The Bard's kings rule the summer stage

It's good to be king! There are some nice shows touring on the summer outdoor stages in the Seattle area, and the ones featuring the Bard's monarchs are the best of the bunch.

Vince Brady, left, as Lear and Sam Hagen as the Fool in the
GreenStage production of King Lear. Photo by Ken Holmes.

GreenStage is running King Lear, directed by Erin Day and featuring Vince Brady in the title role. Brady turns in a stunning and memorable performance as Lear, heart-rendingly depicting the aging ruler's flip-flops from monarch to mental case, from vengeful tyrant to doting dad. Brady is at home with Shakespeare's language, but it's also an intensely physical role. Apart from (spoiler alert!!) lugging the dead Cordelia at the end, he has to play the tics and twitches of age and infirmity, the strength of the king in his more lucid moments, physical hardship in the storm, and he's just on stage all the time. A truly marvelous performance; he's every inch a king.

The rest of the cast is grand as well. Sam Hagen is jaw-dropping in his portrayal of the Fool, truth-teller to the king. It's magical how Hagen makes the wise and hilarious simpleton utterly believable. Daniel Wood is amazing as Edgar and his undercover alter-ego, Poor Tom. Wood often winds up barely clothed in these things, as he did while wearing Superman underwear as Stephano in The Tempest two years ago. Lear is fabulous. Don't miss it!

(Full disclosure: Weisenheimer is marketing director for GreenStage, but it doesn't make me biased!)

David S. Hogan is commanding in the
title role of Wooden O's Henry V. Hogan
is pictured here with Annie Lareau as
Bardolph. Seattle Shakespeare Company
photo.

At the other end of the royal spectrum from the aged Lear is the young whippersnapper Henry V. Seattle Shakespeare Compnay's Wooden O is performing Henry this summer, directed by George Mount with David S. Hogan in the title role. Hogan rocks this great character, whether he's giving the Saint Crispian's day pep talk, whacking one of his old drinking buddies for stealing, or skulking among the common soldiery the night before the big battle. I especially enjoyed the great scene where he and Carolyn Marie Monroe, as Katherine, try to overcome the language barrier as they court in court at the end.

Henry had some great special effects, including a couple of explosions, one of which took down a wall of the fortress. Also, at one point during a battle the air cover flew overhead (yes, set in modern times!) and I was looking around for the real plane--jets often fly over Volunteer Park during the shows. The "sense-surround" really worked. Henry V included a strong supporting cast with many favorite actors. And Terri Weagant as Bishop of Ely? I confess!!

GreenStage also is reprising A Midsummer Night's Dream, the fourth time they've performed the popular Shakespeare comedy in their 25 years cavorting in Seattle-area parks. The silver-anniversary version, directed by Ken Michels, is great fun from start to finish. Gina Marie Russell and David Rollison are fantastic as Hippolyta/Titania and Theseus/Oberon and Taylor Davis enchants as Puck. I found the Rude Mechanicals to be especially hilarious. Led by Michael Ramquist as Peter Quince, the director of Pyramus and Thisbe reminded me a bit of Buddy Bizarre, and Ramquist said there may be a touch of Harold Hecuba in there as well. Danni Krehbiel is a hoot as Robin Starveling, and Luke Sayler a riot as Bottom.

Wooden O also is putting on The Tempest, directed by Kelly Kitchens, with Amy Thone in the role of Prospero. Thone is amazing, with a string of lead Shakespearean roles of late, including Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus. Kitchens took a bit of a different tack with Caliban than we usually see, with Brian D. Simmons playing the slave as a crew-cut, t-shirt-wearing, but gouged up human. It was an interesting way to go with the character. I loved the comic relief between Mike Dooly and Donna Wood as Stephano and Trinculo; as we left after the show we heard several patrons proclaim that "the drunk guy was really good!"

In this show Wooden O's effects did not work as well. They had trouble with the sound system and there was some background hum and feedback for a good part of the performance we saw, and with microphones all over the set, some of them delivered louder sound than others, which was a bit distracting. I hope they get those ironed out as the summer goes along.

