TeenTix Blog by TeenTix

Seeing Nick Flynn on February 13th was a perfect palette cleanser for the saccharine day that was to follow. Chocolate and unbridled affection are the chosen dessert and emotion, respectively, for the day, but this lecture on “The Intersection of Poetry & Memoir” was an intriguing, bittersweet morsel, leaving my ears and heart wanting.

Sweet, because I have new holds at the SPL waiting by Flynn: Another Bullsh*t Night in Suck City, The Captain Asks for A Show of Hands, The Ticking Is the Bomb, and Blind Huber.

Book-It’s Anna Karenina begins with a whirlwind of characters, plots, and secrets dancing before the audience’s eyes. Overwhelming at first, this intricate culture collage melds together with each character, plot, and secret, highlighting a different facet of the tragic life of Anna Karenina.

Anna, played by the elegant Emily Grogan, is a wealthy Russian woman married to Karenin (played in a delightfully quirky manner by Andrew DeRycke) with a cherished son Seriozha (played by Montserrat Fleck for the opening performance). Unexpectedly, she falls in love with her friend Kitty’s husband-to-be, Count Vronsky (the dashing Scott Ward Abernethy) as the burly Levin (David Anthony Lewis) begins to pursue Kitty. Anna and Vronsky’s love becomes the theme of the play, spinning plot after plot into a Russian soap-opera with a tragic twist.

TeenTixers,

Today, we got this email from long time TeenTix member Tucker Cholvin (he is all grown-up now, so he gets a last name.) We were so touched by it, and we wanted to share it with you.

Over 50 Seattle-area high school students are preparing to compete in the third annual Seattle semi-finals of the August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC) at Seattle Repertory Theatre. The participants will perform a three-minute monologue from one of August Wilson’s plays on Feb. 23, 2013, and 10 finalists will compete in the public finals on Feb. 26, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. Three winners of the Seattle competition will receive cash prizes ($500, $250 and $100) and a trip to New York City to participate in the National Finals on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre in May 2013.

The inspiration for the AWMC was sparked in 2007 in Atlanta by Wilson’s long-time collaborators Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler of True Colors Theatre Company. They’ve since added regional competitions in Boston, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and Seattle with a national competition culminating in New York City. The program is now in its seventh year.

The bayous of Louisiana are some of the treasures of the United States, rich in culture and wildlife, but are not often publicized in today’s media. One of this year’s Academy Award contenders, Beasts of the Southern Wild, brought us a mythical view of an isolated, yet vibrant, bayou community. Sharon Linezo Hong’s My Louisiana Love brings us a harsher reality of the conditions in the bayous.

My Louisiana Love traces Monique Verdin’s poignant story of love, both for her people and her home. Hong’s first full-length documentary is made more intimate through her use of home footage, recorded by Verdin and her partner Mark Krasnoff, and later by Hong herself.

Next To Normal is a Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical about a middle-aged mother, Diana Goodman (played by Beth DeVries), diagnosed with bipolar illness, and how her illness affects the rest of her family. Her husband Dan (Auston James), daughter Natalie (Keaton Whittaker), and son Gabe (Kody Bringman) all appear to live normal lives, but are, in fact, nowhere near normal.

Balagan Theatre, which has brought a wide range of amazing musicals to Seattle, including [title of show] and Avenue Q, Spring Awakening and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, has again done a great job with this production.

Beauty through fashion photography is the focus of the Henry Art Gallery's new exhibit, Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty. Out [o] focuses on the many nuances of beauty using studio, fashion, and pop culture photography by artists from the 19th to 21st century.

I had the opportunity to walk through the gallery with curator Deborah Willis and a small group. The fluid and open gallery perfectly frames each photograph, which are juxtaposed with multimedia further enhancing the subtleties of Willis' ideas about media, and how different forms of beauty interconnect with each other.

Stephen Greenblatt walked onto the stage of Benaroya Hall with the air of a man who is accustomed to being in the spotlight. Fairly short with a dark suit, a slightly receding hairline, and a penchant for puns and jokes, he seemed more like your friend’s father than a Harvard professor, New York Times bestselling author, and winner of both the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. Greenblatt poked at the projector remote.

