Jason Sanford

The Audio Publishers Association has announced finalists for the 2023 Audie Awards®, the premier awards program recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Winners across 26 competitive categories will be revealed at the Audie Awards Gala on March 28. The ceremony will be streamed to the public from Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty in NYC. 

At a time when all of us could use a little bit more open heartedness, Seattle Shakespeare Company has created a collection of Shakespeare's songs, scenes, and sonnets to celebrate love and Valentine's Day. To Woo – A Shakespeare Valentine is a free, 30-minute view on demand video to share with loved ones that will be available from February 12-14, 2021.

The wealthy heiress Portia is forced to set her suitors a challenge for her hand in marriage. In order to woo her, Bassanio finances his plan with money borrowed from his friend Antonio. All would be fine except Antonio has taken out a loan from the moneylender Shylock on the assurance that his ships will make it back to the city. They don't, and Shylock demands repayment with a pound of Antonio's flesh.

Dear Readers, it's been quite a year and, hopefully, we've come through it unscathed. God knows we've needed some shows to help us escape and others to make us think. But through it all we've had several shows that have proven to shine as some of the best of the year. Out of all the shows I was fortunate enough to see this year, I've selected a few that stood out. Here are those stand outs, a few honorable mentions and a few special mentions about which I just couldn't help myself but to mention in their own special way.

Whether it be platonic or romantic, everyone has been in a relationship with someone who makes no sense for them, or is unhealthy for them, or both. But at the time, it satisfied a need. It's a very specific kind of relationship that, if handled poorly by the director or the actors, will be glaringly unconvincing, given how wrong the two people are for each other. However, through Corey McDaniel's pristine direction and such a talented cast, Theatre22's Burn This is an example of high-caliber theatre. There are no gimmicks, there's no fuss, even the music is stripped down to a single saxophone played between scenes. If you're looking for quality, Burn This will provide (now at 12th Ave Arts).

I was fortunate enough to see Tyne Daly in Terrence McNally's "Mothers and Sons" when it was on Broadway. So when I heard that ArtsWest was putting up a production of the show from one of my favorite playwrights, starring Suzy Hunt and Evan Whitfield, already some of my favorite actors in town, and Jason Sanford, who's quickly becoming another one of my favorites, and directed by Makaela Pollock, who's quickly becoming one of my favorite directors in town, I was hopeful to say the least. But even with all that promise in one show it can all still go horribly wrong especially after you've seen it done by an icon. Well, fortunately for me, and for you Dear Readers who need to get out to see this one, every single ounce of hopeful promise and potential I had in my heart before seeing this production was lived up to and then some in a show that succeeds on so many levels brilliantly.

ArtsWest is pleased to announce MOTHERS AND SONS, the Tony Award-nominated play about a mother's reckoning with the life and legacy of her late son, opening at the ArtWest Playhouse and Gallery on January 19. Performances will runToday through Sunday until February 11.

ArtsWest is pleased to announce MOTHERS AND SONS, the Tony Award-nominated play about a mother's reckoning with the life and legacy of her late son, opening at the ArtWest Playhouse and Gallery on January 19. Performances will runThursday through Sunday until February 11.

Some of Seattle's most talented actors will be hard at work in collaboration with writers from around the country in the rehearsal halls of The 5th Avenue Theatre this month as the company's NextFest: A Festival of New Musicals launches its three week intensive development cycle this weekend.

On June 7th at 7:00pm, Forward Flux Productions will present a reading of Lia Romeo's new dark comedy, "Ends of the Earth" at the XIV Flux Salon gathering in Seattle. 

One of the major problems with the Loman family in Arthur Miller's masterpiece "Death of a Salesman", currently closing out the season at ArtsWest, is that the family doesn't communicate with each other. They bluster and puff up about things that may or may not have happened but they never really talk to each other about what's important. And while that lack of communication may serve the story well it does not serve the performance as the same could be said for the production at ArtsWest itself. During it's over 3 hour runtime there were a lot of emotion and stirring speeches being made but for the most part the actors were not connecting with each other and if they aren't connecting with each other then the audience cannot connect with them.

Under the direction of ArtsWest's Artistic Director Mathew Wright, Arthur Miller is brought to the stage in a stripped down, elegant and savage production of a tragic love story between father and son. This thrilling work lays bare the raw emotions of love, the desire for success, and then need for compassion in a horror story of shame, guilt and expectations run amok.

Broadway-bound new musical, Come From Away, presented by Seattle Repertory Theatre, wins four Gypsys, tying with another new musical, Lizard Boy, also produced by Seattle Repertory Theatreand also with four Gypsys, a company that has been known for years as a powerhouse dramatic straight-play playhouse! 

Seattle Theater Writers critics' circle is pleased to present the nomination slate of the fifth annual Gypsy Rose Lee Awards, theater awards devoted to recognizing excellence across the economic spectrum of professional Seattle theaters in the prior calendar year.

New Century Theatre Company (NCTC) closes out its first season at 12th Avenue Arts with a powerhouse family drama adapted by David Eldridge from the Danish film The Celebration. The Company has wanted to produce Festen for many years and it will be NCTC's biggest production yet. Festen will be directed by Tony Award nominee Wilson Milam and the cast will feature the work of ten Company Members.

The current production from Pony World Theatre may not be everyone's cup of tea. I mean it's already got a few things that may make people shy away. One of the longest titles in theatrical history to start, “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915” by Jackie Sibblies Drury. Or how about that it's about a little known genocide? In fact I wasn't sure how I was feeling about it as it tended toward a little preachy and esoteric. But this odd and very hard hitting play ended up having so much going for it, not the least of which was it's cast, that it amounted to quite a moving experience.

Sometimes Shakespeare is all about murder and revenge and history and import and sometimes it's just a goofy romp through the ins and outs of the heart. And "Love's Labour's Lost" from the Seattle Shakespeare Company currently playing at the Center Theatre is definitely part of the latter group. Probably the biggest example of Shakespeare at his most frivolous, the production definitely had its shining moments but tended to betray its own story near the end and whether that's the script or the direction, it left me a little wanting.

Seattle Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST by William Shakespeare runs at Seattle Center's Center Theatre, opening March 15 and playing through April 7, 2013, directed by Jon Kretzu. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!