Seattle Blog

It's finally that time of year again—the time to showcase young film directors from around the world. NFFTY is a stand out among film festivals for precisely the reason stated in its title; it's "for talented youth." Don't be thinking amateur, though. The directors, all under age 24, of NFFTY's selections have the creativity, skills, and vision to put them on par with the best. These are high quality, well-produced, and impressively directed films with beautiful cinematography and compelling acting.

Spanning the weekend of April 23 through 26, NFFTY features all types of film, from comedy and drama to horror, animation, and documentary. All featured films are shorts gathered into themed groups—like Northwest Life, Edge of Your Seat, and Musical Masterpiece—for screenings. So attending one showing at NFFTY actually means seeing several films!

Before Lizard Boy even begins the actors are milling around on stage, tuning their instruments, one of them half-dancing to the ambient acoustic indie rock playing over the speakers. Admittedly, it’s confusing at first, but after realizing this is an artistic choice by the director, it sets the tone as quite intimate for the rest production.

This hilarious comic book musical—written, composed, and starring Justin Huertas as Trevor—tells the story of a boy who hasn't left his apartment in a year in the wake of a bad breakup. But in the process of looking for his ex-boyfriend on Grindr (an app like Tinder for gay male hookups), he has an adorably awkward encounter with Cary, played by William A. Williams.

A classic work of art, Swan Lake is heartrending and technically complex, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet is well up to the challenge of this amazing performance. With music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who also composed The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as complementary choreography by Kent Stowell, this is a masterful, well-choreographed, and well-rehearsed performance.

Carla Körbes is stunning in the dual role of Odette, the swan’s princess, and Odile, the daughter of the villainous Baron von Rothbart. This is also one of her last performances with PNB, as she is retiring at the end of the season. Körbes' lines and control of her body are sensual and breathtaking. She makes holding an on-pointe arabesque for more than 15 seconds look like the easiest thing in the world. She makes even the hardest moves look easy.

Do you care about keeping art accessible for young people? How are you with menial duties? Do you like working alongside a group of awesome, fun people who care about art? Come and work with us! We are currently hiring for a Summer 2015 Intern.

Start Date: Flexible, as early as May 2015 End Date: Flexible, late August or early September 2015 Supervisor: Ashraf Hasham, TeenTix Deputy Director Deadline: Rolling

Are you always trying to get people to go to shows? Do you value diversity + access? Are you vaguely interested in a career in the arts? Or, perhaps, you're simply the only person you know who likes opera.

Then, it seems, you're a perfect candidate for The New Guard: Teen Arts Leadership Society! What is The New Guard, you ask? (We assume you asked. We can't hear you but we're pretty sure you're telepathically communicating to ask us this question.)

Splurge Land sets an unfortunately familiar scene: a contemporary house party. It could be a no-parents-home situation, a typical Friday night in college, or just some young adults trying to have a good time. There’s smoking, drinking, body-flaunting, Instagramming, a bag of chips, loud electronic music, and—of course—dancing.

Kate Wallich/The YC dance through the late-night narrative of the post-net generation, one whose good times appear all the better because there are hashtagged photos to prove it. Yet, there’s an ominous feeling to Splurge Land that never quite goes away. The supposed fun never surpasses the bleak means of trying for it.

In my last review of UW’s Undergraduate Theater Society, I covered The Picture of Dorian Gray, stating that this is a wonderful group, on par with the Paramount and many Broadway-level companies. Cabaret doesn’t fail to live up to the standard they set in my last review; it shimmied and shook its way above it. Cabaret is delightfully sexy, adult, playful, dramatic, and sobering. The music is delivered gorgeously; Taige Kussman’s sultry, rich mezzo/alto was the perfect fit for main character Sally Bowle’s English accent and the setting of the Kit Kat Club. This show takes you on a journey far from where you sat down, leaving all your troubles behind you. The acting is simply delightful. From the accents to the sultry movements of the actors, I was entranced. Be warned, however, this show gets mature, covering domestic abuse, the realm of Nazis, and sex workers. Other than that, this show is yet another great production from a fantastic company. Bravo, and well done.

