What do a Hanukkah Bush, Rambo, and a charity entitled, "A Home for Anorexic Dogs," all have in common? Well, obviously, they are all part of the elaborate "alternative" tale of how Ebenezer Scrooge transforms himself on one night from a man who hates Christmas to a man who keeps the tradition of giving near and dear to his heart. I know, this sounds farfetched, but anything goes in the improvised classic A Christmas Carol being performed all this month at the Intiman Theatre by Unexpected Productions. more ›

The much-troubled Intiman Theatre has hired a new Artistic Director, and is sharing details for their plan to rise from the ashes of this year's near financial ruin. more ›

We’ve got a live one this week! So much to cram into so few days—from drinking and dancing to discussing Rad Dads and enjoying some tunes…get ready for your week in Lit! more ›

This weekend, PNB's Olivier Wevers and his fledgling dance/music/performance company, Whim W'him, will warm the floors as Intiman Theatre's first resident dance company. The five-year partnership will kick off Friday with Shadows, Raincoats & Monsters, a compilation of work by European choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, with two new pieces by Wevers. The performance will also subsequently mark the launch of Whim W'him's second season. more ›

For the 13th season running, Intiman Theatre is presenting Langston Hughes' popular Black Nativity musical - and this year they've moved over to the Moore. Regardless of your spiritual affiliation, Black Nativity will stir up those feelings of warmth and joy we all long for during the holiday season, with a boisterous celebration of the Christ Child that will get your hands a clappin' and your toes a tappin'. Even the cold-hearted hipsters sitting next to us began (almost imperceptibly) nodding their heads in time to the music. more ›

Did you successfully make it through junior high? Then you've probably read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. A pinnacle of the Romantic period and a scathing indictment of the all-up-in-your-business mentality of the worst impulses in American law-making, it's an oft-referenced classic frequently adapted for stage and screen. A new adaptation of the play (by Naomi Iizuka) opened at Intiman Theatre in October. more ›

OUT OF SPITE: With A Doctor in Spite of Himself, the 17th Century comedic playwright Moliere turned his farcical eye to the doctors of the time. In the play, Sganarelle, a drunken and uneducated woodcutter is mistaken as a doctor and helps a young woman who has lost her voice. It's funny because he's ignorant, but people think he's a doctor. In a new adaptation by Christopher Bayes and Steven Epp, an argument between Sganarelle and his wife Martine ends badly when Martine seeks revenge on Sganarelle by telling the town that he is the best doctor around and can cure anyone. Though Sganarelle is no doctor, he takes on the role in an effort to get back at his wife. It's funny because he knows he's ignorant. A Doctor in Spite of Himself is spirited and antic, dare we say, just what the doctor ordered. more ›

SO WONDERFUL: Taproot Theatre Company is putting on It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play tonight at North Seattle Community College. It's a Wonderful Life was first originally broadcasted on the radio in 1947, though most of us have only had the pleasure of watching it on VHS. If you're in need of some warm and fuzzy goodness and a little extra holiday cheer, here is the event for you. Great for the family, and for those who want to see a live version of this all-time holiday classic. more ›

THE RISING SEA: Town Hall hosts Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young, professors and authors of The Rising Sea, tonight as the second installment of a series on sustainability issues titled Soundings From Island Press. The two will be discussing the possible consequences of sea levels rising by as much as seven feet in 2100, and how we can plan ahead for saving lives and communities in coastal cities such as Miami, New York, and New Orleans. more ›

A PLAY OF MAGICAL THINKING: Intiman Theatre presents The Year of Magical Thinking, a play by well-known and much-loved author Joan Didion, based on her bestselling memoir of the same name. Directed by Sama Lapine and starring Judith Roberts, this beautiful show relives the heartbreaking aftermath of Didion losing her husband of 40 years while her daughter lay in intensive care, and how she coped with her grief. more ›

Intiman's Obi-Wan is John Campion, a veteran performer with a rap role sheet a mile long, and one that includes references to his work with Kevin Kline, Linda Hunt, and F. Murray Abraham. You will understand his Iago like never before. He will speak Shakespeare, but with his own vicious cadence. He will bite off the ends of words, and his body will seem to flood with bile. He will offer mean-spirited putdowns and cough out a fake, social laugh. He will never be likable, but always charismatic as he plots his vengeance. more ›

Artistic happy dances are going on within the Seattle arts community. News came this week that $1 million in federal funding will be spread out among local art, theatre, music, and literary organizations to help preserve nonprofit arts jobs in jeopardy. Thirteen local arts groups received $25,000 or $50,000 in funding, including: On the Boards, Northwest Folklife, Pilchuck Glass School, Intiman Theatre, and Seattle Theatre Group. Both the City of Seattle and the Cultural Development Authority of King County received $250,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, which will be allocated--via an application process, due August 10--in a one-time arts stimulus for additional Seattle-based arts nonprofit groups. more ›

