The Lakewood Playhouse's 75th Anniversary Season party continues with a stage production of 12 Angry Men. In the stage adaptation, and subsequent Sidney Lumet film, a dozen men debate whether a teenage boy with a rap sheet is guilty of murdering his father at knifepoint. The defendant's race is never specified, but he's "one of these people," so pick your minority. Likewise, we never get names from the jurors, just numbers - although we do know the names starring in the local production, according to a Lakewood Playhouse news release:

The show consists of a true "ensemble" of thirteen Local Actors who are "split right down the middle" with both new, and old faces to the Lakewood Playhouse stage including these actors returning from previous productions: JAMES WREDE (Foreman), JACOB TICE (Juror #2), JOSEPH GRANT (Juror #4), JED SLAUGHTER (Juror #6), BRUCE STORY (Juror #8), MICHAEL DRESDNER (Juror #11) and CONNOR TIBKE (The Guard).

We are proud to introduce the following actors to the Lakewood Playhouse Stage: CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL (Juror #3), JAMES CLARK (Juror #5), BOB REED (Juror #7), CURT BEECH (Juror #9), RONNIE HILL (Juror #10) and DENNIS WORRELL (Juror #12).

Yup, that's Weekly Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal.

Also, how about the artwork above by artist James Stowe? That's awesome.

To purchase your tickets, click here.

THURSDAY, FEB. 13 2014 >>>

1. Forget Venus, Venice, Paris or any other word ending in -is that conjures up love-ish ideas: there's no better way to woo a would-be - or current - Valentine than with an evening of arts-related culture. And Mad Hat Tea Company has fired up its popular Valentine's Day arts show where poets, musicians, craftspeople and artists take tea drinkers to the furthest point from the half-off Valentine's bin at Rite Aid. Buy one of the local artists' pieces such as Fred Novak's collage works from 7-10 p.m., gift it to your date - along with a cup of Maureen's Mad Aphrodesiac tea - and you might just net a very warm and snuggly Valentine's night, indeed!

2. Local artist and Pierce College art professor Danella Sydow has eight pieces on display - including graphite on paper and reliefs - in the Fine Arts Gallery. Sydow is the recipient of the Mayor's Award from the Olympia Arts Commission. Check out her work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

3. In case you've been rightly avoiding entertainment news over the past month, LaBeouf has been embroiled in a controversy that began with him completely plagiarizing a Daniel Clowes comic called Justin M. Damiano for a short film he directed. Predictably, LaBeouf was immediately found out once he put the film online, and what has followed has been an exercise in lame, art-school-failure performance art, and acts of privilege and delusion so mind-boggling they'd make Justin Beiber wince. Interested in seeing a young, preciously untainted Shia LaBeouf? His adaptation of the beloved Louis Sachar novel, Holes, will be screened at the Moore Library at 3 p.m. If you hiss every time his dumb face shows up on screen, though, you'll never make it through the movie.

4. There's not much better than sharing something you love from your childhood with the next generation of kids. There's not much worse than beloved literature being remade into something unrecognizable in the name of "modernization." The House at Pooh Corner currently at Olympia Family Theater allows you to revel in your nostalgia - provided your childhood bears were more "fluff and stuff" than gruesome killing machines. There are a couple elements that are new, a pseudo "who's on first" type of schtick with the characters Early and Late and a Christopher Robin who is more petulant than the sweet boy from Milne's and Disney's classic stories. Additions aside, OFT's production is charming, funny and quite adorable. Read Joann Varnell's review of the show, then catch it at 7 p.m.

5. Rudolph Valentino found his definitive screen image in the 1921 rape romance The Sheik, as a dashing desert vagabond who captures a tempestuous English girl. The film was so popular that a brand of prophylactics was named after it, a rare distinction indeed. Did Rudolph Valentino's silent film The Sheik help shape U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East? You decide as you watch the silent flick backed by vocalists Connie Corrick and Hugh Hastings at 7 p.m. in the Washington Center.

LINK: Thursday, Feb. 13 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

TUESDAY, FEB. 11 2014 >>>

1. You can't swing a microphone cable around South Sound's spoken-word poetry scene without hitting William Kupinse. Now the poet, Tacoma's first Poet Laureate and associate professor of English at University of Puget Sound, is teaming up with composer Greg Youtz, professor of music at Pacific Lutheran University, in the performance Poetry Above the Roar: Erin Calata Sings Songs of Gregory Youtzin the Mary Baker Russell Music Building at Pacific Lutheran University. Calata, mezzo-soprano and 2008 alumna of PLU, will sing a cycle of 10 pieces of music composed by Youtz, with words from Kupinse's collection of poems Fallow (2009, Exquisite Disarray). The words should, er, sing around 8 p.m.

2. Kill Your Darlings is the feature directorial debut from John Krokidas. The film focuses on the complicated college days of famed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (Radcliffe). Ginsberg's writing talents earn him a place at Columbia University, and he has a bright, if a bit controversial, future ahead of him. He gets to wile away his undergrad days in the company of Beat Generation wunderkinds such as Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster). Heck, his best friend is Lucien Carr (Dane Dehaan)! Ginsberg is also a homosexual in an era when it is both dangerous and illegal to be so, and he's in love with the malevolently manipulative Carr, who takes advantage of him to further his own ends. Then there's that issue of Prof. David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall), being murdered in Riverside Park. Read Jared Lovrak's review of the film here, then see it at 1:45 and 6:30 p.m. in The Grand Cinema. 

