Let's get the bad news out of the way: "The Winter's Tale" is not Shakespeare's strongest effort. The good news is that Seattle Shakespeare Company's current production is simply wonderful, overcoming most of the limitations of the script.Director Mark Harrison has synthesized key elements of puppet theater with a Zen aesthetics and added them to a period production that manages to be straightforward and totally accessible. It's a remarkable melding - exciting, unexpected, beautiful to see. The story is one of consuming jealousy. King Polixenes wants to go home. For many months he has been visiting King Leontes and his pregnant Queen, Hermione. Leontes hates to see his good friend leave but can't seem to convince him to stay. He asks his beloved wife to encourage their friend to remain as their guest. She does it, and instead of being happy, Leontes immediately suspects that his wife and friend have been lovers. He plots to poison Polixenes, kill his wife and the daughter she produces and involve his trusted courtiers in the murders. The whole court is horrified, but the tyrannical Leontes refuses to shake off his crazy jealousy. He dispatches his underlings to their dastardly tasks. Meanwhile, he sends two courtiers to consult an oracle of Apollo, convinced that they will bring back proof of the suspected misconduct. Instead the oracle reaffirms the purity of all accused. Leontes' own jealously has robbed him of those he loved most in the world. He is overcome with grief and vows repentance for the rest of his life.What he doesn't know is that the daughter and wife survive and his friendship with Polixenes will be reestablished. Sixteen years later, the daughter winds up marrying Polixenes' son. The wife turns from cold stone to warm flesh and embraces Leontes passionately. Everyone lives happily ever after.
Let's get the bad news out of the way: "The Winter's Tale" is not Shakespeare's strongest effort. The good news is that Seattle Shakespeare Company's current production is simply wonderful, overcoming most of the limitations of the script.Director Mark Harrison has synthesized key elements of puppet theater with a Zen aesthetics and added them to a period production that manages to be straightforward and totally accessible. It's a remarkable melding - exciting, unexpected, beautiful to see. The story is one of consuming jealousy. King Polixenes wants to go home. For many months he has been visiting King Leontes and his pregnant Queen, Hermione. Leontes hates to see his good friend leave but can't seem to convince him to stay. He asks his beloved wife to encourage their friend to remain as their guest. She does it, and instead of being happy, Leontes immediately suspects that his wife and friend have been lovers. He plots to poison Polixenes, kill his wife and the daughter she produces and involve his trusted courtiers in the murders. The whole court is horrified, but the tyrannical Leontes refuses to shake off his crazy jealousy. He dispatches his underlings to their dastardly tasks. Meanwhile, he sends two courtiers to consult an oracle of Apollo, convinced that they will bring back proof of the suspected misconduct. Instead the oracle reaffirms the purity of all accused. Leontes' own jealously has robbed him of those he loved most in the world. He is overcome with grief and vows repentance for the rest of his life.What he doesn't know is that the daughter and wife survive and his friendship with Polixenes will be reestablished. Sixteen years later, the daughter winds up marrying Polixenes' son. The wife turns from cold stone to warm flesh and embraces Leontes passionately. Everyone lives happily ever after.
One of the most influential American choreographers, Twyla Tharp has had her work seen on ballet stages, on Broadway and in the movies. A member of Tharp's various dance companies for the past 30 years, Shelley Washington is the first to admit that it has been a wild and often glorious ride following Tharp through every imaginable type of dance performance."I was studying with Martha Graham when I met Twyla in 1973, and I was invited to join Twyla's company in 1975," recalled Washington, a sprightly African-American woman who retains a dancer's thin build and has a tendency to talk with her hands or an expressive roll of the shoulders. "I started out like any ballet dancer, taking ballet classes every day. Then, in Twyla's company, I stopped ballet for a while to do the movie 'Hair' and then went back to ballet and then went to Broadway for [Tharp's] 'Singing in the Rain.' We were taking vocal classes and tap lessons for that for a year. Then we went back to ballet." Later Washington was a soloist for Tharp when the choreographer went to American Ballet Theatre, and then she was a rehearsal director for the "Cutting Up" tour that paired Tharp with Russian superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov.Reflecting on three decades of working with Tharp, Washington said, "What an experience. To do a movie, to do a Broadway show, to do television and to perform all over the world with great, great dancers."This eclectic mix of classical and popular is typical Tharp.
