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Best of the Northwest show offers local artists at Magnuson Park

The spring Best of the Northwest show at Magnuson Park on March 26 and 27 has managed to secure this favorite venue, Hangar 30, for the 2012 spring show, as well.

Three local schools receive achievement awards

Catherine Blaine K-8, Frantz Coe Elementary and John Hay Elementary were all recognized by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for being in the top 5 percent of all state schools.

Catherine Blaine K-8, Frantz Coe Elementary and John Hay Elementary were all recognized by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for being in the top 5 percent of all state schools in achievement last year.

The man behind the magic

Robert Schaub's blend of style and tech know-how helps to give Seattle Opera's Magic Flute its spark

Who says you can’t be a techie and artistic? Certainly not Robert Schaub, who is going beyond his usual behind-the-scenes role as Seattle Opera’s technical director to co-design the set for The Magic Flute. Serendipity played a part in Schaub co-designing with Robert Dahlstrom for the company’s upcoming production of Mozart’s most fantastical opera, opening May 7. It all started when Schaub was showing Chris Alexander, director of The Magic Flute, productions they could rent, but none were lighting Alexander’s fire.

A sucker punch straight to the gut

Zach Snyder movie is a visually strong but everything else is weak

Zach Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” is less of a film and more of a video game waiting to be made.

Billy Elliot is a leaping achievement

it is no wonder that two years ago Broadway crowned “Billy Elliot” its Best Musical, for it is a triumph.

The baseball trip of a lifetime

Life-long friends prepare to travel the nation to find their own fields of dreams

Four Queen Anne buddies and baseball fanatics are taking the idea of a summer vacation to a whole new level this year. Dubbing themselves the “Boys of Summer,” high school seniors Kellan Larson, Travis Smith, Jack Wilson and Kendal Young are planning to leave just after graduation on June 11th and travel 13,697 miles around the country in a van, to see a baseball game in every major league ballpark. They plan to end the 54-day journey at Safeco Field on Aug. 4th.

Teaching the finer points of the theater

 Jeannie O’Meara knows how to put on a show. As the young cast of Music Man Jr. goes through the paces of another practice, the longtime acting teacher seems to relish every moment. O’Meara has been developing the skills of budding Seattle actors since 2004 when she opened the Magnolia Theatre School of Drama in the second floor of the United Church of Christ. “I absolutely love it,” O’Meara said of the school. “The time has just flown by. It’s amazing.”

We'll meet again...Don't know where, don't know when...

An old friend remembers former news reporter Russ Zabel

Editor's note: Long-time Queen Anne & Magnolia News reporter Russ Zabel died two years ago in April. Peter Havas, Russ's close friend from their European boarding school days, wrote this account of early Zabelian life and times set in the late 1960s. Last year Russ's sister Robin sent Havas a portion of her brother's ashes in a postal envelope, and Havas and his old friend took a last tour of the City of Light before parting at the Seine. "I'm in love." Russ said, his hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. "You're what?" I asked. "In love." "You'll get over it, you always do." I said. "No, I mean it," Russ said again. "I'm glad." I replied. "No really; I'm really in love."  "She's over there…" he said, nodding through a halo of Marlboro smoke toward the dance floor where our classmates and various locals were gyrating in sexual frenzy. "Which one?" I asked, now vaguely interested. It wasn't often Russ actually consolidated the object of his desire into the form of a real person. "The brunette."   

LEON ISRAEL

Leon Israel of Seattle and Whidbey Island passed away on February 20, 2011.  Son of Morris & Gentil Israel of Rhodes & Istanbul, Leon was born and raised in the Seattle central area within the Sephardic community.

A new way for those living with dementia

Queen Anne Manor looks nothing like a nursing home, with its intricate brickwork, large windows and warm colors. However, within the facility there’s a unique place for people living with memory problems.   Prior to January of this year, Queen Anne had no memory-care facilities dedicated to people with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Since then Anna’s Garden(located at 100 Crockett Str.) was created as a separate division of Queen Anne Manor. 

The Aloha Inn offers a brighter future

The Queen Anne facility celebrates 20 years of helping homeless men and women start a new life

For Portia MacDonald, the Aloha Inn represented a whole new beginning. The budding entrepreneur spent about five months at the transitional housing program located on the northeast side of Queen Anne in the former Aloha hotel on Highway 99. The thousands of commuters who pass it by each day probably rarely notice this small, somewhat nondescript building run by the Catholic Community Services of King County. But for the past 20 years, it has been performing miracles. 

Campbell plots her moves to block the deep-bore tunnel

Elizabeth Campbell is used to causing the powers that be fits.  As a second-generation activist and Magnolia native, Elizabeth Campbell already has a long and complex history of campaigning for various local and national causes. However her recent campaigns against the Seattle deep-bore tunnel may be her highest-profile work yet.

Updated Arthur makes money funny again

New version staring Russell Brand is a rare thing indeed - a successful remake.

While we are still picking up the shards of the global economic disaster, director Jason Winer brings us a revamped version of Arthur for a new generation. So soon after Bernie Madoff and the Wall Street meltdown, are we really ready to laugh at, much less care about, the exploits of an obnoxious, unrepentant alcoholic multimillionaire?

Catharine Blaine kids offer a new slant on Alice in Wonderland

The school production offers both the Mad Hatter and modified Beatle songs

t’s not too often you see the story of Alice in Wonderland performed to the music of modified Beatle’s tunes. But that is the fun and intriguing creation that Catharine Blaine K-8 teacher Laurel White has come up with for the school’s latest production.

Guys and Dolls remains fresh after all these years

Cast and crew add a northwest feel to this classic gangster musical

Never dated, always fresh, “Guys and Dolls”, with music and lyrics by the great Frank Loesser, currently enjoys a revival at the Fifth Avenue Theater with a slick new production directed by Peter Rothstein and featuring a talented, predominantly Northwest cast.