Theater season ramps up this fall. While Intiman forges ahead and looks to next year, other theaters are getting ready to hit the boards with their season openers this year. In a sure sign that the fall has arrived, two Seattle theater houses open their 2011 season within days of each other. more ›

VINES AND LINES: Richard Hugo House, where the poetry flows like wine and the wine flows also very similarly to wine. “Cheap Wine and Poetry” presents its first reading of 2011 tonight at Seattle's favorite literary home base, featuring poets Rebecca Hoogs, Sierra Nelson and Graham Isaac and poet-turned-comedian Emmett Montgomery. There are also open mic opportunities for anyone who cares to test their chops on an extremely happy audience. Why so happy? Because cups of wine are only one dollar, cheaper than espresso and metro fare. As always, there's no telling where or when the next event will be, so we're happy to demand the supply tonight. more ›

NO WHAMMY!: We've been following Ballard's Tom Nissley as he cuts through the competition on Jeopardy for 7 wins in a row. Alex Trebek sets 'em up, Nissley knocks 'em down. He'll be going at it again tonight, hoping for his 8th straight, and we think he's got it. We think he just might go all the way. Can one do that in Jeopardy? Go all the way? The record for consecutive Jeopardy wins was set in 2004 by one-time UW student Ken Jennings, who won 74 games. Pay attention, there might be a quiz. more ›

Black Friday is two days away, huzzah, bringing with it hordes of extraordinary deals for Seattle's savviest shoppers. Planning to shiver on the sidewalk in front of Old Navy on 12 a.m. Friday morning? Well class it up, Charlie! Seattle's arts groups are running special Black Friday deals, too. Contact the individual arts organizations for full details about each offer. more ›

ROMAN'S SHORTS: Last week we told you about the beginning of the Seattle Polish Film Festival. The two-week festival is still rolling along at SIFF Cinema, and tonight may be one of its most popular nights with a screening of Roman Polanski: Shorts and mountain climbing film The Silence. The Polanski collection includes Murder and Teeth Smile (1957), Break Up the Dance (1957), Mammals (1962), and Two Men and the Wardrobe (1958). The 66-minute collection of Polanski's film school shorts will also feature live music by experimental chamber music duo Sza/Za. The second film, The Silence, tells the story of a group of high school mountain climbers caught in a deadly avalanche and their parents who are faced with the tragedy. The festival comes to an end on Sunday with a full day of six films. Festival passes are still a deal at $50. more ›

BOOK LUST HITS THE ROAD: Seattle's favorite librarian and all-around literary darling, Nancy Pearl, will be reading from and discussing her latest book, Book Lust to Go, tonight at Town Hall. Rather than telling you all of the places that you must go before you die, Pearl's latest Book Lust venture documents the places you must read about before you visit. Pearl will be joined for an onstage conversation with KUOW's Steve Scher to discuss what we're sure will be a great string of books that will sweep you off your feet to far away places... whether you're physically traveling or not. more ›

STREET LIFE: Pioneer Square's Flatcolor Gallery has the Can't Miss exhibition of the month. Kicking off tonight with August's First Thursday Artwalk is Flatcolor's presentation of three national graffiti artists with a bevy of beautiful street style displays. First is Bay area's Bigfoot, a nature loving artist and skateboard designer. Bigfoot started by writing his name on the streets of San Francisco and now he's moved on to respectable artforms, working with Strangeco, The North Face, Hurley, et al. North Carolina's Chip7 is a sort of abstact scifi artist whose compositions call to mind chaotic and colorful future cartoon lands. The third artist, El Kamino, is a graffiti painter from Virginia. Meditating on nature and technology, El Kamino, like Bigfoot, uses the organic against the constructed, often with striking effect. The show is also presented by The Art of Storytelling. more ›

MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE: A feminist author is held hostage by a disillusioned former student in this satirical play loosely based on an actual event that took place ten years ago in England. Deranged and ambitious Molly holds Margot Mason at gunpoint in her home, but instead of gunshots and action scenes, Female of the Species is full of thoughtful one-liners and humorous attacks on gender politics and ego. Suzy Hunt is wonderful as Margot Mason, a role recently played by Annette Bening in Los Angeles. Renata Friedman also excels as young gunwoman Molly. The feminist doctrine at the heart of it all is the clever play’s single victim. more ›

GOING GREEN: Economics professor Joel Magnuson and Business Alliance for Local Living Economies' Michelle Long will be at Town Hall tonight as the first part of a three-part lecture series titled "Seeking Sustainable Systems." The two will be discussing topics such as green jobs, green economy, and how communities can strive to find options and solutions to achieve these goals along with a more sustainable lifestyle. Yeah for going green! more ›

SEXY NUTCRACKER: Wow, saying those two words together kind of makes us feel like we're playing Apples to Apples, but in this case there is such a thing as a sexy nutcracker and it's going to be gone after Wednesday, so instead of doing last minute shopping, get down with some last minute burlesque watching! Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker is finishing up its fourth year featuring some of Seattle's favorite burlesque dancers such as Lily Verlaine, Jasper McCann, Kitten LaRue, Miss Indigo Blue, and the much-loved Aerialistas. Tickets are no longer being sold online but can be bought at the door, so we'd recommend getting there early--this show has been previously sold out on many occasions. more ›

