Allison Narver News

Seattle Rep has revealed its 2024/25 Season, the first planned by its new Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez, who joined the organization in 2023.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Every once in a while the stars will align, and magic will happen. Magic is exactly what happened on stage last night as Seattle Shakespeare presented MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. From director to cast to staging, everything worked together in perfect unison to not only tell this age old story, but to elevate it. The good folks at Seattle Shakespeare have put together a very special production that reminds us of the magic of theater and how it can bring us together.

Seattle Shakespeare Company announced plans to return to indoor performance with a series of productions.  Shakespeare: Drum and Colours, an ambitious, alternating repertory of two Shakespeare classics pared to their essence and featuring an all-POC company, will perform in late winter 2022. 

Seattle Shakespeare Company unveiled its 2020-2021 season containing several artist-initiated projects around the theme of a?oeFamily Trust.a?? Highlights include a comedy by a Shakespeare contemporary, the return of upstart crow collective to the Seattle Shakespeare stage, a 20th Century American classic, and the beloved bickering of Beatrice and Benedick.

Portland Opera continues the 2019/20 season with the premiere of a new production entitled An American Quartet: Four One-Act Operas. Each of these pieces, written by American composers, will be presented in the intimate black box theatre at Portland Opera's Hampton Opera Center.

Portland Opera is pleased to announce programming for the company's 56th season, which will open on October 25, 2019. The season will launch with one of the most powerful operas of all time, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, starring internationally acclaimed soprano Hiromi Omura in the title role. In February, the company will present An American Quartet: Four One-Act Operas in an intimate evening in the Hampton Opera Center's black box theatre. These one-acts feature Gian Carlo Menotti's The Telephone, Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge, Douglas Moore's Gallantry, and Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit! The season will continue with a rare presentation of Vivaldi's opera Bajazet in March, which will be a special collaboration with the Portland Baroque Orchestra. In the spring, Portland Opera will present its annual Big Night concert and Leoncavallo's verismo masterpiece, Pagliacci. The 2019/20 season will close with the Portland Opera premiere of Jake Heggie's familial drama, Three Decembers.  

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the theatrical Union that represents over 4,000 professional stage directors and choreographers will host an all-day summit for its Members and their guests, on Monday, May 6. The day, which begins at 1:00 PM, is designed to facilitate a space for directors and choreographers to engage in conversation with their colleagues around their craft, to raise the profile of Northwest directors and choreographers, and to encourage increased community through SDC. 

Mari Marchbanks announced today the 2018 recipients of the biennial Horton Foote Prize, named in honor of the late playwright, which recognizes excellence in American theater. The 2018 Prize for Outstanding New American Play, presented to a work produced in the 2016-17 or 2017-18 seasons, is awarded to Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee. The 2018 Prize for Promising New American Play, presented to a previously unproduced work, is awarded to India Pale Ale by Jaclyn Backhaus.

ACT Theatre welcomes back award-winning comedian and playwright Lauren Weedman in her newest show, Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Known for her roles in HBO's Looking, The Daily Show, Arrested Development, and Seattle's Almost Live!

EAM Productions is proud to present a workshop of Lauren Weedman's hysterical one-woman show, Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore for two nights only on June 5-6, 2018! Grappling with heartbreak, betrayal, and preschool moms, Lauren turns to her fast-talking, 70's Variety Show host alter-ego, Tammy Lisa, to find some clarity.  As the world comes crashing down around her sky-high hairdo, Tammy Lisa fights back, one rockin' song at a time.

The selection committee for the inaugural session of The 5th Avenue Theatre's new musical initiative, First Draft: Raise Your Voice, has been announced. This cycle is currently soliciting submissions nation-wide from womxn, gender non-conforming and non-binary folx with a submission deadline of June 15. Comprised of a team of outstanding womxn, the selection committee includes performers, producers, directors, playwrights and thought leaders in the Seattle theater landscape: Desdamona Chiang, Lauren DuPree, Keiko Green, Allison Narver, and Sarah Porkalob, lead by The 5th's Kelsey Thorgalsen and Bill Berry.

The final show in UW Drama's 2018-2019 mainstage season is Karen Hartman's hilarious, surprising, and deeply human comedy Goldie, Max and Milk.

The actors' voices are not all you hear in a theatrical production. In most cases there is an array of other sounds too-recorded or live music that is incidental or central to the action, special effects ranging from the subtle to the monumental. The artist responsible for all this is the sound designer, and the Northwest is home to some superlative ones. In this third State of the Theatre forum, four sound designers will discuss the nature and practice of their work, and play audio and video samples of what they do best.  

The second installment of the new series, State of the Theatre: Seattle Artists in Conversation will feature some of Seattle's most accomplished interpreters of Shakespeare in conversation with longtime Seattle Times theatre critic, lecturer, and author Misha Berson.

What if, instead of drowning, Shakespeare's Ophelia had splashed through the brook water and found a parallel universe on the other side?

The first installment of the new series, State of the Theatre: Seattle Artists in Conversation will feature some of Seattle's most accomplished dramatists in conversation with longtime Seattle Times theatre critic, lecturer, and author Misha Berson.

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.

In the spring of 1996, director Tina Landau developed a new play by her longtime collaborator Charles L. Mee with students at the UW School of Drama. The play was Trojan Women: A Love Story, and it premiered in New York that same summer.