ATTENTION! GENERAL AT THE HALL!: Hoo-ah! Former Commanding General of Multi-National Force-Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, now Commander of United States Central Command, is truly entering the lion's den--the peacenik Fortress of Solitude that is Town Hall. El General will talk about the lessons that our Afghanistan-bound troops can take from Iraq; how to prevent Pakistan from falling into a state of anarchy, and counterinsurgency that works. It's all part of the World Affairs Council's Leadership series--Petraeus was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of our 25 Best Leaders--which means that members get in for cheap and the rest of you hoi-polloi types pay full freight. 7-8:30 p.m. // Town Hall, Eighth & Seneca // Tickets: $20 WAC members/$40 general more ›

Seattle's Intiman Theatre is beginning to see some big artistic changes. They have named Kate Whoriskey as the theater's new artistic director, succeeding Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher, who will become the resident director of New York's Lincoln Center Theatre. As for Whoriskey, she's moving to town from New York, where she recently directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined. Whoriskey will take over the role entirely in 2011; until then, the two artistic directors will be working together on programming for the duration of the 2009 and 2010 seasons. more ›

Surprising absolutely no one, Intiman Theatre artistic director Bart Sher announced he's decamping for for New York, and will wrap up his term at the end of this 2010. He's more or less gone as of now, though--he's been in New York for his staging of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and won't direct Othello this summer. He's sending in a Sher stunt-double to fill out his contract. Meanwhile, the search for a new Seattle Symphony music director (Gerard Schwarz steps down at the close of the 2010-11 season) will be headed up by Nancy Evans, who has a page with husband Dan at HistoryLink.org: "Together they personify the term 'power couple' in Washington state." more ›

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is harder than to understand him."--Fyodor Dostoyevsky more ›

Intiman Theatre runs on a different schedule than other playhouses, which is why they're announcing next season's plays right now. The two that jump out at us are Crime and Punishment (an adaptation by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus) and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (based on the only Didion book we didn't love). Sheila Daniels will restage the Dostoevsky--she did it in 2007 at CHAC, where it was a sold-out smash-hit...in an admittedly tiny space. Magical Thinking, as Slate points out, had a difficult time getting to its feet onstage. A lot will ride on the Intiman's choice of performer--luckily Seattle is rich in that regard. more ›

HILARIOUS TOMFOOLERY: Andrew Connor of The Cody Rivers Show, a brilliant physical comedy group out of Bellingham, has brought MissoulaOblongata's newest show, The Last Hurrah of the Clementines, to Theatre Off Jackson. Connor, who has great taste, and is rumored to be the newest curator of Seattle Sketchfest, is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a winner. If you're not convinced, check out the synopsis: more ›

It's not that you forget to tell yourself you know better, that's not a blue sky over the French Quarter, you aren't really sweating in a muggy, swampy heat, the tinny piano isn't spilling out of the bar down the block. Watching A Streetcar Named Desire (at Intiman through August 2, tickets $10-$48) doesn't automatically summon up a hi-def New Orleans, circa 1947--but it does create a rapt, illicit, time-stunned two hours, as if you're having a boozy mid-afternoon conversation in a bar, trading giggling fits and pulling the bandages off old wounds for the sake of the sting. more ›

It seems like that's a common fear, to lose our place in the now, but the story Weems tells reminds us how rejuvenating trips down memory lane can be. Rejuvenating--and colorful, poignant, hilarious, and heart-warming--Namaste Man runs through June 22 at the Intiman (tickets: $10-$48). For a solo performer, Weems is unusually disinterested in telling you "what it all means," which we appreciated. Instead, he offers a preternaturally observant eye on his childhood experiences in the early '70s in Nepal, as the son of a U.S. State Department official. more ›

The Diary of Anne Frank @ the Intiman // through May 17 // // Tickets $10-$50 // Special talks and events on March 31, April 6, 10, 27, 28 and May 3 more ›

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As if Bart Sher weren't enough artistic ordnance, Intiman is also packing Craig Lucas in its Associate Artistic Director holster. (That's Craig Lucas, author of the book for The Light in the Piazza, author of the plays Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul, and The Singing Forest, and author of the screenplays for Longtime Companion and The Secret Lives of Dentists.) more ›

Through July 18 // Intiman Theatre // Adults $48-$34 (Under-25 $10) more ›

Through April 29, Tickets $25-$72 more ›

PREQUEL TO MCARTNEY'S WINGS: Richie Unterberger, the author of several books on the history of rock, shows some film footage and plays some music recordings of unreleased Beatles material. He´s promoting his latest book, The Unreleased Beatles -- Music and Film. We had no idea they were in jail! (Ha! Because of the "unreleased" -- see how...oh...sure, we can move on.) more ›

FANTASTIC FICTION SALON: Novelist, nonfiction author, and short story writer Terry Bisson has swept every honor in the science fiction field as well as France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. He joins Hugo House's Writing Fantastic Fiction workshop series, where he will teach "Who Likes Short Shorts? We Like Short Shorts!" more ›

LESS IS MORE: In Trance of Scarcity: Stop Holding Your Breath and Start Living Your Life, Victoria Castle asks why we feel that nothing is ever enough. Castle's book shows us how to escape this malaise and become more relaxed and alive. Hopefully it doesn't involve crisscrossing the U.S. on a book tour. more ›

at Intiman Theatre, 7:30pm, Tickets $20/$10 Students and Under 25 more ›

Tuesday 7th more ›