2015 season: the explorers club the best of … · 2015 season: dracula sep 23 – oct 24 directed...
TRANSCRIPT
2015 SEASON: DRACULASEP 23 – OCT 24
DIRECTED BY K A R E N L U N DJULY 8-AUG 15
GODSPELLJUL 8 – AUG 15
THE EXPLORERS CLUBJAN 28 – FEB 28
THE BEST OF ENEMIESMAR 25 – APR 25
JEEVES INTERVENESMAY 13 – JUN 20
CONCEIVED AND ORIGINALLY DIRECTED BY JOHN-MICHAEL TEBELAK MUSIC AND NEW LYRICS BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZORIGINALLY PRODUCED ON THE NEW YORK STAGE BY EDGAR LANSBURY / STUART DUNCAN / JOSEPH BERUH
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JULY 2015
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A piece of Queen Victoria’s diplomatic furniture: Buckingham Palace to Iolani Palace, 1899
“AND SHE WILL SING THE SONG THAT PLEASETH YOU”
~ HENRY IV part 1
Lady Mortimer (Catrin Glyndwr) and Queen Liliuokalani were musically gifted female monarchs from tiny island kingdoms. Both were robbed of their
thrones and both were imprisoned in the towers of royal palaces.
Queen Liliuokalani’s music cabinet, the world’s most expensive piece of furniture, is now in Seattle.Asking: $40,000,000.00 ($40 million) ~ John Cook ~ [email protected]
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July-August 2015Volume 11, No. 7
Paul Heppner Publisher
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Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. ©2015 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited.
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PRESENTING LIVE IN
CONCERT
BLANCA
Saturday August 1 at the Seattle Memorial Stadium, 6:30 PMPROVIDING “QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT…WITH A MESSAGE”
This is a WorldHopeOutreach.org benefit event. A $10.00 donation is requested at the door.
AND
Phil Keaggy
50 years ago, some parents had just two choices:institution or revolution.So they started Northwest Center — and a revolution to include people of all abilities at school, at work and in the community.
Celebrating 50 Years
Join the Revolution.nwcenter.org/revolution
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CONTENTS
Q & A with
Stephanie TimmBY BRETT HAMIL
Stephanie Timm is a playwright and Cornish teacher with collaborative ties to Seattle’s most esteemed theatre houses. She was playwright-in-residence at ACT where she adapted The Ramayana with Yussef El Guindi, an alumna of the Seattle Rep Writers Group, a company playwright and affiliate artist with New Century Theatre Company (NCTC) and a member of ACT’s Affiliate Artist Working Group. Her newest play, Tails of Wasps, premiered with NCTC last spring and won a Gypsy Award and a Footlight Award.
She’s currently working on an Elizabeth George Commission from the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory Theatre. (She also recently collaborated with NCTC’s Brenda Joyner on the first edition of Encore’s One Minute Webcam Monologue.)
Continuing our streak of notable Seattle playwrights, Timm joined us for a handul of questions. See more interviews with Seattle theatre artists every Friday over at EncoreArtsSeattle.com.
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2015 SEASON: DRACULASEP 23 – OCT 24
DIRECTED BY K A R E N L U N DJULY 8-AUG 15
GODSPELLJUL 8 – AUG 15
THE EXPLORERS CLUBJAN 28 – FEB 28
THE BEST OF ENEMIESMAR 25 – APR 25
JEEVES INTERVENESMAY 13 – JUN 20
CONCEIVED AND ORIGINALLY DIRECTED BY JOHN-MICHAEL TEBELAK MUSIC AND NEW LYRICS BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZORIGINALLY PRODUCED ON THE NEW YORK STAGE BY EDGAR LANSBURY / STUART DUNCAN / JOSEPH BERUH
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JULY 2015
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Godspell A1
Directed by Karen Lund
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
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PREVIEWSPROGRAM ARCHIVE CALENDAR ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
What’s the best performance you’ve seen lately? Live! From the Last Night of My Life [by Wayne Rawley] is the best performance I’ve seen lately and one of the top performances I’ve seen, ever! It’s a brilliant script, full of comedy and pathos, about an important subject. As Dana Perry, winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Short, Crisis Hotline, said, “We should talk about suicide out loud.” The actors, direction, and design were superb as well.
What’s the best meal in town? The best meal I’ve had in Seattle was the prix fixe meal at Art of the Table in Wallingford. Highlights were smoked goat and a palate cleanser of raspberry sorbet with sea salt and the chef with his ringmaster-style mustache coming out between each course and telling us all about the food, the happy organic life it had before its ultimate fate in the food chain.
What music gets you pumped up? What do you listen to when you’re sad? Music that gets me pumped up: Augustines, Raveonettes and Pixies. Music I listen to when sad: I don’t really listen to music when I’m sad. I just sit silently and stare at walls.
What’s the ideal setting for writing a play? Ideally, when writing the first draft of a play, I’d have a series of quiet mornings without interruption in which I’d crank out a very mediocre first draft. Then, ideally, a theater company (like New Century) would read it, see all its potential and I’d get to workshop it with actors. Actors are the best dramaturgs, and my best writing occurs when I’m submerged in conversation during a workshop or during rehearsals. I love playwriting best when I’m involved in this kind of collaborative development process.
What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you about working in theatre? Don’t take things personally, especially rejection. This is a highly subjective art form.
SOP 062615 dream 2_3v.pdf
AN AMERICAN DREAMAugust 21 & 23
Jack Perla Jessica Murphy Moo
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Treasured possessions become symbols of home as two Puget Sound women struggle to maintain a sense of place during displacements related to World War II. This world premiere includes interactive pre- and post-show experiences to deepen your understanding of the situations and characters depicted in the opera.
WORLD PREMIERE— INSPIRED BY TRUE STORIES FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
In English with English Subtitles.Featuring members of Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
PRODUCTION SPONSOR: TRUE-BROWN FOUNDATION
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21 8:00 PMSUNDAY, AUGUST 23 2:30 PM
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PREVIEWSPROGRAM ARCHIVE CALENDAR ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
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As summer winds down, the Seattle theatre calendar heats up with world premiere musicals, nationally touring Broadway shows and original commissioned works. Check out these upcoming shows.
BloomsdaySept. 11–Oct. 11James Joyce’s literary masterwork Ulysses provides the backdrop for this new play commissioned by ACT. It’s the story of an American man who returns to Dublin to reconnect with the Irish woman who stole his heart 30 years ago. Weaving through the intervening years and divergent life paths separating the two lovers, Bloomsday explores heartache with humor and hope. Written by Stephen Dietz and directed by Kurt Beattie. ACT Theatre
AnnieSept. 20–26From its humble beginnings as a Depression-era newspaper comic strip, this beloved musical won seven Tonys and spawned three movies including the 2014 iteration starring Quvenzhané Wallis and Jamie Foxx. Annie never grows up and will always sing that eternally optimistic anthem, “Tomorrow.” With Daddy Warbucks, Sandy the dog and a cameo appearance from FDR, this revitalized national touring production is helmed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin and choreographed by Liza Gennaro.The Paramount
WaterfallOct. 1–25The 5th Avenue Theatre presents the world premiere of its 18th new musical. Waterfall is based on the contemporary Thai novel Behind the Painting, the story of a tempestuous romance set in 1930s Thailand and Japan as the monarchy crumbles and Japan is on the brink of war. A young Thai student falls in love with the American wife of a Thai diplomat and their forbidden love parallels the shifting world around them. With book and lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., music by David Shire, choreography by Dan Knechtges and directed by Tak Viravan.5th Avenue Theatre
Under the Tents • Vanier Park, Vancouver, CanadaOn Stage to Sept 26
1-877-739-0559 • bardonthebeach.org
Howard Family Stage
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Jeran Michael Brown crossed over to the dark side, from opera to metal. The son of two musicians in Northern California, he showed an early aptitude for singing and received vocal training from a young age. He worked his way up from community theatre shows and collegiate workshops to the Fresno Grand Opera, where he played such roles as the Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly and the Herald in Verdi’s Othello. He hadn’t gotten his vocal studies degree yet and was already performing professionally alongside world-renowned singers.