“Is this thing working?” he asked, fiddling with it for a second, before, "ahh!" The projector flipped its slide, revealing the name of his lecture: The Survival of Dangerous Ideas: Lucretius, The Renaissance, and the Modern World. Then, without even pausing to formally begin his lecture, Greenblatt jumped into his introduction , which followed the history and culture of militant Christian orthodoxy. Yet the historical portrait that Greenblatt painted for the multitudes of people who came to hear him speak at Benaroya Hall was fascinating and amazing because it was deeper than just dates and namedropping. Not only can I safely say that I exited the auditorium feeling smarter and more educated about the world around me, but I can also say that I genuinely enjoyed the lecture.

​Are you nervous about using your TeenTix pass for the first time? Worried it won't work? Scared you'll be laughed out of the box office? You're not alone!

Watch this video of TeenTix members talking about the first time they used their TeenTix passes and you'll feel much much better, we promise.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg tells the story of a couple with a young daughter who has severe cerebral palsy. This dark comedy follows the couple as they attempt to use humor to avoid addressing their situation. As the show progresses, the tension mounts and their careful way of life begins to unravel.

This show marks the premiere of Thalia’s Umbrella, a new Seattle theatre group. The acting in Joe Egg is amazing, with a strong ensemble cast of Leslie Law, Terry Edward Moore, Susan Corzatte, Carol Roscoe, Brandon Whitehead, and Aidyn Stevens. The actors’ high energy and focus keeps the show moving forward. Often it feels that when accents are used in shows it is distracting and awkward but the cast of Joe Egg proves that this is not true in their case, often Moore portrays different characters within a scene or monologue and is able to switch effortlessly between a few dialects. The chemistry and emotion portrayed by the actors is never unbelievable or distracting.

I always enjoy a show that begins at the end. Jeeves in Bloom, the hilarious comedy at Taproot Theatre, starts in an uproar and gets funnier from there. The play follows the bumbling misadventures of Bertie Wooster (played by Aaron Lamb) and his omnipotent valet Jeeves (played by Matt Shimkus). What is funny about this play is that it is full of wacky characters that get into zany situations while using witty banter and great physical comedy. Bertie is a rich young man who gets into these situations because he needs to be the gentleman. He has a powerful sense of loyalty towards his friends and family but his lack of good sense just causes more trouble when he tries to help them. His faithful valet Jeeves has a great deal of common sense which comes in handy when getting Bertie out of his dilemmas. Bertie is not the only character needing Jeeves’s assistance. Bertie’s friend Augustus Fink-Nottle (played by Randy Scholz) is an expert when it comes to newts but when it comes to the woman he loves he can’t spit out a word. He loves Madeline Basset (played by Marianna De Fazio) who is not very well grounded in reality. She sees the world in a very romantic way, full of poetry and fairies. Also making Bertie’s life difficult is his scheming Aunt Dahlia (played by Kim Morris), his paranoid Uncle Tom (played by Stephen Grenley), and a cleaver-wielding chef named Anatole (played by Parker Matthews).

Margaret Raether has done a great job adapting the Jeeves and Wooster stories written by P.G. Wodehouse. I really enjoyed the snappy dialogue. Although it is set in the 1920s, this play had me laughing out loud. Director Karen Lund obviously understands Wodehouse’s timeless comedy because her production of Jeeves in Bloom had the whole audience in stitches. She's put together a fantastic cast and the Wodehouse story really benefits from their great ensemble work. Whether it is Grenley as Uncle Tom reacting to drinking Jeeves' potion, or Randy Scholz as Augustus drunkenly gathering his courage, the whole cast embraces their zany characters. I also liked the realistic feeling of the period sets and costumes which provide a grounding amidst the all the insanity.

“In Sanskrit, Turanga means the universe spinning through time, and Lîla means the cosmic play of love and death,” explained Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot, discussing Olivier Messiaen’s (“MESS-yohn”) Turangalîla-Symphonie. This may sound excessively grand, but it describes perfectly Seattle Symphony’s first-ever performance of this 20th century masterpiece.

