TeenTix Blog by Teen Editorial Staff

An Endless Shift, a documentary theater production about nurses during the pandemic, is a powerful experience. The show is a collage of verbatim interviews conveyed by one performer—Gloria Alcalá—to introduce an often overlooked perspective on the impact of the pandemic. That nuance, combined with the coziness of ArtsWest’s theater, makes for an even more personal experience.

Even before the play starts, the theater space is impressive. The two-tiered stage is close to the seating area, the proximity creating familiarity between the audience and the production. There is blue ambient lighting, and fog lingering in the air. Props are minimal: five chairs are set up at slightly different angles spanning the stage, and a handful of banners accompany them.

Content warning: sexual assault and death

The Sámi Film Festival is an exciting showcase of female focused films at the Seattle Nordic Museum. As this is TeenTix’s first act of new partnership with the Seattle Nordic Museum, this is a very special event! Honoring the work of Sámi female directors, the films reflect on difficult topics like sexual assault and violence against Indigenous women. Through an intriguing selection of nine documentary and fictional films, there is definitely something for everyone to enjoy at the Sámi Film Festival.

After centuries of suppression, the Indigenous American art of tattooing is resurging. Native people are increasingly getting traditional tattoos that empower and connect them to their heritage; the exhibit Body Language at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture spotlights this movement. Body Language: Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest is guest-curated by Dion Kaszas, a Nlaka'pamux cultural tattoo practitioner. The exhibit features tattooers from the Tlingit, Nisga’a, Naida, Heiltsuk, and Nlaka’pamux tribes. It effectively, albeit repetitively, teaches the viewer about tattoo art’s resilience and practitioners through photos, artifacts, and plenty of wall text.

Body Language is laid out to teach the viewer of the history of Native tattooing, before focusing on its significance in the modern age. The exhibit’s first section is hardly about tattoos—it’s about boarding schools, crests, potlatches, myths, and labret piercings. Pairing physical artifacts with photos and text, the exhibit paints a picture of the culturally rich and socially complex lives of Native people on the Northwest coast.

This month on the TeenTix blog, we’re featuring events that force viewers to reject surface level understanding of life. These arts events venture underground, focusing on stories that have previously been untold, underrepresented, or underappreciated.

SIFF starts off on March 1st with the 2002 film Whale Rider, the story of a Mayori girl battling against stereotypes with the hopes to one day become chief. Similarly, Seattle Public Theater delves into stereotypes and their harm through the musical 110 in the Shade. The source material of the show was written in the 1950s and centers the theme of uncovering, as the main character Lizzie uncovers her own personal truths.

The curtain rose to reveal an unlit stage. Fifteen bells hung at varied lengths from the ceiling, and three shallow pools of water were dispersed, mimicking the famous Ganges River. A dancer silently pushed out candles into the water, unhurriedly lighting the stage with a serene atmosphere. This opening set the mood for Ragamala Dance Company’s phenomenal performance.

Founded in 1992 by South Indian-American dancers Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, the Ragamala Dance Company aims to connect the past and present through Hindu tradition and cultural expression. The dance company has toured all around the United States, India, and abroad, with the dance form Bharatanatyam, a prominent South Indian dance form originating from Tamil Nadu. As an art form, Bharatanatyam transports the audience through a spiritual experience informed by Hindu principles and mythology. At the Meany Center for Performing Arts, the dancers performed Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim, choreographed by acclaimed dancer Alarmél Valli. The show centers around the dancers embarking on a pilgrimage, built on the belief of reincarnation.

An Incomplete List of Everything I’m Going to Miss When the World Is No Longer begins long before the house lights of the Theater Off Jackson start to dim. The musical, written by Dante Green and directed by Nansi Dwendi was performed by Dacha Theatre through February 11. The show kicks off silently, when the first character walks onto a corner of the stage. Their presence is an imperceptible change to the environment as the band plays behind them and the audience chatters in front of them, all while the doors in the back are still propped open for patrons to trickle in. They set down a tray of glassware and watch the audience with mild curiosity, until another character bounds on stage, still under the glare of the house lights, to speak to the first character about how excited they are for this party. More performers appear on stage, talking to each other, catching up, and giving hugs. They start interacting with the audience, too, walking up and down the aisle, introducing themselves, giving compliments, offering a pen and slip of paper to write down charades prompts, and asking audience members how they heard about the party and what they’re planning to do with their last day on Earth.

