-good musical again or for the first time. In Downtown Seattle.

Dacha Theatre: (F)unfair  @ Billings Middle School (opens tonight, closing 8/7). In this interactive outdoor performance, Dacha partners with the Boston-based Playable Theatre Project to welcome audiences into an immersive carnival of dysfunction. Among games, roving performers, attractions, and fair food, the broken systems governing performers’ lives start to be revealed, and carnival-goers can help change them. All performances are pay-what-you-choose. In North Seattle.

Theatre Battery: Acting Lab Showcase (tonight) and Battery Powered Series (runs 7/24-28). Theatre Battery, an innovative theatre company in the sound end, returns with a full week of new projects. In tonight’s showcase, 22 actors present 11 scenes from stage and screen works. Beginning Sunday, the Battery Powered Series presents readings of three new works, ranging from sci-fi to a “post-post-racial wasteland” to a middle-school drag club. All events are free; see schedule here. At Kent Station.

Village Theatre – Kidstage: Head Over Heels  @ Cope Gillette Theatre (opens tonight, closing 7/31). A fun, queer, jukebox rock musical of hits by The Go-Gos, layered onto a traveling faux-Shakespearean tragi-romanti-comedy. It’s a lot going on, but an awful fun show. (See NWT’s review of another company’s staging here.) Village’s Kidstage tends to put on a great show, and Head Over Heels is a great pick for them. In Everett.

 

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On the Boards: Public Access – Blackbox Weathermxn  (opened 7/21, closing 7/24). In Seattle (Lower Queen Anne).

Book-It Repertory Theatre: Beowulf  @ Cornish Playhouse Studio (opens tonight, closing 8/7). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).

Seattle One-Act Play Project & Baker Theater Workshop: An Afternoon of Original One-Act Plays  @ Hugo House (afternoon of 7/23 only). In Seattle (Capitol Hill).

Valley Center Stage: The Three Little Pigs  (opens 7/23, closing 7/24). In North Bend.

 

 

Closing Soon  

 

Tacoma Little Theatre: Silent Sky  (closing 7/24). In Tacoma.

Village Theatre – Kidstage: Sweeney Todd  @ First Stage (closing 7/24). In Issaquah.

 

 

Continuing Runs – Outdoor Shows  

Most outdoor shows are nomadic. View show descriptions in previous weekly roundup here. View individual dates and locations on Performance Calendar (filtered to outdoor shows only) here

 

The 14/48 Projects: Mega Hero Rangers Go Go Go Supreme!!!  (through 7/30). A family-friendly world-premiere action tale by Andy Park-Buffelen. At various parks in Seattle.

GreenStage Backyard Bard: (a one-hour, ensemble version of) Shakespeare’s Macbeth  (through 8/6). At various parks throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods.

GreenStage Backyard Bard: (a one-hour, ensemble version of) Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing  (through 8/6). At various parks throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods.

GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park: Henry V  (through 8/6). At various parks in South Seattle, West Seattle, and outside the city.

GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park: Pericles  (through 8/6). At various parks in South Seattle, West Seattle, and outside the city.

Last Leaf Productions: (a 1960s take on) Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (through 8/7). At various parks, primarily on the Eastside and north end (Bellevue to Arlington).

Wooden O: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (through 8/7). On Mercer Island and various parks in the tri-county area.

Wooden O: (a “modern, queer-forward” take on) Shakespeare’s Cymbeline  (through 8/7). On Mercer Island and various parks in the tri-county area.

 

 

Continuing Runs – Indoor Shows  

View individual dates and locations on Performance Calendar (filtered to indoor shows only) here

 

inD Theatre: Hay Fever  @ Rolling Bay Hall (closing 7/31). On Bainbridge Island.

Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society: The Pirates of Penzance  @ Seattle Rep (closing 7/31). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).

Tacoma Musical Playhouse: Kinky Boots  (closing 7/31). In Tacoma.

Harlequin Productions: Hedwig & the Angry Inch  (closing 8/6). In Olympia.  See NWT’s review here.

The Habit: Titanish  @ Seattle Public Theater (closing 8/7). In Seattle (Green Lake).

ManeStage Theatre: The Sound of Music  (closing 8/7). In Puyallup.

Village Theatre: Mamma Mia!  @ Everett Performing Arts Center (closing 8/7). In Everett.

Cafe Nordo: Down the Rabbit Hole  (closing 8/13). In Seattle (Pioneer Square).

Taproot Theatre: Black Coffee  (closing 8/13). In Seattle (Greenwood).

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 summer 2022 shows list, which aims to list just about every theatre show in town this season. For shows by day and ticketing info, see the Performance Calendar.

Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.