Seattle Theatre Group_Encore Arts Seattle

Transcription

2016 SeaSon SubScriptionS on Sale now!
playing on
taproot theatre’S
Jewell MainStage
nov 20 - dec 26
directed by
Scott nolte
playing in taproot theatre’S
iSaac Studio theatre
nov 28
through
dec 26
By Charles M. Schulz
Melendez
the
Based on television special by Bill
by
on Eric Schaeffer
and Lee Mendelson, Stage Adaptati
ur Whitelaw and
Arth
By Special Arrangement with
son
Pers
y
Rub
December 2015
Volume 12, No. 3
Paul Heppner
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PL AC E W H E R E S N OW FA LL S E V E RY N IG HT
Experience the wonder of our spectacular holiday performance with toy soldier drummers,
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SNOWFLAKE LANE: 7 pm, Nov. 27 – Dec. 24
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T he B e llev ue Colle c t ion
T h e O n e a n d O n l y S now f la ke L a n e
CONTENTS
2016 SeaSon SubScriptionS on Sale now!
playing on
taproot theatre’S
Jewell MainStage
nov 20 - dec 26
This Christmas
A1
directed by
Scott nolte
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A10
playing in taproot theatre’S
iSaac Studio theatre
nov 28
through
dec 26
Melendez
Based on the television special by Bill
by Eric Schaeffer
and Lee Mendelson, Stage Adaptation
Whitelaw and
By Special Arrangement with Arthur
Ruby Persson
ES035 covers.indd 3
11/9/15 10:15 AM
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
Q & A with
Evan Flory-Barnes
The bassist and composer on summoning the
communal vibe and Seattle’s ultimate sandwich/coffee
combos.
BY BRETT HAMIL
Evan Flory-Barnes is a bassist and composer who’s been making
music since his Garfield High days, where he was a part of the
school’s celebrated orchestra. Now he’s the bass player of Genius
Award-winning Industrial Revelation, with whom he played on
bandmate Ahamefule J. Oluo’s triumphant Now I’m Fine at On the
Boards last winter (and which they’ll be restaging at the Moore next
April).
I’ve seen Flory-Barnes play on numerous occasions, from Industrial
Revelation’s rocking set at this year’s Capitol Hill Block Party to
jazz sessions at the Royal Room to a moving piece he played at the
#BlackLivesMatter Pecha Kucha event last January that left the room
in tears.
Heedless of genre, Flory-Barnes’s performance communicates a
passion for the act of making music and never fails to inspire me with
head-nodding goodwill.
What’s the best performance you’ve seen lately?
That’s a tough one cause I watch and see so much. A lot of folks
4 ENCORE STAGES
have said Ahamefule J. Oluo’s Now I’m Fine, which I was a part of so
I can’t say that. But it was pretty amazing despite him being such a
one-dimensional artist (I kid). Even though we are in a new football
season last year’s NFC Championship against Green Bay was magical
and powerful. I was tearing up.
What’s the best meal in Seattle?
The best meal? Don’t know if it still is but anything from Paseo is
amazing. A chicken sandwich and a bowl of beans and rice. Anything
from El Camion is ridiculous. Fresh, down home and cheap, especially
for the ingredient quality. The food at La Medusa in Columbia City is
great. And I am big fan of the food at Cafe Paloma in Pioneer Square.
Oh, anything from Tacos Chukis.
continued on page 6
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Flory-Barnes, continued
What just came to mind are sandwich/
coffee combos. Getting a pulled pork
sandwich at Manu’s Bodega in pioneer and
then heading across the street to Caffe Vita.
Or getting any sandwich from Paolo at the
Beacon Ave Deli then heading to The Station.
Or going to Paseo and then heading to
Lighthouse Roasters on Phinney Ridge.
New Zealand Opera 2010 The Marriage of Figaro, © Neil Mackenzie
CHEEKY
What music gets you pumped up? What do
you listen to when you’re sad?
Man, I love the song “Atlas” from the band
Battles’s first album Mirrored. The track
“Love” off J-Dilla’s The Shining gets me
pumped up, so does “Welcome to the Show”
off Donuts.
When I am sad, I listen to Rachels’ Music
For Egon Schiele. That album has a feeling
that creates a brightness out of the sadness
while it still is there. And there’s so much
other music I call on it is hard to say.
mozart
THE
MARRIAGE
OF
FIGARO
jan 16-30
MCCAW HALL
206.389.7676
SEATTLEOPERA.ORG
A DELIGHTFUL COMEDY
Mozart’s most popular opera is filled with chaos
and hilarity as clever servants outwit arrogant
masters, crafty women outsmart foolish men
folk, and one crazy day ends in happiness and
love. Brighten your winter with an “engrossing,
astute, and unmissable” (The New Zealand
Herald) staging of this charming favorite.
With English Subtitles.
Evenings 7:30 p.m.
Sundays 2:00 p.m.
Featuring the Seattle Opera
Chorus and members of Seattle
Symphony Orchestra.
PRODUCTION SPONSORS: ANN P. WYCKOFF, MICROSOFT
6 ENCORE STAGES
What’s the most crucial element of any
production?
Having those involved feel super invested
on some level in the work. Now I’m Fine was
so powerful because the majority of the folks
involved have been playing that music for the
last seven and a half, eight years. The music
draws up emotions that make it easy to invest
in emotionally.
When there is that communal vibe and
emotional investment and a good amount of
money is brought to the table it feels like a
bonus instead of the “why” of the production.
Don’t get me wrong, I love getting paid and
I love paying people but when people are
passionate about the piece itself the work
goes to new heights and depths.
What’s the most useful thing anyone’s ever
taught you about performing?
One of my first gigs near the end of college
was with great pianist, musician and
composer Jovino Santos Neto. Through his
example he emphasized something that I
always knew was important, which is to
always bring the joy, energy and intensity
no matter what. Jovino would play in a
McDonald’s parking lot for two people with
equal passion as he would for a McCaw Hall
of 3,000 people. That has always stayed
with me.
For more previews, stories, video and a look
behind the scenes, visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
PROGRAM ARCHIVE
CALENDAR
PREVIEWS
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
VISIT EncoreArtsSeattle.com
DO MORE.
Q & A with
BE MORE.
Brenda Joyner
The actor on soccer, flamenco, decadent food and some
breathtakingly simple advice for working in theatre.
BY BRETT HAMIL
Brenda Joyner is an actor and WWU grad
from Alaska who’s been in Seattle for nine
years. She’s a member of the esteemed
New Century Theatre Company where she
performed in On the Nature of Dust and Tails
of Wasps. You also might’ve seen Joyner in
The Glass Menagerie at Seattle Rep, Titus
Andronicus with upstart crow collective
and in many other productions with Seattle
Shakes, Seattle Public Theatre, Strawberry
Theatre Workshop and more. She recently
closed NCTC’s highly anticipated fall
production of Festen and next she’ll be in
Crimes of the Heart at Village Theatre.
What’s the best performance you’ve
seen lately?
About a year ago I saw a flamenco
performance at a bar in Seville and it was an
electrifying experience. I was blown away by
the passion, focus, skill and endurance of
these performers (a guitarist, a vocalist, and
a dancer). Absolutely thrilling.
During a recent Sounders match against
San Jose, Obafemi Martins scored this
unbelievable, over-the-shoulder quasibicycle kick. I keep watching the clip. I love
that man.
What’s the best meal in Seattle?
Please join me on my dream day where
KNOW MORE.
I can eat all of my
favorite meals...I take
a stroll downtown for
a breakfast biscuit and
a coffee from Biscuit
Bitch. I probably have
to go to the ol’ day job
(what a lame dream) but
soon it’s lunchtime and
I grab one of the many
incredible sandwiches
at Delicatus. I call
it an early day and
swing by El Borracho
for taco happy hour.
What’s that? A surprise
dinner at Staple and
Fancy?! Yes please. After
catching a show at 12th
Ave Arts, there’s a quick stop at The Unicorn
for a Unicorn Dog before heading home. Oh
and I’m sure there’s a Dick’s Deluxe in there
somewhere. What can I say, I’m a health nut.
What music gets you pumped up? What
do you listen to when you’re sad?
No question: Annie Lennox’s “Walking on
Broken Glass” will get me pumped. I love to
dance and that song makes me dance like a
3rd grader left home alone for the first time.
When I am sad I listen to old big band/jazz/
swing. That music floods me with memories
of evenings at my grandparents’ house
and Bobby Darin singing to me from my
grandpa’s den. It grounds me. Ever turn on
NPR on a Saturday night and think, “Who
the hell listens to ‘Swing Years’?” It’s me.
What’s the most crucial element
of a production?
The story. Every element should be
supporting the story you’re telling. Tell it
honestly. It’s frustrating to be pulled out of
a show by a performance, design or concept
that seems to be forced upon a story and
detached from the text.
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What’s the most useful thing anyone’s
ever taught you about working in theatre?
Be kind to everyone.
encore art sseattle.com 7
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Making Mice with
Erik Andor
Fabricating costumes for the PNB’s new production of
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.
BY BRETT HAMIL
PHOTOS: BRETT HAMIL
In December the Pacific Northwest Ballet stages an entirely new
production of The Nutcracker after the triumphant 32-year run of its
previous incarnation by Kent Stowell and Maurice Sendak. This new
staging uses George Balanchine’s 1954 choreography and features
costumes designed by Ian Falconer, the illustrator and children’s book
author best known for the beloved piglet Olivia.