But the siren song of the dark arts beckoned Brown [pictured above in a headshot from his opera days]. He dropped out of the opera scene and moved to Seattle seeking new sounds. A growing fascination with metal took over and he exchanged his arias and oratorios for primal screams and growls. He’s now preparing to release his first metal album as the singer of Whythre (pronounced “Whither-ee”), the culmination of a long transformation. I talked to Brown about
his unusual musical journey and the many similarities between the two disciplines.
Tell me how you began to transition from opera to metal.
There’s something very dark, theatrical, brutal and beautifully angry about black metal and death metal. It evoked a darker side of myself. I became attracted to the lyrical concepts, the aesthetic value; an aural assault on the senses that awakened something really exciting in me. I began thinking if I took my training as an opera singer and applied it as a metal vocalist I’d probably be able to go really far with it. It’d be an interesting route to take.When I started to reveal my love of metal music to my opera peers, they always looked at me like I had something on my face. But there are so many similarities between the grandiose natures of both genres that really meet in the middle. Some of the best operas are tragedies where the heroine dies in the end in the name of love or freedom. Metal music is a lot like that.My first year in Seattle, I ran into Shon
From Opera to MetalJeran Michael Brown’s musical journey
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Petrey and we kicked it off by listening to music and talking about our philosophies in life musically, spiritually and humanistically. The creative process took off and we spent the next four years developing this project. Now we have our very first album coming out.
There’s a history of classically trained vocalists who get into metal, right?
There are definitely a lot of classically trained metal musicians and rock musicians. The lead singer of System of a Down (Serj Tankian), modern symphonic metal like Nightwish, Cradle of Filth—a lot of them bring a classical influence into their music.
There’s a high level of virtuosity there. When you think of metal, at first you think of this loud stuff, but if you dig deeper—
Dimmu Borgir is a perfect example. They’re so inspired by romantic music: Wagner, Beethoven. Chopin, Liszt, Holst. Big, dramatic theatrical music that evokes emotions.The most important thing about opera is it engages your emotions and brings them out for the world to see. Metal does that as well. The concept of horror and darkness and brutality is what makes it so attractive. It reaches in and pulls out this seething arcane feeling that is very peaceful but at the same time is made of chaos. In both genres you might not know what is being sung, you might not even speak the language, but the emotion is being communicated.A lot of people will say it’s brutal and gory and satanic and evil. Well, yes, it’s an invocation of the brutality within man that is put into the medium of music so we are able to hold this force out in front of us and view it for what it is. It’s a good way to spiritually exorcise the filth.
Speaking of brutality, I listen to that stuff and think: How do you protect your voice? Do you use the techniques you learned in opera?
There’s a book called The Structure of
Singing by Richard Miller. To quote him, singing is just air escaping the body. I was able to take that concept to metal vocals. I do engage all of my body and my diaphragmatic muscles especially when I inhale to scream, but I keep my throat open as though I’m yawning. It takes a while for your vocal chords and vocal folds to get used to such turbulence. It’s not actually screaming; it’s just a high, intense sound that comes from air being pushed out of the body.
Which is harder, opera or metal?
I’d say opera wins that one because it’s a lifelong achievement. You’re never done learning about your own voice. But it’s the same for metal vocals. Who knows how I’m going to sound after ten or so years of doing this?An opera singer, that’s what they do, just like any musician. They eat, sleep and breathe technique. They practice and practice and practice. It’s all about support. You have to use your body as a vessel and manipulate all the right muscles in order to produce the right volume, frequency and sound.I spent 15 years trying to perfect my vocal technique in opera. Now that I’ve taken it to the metal I’d say that opera is harder because that took 15 years of training. I took those concepts and put them into metal and that just shot it off like a rocket. It’s getting easier and easier to sing the metal stuff.
What would growth look like in terms of metal vocals, having already been through that process in opera?
Basically, challenging ourselves to write more agile music. I’d see myself succeeding in metal vocally if I continue to increase my volume every day. The way I see the entire project working out is to be able to hook that inspiration and meet the dark side of music and love it. We wanna be able to turn heads and make people happy with our music, which is the lifelong goal.
Listen to more of Whythre’s music at https://soundcloud.com/whythre
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2014 GreGory AwArd TheATre of The yeAr
by MARCUS GARDLEY
JULY 16 - AUGUST 2 CENTER THEATRE
Seattle Center Armory
SoUNd theatre company
www.SoundTheatreCompany.org
S u m m e r 2 0 1 5 S e a S o n Revolution and Revelation
SeaTTLe PremIere!
a co-production withBRoWnBoX tHeatRedirected by tyrone Brown
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2105 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121www.cantinalena.com
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HOURS OF OPERATIONSMon-Fri 11am-11pm
Sat & Sun 9am-11pmHAPPY HOUR during the week from 3-6pm
and weekend BRUNCH 9am-3pm
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Production
Scott Nolte, Producing Artistic
Director
Karen Lund, Associate Artistic
Director
Thank you To our 2015 SeaSon SupporTerS
opening nighT SponSor:
The upper CruST
Godspell is approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes including intermission.
*Member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
SEttingA public market in present day Seattle
cASt
MuSiciAnS
DirectorMusic DirectorChoreographer
Scenic and Sound Design Costume Design Lighting DesignStage Manager
DramaturgFight Choreographer
Karen LundEdd KeyBeth OrmeMark LundNanette AcostaAndrew DuffKristi MatthewsKathryn StewartMatt Orme
Godspell is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684 www.MTI Shows.com
The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
Ryan Childers - John the Baptist Katherine JettTyler Todd KimmelJessi LittleSara Porkalob
Simon PringleBethanie RussellMike Spee* - JesusAsha StichterDaniel Stoltenberg
Michael James Adams - guitaristEdd Key - Drummer
ConCeived and originally direCted by John-Michael Tebelak MusiC and new lyriCs by STephen SchwarTz
originally produCed on the new york stage by edgar lanSbury / STuarT duncan / JoSeph beruh
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important to remain true to the subtextual content, motivations and dramatic structure.” For Taproot’s production I’m asking you to imagine yourself in present day downtown Seattle among a group of young urbanites: a barista, a fishmonger, a shop manager, a tour guide, and a musician or two. What would happen to their world if they suddenly encountered JOY—strange, astonishing, inexpressible JOY?
What happens next will hopefully be fresh, funny and familiar.
Enjoy!
Karen Lund Associate Artistic Director
he most wanted to share with a theatre audience.
Tebelak approached his CMU professors with a proposal to create a play using the New Testament gospels that he hoped would cast a kind of God “spell” of joy over an audience. Lucky for all of us they said “Yes.” With the Gospel of Matthew as a starting point, a cast of creative improv actors, and eventually a talented Stephen Schwartz to write new songs and set old hymn lyrics to modern melodies, Tebelak molded a show called Godspell. In time the show grew from a thesis project to a Broadway hit to a musical theatre classic that has been casting its spell over audiences for 44 years.
In the published script of Godspell, Stephen Schwartz’s Authors Note to the Director tells us, “…[the] director is free to altar the specifics …[but] it is
John-Michael Tebelak conceived Godspell when he was a young directing student at Carnegie Mellon University. Needing to create a proposal for his master thesis project, he turned to the New Testament gospels for inspiration. What he saw in those books surprised him. He was astonished by what he identified as JOY in the gospels. It was a JOY that he didn’t always feel in standard church services. It was a JOY that he had never before associated with the character of Christ. He decided that this JOY was what
dirEctor’S notES
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“Father, hear thy children’s call
Humbly at thy feet we fall
Prodigals confessing all
We beseech thee, hear us!”
