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WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES >>> As you know if you read my review of what I called Cannibal! the Rehearsal, it's a tragically bad idea to invite your critics eight days early when you're still putting in lights and sound equipment, your costumes aren't finished,
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BLOCKING IN THE ROUND IS HARD >>> The first show I ever directed was The Boys Next Door by Tom Griffin. It was staged in a fair-sized college proscenium theater, meaning the elevated stage was framed by a rectangular arch. The entire audience watched the show from a single direction. There
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AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES >>> It struck me the other day how fortunate we are to live in an area with so many live entertainment options. In one week, I saw a dynamite performance by the klezmer punk combo Vagabond Opera at Traditions Cafe, a charming production at Olympia Family Theater,
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ON THE NATURE OF THEATER CRITICS >>> I'm about to shoot myself in the foot, Gentle Reader. Wait for it... Dear directors, Theater critics are not your audience. You know this. You know you get standing ovations sometimes for shows we turn around and pan, but just as often, we praise productions that
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A THEATER CRITIC GIVES CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE >>> I recently read a piece by Volcano and News Tribune critic Alec Clayton in which he thanked his wife Gabi for help with his columns. I also have an able assistant, my fiancee, Amanda Stevens. While I can justly claim intimate knowledge
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DO CRITICS EVEN MATTER? >>> This weekend I saw a movie, Battle: Los Angeles, that Roger Ebert - the best movie critic who ever lived, mind you - gave half a star. "Young women," he advised, "If your date likes this movie, tell him you've been thinking it over, and you
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CARV'S SNARKY BLOG OF THE WEEK: OUR CRITIC SEES HIMSELF IN ASHER LEV >>> I was scheduled to review My Name Is Asher Lev at Lakewood Playhouse, but numerous hurdles, including my own absentmindedness, got in the way. Instead, I recruited my friend Brie Yost to review the production, as
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THAT WAS THE QUESTION >>> The director called and asked me personally if I'd be interested in auditioning. I told him I'd already sworn off acting for a while. I needed to focus on other things, especially my upcoming nuptials. He persisted. It seems less than a dozen people auditioned for
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THEATER PREVIEW >>> Border Songs, the novel that won Jim Lynch the 2010 Washington State Book Award (not to mention the coveted Best Writer status in our recent Best of Olympia edition!), has now been adapted into a stage play by local playwright Bryan Willis. This version was produced through Saint
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YOUR HUMBLE REPORTER POPS THE QUESTION >>> Thursday night was huge for the Weekly Volcano, as it celebrated the debut of our Best of Olympia edition. Far more important to me, however, was the impending arrival of a certain long-awaited piece of bling. My girlfriend Amanda and I planned to celebrate
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DUDE TALKS FAST >>> On President's Day, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) will roll into Olympia to give a lecture on "The True Cost of War." During his presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, Kucinich was widely seen as the far-left candidate, and he's taken quite a bit of ribbing from
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YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD CRITIC SLIPS OUT THE BACK, JACK >>> Last Thursday I was able to do something I almost never get to do anymore: I was invited to a show, so I went, and I didn't review it. Hopefully the cast and crew weren't expecting me to. It was DramaFest
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FRIDAY NIGHTS WON'T BE THE SAME >>> "Into a bright new dawn of fresh enterprises, and challenges..." --Richard Nixon, in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon It's often said of film sets that cast and crew form familial attachments, only to see them dissolve a few months later. It doesn't always happen that way in
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GET YOUR ACT ON >>> Despite an increase in theater coverage over the last year, we at the Volcano sometimes fall short on listing audition notices. Here, then, is a first attempt at addressing that inadvertent deficiency. Capital Playhouse will be holding auditions for The Secret Garden Saturday, Feb. 5, from 3:30
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A TLT PATRON PASSES JUDGEMENT >>> As you've probably seen me mention a few squillion times, I'm playing Bob Zelnick in Tacoma Little Theatre's production of Frost/Nixon. As is commonplace for TLT and many other troupes, the producers served champagne(ish) and cake for those patrons who were able to attend
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A CRITIC ON THE BOARDS >>> For thousands of nights, since I was seven years old, this has been my milieu. Above is the view from the wings of a typical Frost/Nixon rehearsal at Tacoma Little Theatre. Notice I'm not sitting in the house waiting to critique the show; I'm a member
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AN UNCOOL MANIFESTO >>> My friend Amy interviewed me this week for a theater project. When she asked me what advice I'd offer to theater students, even I was surprised how quickly and effortlessly an answer flew from my mouth. "Stop being so goddamn cool all the time," I barked. And
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART IV >>> A professional theater critic should be the second critic to see the show, not the first, and he or she is much less important to the show's success or failure than the actual first critic: the director. Part of a director's job is to
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART III >>> When I watch a play, I take in all the same elements you do - set, costumes, lighting, music, dancing, movement, acting, writing and so on - but I also look deeper. As I said before, I watch for focused creativity and unity, meaning
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WHAT I LOOK FOR, PART II >>> Here are more ways for you, the theater director, to impress the hopeful critic-me, and your paying customers. There's so much amazing live and recorded entertainment in the South Sound that it's wasteful to pass up any possible method of connecting with your audience...which brings