Here's what's happening at the Seattle Public Library's Capitol Hill Branch in November.For preschoolers, we will offer story times filled with stories, songs and fun at 10:30 a.m., Wednesdays during November.The Capitol Hill Book Group is reading "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje, which will be discussed Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. Come on in or call the branch at 684-4715, or visit www.spl.org for more details on either program. As we spring into fall, here are a few books to consider as the days get shorter.
Clear, crisp diction. Beautiful support from the orchestra. Impeccable attention to small details of plot in the directing. A Seattle cast of acting heavyweights. It must be another Sondheim outing at the 5th Avenue Theater.Like last season's "Sweeney Todd," this new production of "Company" shows the 5th in the best possible light. Under the sure direction of the 5th's artistic director David Armstrong and the splendid musical leadership of local conductor Ian Eisendrath, this "Company" is a gem of a musical comedy.Armstrong recruited Broadway actor Hugh Panaro in the leading role of Robert, a 30-something bachelor in search of couplehood, a man both attracted and repelled by his friend's marriages. Panaro gives Robert a smooth, almost con-artist polish. And this guy is con artist, as busy conning himself as his friends that what he really wants out of life is to settle down into marriage even as he hops from one girl to the next.A raging debate exists over this musical about whether it promotes or disapproves of marriage. The same debate could be made over an episode of "Friends" or "Desperate Housewives" and make just about as much sense. The soufflé light encounters with each couple's ongoing joys and sorrows with each other are simply sharp observations of human behavior heightened for comedic effect. In other words, rather than psychoanalyze this show, sit back and enjoy the tour-de-force performances of some of Sondheim's best songs.
As one of Seattle's original "bedroom communities," Capitol Hill hasn't been widely known as a place to go to work.Sure, there's Group Health and Seattle Central Community College. There's neighborhood retail. There are a few offices, such as those of AEI Music and the Lifelong AIDS Alliance. There are construction jobs on all those condos and mixed-use projects.But, as we've mentioned previously in this space, there's one true growth industry on the hill: Booze.From neo-mom-and-pop joints such as the Bus Stop to elaborate beverage palaces such as the War Room and Chapel, bars are now big business, on the Hill as well as in Fremont, Belltown and Pioneer Square.And, just like residents in those neighborhoods, some folks in this neighborhood are unamused by the late-night noisemaking and other unseemly behaviors inside and outside bars and nightclubs.Tighter rulesSometime this week, perhaps by the time you read this, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' office will release its final plans for tighter nightclub regulations. They'll come after months of "Seattle process," of hashing out proposed details with various industry and community advocates. They'll surely lead to more weeks, perhaps months, of public debate and dispute before anything's officially on the lawbooks.Just last week the proposed rules were expanded. Now, Nickels wants to apply the same restrictions to all bars, not just to those that feature live musicians and disc jockeys. (Restaurants without separate cocktail-lounge rooms would remain exempt.)Nickels's proposed rules are now expected to compel club owners to "take all reasonable steps to prevent" drugs, weapons and violence on or near their premises, according to a Saturday, Oct. 28, Seattle P-I story. Previous drafts, according to industry people who'd seen them, reportedly used stronger language to describe what businesses were supposed to do and invoked stronger penalties against businesses that failed to fully comply.
