reviewed by Alec Clayton
Ryan Holmberg as Prince JohnDennis Worrell as Robin Hood
I had such a good laugh last night at Olympia Family Theater’s The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood. This is children’s theater that adults can love while children are charmed, and judging by almost sellout the audience the night I attended no one is too old or too young to enjoy it because it has everything from great slapstick comedy to rollicking adventure to brilliant word play to audience participation. 
It is a loud play with lots of frantic running around and lots of shouting from everyone except Town’s Guy (Chris Cantrell) who does not speak at all.
The humor is of the Monty Python/Saturday Night Live variety but without the sex, violence and bad language. There are no curse words, but there are plenty of curses, all from the dainty lips of the lovely Maid Marian (Ingrid Pharris Goebel) — curses such as may you have acne, may you have dandruff, may you have itches in places you can’t scratch. (Maid Marian seems obsessed with irritable skin conditions.)
This delightful take on the classic tale was written by Mary Lynn Dobson and is directed by Tom Sanders in his first directorial outing. 
A word about Town’s Guy’s silence: It’s possible, not very likely, but possible, that Cantrell came down with laryngitis and having him not speak was a last minute adaptation and maybe he’ll speak in subsequent performances. But as I said, that’s not very likely. There is a pre-show speech by Robin Hood (Dennis Worrell) in which he explains to the kids what the story is about, invites them to help by shouting out such helpful phrases as “Boo Hiss” every time the evil Prince John is mentioned, and explains the difference between a play and television. And then he explains that the Town’s Guy can’t speak but will narrate the story with gestures only — and then Cantrell in  deliciously underplayed absurdity makes gestures and telling facial expressions throughout the play as Sanders, off stage, speaks his lines. Whatever the reason, whether it was laryngitis or written into the script, it worked beautifully.
Almost every actor in the play deserves special recognition, but I can’t single out every one. They’re all good, starting with Worrell, who plays the Prince of Thieves as a self-satisfied egotistical maniac with big dramatic gestures and poses throughout. He even makes fun of himself, as most of the characters do, by saying things such as don’t interrupt, I’m posing.
Ryan Holmberg knocks it out of the park with his portrayal of the evil Prince John (Boo Hiss!) as a fey poseur, the perfect foil to Robin Hood. 
Goebel’s portrayal of Maid Marian is the most outrageously funny performance I’ve seen from her since her mid-boggling performance in Don Juan in Chicago five years ago.
Outstanding in supporting roles are Christine Goode as the Lady in Waiting, Christian Carvajal as Little John (who knew this celebrated dramatic actor could do abject idiocy so well?), and Bobby Brown as Friar Tuck.
Take the kids or take a date. Either way you’ll love it.
Robin Hood runs through April 14 at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts Back Box Theater, 512 Washington St., Olympia.
PerformancesThursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at    1 p.m., with an additional 4:30 matinee Saturday, April 13.   
Tickets:     Children 12 and under $9, Students/Seniors/Military $12, Adults $16 (Plus    $3 WA Center Service Fee per ticket). Available online at www.olytix.org, by phone at (360) 753-8586 or at the WA Center Box Office. Discounts available for groups of 10 or more. Discounts only available by phone or in person at the box office.

Michael Johnson’s new sculptural installation at Kittredge Gallery
The Weekly Volcano, April 4,2013


The fascinating thing about Michael Johnson’s new sculptural installation at Kittredge Gallery is that you can see it from many perspectives, literally and metaphorically. The installation is in the smaller back gallery. Viewed through the double open doors from the larger front gallery it can be taken in in a single, all-encompassing glance, and from this initial glance a viewer can gain various impressions and interpretations. Then walk into the gallery and take a closer look and you will see it in one or more entirely different lights. Finally — and you should do this only after thoroughly looking — read the explanation on the wall label to understand what you’re looking at.

My initial impression when scanning the room was that I was seeing a Japanese home or a theatrical set design. The overall impression was of power, stark contrasts and elegance of form. Of course the big red dot on the back wall helped to foster that impression. It looks like a Japanese flag, and the sparse forms suspended from the ceiling in front of it and throughout the room look like Japanese screens. Or like some Matrix-like futuristic scene.

Underneath the big red dot are the printed words “You Are Here,” and under that is printed: “47 15.8’N/122 28.7’ W”  — presumably points of latitude and longitude — and we realize that the crux of the installation has to do with directions. The red dot is the starting point seen on directional schematics in a building such as a mall or the lobby of an institutional complex.

