the scene - september 2014

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September 2014Arts and entertainmentscenethe

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September 2014Arts and entertainmentscene

DANCE OF THE VALKYRIES

Ballet Bellevue searches for a new studio, new life and a renewed mission as it prepares to transform into a ballet-opera company PAGE 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE ALSO...

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140808 Farmers Market Scene Magazine 9-5x11f.pdf 1 8/8/14 7:09 PM

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Everyday I’m Yodelin’You’ll come for a taste of Oktoberfest. You’ll leave with so much more. From the Bavarian festivities to the outdoor adventures, it’s the perfect place for an escape from the everyday.

September 3-7Quilt Show

September 13-14Sustainable Living& Farming Tour

September 13Leavenworth Wine Walk

September 20Fall “Framed”

September 18-20Salmon Festival

September 26-28Autumn Leaf Festival

October 3-4, 10-11, 17-18 Oktoberfest

Upcoming 2014 Events

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The Don’t-Miss List September

PLAY | PAX PrimeBadges for PAX Prime sold out within hours of

going on sale earlier this summer, but gamers stout of heart can camp outside in hopes of claiming no-show admission to video gaming’s greatest

fan convention. Check out unreleased games and hardware, panels o� ering insight from creatives in the industry, freeplay rooms, the Omegathon

competition and a nerdaphonic concert. Be sure to see the Make-a-Strip panel with Eastsiders Jerry

Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of the Penny Arcade webcomic.

Where: Washington State Convention Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle, WA 98101

When: Aug. 29 - Sept. 1

WATCH | In The HeightsVillage � eatre opens its 2014-2015 season with In � e Heights, the hip-hop musical that won four Tony Awards — including Best Musical — in 2008.� e story follows residents of the heavily Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, Manhattan as, during the hottest days of the year, they sort through their issues with love, sex and money.Where: Village � eatre, 303 Front St. Issaquah, WA 98027When: Sept. 18 - Oct. 26

DO | The Washington State FairAdmit it: You’ve been drooling for a fair scone all year. Check out rides, music and all the wonders of agriculture at the biggest state fair in the Paci� c Northwest.Where: Washington State Fair Events Center, 110 9th Ave. S.W., Puyallup, WA 98371When: Sept. 5-21

LAUGH | Oddball Comedy Festival 2014According to Louis C.K. in his 2010 special Hilari-

ous: “Hilarious means ‘so funny you almost went insane.’ So funny that it almost ruined your life.”

If so, Funny or Die has dark plans for its audience. � e comedy website’s Oddball Comedy and Curios-

ity Festival features a lineup including comedy powerhouses C.K., Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Hannibal Buress, Whitney Cummings and more.

Where: White River Amphitheater, 40601 Auburn Enumclaw Rd. S.E., Auburn, WA 98092

When: Sept. 5

Credit: Darwin Yamamoto, Flickr.com; under Creative Commons license

Credit: Copyright Mark Kitaoka, photo property of Village Theatre

PublisherWilliam Shaw

EditorDaniel Nash

Contributing WritersRose Dennis

Design Tek Chai

For Advertising, callJim Gatens425-440-0437

On the cover:Photography and editing: Daniel Nash | Model: Mireya Mascarello Costume: Viking helmet from A Masquerade Costume Rental in Bel-Red.

The Scene is a publication of Sound Publishing, Inc. 2700 Richards Rd. Suite 201, Bellevue WA, 98005 425.453.4270 | BellevueReporter.com

scenetheEASTSIDE

Dear Reader,Did you notice � e Eastside Scene has a brand new look? Like Ballet Bel-levue — the subject of this month’s cover story, on the next page — we’re going in new directions, with a renewed focus on the stories that make the Eastside unique. We like it. We think you’ll like it too. And we’re certain, whether you’re a regular reader or just coming on board, that you’ll be in for an interesting ride.

Daniel NashEditor


It’s Not Over (until the ballerina sings)Between the imminent demolition of the Ballet Arts Center and the di� cult search for new dance space, Ballet Bellevue faces a tough year ahead. But the performance company and school is taking on new challenges — not just by putting on an opera, but by putting on one of the most challenging operas around: Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.

Normally a towering and intense � gure — a disciplined kind of man who seems to stand ramrod straight at all times, even when he’s relaxed and unimpeded by his cummerbund — conductor Philip Tschopp is ascendant as he stalks the hallway outside the Meydenbauer Center’s theater. He’s spent the last 90 minutes in the auditorium’s diminu-tive orchestral pit leading more than 30 musicians through Act One of Giselle. And now, during his brief reprieve, he’s riding the high of accomplishment.

“� at was a great � rst act,” he says, beaming as he locks my hand in a crushing handshake. “Great. I can’t wait for Act Two.”

