This Week In Theater: Of Mr. Garrison and the Outdoor Theater Festival

It has been a relatively quiet couple of weeks in terms of the opening of new productions, but that comes to a crashing halt this week, as we get an even dozen productions all opening this weekend. Thankfully, most of these productions will be conveniently located in one handy location, and the other two either feature or is the product of one of Seattle's prominent talents...Let's get to it.

It's impossible to count the many ways that Nick Garrison has made an impact in the last 10 years or so. Beginning with the enormous splash he made in the titular role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Rebar (one of the first independent productions outside of the original NYC run, and a role he has repeated in various cities around the US and the world since), Garrison has displayed his considerable talents in many venues and productions around Seattle. Places as varied as The Brown Derby, 14/48, The 5th Avenue Theater, and the Seattle Rep.

It is, in fact, as a result of a production of Cabaret at the 5th that brings him to our attention this week. The Love Markets, one of Garrison's musical projects (which includes a semi-regular collaboration with Hedwig co-star Sarah Rudinoff at Vito's), is a straight up tribute to Weimar-influenced acts, and features members from various local bands, including alt-art-math-theater-rockers "Awesome." This Friday, the Markets come to ACT's Bullitt Cabaret with an evening entitled Summer Nacht.

Friday at 8:00p.m. // ACT's Bullitt Cabaret, 700 Union Street // $18

The other aspect of Garrison's talents on display beginning this weekend is his direction of the production of Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine with the Strawberry Theater Workshop (or Strawshop, for short). His participation is but one ingredient in a recipe that holds a ton of potential for success;
Strawshop has been delivering excellent work as a mid-size theater company since its inception; the cast (featuring Ian Bell, Sarah Rudinoff, Basil Harris, James Cowan, Imogen Love, Gretchen Kritch) is another amalgamation of great Seattle talent, and the few times Garrison has been on this side of the stage, his work has been extremely promising. Churchill's play is something of a headfuck, but a hilarious one at that. While the characters stay the same throughout the two acts, the people playing them switch at intermission, and that is but one of the ways that the material expects you to keep up with its challenges. This is one we've been looking forward to for some time.

Thursday through Saturday at 8:00p.m., July 7th - August 6th // Erickson Theater Off Broadway, 1524 Harvard Avenue // $30 (1/2 price on Thursday evenings)

Time for the 2011 Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival, a yearly tradition that is put together by Greenstage, and marks the unofficial opening of the Summer theater season. Initially just a showcase for Seattle's two dedicated Shakespeare companies, the festival has expanded to include productions from other Fringe companies like Theater Schmeater, Open Circle and Balagan, who offer programming ranging from other classical works, to new, world premiere efforts. This year brings us 11 individual productions by 7 theater companies; this includes a high school production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing taking place on Sunday morning at 11:00a.m.

This is a chance to see some of Seattle's theatrical talents while soaking in the sun, and all of it conveniently located within Volunteer Park, maximizing the three theatrical venues to be located there (the Amphitheater, the copse next door to the Amphitheater, and another one located behind the Seattle Asian Arts Museum). Sunscreen lotion heavily advised.

Among the other offerings:

Greenstage, the organizers of the OTF, is Seattle's longest running outdoor Shakespeare company, with a reliable pool of local actors and directors helping to bring the words of The Bard all throughout the Greater Seattle Metropolitan area. This year, they bring us a tale of romance and intrigue found in Antony and Cleopatra, as well as the more fantastical familial complications and watery ruminations found in The Tempest.

Wooden O began its life as an outlet for professional actors to get their Shakespeare on out of doors, so successful were they in this pursuit, that they were adopted by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Their productions feature some incredible talent, and production values to match. Their 2011 slate features the popular tale of Scottish ambition, madness, murder and greed, Macbeth, and one of The Bard's most accessible comedies The Comedy of Errors, one of his first exercises in comedic excess.

Last Leaf Productions has been doing abridged versions of Billy Shakes' plays in and around the Snohomish-King County region for a few years now, and are hoping to impress and entertain with their versions of As You Like It and Merchant of Venice.

Then there's Wing-It's The Lost Folio, which combines keen improvisational skill with Shakespeare's violence, bawdy word play, and penchant for iambic pentameter. As hit and miss as all improv is, these games could sink or soar like any Shakespeare production. Worth the risk.

Finally, for parents who wish to enjoy a production where potentially scarring plot developments do not have to be explained to their children ("Yes, Johnny, a real pound of flesh."), we come the original plays that are on offer at this year's festival, all of which are aimed at the younger set. Theater Schmeater presents
Aarh! A Dinosaur Ate My Spaceship!, a new play by Bret Fetzer and Juliet Waller-Pruzan; in the past, their work together has specialized in delivering epic worlds from the point of view of children; this is their first work specifically created for an outdoor venue, so literally, the sky is the limit.

Then we come to Balagan Theater's King Arthur and the Knights of the Playground. Fresh on the heels of last year's weirdly iconoclastic Greetings from the River Styx, which combined Ovid's Metamorphosis with an anarchic Merry Melodies approach to comedy, King Arthur looks to continue this trend by taking the Arthurian myth and putting it in recess. If last year's show was any indication, you can expect a lot of silly physical comedy, coupled with winking risque humor that only the adults will comprehend. (Full disclosure: Styx contained a piece written by your correspondent.)

Saturday and Sunday all over Volunteer Park, events begin at 11:00a.m. on both days // Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill // Free (Donations gladly accepted)