ARTS COVERAGE TO END ALL ARTS COVERAGE >>>
At this point it goes without saying. If you're looking for coverage of local arts in Tacoma, Olympia, and all points in between, the Weekly Volcano is THE place to find it. Our goal is to consistently provide the best local arts coverage possible to our fantastic readers -- always be on the lookout for ways to shine a light on all the awesome creativity we see around us.
Here's a look at the Volcano arts coverage waiting for you this week in print and online.
IN DEPTH: THE FUTURE OF ARTS FUNDING IN TACOMA
Amongst several hundred police officers and firefighters, Amy Tiemeyer took the podium in front of Tacoma City Council to plead her case. Tiemeyer was one of just a few that didn't arrive solely in support of the Tacoma Police or Fire Department officers and the communities they serve. Tiemeyer is Youth Fitness Specialist Trainer for the D.A.S.H. Center for the Arts, and she was there to ask Tacoma City Council for the same thing everyone else was there to ask for - to be pardoned as the council decides which programs, jobs and services to cut during a round of hard budget cuts.
For those who haven't heard, the City of Tacoma is facing up to a $31 million budget shortfall in 2012. To balance the municipal budget, Tacoma officials asked various department heads to craft a plan that involves juggling and rerouting various elements of departmental budgets; eliminating services; adjusting wages of city employees; eliminating programs; and laying off more than 160 city employees. And while police and fire appear likely to bear the brunt of layoffs, everyone is getting hit this time. Every city department was asked to make cuts.
Listening to several hours of public commentary gave the impression that public safety and the arts are somehow pitted against each other - fighting over the same scraps, as it were. Others implied that arts and public safety share common purposes. As Mayor Marilyn Strickland pointed out during the Dec. 6 marathon council session, arts and other community attractions help create the tax base that pays for public services, for example. Various officers and fire fighters, meanwhile, suggested that people aren't as likely to enjoy arts in a community where they don't feel safe.
"To survive, arts programs need the people who live here to feel safe," says firefighter Patrick Edmond, who operates from the downtown Tacoma station. "A thriving, vibrant city is dependent on safety, and people feeling invited."
D.A.S.H. Center, meanwhile, has its own impact on community crime rates, says Tiemeyer. This impact should be considered as well, as Tacoma officials weigh the proposal to cut a $34,000 line item dedicated to helping the D.A.S.H. Center stay open.
"Arts programs like D.A.S.H. and Youth Build and Fab5 have a direct impact on inner city crime and gang violence," says Tiemeyer. ... - Paul Schrag
VISUAL EDGE: NORTHWEST PASTEL SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL OPEN
Pastels have a bad rep, often deserved, but not always. The name is associated with soft and pretty colors, and pastel as a media has long been thought of as a media of sweet grandmothers who take it up as a hobby - despite the example of Edgar Degas, who revolutionized pastel art with layered and heavily textured works as far back as 1880. That influence is still very evident in the current pastel exhibit at American Art Company. There are some marvelous landscapes and urban scenes with rich colors that are worth long and serious contemplation.
I like many of the Degas-influenced pastels, but what this show proves is that there have been no advancements in the art of pastel since about 1886. ... -- Alec Clayton
THEATER: SCROOGE: THE MUSICAL AT CAPITOL PLAYHOUSE
Scrooge: the Musical, like all incarnations of A Christmas Carol, is a transformation story. Rarely has that been so clearly represented as in this year's impeccable production at Capital Playhouse.
Start with Ebenezer himself, played by veteran Tacoma actor Michael Self. It struck me in Act I that Scrooge is usually played with a twinkle in his eye, as if to signal that he's really a mensch in disguise. But that isn't the Scrooge of Dickens' novel. "No wind that blew was bitterer than he," Dickens sighs, "no pelting rain less open to entreaty." In other words, that "clutching, covetous old sinner" is an odious monster, cruel to everyone including children and his merriest relatives. Self and director Troy Arnold Fisher have the courage to let Scrooge be Scrooge, making his redemption from impending hellfire all the more dramatic. ... -- Christian Carvajal
THEATER: TACOMA LITTLE THEATRE'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL
I haven't read any Dickens myself, and growing up the Muppet film became the definitive version of A Christmas Carol for me. A large part of its success owes to its injection of humor into what is an ultimately uplifting, but largely dark and gloomy tale. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge's lesson in the Christmas spirit takes him through a world of ghosts, poverty, sadness and death, and benefits from a laugh or two along the way.
Michael Paller's stage adaptation of the classic story accomplishes a fair share of the same, via a different mechanic: the actors are cast not as literary characters but as the family and friends of Charles Dickens, entertaining themselves by "improvising" a performance within the framework Dickens lays out for them. With each performing a variety of roles from the novel, this story-within-a-story provides an aura of lightness that permeates the shadows of Scrooge's Christmas journey, without overpowering the emotions of the characters on the way. ... -- Joe Izenman
MOVIE BIZ BUZZ:FILMMAKER PETE ANDERSON
This year I've decided to watch safely from the sidelines as the gift-giving game heats up. Everyone seems to want a piece of the action - while Aunt Darlene knits the pinky on your new pair of gloves, filmmakers like Pete Anderson check twice their own handmade works of art before shipping out copies to festivals everywhere.
And in return, Anderson has just one item on his wish list: an acceptance letter.
With Anderson's feature ensemble Break completed this past fall, he has his fingers crossed on getting the thumbs up from two major fests in 2012, Cinequest in Silicon Valley and the Seattle International Film Festival. The former possesses some nostalgic value, as Anderson grew up in San Jose. And Break bursts with enough local spots to hopefully please the folks at SIFF.
"It's kind of (the film's) hometown," Anderson says. "We made a lot of the movie right around where the film would be screening ...(near) Seattle Center." ... -- Christopher Wood