Kathy Hsieh News

Pork Filled Productions (PFP), in association with the Theatre Off Jackson, presents the rolling world premiere of The Brothers Paranormal by Prince Gomolvilas, directed by Mimi Katano (Artistic Director at Youth Theatre Northwest) at the Theatre Off Jackson (409 7th Ave. S., Seattle), October 26 to November 16, 2019.

For years, Lindy Hume, stage director of Seattle Opera's August production of Rigoletto, has been frustrated by the way opera celebrates misogyny through its “bad boy” characters. In beloved works such as Don Giovanni, Carmen, and Tosca, sopranos must rehearse how to fall, how to be stabbed, brutalized, and thrown across the room, behaviors they would never accept in real life.

 An all-male Twelfth Night and a Romeo and Juliet comprised of female and non-binary artists have been cast for Seattle Shakespeare Company's free Wooden O productions which start performances on Thursday, July 11.

GAMBATTE: An American Legacy explores the resilience and fortitude of the Japanese American community, from Nihonmachi, Portland's historic Japan town, to the present. Through theatre, dance and music the 90-minute performance is a way to raise empathy and heal the emotional legacy and the effects of racism in America.

In a revival version never before staged on the West Coast, David Henry Hwang's audacious, Tony Award-winning M. BUTTERFLY - inspired by a bizarre true story of illusion, obsession and betrayal - will open at ArtsWest on January 24. Performances will run Today through Sunday until February 17.

As Seattle Opera gears up to present The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the company is asking hard questions about the effects of Big Tech, both in Jobs' life, and in our rapidly expanding community. Prior to the production's Feb. 23 - March 9 run at McCaw Hall, the public is invited to join the dialogue at two free panel discussions. Both events take place in Tagney Jones Hall, in the newly opened Opera Center.

In a revival version never before staged on the West Coast, David Henry Hwang's audacious, Tony Award-winning M. BUTTERFLY - inspired by a bizarre true story of illusion, obsession and betrayal - will open at ArtsWest on January 24. Performances will run Thursday through Sunday until February 17.

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) and the Gregory Awards announce today that brothers Billy and Howie Seago will be recognized for their contributions to the Seattle theatre community.

New Theatre Magazine (NTM), an independent print publication founded by Kathryn Lynn Morgen, announces their Pilot Issue and Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of the first 80-page issue showcasing contributions from artists, playwrights, dramaturgs, stage designers, technicians, directors, actors, producers, and crew members across the US & UK.

Finally! In collaboration with Deaf Spotlight Presents, Sound Theatre Company has produced a bilingual "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with English and American Sign Language. This performance, now at 12th Avenue Arts, may have a streamlined aesthetic, but the incorporation of ASL makes the original Shakespearean spoken language even more poetic.

Lloyd Sun's play, "American Hwangap", currently playing at West of Lenin in association with SIS Productions, by its very nature should be about connection and reconnection. Unfortunately, the play itself lacks the depth needed to form those connections and the pacing of the production doesn't help.

Steeped in the difficulty of reunification and reconciliation, American Hwangap tells the story of Min Suk Chun, who some 15 years earlier left his family in a West Texas suburb to return to his native Korea. On the occasion of his 60th birthday (hwangap), a milestone signifying the completion of the Eastern Zodiac and a type of rebirth, he returns to his ex-wife and now adult children as they struggle to reconcile their broken past with the mercurial, verbose and often exasperating patriarch now back at the head of the table. Through a tense birthday weekend filled with humor, heartbreak and half-filled expectations, this American hwangap and its aftermath bears a family not quite whole but still somehow transformed, and not quite happy but still somehow beautiful.

'I've always loved this play. It's deceptively simple on the page, and incredibly powerful on stage. I'm especially excited to explore the story of the Chun family. We get an intimate portrait of a Korean family, but quickly realize that the immigrant experience has great resonance across cultures, and this play is an inviting exploration of that unique and universal American phenomenon.'

Women and artists of color took center stage earlier this week at Theatre Puget Sound's 2017 Gregory Awards. Scroll down for the full list of winners!

Life is hard for female children and for women in general in China. This is the basic message from Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's play The World of Extreme Happiness currently playing at Seattle Public Theater. The big problem with this is that we all know this and so beyond that, what story do they want to tell with this play and why are they telling it? For the life of me, I was never really certain.

Seattle Public Theater's 2017-18 Season opens with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness.

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) and the Gregory Awards announce today that Award-Winning Actress, Director, Producer, Activist, and Educator Kathy Hsieh will be recognized for her many contributions to the Seattle theatre community.

Seattle Public Theater's 2017-18 Season opens with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness.

With stylized sets inspired by Japanese theater and lush, colorful kimono worn by singers, Seattle Opera's grand production of Madame Butterfly coming this August may seem like business-as-usual. But there's a dramatic difference that sets this Butterfly apart: the broader conversation taking place on cultural appropriation, yellowface, and Asian American representation. While certainly not new to many Asian and Pacific Islanders, these conversations have permeated the Puget Sound theater scene for the past several years following a production of The Mikado that made national news.

Dear Readers, there's not much I can tell you about Nassim Soleimanpour's searing play, 'White Rabbit Red Rabbit' currently having it's Northwest Premiere at 18th and Union from Radial Theater Project. I'm unable to tell you about the play not because I don't remember but because you shouldn't know in advance. That's part of the show. I urge you not to Google any information about the show. But I also equally urge you to move hell or high water to catch this one, as it's a thrilling emotional journey unlike anything you're likely to have seen before.