3. Though often unfelt, the South Sound experiences earthquakes often, raising questions of preparedness for the inevitable "big one." You can never be too prepared or too alert when dealing with earthquakes. Geologists Brian Atwater and Pat Pringle will discuss how to prepare for earthquakes, and volcanoes, at 7 p.m. in The Triad Theater in Yelm.

4. Quick! Tell us who played Violet Bickerstaff, Screech's love interest, on three episodes of the television show Saved by the Bell? If you said "Tori Spelling," then going to a trivia night might be for you. There are trivia competitions all around the South Sound on a Tuesday night, where you can unleash your inner Ken Jennings. Two of our favorite Tuesday night trivia are at Fish Tale Brew Pub in Olympia and Farrelli's Wood-Fire Pizza in Tacoma, both start at 8 p.m.

5. The 1230 Room probably has you at "$4 lemon drops," but you also may be interested in the downtown Olympia club's Tuesday deep, tech and progressive house night "Deep Tuesdays." It launches at 9 p.m. with drink specials, no cover and resident DJs Alex Bosi and Evan Mould.

LINK: Tuesday, Feb. 11 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

You thought you knew Sean Alexander, didn't you? He's the guy who did the illustrations for the South Sound Users Guide, an artist known for detailed ink drawings. But there is more to Alexander than that. At the Feb. 20 opening at Moss + Mineral you'll see modernest furniture inspired by mid-20th century design by Alexander, along with 2-D art and oil paintings. Examples of his 2-D art give a nod to the precise ink drawings he is known for but featuring geometric designs combined with pop and dada imagery.

How about a black faced robotic boy with stars for eyes marching along behind a Piet Mondrian painting? Or a silhouette of a man standing on a balcony that is collapsing in a cascade of cubistic shards? Such inventive imagery beautifully rendered are just two examples of what Alexander will be showing.

Also on the bill are eye-popping fashion accessories by Virginia Bunker. Her stylish accessories are up-scale, colorful and fearlessly inventive. How about a man's vintage silk tie refashioned into a louche drape for around her throat? Or a romantic ribbon belt sporting a fabulous, saucer-size flower? These pieces are good for evening wear or anytime you want to present a bold statement.

Alexander and Bunker will be there to greet you at the opening.

Moss + Mineral is a design store, the idea for which grew out of the former Mineral Gallery owned and operated by artist Lisa Kinoshita from 2003 to 2011. Featured in the store are jewelry and fashion art made by Kinoshita and wearable and usable art by other area artists.

SEAN ALEXANDER AND VIRGINIA BUNKER, 4-8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 20, Moss + Mineral, 305 S. 9th St., Tacoma, free admission, 253.961.5220

SUNDAY, FEB. 9 2014 >>>

1. Honestly, we don't know who the hell is in the Long Beach Rehab band. Lyon Pride Music has booked the band in several Northwest venues, including the new Rock N Roll Lodge at 8 p.m. Pre-show hype still has Qball fronting the band, which will probably perform the songs of Bad Brains, Sublime and other punk, surf and funky reggae tunes.

2. Yoga Open Heart - two hours of heart openings, yoga and belly dance - will spread love from 1-3 p.m. at the Good Karma Center for Joy in downtown Tacoma. Pairs of friends and lovers are $35, solo $20 and walk-ins $25. Proceeds benefit HopeSparks!

3. Barney Rubble belted it in the bath. Spongebob stole Squidward's thunder by singing it underwater. And most famously, Bugs gnawed his way through several rounds of "Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!" in the toon classic, "Rabbit of Seville." Between its easily followed romcom plot and a score made universally familiar by the aforementioned pop culture references, Rossini's The Barber of Seville is an ideal introduction to opera. Tacoma Opera's presentation will follow the exploits of Seville's self-celebrating barber, Figaro - a character who literally sings his own praises - at 2 p.m. in the Rialto Theater. Everybody shares secrets with their barbers, and this barber is only too happy put what he learns to work.

4. Playwright August Wilson's "Pittsburgh Cycle" comprises ten plays about the African-American experience, each set in its own decade of the 20th century. It's a massive, multifaceted saga worthy of the best work from actors, designers, and directors. C. Rosalind Bell, a playwright herself, knew and worked with Wilson and Claude Purdy, their frequent collaborator. She was born in Lake Charles, La., worked as a writer in San Francisco and civil rights investigator for the Treasury Department in D.C., then landed here in 1995. Now she's directing Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the second in Wilson's epic cycle, for the Broadway Center at 3 p.m. in the Theatre on the Square. Read Christian Carvajal's preview of the show here.

5. Gypsy jazz geniuses Pearl Django will make a blessed appearance at 5 p.m. in the Marine View Presbyterian Church as part of the Jazz Live @ Marine View concert series. Tacoma-born jazz nomads Pearl Django present an unique musical space with undeniable grooves, fresh rhythms and evolving line ups.

LINK: Sunday, Feb. 9 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area