The kings rule, but all four of these shows are worth a look. They're playing in parks all over the area through mid-August.

GreenStage calendar
Wooden O calendar

Three great shows: August, LLL, and Two Trains

Weisenheimer has been pretty quiet of late, but we've seen three fantastic plays over the last month and just had to share.

Top of the list is Balagan Theatre's incredible production of August: Osage County, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tracy Letts, directed for Balagan by Shawn Belyea. It's not just the play of the month, but possibly the best show I've seen in at least the last couple of years. It's a great text, and Belyea gets outstanding performances from a cast of 13 that includes some of our favorite local actors.

Shellie Shulkin as Violet Weston, left, dispenses some truth
to daughter Barbara Fordham (Teri Lazzara) in Balagan
Theatre's production of August: Osage County. Balagan
photo by Truman Buffett.

Everyone is so good that it feels a bit unfair to single anyone out, but I must. Charles Leggett is outstanding as Weston family patriarch Beverly, though he's only around for the first 20 minutes or so and spends the next three hours offstage either at the bottom of the lake or in the morgue. Teri Lazzara is dynamite as eldest daughter Barbara Fordham, returning to the old homestead to take charge now that dad is gone. A trio of folks who I tend to think of as great comic actors--Chris Ensweiler, Lisa Viertel, and Kate Jaeger--turn in superb, mostly serious performances (though there's plenty of comic relief in Osage County and Jaeger in particular has some funny lines). Gordon Carpenter is charming and totally creepy as Steve Heidebrecht, fiancé of Jaeger's character, Karen Weston.

Even given this great cast, the show belongs to Shellie Shulkin, who is an absolute tour de force as the pill-popping, chain-smoking, truth-telling matriarch of the clan, Violet Weston. Playing drunk or stoned is tough; it's easy to wind up just goofy or sloppy. But Shulkin nails it, and I expect the family likes her better when she's wasted, because in her more lucid moments she's blunt, vicious, and just high-octane mean. It's a truly remarkable performance.

Hats off to everyone; I'm tempted to rate August: Osage County as the best among the many great shows Balagan has done, though I remain partial, too, to Elephant's Graveyard of 2009 and to the very first Balagan show I saw, Othello in 2008. Longtime readers of this blog may recall that Weisenheimer serves on the board of Balagan Theatre, but this doesn't make me biased. Still, go see for yourself; the show runs through April 27 at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway. Tickets here.

Mike Dooly was oh-so-creepy as Costard
in Seattle Shakespeare Company's Love's
Labour's Lost. Photo: John Ulman.

Across town at Seattle Shakespeare Company they put on a really fine production of Love's Labour's Lost, directed by John Kretzu. We were especially pleased that, at the end, we were pretty sure the women weren't going to come back in a year and hook up with King Ferdinand and his dumb-ass team of frat boys. We thought that Samara Lerman was super as the princess of France.

Some of the most shining individual performances came from the supporting characters. Mike Dooly was amazing, creepy, yucky, and totally creepy as Costard, the clown. Clowns are scary anyway, but this one is one of the toppers yet. Believe us, kids, when we say you don't want to find Dooly under your bed. Outstanding in a more comical and lighthearted way were George Mount as Sir Nathaniel and David Quicksall as the goofy Spaniard Don Adriano de Armado. Quicksall, in fact, came out as top character in Seattle Shakes' bracket battle, their version of the March madness meme, this despite my vote for Costard over the Don in the quarterfinal round.

Kretzu made some great choices as director and created a marvelous and memorable show. We hope he will be back at Seattle Shakes again. Love's Labour's Lost closed up April 7.

Finally we saw August Wilson's Two Trains Running directed by Lou Bellamy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. The top-notch cast included some OSF favorites (Kevin Kenerly, Josiah Phillips, Kenajuan Bentley, and Tyrone Wilson) and some Ashland newcomers (Terry Bellamy, Bakesta King, and Jerome Preston Bates.) Bellamy was fabulous as Memphis, the owner of the diner where the action takes place. King was grand as his comically slow-moving waitress. Kenerly amazed as usual with his character Sterling, the ambitious ex-con who finally gets the ham for Wilson's character Hambone.