Turangalîla is rarely performed, and the reasons are evident; it’s long and physically exhausting, requires an uncommonly large percussion section, features a solo piano and the rare ondes Martenot (“ohnd MAR-ten-oh;” more on that later), and as a contemporary piece, is hard to market to wider audiences. However, judging by an almost-full house and the instant standing ovation, Morlot, the Seattle Symphony, and guest soloists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cynthia Millar did not have much trouble with these obstacles.

The first time Alyssa used her TeenTix pass, she was nervous. She and her friend felt “awkward and out of place,” and were petrified as they approached the ticket booth, TeenTix passes in hand. But the transaction was miraculously smooth. “Walking away from the ticket booth with two symphony tickets in our hands, my friend and I were in disbelief that TeenTix actually worked. Did we really just score seventy-dollar Seattle Symphony tickets for just five bucks? Our disbelief grew wider when we stepped into the grand performance hall, our eyes jumping from the rows upon rows of velvet seats to the warmly-lit organ at the back of the stage, and the balconies stacked on the walls. We found our seats, and looked at each other with expressions of disbelief until the music began to flood our ears.” Every year since 2004, thousands of Seattle area teens have had eye-opening arts experiences just like Alyssa’s – thanks to TeenTix. We partner with Seattle area arts organizations to make it possible for teenagers to buy $5 tickets to high-quality, professional arts programming that they would otherwise not have access to. Of that first experience at Seattle Symphony, Alyssa continues, “They performed the pieces so perfectly that I was almost fooled into believing I was in a Hollywood movie. It was difficult for me to even comprehend that the wonderful sounds created before me were real, and live.” The experience of attending the arts—of seeing paintings created by masters, theatre performed by heavy weights, music played by virtuosos—can be profound. It can be life-changing. It was for Alyssa. “Constantly attending performances, and realizing my love of the fine arts, has changed the entire path of my career.” When she arrived at the University of Washington, Alyssa “flooded” herself with pre-engineering courses. But she felt constrained. “There was nowhere for me to express my creative problem solving abilities.” So, she shifted her focus to Informatics: Human Computer Interaction, which marries design and programming. Seeing shows through TeenTix “gave me the push I needed to realize what I truly want my career path to be,” says Alyssa. “TeenTix has served as my golden ticket to a reservoir of endless inspiration and discovery.” The inspiration Alyssa has accessed through TeenTix doesn’t end with her. The arts have become the place where she and her friends spend time together. And, through TeenTix’s 2 for $10 “companion” ticket program, Alyssa was able to expose her younger brother to painting, sculpture, tribal art, theater, ballet, and music, all before the age of ten. Alyssa’s story is just one of thousands. Since 2004, TeenTix has brokered almost 32,000 incredibly affordable tickets to the arts for Seattle-area teens. If TeenTix has ever opened the door to an experience that you couldn’t have had otherwise, please share this with your family and decide together to donate to TeenTix. We want to continue making the arts accessible to young people for years and years to come, but we can’t do it without you. We need to raise $6,000 before the end of the year. A gift of $10, $20, or $50 would make a big difference please give today! Thank you.

Daydreaming of what could be. It’s something we all do. Usually you wake up and forget it all together. How do you remember something you know you’re going to forget? You write it down, in paragraphs, in sentences, in phrases, etc. Gustav Mahler takes the phrases past word and into the linguistic expression of music. He turns words into a tone which we all know and understand but few truly speak. He turns this daydream into a nostalgic swirl of worldliness, vulnerability, and a childlike playfulness. He places this swirl into a cone of deep emotional expression and then lets you indulge. All of this work to turn a daydream into an ice cream cone of creation, so that the feeling never fades.

