3 For Your Weekend: Sept. 28-Oct. 1
Don’t let the weather rain on your nights — head inside for some fantastic finds instead. Here are NWTheatre’s picks in short runs this weekend.
Dance / Set / Match
Innovative set takeovers and other fun dance finds
This weekend is an especially wide-ranging one for dance options. The most intriguing trend? Dancers taking over the sets of recently-closed theatre shows and using them as a playground for new choreography.
Head to Washington Ensemble Theatre for the new installment of the company’s long-running series, reSet, which invites dance professionals to take over the set after its productions wrap up. This one features creations by Angel Aguayo (Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill) and Devin Muñoz, on the set of the just-closed Dream Hou$e. Read NWT’s review of Dream Hou$e and see the set here.
Tonight & Friday (9/28-29) in Seattle (Capitol Hill). Show info and tickets here.
And then check out Theatre Battery’s first-ever stage takeover on the unique, watery set of Deep Purple Wiggle; even out of the rain, you might want to bring a towel. The idea of dancer Cricket Neiss, this show features dancers from Century Ballroom, Allegro Dance Studio, and more. Read NWTheatre’s review of Deep Purple Wiggle here.
Friday only (9/29) in Kent. Show info and tickets (free) here.
*
Looking for more dance? Check out Pacific Northwest Ballet latest contemporary trio through this weekend, including a pay-what-you-choose performance tonight (read NWT’s review here); Alana O. Rogers Dance Company’s circus-like show (tonight through Saturday); or the return of The Brotherhood Takes Flight, Olympia’s aerial performance series in the middle of a dive bar (Sunday night) (see NWT’s feature here). Or take a more serious turn with Will Rawls’ dance and film work at On the Boards (Friday through Sunday). Find ticket links and info for these and more on NWT’s dance calendar here.
Puppets!
A jam-packed festival of puppet wizardry; plus beer
There’s a serious shortage of cool puppet stuff in Seattle-area theatre, and this weekend’s Puget Sound Puppetry Festival is here to help resolve that. In a mix of shows and workshops, kid stuff and adult-centered work, and a social at Brewmasters Taproom (a favorite of this editor and NWT dogs alike), the festival has plenty to quench any puppet thirst. Shows and workshops are held at the Carco Theatre in Downtown Renton.
Most of the events are crammed into Saturday. Friday features Calle Allende, an inquiry (via puppets) into the great painter Frida Kahlo’s psyche and inspirations. Saturday starts off with a kid-friendly puppet-making workshop and performance in the afternoon, plus a film screening; and later heads to social time at Brewmasters, followed by the more adult-oriented puppet slam with a “Shadows Under the Stars” theme.
Friday & Saturday (9/29-30) in Renton. Schedule, event info, and tickets here.
Thrice as Nice
A bold and wide-ranging trio of solo shows by Indian women
The Seattle-based Pratidhwani is known for staging innovative works centering South Asian makers across art forms, with dance, music, and theatre (in English and Hindi). In Thrice, they branch out yet again with a stylistically varying trio of solo performances, all by Indian women.
Splashing through time pressures, cultural divides, societal expectations, and absurd dimensions, the Thrice slate of short works takes viewers on an uncommon journey through the serious, the dream-like, and the laugh-out-loud funny. The showcase features works by the Philadelphia-based Priyanka Shetty (The Elephant in the Room), and Seattle-based Aarti Tiwari (Flow, Swim, Float!?) and Divya Rajan (A Labyrinth & its Myriad Mirages).
Tonight through Sunday (9/28-10/1) in Seattle (Greenwood). Event info and tickets here.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.