In anticipation of this epic transformation, I visited the Pioneer
Square studio of Erik Andor, who’s been busy fabricating the mouse
costumes for the new show. Andor is a costume design whiz in his
own right—you might’ve seen his work most recently on the Rep’s
celebrated Lizard Boy or for such high-profile clients as Cirque de
Soleil and the Rockettes—and in this new undertaking he brings those
skills to bear interpreting Falconer’s designs from the ground up. He
walked me through his process.
“They sent me the artwork, I had a look at it, assessed it, and
then we had ongoing conversations as I started to make a prototype.
Costume director Larae [Hascall] is really involved, too, because the
dancers have to wear these. The criterion is to meet the designer’s
vision but also there are safety considerations because they’re
dancing in them.”
“I started with the head. He was really attached to having kind of
a bump in the nose, so we worked on that. They’re simple shapes but
they’re really specific. They have a square forehead, these ears that
are pointy and big thick whiskers.”
“The first one we did looked too much like a chipmunk; it had
really fat cheeks. We talked about the mouth a lot. [Ian] has a
particular way of doing mouths and ears on his animals. These mice
are meant to be a little ‘nervous nelly.’ They’re high-anxiety mice,
they have this nervous feel to them. You can see it in the posture of his
sketches.”
“I figure out how to make it, what are the best materials, and move
forward with that. Then we look at the body. Obviously these things
have to last and be built really well, so that’s different than doing
something for a commercial or a movie. These things have to have a
lot of longevity; everything has to be laundered and maintained and
replaced. Like, if the noses break they have to be able to be swapped
out over the years. That’s a really big consideration.”
“We’ve been trying a bunch of different materials. For this one I
explored a couple new things. This is a kind of high-density foam that
is pretty rigid but super lightweight.”
“This is what’s called reticulated foam, which has a lot of different
applications—you’ll see it in speakers or cushions on boats. It’s really
breathable and you can wash it; because it’s a dance show and they’re
gonna be sweating in these things, on occasion they’re gonna have to
wash the costumes. So these can drip dry.”
continued next page
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
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Making Mice, continued
“A lot of times when I’m making these big pods or body shapes, there are reinforcing
hoops in them. These don’t have anything like that, so the shape is really just made from the
pattern—they don’t have a structure inside. It’s a safety thing; if someone falls, you don’t
wanna fall on a big hoop or anything. They’re pretty soft.”
“There are 16 mice: eight adults and eight children. Then there’s the mouse king: he has
seven heads. This is the mockup, just to approve the size and shape and proportion and also
use it as a technical model to look at balance and see if somebody could wear it. It’s so big,
and this dancer dies onstage—he fights and dies, falls on the stage and some other mice pick
him up and carry him out. Because the head is so big and awkward we have to develop a
secret way of keeping it strapped to his body and keeping him safe.”
10 ENCORE STAGES
PHOTOS: BRETT HAMIL
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
“The tails are really cool! My favorite
part of the whole thing. They’re super
lightweight, hand-carved threedimensionally out of that same kind of
foam. They’re really light and rigid so they
can actually stand away from the body.
They have this fabric core in the middle and
then we take little slices out of ‘em.”
“When the dancer twitches their hips
the tail has a really cool movement. Ian has
this way of doing these tails where they’re
sort of thick—the costumes are bulbous and
thick.”
“They have human hands and human
feet, so the only challenge is the visibility.
The heads are actually worn on top of the
head, and you see thru the throat; you’re
not looking through the head.”
“I’ve done a lot of different kinds of stuff,
and everything’s fun in its own way. The
Nutcracker is such a Seattle institution, it’s
gonna be around for a long time and a lot of
people are gonna see it. So that’s cool.”
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker runs
Nov. 27 through Dec. 28.
Women Painters of Washington
INSPIRING
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STUDENTS
For tour and other
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ENCORE ARTS PREVIEWS
In the long twilight of the Seattle Winter,
theatregoers have a multitude of options
including a play and an opera with female
protagonists and a Pulitzer Prize-winning
play making its Seattle debut.
Emma
When I Am Among the Trees by Christine Gedye
701 5th Ave #310 , M-F 11-4
206.691.2625 seattlecountryday.org
“Nick PayNe’s gorgeous two-character drama may be
The mosT sophisTicaTed daTe play broadway has seen.”
-the new york times
December 2-January 3
Book-It celebrates the 200th anniversary of
Jane Austen’s Emma with a new restaging of
their adaptation that premiered in 2009. Set
in Regency England, it’s the story of Emma
Woodhouse, a wealthy young woman oblivious
to the true nature of almost everyone around
her—including herself—until at last she falls
in love. Austen’s droll descriptions, ironic
observations, and generous happy endings are
Book-It fan favorites. Adapted by Rachel Atkins
and directed by Carol Roscoe.
Book-It Repertory Theatre
Disgraced
by NICK PAYNE
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
JAN 22 - FEB 21, 2016
January 8 -31
This play, Ayad Akhtar’s first, won the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama and the Obie Award for
Playwriting in 2013 and opened on Broadway in
2014. It’s a one-act about a dinner party on the
Upper East Side in which an ex-Muslim, a Jew,
an African-American and a white Protestant
take part in a culturally fraught conversation
touching on everything from post-9/11 racial
profiling to Jewish and Islamic religious
traditions to the states of Israel and Iran. The
Rep’s production is directed by Kimberly Senior
and presented in association with Berkley
Repertory Theatre and Goodman Theatre.
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Mary Stuart
season sponsor
seattlerep.org // 206.443.2222
World Hope Outreach seeks to meet both the physical and spiritual
needs of those who have been confronted with challenges in their
lives. We provide services to needy families and work with other
organizations — training and equipping volunteers — to help restore
the lives of those families, thereby creating better lives for them and for
the world as a whole.
February 27 – March 12
Two icons of English royalty, Queen Elizabeth
I and her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scotland, clash in a powerful story based
on Friedrich Schiller’s play. Premiering in 1835
in Milan, the opera was written by Gaetano
Donizetti, who wrote several operas about the
Tudor Dynasty. This production, directed by
Kevin Newbury, has Christine Rice and Joyce
El-Khoury sharing the honors as Donizetti’s
doomed queen, with Mary Elizabeth Williams
and Keri Alkema as Queen Elizabeth I.
Baritones Weston Hurt and Michael Todd
Simpson also appear.
Seattle Opera
For more previews, stories, video and a look
behind the scenes, visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
To support us and our mission please visit us at:
WorldHopeOutreach.org/support
12 ENCORE STAGES
PROGRAM ARCHIVE
CALENDAR
PREVIEWS
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Playing in the Jewell Mainstage theatre
By anne kenneDy BraDy
Scott Nolte,
Producing Artistic
Director
Karen Lund,
Associate Artistic
Director
Thank you To our
2015 SeaSon
SupporTerS
cast
(In Order of Appearance)
Leah Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charity Parenzini
elise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Cross
Mark Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Shimkus *
patrick Chamberlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Gallaher
helen Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Macall Gordon
Serge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Bordi
Production
Director
Scenic and Sound Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Stage Manager
Dramaturg
Dialect Coach
Scott Nolte
Mark Lund
Sarah Burch Gordon
Kent Cubbage
Alyson Sundal
Sonja Lowe
Simon Pringle
setting
present Day Seattle
opening nighT
SponSor:
The upper CruST
This Christmas is approximately 1 hr 15 mins including intermission.
*Member of the Actors’ Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors and
Stage Managers in the United States.
encore art sseattle.com A-1
director’s notes
MerrY ChristMas aNd happY holidaYs!
It’s great to have you here in our Jewell Mainstage
Theatre as part of your season celebration. We hope
it’s especially fun and memorable.
This Christmas shines a (Christmas) light on traditions,
expectations and family. Newcomers to Seattle, Leah
and Mark are trying to retain their sense of family
and their usual Christmas traditions: dinner out and
a Christmas Eve church service with carols and candles. Like Leah and Mark,
many of us live far from our families, so our need for that social connection and
belonging is redirected to a group of close friends. It’s not always easy to adapt
to these new families and traditions, but as Leah and Mark discover, they could
end up being better than the originals.
This Christmas is the second play commissioned for 2015, Dracula being
the other, and one of several Christmas plays we’ve developed over the years
including Le Club Noel and Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Christmas
Carol. A special thank you goes to our Studio 210 donors whose support has
helped us invest time and resources into these plays and playwrights.
As we close 2015, we’re grateful to you, our subscribers, ticket buyers and
donors for your trust and enthusiastic
support. We appreciate your
participation in each play’s exploration
of life through self discovery, friendship
and sacrifice. Thank you for joining us
this year. We wish you a blessed holiday
season and a happy New Year.
Scott Nolte
Producing Artistic Director
P.S. We’d love to see you in 2016 for
our 40th Anniversary Season! You can
still subscribe to all five exciting plays,
or pick a three-play selection. Subscribe
now!
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A-2 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
taProot theatre staff
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 Designer
Wendy Hansen - Resident Propsmaster
AdMinistrAtive stAff
Pam nolte - Community Liaison
Lee Grooms - Finance &
Operations Director
nikki visel - Marketing Director
tanya Barber dugas - Creative Marketing
Specialist
isaiah custer - Communications &
Group Sales Manager
Alanna Gordon - Executive Assistant
Ginny Holladay - Café Manager
deveLoPMent
Lauren cooper - Director of Development
sonja Lowe - Grant Writer & Resident
Dramaturg
Acacia danielson - Development
Associate
PAtron services
Jenny cross - Patron Services Manager
Acacia danielson, Alanna Gordon, Kelsey
Lopez, sonja Lowe, cathie rohrig, dave
selvig - House Managers
Lauren Kelm - House Manager Lead
Kristi Matthews - Box Office Manager
Josh Krupke - Box Office Lead
erin Barber, sarah diener, Joyel
richardson, Jd Walker, Alek White,
Jacob Yarborough - Box Office
Representatives
Marty Gordon - Custodian
Jacob Yarborough - Facilities Maintenance
educAtion & outreAcH
nathan Jeffrey - Director of Education
& Outreach
shelby Parsons - Associate Director of
Education & Outreach
Jenny cross - Resident Teaching Artist
Thank You
for making 2015 a milestone
year for Taproot Theatre.
