This Week In Theater: Several Small Shows And A Big One
Summer's here, time for theaters to get madcap or experimental...
The week begins with the presentation of a goofball chestnut: Taproot Theater presents Something's Afoot, one of the plethora of Broadway entertainments from the 70s that spoof and honor British serials, whodounits and the like (e.g. Bullshot Crummond). Essentially good natured trifles, these shows allow theater companies to display deft comic timings and ridiculous accents in the interest of comedy. Afoot is a musical parody of the milieu generally found in Agatha Christie novels, and is the sort of thing that Taproot executes rather well.
Wednesday - Thursday at 7:30p.m., Friday - Saturday at 8:00p.m., Saturday matinee at 2:00p.m.; July 15 through August 13 // Taproot Theater in Greenwood, 204 North 85th Street // $27 - $35
From there, we move across downtown to meet a new(er) company, in a new venue, performing Edward Albee's more outright comedic adaptations, British playwright Giles Cooper's Everything In The Garden, is something of a comedy of manners, scruples and greed, which is bound to be made all the sharper by Albee's tinkering of the original material. While not much is known about Theater 9/12, the producing entity behind Garden, this is a quirky enough choice in programming that the adventurous should not feel too hesitant in giving them a shot.
Thursday through Saturday at 8:00p.m., through July 31 // Theater 9/12, 609 8th
Avenue // all performances are PWYW
Meanwhile, in West Seattle, the folks at ArtsWest help to bring the loopy by letting the members of their apprenticeship program run amok for a show. This year, they're letting the younger set go crazy on Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, the second time this year a theater company has decided to tackle the 70s camp classic. We're willing to bet two things, however: 1) it won't be nearly as raunchy as Open Circle's production last April, and 2) odds are good that you'll actually be able to hear the singing this time through.
Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30p.m., Friday and Saturday at 11:00p.m., July 13 through July 23 // ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave SW // $10 - $15
In the midst of all of this, in East Capitol Hill, Chicago's for/word company migrates over to WET's Little Theater in order to present the West Coast premiere of Jennifer Schlueter's
Little Book, which had a hit production that the Chicago Tribune called "wistful, poetic and wise." This play, which is about the battles (with writer's block, with his publisher, among other factors) EB White faced while trying to finish Stuart Little, comes to Seattle because the company had heard of our vibrant theater scene, and to pay respect to Book-It Repertory, a company whose national reputation is sterling. This is a production your correspondent is truly looking forward to.
Thursday through Saturday at 7:30p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2:00p.m. // WET's Little Theater, 619 19th Avenue East // $12 - $18
Closer to the Hill's center, at the Odd Duck, another new theater company, Handwritten Productions, are mounting a Vitriol, a new work written by Jacob Sherman. The story focuses on a couple of journalists at a Munich newspapers whose anti-Hitler editorials mark them as enemies of the state the moment Adolf takes power. Potentially tense subject matter, and a talented cast make this a promising option.
Thursday through Saturday at 7:30p.m., through July 23rd // Odd Duck Studio, 1214 10th Ave // All performances are PWYW
Next, we go to the heart of Belltown, where the folks behind the STAGEright Theater Company are staging Sarah Ruhl's Melancholy Play. The play, about four characters who first become infatuated with a melancholy woman -- then find their lives altered once her outlook changes dramatically, is the first of two productions coming in the month of July that were written by Ms. Ruhl.
Friday through Saturday at 8:00p.m., Sunday at 5:30p.m.; July 15 through July 31 // Freehold Theater, 2222 2nd Avenue // $15
We finish this week's journey through town in the U-District, where the improv institution known as Wing-It Productions are mining cheapie-1950s-SciFi-Cold-War-Nuclear-Paranoia movies for unscripted laughs in PROJECT: B-Movie. We're betting the monster, what it is/does, as well as the occupation and maladies of the local townspeople will be up for grabs. Everything else will be created on the spot.
Thursday through Friday at 8:00p.m.; through August 19 // Wing-It Productions, 5510 Universtity Way NE // $10 - $14