Two weeks have passed since the mid-October school board meeting imploded from a lack of leadership and a surfeit of rudeness on the part of some of those in attendance. It's time for school administrators and parents to cast critical eyes on the wreckage. The school board has been called dysfunctional, and when it comes to the way they handle public meetings, that appears to be the case. Where was the discipline on Oct. 18? The meeting's three-hour time slot nearly doubled as the board members allowed impassioned speakers to exceed their time allotments and sat passively as rude, disruptive audience members interrupted the proceedings for the detriment of everyone involved. The mechanism for public input was disrespected and derailed.The board's job is to inform the audience of the ground rules, the consequences of breaking them, and enforce them if they are broken. While it may take beefed-up security to accomplish, it's the same old-fashioned and positive structure of communication parents should use with their children. It's elementary.
On Friday, Oct. 27, the Empty Space Theatre Board of Directors announced that the company would cease operations effective immediately. The announcement came only ten months after the Empty Space had moved from their Fremont theater to the Lee Center at Seattle University. At the time of the move, Empty Space artistic director Alison Narver had stated that the company had come perilously close to shutting down several times in the previous two years, but had been saved by last-minute donations from the community. The move to the Lee Center and a return to the Capitol Hill neighborhood where the company began was seen as a way to stabilize the Empty Space's finances. Besides performing in the Lee Center, the Empty Space staff took offices within the School of Arts. Early predictions said that the company, which has been performing with a deficit of approximately $75,000, could be in the black by the end of the 2007 season.After the move, the Empty Space continued their 2006 season in the Lee Center with performances of Lauren Weedman's "Bust" and the new work "Louis Slotin Sonata" by local playwright Paul Mullin. The season was scheduled to continue with a return of the company's popular "Forbidden Xmas" in December, prior to the Board's announcement of the closure.
Water is wet. The sun rises from the east. Birds fly south in the winter. And Jim McDermott essentially runs unopposed in Washington state's 7th congressional District. Linnea Noreen takes exception to the latter certainty. And it's not a rhetorical point of view. Noreen is running as an independent candidate against the longtime incumbent. Nor does she regard her candidacy as a quixotic quest. Along with everyone else, Noreen is well aware that she hasn't a chance of actually winning the Tuesday, Nov. 7, election. Her goal is not victory, but to draw attention to issues she feels are important and focus a spotlight on a congressional representative she feels has been ineffective despite his lengthy congressional tenure. Such an approach is reality based. McDermott, a liberal Democrat, easily wins reelection against token opposition. McDermott won with a shade under 75 percent of the vote in 2002. His total was more than 80 percent in 2004.Noreen, 29, grew up on Capitol Hill in the house where her parents still live. She moved back after attending college on the East Coast and working in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts with a degree in political science, then worked as a consultant for Arthur Anderson, a job that somewhat coincidentally found her working in Seattle much of the time. Her turn toward politics and community involvement came during the 2000 election cycle. She became involved in Al Gore's presidential campaign, eventually taking a paid position at about 25 percent of her previous salary. "The campaign was a whirlwind. I came to learn how politics, and especially the two-party system, disenfranchises a large percentage of the population," she said.She also learned that Seattle was really and truly home.
Fall is here, and with the change in leaves and temperature, it's time to get out the woolies and the overcoats and pack away the T-shirts and sun dresses. In other words, it's time to organize your closets! Here are some simple strategies for organizing your wardrobe and storing off-season clothes.Getting readyAs with all organizing projects, dedicate at least four hours of uninterrupted time. Turn off the phone, avoid other distractions and be sure you have the supplies you need before you get started. For closets, I recommend a purchasing an inexpensive clothes rack; boxes to help you sort (banker boxes are my favorite); a flat, clean surface for sorting (a.k.a. the bed); and bags for donations. You also will want to label each box with the general contents, such as "winter sports" or "summer shorts, tops." I also recommend purchasing two under-bed storage containers - ideally plastic with small rollers on one end and flip-tops on each end. Shop for other containers after you have sorted and tossed. The sorting processStart by sorting the entire contents of your closet and any other place you store clothes. Use the clothes rack to hang items as they come out of your closet. Label boxes and areas of the bed to keep you feeling organized. Put donated items immediately in a bag, labeled for donation so there is no confusion. Try on each item, and ask yourself if you wore it in the last year - if not, why not?z Too small - If you can't fit in it (but love it and swear you'll where it when you part with those extra 10 pounds), store it until you can. Put the items in a box labeled "Too small" and store. Don't put it back in your closet. A year from now, revisit the box - if you still haven't parted with the extra 10, it's time to part with the old clothes.