Stephen Schwartz
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WaiT!
“Prepare Ye”.......................................................................................... Ryan Childers and Company
“Save the People”....................................................................................... Mike Spee and Company
“Day by Day”.............................................................................................. Jesse Little and Company
“Learn Your Lessons Well”...................................................................... Asha Stichter and Company
“Bless the Lord”................................................................................... Sara Porkalob and Company
“All for the Best”........................................................... Ryan Childers and Mike Spee and Company
“All Good Gifts”...................................................................................... Tyler Kimmel and Company
“Light of the World”.............................................................................. Simon Pringle and Company
“Turn Back, O Man”.............................................................................. Katherine Jett and Company
“Alas for You”............................................................................................. Mike Spee and Company
“By My Side”.................................................................................... Bethanie Russell and Company
“We Beseech Thee”........................................................................ Daniel Stoltenberg and Company
“On the Willows”.................................................................. The Band (Michael Adams and Edd Key)
“Finale”.............................................................................................................................. Company
Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz“By My Side” by Peggy Gordon, Lyrics by Jay Hamburger
godSPEll MuSicAl nuMbErS
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Artistic/Production stAff
scott nolte - Producing Artistic Director Karen Lund - Associate Artistic Director Mark Lund - Design Director Micah Lynn trapp - Production Stage Manager sarah Burch Gordon - Costume Shop Manager & Resident DesignerWendy Hansen - Resident Propsmaster
AdMinistrAtive stAff
Pam nolte - Community Liaisonrick rodenbeck - Finance & Operations Directornikki visel - Marketing Directorelizabeth Griffin - Communications Manager tanya Barber - Creative Marketing Specialistisaiah custer - Marketing AssociateAcacia danielson - Executive Assistant
deveLoPMent
Lauren cooper - Director of Developmentsonja Lowe - Development Associate & Resident Dramaturg
PAtron services
Jenny cross - Patron Services Manager Acacia danielson, Laura Kelm, stephen Loewen, sonja Lowe, cathie rohrig, Bethanie russell, dave selvig - House ManagersKristi Matthews - Box Office ManagerJosh Krupke - Box Office Lead erin Barber, sarah diener, Joyel richardson, Jd Walker, Alek White - Box Office Representatives Marty Gordon - CustodianJacob Yarborough - Facilities Mainte-nance
educAtion & outreAcH
nathan Jeffrey - Director of Education & Outreach shelby Parsons - Associate Director of Education & OutreachJenny cross - Resident Teaching Artist
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THEATRE BRINGS US TOGETHERAt the theatre, there is always a story to tell.
The stories on stage can lift your spirits and transport you. But the stories you bring—first dates at the theatre, lifelong seatmates, passion passed down through generations—are most important.
Your story is center stage at Taproot Theatre.
Your support connects more than 145,000 people in the Pacific Northwest with professional theatre experiences each year.
That’s 145,000 stories—of families and friends connecting through this powerful art form.
Will you help us bring more people together with theatre?
Your donation to Taproot Theatre makes theatre stories possible, on and off stage. Think of your story.
What if you could inspire another like it?
Please consider a gift to Taproot Theatre today.
CALL 206.529.3672EMAIL [email protected] taproottheatre.org/donate
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BeThanie ruSSeLL received her B.A. Degree in Theater Arts from Pepperdine University. Past credits: Legally Blonde (Judge), Proof (Claire) Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Fairy Godmother), Christmas in Flight (Taproot Theatre Company). She’s been so blessed to work with such a talented
and fun group of people! Hope you enjoy the show.
Mike Spee (Jesus) is ecstatic to be making his Taproot debut in the show that years ago convinced him to make theatre a major part of his life. Recent credits include Goodnight Moon, Dick Whittington, James & the Giant Peach (SCT); and Fiddler on the Roof, Anne of Green Gables (Village Theatre). LOVE
aSha STiChTer is excited to be back on Taproot’s Mainstage with this joyous and creative cast. For the past 5 years she has been a proud member of TTC’s Road Company. Past Taproot credits include The Matchmaker (Minnie Faye) and Jane Eyre (Grace Poole and Mary Ingram).
DanieL SToLTenBerg still remembers seeing Taproot’s 1998 production of Godspell, so it’s a unique and exciting honor to perform this show on the Taproot stage. His previous roles at Taproot include Brian in Mr. Pim Passes By and Malvolio in Illyria. Catch him as Jonathan Harker in Dracula this October.
naneTTe aCoSTa (Costume Designer) Nanette’s first show for Taproot was Terra Nova. Other Seattle credits include Seattle Children’s Theatre, 5th Avenue Theatre, The Empty Space, Seattle Shakespeare, The Village, and The Bathhouse. Nanette has been designing costumes for theatre, film and TV for over 25 years. She is just starting her seventh season as the Costume Shop Manager at Seattle Children’s Theatre.
MiChaeL JaMeS aDaMS (Guitar) is an LA-based musician, composer, voice-over artist, luthier, writer, and co-founder of Seattle’s vintage guitar speakeasy Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar. He’s thrilled to be a part of Taproot Theater’s production of Godspell. His wife Charissa is the most inspiring, beautiful person he knows.
anDreW DuFF (Lighting Designer) is happy to be back at Taproot. His previous lighting designs include Jane Eyre, The Whipping Man, Freud’s Last Session, Something’s Afoot, The Beams are Creaking, Man of LaMancha, Big River, Seven Keys to Baldpate, Mary’s Wedding, Voice of The Prairie, The Fantasticks, Shadowlands, and All My Sons.
ryan ChiLDerS (John the Baptist) is thrilled to be back on stage at Taproot Theatre. As always, he loves to perform with this amazing company. Past Taproot favorites include The Whipping Man, Around the World in 80 Days, An Ideal Husband, and Big River. His love goes out to his wife Sydney and theirbeautiful new baby boy, Digory.
kaTherine JeTT is delighted to be making her Taproot debut. She was most recently seen in the new musical, For All That, at Centerstage Theatre. Other Seattle area credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost (Greenstage), Starling (Confrontational Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Seattle
Shakespeare Company), and three English pantomimes with Centerstage.
TyLer ToDD kiMMeL is making his Taproot debut in Godspell. He has music degrees from Pepperdine University and Florida International University, and works as a conductor, composer, arranger, music director and vocal coach. He will be the new choir and drama director at Seattle ChristianSchools this fall. Glory to God!
JeSSi LiTTLe is thrilled to be making her Taproot Theatre debut! Dallas/Fort Worth credits include Casa Manana, WaterTower Theatre, and Circle Theatre. Northwest credits include Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, The Modern Theatre-Spokane, SecondStory Rep., Village Theatre’s Festival of
New Musicals, and STAGERight Theatre. BFA Theatre; emphasis Musical Theatre-Texas Christian University.
Sara porkaLoB has performed at the 5th Avenue Theater, Artswest, Book-It, Annex Theater, Seattle Public Theater and other local venues. Sara thanks her family, friends and Toast for all of their love and support. For more information, you can visit her website at www.saraporkalob.com.