With you at our side...
Encouraged
Young artists were
to embrace and explore
what it means to be human. Your support enabled a record-breaking
number of on-site and off-site Acting Studio classes this year.
thank you for creating opportunities for young actors, technicians and
story-makers to pursue their dreams.
Empowered
People young and old were
to see the world
in a new light. You told elementary, middle and high school students they
had the power to reverse the pattern of bullying behavior. Through improv
classes, you awakened memories of joy for senior patients struggling with
dementia.
thank you for forging new paths for taproot to engage people who
desperately need a new story.
Exhilarated
Audiences were
by stories of hope,
discovery and imagination on the Jewell Mainstage. Together, we
conquered fears, made discoveries and defeated monsters.
thanks to you, every show on the Jewell Mainstage exceeded revenue
goals, and Godspell had the highest sales and attendance numbers in
taproot history.
We count on donors like you to join our quest to
encourage hearts, empower minds and exhilarate
spirits through stories of hope.
Cross the Threshold
Will you help us
into
our 40th Anniversary Year fully equipped for the next leg
of the journey?
Please give by December 31 to encourage, empower,
and exhilarate throughout 2016.
Mail
Call
EMail
Visit
Return the envelope in your program
206.529.3672
[email protected]
taproottheatre.org/donate
the coMPany of this christMas
kevin BorDi (Serge) is honored to make
his Taproot debut! He was recently
in The Comedy of Errors at Seattle
Shakespeare Company and Zapoi! at
Annex Theatre. Other local credits
include Launce in The Two Gentlemen
of Verona at Wooden O, Chet in The
Financial Lives of the Poets at BookIt Repertory Theater and Dull in Love’s Labour’s Lost at
Seattle Shakespeare Company. He received his BFA at
Cornish College of the Arts. He is married to the beautiful
Melody Anderson, who tolerates his nonsense daily.
jenny CroSS (Elise) is pleased to be
back on Taproot’s Mainstage! Past
Taproot credits include Jane Eyre,
Illyria, Gaudy Night, Leaving Iowa,
Something’s Afoot, The Great Divorce,
Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming,
Big River, Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor® Dreamcoat. She
also teaches for Taproot’s Acting Studio on-site and
throughout the Puget Sound area.
MaCaLL gorDon (Helen Masters) recent
work includes: Humble Boy (Seattle
Public Theatre), Julius Caesar (Wooden
O), Diana of Dobson’s (Taproot),
The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls
(Washington Ensemble Theatre), A
Lie of the Mind (Central Heating Lab),
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Seattle
Shakespeare) and The Happy Ones (Seattle Public
Theater). She also plays a recurring role in the upcoming
season of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle. She
lives in Woodinville with her very dramatic family and two
very comedic dogs.
roBerT gaLLaher (Patrick Chamberlain)
has appeared frequently at TTC since
1991 and it is always a joy! Robert’s
last role was Professor Sloane in the
hilarious hit, The Explorer’s Club. Other
favorite roles at TTC include Horace
Vandergelder (The Matchmaker), Dad
(Leaving Iowa), Joe Keller (All My Sons
- Footlight Award), both Dukes, (As You Like It), Nat
Miller (Ah, Wilderness!), and at Village Theatre: Harry
Brock (Born Yesterday) and Big Jule (Guys And Dolls).
ChariTy parenzini (Leah Masters) is
excited to be back on the Taproot
stage - thankful to be a part of this
fantastic cast and crew! When not
on stage Charity is often focused on
making media for America Unchained
(an organization focused on protecting
and healing traumatized kids in the
U.S.). Charity would like to thank her husband, Patrick,
for his constant support (and sense of humor) and her
sons, who constantly remind her that children are God’s
greatest masterpiece.
MaTT ShiMkuS (Mark Masters) Last
appearing in In the Book Of, Matt is
honored to return to Taproot for This
Christmas. Matt has performed with
Harlequin Productions, The Village
Theatre, Seattle Rep., Intiman Theatre,
Seattle Shakespeare Company and
Wooden O. Matt holds a BFA in Theatre
from PLU and an MFA in Theatre from The Chicago
College of Performing Arts. Matt hails from Tacoma ... no,
really. It’s the City of Destiny. Love to Em, and the birds.
Sarah BurCh gorDon (Costume Designer & Shop Manager)
has designed 50+ shows for Taproot in the past ten
years. Regionally, Sarah has also designed for TAG,
SART, Stage West Theatre, Brick Playhouse and Venture
Theatre. She was nominated for a 2010 Gregory award.
Her MFA is from Temple University. Poinsettias and
Potatoes to CLM.
kenT CuBBage (Lighting Designer) This is his fourth show
with Taproot; his most recent was The Explorer’s Club.
This year he designed at Steppenwolf Garage Rep,
Seattle Shakespeare, Book-It Repertory, Velocity Dance,
the Triple Door, the Neptune, and more, with multiple
assists at ACT and the 5th Avenue. He teaches at Seattle
University.
Mark LunD (Scenic & Sound Designer) has designed over
100 TTC shows, including Godspell, Jeeves Intervenes
and The Explorer’s Club. 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.
Sonja Lowe (Dramaturg) has a BA in Theatre from Seattle
Pacific University and a MLitt in Dramaturgy from the
University of Glasgow. As the Resident Dramaturg
for Taproot Theatre Company, Sonja has contributed
research for several mainstage productions, including In
the Book Of and Jane Eyre in 2014. Most recently she
served as the development dramaturg for Taproot’s new
stage adaptation of Dracula.
SCoTT noLTe (Producing Artistic Director) is a co-founder
and the Producing Artistic Director of TTC. Over the
course of 39 years, he’s directed plays ranging from The
Odyssey to Smoke on the Mountain and more recently
Dracula, Best of Enemies, Appalachian Christmas
Homecoming, The Fabulous Lipitones, In the Book Of,
The Matchmaker, The Whipping Man, Gaudy Night
and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas
Carol for TTC. He has participated in several new-play
development projects, is past president of Theatre Puget
Sound and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers.
SiMon pringLe (Dialect Coach) trained at the RSAMD
in Scotland. Past credits at Taproot include Godspell,
Appalachian Christmas Homecoming, Jane Eyre,
Illyria, Chaps, An Ideal Husband and The Beams Are
Creaking. Simon has also performed locally for Harlequin
the coMPany
Productions and Storybook Theater,
and is a teaching artist and director
at Studio East. This is Simon’s second
production as a dialect coach at
Taproot Theatre Company, and he
recently coached for Centerstage’s new
work, For All That.
aLySon SunDaL (Stage Manager) has
been working as a freelance stage
manager for the last 6 years, and
has degrees in Theatre Arts from the
University of Puget Sound and Stage
& Event Management from the Royal
Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Recent credits include Hay Fever and
Twelfth Night (RWCMD, Cardiff), the
world premiere of Laura Lomas’ Blister
(Gate Theatre, London), Angels in
America: Millennium Approaches, Altar
Boyz, and Proof (Playhouse on Park,
Hartford, CT).
anne kenneDy BraDy (Playwright) lives,
writes, edits and acts in Chicago.
Before moving to the Windy City, Anne
frequently performed at Taproot, where
she also wrote a very bad first play.
That play was wisely rejected, but
she kept at it. Prior to This Christmas,
Taproot produced her Christmas
touring productions Christmas in Flight
and The Innkeepers’ Christmas, as
well as two plays for TTC’s bullyingprevention program. Anne has studied
playwriting with Chicago Dramatists
and The Second City in Chicago,
earning festival performances for two
sketches. She’s co-written a handful
of children’s books and magazine
articles with Ideals/Worthy Publishing,
and she’s even landed on television
now and again. You can catch her
giving birth in a sedan on Chicago
Fire or lusting after one in a BMW
commercial. She’d like to thank Kevin,
whom she loves like a crazy person.
froM the draMaturg
iNtervieW With plaYWright - aNNe KeNNedY BradY
by Sonja Lowe
anne, some of our patrons may remember you from roles that you’ve played
on the Jewell Mainstage in shows like, Enchanted April and An Ideal
Husband. What are some of your favorite taproot memories?
I first came to Taproot in 2004 as an intern for the Acting Studio. It was a
wonderful experience – and after that, they couldn’t get rid of me! My favorite
Taproot memories are all about Taproot’s people – the family that develops
around every production, project or event. And at the top of that list is meeting
my husband, Kevin Brady. We met during my internship, but it wasn’t until
four years later, when we were both cast in a touring production of It’s a
Wonderful (Improvised) Life, that we really spent any time together. After
several hours road tripping around Western Washington with this handsome,
talented guy, I was sold. Turns out he felt the same, and in 2010 he enlisted
Scott Nolte and Zach Brittle (then TTC’s Development Director) to plan a
surprise proposal at the Smith Tower!
have you always been interested in playwriting or is this a new artistic
challenge for you?