This is the essence of An Incomplete List: chaos and spirit as the show recounts the interlocking lives of an ensemble cast, told against the backdrop of the end of the world. The narratives start out knotted, told through facial expressions and exchanges that are drowned out by the din of the audience and cast. Once the lights dim and voices quiet, Micah, played by Tessa Jo, and Karina, played by Mariesa Genzale, give formal introductions, and the story begins to ricochet back and forth between the party in the present moment and fragments of the characters’ memories. The large cast and the multiple storylines means these vignettes of memory are short, usually composed of a conversation and a quick melody, and some scenes have a few different storylines sharing the stage at once, while others have one character’s dialogue overlap with another’s. Green uses this nonlinear, criss-crossing structure to contrast the relationships between characters, a variety of close friends, divorcees, mutual crushes, partners, and parents and children, against one another, and though this format makes the details of any given scene difficult to decipher, it spotlights the similarities and divergences in each character, building a picture of who each one is by comparison. Even if a scene is a mere few seconds, it will end having given the audience a greater understanding of the cast. It all amounts to a fascinating and emotional collage of scenes that slowly but surely untangle what these characters mean to one another and effectively develop the story as it gets closer and closer to the end of the world. The cast of Dacha Theatre's An Incomplete List of All the Things I'm Going to Miss When the World is No Longer. Photo credit: Brett Love.

Into the Woods is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed musicals of all time, and for good reason: Stephen Sondheim’s intricate lyricism and James Lapine’s witty book tickle audiences of all ages and appeal to both the heart and head. The 5th Avenue Theatre’s rendition of the show allows audiences to appreciate the text’s ingenuity, but some of the magic is unfortunately lost.

Into the Woods is a sophisticated musical comedy that intertwines fairytales to explore the grim realities that follow supposed happy endings. The text manages to balance spectacle and intimacy with its playfully subversive plot and mature themes, but The 5th’s production does not quite succeed on either account. Much of the staging is unimaginative, mostly repeating choices made by many other renditions of the show. With that said, I have also seen productions of the show that have nowhere near as firm of a grasp of its unique tone and dense score, which is a feat for The 5th’s team in and of itself.

The Reorient: Journeys through Art and Healing display at the Wing Luke Museum features four Asian artists who use their different mediums as ways of telling their stories of immigration and finding purpose. These artists are able to express their gratitude, nostalgia, and defiance through dyed fabric, sculptures, ink-wash paintings, using color and unorthodox shapes to suggest the tone or emotion of a work and appeal to audiences.

First entering the exhibit, there is plenty of blank wall space, wherein only after you turn in either direction can you see the paintings of Victor Wang. His style of art holds a strong influence from his time spent working at a photography studio, as most of his pieces were made using pen ink on photographic paper later blended together with solvent, a liquid used to develop photographs. His use of unconventional materials in his paintings reflect his background as a photo color-corrector and almost makes it look like Wang pulled the art out of the canvas.

The lights dimmed in McCaw Hall's massive theater, filled to the brim with people of all ages, eagerly anticipating the overture of a bittersweet romance and haunting tragedy. There was a distant sound of tuning in the orchestra pit, barely heard over the clamor of excited viewers. Suddenly, a moment of stillness. Then, the thrilling first note of Giselle’s opening theme—an upbeat melody that didn’t prepare the audience for the devastating story that lay ahead. Before the hushed audience, the performers of Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) waited behind the curtains to present a unique perspective on the famous ballet for the company’s first production since 2014.

The story of Giselle dates back to the 19th century, first performed at the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royal de Musique in Paris. Theophile Gautier, the original creator of the celebrated ballet, devised the art after reading two old ghost stories: “Phantoms,” by Victor Hugo, and On Germany, by Heinrich Heine. Essentially, the ballet is about a naive peasant girl’s child-like passion for dancing, and a series of tragic events that sentence her to an eternal existence between life and death.

Seattle Opera’s A Very Drunken Christmas Carol is a festive and chaotic journey through the world of opera. The audience follows the Drunken Tenor, a talented and recognized singer who’s fallen into the bad habit of arriving to shows unprepared, stressing out his duet partners, and drowning himself in alcohol. After yet another messy performance, the opera star is called on by a mysterious voice and thrust into the classic trials of the Christmas Carol. Though an appealing concept, the opera suffers greatly from poor plot development and mediocre comedy, leaving audiences with a heaving pile of disappointment.

The Christmas Carol archetypes of past, present, and future underpin a widely underwhelming story which does nothing to grip the audience. Jumping into the past we meet an innocent Tenor who enters the opera scene under questionable guidance from his mentor and partner, the Baritone. The Baritone passes on his dubious habits of carrying a flask at all times, offering sips before performances for extra confidence, and entering duets wholly unprepared. This easily predictable storyline carries no energy, simply serving as an unsatisfying and unoriginal plot point. The lack of chemistry and heavy-handed dialogue between the tenor and the Baritone further weakens the story. The Drunken Tenor (Robert McPherson) in A Very Drunken Christmas Carol. Photo courtesy of Seattle Opera.