Cabaret UW Undergraduate Theater Society February 26 - March 8

We are thrilled to announce our new writing class, Culture Writing, with writer Ijeoma Oluo!

Ijeoma's work has been featured in The Guardian, City Arts Magazine, the Stranger, Huffington Post, Jezebel, NY Magazine, Medium, Ravishly, SheKnows, XOJane, Time Magazine, The Awl, and The Monarch Review. Most recently, she blew up the internet by compassionately engaging a racist Twitter troll on Martin Luther King Day. (You can follow Ijeoma @ijeomaoluo and you should.) Culture Writing will be a two-month class responding to the explosive growth of serious writing about popular culture. Topics explored will include personal narrative in pop culture writing, race, class, and gender, media literacy, and internet culture. Students will learn to craft better writing, engage more critically with the culture they consume, and give and receive constructive feedback. Culture Writing will be held in July and August at the Seattle Center. It is open to all incoming 11th & 12th graders and college freshmen. If you would like to be notified when applications for Culture Writing become available, click here.

Is the cold winter weather getting you down? Well, Pacific Northwest Ballet has provided the perfect solution. Take a trip to warm, sunny Barcelona with PNB’s Don Quixote. The production, choreographed by world-famous choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, captures the passion of Spain with an undertone of Russian classicism.

Based on Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s literary masterpiece Don Quixote, the ballet is an energetic spectacle that draws out laughter from the very beginning. Although entitled Don Quixote, the Don (and his portly sidekick Sancho Panza) plays a minimal part in the action aside from his journey to find his true love, Dulcinea. The majority of the plot follows the escapades of Kitri, a feisty Spanish girl, and Basilio, her lover, around Barcelona in escape from Kitri’s father, who wants her to marry the ridiculous, but wealthy, Gamache.

Keeping up with our friends and family members nowadays tends to happen via social media. It is likely you have seen others with their phone devices glued to their hands, staring and swiping endlessly on a screen as they “connect” with others and show sympathy as they “like” pictures, life events, and the statuses of their loved ones. Even if social media is the innovative tool society uses to bond and connect, the play 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog shares with audiences a more effective way to connect with each other.

4000 Miles, directed by Mathew Wright, introduces Leo Joseph-Connel, a 21-year-old without a cellphone, a job, or a place to stay. Leo (Adam Standley) has just finished a cross-country bicycle trip. His deep love for the outdoors inspired him to begin the journey with his best friend Micah, departing from Seattle and heading east, where he ends up by himself in New York City at the door of his grandmother, Vera (Susan Corzatte).

Mwindo, written by Cheryl L. West, is a modern adaptation of an ancient tale spun by the elusive Nyanga tribe who reside in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Set Designer Carey Wong transports the audience to Africa with twisting liana vines, rocky mountains, and intricate patterns that cover the floor. Each portion of the set directly relates to the plot.

If you need a break from sine, cosine, and tangent, or if your eyes are crossing from reading too many textbooks, Seattle Repertory Theatre offers a differnt kind of lesson: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. It’s a fun play dealing with family and friends, tiffs and fights, legacy and stories, and spirits and ghosts.

The story, written by August Wilson, is about an African American family trying to hold on to their stories and history. The basic plot: a dispute between siblings. Berniece wants to save an heirloom upright piano for sentimental value, but her brother, Boy Willie, who is more concerned with practicality, is determined to sell the piano and buy a piece of land where their father worked as a slave.

Race. What is its meaning? How does it affect us? How can it be changed? Is it even real?

This complicated topic is addressed comprehensively, hilariously, and uniquely in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, produced by the Undergraduate Theater Society (UTS) at the University of Washington. In this semi-autobiographical story, Hwang (Mikko Juan), a well-known playwright and Asian-American civil rights activist, mistakenly casts a white actor in an Asian title role, making himself part of the problem of whitewashing and marginalization he’s trying to fight — or so he thinks.

Are you a Cornish student with a work/study award? Want to help keep art accessible for young people? Come and work with us!