I’ve always loved telling stories. It’s part of the reason I was drawn to theatre
in the first place. But, outside of a dramatic piece I wrote for my Barbies
somewhere around third grade, I didn’t get excited about playwriting until I
took a class in college and fell in love with the challenge of telling a story through dialogue. I’ve continued to study
playwriting wherever I can, including classes at ACT in Seattle, and Chicago Dramatists and Second City in Chicago.
Taproot produced my first show, Christmas in Flight, in 2011 as part of their touring Christmas program.
did your own Christmas memories inspire the story or the characters in This Christmas?
I grew up in a military family and we moved across the country every two or three years. But despite the upheaval, my
parents made sure Christmas was pretty much the same every year. So I love Christmas traditions. I was the kid who
drove everyone crazy with the Christmas Eve schedule, or the correct order for opening gifts on the big day. I wrapped
myself in the predictability of the holiday and found security and comfort there. So Leah’s angst about maintaining her
carefully scheduled Christmas Eve absolutely comes from my own experience. Also, as kids we did get to open one gift
on Christmas Eve, but I think that had more to do with our whining than any meaningful tradition…
What’s exciting and/or challenging about writing plays specifically for the holiday season?
The holiday season is packed with opportunities for dramatic situations and full-blown arguments (which are really
fun to write), but I believe that Christmas is also a time for restoration. It’s a unique time when giving seeps into the
collective consciousness. In my shows, I’m interested in the gifts that are less fun to give, but that the season might
make us more open to: a second chance, the benefit of the doubt, an open mind. My challenge in writing Christmas
plays has been to balance the reality of holiday tensions with a hope for renewal. What’s exciting is discovering what
that hope looks like for the characters in each play.
Located adjacent to
Taproot Theatre
Open 11-9 on performance nights
Open 11-6 on non-performance nights
seattlestagedoorcafe.com
Where taste takes center stage
Pre-order your intermission
drinks and snacks before
the show begins and it will
be waiting for you when
you come into the cafe.
this christMas staff
Production stAff
Hazel rose Gibson - Assistant Stage Manager
costuMe stAff
Hannah Mcnamara - Dresser
courtney Kessler-Jeffrey, Amethyst Beach,
rebecca eide - Stitchers
scenic, LiGHtinG, sound stAff
Kristi Matthews - Master Electrician
Alex Marne smith - Light Board Operator
Zenaida smith - Sound Board Operator
tim samland - Scenic Carpenter
daniel cole, Alex Grennan, Baylie Heims,
Alex Marne smith, Jacob Yarborough - Electrics Crew
Board of directors
oFFiCerS
Peter Morrill, Chair
Larry Bjork, Chair Emeritus
Rob Zawoysky, Secretary
Alyssa Petrie, Treasurer
MeMBerS
Anne Ball
Mark Bullard
Jude Hubbell
Dr. Sarah Roskam
Dr. George Scranton
Steve Thomas
Dan Voetmann
Scott Nolte (non-voting)
acknowledgeMents
•
Gary Brunt, Greenwood Town Center/Piper Village
Pleased to be partnering with Taproot Theatre
helPful inforMation
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.
ProP & set donations
Do you have antique or vintage
items you no longer need?
Taproot Theatre’s production team
is now accepting:
• Vintage or vintage-style (pre1970s) 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
[email protected]
www.systemsixbookkeeping.com
206-851-4330
Providing business owners peace of mind
through strategic bookkeeping and accounting solutions.
viDeo anD/or auDio reCorDing
oF ThiS perForManCe By
any MeanS whaTSoever iS
STriCTLy prohiBiTeD.
thank you
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 September 9, 2014 and October 9, 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 taxdeductible gift to Taproot Theatre Company (a 501c3 organization), please contact Acacia Danielson at 206-529-3647 or [email protected].
corPorAtions/foundAtions
$10,000+
Anonymous (3)
4Culture
Artsfund
Boeing Gift Matching Program
Margery M. Jones Trust
Moccasin Lake Foundation
$5,000 - $9,999
God`s Money
Intermec Foundation
Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
The Seattle Foundation
Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund
Washington State Arts Commission
$2,500 - $4,999
Anonymous (1)
Fales Foundation Trust
University Lions Club
$1,000 - $2,499
Ballard Industrial
McEachern Charitable Trust
McFadzean Family Fund
Microsoft Matching Gift Program
Ronald Blue & Co., LLC
Schiff Foundation
St. John`s Lodge
$500-$999
Aetna Foundation, Inc.
Estate of Albert Watenpaugh
$250-$499
Motorola Solutions Foundations
Satori Software Inc.
individuALs
angels ($10,000+)
Anonymous (3)
John & Ann Collier
Sandy Johnson
Glenna Kendall
Kraig & Pam Kennedy
Philip & Cheryl Laube
George & Alyssa Petrie
Susan Rutherford
Richal & Karen Smith
Steve Thomas and Kris Hoots
Daniel & Margret Voetmann
Marquee ($5,000 - $9,999)
David Allais
Larry & Lorann Bjork
Christopher & Patricia Craig
Gary & Deborah Ferguson
Greg & Karen Greeley
George & Claire Scranton
producers ($2,500 - $4,999)
Russell & Janice Ashleman
David & Anne Ball
Ted & Ruth Bradshaw
Tom & Linda Burley
Benjamin & Amanda Davis
Dennis & Deborah Deyoung
Juan & Kristine Espinoza
Leona Foley
Dorothy Herley
Wayne & Naomi Holmes
Mark & Mary Kelly
Fred & Carolyn Marcinek
Peter & Megumi Morrill
Scott & Pam Nolte
Bruce & Cynthia Parks
Ralph & Joan Prins
Sarah Roskam
Grace Rutherford
Loren & Carol Steinhauer
Daniel & Joann Wilson
Directors ($1,000 - $2,499)
Fil & Holly Alleva
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Inez Noble Black
Melvin & Cordelia Brady
Mark & Elle Bullard
Don Cavanaugh
Russell & Fay Cheetham
Alan & Gail Coburn
James & Kay Coghlan
Todd & Sylvie Currie
Jean & Paul DeGroot
Leon & Sharon Delong
Dale & Vicki Dvorak
Verna M. Eriks
Joyce Farley
Virginia Fordice
Michael & Karen Frazier
Steven & Jamie Froebe
Catherine Gaffney
Alan & Carol Gibson
Allen & Lori Gilbert
Brad Gjerding
Maren & Braden Goodwin
Arnott Gray
Tim Greenleaf
Carolyn Hanson
Henry & Lauren Heerschap
Joseph & Elizabeth Helms
Rick & Susan Hornor
John & Judith Hubbell
Mike & Barb Jewell
Julie Johnson
Susan Lamar
Frank Lawler
Barbara & Edmond Lee
Mark & Karen Lund
Velma Mahaffey
Gary McDonald
Tom & Jean Mohrweis
Cliff & Beryl Moon
Terry & Cornelia Moore
Les & Carol Nelson
Lloyd & Jackie Nolte
John & Lucy Nylander
Mary Pagels
Thom Parham
Kathy Pearson
Roy & Janice Petersen
Brian and Christa Poel
John & Patricia Putnam
Mona Quammen
Tom & Claudia Rengstorf
Vic & Kristine Rennie
Carrie Rhodes
G.M. & Holly Roe
Robert & Cathie Rohrig
Dion & Gregory Rurik
Kathryn Sand
David & Joan Selvig
Fredric & Jo Anne Sjoholm
Ronald & Dorita Smith
Robert L. Smith
Ed & Ellen Smyth
Bill Snider & Kendra
VanderMeulen
Charles & Marilyn Snow
Stephen & Elda Teel
Jeff & Margie Van Duzer
Jewely Van Valin-Jackson
Daryl & Claudia Vander Pol
Fred & Judy Volkers
James & Jo White
Jean Winfield
David & Ann Woodward
Robert & Maree Zawoysky
playwrights ($500 - $999)
Anonymous (2)
Mike & Shirley Allert
Geraldine Beatty
Terry & Nancy Beckham
Jeff & Anjie Berryman
Doug & Tambra Birkebak
Jack & Maralyn Blume
James & Melinda Bohrer
Tom & Jan Boyd
Tanya Button
Michael & Linda Casteel
Wayne & Greta Clousing
James & Janis Cobb
Tom & Lauren Cooper
Donald & Laura Cooper
Gary & Juelle Edwards
Ronald & Virginia Edwards
Kristine Engels
Stanley & Jane Fields
Lee Fitchett
Larry Fletcher
Thomas & Marybeth Fox
Sean & Catherine Gaffney
Robert Gallaher
Charles & Betty Gardner
John & Sally Glancy
Bonnie Green
Rawleigh & Dawn Grove
Richard & Louise Guthrie
Lowell & Kathie Hagan
Lewis & Elizabeth Hale
Tineke Raak Hanke
Wendy Hansen
Scott & Pattie Hardman
Rich & Judi Harpel
Peter & Anne Haverhals
Jonathan Henke
Peter & Cynthia Herley
David & Connie Hiscock
Bill & Nan Hough
Lee & Ginnie Huntsman
Mark Jenkins
David & Christina Johnson
Ann Kalas
Paul Kassen
John & Jean Krueger
Cody & Beth Lillstrom
Wesley & Merrilyn Lingren
Harry & Linda Macrae
John Madigan
Chris Marl
Charles Maurer
Lee & Janet McElvaine
Christe McMenomy
Don & Kim Morris
Tom & Linda Morris
George & Joy Myers
Jerel & Bess Navarrete
Eugene & Martha Nester
Craig & Linda Nolte
Sean & Carrie Nordberg
Paul & Cathy Nordman
Tom & Sue North
Nolan & Lorena Palmer
Danielle Palser
Steve Pellegrin & Mary Braund
Mark & Camille Peterson
James & Annita Presti
Bill & Jodie Purcell
Nancy Repenning