Two Trains Running was pure pleasure, a marvelous story, expertly directed, with a strong, professional cast. Kudos to set designer Vicki Smith for creating the diner in the condemned building. It worked beautifully. It's the kind of home run that happens often in Ashland.

You've got time to see this one; it runs at OSF through July 7.

Great wrapup for Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival

The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival was a big success, with seven more performances to solid audiences at Volunteer Park on Sunday. Weisenheimer caught three of them, and parts of a fourth.

The Queen (Erin Day, kneeling) gets grilled by Wolsey
(Michael D. Blum), the King (Daniel Guttenberg) and
Cardinal Campeius (Charles Gift) in the GreenStage
production of Henry VIII.

The first show of the day was Othello by the Young Shakespeare Workshop, directed by Darren Ley. Weisenheimer set out to watch this play. However, they did a full-on Othello at 2 1/2 hours; they did it in the round, which often made it very difficult to hear; and they did it under some big cedar trees, where it was damned cold this morning! I bailed out for a sunnier spot.

We sat in the sun for the GreenStage production of Henry VIII, directed by Teresa Thuman. There is plenty of court intrigue and power playing during the show, and we were especially taken in by the accusation and trial of Queen Katherine of Aragon because of the electrifying performances of Erin Day as the Queen and Michael D. Blum as Cardinal Wolsey. Daniel Guttenberg as King Henry and Alyssa Kay were strong as well, and the entire cast turned in super performances.

Henry VIII is not produced very often. In fact Day, who serves as artistic director for GreenStage, said after the performance that they've been wondering if this production isn't the first time its ever been staged professionally in the state. Get out and see it this summer.

Curtain call for the cast of Hansel and Gretel.

The 5 p.m. show was Theater Schmeater's production of Hansel and Gretel, directed by Julia Griffin. I missed it Saturday but my Sweetie saw it and reported it was good. I caught it today and it lived up to Grimm's reputation of "frightening children for hundreds of years." This production frightened this adult, too; set after the original story, the witch is remodeling, which means two of the characters are incompetent contractors from the "Short and Sweet Building Company." Having survived a home remodel last year, we have sympathy for the witch.

Amelia Meckler was great as the migraine-plagued witch, Jay Irwin a hoot as H&G's mom Betty Knott, and Monica Wulzen and Nathan Pringle (a chip off the old block) played the title characters. The Schmee as usual delivered fun for all ages.

Wrapping up the festival on the set of Twelfth Night.

The festival rounded out with the production of Twelfth Night by Seattle Shakespeare Company's Wooden O, directed by Makaela Pollock. This was a highly entertaining show featuring Emily Chisholm and Matthew Gilbert as the "twins" Viola/Cesario and Sebastian, Connor Toms as Duke Orsino, Emily Grogan as Olivia, and George Mount as Malvolio. A special shout-out to Justin Huertas, who relished the role of Feste the fool, and the dizzying array of props and costumes at his disposal.

It was a most entertaining festival, and on Sunday we weren't able to attend all of the plays, missing Balagan Theatre's Sally and Thor Save the World (at Summer Camp), Shakespeare Northwest's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Jet City Improv's The Lost Folio, all of which played across the way at the Museum stage.

Not to worry, all of these will be playing at multiple venues through the rest of the summer. Check their websites for dates, times, and places of a show near you. We're lucky to have such great outdoor theater options all summer long!

Disclaimer: Weisenheimer is doing marketing work for GreenStage, but it doesn't make me biased!

Comedy of Errors highlights bang-up first day of outdoor theater fest

We saw four marvelously entertaining plays today as the Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival took to the lawn on a gorgeous day at the amphitheater at Volunteer Park. The final show of the day, a superb production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors produced by GreenStage and directed by Ryan Higgins, was a hilarious treat and the highlight of the opening day of the festival.