Seattle Public Theater Winter Break Camps Now Open for Enrollment Seattle Public Theater is excited to announce their Winter Break theater camps, Curiosity: Journey to Mars, directed by Zoey Cane Belyea and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Kaya Wynn--both at the historic Bathhouse Theater on Green Lake. Financial aid is available for all camps. ABOUT WINTER BREAK CAMPS – In Curiosity: Journey to Mars, directed by Zoey Cane Belyea, students embark on an adventure by becoming characters based on the original Martian Rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. Join us as we create characters; develop confidence, speaking skills and make new friends upon the imaginary rolling red surface of Mars! For grades 1-3, Curiosity: Journey to Marsrehearsals run from December 26-29, Wednesday to Saturday, 9:30am – 3:30pm with a Final Sharing on Saturday, December 29 at 2:30pm. In The Fantastic Mr. Fox, studentsrehearse and perform Roald Dahl’s timeless tale of wit, wisdom and the value of community. When the wily Mr. Fox steals one chicken too many from a local farm, the farmers decide the only cure is to rid themselves of The Fantastic Mr. Fox–by any means possible! For grades 3-6, rehearsals for The Fantastic Mr. Foxrun January 2nd to 5th, Wednesday to Saturday, 9:30am to 3:30pm with a Final Sharing on Saturday, January 5th at 2:30pm. For more information on registration or scholarships, please call Kenna Kettrick at admin@seattlepublictheater.org, (206) 523-1370 or go to their education page at www.seattlepublictheater.org.

Review of Jack and Diane at Northwest Film Forum by Anika M.Twilight-y. Not in a good way.Jack and Diane tells the love story of two teenage girls with the added element of their inner monstrous transformation. I am unsure of the original intent of director Bradley Rust Gray because this movie seems to lack commitment and development within its plot, themes, and characters and all together looks like a mess of repetitive scenes loosely strung together. Jack and Diane, played by Riley Keough and Juno Temple, are two poorly developed characters that meet by chance in New York City. After spending one night together they decide, through no apparent emotional connection, that they are completely in love and need to drop everything to be together. The angst that these characters perpetuate is almost suffocating at times, an interesting caricature of the stereotypical teen relationship, just like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight. While the angst behind the relationship is established right away and woven throughout the entire movie, the initial connection between Jack and Diane is never made, forcing the viewer to ask "Why is this worth it?" and "What do you see in her?" Because of this I find it almost impossible to really care about the success of the relationship.Did I forget to say that there is a strange monster werewolf gore subtext that is never fully pursued but rather hangs there as an "Oh yeah, I’m here too" fly on the wall? Yeah. They seem to have a mess of hair growing inside of them as their relationship rapidly progresses and at times a grotesque monster appears while they dream.Throughout the entire movie, metaphors and societal commentary are thrown about, making it hard to decipher and consider a core theme or idea. While some of the story and ideology is innovative and intriguing, the approach is confusing and ineffective. If the goal of the piece was put more into focus the story might have been more interesting and provocative, but to me it seems noncommittal and convoluted. Should you avoid this movie all together? No. It will get you thinking about something. What exactly I’m not entirely sure.Jack and Diane plays for three more night at Northwest Film Forum:Tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday, November 27 - 29 at 7:00 and 9:00 PMMore info at nwfilmforum.orgWatch the trailer:

Review of Avenue Q at Balagan Theatre by Sam H-A.

Do you enjoy music and laser shows? Are you a smiling, team player and customer oriented? Do you love Pacific Science Center?Then we have an opportunity for you!!Pacific Science Center is currently seeking Laser Dome Ushers. Seeking volunteers that love lasers, music, and helping people. Must be 16 or older. A great opportunity for teens.More details on the opportunity is available here: http://pacscivolunteers.blogspot.com/2012/11/laser-show-usher-volunteer-adult-and.htmlCheck it out, and apply today.And remember, your TeenTix pass gets you $5 admission to Laser Dome events ALL THE TIME! Click here for a current schedule.