Richard & Maryann Riddle
Lawrence & Nancy Rudolph
Ron & Susan Runyon
Stan & Sharon Rust
Frederick & Caroline Scheetz
James & Elise Stephens
William & Carolyn Stoll
Elliot & Daytona Strong
Victoria Sutter
Jordan & Megan Swanson
Sharon Swift
Chuck & Kathy Talburt
Beverly Taylor
Farrel & Shari Thomas
Michael & Laura Thomason
Robert & Gina Thorstenson
Suzanne Townsend
John & Jan Vander Linden
Paul Vanlandeghen
John & Dianne West
Leora Wheeler
Isabelle Woodward
Glen & Eilene Zachry
$250-$499
Anonymous (1)
Thomas Ackerman
Jim Angerer
James Baker
Dorothy Balch
Daryl & Sue Banks
Lynda Batchelor
Marc Bateman
Tom Bayley
Betsy Bell
Margaret Blau
Chris & Connie Boyer
Zach & Rebecca Brittle
Jeff & Robin Brumley
Margaret Bullitt
Jack & Vicki Carney
Ken & Maria Carter
Jan Chalupny & Mark Lee
Jay & Jenny Cross
Judy Cushman
Wally & Susan Danielson
Robert Davis
Bruce & Glyn Devereaux
Maureen J. Dightman
William & Barbara Dunlap
Earl & Denise Ecklund
Duane & Patti Edwards
A Etter
Sharon Filipcic
Doug & Linda Freyberg
Gary & Kathy Gable
David Gardner
Thurman & Marjorie Gillespy
Carl & Pat Giurgevich
Johnathan Godsey
Lyle & Sharon Groeneveld
Ruth Hansen
Kathryn Hansen
Sally Hanson
Bryce & Nancy Hatch
Lloyd Herman
David & Mary Kay Hilmoe
Ray Hinea
Isobel Hostek
Heather Howard
Karen Howard
Buzz & Lisa Huget
Mora Johnson
Dan and Janine Johnson
Tim & Rebecca Kenison
Phyllis Kenney
Richard & Michela Klingele
Glenn & Lisa Knight
Karen Koon
Ron & Constance Lewis
Michael & Karen MacDonald
Robert & Roberta McBride
Frank & Lynne McCaslin
Geraldine McGill
Mel & Janet McIntyre
Tim & Sharon McKenzie
Dustin & Marie Morache
Bryce & Bonnie Nelson
David & Judy Nofziger
Peter & Amy Beth Nolte
Craig & Deanna Norsen
Lori Oliver
Vicki Olsen
Sherman Page
James Pagenkopf
Virginia Pflueger
Don & Jeri Prior
Jim Ramborger
Susan Roberts
Cathie Rohrig
Valerie Rosman
Bruce & Candace Sagor
Richard Salwen
Jon & Beth Schneidler
Norman & Eden Sellers
Lynn Sharp & Kathryn Olson Sharp
Elizabeth Shipley
Jim & Karen Skadan
Joy Smith
Kelly & Eric Souder
Jon & Dale Stasney
Ed & Kathy Sterner
Craig Strausz
Barbara Suder
James & Jill Trott
Rob & Cindy Tulloch
Sally Ursic
Virginia Warfield & Roscius Doan
James & Sharon Welch
Janet G. West
Randon & Carolyn Wickman
Robert & Patricia Wilshusen
William & Tina Woodward
Marcy Yoshida
2016 SeaSon
Taproot Theatre
Company is a
professional, nonprofit 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.
TaprooT TheaTre’S
40Th anniverSary
January 27 - February 27
Silent Sky
By Lauren Gunderson
March 23 - april 23
Cotton Patch Gospel
By Tom Key and Russell Treyz, Music and Lyrics by Harry Chapin
May 11 - June 11
Realization
Emily Linder
The
of
By Richard Strand
Big Fish
July 6 - august 13
Mailing address:
PO Box 30946
Seattle, Washington
98113-0946
administrative offices:
206.781.9705
Fax: 206.297.6882
septeMber 21 - OctOber 22
Joyful Noise
Box office:
206.781.9707
[email protected]
www.taproottheatre.org
www.facebook.com/
taproottheatre
twitter: @taproottheatre
Book by John August, Music
and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Based on the novel by Daniel
Wallace and the Columbia
Motion Picture written by
John August
by Tim Slover
3 Ways tO subscribe:
•Onlineat
taproottheatre.org
•Bymailusingtheform
inyourprogram
•Turninyourforminperson
attheBoxOffice
Playing in the isaac studio theatre
Scott Nolte,
Producing Artistic
Director
Karen Lund,
Associate Artistic
Director
Thank you To our
2015 SeaSon
SupporTerS
Based on the television special by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson
Stage Adaptation by Eric Schaeffer
By Special Arrangement with Arthur Whitelaw and Ruby Persson
cast
(In Order of Appearance)
Snoopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christopher Morson
Lucy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Molli Corcoran
pig pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sam Vance
Frieda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Russell
Schroeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler Todd Kimmel
Charlie Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Wippel
Linus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Justin Huertas *
Sally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carly Squires Hutchison
Production
Director
Music Director
Co-Scenic Design
Co-Scenic and Sound Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Stage Manager
Karen Lund
Sam Vance
Rick Lorig
Mark Lund
Sarah Burch Gordon
Kristi Matthews
Abigail Pishaw
A Charlie Brown Christmas is approximately 40 mins with no intermission.
*Member of the Actors’ Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors and
Stage Managers in the United States.
the coMPany of a charlie Brown christMas
MoLLi CorCoran (Lucy) is thrilled to
be making her Taproot Theatre debut
in this fabulous play. Other recent
credits include: Seattle Children’s
Theatre’s Goodnight Moon (Mouse),
Pippi Longstocking (Pippi), The Wizard
of Oz (Barrister) and Dot & Ziggy
(Dot); Balagan Theatre’s Urinetown (Hope); Book-It
Repertory Theatre’s Danger: Books!, JT News: A Jewish
Celebration.
juSTin huerTaS (Linus) makes his
Taproot Theatre debut. Seattle
Repertory Theatre: Lizard Boy, Speech
& Debate. ArtsWest: American Idiot.
The 5th Avenue Theatre: Grease,
Secondhand Lions. Village Theatre: In
the Heights. Justin is the Hanschen half
of acoustic-folk duo Hanschen & Ilse (hanschenandilse.
com). Love and thanks to Kirsten and Phillip.
CarLy SquireS huTChiSon (Sally) is
overjoyed to be making her Taproot
debut as Sally this Christmas! Favorite
credits include: Funny Girl, 42nd
Street, Show Boat (Village), High School
Musical (SCT), A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (Wooden O). She also enjoys
teaching, directing and choreographing. Your continued
support is an incredible blessing! Merry Christmas!!
TyLer ToDD kiMMeL (Schroeder) is so
excited to be back at Taproot! He was
last seen in their summer production
of Godspell. He has music degrees
from Pepperdine University and Florida
International University, and works as
a music director, vocal coach, actor,
composer, and is the choir and theater director at Seattle
Christian Schools.
ChriSTopher MorSon (Snoopy) This
will be Christopher’s theatrical debut
with Taproot Theatre. His most recent
credits include Seattle Repertory
Theatre’s A View from the Bridge and
Book-It Repertory Theatre’s The Dog of
The South. Catch him next in Seattle
Shakespeare Company’s production of Titus Andronicus
and Book-It Repertory Theatre’s The Brothers K.
Christopher is a graduate from Cornish College of
the Arts where he received his BFA in Acting. www.
Christophermorson.com
Sarah ruSSeLL (Frieda) is ecstatic to
finally be making her Taproot debut in
this classic show. Past credits include
Grease (5th Avenue), Legally Blonde
(SecondStory Rep), Julius Caesar
(Seattle Shakespeare), and The Little
Mermaid (StoryBook Theater). Big
thanks to Karen, the cast and crew for all the fun. Enjoy
the show!
SaM vanCe (Pig Pen/Music Director)
has been seen in numerous TTC
productions as well many others in the
greater Seattle area. Along with being
an actor and musician, Sam is also a
visual artist. You can see examples of
his work at www.vancearts.com. He
holds a BA in Theatre from Seattle Pacific University and
an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Sam is happily married to actress Candace Vance, and is
the proud father of Max, Echo and Zoe.
BenjaMin wippeL (Charlie Brown) is
excited to make his Taproot debut,
having previously dialect coached
Jeeves Intervenes and Jane Eyre.
Benjamin is co-founder of the theater
group Broken Cage Collective and
received his BFA in Theatre from
Cornish College of the Arts, where he assists with
teaching.
Sarah BurCh gorDon (Costume Designer & Shop Manager)
has designed 50+ shows for Taproot in the past ten
years. Regionally, Sarah has also designed for TAG,
SART, Stage West Theatre, Brick Playhouse and Venture
Theatre. She was nominated for a 2010 Gregory award.
Her MFA is from Temple University. Poinsettias and
Potatoes to CLM.
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 TTC
work includes Godspell, The Explorers Club, Jane Eyre,
Mr. Pim Passes By, and Diana of Dobson’s. She is
currently serving as the President of the Theatre Puget
Sound Board of Directors. Her national credits include
productions at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and
the Idaho and Kentucky Shakespeare Festivals. She has
garnered numerous film awards including three Tellys.