SiMon pringLe Credits at Taproot include Appalachian Christmas Homecoming (Ryan), Jane Eyre (Robert), Illyria (Sir Andrew), Chaps (Archie), An Ideal Husband (Nanjac/Mason), and The Beams Are Creaking (Klaus). Simon has also performed locally for Centerstage, Harlequin Productions and Storybook
Theater. Simon is also a teaching artist and director at Studio East. www.facebook.com/simonpringleactor
thE coMPAny
A-6 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
eDD key (Music Director, drums) is pleased to revisit Godspell with this great ensemble. He has Music Directed most of Taproot’s summer shows for the last two decades and performed such roles as H. C. Curry in The Rainmaker, Boolie Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy, Burl Sanders in the Smoke on the Mountain series, and Tom in last December’s Appalachian Christmas Homecoming. Composer/Co-creator credits include Red Ranger Came Calling for Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Wuthering! Heights! The! Musicial! for The Empty Space. He appeared in Actor’s Theatre of Louisville’s production of W!H!T!M!, and in Los Angeles with Mark Taper Forum’s epic production of The Cider House Rules.
karen LunD (Director) is celebrating 22 years at Taproot as Associate Artistic Director where she’s directed or performed in more than 100 productions. Recent work at TTC includes The Explorers Club, Jane Eyre, Mr. Pim Passes By, and Diana of Dobson’s. She is currently serving as President of the Theatre Puget Sound Board of Directors. Her national credits include productions at Cincinnati Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare, and Kentucky Shakespeare. She has garnered numerous film awards including three Tellys. Karen thanks her amazing husband Mark, and their children Jake and Hannah for making her life wonderful.
Mark LunD (Scenic & Sound Design) has designed over 100 TTC shows. 3rd Sound Design, 2nd Set Design and 1st time not being in the cast for Godspell. Other design work includes Seattle Shakes, Book-It and award-winning short films. Mark is also a voice-over actor. Love to Karen, Hannah & Jake.
kriSTi MaTTheWS (Stage Manager/Master Electrician) is Master Electrician and Box Office Manager at Taproot. She designs, stage manages and teaches for many local theatres, high schools and universities. Recent credits: Illyria, Amish Project, Jeeves Intervenes (Taproot); Yonkers, As It Is In Heaven (SPU); Jane Eyre, Spitfire Grill (NU); Almost, Maine (NHHS); Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins (RHS).
BeTh orMe (Choreographer) is thrilled to work at Taproot theatre again. She currently teaches Math at Roosevelt HS. Recent Taproot productions are Appalachian Christmas Homecoming and Jane Eyre. Other favorite production credits include Quilters, 42nd Street, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Midsummer Jersey. She is blessed with her husband, Matt, and children Grace and Henry.
MaTTheW orMe (Fight Choreographer) is happy to be back at Taproot. He was raised in the PNW, is a graduate of PLU (BFA Music, BA Psychology) and has an MFA in Acting from MSU. Matt has been involved in Stage Combat for over 25 years and currently teaches at SPU and SU. Matt is thankful for his family – Beth, Grace and Henry.
kaThryn STeWarT (Dramaturg) recently directed Savage/Love by Sam Shepard, collaborating with composer
thE coMPAnyMichael Owcharuk and choreographer Markeith Wiley to create an original ensemble interpretation. Since moving to Seattle, she’s enjoyed working with theatres such as ACT, Intiman, Book-It, 14/48 Projects, and Theatre Battery. Taproot often feels like her theatre home.
Memories of Godspell past...
Tori Ritchey, actor and former TTC staff memberA memory from the ‘93 production ... Catherine (Pleis) Gaffney and I arrived at the pre-show “night club” together every night as audience members. It was so fun, like going out on the town with my friend. We sat at a table chatting with other audience members until the play began and Matt Zimmerer, as John the Baptist, threw a handful of water and baptized us. As we rose to join the actors and become part of the play, the drums and guitars helped make it so emotional. It still stands out in my mind as such a powerful stage moment.
Ben Keller, drummer for TTC (back in the day) and current Director of Admin. at RAM TechnologiesI played drums in the 1993 production of Godspell at the old Roo-sevelt school. I don’t remember whether the band named itself or whether we were dubbed with the name, but in any case we were called “The Heathens.”
One memory I have is of rehearsing for Godspell as just a band, setting up in the dilapidated lobby of what was to become Taproot’s new theater in Greenwood. The main area of the theater was still gutted and filled with dirt and detritus at that point. But it’s cool to think about practicing in a space that has seen so many people in it since that time.
encoreartsseattle.com A-7
Making Music Fun For EvEryonE
Edd key and Theresa Holmes
www.theredbarnstudio.com
Musical Instruction and CoachingPrivate / Group / Classes
Audio / Video Demo RecordingPerformance / House Concerts
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fundraisers, memorials, celebrations, and private parties of all sizes.
A-8 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
When a busker walks into a public square and begins to play an instrument or create art, the space becomes more alive and open to the possibility of human connection. While, technically speaking, a passerby becomes “audience” once within hearing distance of the performer, there is a moment of choice for each us as individuals every time we encounter a performer on the street.
In his study of street theatre, Bim Mason defines buskers as “those with the simple aim of pleasing the audience, either by making them laugh or by impressing them with skills such as juggling, acrobatics or magic.” Buskers can be socially shunned and aligned with beggars and vagrants, or they can be romanticized as idealistic minstrels sharing their music with the world. We as audience must choose whether to acknowledge, stay and participate, or walk by and let the busker fade into the background. This makes the interaction between a busker and the audience potentially more genuine than those found in a formal theater setting. Buskers share their talents with anyone who chooses to stay, in much the same fashion that Jesus spoke the Word of God in the streets to anyone he encountered. And then we see the disciples faced with the same choice as us—whether or not to listen to the words offered and join the community around Jesus.
froM thE drAMAturgBuSking: BuiLDing a CoMMuniTy
by Kathryn Stewart
Where taste takes center stageLocated adjacent to Taproot Theatre Open 11-8 on performance nightsOpen 11-6 on non-performance nights seattlestagedoorcafe.com
Pre-order your intermissiondrinks and snacks before
the show begins and they will be waiting for you when
you come into the cafe.
We aS auDienCe MuST ChooSe WheTher To aCknoWLeDge, STay anD parTiCipaTe, or WaLk By anD LeT The BuSker FaDe inTo The BaCkgrounD.
One prime example of a busker creating community is Seattle’s Ed McMichael. Known for years as the Tuba Man, McMichael played consistently around the city for more than 20 years. He appeared outside Mariners, Sounders and Sonics games, as well as outside McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. People knew the Tuba Man, with his iconic tuba and silly hats, and would exchange greetings and kind words along with spare change. Once, upon learning that McMichael had never actually been to a Seahawks game, a young man purchased a ticket for him and invited him to join a group of friends in the stadium. People sitting around them in the general seating area recognized Tuba Man and sent along peanuts, hot dogs and beverages to welcome him. What many did not know about McMichael was his history as principal tubist for Bellevue Philharmonic; McMichael’s choice to leave the orchestra for a more personal platform of sharing his art clearly created a community of his own.
Busking is about the choice to enter into community. Each street encounter is an opportunity, on both sides, for human generosity. The busker gives us their music and entertainment, and each audience member has a chance to perform an act of benevolence by filling the hat or guitar case with money. As Claudia Maria Chambers writes, “[Busking] draws the responding audience into a communal performance of generosity.” Through rain or shine, through cold-shouldered strangers or smiling familiar faces, these people choose a communal form of performing that thrives on human relationships and kindness. In Godspell tonight, we watch Jesus draw his disciples into a community of their own, and hope that if we ourselves were passing by, we’d choose to stay and join the singing.
encoreartsseattle.com A-9
boArd of dirEctorS
Carnegie Mellon University (1970) Pittsburg, PA - John- Michael Tebelak’s original production of Godspell.
Original LaMama and Off-Broadway (1971) New York, NY - The show was first presented at Cafe LaMama as a non-musical play. Songs were added by Schwartz and it then opened as a musical at the Cherry Lane Theatre on May 17, 1971, transferred to the Promenade Theatre three months later and closed on June 13, 1976, after 2124 performances. Directed by creator Tebelak.
London (1971) England - Godspell opened at the Roundhouse Theatre in Chalk Farm, London on November 17, 1971. After a very successful run it transferred to the Wyndhams Theatre on January 26, 1972.