Walking into the gallery we get a better look at the forms suspended from the ceiling. There are six of them, each approximately eight-feet square suspended horizontal to the floor from wires and about the level of the viewer’s knees. There is no indication of media, but my guess would be wood painted black. They look much heavier than they probably are, and there is a feeling of defying gravity or a conflict of massiveness and lightness. I’m reminded of the title of Milan Kundera’s book The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

When close enough to look down on these forms we see a network of curvilinear shapes that worm their way through the open space between the four sides of a heavy black frame. These shapes also have the flavor of Asian writing, which resonates back to my first impression of a Japanese house, or perhaps a shrine.

The forms are slightly minimalist, expertly crafted and elegant from a purely aesthetic point of view, regardless of whatever meaning or interpretation may be taken from them. The formal fascination is in comparing the intricacy of the parts to the simplicity of the whole.

But there is meaning beyond the formal elements. The wall text explains that the shapes of the pieces, which are referred to as a three-dimensional drawing, represent paths traced by GPS technology and computer-generated visual code.

I don’t usually treat a work of visual art like a mystery performance, but I’m going to withhold the answer to the question who or what created the pathways and how he, she or it did it. It will be more fun for viewers to discover that for themselves.

I’ve seen only one other show of Johnson’s sculpture, and I have been impressed with everything I’ve seen so far. His work is inventive, intelligent and created with sensitivity to form and finely honed craftsmanship.

[Kittredge Gallery,  You Are Here,  by Michael Johnson, through April 13, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m., 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma, 253.879.3701]

Tacoma Actors Invade Olympia to Share Spotlight for Overnight Play Fest

Capital Playhouse will host Olympia’s first Festival of Overnight Plays April 13 & 14. The “Double Shot” Festival will feature the work of 50 of South Puget Sound’s best actors, directors and playwrights in the form of seven ten-minute plays written and fully produced within 24 hours. What’s the secret to creating a full evening of work so quickly?

“Lots of Coffee,” says Tim Hoban, a veteran of several Double Shot Festivals produced in Tacoma. “It’s a lot of fun and some of the work is unbelievably good.”
Here’s how it works: seven playwrights are given the same writing prompt Friday evening. Their original scripts are written and delivered by 8 a.m. the next morning.

Directors and casts begin rehearsing immediately and the plays are memorized and fully produced by 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.  Seven new plays created in 24 hours.
Although the format is new to Olympia, it’s been popular for many years in Seattle, Bellingham and Tacoma. According to Olympia playwright Bryan Willis, “We’ve been schlepping up I-5 for years—we figured it was time to produce Double Shot in Olympia.”

The festival spotlights the acting and directing talents of such favorites as Brian Tyrrell, Elizabeth Lord, Russ & Kim Holm, Andy Gordon, Tim Hoban, Mark Peterson and Kathryn Dorgan. The evening will also feature a new theme-related song by Terry Shaw, a theme-related sketch by Tacoma’s fabulous Muh Grog Zoo Improv Ensemble and three theme-related poems.

Double Shot is co-sponsored by Capital Playhouse and the Northwest Playwrights Alliance and will be a fundraiser for both organizations. All actors, directors and writers will be volunteering their time and talent.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for one of these,” said Andy Gordon, who will be writing for Double Shot.  “It’s going to be great.”

What:  Double Shot Festival of Overnight Plays
Where:  Capital Playhouse 612 E 4th Ave, Olympia  WA  98501
When:  Sat April 13 @ 7:30 p.m. & Sunday April 14 @ 2 p.m.
Tickets:  $13 general seating. Call 360-943-2744 or visit http://www.capitalplayhouse.com/buy
Sponsors:  Capital Playhouse, Northwest Playwrights Alliance

For more info:
Lauren O’Neill, Managing Director, Capital Playhouse 360-943-2744  marketing@capitalplayhouse.com
Bryan Willis, playwright-in-residence, Northwest Playwrights Alliance,
willis@olynet.com


Note: I did not write this. It is a press release from Capital Playhouse.

"Return to the Source" acrylic by Cable Griffith
"World Two Overview (Night)," acrylic by Cable Griffith
"Side Scroll World 2," digital prints by Cable Griffith
Cable Griffith and Michael Johnson shows at Kittredge Gallery
reviewed by Alec Clayton
The Weekly Volcano, March 28, 2013

The latest show at Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, has Seattle painter Cable Griffith’s video game-influenced paintings in the main gallery and an installation by sculptor and UPS art faculty member Michael Johnson in the back gallery.

