Diana of Dobson`s at Taproot Theatre

2014 SEASON:
MR. PIM PASSES BY
JAN. 31 – MAR. 1
IN THE BOOK OF
MAR. 28 – APR. 26
DIANA OF DOBSON’S
MAY 16 – JUNE 14
JANE EYRE
JULY 11 – AUGUST 9
THE FABULOUS LIPITONES
SEP. 19 – OCT. 18
DIRECTED BY
KAREN LUND
MAY 14 - JUNE 14
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CONTENTS
2014 SEASON:
MR. PIM PASSES BY
JAN. 31 – MAR. 1
IN THE BOOK OF
MAR. 28 – APR. 26
DIANA OF DOBSON’S
MAY 16 – JUNE 14
JANE EYRE
JULY 11 – AUGUST 9
THE FABULOUS LIPITONES
SEP. 19 – OCT. 18
Diana of Dobson’s
A1
By Cicely Hamilton
Directed by Karen Lund
DIRECTED BY
KAREN LUND
MAY 14 - JUNE 14
4/3/14 2:58 PM
E N C O R E A RT S N E W S Seeing Green
Kinetic artist Casey Curran captures
a building’s eco-goals in brass.
BY GEMMA WILSON
INSIDE CASEY CURRAN’S Capitol Hill studio apartment, intricate wire
creations hang from the wall and sheets of brass, rolled like plastic
wrap, lay on an enormous worktable. At the center of the room, an
array of plants—Northwest natives, foxgloves, dandelions and ivy—sit
on low black tables, rendered in painstaking detail from cold-work
brass. Some shine under a dark, irregular patina, oxidized by a
combination of salt and ammonia.
Not only has each leaf and petal been crafted by hand, Curran has
also hand-made wire coils that bring power to the entire piece—his first
major commission and his largest, most complicated project to date.
In April, the 7-foot by 8-foot finished piece was installed in the
lobby of Stone34, a new mixed-use building at the corner of N. 34th
St and Stone Way in Fremont. Thick Corten steel wraps the building’s
lobby, laser-cut to appear cracked open, with Curran’s flora bursting
out. “Almost like when you’re walking on the sidewalk and a flower’s
broken through,” he says.
Curran’s installation connects to the building’s power grid,
programmed to slowly change the position of the flowers every 10–15
minutes. When energy use is high, the flowers wilt. When energy-use
minimums are met, they blossom.
“When you walk into the building, we don’t want you to really
notice movement,” Curran says. “It should have that natural quality
to it, where you put a flower in the window and then an hour later it’s
4 ENCORE STAGES
F RO M C I T Y A RT S M A G A Z I N E
opened and you’re
like, ‘When did that
happen?’”
Stone34 is the first
project in Seattle’s
Deep Green Pilot
Program, which
requires participating
buildings to reduce
both energy and
water usage by
75 percent. The
building’s green
features include
rooftop rainwater
Casey Curran in
capture, public
his home studio.
bike racks and
landscaping with
edible plants like hops, lavender, thyme, blueberries, oregano,
strawberries and kiwi fruit.
A little over a year ago, the building’s developer, Skanska USA,
approached Curran and asked him to submit a proposal for an
installation. “Casey reminded us of how nature is always going to be
vibrant,” says Skanska development associate Marlene Bailey. “At the
least opportunity it’s going to burst into life and breathe.”
Curran also works full-time as the paint studio supervisor at Cornish
College of the Arts (his alma mater), designs sets for theatre company
Saint Genet and is preparing for a show at Roq La Rue Gallery this
summer. But he put in hundreds of hours over the last five months on
the Stone34 piece.
In the past Curran has created mechanical sculptures that move, but
this time he worked with a programmer and an electrical engineer. “I’m
very analog,” he says. “They made it so I didn’t electrocute myself.” n
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E N C O R E A RT S N E W S Courageous
Curiosity
Ana Maria Pinto da
Silva digs into ideas
with provocative
slideshow parties.
EIGHT YEARS AGO, Ana Maria Pinto da Silva
founded the Seattle chapter of PechaKucha
20x20, an inclusive presentation format that
brings people together to share ideas in more
than 730 cities around the world. She’s since
orchestrated 52 free events on art, design,
inspiration, change—drawing recent crowds of
300+. Pinto da Silva works by day as designer
at Microsoft; PechaKucha is her labor of love.
LEAH BALTUS
Under the Tents in Vanier Park, Vancouver, Canada
June 11 – Sept 20
1-877-739-0559 • bardonthebeach.org
Proven
Results
BardOnBeach SIFG14 1_6v.pdf
How would you describe the format of
PechaKucha?
The end result of an evening of PechaKucha is
that you feel like you went to a wonderful party.
Each person gets six minutes and 40 seconds
exactly—20 slides, 20 seconds each. It doesn’t
matter if you’re Bill Gates or Bill Gates’ intern—
that’s exactly as much time as you get.
What’s amazing is that no one is good at
it. Very few people have that pattern down.
But what people are really curious about is
each other. They want to know who you are.
PechaKucha presentations might be about
someone’s work or fascination with something,
but because the format makes you vulnerable,
you have to be yourself.
Even people who are really
accomplished
are human—and you can
see yourself in that. You can
say, Hey! I could probably
present! I have something
that I’m working on that’s
worthy.
I literally did not know one single person here.
My friend Paul had gone through my graduate
degree program with me at the Harvard School
of Design and he was good friends with the
founders of PechaKucha in Tokyo; he founded
the San Francisco chapter. He was like, You
should start a PechaKucha in Seattle. It’ll be a
great way for you to get to know people. And it
was true!