Maseru (1973) Lesotho, Southern Africa - Godspell opened in Maseru, Lesotho in 1973… it was immediately banned, ostensibly on the grounds of “blasphemy”. This banning was widely and immediately recognised as a political smoke-screen for the real issue of racial mixing, a direct challenge to the Apartheid laws of the government of the day. The show’s producers challenged the banning in the Supreme Court, and won their case. As a result Godspell toured South Africa for two years.
Seattle Pacific College (August, 1974) Seattle, WA - The Northwest Premiere of Godspell. Scott and Pam Nolte were in the cast!
A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) (September, 1974) Seattle, WA - The professional Northwest Premiere of Godspell.
Broadway (1976) New York, NY - The first Broadway production opened on June 22, 1976, at the Broadhurst Theatre. It was directed by John Michael Tebelak… The musical transferred to the Plymouth Theatre and later to the Ambassador Theatre, where it closed on September 4, 1977, after 527 performances and five previews.
Off-Broadway (1988) New York, NY - This revival at the Lamb’s Theatre ran from June 12 – December 31, 1988. It was directed by Don Scardino.
Taproot Theatre Company (1993) Seattle, WA - Taproot’s first production of Godspell, set in a comedy night club.
Taproot Theatre Company (1998) Seattle, WA - Taproot’s second production of Godspell, set in a rooftop penthouse.
Off-Broadway (2000) New York, NY - Godspell was revived Off-Broadway at the York Theatre from August 2, 2000, to October 7, 2000.
Broadway (2011) New York, NY - The first Broadway revival began performances on October 13, 2011 at the Circle in the Square Theatre and officially opened on November 7, 2011 with mostly negative to mixed reviews… It was directed by Daniel Goldstein… The production closed on June 24, 2012.
Taproot Theatre Company (2015) Seattle, WA - Taproot’s third production of Godspell, set in Seattle’s public market.
notAblE godSPEll ProductionS
A-10 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
FooD & Drink
Covered coffee, hot tea and bottled water from concessions are allowed in the theatre. Please dispose of your cups and water bottles after the show. No food is permitted in the auditorium. Snacks from concessions can be enjoyed in the lobby.
We can no longer accommodate dinner leftovers for patrons because the refrigerator space belongs to the Stage Door Café. Thank you for understanding.
DraMaTurg DiSpLay
Visit the upper lobby to view a display with additional information relating to the current production.
aSSiSTeD LiSTening DeviCeS
Patrons desiring an assisted listening device may request one from the House Manager.
LoST & FounD
If you have lost an item, check with the Box Office in person or by phone at 206.781.9707. If you find a lost item, please give it to the House Manager or Box Office staff. Unclaimed lost & found items may be donated to a thrift store at the discretion of management.
hElPful inforMAtion
Do you have antique or vintage items you no longer need?
Taproot Theatre’s production team is now accepting:
• Vintage or vintage-style (pre-1970s) select furniture, luggage, books, trunks, telephones, radios and kitchenware• Period newspapers and magazines• Sorry, no costume donations accepted at this time
Contact Wendy hansen at 206.529.3644 or
ProP & SE t donAtionS
viDeo anD/or auDio reCorDing oF ThiS perForManCe By
any MeanS WhaTSoever iS STriCTLy prohiBiTeD.
Production stAffnicole song - Assistant Stage Managersarah diener – Assistant Choreographer
fiona Murray – Stage Management InternHannah sachs – Directing Intern
Julia thornton – Rehearsal Pianist
costuMe stAff Kelsey Mccornack - Dresser
dana friedli-neumann - First Hand/Cutter/DraperMelinda schlimmer - Stitcher
scenic, LiGHtinG, sound stAffKristi Matthews - Master Electrician
Jacob Yarborough - Assistant Master Electrician Baylie Heims - Light Board Operator
Kylie steinbach- Sound Board Operatortim samland - Scenic Carpenter
Alex Grennan, Baylie Heims, daniel Miller, chris scofield, robert tobias - Electrics Crew
godSPEll StAff
boArd of dirEctorS
AcknowlEdgEMEntS• Gary Brunt, Greenwood Town Center/Piper Village• Special thanks to Kim Case, Mark Tyler Miller,
and Angela Shen of Savor Seattle Tours.
oFFiCerSPeter Morrill, Chair
Larry Bjork, Chair EmeritusRob Zawoysky, SecretaryAlyssa Petrie, Treasurer
MeMBerSAnne BallMark BullardJude HubbellDr. Sarah Roskam Dr. George Scranton Steve ThomasDan VoetmannScott Nolte (non-voting)
encoreartsseattle.com A-11
corPorAtions/foundAtions
$10,000+Anonymous (3)4CultureArtsFundBoeing Gift Matching ProgramMargery M. Jones TrustMoccasin Lake FoundationThe Norcliffe FoundationThe Seattle Foundation
$5,000 - $9,999AnonymousUniversity Lions ClubTulalip Tribes Charitable FundWashington State Arts CommissionGod`s MoneyHorizons Foundation
$2,500 - $4,999AnonymousDestination MarketingNational Christian FoundationHagen Kurth Perman, CPAsOneicity
$1,000 - $2,499Aetna Foundation, Inc.McEachern Charitable TrustSchiff FoundationMicrosoft Matching Gift ProgramMcFadzean Family FundRonald Blue & Co., LLCSt. John`s Lodge
$500-$999Estate of Albert Watenpaugh
individuALs
angels ($10,000+)Anonymous (3)David AllaisJohn & Ann CollierSandy JohnsonGlenna KendallKraig & Pam KennedyGeorge & Alyssa PetrieRichal & Karen SmithDaniel & Margret VoetmannRobert & Maree Zawoysky
Marquee ($5,000 - $9,999)Russell & Janice AshlemanLarry & Lorann BjorkTom & Linda BurleyChristopher & Patricia CraigDennis & Deborah DeyoungGreg & Karen GreeleyPhilip & Cheryl LaubeTerry & Cornelia MooreScott & Pam NolteMrs. Grace RutherfordSusan RutherfordSteve Thomas & Kris HootsDaniel & Joann Wilson
producers ($2,500 - $4,999)David & Anne BallInez Noble BlackTed & Ruth Bradshaw
Benjamin & Amanda DavisLeon & Sharon DelongJuan & Kristine EspinozaGary & Deborah FergusonAlan & Carol GibsonDorothy HerleyWayne & Naomi HolmesMark & Mary KellyFred & Carolyn MarcinekPeter & Megumi MorrillBruce & Cynthia ParksRalph & Joan PrinsSarah RoskamGeorge & Claire ScrantonLoren & Carol SteinhauerJewely Van Valin-JacksonFred & Judy Volkers
Directors ($1,000 - $2,499)AnonymousFil & Holly AllevaKatharyn Alvord GerlichMelvin & Cordelia BradyZach & Rebecca BrittleMark & Elle BullardMargaret BullittRussell & Fay CheethamJames & Janis CobbAlan & Gail CoburnJames & Kay CoghlanJean & Paul DeGrootDale & Vicki DvorakRonald & Virginia EdwardsKristine EngelsVerna M. EriksJoyce FarleyStanley & Jane FieldsLee FitchettVirginia FordiceMichael & Karen FrazierSteven & Jamie FroebeSean & Catherine GaffneyRobert GallaherAllen & Lori GilbertBrad GjerdingMaren & Braden GoodwinArnott GrayBonnie GreenTim GreenleafDonald & Lois HallockCarolyn HansonRich & Judi HarpelPeter & Anne HaverhalsHenry & Lauren HeerschapJoseph & Elizabeth HelmsPeter & Cynthia HerleyDr. Rick & Susan HornorJohn & Judith HubbellMike & Barb JewellJulie JohnsonDavid & Christina JohnsonAgastya Kohli & Marianna De FazioSusan LamarFrank LawlerMark & Karen LundVelma MahaffeyGary McDonald