Our wonderful Member Services Coordinator, Nazlah, is headed off on an academic adventure in Scotland, so we have an immediate opening. Only current Cornish College of Arts students with work/study awards may apply.

Today, I am super thrilled to share that TeenTix has hired Ashraf Hasham to fill the newly created position of Deputy Director. Ashraf's association with TeenTix began when he joined The New Guard (then called the TeenTix Steering Committee) as a 16-year-old junior at Ballard High School. After graduating from Ballard, Ashraf earned his degree in Arts Administration from Wagner College in New York, and then returned to Seattle, where he has held positions at TeenTix partner organizations Henry Art Gallery and On the Boards. I knew Ashraf was special right off the bat--anyone who has met him knows what I'm talking about. He's got an incredible spirit, and he's super smart, dedicated, and driven. It's really exciting to have someone on staff who came up through our programs. Who could be in a better position to make sure that we are doing a great job serving young people? Put that together with the expertise that Ashraf has gained through earning his degree in working in arts nonprofits, and you have someone who is going to do really good things for this organization. I could not be happier.

Please join me in welcoming Ashraf!

Watching The Great Society is like watching a current newscast. Protests swell, Republicans sweep elections, racism rises, and then the audience remembers this was “back then”— the 1960s. But it’s also now.

The play follows Lyndon B. Johnson’s full term in office and the idea he held for a “Great Society” with civil rights, health care, less poverty, and more. With a whirling group of advisors and adversaries coming and going, though, and the tumultuous world outside, we see the inner workings of why things did not go entirely as planned — notably, with the war in Vietnam and the response to civil rights marchers and activists.

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than to see Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Sendak and Stowell’s Nutcracker? It is truly a one-of-a-kind show that the entire family can enjoy.

The classic is brought to life with vivid backdrops and bright ruffled dresses that transport the audience straight to Nuremburg to find festivities in full swing on Christmas Eve in the Stahlbaum home.

Are you staying inside this year to watch Christmas movie reruns and harvest your inner couch potato? You should move your potato buns to the 5th Avenue Theatre instead, where A Christmas Story: The Musical will warm your heart with bizarre leg lamp musical numbers, meta jokes, and all the ups and downs of being a kid again.

Not a single thing about this performance is normal. Sure, the storyline makes it seem so — a slightly geeky American boy named Ralphie tries to convince his family to get him a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas — but this musical is sprinkled with tons of quirky humor and bizarre holiday charm that will keep you at the edge of your seat. You can’t help but laugh at the overly exaggerated stereotypes hilariously portrayed by the talented singer/actor powerhouses at the 5th Avenue Theatre — or the dad’s strange obsession with his female anatomy-inspired lamp. All the funny quirks of this outrageous musical will have you entertained the entire night.

The cast of A(n Improvised) Christmas Carol surely knows their improv. With jokes so witty you would assume they had been crafted over the course of days spouting out of actor’s mouths before they even have a chance to censor themselves, this production was unlike any other.

And truly, it is, for every night that Unexpected Productions puts on another show, the outcome is vastly different. Each night the audience gets a “choose your own adventure.” The audience is asked to call out answers to random questions such as “name a type of profession” or “something you would hide in your house.” Some answers are obvious as to how they will be incorporated into the show, but others are more subtle and unexpected.

I have so many good things to say about Book-It Repertory Theatre’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen that there is absolutely no way I can cram them all into this review. The short version: Go see it!

This production has something for everyone. Bookworms will appreciate how adapter and director Marcus Goodwin’s script uses the original text to narrate transitions, introductions, and explanations. Art geeks will appreciate the fantastic stage, complete with calligraphic writing on the floor and set pieces, by scenic designer Greg Carter. Music-lovers can note the traditional dances – curated by sound designer Jen Raynak and usually played on an imaginary piano by one character or another – and history nerds will love the period costumes by Jocelyne Fowler. Oh, and for all you thespians, the acting is superb, from the wicked Wickham (Connor Toms) to the socially awkward Darcy (Richard Nguyen Sloniker), with the unfortunate manners of Mrs. Bennett (Kimberly King) and Mr. Collins (John Bianchi) adding to the comedy.