Review of Amarillo at On the Boards by Melissa C.Beautiful, creative, and moving. These are the words I use to describe Amarillo. The use of sand, water, clothing, cigarettes, point of view, multi-media, dance, color, light, movement, and voice were nothing short of perfection.In Amarillo, the tale of the illegal immigrant making his way to the U.S. and back is told almost entirely in Spanish with English translations projected on the back wall along with live-streaming and prerecorded video. That is not all that the back wall is used for. The actors jump at, climb up, talk to, and dance with this large, symbolic piece of concrete. I would like to think that I know why they interacted with the wall in this way, but every moment in this piece, every prop they used, and every line they said could be broken down and analyzed for meaning. In the end you didn’t need to know exactly what was going on for the emotion to strike home. Not only is it an incredibly well done piece, but it holds a message that is really important for people to hear – especially young people. Our country needs to change its perspective on illegal immigration and that starts with the us. This piece made me see that we need to understand the plight of the immigrant – not make them the enemy. We need to work together to find solutions – not decide that the only solution is elimination.However, even with this awakening, I still have some questions. I’ll admit that, with my very sheltered world view, I cannot possibly comprehend what would compel someone to illegally cross the Mexican/American border. I don’t understand how the promise of a country that has massive unemployment, is hugely discriminatory against Latinos, and does not try to make life easy for immigrants could outweigh the sorrow of leaving your home and your family and the risk of death when crossing the border. I also don’t understand what I can do to help. Obviously I don’t want these people dying out there – people who are willing to do whatever it takes to get the privileges that I was born with. But I don’t see how I can change anything. Is the idea that our border should just be open and any one should be allowed in? Or was the idea purely that we should stop looking at immigrant control as a political issue or an economic issue and start looking at it as a human issue? I wish that they had made it through the desert. That they had brought it closer to home, and addressed an issue that I could help correct. Because I feel that there are things that can be done right here in are communities. Often that the border never goes away in America today. The talk back after the show was a perfect example of the never-disappearing wall. There was no proper translator onstage and only about half the audience spoke Spanish while all those being interviewed spoke little English. I sat back, interested, as I watched the attempts at communication breed frustration. Even in this situation, where we desperately want to hear each other and understand each other and communicate, it was extremely difficult.In a way the show was ironic because it brought down that wall. The many different forms of communication that were present made language an afterthought and the personality and emotion the actors brought to the stage made them sympathetic to someone from any culture.Hermoso, creativo, y en movimiento. These are the words I should use to describe Amarillo.Amarillo is closedNext up at On the Boards: Kyle Loven's Loss MachineDecember 5 - 10Read more about Kyle Loven in his TeenTix Crush of the Month profile

Review of The Glass Menagerie at Seattle Repertory Theatre by Joyce R.Photo by Alan AlabastroThe contents of The Glass Menagerie are few; one room and four and a half characters: Tom Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Amanda Wingfield, the gentleman caller, and a picture of Mr. Wingfield, staring at them through it all.With so little to work with, it’s expected that not much happens, and that’s partially true. In the one room where everything occurs, there are no epic quests, no passionate loves, and no valiant heroes. Rather, this room houses beautiful lighting that looks like silhouettes on sunsets as we watch reality unfold while the characters see only their dreams.Whether it’s Amanda Wingfield, the mother, dreaming of her lost past and her daughter’s future gentleman caller, or Tom, dreaming about his escape, they’re all deluded, they all see a reality that isn’t real.Photo by Alan AlabastroYet regardless of the illusion that this family lives in, there are moments in The Glass Menagerie that are so relatable and tangible and so uncomfortably close to the heart that the knee-jerk reaction is to swat them away. Swat away the pestering mother, Amanda Wingfield, and not bother to look for the love underlying all her actions. Swat away the distressingly fearful sister, Laura Wingfield, and not bother to see the perceptiveness hidden in her silence. Swat away the selfish Tom, and ignore his underlying longings that are so similar to our own.Swat them all away and choose to ignore how similar they all are to ourselves.We are like Tom and Laura and Amanda. We sacrifice, we quietly wish, and we fear. And like them, we all live in our own illusions in some way.The Wingfield family eventually learns that dreams aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Playwright Tennessee Williams wasn’t fond of the happy ending (as evidenced by his other plays, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and this play isn’t an exception. By the end, this sad little family that lives in their dreams is coldly brought back to reality.It doesn’t exactly bring the warm fuzzies, but it’s life.Photo by Alan AlabastroAnd that’s why there will be many different interpretations of The Glass Menagerie, because it’s a play so chock full of life; full of recognizable moments that happens secretly in households when no one is around; full of the things you think about before bed, when no one is listening. This play tastes like life and even if it’s not conventionally enjoyable, The Glass Menagerie forces a mirror in front of your face, that’s what makes it so worth seeing.The Glass MenagerieSeattle Repertory TheatreThrough December 2