Tom & Jean MohrweisCliff & Beryl MoonTom & Linda MorrisDon & Kim MorrisGeorge & Joy MyersLes & Carol NelsonCraig & Linda NolteLloyd & Jackie NolteGordon & Mary NygardJohn & Lucy NylanderMary PagelsNolan & Lorena PalmerThom ParhamJeff & Joann ParrishKathy PearsonRoy & Janice PetersenBrian and Christa PoelBill & Jodie PurcellJohn & Patty PutnamMona QuammenTom & Claudia RengstorfVic & Kristine RennieCarrie RhodesG.M. & Holly RoeRobert & Cathie RohrigLawrence & Nancy RudolphDion & Gregory RurikKathryn SandDavid & Joan SelvigFredric & Jo Anne SjoholmRobert L. SmithRonald & Dorita SmithEd & Ellen SmythBill Snider & Kendra VanderMeulenCharles & Marilyn SnowBeverly TaylorStephen & Elda TeelJeff & Margie Van DuzerJohn & Jan Vander LindenJames & Jo WhiteLarry & Linda WilliamsJean WinfieldIsabelle WoodwardDavid & Ann Woodward
playwrights ($500 - $999)Anonymous (3)Thomas AckermanMike & Shirley AllertJim AngererGeraldine BeattyTerry & Nancy BeckhamBetsy BellKent BergJeff & Anjie BerrymanDoug & Tambra BirkebakJack & Maralyn BlumeJames & Melinda BohrerTom & Jan BoydChris & Connie BoyerJeff & Robin BrumleyTanya ButtonMichael & Linda CasteelDon CavanaughJan Chalupny & Mark LeeRon ClinkenbeardWayne & Greta Clousing
Donald & Laura CooperTom & Lauren CooperTodd & Sylvie CurrieGary & Juelle EdwardsDavid & Peppe EnfieldStanley & Jane FieldsLarry FletcherThomas & Marybeth FoxMartin & Esperanza FrackerCharles & Betty GardnerJohn & Sally GlancyLyle & Sharon GroeneveldRichard & Louise GuthrieLowell & Kathie HaganLewis & Elizabeth HaleTineke Raak HankeWendy HansenScott & Pattie HardmanJonathan HenkeDavid & Connie HiscockEvan & Molly HolzknechtBill & Nan HoughLee & Ginnie HuntsmanKaren KoonJohn & Jean KruegerBeth KunzCody & Beth LillstromWesley & Merrilyn LingrenHarry & Linda MacraeJohn MadiganCharles MaurerLee & Janet McElvaineChriste McMenomyJerel & Bess NavarreteBryce & Bonnie NelsonEugene & Martha NesterSean & Carrie NordbergPaul & Cathy NordmanSue NorthVicki OlsenAnn OwensDanielle PalserMark & Camille PetersonJames & Annita PrestiRichard & Maryann RiddleValerie RosmanRon & Susan RunyonBruce & Candace SagorFrederick & Caroline ScheetzNorman & Eden SellersKelly & Eric SouderJames & Elise StephensWilliam & Carolyn StollElliot & Daytona StrongBarbara SuderVictoria SutterJordan & Megan SwansonChuck & Kathy TalburtFarrel ThomasMichael & Laura ThomasonRobert & Gina ThorstensonSuzanne TownsendJames & Sharon WelchJohn & Dianne WestLeora WheelerGlen & Eilene Zachry
Taproot Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following for their generous support of our Annual Fund and Capital Campaign. This list reflects gifts made to both funds between April 1, 2014 and May 18, 2015. While space limitations prevent us from including every donor, we are pleased to present a more extensive list on the front wall of our lower lobby. If you have any questions or would like more information about making a tax-deductible gift to Taproot Theatre Company (a 501c3 organization), please contact Sonja Lowe at 206-529-3672 or [email protected]. Taproot Theatre
Company is a professional, non-
profit theatre with a multifaceted production
program. Founded in 1976, TTC serves the
Pacific Northwest with touring productions, Mainstage Theatre
productions and the Acting Studio. Taproot is a member of Theatre Communications Group
(TCG), Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) and the
Phinney Neighborhood Association.
Taproot Theatre Company creates
theatre experiences to brighten the spirit,
engage the mind and deepen the
understanding of the world around us while inspiring imagination, conversation and hope.
Mailing address: PO Box 30946
Seattle, Washington 98113-0946
administrative offices: 206.781.9705
Fax: 206.297.6882
Box office: 206.781.9707
www.taproottheatre.orgwww.facebook.com/
taproottheatretwitter: @taproottheatre
thAnk you
A-12 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
LAU
RE
N M
AX
Wearing MemoriesOwuor Arunga reflects his experiences around the globe.
BY AMANDA MANITACH
WHO Owuor Obi Otieno Arunga, musician, producer, ac-tivist and rockstar dad. Born and raised in Kisumu, Kenya, Arunga has called Seattle home for 15-plus years. “I con-vinced my parents to move [to the U.S.] after I watched Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video,” he says.
GLOBAL VISIONARY Arunga began studying music when he was nine, going on to earn a degree in contemporary music from The New School in New York. His career as a jazz trumpeter has taken him around the world—touring with the Physics and Black Stax, and playing the New Years show in Times Square with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. He recently worked on the “Music To Empower Youth” campaign with One Vibe Africa, a global initiative that brings the arts to orphans and disadvantaged youth in Kisumu. He’s producing two TV episodes for Coke Studio Africa, a Pan-African cross-cultural exchange between African musicians in the diaspora.
THE LOOK “My number one aesthetic rule: wear the clothes, don’t let them wear you. A man makes the clothes. My favorite trademark look is a kilt, leather vest and black boots. Makes me feel primal, masculine, rock-star. In general I wear clothing I associate with a time and place or a life experience, whether that’s a trip to Monaco, a shoe-shopping spree in Tokyo or a T-shirt from a festival in Kenya. I love to wear my memories.”
ICONS “African Sapeurs. My parents. Slash. Diana Vreeland’s audacity, Fela Kuti’s swag, Miles Davis’ edge. Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire for consistency. Amsterdam and Milan are my favorite cities for style.”
UP NEXT Arunga is putting the final touches on “Pamoja,” a song and music video made with Otieno Terry, Naomi Wachira, Dadabass, Naomi Wamboe and Tendai Maraire, the proceeds of which will benefit young African artists.
ENCORE ARTS NEWS from city arts magazine
encoreartsseattle.com 9
ENCORE ARTS NEWS from city arts magazine
AM FEELING very lucky. I was in a coffee shop, thinking I had been waiting a bit too long for the
brew. A little gurgle of impatience was working its way up and I thought it better to turn around and wander.
An artist’s paper cuts were on display, as artists’ work is everywhere these days. Art is the lingua franca of our modern hipster economy, as ubiquitous as homemade bitters and kale chips—and we are lucky for it. All these opportunities for humans to share what they make and craft, what they carve and snip and blow and chip, all these chances to point at themselves and at each other (and at all of us) wrap us in the warp and weft of our own hopes and fears.
We are Homo Urbanus now, remaking the world in the Anthropocene, and here, out of the smoldering pits of copper and coal comes some miner making something that burns and shines. From the acidifying oceans swarming with jellyfish, some fisher has hooked one of the last salmon and turned it into sculpture.
Or here, while I waited for my short decaf latte, a paper cutter presents me with what feels like Victorian scenes of a modern Seattle: Here is the space needle in cardboard, the towers looking like the row houses of Amsterdam; here is a ferry plying the sound, a kayak across its bow, the piers along the waterfront, even the Ferris wheel. The artist had snared me in her web—my grumble of discontent replaced by her delightful sense of the city.
Price tags are posted next to each artwork and I’m glad for that. Creative offerings are real but payment would be too, thank you very much. Artists don’t just reflect the evolving culture, they shape it. Their work is an important part of the economy.