� e ballet Giselle is one of the best-known in the medium. Abroad, it’s as well-recognized in mainstream cul-ture as � e Nutcracker is in the States. Composer Adolphe Adam’s score for the production was signi� cant for being one of the � rst original compositions in ballet and a prime example of the employment of leitmotiv — callbacks to music that becomes representative of an emotion or character.

� e story has the eponymous Giselle, a poor village girl pursued by the dash-ing young Albrecht. A� er a brief period of will-they-won’t-they � irtation, most of the � rst half is occupied by their � ights of fancy throughout the Rhine-land — as well as village-wide celebra-tions for a family of visiting nobles. Prancing abounds.

But things take a dark turn when a romantic rival reveals Albrecht is actu-ally a noble prince, promised to another woman. Born with a weak heart, Giselle dies from the shock.

A� er audience members � le back in from intermission, Tschopp is the last person to enter. He’s still standing tall, a one-man parade quietly urging the audience, with his body language, to get excited for Act Two. Conductors like Tschopp, who so clearly have a passion for the music of ballet and the move-ment it inspires, are the closest thing the art has to hype men.

It’s a role that’s important to the survival of old guard performing arts like ballet, and it’s an energy that will be especially be needed for keeping up his own momentum in Act Two, when things truly become dark.

It would be defeatist to suggest Ballet Bellevue’s production of Giselle paral-lels the many challenges it faces in the year ahead. However, the choice of show indirectly connects to the impending death of part of Ballet Bellevue: Down-town Park’s Ballet Arts Center, slated for demolition in 2015.

As Ballet Bellevue Executive Director Mary Hundley tells it, Giselle was the favorite show of Carolyn Gracey Greer, who operated her dance school out of the Ballet Arts Center for most of the latter half of the 20th Century.

Greer had become enamored with ballet as a child. She attended Cornish Preparatory Dance, but her parents had doubts about her aspirations to continue with dance a� er high school. Nevertheless, she went on to study at Juilliard and, for many years, continued with dance while she lived out of state with her husband.

When they returned in the early ‘60s, she began teaching classes out of leased commercial space in the city. At this point C.B. Gracey — Greer’s father and the vice president of manufacturing for Boeing — decided to support his daughter’s career fully by investing in the construction of a full studio.

“Her father basically said ‘If this is what you’re going to do, you should have a proper studio,’” Hundley says.

� e Ballet Arts Center opened in 1966 and Greer operated it until her death in 1994.

A decade prior, the City of Bellevue commissioned designs for Downtown Park from Beckley/Meyers Architects. � e � rm didn’t envision a place for the Ballet Arts Center in its designs and city leadership at the time agreed. � e City acquired the Center and leased it back to Greer with the understanding

that — one day — the time would come to give it up.

“She was still fairly young when she died,” Hundley says. “She smoked — as people did back then — and I think that and the stress of not knowing what would happen to her school contributed to her death.”

Ballet Bellevue — which had become a professional company in 1995 a� er years of operating as the children’s company Ballet Pettit — acquired the Ballet Arts Center in 1997 and incorporated children’s classes to its mission. With it, they acquired the facility’s curse — one day, when the City

needed the space, it would be gone.A� er nearly 20 years, “one day” is nigh.

Ballet Bellevue is scheduled to evacuate the space in March before demolition begins the following summer.

At least outwardly, Hundley is placid in the face of the many changes coming down the pike for her company. She’s ar-ranged for company dancers to practice in Cross� t Amped on 106th Avenue North-east and for Saturday children’s classes to take place in the Northwest Arts Center.

Story and photo by Daniel Nash

CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE>>>

NNormally a towering and intense � gure NNormally a towering and intense � gure — a disciplined kind of man who seems N— a disciplined kind of man who seems to stand ramrod straight at all times, Nto stand ramrod straight at all times, even when he’s relaxed and unimpeded Neven when he’s relaxed and unimpeded by his cummerbund — conductor Nby his cummerbund — conductor

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Space for weekday children’s classes is still to be determined.

In fact, Hundley, Tschopp and other Bal-let Bellevue leaders are adding even more to their plates for the 2014-2015 season. Aside from their forced — but anticipated — search for space, the company will end the season in early 2015 with Charles Gounod’s operatic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Operas will therea� er become a regular part of Ballet Bellevue’s show rotation. � e plan is inspired by the Paris Opera Ballet, the oldest national ballet company in the world.

“Romeo and Juliet is a big project,” Hundley says. “But my thinking is, if you’re only going to have one opera in a season, it’s important to have the right one.

“Our choice to put on Romeo and Juliet is not particularly about the opera. It’s more about Shakespeare. It’s the name recogni-tion. People who don’t know opera will come in because they know the story and people who know opera will be pretty im-pressed because they expect a lot from it.”