FRANKINCENSE, MYRRH, AND...?: Just what happened to all that gold, anyway? If Mary and Jo-Jo came away with some high karat loot, why did they end up crashing in a smelly barn? The answer is simple, someone stole their dough, and ACT Theatre’s catechizing Sister is gonna find out who. She’ll reconstruct the nativity scene--using audience members--and gather clues from the choir as she forms her search. more ›

HOLD ONTO YOUR DOUGH: Seems the folks at Southern Comfort finally want to make up for all of those awful hangovers with a free rock show. Deal. Tonight those sweet whiskey people present The Hold Steady at The Crocodile. Jump through a couple little hoops (register for a ticket), and you’re in. more ›

RECOMMENDED Pretty Girls @ Seattle Center House/TPS Theatre 4. Despite its low budget and all the attendant challenges faced by small fringe theatres, Marked Women Productions have pulled off a winning show with Pretty Girls. Inspired by the work of Naomi Wolf, the company has produced an ambitious and challenging original script that comes to life onstage on the strength of the company's innovating approach to staging. It features several strong performances, as well, particularly Opal Peachey and local teenage up-and-comer Megan Schutzer. (Fri., Sun. & Mon., 8 p.m. Seattle Center House, Fourth Floor; tix $8-$10.) more ›

'CAUSE HATE IS JUST UGLY: The California Supreme Court announced last Friday that they would be handing down their decision today on the constitutionality of the infamous Prop 8. The court upheld the same-sex marriage ban, but allowed the existing 18,000 unions to stand. Since the news is mixed, it's fitting that there's a rally and/or protest taking place at Westlake Center Park tonight. Get out and show your support either way. more ›

We have to start here by jumping in and saying that this is easily one of the most exciting weekends of theatre we've seen in town in months--two festivals running, genre-breaking opera, ballet crossing over into Broadway show tune territory, two shows that have had their runs extended (, you've lost your bloody mind. It doesn't get better than this! more ›

Seattlest is a Patsy Cline fan. The woman had range. And not just that, but husk. No matter what note she was unleashing, she never dropped the soul of the song for a second. Sure, if you watch video of her singing through "Walkin' After Midnight," you may see a smile on her face for the camera. But there's something behind that, something in her eyes and the tone of her voice as she delivers lines like "I'm always walking after midnight searching for you." You can hear the lonely despite the smile. Singing like that is harder than smiling through the pain. We can't explain why, it just is. But Patsy could do it, and she made it look effortless. It was her appeal, was what made her such an icon in her so-short-it-was-almost-non-existent career (she was killed in a plane crash at 30 years old). more ›

OPENINGS: Athol Fugard's at Stone Soup (Fri. & Sat. 7:30 p.m., tix $15/$10) is a rock n' roll adaptation of a classic. more ›

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First, the idea is totally insane and gave us anxiety just thinking about it. Fourteen plays, written, directed and performed in front of a live audience in 48 hours. If you're an actor, writer, performer, or have ever been on a stage, you'd certainly understand. Deep breaths. What is certainly a weekend of chaos for all parties involved in the production of the world's quickest theater festival however, composed itself into a relatively well oiled machine come the 8 p.m. curtain. more ›

Everyone knew it was going to be harsh. For weeks, arts orgs around Seattle have been struggling with the fallout of the recession and its impact on their projected budgets for 2009. Now hard figures are coming out, and they're not pretty. Over on the Slog, Brendan Kiley has a report on the budget cuts at some of Seattle's largest theatres. ACT Theatre, following the wildly successful run of their annual Christmas show, , is in better shape than some others: It only had to chop 20% out of its budget. The Rep, by contrast, may be looking at up to a 40% cut to make ends meet, though there's no hard numbers yet. No information was available from the Intiman. more ›

ACT kicked off their annual production of playing up at Annex Theatre. more ›

At lunch we were down the block from ACT theatre, and kept hearing this youthful cheering. We didn't remember a stadium being built at 7th and Union, so we walked up the street to see where it was coming from. A few hundred school kids were standing on the sidewalk outside ACT, making "honk your horn" gestures at trucks--and cars and any other horned conveyance--passing by. Whenever someone tootled at them in return, a roar went up from the kids. They were still at it as we headed in to lunch. We wonder if they were heading to something at ACT, and, if so, if the performers realized they had to out-do the thrill of people willing to honk for kids on a sidewalk. more ›

. Rice's script is a near-forgotten masterpiece of early-20th century American theatre: a long (at seven acts), brutal play exploring racism, anomie, and alienation in the character of Mr. Zero, a dull accountant who, after years of dedication to a soul-crushing job, finds himself about to be downsized, replaced by an adding machine, and responds in a murderous rage. more ›

, in the second week of its run at ACT Theatre (tickets $10-$55; through Nov. 16) may be a winning, even heart-warming, comedy, but it feels about a year too late. The story of a middle-aged, middle-class wife who's bored with her marriage to an easy-going husband and paranoid about her economic future, only to find herself swept up into a dazzling affair with a comfortable rich man feels like a cautionary tale of late 2006. more ›

We were really looking forward to seeing Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice (at ACT through October 5, tickets $10-$55). Ruhl's a Pulitzer prize finalist and a MacArthur "genius" grant winner, and we've long been fascinated by the Greek tale of not counting your dead chicks before they're hatched. Maybe we'd love it; maybe we'd hate it. We didn't expect boredom. But that's what we got. more ›

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There's something amazing on stage this month at ACT Theatre that everyone should see: black people, on the stage, in a play, that a tepid exploration of race in America. It's a holy frickin' miracle! more ›

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Since the first previews of . more ›

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