A woman was showing a basket on Antiques Roadshow the other night. She had bought it in a secondhand shop for a week’s salary. It was Yokut, a California People, circa 1900, the appraiser told her, pointing out the quail feathers and red yarn that ringed the rim. When the tourists arrived, weavers started cranking them out—they were apparently very popular with the white shoppers and sold for $100 each. Pricey stuff back when that could be a month’s wages for the clerking classes.
Commerce helps keep art alive. But there is so much, and added to all the other stuff we manufacture it’s easy for people to feel overwhelmed and forlorn. So much stuff gets made that it seems too hard to
separate the great from the lousy. You could just dismiss it, or ignore it all, and hunker back down.
But then, you can’t really. You reach for a bottle to drown your dismay, twist out the cork and there, tattooed in ink, a filigree pattern from the cork-maker, the company name surrounded by swirling borders and finely crosshatched lines.
Why do that, on a cork, hidden in a bottle, if not to send a message? I made this, the creator says, I made this for you, tourist to my world, to admire, and maybe to be warmed by it, as I was warmed in the making.
People can’t help it. We create. In the city, tossed against one another like dogs in the back of a dogcatcher’s van, rather than snarling and tearing at each other, we sing songs, we pound out rhythms. We turn the sidewalks over to metalworkers to adorn the sewer covers with stories. We gobble up blank walls, leaving behind, in archly patterned smears and stains, our identities.
Humans are weeds and our efforts pop up in the cracks of even the smoothest edifice. Art erupts from our surroundings, connecting us to each other and to our past. In front of the Museum of History
& Industry’s new digs on the southern shore of Lake Union are modern obelisks, honoring the people who used to fish and weave there. Like the ribs of a beast presumed extinct, they rise to reclaim their place. Wander through them, imagine the life those folks lived. Then turn and walk on, steps away is the Center For Wooden Boats’ artist-in-residence, Saaduuts.
The Haida carver and boat builder is steaming a cedar canoe, teaching another generation a skill that chips through layers of living culture. Wander further, onto the docks where yet another layer of the past holds fast against the chrome and steel crafts that crowd the shore.
That’s the thing about the artist, crafter, singer. There’s no giving up. There is too much work to do. One shift ends, another begins. The fingers that plug your information into the big modern machine of our society, these are the same fingers that weave the basket, the same hands that weld the sculpture, paint the paintings, spin the tales.
When my coffee came, it was decorated with a foamy puppy, one eye winking. Another barista well trained in this emerging art form, sharing her ephemeral creation, rewiring our city with a simple act. n
I
The Human WebBY STEVE SCHER
Humans are weeds and our efforts pop up in the cracks of even the smoothest edifice.
10 ENCORE STAGES
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Podcaster Aaron Roden Can’t Stop Talking“I’ve created a hobby out of needing people,” says Aaron Roden, which is a clever quip though not entirely true. Roden’s hobby is podcasting and his show, Air Raid, recently logged its 249th episode in five-plus years. Those numbers testify to Roden’s unwavering dedication (obsession?) to conducting conversations with people he doesn’t know very well—chiefly luminaries of Seattle music, filmmaking and comedy—and making those conversations available to the public.
Born and raised on the Kitsap Peninsula, Roden, 34, is a married father of two and city-employed geologist by trade. His gregarious nature—“I’ve always had a knack for picking up and talking to a stranger,” he says—makes him a natural interviewer, whether or not he’s behind a microphone.
“When someone tells me, ‘You’re good at talk-ing,’ I don’t take that as a compliment,” he says. “It’s gotten me into trouble and made me late a lot of times because I don’t know how to get out of a conversation.”
Whether driven by bravado or ignorance, when he first started Air Raid Roden aspired to the top-dog status enjoyed by seasoned podcasters like Mark Maron of WTF and Luke Burbank of Too Beautiful to Live. Unlike his heroes, he entered the game without any preexisting celebrity to boost his credibility. Early interviews with filmmaker Lynn Shelton and musician/writer Sean Nelson snowballed into subsequent interviews with per-formers like Trailer Park Boys and Bob Saget.
Roden developed an interview style—part armchair psychologist, part just-happy-to-be-here superfan—to tease out the kind of offbeat, humanizing insights his subjects rarely give to fact-finding journalists. His conversations need to be discursive to fill Air Raid’s 45–50 minutes of airtime. Roden says his guests are roughly 75 percent Seattle talent, 25 percent national names that draw attention to the show. The mix of local and national names puts Air Raid guests on an equal playing field.
In the past few months, he’s disarmed some notoriously prickly subjects to elicit unique, af-fecting on-air moments: Ishmael Butler revealed the story behind his first-ever performance, at a Garfield High School talent show, for example, and he inadvertently bonded with Montage of Heck director Brett Morgen who was fervently missing his kids during an 18-hour press junket. Most recently, while recording episode 249 at the Crocodile “all hopped up on Dayquil,” he pissed off Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion by referring to his music as “lo-fi.” Roden rarely edits out his flubs from the finished podcast.
“People enjoy hearing me fail,” he says.Not enough so that his reputation suffers.
Roden says that these days, publicists and artists like Spencer are requesting appearances on the show. To Roden, that’s validation in its own right. The show is a featured podcast on KIRO Radio’s website and occasionally, when featuring a bigger-named guest, gets top billing on iTunes.
“That’s something I’m always concerned about,” he says. “Do I have any cred at all? I don’t know.” JONATHAN ZWICKEL
encoreartsseattle.com 11
HAG 052615 vep 1_3s.pdf
IRMA VEP,THE LAST BREATH
Michelle Handelman. Irma Vep, The Last Breath [production still: Laure Leber]. 2013. 4-channel video installation (color, sound); 37:00 minutes. Courtesy of the artist
H E N RY A R T G A L L E RY H E N RYA R T.O RG
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS from city arts magazine
ONLY A HANDFUL of years ago, South Lake Union was a ghost town of warehouses where you couldn’t get a bowl of soup or sandwich to save your life. Now the food options are mind-boggling.
Food trucks are especially ubiquitous. During the lunch-rush hours of 11 a.m.–2 p.m., they crop up curbside and cluster in parking-lot pods, a convenient sampler of the city’s food-on-wheels scene. Along Westlake Avenue at noon on a weekday, thousands of lanyard-clad diners pour onto the sidewalks in pursuit of sustenance. The eating is good and the people-watching even better.
In a small lot at Westlake and Lenora, the line to the NaanSense truck winds down the sidewalk nearly 30 people deep. Nearby Biscuit Box, a petite vehicle with a tan-and-russet striped awning, demands less of a wait. I order a ham and cheese biscuit ($8) made with trotters, rosemary and Beecher’s cheese fondue. The flaky golden biscuit is lodged in a cardboard boat filled with melted cheese and thick chunks of ham, and garnished with a healthy helping of fresh mi-crogreens—more a pop of color and a nod to the notion of a balanced meal than a crucial component.
Overcoming the gut-bomb biscuit fondue, my lunch partners and I delve into the biscuit bread pudding with citrus-rosemary cara-mel ($6). The dense biscuit is drenched with sugar, the top caramelized to a tinge of crème brûlée. As time evaporates, so does the cara-mel, which thickens to candy-apple sludge.
In the same pod, Napkin Friends offers a Jewish twist to traditional sandwiches, re-placing bread with crispy, gluten-free potato latkes; imagine a sandwich between two hash brown patties. Their O.G. ($10) is made
with house-cured pastrami, Mama Lil’s pep-pers, arugula, 1000 Island dressing, horse-radish creme and gruyere cheese. Arriving in a paper sleeve, the thing is as delicious as it is unwieldy. For those sitting in front of a com-puter screen after lunch, both the oil-soaked O.G. and the biscuit fondue are on the heavy side, which might explain the long line for lighter Indian food at NaanSense.