As a person whose exposure to ballet began and ended with a half-remembered viewing of the Paci� c Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker movie at the age of � ve, I wasn’t entirely convinced of ballet’s entertainment value by the end of Act One in Giselle. So far, it was just research for a story and a conveniently free birthday gi� for my girl-friend. Act Two sold me.

Among its other accomplishments, Giselle is also perhaps a pioneer in the genre of undead romance. (Twilight before Twilight, anyone?)

No sooner is Giselle laid in the ground than she’s brought back by � e Wilis, a supernatural hit squad of spurned lovers who roam the forests for unsuspecting men to slaughter.

� e method of murder? � ey force their victims to dance to death. Of course.

� e novice ghostling is sicced on Albrecht to take revenge for her death, but she can’t.

It is in this � nal act that dancers Nadia Iozzo and Christopher Scruggs showed the power of their partnership, moving in the

synchronicity of perfectly matched lov-ers. It’s the sheer strength of their love, and Giselle’s forgiveness, that destroys � e Wilis — and Giselle herself.

Albrecht is le� alone with his grief to ponder his mistakes.

With the close of Act Two and the show itself, I was taken in by this company’s abil-ity to pull o� high drama in a limited space.

“I think Giselle went well,” Hundley says. “I mean it was pretty good. � e house was about half full both nights. Maybe from 130 the � rst night to 200 on Sunday.”

We’re sitting in the Ballet Arts Center, in a small and crowded corner used as makeshi� o� ce space, while dancer Mireya Mascarello (a woman who kindly humored me and sacri� ced some of her dignity for the photo series with this article) teaches a one-on-one lesson on the dance � oor.

While Mary and I speak, we’re unexpect-edly visited by Maurice Cooper, from the company’s board of directors. Whereas Mary approaches Ballet Bellevue’s obstacles placidly, Cooper is more outwardly passion-ate about the company’s search for perma-nent space and the neverending quest for publicity that could bring people to shows.

Giselle played during Arts Fair Week-end, but it wasn’t directly associated with any of the three street fairs. Examining the audience on the � rst night of the show, it was apparent it was comprised of people who had planned to be there. � e majority were dressed in their � nest gowns or button downs; only a handful had wandered in from the street.

� e di� culty of ballet in America is that, outside of traditional productions like � e Nutcracker, it’s not an art form that has mainstream appeal for spectators. � e dedi-cated audience is comprised of connoisseurs — people with years of � rsthand familiarity with dance or music, and the small group of laymen who can appreciate both.

Ballet survives in large cities or cities where a company has entrenched itself as an institution, places where it can concentrate enough of its small subset of fans in one place to chug along.

� e same could be said of opera, of course — Bellevue Opera shut down in 2011 — but Hundley and Cooper hope a European-style dual company will stand out.

“In all fairness, this community (Bel-levue) is fairly new,” Cooper says. “You don’t have the old guard that might support the performing arts. You don’t have people thinking about those opportunities.”

� e older and wealthier communities of Medina and Clyde Hill contain exactly the type of patrons who attend ballet perfor-mances, Hundley says, but they o� en look to the other side of Lake Washington.

“� e few groups from Clyde Hill who came to Giselle, I think they were proud,” she says. “� at’s the thing: they will support something of quality. Bellevue needs to have something that’s a ‘diamond’ here.” S

Ballet Bellevue’s 2014-2015 season begins on Oct. 3 with Igor Stravinsky’s � e Firebird at the Meydenbauer Center.

Christopher Scruggs and Nadia Iozzo in Giselle.Credit: Copyright WZ Images, photo provided courtesy of Ballet Bellevue

Fall fashions from Dries Van NotenCredit: Photos courtesy of Team Photogenic and Nordstrom

HEY LADIES!

Trends shown recently on the runway at the Nordstrom Designer Preview 2014 showcased both American and International Designers, many whom choose to rediscover and reinvent clothing that symbolized the look and silhouette of decades gone by. � is fall celebrates the sweet-ness of the 60’s, the warmth and glamour of the 70’s, the power and strength of the 80’s, and the nostalgic blazer suit of the 90’s, all which are modernized for today’s woman.

Shape/Silhouette Many options for knee lengths this season. Skirt, coat and dress lengths include the mini (3”to 4” above the knee), medium (mid-knee cap), moderate (1” below the knee) and midi (mid-calf). Coats and dresses are � tted, loose and over-sized; blazers have so� shaped shoulders, long dresses are � uid and loose � tting.

Key Accessories/DetailsFlats, midis and high-heel shoes with pointed toes will work for all lengths of clothing; knee high boots and booties; envelope and box clutch handbags; backpacks; accents of fringe and tassels; feathers; and day sneakers with metal-lic and shiny paillettes.