Griffith’s paintings are abstract, stylized images based on imagery from early video games. Titled Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Start, the show references directions in maps, games, cities and the countryside with schematic renderings of colorful streets, rivers and buildings — Pop Art renderings of the pathways taken by players like the Mario Brothers and PacMan. They are inventive and fun to investigate. There is even a video game that can played by using projections onto paintings that can be remote controlled by viewers/players. This piece is a collaborative work with Brent Watanabe.

Griffith has noted: “Influenced by modernist painting and early video game imagery, my recent work explores the connections and potentials of both. … Notions of play, practice, improvisation, and exploration add an additional narrative to the relationship of symbols, actions, and reactions.”

“World Two Views (Night)” is a dark and moody landscape in tones of purple, green and blue with tree stumps, a winding highway, mountains, rivers and lakes all painted to look the way they may have been depicted in a video game circa 1985. It’s a night scene with the only point of light being a campfire, and it’s the only dark image in the show; everything else is light in tone.

Two pieces titled “Side Scroll World” numbers one and two, comprise square and rectangular panels painted with oil and connected tiles put together in irregular patterns. Griffith calls the panels elements. Number one has 25 elements, and number two has 10. The painting on the elements pictures schematic renderings of factories or industrial villages with ladders and pipes, various machines and smoke stacks. The larger piece, number one, has elements on either side of a large central shape that break away as if the whole is orbiting in space and parts have floated off.

“Return to the Source” and “The Navigator” are the paintings most closely conforming to painting tradition; i.e., flat shapes arranged on a flat surface (“Two World Views” also fits this category). “Return to the Source” may be my favorite piece in the show. It depicts a kind of Incan-village factory built into a mountainside made of stacked boxes all connected with canals running among them, each waterway ending in a round pool or waterway roundabout and none getting anywhere.

“The Navigator” is another fantasy town with trees and waterways and something that looks like giant pink mushrooms. Let your imagination run wild. These are fun, fun paintings.

Other works include a piece called “Here, Near, and Far (First Person Traveler),” nine paintings in a row that look somewhat like simplistic trees and zig-zag patterns that might be seen on Indian blankets. This is the least interesting work in Griffith’s show. And a group of four small paintings in acrylic on paper that look like watercolor — similar to the images on “Here, Near, and Far” but nicer because of the loose handling.

Michael Johnson’s installation in the back gallery is called You Are Here. It is made of a series of six sculptural drawings, titled “A Systematic Account of Random Movements” based on “the collection and processing of random GPS data within a predetermined controlled construct.” I will explain more of that when I review it in this column for the April 4 edition.

[Kittredge Gallery,  Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Start,  by Cabel Griffith, through April 13, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m., 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma, 253.879.3701]

US Presents is pleased to announce “The Second Likely Only Annual Sami Awards: a ‘glow-tape studded’ benefit for Lakewood Playhouse” at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 29, 2013
The Second Likely Only Annual Sami Awards: This time we mean itOn March 29, 2013, Lakewood Playhouse will convert to a “good, old-fashioned” awards show arena – complete with paparazzi, screaming fans, food and drink and, of course, some of the South Sounds greatest performers. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. for plenty of mingling time before the “awards” show begins at 8:00. Tickets are only $20 (although greater donations are gladly accepted).A few years ago, local actress Samantha Camp decided to turn her 40th Birthday into a fundraising extravaganza. After much arm-twisting she finally conceded to do it again for no good reason.  Come join us for an EPIC evening of food, paparazzi, fabulous performances and a good not-so-old-fashioned Awards Show.Some of the performers scheduled to appear (at press time) include Erik Hill, Jed Slaughter, Kody Bringman, Terri Fisher, Jenifer Rifenbery, Ryan Higgins, Gracie Reed, Katelyn Hoffman, Courtney Turnley, Gabrielle McClelland, Gloria Moore, Becca Mitchell, Jaron Boggs,  Bruce Story, Samantha Camp and MORE.Awards given will include: Didn't Know You Could Do That, Best Off Stage Kiss, Best Tantrum - onstage or off, Best Wearing of a Costume, Best Paraphraser. Lucky Duck, Best Normal Scene with Unnecessary Sexual Overtones, Oh, were you in that show?, Best Ignoring of Direction, Best Grace Under Pressure, Best Acting Injury, Most Smooched, Best Range and Best "Silent" Performance (with no spoken lines)Tickets $20 (although extra donations to the theatre are gleefully accepted) Cash and Check only - sold at the door. If you need to pay with a credit card, tickets can be purchased ahead of time at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/321976. Food and Iced Tea provided with ticket price. Dress in your Oscar finest. Every attendee will get a jpeg of their "red carpet" photo - included in the price of admission.
For more information call 253-254-6755.