Karen thanks her amazing husband Mark, and children,
Jake and Hannah for making her life wonderful.
riCharD Lorig (Co-Scenic Designer) is pleased to be
working with Mark and all the great folks at Taproot
again! Some of his previous scenic designs include Best
of Enemies, Appalachian Christmas Homecoming, Illyria,
Chaps!, Smoke On The Mountain and All My Sons. He
is a freelance designer whose recent work includes
scenery for Youth Theatre Northwest and West of Lenin.
He is also an Associate Professor of Theatre and Scenic
Designer at Seattle Pacific University. Merry Christmas
and love to Steffanie and Asher!
Mark LunD (Co-Scenic & Sound Designer) has designed
over 100 TTC shows, including Godspell, Jeeves
Intervenes and The Explorer’s Club. Other design work
includes Seattle Shakes, Book-It, Fringe Festival and
award-winning short films. He also played Snoopy for
TTC in 2004. Mark is also a voice over actor. Love to
Karen, Hannah & Jake.
(cont. next page)
the coMPany
kriSTi MaTThewS (Lighting Designer) is Master Electrician
and Box Office Manager at Taproot and also designs,
stage manages, teaches, or is a technician at many local
theatres, high schools and universities. She’s delighted to
join the Peanuts gang for the 11th time! Recent Taproot
design credits include: The Amish Project and Jeeves
Intervenes.
SCoTT noLTe (Producing Artistic Director) is a co-founder
and the Producing Artistic Director of TTC. Over the
course of 39 years, he’s directed plays ranging from The
Odyssey to Smoke on the Mountain and more recently
Dracula, Best of Enemies, Appalachian Christmas
Homecoming, The Fabulous Lipitones, In the Book Of,
The Matchmaker, The Whipping Man, Gaudy Night
and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas
Carol for TTC. He has participated in several new-play
development projects, is past president of Theatre Puget
Sound and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers.
aBigaiL piShaw (Stage Manager) is delighted to be working
on her third show with Taproot (unseen behind the
scenes for Appalachian Christmas Homecoming & Jeeves
Intervenes). A local stage/production manager, she has
also worked with Ghost Light Theatricals, SecondStory
Repertory, Sound Theatre Company and Theatre
Schmeater. Much love to cast & crew!
charlie Brown staff
Production stAff
Aidanfinn Poteet - Assistant Stage Manager
costuMe stAff
Aidanfinn Poteet - Dresser
courtney Kessler-Jeffrey, Amethyst Beach,
rebecca eide - Stitcher
scenic, LiGHtinG, sound stAff
Kristi Matthews - Master Electrician
Baylie Heims - Light Board Operator
tim samland - Scenic Carpenter
daniel cole, Alex Grennan, Baylie Heims,
Alex Marne smith, Jacob Yarborough
- Electrics Crew
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
ROCKET TO ACCLAIM
from city arts magazine
knew I wanted to be a filmmaker.”
In the decade-plus that followed, Chitwood
Sci-fi Flick Gathers Accolades
established
himself as a digital effects artist,
Wade Chitwood went back to the future when
most
notably
on former Seattle director Kevin
he co-wrote, directed, edited and created
Hamedani’s two nationally distributed genre
digital effects for Rocket Man and the Aerial
films, Zombies of Mass Destruction and Junk.
Fortress. The movie posits an alternate 1918,
Chitwood and Korolenko also collaborated on
one in which courageous-but-clueless hero
two more Rocket Man installments and the
Rocket Man takes on a Prussian madman
screenplay for The Comet Chronicles, a 2011
intent on reigniting the recently ended World
science fiction short that Chitwood directed.
War I. Chitwood’s affectionate period spoof of
Once Comet ran its course on the festival
classic cliffhanger serials delivers early 20th
circuit
(and netted a few awards), Chitwood
century costumes and props, retro-futuristic
approached Korolenko and original Rocket
steampunk cityscapes, a giant dirigible,
Man star Rob Mullin about co-writing a
comic dogfights between Rocket Man and
newer, bigger Rocket Man movie. Both
several biplanes, and a surplus of slam-bang
men agreed and Rocket Man and the Aerial
action—all which cost him around $5,000,
Fortress was underway.
with a mostly amateur
Through Bellevue College,
cast and crew.
Korolenko acquired a
That budgetary feat
crew of students and a
alone merits respect.
green screen facility;
But Chitwood’s labor
Chitwood scouted out local
of love has gained
locations.
serious attention from
“The movie’s what
some prominent areas
you’d call steampunkof the sci-fi galaxy.
lite,” Chitwood says, “and
The movie screened
there are a whole bunch
in late August in
of places around here
Spokane at Worldcon,
that look steampunk.”
the international sci-fi
The Georgetown Steam
convention responsible
Plant, built in 1918 and
for awarding science
sporting impressivefiction literature’s
looking old-school
prestigious Hugo
turbines and controls,
Awards, and won Best
became the interior of the
Short Film from the
Rob Mullin as Rocket Man
villains’ warship, and the
Accolade Global Film
USS Turner Joy, a Navy
Competition (an internationally renowned
destroyer moored in Bremerton, provided
online film jury) earlier this year. Even
more interior locations.
science fiction writer/media critic and
The completed 37-minute film takes
celebrated curmudgeon Harlan Ellison sent
Korolenko’s original conceit and kicks
the production team a glowing letter of
it up several notches. Nuanced color
praise after seeing the film, writing that he
replaces the black-and-white of the original
“watched it with growing pleasure, disbelief
installments, and the clever integration of
at its skills, and ultimate huzzahs…I only
found locations with digital technology adds
loved your movie.”
to the production value. Most significantly,
For Chitwood, the saga of Rocket Man
Chitwood and his collaborators crafted a
began in 2002. After he graduated from
special-effects-laden period action movie on
Bellevue College with an animation degree,
pocket change.
film professor Michael Korolenko asked him
The writer/director/special effects
to assist with special effects on Rocket Man:
man
is now pitching Rocket Man and the
Death from Above, a short film directed by
Aerial
Fortress as a possible TV series and
Korolenko that introduced the Rocket Man
submitting it to more festivals. While he’s
character. Chitwood went on to become
unsure what the future holds for Rocket
special effects supervisor on the short and
Man’s adventures, he takes considerable
wound up contributing significantly to its
pride in how well Aerial Fortress connected
overall look and feel.
with a packed roomful of Worldcon sci-fi
“I took the film home and did all the postfans. “As soon as the film started they got it,”
production work, from the posters to the
he says. “The satire, the alternate world, the
digital effects to the DVD replication to sound
steampunk, the crazy Prussians, all of it.”
mixing and editing,” Chitwood says. “It was
TONY KAY
a great learning experience. From that point I
AXIS DANCE COMPANY
Saturday, February 6, 2016 | 7:30 pm
$29, $24 & $19 | Youth/Student $15
AXIS Dance Company has become one of the world’s most
acclaimed and innovative ensembles of performers with
and without disabilities. Their
ECA Engagement will include
a newly-commissioned piece by choreographer Joe
Goode, called to go again, that addresses veterans’
issues and themes of resiliency.
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
Friday, April 1, 2016 | 7:30 pm
$39, $34 & $29 | Youth/Student $15
The 2010 GRAMMY® Awardwinner for Best Traditional
Folk Album is by far the most
candid diarist of the singer-song-writers, wringing more
human truth out of his contradiction than any other songwriter of his generation.
PATTI LUPONE
Thursday, April 21, 2016 | 7:30 pm
$79, $74 & $69
An American actress and singer best known for her work in
stage musicals, Patti LuPone is
a two-time GRAMMY® Award
winner and a two-time Tony
Award winner. She is also a
2006 American Theater Hall
of Fame inductee.
ec4arts.org
425.275.9595
410FOURTHAVE.N.
EDMONDSWA98020
Tickets
start at
SEATTLE
$16
CHAMBER
MUSIC
SOCIETY
JANUARY
WINTER
FESTIVAL 22-31, 2016
JAMES EHNES
Artistic Director
ILLSLEY BALL
NORDSTROM
RECITAL HALL
at Benaroya Hall
BOX OFFICE
206.283.8808 // seattlechambermusic.org
CAN
FA
THE
by JONATHAN ZWICKEL
N’T
AKE
FUNK
photo by LOU DAPRILE
T
HERE’S NO ROOM TO DANCE AT THE SEAMONSTER.
On a balmy Friday night in September, the longstanding live-music bar in Wallingford is packed
front to back and wall to wall and people are upset.
Also smiling, drinking, wiggling in whatever
cranny presents itself in the churning throng.
“We totally thought we were gonna get down tonight!”, says
a short-haired 40-something woman next to me. A tall, wellgroomed guy spills beer on her Pumas; she shoos him along
but there’s nowhere to go. She and her girlfriend came from
West Seattle to dance to Funky2Death, a band they fell for
last year at a music festival. Now, like everyone else crammed
in here—baseball-capped college kids, crop-topped young
women, graying ponytails, costumed Burners, dreadlocked
African Americans and plaid-shirted dudes—they’re making
the best of it.
F2D, as they’re known, has been the Seamonster’s Friday
night house band for five years. But for the last three months
the place has been closed for construction as it takes over the
former bakery space next door. The half-finished room probably isn’t ready to host this party (“Expansion coming soon!
October 1!?” reads a Sharpie-drawn notice on the drywall
behind the stage) but neither bar owner nor band could resist.
“We haven’t done this all summer and I almost forgot how
to get down!” says Woogie D, bandleader, drummer and
singer, from behind the kit.
