After beginning his acting career in 1996, actor Ray Tagavilla has been performing on Seattle stages for over a decade. Born in the Philippines, Tagavilla earned a BA degree in Drama at the University of Washington and has portrayed classical and contemporary roles for a dozen Seattle theatre companies. He has deployed skills onstage including [...]
Following the recent production of Michael Golamco’s play “Year Zero” by SIS Productions, the Cambodian American immigrant experience is again on stage. “Red Earth, Gold Gate, Shadow Sky” is a collaboration between sculptor and designer Sopheap Pich, playwright and UW Drama School professor Mark Jenkins, and artist Don Fels. The play was originally conceived by [...]
Playwrights are hungry for opportunities to present their work, and this autumn, the SIS Writers Group hopes that its audiences are “Insatiable!” Sponsored by SIS Productions, the SIS Writers Group is in its sixth year of fostering the development of local Asian American playwrights. This year, three new full-length plays and three new one-acts will [...]
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime fell out of power in 1979, but the atrocities that occurred during their short-lived rule continue to affect multiple generations around the world. Some of these challenges faced by second-generation Cambodian Americans are the focus of Michael Golamco’s play “Year Zero”, in a newly-revised version to be presented by SIS Productions. [...]
When is a refugee granted asylum in the U.S.? That is the question explored in Village Theatre’s current production of “Take Me America”. Written by Bill Nabel with music by Bob Christianson, this new musical foregrounds the private struggles of immigrants to America from around the world. Writer and lyricist Nabel explains that the inspiration [...]
How can we ever find the time to pursue our creativity? This is a common question in a society busy with work and family, but the Susie Lee Ensemble hopes to provide an answer. In their new dance piece, “Swimming the List”, the ensemble features solo dancer Ying Zhou in an exploration of how creative [...]
Intercultural translation always poses challenges. American playwright Mia Chung was intrigued by the challenge of understanding North Korean culture. “I felt very alienated from North Korea,” says Chung, who believed the isolated nation served “as a bizarre massive brainwashing experiment.” “In short, I was very susceptible to the simplistic caricature of North Korea that [...]
A reunion is afoot in Seattle theatre during August. Local theatre producer and ReAct Theatre board member Roger Tang collaborates again with his college dorm-mate David Henry Hwang in ReAct’s production of Hwang’s play “Yellow Face”. “I like to joke that I knew Dave before he had a middle name,” says Tang. “We were theme [...]
First came the Butoh Wave last autumn. And now comes the Daipan Butoh’s Next Wave Seattle Butoh Festival, to be held from June 3 – 18. This upcoming festival will include performances, workshops, and public lectures on the Japanese-originated dance form of butoh, and includes not only local butoh artists, but also a range of [...]
Degenerate Art Ensemble (DAE) “always thinks big.” So say Haruko Nishimura and Joshua Kohl, the performance group’s artistic directors. And it continues to be true with their upcoming collaboration with the Frye Art Museum. Part exhibit, part performance, with a smattering of lecture, film, and workshop, DAE and curator Robin Held are challenging the typical [...]
The kids will take the stage Friday. On December 3, Seattle Theatre Group will present its annual Global Dance Party, a festive event featuring dance performances by several local and regional youth dance groups. Global Dance Party is an offshoot of DANCE This, a program initiated twelve years ago by Vicky Lee, STG’s Director of [...]
Ghosts are everywhere. Maggie Lee’s play “Kindred Spirits” demonstrates that, for good or ill, memories and the past can often cling to us, and shape how we view the present. Likewise, this season-opening world premiere production by local theatre company ReAct illuminates how our needs in the present influence how we remember the past. Set [...]
“I used to fish,” says dancer Sokvannara “Sy” Sar. “To dance a dance is to fish in the rice field” in Cambodia, Sar’s home country. Both fishing and dancing came naturally to Sar. In Ann Bass’s documentary, “Dancing Across Borders,” she traces Sar’s career as a dancer first in the Khmer tradition and later in [...]
From senior college thesis to Northwest premiere production, “Ching Chong Chinaman” continues to reach new audiences. Playwright Lauren Yee emphasizes the importance of a long life for a new play. “One of the most crucial things is just to keep on moving,” Yee says, and to push each play forward to its next phase. “I [...]
Dance can often astonish us with technique, energy, and aesthetics. Now, Spectrum Dance Theatre’s new piece also offers us a meditation on national relations of both personal and political kinds. In “Farewell: A Fantastical Contemplation on America’s Relationship with China,” Spectrum Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Donald Byrd has teamed up with composer Byron Au Yong [...]
The University of Washington again brings Indian dance to Seattle. Following a performance featuring the Kathak tradition in October, now comes Shantala Shivalingappa, who will present the Kuchipudi tradition of classical Indian dance. Previously in Seattle for three weeks in 2001 while touring “Hamlet” with the Peter Brook company, Shivalingappa returns with a sole focus [...]
Seattle has another opportunity to experience a Japanese performance. Following the October 19, 2009 performance of Kabuki at Benaroya Hall, Seattlites can soon experience “TAO: The Martial Art of Drumming.” Director Ikuo Fujitaka brings his drumming performance company to Seattle as part of its first lengthy U.S. tour, and looks forward to pleasing Seattle audiences. [...]
The Japanese Consulate-General wants Americans to see Japan in person. To that end, the Consulate-General works with the Japan Foundation to produce an annual series of events aimed at promoting understanding of Japanese culture. Most recently, this partnership brought to Seattle a lecture and performance of Kabuki entitled “Backstage to Hanamichi: A Behind the Scenes [...]
Halloween is a time for fairy-tale characters, and Degenerate Art Ensemble will be weaving several together in their new piece “Sonic Tales” at the Moore Theatre. Based upon an album of original songs, DAE artists Haruko Nishimura, Joshua Kohl, and Jeffrey Huston have spent a year developing this collection of short performance pieces and refining [...]
West and East meet in Pandit Chitresh Das’s practice and performance of Kathak, one of the many forms of classical Indian dance. This blending presents opportunities, but also poses many challenges. “In the west, there tends to be a lumping together of cultures and it is difficult for people to distinguish folk dance from pop [...]
Exploring race onstage can be complicated: That’s what Young Jean Lee found during the creation of her latest work, “The Shipment,” a play that explores African American stereotypes and experience. “I was really annoyed by the way that non-black people responded to the subject of racism against black people in the U.S.,” Lee says. “I [...]
