This Week In Theater: Summer Has Arrived

Indeed, the Summer months are here; generally, what that means is that companies are focusing on shorter runs, or on park shows, and Dance becomes a more prominent fixture on the performance calendar. There will also be a marked uptick in variety shows (see yesterday's entry about Entertainment For People), burlesque and vaudevillian types of entertainment. This week will be no exception.

Continuing yesterday's theme of the extreme in new ventures, today we introduce you to the Pacific Play Company and their World Premiere production of Snakes and Ladders by Daniel Tarker. PPC is a new Seattle theater company, who plan to focus on producing the work of West Coast playwrights in general, with a very specific focus on Seattle playwrights. Snakes, their inaugural production, is ostensibly a farce in the vein of Durang and Fo about the depths of greed people will sink to in the real estate market.

Thursday through Saturday at 8:00p.m.; June 23 - July 9 // Stone Soup's Down Stage Theater, 4029 Stone Way North // $16 - $20

The Queer Teen Ensemble Theater (QTET), WET's LGBT Youth Outreach program, will present their I've Never&...Or: The Ride of Lady Gaga's Unicorn, timed to coincide with Pride weekend. The project is a natural extension of QTET's mission, which aims to give LGBT teens an outlet to express their emotions and individuality and to connect with other LGBT kids in the community. This is a pretty apt way to celebrate pride and diversity.

Thursday through Sunday at 7:30p.m. // WET's Little Theater, 608 19th Ave East // $5 - $10

Freehold's Engaged Theater stakes a claim for being the year's first outdoor production of Shakespeare, of which we are about to get our regular massive dosage. With their production of Shakespeare's Pericles, Freehold, Seattle's respected non-collegiate theater arts educational organization, is pulling out a large number of stops. Directed by Freehold's Artistic Director, the production boasts music design by Kultur Shock's Gino Yevdjevich, and a cross-cutlural approach to casting; in essence, the sort of experimental and non-traditional approach to theater that makes student productions worthy of attention. After the initial opening weekend, the show goes on tour to select locations throughout the region until July 3rd.

Thursday through Saturday at 8:00p.m. (additional Saturday Matinee at 4:00p.m.) // Seattle University Lee Center for the Arts, 901 12th Avenue // Free - $25 donation

The fact that the Intiman had forged a partnership with one of Seattle's prestigious dance companies, Whim W'him, ended up getting lost amid the chaos that ensued when Intiman closed its doors for the 2011 season. So, while the primary tenants in the space across the way from the Rep maybe gone, Whim W'him is still here, thanks, and they have a number of new works to premiere along with the showing of some recent popular pieces.Reset's itinerary features a re-worked version of Whim W'him's popular 3Seasons (a piece inspired, in part, by Vivaldi's Four Seasons), a re-staging of Monster and a new piece choreographed by W'him's Olivier Wevers.

Friday and Saturday at 8:00p.m. // Intiman Theater, 201 Mercer Street // $15 - $50

Finally, we come to the big ticket item of the weekend, and it is a triumph for those of us who champion local talent. ACT brings us a World Premiere production of Yussef El Guindi's Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, a play that was developed during last year's Icicle Creek Theater Festival, in partnership with ACT. Virtually every aspect of this production is local; the leads, Shanga Parker and Carol Roscoe, were last seen in Intiman's All My Sons -- but it's the fact that playwright El Guindi made his bones in Seattle's Fringe Theater scene that impresses most. His plays Back of the Throat and Jihad Jones have gone on to be produced around the nation since premiering at Theater Schmeater in the last 10 years. El Guindi is among the first local playwright that has managed to climb these ranks without first having to move to an outside city, and hopefully not the last.

Pilgrims Musa and Sheri is about a cab driver who has recently emigrated to the US from Egypt, and the inevitable culture clashes that take place when he pursues an American waitress. This is a premise that could quite easily turn cliche, if it weren't for El Guindi's reputation for delivering bluntly honest commentary amid the entertainment to reassure us of the play's inherent promise.

Wedneday through Sunday (see ACT's schedule for showtimes), through July 17 // ACT's Allen Theater, 700 Union Street // $15 - $37.50