It’s love season and we at TeenTix have many partners we adore (partner venues, that is). We love seeing our partners invest in new works, so we are thrilled to have three world premieres from TeenTix venues this February. Dacha Theatre, a new addition to the TeenTix Pass Program, is debuting the electro-synth musical An Incomplete List of All the Things I’m Going to Miss When the World is No Longer.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ACT Theatre Core Company member Reginald André Jackson pursued an extensive research project about forgotten Black theatre artists, which has culminated in the production History of Theatre: About, By, For, and Near. The play explores whether the history of the oppressed can properly be shared without expressing oppression.

Before the show begins, sitting in the audience of Thank You For Coming: Space is like being surrounded by an immersive “I Spy” game. The stage is a white rectangle, with two rows of audience chairs around the perimeter, a raised set of tables on one end, and an opening in the seats on the other. Ropes crisscross in the air, tied to chair legs and slung high above on overhead bars. There’s a lemon suspended in the air, microphones, a bundle of leaves, and a bell too, all hanging over people’s heads as theatergoers trickle in from the lobby. A block of clay sits on a corner, and a pair of Doc Martens with wires duct taped to them lie resting on the floor.

Thank You For Coming: Space, created and performed by Faye Driscoll, is an experimental and participatory theater piece that seeks to explore the relationship between an artist and their audience. Driscoll begins the piece by walking into the space and speaking to the audience. What unfolds from there is an abstract, visceral, and deliberately constructed portrait of an artist’s inner thoughts.

Holly Black establishes herself as the ultimate advocate for all “monster girls, girls who have lived wild, girls who are strange.” This theme provides the pulsing heart of her works, most explicitly divulged in How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate with, “You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?”

Black poses this same question in her newest addition to the intoxicating world of Faerie. In the outskirts of the suburbs, where the boundary blurs the Folk and mortal realms, The Stolen Heir introduces Suren. Unloved and unwanted, Suren remains caught on the margins, neither place willing to claim her as their own. Paired in an uneasy allyship with Oak, the heir to the ruling High Court of Faerie, Suren sets off to reclaim her identity and possibly her birthright as the leader of the Court of Teeth. A triumphant return to the familiar world, The Stolen Heir incorporates the gritty, biting tension of Black’s previous works while developing a unique investigation into the meaning of acceptance.

The Teen Editorial Staff teamed up to bring to light some different perspectives about the recently released Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022). Read on to see why this Christmas-themed slasher may not make it to your screens this season. Warning: spoilers ahead! AAMINA

I believe the intent of Christmas Bloody Christmas was to be charmingly provocative but, to me the film was just annoying. The first thing I noticed was the banter between the two main characters, Tori and Robbie (Riley Dandy and Sam Delich). They walked through a Christmas night in a way that almost evoked Before Sunrise, and I’ll admit I had hopes for the two terrible people finding each other trope. However, by the end of the film, their chatter just seemed inane. I admire the attempt to inspire compassion in the viewer before delving into the slasher. Honestly though, the more time I spent with the characters, the more I disliked them. Tori and Robbie in Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022). Photo courtesy of IMDb © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.

Sitting in the pews of Town Hall Seattle, it felt as if I could physically breathe in the sound of the jazz quintet, Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto. The venue’s dim lighting and warm atmosphere complemented the quintet’s style well, and the open seating encouraged a sense of community within the audience, a vital aspect of the personal nature of the quintet’s music. The pieces Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto composes and performs are their own language; combining jazz and traditional Brazilian music, each instrument is simultaneously percussion and melody. By the end of the set, the audience felt comfortable in the space the quintet created, creating a distinctive musical atmosphere and reminding us of the joys of human connection.

With Mark Ivester on drums, Ben Thomas on vibraphone and bandoneon, Freddy Fuego on trombone and flute, Alex Dyring on bass, and Jovino Santos Neto on piano, the quintet’s music is tight without losing its laidback and personal feel. The style plays with 7/4 time signatures and beautifully syncopated rhythms, and each note is packed with emotion. The bouncy syncopation of Brazilian folk music, blended with the soothing groove of jazz, makes for a unique and captivating experience. However, beyond the technical complexity, the nature of the Quineto’s music is such that for it to be fully understood, the musicians must pour their entire soul into the song. While beautiful when interpreted as notes on a page, the real music comes from the performers.

Patti Lee Smith is recognized as a legend in the music community. She made her musical debut in the mid-1970s in New York City with her first album Horses. Smith’s first major recognition came when she was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. She came to Town Hall Seattle on December 2 as part of her book tour for A Book of Days, which came out on November 15. She gave a captivating performance as she alternated between different media. In her presentation, she told entertaining anecdotes alongside a slideshow, answered prepared questions from notecards, and performed a few songs with her guitarist. Smith’s innate sense of humor just added to the evening’s entertainment.

