Arts
Olympia's newest coffee shop art venue is a tiny shop on Franklin Street nestled between Dumpster Values and Old School Pizza. Bar Francis is a place that you could easily walk right past without knowing it is there. But if you walk right past this month you'll miss some fascinating
Stage
At long last, the hugely popular The Art of Racing in the Rain has been adapted for the stage and may now be seen in Olympia at Harlequin Productions. As director and Harlequin co-founder Linda Whitney explains it, "The Art of Racing in the Rain was adapted from Garth Stein's
Arts
"The 2018 Annual Student Art Show at University of Puget Sound" presents the best work from the last two academic years of UPS art classes as chosen by the juror, Tacoma artist Anida Yoeu Ali. The show includes pieces by everyone from first-year students to seniors. The quality of the
Stage
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Weekly Volcano readers have voted Harlequin Productions best theater group. Founded and run by Scot and Linda Whitney, Harlequin has been offering South Sound audiences the best in local theater since it began on a small scale with shows in the
Stage
Olympia Family Theater doesn't have far to look in search of original plays, because there is a treasure chest of talented playwrights right here in Olympia. Starting with an adaptation of the popular children's tale The Wind in the Willows by local playwright Andy Gordon with music by Bruce Whitney and
Arts
CJ Swanson's paintings brighten the walls at Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Shop in Olympia. I've been keeping up with Swanson's art since she and her husband, the painter David Noah Giles, opened the now defunct Art on Center Gallery in Tacoma so many years ago. Back then, her paintings reminded me
Stage
3 Impossible Questions at Olympia Family Theater is a world premiere locally written play based on beloved Islamic folk tales and stories that have been passed down generation to generation about the wise Mullah (teacher or master) Nasreddin. Olympia writer, actor and director Christian Carvajal says he was inspired to write
Arts
Much as been written online and elsewhere about Minoosh Zomorodinia's "Colonial Walk," an art installation and gallery exhibition, parts of which are on display at Feast Arts Center. According to the gallery website, it is a project in process that investigates the relationship between the self and the natural environment,
Arts
An exhibition of art about food is a delightful concept -- lighthearted and lightweight. Most of the art in the "Food in Art" exhibition at Tacoma Community College consists of pop-style paintings of food, many of which are clever and funny, such as Diane Fairbanks' "Deception Pass Doughnut," a painting
Stage
The Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright is a strange and mesmerizing play based on the true-life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite and LGBTQ activist who survived the Nazis, lived through the East German Communist regime, and founded and ran not
Arts
There are two major, world-class photography exhibitions in the main art gallery at The Evergreen State College and the smaller but vital Galerie Fotoland in the first-floor lobby of the library building. "The Surface: On and Beneath," is an exhibition of nearly 100 rarely-seen photographs by Andy Warhol. Added to this
Stage
Anyone who has a chance to see Children of a Lesser God at Tacoma Little Theatre and doesn't is missing a golden opportunity. James Leeds (Jeremy Lynch) teaches speech and lip-reading to deaf students. His newest student who is also a maid at the school, Sarah Norman (Michelle Mary Schaefer), is
Arts
You'll find the good, the bad and the you-gotta-be-kidding-me at the annual postcard exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College. There are professional artists in the show, including many of Olympia's best, and there are many rank amateurs. Well over half of the works are crudely executed and either corny
Arts
There are two large exhibitions at Museum of Glass that seem to have been chosen as companion shows which contrast and complement one another interestingly. Albert Paley's glass and steel sculptures, reviewed last week in this column, are visually impressive, while Michael E. Taylor's "Artificial Intelligence Codes/Rosetta Stone" appeals more
Arts
I was truly impressed by "Complementary Contrasts: The Glass and Steel Sculptures of Albert Paley" at Museum of Glass, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Prior to visiting this show, I had seen only photographs of Paley's work, which is much more powerful when seen in person. Photographs do not come
Stage
Our children are the future of theater in the South Sound region. The child you see on stage in a TMP Family Theater show or in an Olympia Family Theater Playtime show might very well be the adult performer you thrill to in a mainstage production at any area theater
Arts
When I walked into the Seaport Museum to see Shon Frostad's painting exhibition, there was a moment when I could not recognize the paintings as paintings, because the museum is filled with boats, anchors, charts, bones of whales, and other memorabilia of sea life, and I thought the paintings I
Stage
Harlequin Productions' The Stardust Christmas Fandango is the 22nd show in the series of locally written and produced holiday musicals that has been thrilling audiences for decades. Harlequin co-founder Linda Whitney calls it a Christmas card to Olympia. The series started in 1994, and Harlequin has done a different variation on
Arts
Downtown Olympia's Gallery Boom is the newest art gallery in town. But some might question if it's really an art gallery or if it's a flea market for artists. It is jam-packed with paintings, prints, post cards, and craft items of every imaginable sort. The craft items are generally of
Arts
A large mural measuring seven-and-a-half by 48 feet by Tacoma Foundation of Art Award winner Jeremy Mangan, was installed beneath the railroad trestle near Freighthouse Square last week and revealed in an installation celebration at the Amtrak Cascades Station Dec. 15. Titled "The Wood Carving Beach," the mural depicts a beach