Higgins has already caused Weisenheimer a lot of trouble. It was his fabulous take on Othello at Balagan Theatre that started me on the path to joining the board of directors at that company. His great work with Comedy of Errors cements his status as one of the most interesting young directors working in Seattle. His added twist is one most common in Shakespeare -- to the play's comic confusion of two sets of identical twins, he adds the gender flip, too, as women play men and men play women. The "hot chicks" of The Comedy of Errors are above. From left to right it's one of the Dromios, Patrick Bentley as Adriana, Michael D. Blum as a Courtezan with Marge-Simpson hair, and Rio Codda as Luciana.

Props, too, to Don MacEllis, who seemed to play about 12 characters all with great comic presence. Higgins gets the most out of a wonderful cast, and the show is a rapid-fire riot from start to finish.

Finishing a close second on the day is a nice production of Richard III by Wooden O and Seattle Shakespeare Company, directed by Stephanie Shine. George Mount, who directed the recent well-received recent production of The Tempest at Seattle Shakes, is appropriately wicked and scheming and even funny as Richard. Another Balagan favorite, Mike Dooly, does much of Richard's dirty work as Buckingham. That's them above, with Richard peering over Buckingham's shoulder. Higgins directed Dooly, who played Iago, in Balagan's production of Othello.

The day opened with a nice production of The Merry Wives of Windsor by Last Leaf Productions and a fun performance of The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Theater Schmeater and directed by Julia Griffin. The cast were solid, but we especially liked the over-the-top performance by Aaron Allshouse as the Sorcerer and by Monica Wulzen as A Cat.

The festival wraps up with five more shows at Volunteer Park on Sunday. Most can be seen again elsewhere. Wooden O runs Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew at various parks through August 2, Apprentice runs Saturdays and Sundays at 5 p.m. at Volunteer Park through August 9, Last Leaf runs Wives and Shrew the next couple of weekends in Snohomish County, and the GreenStage shows run through August 15.

Tempest brings treasures at Seattle Shakes

Every time I see a production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest I grow more fond of the play. The latest, put on by Seattle Shakespeare Company and directed by George Mount, adds to our appreciation immensely. The show includes a number of memorable performances, the best of which is a marvelous turn by Michael Winters as Prospero.

Winters brings tremendous range to the role, from thundering anger that rattled the theater to tender matchmaking to tearful forgiveness. (That's Winters as Prospero in hacked-off mode at right in a Seattle Shakes photo by John Ulman.) Winters is a treasure. He's been all over Seattle stages of late. Recently Weisenheimer has seen him in You Can't Take it With You at the Seattle Rep, and in Mame at the 5th Avenue. The Seattle Times ran a nice Q&A between Winters and Misha Berson as the play opened earlier this month.

Another recently discovered favorite, Carolyn Marie Monroe, plays Prospero's daughter Miranda, a far cry from the grumpy goth teen Rachel she portrayed in End Days in February at Seattle Public Theatre. Monroe also played Opehlia in the Green Stage production of Hamlet last summer.

The two other women in the cast were marvelous as well. Hana Lass as Ariel demonstrated a huge singing voice, necessary to be heard above the howling wind and crashing waves of the tempest. Kerry Ryan was a hoot as Trinculo, with her slapstick scenes and funny faces and voices. Ryan may be Shakes' go-to woman comic; she was also a laugh riot in Servant of Two Masters earlier this season.

Props to Peter Dylan O'Connor for his portrayal of Caliban, done with semi-human zeal in a way that brought to mind the creepy Gollum from the Lord of the Rings flicks.

The costumes by Doris Black were grand, particularly Caliban and Ariel. The latter impressed my Sweetie, the official scorer, who claimed that she might have become an actress if she'd known she could wear a bustle. Ariel's headgear included a veil and all sorts of belts and ropes and sufficiently shipwreck-y stuff. That's Lass as Ariel in another Ulman photo at right. Click here to see it big.

Our one quibble with the show was the decision to play it as sort of end-of-life dream sequence for Prospero. That's a hospital gown under Winters' robe in the photo above, and he wears a patient ID bracelet throughout as well. While the "white light" scene at the end was effective, overall the hospital thing didn't really work for me, and the periodic noise of the machine that goes "ping" was something of a distraction. Who left their cell phone on?

Still and all, The Tempest is a good story well told. It runs at Seattle Shakespeare Company through June 28.