Her slideshow displayed pinnacle moments of her life through photographs that are featured in her recently released book. She told stories about meeting other recognized artists, traveling the world, and of her cherished relationships throughout her career. For example, the necklace exchanged between herself and Robert Mapplethorpe, which she mentioned in a previous memoir, Just Kids, was a fun inclusion. It was sweet to see her reminisce about their time together and put an image to the fabled artifact of her life. Another significant image was of Alice Augusta Ball, a Black woman who produced the original cure for leprosy. Ball sadly passed away at the young age of 24 in a laboratory accident, and it was only a matter of time until her work was stolen by a man. Smith paid tribute to her story and ended with “Hail Alice Augusta Ball.” Though that wording landed weirdly, it is always a good thing for another woman of color’s story to be shared. Smith never explicitly responded to the controversy around her use of the N-word, in her song Rock N Roll N*****, released in 1978. The song was silently retired off streaming services sometime in 2022. She may be using her platform to promote marginalized people to demonstrate remorse. However, without first taking accountability for performing the N-word up until 2019, her use of Ball in her presentation felt performative. Nevertheless, Smith recognizes she is a public figure who is privileged to have a platform and uses it to advocate for and give voice to underappreciated people. Patti Smith's book cover for A Book of Days

With one turn of a calendar’s page, 2023 has arrived. For many, the new year is a time for self-reflection. Some might make New Year’s resolutions to look back on their year in review; others might set on the path to a fresh start. For the more creatively inclined, the new year is a magnificent chance to delve deep into who you are and who you want to become through art. If you’re interested in experiencing the myriad of artistic perspectives the new year has inspired in the Seattle community, check out the events covered this month on the TeenTix Arts Blog, curated by the Teen Editorial Staff.

For those of you aching to return to theater after the holidays, look no further for some truly exciting events. Seattle Repertory Theatre is welcoming in the new year by contemplating change and transformation with Metamorphoses, a thrilling new theatrical production inspired by Ovid’s classic epic poem. If you’re looking to delve even further into history, check out History of Theatre at ACT Theatre, a production that seeks to explore and celebrate the rich, little-known history of Black theatre in America. To challenge your social perceptions, consider seeing This Bitter Earth at Seattle Public Theater, a beautiful exploration of racial issues, Queer identity, and modern love.

Amidst 1840s London, a man hurries through the streets trying to figure out the plot of his next book, which will come to be known as A Christmas Carol. In the world premiere of the play based off of a novel by the same name, Seattle Repertory Theatre brings us a compelling story of Charles Dickens struggling to write a Christmas-themed book in order to save his finances. The show has many timely messages about how we overlook relationships for currency and material items when we are asked to do something that is stressful or mentally draining. The show has many good parts but some issues with the narrative execution.

“If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year’s!” - Die Hard (1988)

The same contradictions and cohesion that makes art worth exploring is the same thing that makes it so difficult to define. While the American Art: The Stories We Carry exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum presents it as a question to be answered, it would be more accurate to consider it a framework to view each piece by. Within each piece and within each question, the exhibit presents nuance–what is American art specifically? Who gets to decide? Curated by Inye Wokoma, American Art: The Stories We Carry highlights the uniqueness of different racial identities and backgrounds in America, especially in the Pacific Northwest, and perceptions of them here and beyond. It presents Indigenous and African-American ties to the land, contrasted with the perspectives of the first colonists in the area. The gallery uses this contradiction to display the relationship and responsibility settlers have to Indigenous people in the area and how that compares with the connections they have with the land.

The gallery opens with two landscapes paintings with similar settings: Mount Rainier, Bay of Tacoma – Puget Sound (1875) by Sanford Robinson Gifford and Mitchell's Point Looking Down the Columbia (1887) by Grafton Tyler Brown both portray the terrain of the Pacific Northwest, with majestic mountains towering in the distance and expansive waterways laid out beyond. The scenery juxtaposes with the role of Indigenous people in the paintings—in Wokoma's words, Indigenous people are considered to be "wild and remote," but even more than that, their role in the environment is significantly diminished. In both paintings, Indigenous people are pictured as diminutive and less than, with their faces blurred out and the focus being on the landscape over the people present on it. They're disregarded on their own land, despite Wokoma's note that land serves as both an origin story and a significant cultural element for many Indigenous groups. Clearly, landscapes weren't the paradigm of impartiality they masqueraded as. This dynamic sets the stage for the rest of the exhibit, which reclaims the role of Indigenous people and changes the position from which viewpoints are centered. Mitchell's Point Looking D own the Columbia, 1887, Grafton Tyler Brown, oil on canvas, 18 x 30 in. Bruce Leven Acquisition Fund, 2020.26