LUKE SMIRALDO BRINGS SHAKESPEARE TO SLAM TOWN >>>

Luke Smiraldo likes using the word "enamored" a lot, and why not? The man has plenty to love.

One could start anywhere with this multi-talented artist, but his strong connections to the Tacoma community strike me right away. A resident since '91, Smiraldo realized only recently that he hasn't lived anywhere else for as long before. My own time here goes a little farther back (I arrived in '89), and he says something during our conversation that rushes right to the heart my experience.

On seeing 20 years go in a flash he says, "It crept up on me, like Tacoma does for some of us." 

Smiraldo has an established reputation for calling upon language to express the inexpressible, another passion of his. When not wooing crowds with spoken poetry or his considerable confidence as an MC, he's probably off by himself, crafting his next play.

But not for long, which brings us to Smiraldo's third love: collaboration. He finds great creative energy with other artists, and so set about devising a project that would kindle exactly this atmosphere. And what art calls on more individuals, each combining their own expertise, than film?

Smiraldo originally intended his brainchild, Slam Town, to air on television, but his girlfriend suggested more expeditious distribution. Now the Web gives him a speedier way to release content to fans, "without going through all the pain and suffering of raising tons of funds in order to get onto a major (TV) station."

Slam Town uses real locations (all in Tacoma, of course) to sketch a fictional world where spirits roam and poetry drips off every inhabitant's tongue - in other words, the Bard resurrected in modern environs.

"I loved the idea of a kind of ‘urban Shakespeare,' " Smiraldo says, "in a town where everyone speaks in a heightened language of urban poetry and slam." He describes this dialect as "sometimes crude, sometimes beautiful, but always edgy" - a fair portrait of Tacoma itself, I'd say.

For each webisode, local poets compose material, which Smiraldo gathers and puts into screenplay form. When it comes time to film, everyone performs their own piece on camera. Last year the team completed the first two of a series its creator hopes will last for 30 shows. Watch these on Smiraldo's website, www.vanillasoul.net. Also remind your smartphone: Episode #3 debuts at The Grand Cinema on Saturday, March 17.

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Hear Smiraldo discuss his many loves and more this week on Volcano Radio, which airs Thursday from 8-9 P.M. on www.nwczradio.com and is available as a podcast at weeklyvolcano.com directly following.