A large and easy presence in dark shades, Woogie is
flanked by a three-piece horn section, guitar, bass and keys.
He launches into “Sex Machine,” singing James Brown’s vocal
parts, playing Clyde Stubblefield’s drum parts and chewing
gum in double-time. The song is one of a few covers they play
tonight alongside favorites by Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder and
the Headhunters, interspersed with originals that fit right in
with the rest. The music is lock-tight, propulsive but loose,
swinging insistently against the beat. Despite the cramped
confines—or maybe because of them—the crowd kneads itself
into a sweaty frenzy. Seriously: It’s funky in here.
LET’S DECLARE 2015 THE YEAR OF FUNK.
In January, British DJ and producer Mark Ronson released
Uptown Special, his fourth album, which includes his collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk,” a worldwide
hit that celebrates funk from title to execution. The entirety
of Uptown Special is, in fact, a pastiche of funk styles from
the ’70s and ’80s and an homage to stylistic originators like
James Brown, the Gap Band, Zapp & Roger and Morris Day &
the Time. It came out a few weeks after D’Angelo released his
funk-infused, politically charged third album, Black Messiah,
after some 20 years of incubation.
continued next page
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
THE FUNK, continued
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16 ENCORE STAGES
In March, Kendrick Lamar, currently
the most respected hip-hop artist on the
planet, released his second album, To
Pimp a Butterfly, which features a live
band of young Angeleno musicians who
bank heavily on Parliament-Funkadelic
grooves; in his lyrics, Lamar makes copious
references to George Clinton and James
Brown. The album, which debuted at
Billboard’s #1 slot, was lauded by critics,
including Rolling Stone’s Greg Tate and The
New Yorker’s Hua Hsu, who described it as
“built on visionary jazz and cosmic funk.”
In August the NWA biopic Straight
Outta Compton was released in theatres,
rekindling interest in the groundbreaking
gangster-rap crew’s audacious music.
Back in the late ’80s, producer Dr. Dre built
NWA’s sound almost entirely from samples
of Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins
and other pioneering funkateers. The name
he bestowed on the style: G-funk.
Funk has been popular music’s lingua
franca ever since R&B moved into the
mainstream almost 40 years ago. Add to
that argot hip-hop, which has dominated
pop music since the turn of the millennium
and was, from the very beginning, derived
from funk drum beats. From Michael
Jackson to Macklemore, Rick James to
Rihanna, almost all modern pop relies on a
funk-fashioned emphasis on the downbeat
to provide booty-moving momentum. Even
Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Megan
Trainor’s “All About that Bass”—squeaky
clean megahits from last year—flex bubbling breakbeats, swaggering horns and
and heavy low-end—all hallmarks of funk.
Funk can be as edgy and energized as
punk rock or as cerebral and intense as
jazz. It can ensure that even the blandest
top-40 fare works on the dancefloor and
for sing-alongs in the car. But its public
face has been dressed up in shallow 1970s
signifiers—kooky outfits, platform shoes,
Afro wigs—for so long that you might
never know its inventors envisioned funk
as a means of black empowerment and
liberation.
“Free your mind and your ass will
follow,” George Clinton said in 1970.
Today’s cultural landscape, fraught with
tension over race, representation and
appropriation, is seemingly on the edge of
breakthrough or revolution. Funk recognizes suffering and struggle as precursors
to triumph and unity. It brings together joy
and pain in a catharsis that’s both compassionate and celebratory.
NOT SURPRISINGLY, SEATTLE’S HISTORY
of funk music is long and vast and mostly
overlooked.
“This scene is the grandchild of
Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and Jimi
Hendrix,” says Davin Stedman, singer
and bandleader for the funk-rock band
the Staxx Brothers, name-checking the
godfathers of funk, soul and jazz in Seattle.
Funk, soul, jazz, whatever you wanna call
it—Stedman points out that it’s all music
Funk has been
pop music’s
lingua franca
ever since R&B
moved into the
mainstream
almost 40
years ago.
made for dancing.
Following the holy trinity named above,
the music flourished in the dance clubs,
living rooms and concert halls of the
Central District in the ’60s, ’70s and early
’80s. In the ’90s and early ’00s, funk outfits
like Thadillac, Phat Sidy Smokehouse,
Supersonic Soul Pimps and Maktub—the
latter helmed by Reggie Watts, who now
leads the house band for The Late Late
Show with James Corden—were lumped
into the jam-band scene of the era simply
because they all followed the same dictum:
Make the people dance by any means
necessary.
“Funk as a genre has been looked at
as this sort of hokey party music,” says
Ben Bloom, guitarist for Seattle band
Polyrhythmics. “A lot of the reason for
that in American culture is because it’s
been relegated to dance music. It’s a party,
you have a good time, and it’s less about
the music being played than the band
performing.”
Today, as jam bands shake their stigma,
so do funk bands. Among the hipsterati,
these are the last taboo genres, forbidden
fruit simultaneously repulsive and tempting.
Seattle is abloom with a new generation of
funk and soul.
Polyrhythmics stand out for their instrumental polyglot funk. They’ve toured across
the country and released a phenomenal LP
in 2013. Staxx Brothers are 13-year veterans,
standing alongside Marmalade, a big-band
collective that recently ended a 12-year
weekly run at the High Dive and ToST in
Fremont.
Down the street, Nectar holds an open
funk jam every Monday night that attracts a
range of talent, from UW music students to
local soul-music veterans to international
guests. Tuesdays at the Seamonster belong
to McTuff, a soul-jazz trio featuring organist
Joe Doria, guitarist Andy Coe and drummer
D’Vonne Lewis, three of the most obscenely
talented musicians in the city. The Dip is a
deep-soul spinoff from Beat Connection,
who recently signed a deal with LA-based
Anti Records. A hard-funking band called
Down North holds court in Tacoma. Seattlebased labels WestSound and We Coast press
45s by these bands (or iterations of them)
and distribute in small numbers to collectors
across the globe.
The momentum is undeniable but
self-contained. Until now it’s lacked a
figurehead—an artist or a band with the overwhelming charisma to attract attention from
beyond the scene, to connect to those who
might not seek out the funk but want it once
they hear it. Finally, in this Year of Funk, that
band may have arrived.
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“WE GET PEOPLE TO MOVE,” SAYS GRACE
Love and, based on the crowd reaction at
her band’s recent Bumbershoot appearance,
she’s right. The band starts up while Love is
still in the crowd, mingling and dancing with
fans. She takes the stage, her prodigious
pipes as natural as they are indisputable,
and for 30 minutes Grace Love & the True
Loves push and pull the soggy, all-ages
audience with their updated Motown sound.
They’ve been playing together for only a year
but have already made a mark: festival gigs,
KEXP airplay, a West Coast tour, a series of
singles released on 45.
Love’s instantly magnetic, always-incontrol stage presence stems from her four
years in the drama program at Lincoln High
School in Tacoma. “The drama kids taught
me how to be myself all the time, gave me
the confidence to go into a room and be
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
WOMB
ESCAPE IX
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Comedy Championship
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Fridays & Saturdays
Dec. 4thth - 19thth
at the Black Box Theatre
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CELEBRATIONS
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present,” she says. After dropping out of
Pacific Lutheran University she spent time in
Florida and New York City, where she sang
on the subway—and sometimes slept there
for lack of anyplace else to go.
A chance encounter with a British DJ
landed her in Manchester, England, where
she recorded vocals for house music tracks
before falling ill and getting burned out on
music. When she returned to the Northwest
she had no intentions beyond working as a
chef and eventually opening a restaurant.
Then a friend brought her to the Seamonster
and introduced her to Jimmy James.
James is the guitarist in Funky2Death
and the True Loves. Soft-spoken and deeply
knowledgeable, he appears as an anachronism, a hermetic student of soul. He’s studied and refined in his offbeat temperament
but also plays guitar solos with his mouth.
He will tell you that the F2D play funk and
the True Loves play soul and will argue over
“This scene is
the grandchild
of Ray Charles,
Quincy Jones
and Jimi
Hendrix.”
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the distinction with examples by the greats.
But he’ll also tell you that ultimately it all
comes from the Black church and serves the
same purpose.
“Soul is a feeling. It’s a liberation. And a
salvation. You are playing it and singing it
like it’s your last breath,” he says. “Music
as a whole is supposed to unite and bring
people together no matter what color they
are. Even people that can’t speak the same
language can all relate.”
Love, 29, and James, 34, didn’t immediately hit it off. But they were caught in each
other’s orbits, colliding at the Seamonster
and at shows around the city. They eventually found their way to Studio Litho in
Fremont, where Anthony “Funkscribe”
Warner, keyboardist in F2D, Marmalade and
the True Loves, had booked session time.
“I felt like this is an opportunity to put
together an amazing studio band,” Warner
says. “Because we weren’t getting the
recognition I thought we deserved I said let’s
make records and sell them in Europe and
Japan because we need to preserve the scene
in some way.” For the last couple of years,
Warner has recorded Seattle bands like the
True Loves and F2D on his We Coast Records
label, commissioning 45s from a vinylpressing plant in Ohio and selling them to
collectors near and far. He also hosts KBCS’s
decade-old Friday-night funk show Uncle
Meghabhuti & Funkscribe Present.
In October, Grace Love & the True Loves
released their eponymous debut album. It’s a
39-minute tear through the finest chops and
deepest feelings you’ll hear all year, at turns
heart-wrenched and melancholy or revved
up and celebratory. Anyone familiar with
the current funk and soul revival will slot
True Loves songs like “Fire” and “Mean to
Me” alongside tracks by Sharon Jones & the
Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley and Lee Fields &
the Expressions. But that’s only because all
of these bands are part of a larger continuum
that stretches back decades.