Down Westlake Avenue and around the corner of Republican, Cheese Wizards offers “grilled cheese magic” in a flamboyant yel-low vehicle designed to wring the hearts of D&D-obsessed nerds, its hood embellished with leering plastic owls and Medieval battle axes, every dish named with a fantasy or sci-fi reference. The “Ark of the Condiments”—a gold-winged station of mayo and mustards stored in inverted rubber tubes like pendu-lous udders—is stationed on the adjacent sidewalk. Deeper in the interior of SLU at Boren and Harrison, a truck called Peasant Food Manifesto serves global fusion items like Tillamook cheddar mac ’n’ cheese with kimchi and a pho French dip sandwich with house-made roast beef brined in Asian five-spice and Sriracha-hoisin-ginger sauce.
The windows on Jemil’s Big Easy truck bil-low with steam as it churns out a steady flow of Cajun/Creole food even as the hour creeps toward 2 p.m. Their Cajun sampler plate is a mandatory splurge, heaped with jamba-laya, red beans and a choice of blackened chicken or catfish ($12.50). The cardboard container arrives sizzling hot, a mountain of rice, plump beans and savory sausage topped with a slab of catfish covered in piquant, fresh-ground spices. The side of hushpup-pies—denser and less ethereal than I’d hoped for—leave this Southern girl unsatisfied.
The only thing left to do after cruising the food truck jungle is seek postprandial stimu-lation in the form of an iced Americano from Uptown Coffee. This may be the only time the SLU food tourist dips out of the elements and into a brick-and-mortar store— though I bet there’s an espresso truck parked around here somewhere. AMANDA MANITACH
JAS
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Food Truck SafariWandering South Lake Union in search of lunch
South Lake Union, noon, any given weekday: dozens of
food trucks and thousands of people looking for lunch.
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS from city arts magazine
IT’S HOT INSIDE this Rainier Ave. studio, but Cedar Mannan doesn’t break a sweat as he ignites two small open flames. They flare brightly before settling into a pale blue blaze.
Mannan, who runs the boutique studio Noble Neon with his wife Lia Hall, quickly rotates a section of glass tubing in one of the flames until it’s the consistency of honey. Then, with sure, efficient motions he bends the tube into a right angle. And repeat. In minutes, the glass turns from a rigid tube into a looping letter, on its way to becoming a piece of neon art.
Mannan and Hall are both native Northwesterners—she’s from Seattle, he grew up without electricity in rural Washington near Menlo. Mannan studied neon art at Evergreen State College; after graduation he repaired and installed neon for Western Neon, a local industry giant, and interned with “an old Hungarian dude in Shoreline who bends glass out of his garage.” In 2004 Mannan
moved to New York to help launch Lite Brite Neon Studio in Brooklyn, which is where he and Hall met on the night she graduated from the New School with an MFA in poetry.
Returning to Seattle in 2012 with an inheritance from Mannan’s grandmother as their seed money, Noble Neon first opened in a live/work space in the old Rainier Brewery. (They’re now near Jackson and Rainier.) The shop started with a lot of subcontracting work—for a Marc Jacobs store in New York, at Sundance installing something for James Franco (“He does neon, too,” cracks Mannan). They still do installations and repairs—Mannan was recently in Venice helping on an install at the Biennale—but now they focus more on custom designs and art pieces.
“[The neon field] is like a bug zapper,” Mannan says, laughing. “Weird people are attracted to it.”
Recent projects include a dripping knot-like fixture in a suite at the Sorrento Hotel (designed by Brian Paquette Interiors) and a series of geometric pendants for a pop-up shop. They’ve also done signs for LoveCityLove, the Spectacle exhibit at EMP and Pilchuck Glass School’s offices, among many others. Their art piece “This Is About the Stories” took first place at City Arts’ 2015 Spring Art Walk Awards.
Working in neon is a complex amalgam of sculpture and science. “It’s like a geometry problem, because you have to plan your moves many steps ahead,” says Hall, who designs the templates on which the glass is sculpted. Every bend has to be precisely plotted so that heat never touches a section of glass that’s already been worked. After the glass is bent into its shape the whole thing is capped with electrodes, evacuated of air and filled with an inert noble gas—sometimes mixed with phosphor or mercury for color—and electrified. Sometimes the glass itself is colored or coated with phosphor to give it a different hue.
“You can really geek out on the science of it,” Hall says. “Not just the physics but the chemistry. What’s happening in the tube is a microcosm of what’s happening in a nebula where stars are being born.”
Once up and running, neon lights can last for decades. They put off little heat, draw less electricity than a standard incandescent bulb and, because they contain the full spectrum of light, ward off seasonal affective disorder.
If you’re in the market for signage, LED or rope lighting is cheap and bright. But neon offers something more. Says Hall, “We want people to see it as lighting and also appreciate it as art.” GEMMA WILSON
Glow-riousThe artists of Noble Neon illuminate Seattle.
Clockwise from top left: installation for Dolce Vita at Neumos; Hexagon Pendant fixture, the first in Noble Neon’s new retail line; pizza slices for Garlic Jim’s
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS
The Common Acre Swarms City HallOn the rooftop of Seattle’s City Hall on a Thursday afternoon in early May, hundreds of bees oscillate against a downtown background of steel girders and reflective windows. The bees buzz around two blue-green box hives provided by the Common Acre, a three-year-old nonprofit that connects agriculture to creative culture. Three floors below, in the lobby and the Anne Focke gallery, the Common Acre’s exhibit “Flight Path” officially opens today, capturing the strange fascination and pull of pollinators.
Bob Redmond, founder and executive director of the Common Acre, installed the hives. He and beekeeping partner Dave Schiefelbein inspect each one, looking for the queen and signs of overcrowd-ing. The bees circle in hypnotic, zen-like loops in the air above.
When he’s not delivering bees, Redmond helps organize the Common Acre’s artistic efforts and community outreach.
“We build food culture using arts as a mecha-nism,” Redmond says.
The group’s goal is to lower reliance on industry and return to agricultural traditions—“rehabitation,” as Redmond describes it—that were lost during mankind’s transition to industrialized society. According to the Common Acre’s prin-ciples, art is the key.
“Flight Path” builds a comprehensive exhibit about the beauty of bees. It features enlarged photos of delicate wings and flowers, exquisite encaustic layering, letterpress, sculptures, comics, giant glass mosaics and quilts embroidered with bee facts. Contributors include Joey Veltkamp, Kristin T. Ramirez and Julia Haack. What could be a didactic, one-dimensional exhibit comes to life through lush and varied approaches by artists looking at nature through a bee-themed lens.
“We tried to find work that people would be at-tracted to, knowing the battle that bees face,” says Common Acre curator Kate Fernandez.
Before opening at City Hall, the exhibit was staged at SeaTac Airport for almost a year. The Common Acre installed hives in long swaths of SeaTac’s roadside land, replacing scrub and blackberry bushes with wildflowers to benefit the new pollinators, fixtures which have become a permanent addition to the area.
With the move downtown, Fernandez expanded the exhibit, adding new pieces and artists. She also tailored the work to a different audience. “City Hall is a very civic-minded, maybe even hive-minded collection of people,” she says.
The Common Acre hosted weekly beekeeping classes on City Hall’s roof through June. On June 17 it sponsored a Town Hall talk with author Eric Lee-Mäder, a member of Portland-based inverte-brate conservation group the Xerces Society, who discussed pollinator conservation efforts.
Redmond says the Common Acre’s next major project will center on water—a vague and ambi-tious statement. But for now, he says, their plan is to launch an artist-in-residence program with local farms,” like a Works Progress Administration project. Artists will create works inspired by their time on the farms and present at an event that brings together farmers and artists in the same space. CAT McCARREY
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