Textures/Fabricswoven knits; leather; statement fur; denim; shearling fur; velvet; graphic prints; and so� silks.

Colors/Palettesthe richness of new colors include lavender, jewel tones; color blocking; digital prints; ice-cream shades; artistic � orals; animal prints; Army green and grey becoming the new neutrals.

Fall 2014 promises to set a new mood in dress which will bring back memories of iconic eras of the past. - Rose Dennis

Rediscover and reinvent with this year’s fall fashionsRediscover and reinvent with this year’s fall fashions

YYou probably haven’t heard of Sam Morril. Tell him something he doesn’t know. But the native New Yorker has spent the past four years slowly gaining fame — and in-famy — for his raunchy sense of humor.

So I was just listening to an episode of your podcast (Moonlighting, with Sam Morril) this morning, and the conversation about Trayvon Martin and race in prosecution got really intense. You and Yaneika Saunders or Mike Recine and Yaneika were really laying into each other.Sam Morril: Yeah, that was Dave Smith arguing with her.

It seems like every comic has a podcast now. What does podcasting do for you that standup doesn’t?SM: You know, I hate to say it, but you can’t just be a comic anymore. You have to get your name out there in di� erent ways and Moonlighting is a way to do that. But the podcast keeps me kind of sharp in a di� erent way. It can be a di� erent format for telling or talking through jokes and bouncing ideas o� other comics that I wouldn’t get just sitting home and writing by myself.

Do you � nd that comics are more opinionated than your average person?SM: Some of them are, but every comic’s di� erent. Some people just write jokes and they don’t worry about anything else. Some people enjoy doing politics and social commentary in their acts. Comics are de� nitely more outspoken but I don’t know if they’re more opinionated. � ey’re de� nitely more likely to think their opinions should be heard by everyone. (laughs)

Being based out of NYC, on the one hand I think, “� at’s the best comedy scene in the world, that must be great. But on the other I think, “� at’s the most competitive comedy scene in the world, you must be crazy.”SM: It’s a lot of bombing. A lot of bombing. And as a joke writer, a lot of times there’s something funny about the joke and you know what it is but you can’t quite communicate it yet. For some reason I guess I’m provocative, which is something I discovered in early bad sets. Because I’d rather get a rise out of the audience than nothing at all — if you’re getting nothing at all, they don’t care. At least when they’re angry they care.

Has that desire to provoke informed your sense of humor? � e joke that comes to my mind immediately is this one where you talk about how you’re sleeping with a black girl and you’re uncomfortable because she keeps using the “N-word” — which turns out to be “No.”SM: (Laughs) Yeah, that joke… that joke has gotten me into some trouble in the past couple years with some bloggers, mostly because what’s funny — what I think is funny about the joke, anyway — was misunderstood. In that case, it’s about the misdirect and the expectations of the audience, which I even point out in the punchline: “You guys were really uncomfortable when you thought I was going to say something racist but, thank God, it was just a rape joke. Phew.”

But I think jokes in general should elicit some kind of reaction. I think it weeds out who wouldn’t be my fan

anyway. You didn’t like that joke? Fine, you wouldn’t like the rest of my stu� .

� e only problem I have is with people who take it really seriously up-top. You know, people who say “this is never funny, you can never make that subject funny.” I take that as a challenge: I’m going to make it funny.

You remind me a bit of Mitch Hedburg, in the sense that you tell these jokes at a rapid� re clip, but in an almost sedate way.SM: It is weirdly tiring to perform comedy, in a way you can’t understand until you experience it. You work sh***y hours, � ights are early a lot of the time and you have to do the local morning radio shows on the same day you perform, which is going to be late at night. � at style just lets me keep my energy. Some comics perform with high energy on stage all the time, and I just don’t know how they do it. I tell jokes in a way that I know I can do from show to show and, I guess, in a way that they work on their own without a lot of energy behind them.

You tell a few jokes about your girlfriend — or ex-girlfriends. How do they feel about being included in your act?SM: � ere’s none to worry about right now, but it’s usually not an issue. If it’s funny, it could be a joke about a girlfriend who I’m not seeing anymore, but I’ll still start with “So my girlfriend” — it could be anyone. But when I’m with a girl, I usually explain this is my outlet and I love it and this is what I do and I won’t say anything too embarrassing in the end.

� e problem is, more than standup, the real problem is if I tweet something about one of them before talking about it. Stu� like Twitter and Facebook are right in the palm of your hand. It’s too tempting to send something funny out right away. But jokes are something you have to work on and polish, so if it was funny enough to make it into my act, I’ve probably already talked about it with everyone involved.

Sam Morril will perform at Kirkland’s Laughs Comedy Spot September 4-6.


Conversations with Funny

PeopleDeeply Morril

by Daniel Nash


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