“The music could spark something that
changes someone’s life,” James says. “It’s
not trying to invent the next new thing.”
Across all of these bands and labels and
live shows, the unifying force is a deepseated belief in the funk and its powerful,
positive mojo. Among all musical genres,
funk musicians seem the most sincere and
impassioned about the stuff they play, as if
they’re possessed by a relentless spirit that
they can only exorcise through music. To
them it’s more than a style or affect or set of
clothes or sounds. It’s a way of life.
“We play this music because we love this
music,” says Warner. “The funk is rhythm
and consciousness. It’s music that unites
people around dancing. It’s a chance to
convey a message through radical selfexpression, whether it’s Parliament with
their Black renaissance and personal uplift
all the way to Kendrick Lamar’s album,
which is basically about the same thing.
That’s what We Coast is, bringing people
together from different backgrounds to make
music that’s trying to be timeless and genre
boundless. “
Or as Stedman puts it, “Funk is a delivery
system for truth.”
Peel away the layers and there’s the soul
surging beneath the most beloved aspects of
American culture. We owe a debt of gratitude
to this music and we’re fortunate to have a
cadre of its most dedicated purveyors in this
city. Like George Clinton says, “Funk not
only moves, it can remove, dig? The desired
effect is what you get.” n
Emma
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judge of your own
happiness.”
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The view from Columbia
Crest, the highest point
on Mt. Rainier, captured
by an iPhone 6 and
Moment lens.
HOLIDAY
VILLAGE
A miniature town that
captures giant imaginations.
December 12 - January 3
Savor the Moment
JONATHAN ZWICKEL
A Seattle startup makes
a camera-phone lens
that’s almost perfect.
IN AUGUST I SPENT two weeks at Mt. Rainier
National Park, first climbing to the top of
the 14,410-foot-tall summit, then backpacking the Wonderland Trail around the base.
It was an epic experience that I won’t get
into here—too many revelations, too many
highlights. Let’s just call it a life-changing
journey and leave it at that.
What I can tell you about—and show you—
are my photos.
Planning the trip, I wanted to
come back with photos that approached the grandeur of my journey. No way was I backpacking 10
days with a hefty, pricy camera.
Nor did I want to buy a point-andshoot that would one day break,
get lost or poison a landfill.
I came across a Kickstarter
by a company called Moment,
a Seattle-based startup that
claimed to make “the world’s
best lenses for mobile photography.” Their lens would elevate
my iPhone photo game to nigh
professional status. I bought in
at $130 back in February; soon after, Moment
had raised $693,435 and production began in
Shenzhen, China.
My Moment package included the lens—I
opted for the wide over the tele; it’s a dense,
sturdy little cylinder of glass and aluminum—and a phone case for affixing the
lens. The case features a shutter button at
thumb level that syncs with a Bluetooth app
to allow for easier pic-snapping, plus a loop
for a camera strap. To put the thing on my
phone for the first time, I followed a video on
the Moment website—a process that wasn’t
exactly intuitive.
During a training hike on Mt. Si I took a
few test shots: beautiful! The lens increased
the field of view within the camera frame almost twofold. Colors were richer, with better
contrast, brighter light and clearer definition.
It works!
For the big trip, I skipped the Bluetooth option to save battery life. I also went without
a camera strap because anything dangling
from your neck while you hike will bounce
with every step, slipshod and irritating. So
the encased phone went into my back pocket,
lens attached and capped, as I saw illustrated
on the Moment site.
That might’ve been a mistake,
because soon the alignment between the lens, case and phone
was off, the edges of the case encroaching on the corners of my
photos. Eventually the lens was
no longer staying attached to
the case; the aluminum threads
around the mounting were too
worn. I took to keeping the lens
in one pocket and the phone in
another and screwing the lens
on when I wanted a photo.
Back at home, I cropped out
the dark corners and contacted
the Moment people with my feedback. They
were immensely accommodating and offered two fixes: I could exchange the lens
for a refund or get a free, upgraded case
that comes out this month. I chose option
two. JONATHAN ZWICKEL
B A I N B R I D G E I S L A N D , WA
www.bloe delres e r ve.o rg
Cantina Leña is now serving
BREAKFAST BURRITOS!
Scrambled eggs, crispy
potatoes, pintos, melty queso,
taptio sour cream and your
choice of smoked pork, beef
chuck, spicy chicken, chorizo or
braised kale.
Breakfast served:
weekdays from 8-11 am
weekends from 9 am-3 pm
Cantina Leña
2105 5th Ave., Seattle, WA 98121
206-519-5723
www.cantinalena.com
MOMENTLENS.COM
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Mixing
Opposites
Tamara Codor merges
masculine and feminine,
structured and surreal.
BY AMANDA MANITACH
WHO Tamara Codor, the 34-year-old artist,
designer and co-owner of Codor Design. A
Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Codor studied classical
painting in New York and France before arriving
in Seattle 10 years ago to be with a partner.
Finding herself single again, she decided to
make something of her remaining time in Seattle
and started her own furniture design company.
A week later, she met Sterling Voss, and they
co-founded Codor Design.
THE LOOK “My trademark look is paint overalls
and permanent streaks of paint on my hands or
hair. Most people in my neighborhood will comment if I’m not covered in paint. But my favorite
thing to do is the quick turnaround. Because I am
always a mess, I love getting dressed up. I don’t
really have an in between. The only problem is I
usually can’t get all the paint off my body in time
to go out in my fancy clothes.”
ICONS “I am equally attracted to clean, angular,
LAUREN MAX
masculine lines and styles that are wildly baroque and feminine. Art Deco and early Bauhaus
like Milo Baughman, paired with the Rococo extravagance or playful opulence of Tony Duquette.
I’ve also always been attracted to Surrealism in
the style of Man Ray and De Chirico—dreamlike but highly structured and stylish—or
even Hieronymus Bosch, the original surrealist. I
think this creeps into my personal style.”
UP NEXT “We are focusing on building out our
wood/metal shop as well as expanding our
lighting line. We recently developed a custom
chandelier with moving parts for a client in Texas.
It got us thinking about creating one-of-a-kind
sculptural lights. The best I can describe them is
as architectural compositions with wings.”
22 ENCORE STAGES
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Haptic Animation Amplifier
Fires up Local Film
Haptic Animation Amplifier publicly launched
in October at Northwest Film Forum, before a
retrospective of Seattle animation icon Bruce
Bickford’s work during the Local Sightings festival.
Tess Martin—who makes short animated films
with paper cut-outs, ink, paint, sand and other
objects—created the nonprofit to support Northwest
animators and raise the profile of locally made
animated film.
“There’s a beautiful rich history of interesting, personal artistic films,” says Martin, a story
that gets lost in the world of studio animation. To
start Haptic, Martin compiled an online database
and timeline of every animated film made in the
Northwest.
Haptic is a natural extension of Martin’s work
with the Seattle Experimental Animation Team, an
informal network of local independent animators.
Shortly after she arrived in Seattle in 2008, Martin
reached out to animator and SEAT founder Stefan
Gruber, who invited her to join the group, whose
members all share a nontraditional sensibility. SEAT puts on screenings of their work at the
Zeitgeist Café in Pioneer Square; make collaborative, exquisite corpse-style films that build on one
another’s work; apply for small grants and help
each other on projects.
Martin wanted to bring Pacific Northwest
animation, in all of its experimental glory, to a
wider audience. In 2011 she curated an evening of
animated shorts and booked a three-week trip to
Europe, where she presented the program at various indie cinemas and arts centers. She created a
second touring program, Strange Creatures, when
readying to leave Seattle for a Master’s program in
the Netherlands in 2013, taking with her to Europe
work by Webster Crowell, Britta Johnson, Drew
Christie, Clyde Peterson, Stefan Gruber and Bruce
Bickford.
“Generally speaking, in Europe there’s a lot more
attention paid to animation history, and in some
countries people really value it as a part of national
cultural heritage,” Martin says.
The United States lacks festivals where animation and animators take center stage. Many
American film festivals include animation, but few
bring together animators from all over the world to
network, share techniques and exchange ideas.
Because none of the big Pacific Northwest art
schools offer an animation degree—classes focus
mostly on commercial studio work—Haptic serves
as a resource to help animators find and navigate
opportunities. The website will have information
about festivals, animation courses, local meet-ups,
and artist residencies and graduate programs all
over the world. It will curate more touring programs
of PNW work and bring international animation to
local screens.
After showing Strange Creatures at a famous
animation school in Hungary one of the students
told Martin, “The films seem very free.”
“If you’re making work in places that do have
this history, Martin says, it can weigh on you and
stop you from experimenting and trying something
wacky,” she says, “which is definitely not an issue
in the Northwest.” GEMMA WILSON
Mirabella
Put yourself in
the middle of it.
This is the little
this is the
with a rare immune disease. And
who works with the
both supported by these generous
who are
to repair tiny
immune systems, giving children like Ezra a second chance
at a healthy childhood.
CARE. RESEARCH. PHILANTHROPY. COMING TOGETHER EVERY DAY. Baby Ezra
was diagnosed with a rare immune disease, leaving him unable to fight germs and infections.
The collaboration between Seattle Children’s doctors, researchers and generous people like
you make it possible for children like Ezra to have a brighter future. To learn more or donate,
visit seattlechildrens.org.

Seattle Theatre Group_Encore Arts Seattle

Transcription

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