Guerline Ruppert (at right) and her son, Jonathan, 10, test-drive one of the 36 computers at the newly renovated Douglass-Truth Library, 2300 E. Yesler Way, which reopened to a huge crowd on Oct. 14.
Wendy, my expert-at-throwing-away daughter, came to visit me recently for our annual throwaway weekend. She's a master at looking over my expansive wardrobe and tossing garments right and left with comments: "I can't believe you still have this," or "Mother, this is just too out-of-date." I sigh as I feel as if I'm tossing out my firstborn, but in my heart of hearts I know she's right. I just haven't been able to face the parting.By the time we're finished, we have boxes full of jackets, pants, blouses, sweaters and T-shirts for Jubilee House, the women's shelter on Capitol Hill, and I am left virtually naked. Then comes the rearranging. Put summer away and bring winter out, and try to make room for what remains of my remaining wardrobe. Wendy has a way with space. Drawers seem to grow larger or at least hold more of my prized possessions than I ever can achieve. I am thrilled as we find ideal places for hats and purses and even sweatshirts that are occupying prime spaces needed for more delicate articles. Finally, when we realize that there isn't much more we can do, we sit down with a glass of wine and revel in what has been accomplished.
As you fill out your absentee ballot or make your way to your local polling place, there are many things you should make sure to keep in mind. These issues go beyond just Madison Park, Seattle or Washington state, and they affect all of us.The war on terrorThe war on terror should be first and foremost on people's minds. It's been more than five years now since we were attacked by vicious terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. And since then, we have not been attacked.Despite that, the threat of radical Islamic terrorists still threatens the Western world and all those who do not follow lockstep with their ideology. Our safety from this threat has not come from us taking up diplomacy and talking with the terrorists; it came by going on the offense.No one ever said that the struggle against Islamic terrorism would be easy. We're fighting a deadly, suicidal and sophisticated enemy that is extremely patient. However, it's a struggle that we cannot afford to lose.
As World War II ended, the Todd Shipyard, located just south of Kirkland, stopped making warships. The shipyard employees who commuted by ferry moved from our area to find jobs elsewhere. As fast as they moved out, though, others quickly moved in. Saying goodbye to old friends and hello to new ones became quite a ritual at J.J. McGilvra school. At recess, during the beginning of the fifth grade, I joined the guys playing marbles near the two big trees west of the building. Marbles was serious business, except this day a new student and her friends walked by and brought the game to a complete halt. As boys of grade 5 would do, we exclaimed in the vernacular of the day, "Neat!"Clowning aroundI had a class on the third floor. Our teacher, like others at that time, looked a bit matronly and had free reign to discipline us for any misconduct.My friend pointed and smiled, as there was the new girl just one row away. The teacher hadn't arrived yet, so everyone was talking above an accepted level, laughing and acting out by playing catch with the erasers and showing off. All of a sudden, the teacher appeared out of nowhere, slapped a big, wooden ruler against the tabletop and in a very distinctive voice said, "Quiet!" It was time for my solo - a perfect impression of what she had just said, which brought about much laughter. It was good to see people laugh. The teacher was not amused as she went on about us acting like adults, so I mimicked her again, getting even more laughs.
Residents of Madison Park are still concerned about the possibility of bike trailheads at 37th and 43rd avenues East being included in the state Route 520 replacement plan.The Seattle City Council will vote later this year on its preferred alternative for the SR520 replacement project. In the current resolution, the trailheads are not included in the final plan; they are only mentioned as possibilities to be considered.The city had given residents until Tuesday, Oct. 31, to comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement involving the bridge replacement.