PechaKucha is a story about friendship, a story
about community. It’s also a story about mischief
and yes-ness. We had an event called Going
Rogue on my 40th birthday. The first presenter
was a burlesque artist who did a burlesque
act while she was doing her presentation. The
audience was going nuts. The next presenter was
doing a presentation on cakes and quilts. You
would have thought, cakes and quilts right after
a burlesque dancer? Her cakes were so insane,
so exquisite, her quilts were so fascinating that
she’s getting offers of marriage yelled out from
the audience.
You’re doing a poetry event in April. It’s
a great, diverse line-up. What are you
expecting?
I have no idea! We’ve never
done an all-poetry event.
I never review people’s
presentations. I invite them
and that’s it. I say yes. It’s their
six minutes and 40 seconds. I
trust them.
I’m working with Kathleen
Flenniken—she was the
Washington State poet
laureate last year—and a poet
named Lindsey Renee Walker
who spoke at our Telling Tales
event last November. You
know how there are levels of silence? There’s a
speaker and the room is quiet and then another
speaker comes on and the room gets even
quieter? That’s what happened with Lindsey’s
poem. The room got silent. You could feel this
electric current moving through the audience. So
I reached out to her.
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6 ENCORE STAGES
In February you did an
Afrofuturism event at the
Northwest African American
Museum.
It was phenomenal to be at NAAM. The presenter
roster really represented the crème de la crème
of thinkers and makers and shakers within the
African-American community, focused on a topic
that is so future-forward. We had Okanomodé
Soulchilde—he’s a performance artist—he just
took the house down. He sang through his entire
presentation. Barbara Earl Thomas read a poem
that she premiered at a PechaKucha about a
year ago. It’s about the premature, violent deaths
of black boys in our country and it’s incredibly
powerful.
How did you start the PechaKucha in Seattle?
I’d been living in the Bay Area for over 20 years
and then I went to graduate school back East.
When I finished I was offered a job in Seattle but
What else do you have planned?
The event after that is about art and technology,
looking at the overlap between the world of art
and the world of digital electronic arts. We have
several other events planned—there will be one
on design leadership and one called Watch Me
Now about our surveillance culture. I’m learning
to be courageous and to talk about the things
that the community needs to talk about.
3/25/14 12:10 PM
SHANNON PERRY
“Because the
format makes
you vulnerable,
you have to be
yourself.”
F RO M C I T Y A RT S M A G A Z I N E
Bubble Up
Fat Cork applies
obsessive
attention to the
most celebratory
of beverages.
CHONA KASINGER
BY JONATHAN ZWICKEL
LIKE MOST AMERICANS, I most often
encounter champagne as either an $8 bottle
of supermarket saccharine to cut with OJ for
Sunday brunch or as a signifier of fantastic
wealth to spill over a Kardashian’s chest in a
music video. Turns out there’s more to it.
Fat Cork, a champagne retailer and
subscription service based out of a stylish
basement office in Queen Anne, points
conscientious drinkers toward the libation’s
richly storied and delicious middle ground.
Over the course of an hour-long tasting,
Fat Cork founder Bryan Maletis detailed
champagne’s nuances in origin, production
and palate and poured from four different
bottles. He described the 70-some varieties
he sells at Fat Cork as “grower champagnes,”
meaning the grower of the grapes is also the
maker of the champagne. This rare proximity
between grape and bottle is akin to fine
wine and single-malt scotch—and a far cry
from most well known “Grandes Marques”
champagne houses, which source and blend
grapes from some 19,000 growers throughout
the Champagne region of northern France.
Fat Cork champagnes are mostly organic
or, to a greener extreme, biodynamic,
grown in accordance to celestial cycles and
Gallic superstition. They are family-made
in tiny quantities from only the best grapes,
redolent of their terroir. They are, in a word,
artisanal.
Paging through the Sexy Book—Fat Cork’s
catalog—Maletis explained champagne’s
production process. It starts as wine from
one of three grape varietals, all native to
the chalky soil and damp, chilly climate of
Champagne. This flat wine ferments in a
metal or wood vat and is then transferred
to pop-topped glass bottles, along with
yeast and sugar. The yeast metabolizes
the sugar in the bottle and, when no more
sugar remains, dies off. Millions of tiny
yeast corpses aging in the wine impart
good champagne’s chewy flavor; the second
fermentation provides its bubbles.
The bottles are then angled nose-down in
racks to sink dead yeast cells into the neck
and rotated a quarter turn every day for the
next 15 months to 15 years. At the end of
the aging process, the grower uncaps the
bottles and, in a mystifying process called
disgorgement, removes the dead gunky yeast
cells from the bottle, leaving a clear golden
liquid. To perfect levels of alcohol, acidity,
sweetness and carbonation, he’ll add a few
milliliters of sugar-fortified wine—known
in French as a dosage—and then cork the
bottle for a few more months. The result
of this tedious, labor-intensive méthode
champenoise is an occasion appropriate for
the word voilà.
Unlike typical importers or distributors,
Fat Cork tracks each bottle’s grape blend,
vintage, disgorgement date and dosage and,
in keeping with the process-related overUntitled-2
sharing of food geeks, prints this info on
every bottle. The reason is quality control
and total disclosure—based on grapes and
sugar content and date of disgorgement, an
astute drinker can predict the flavor of any
given champagne.
I’m certainly not astute, but I am a drinker,
and the champagne I was given was rich and
complex. Maletis, a compact, 30-something
dynamo in khaki pants and Vans sneakers,
allowed me four from the robust middle of
the good-champagne spectrum. The first
was dry-ish and yeasty, the second bright
and fruity, the third brighter and fruitier still
(“clear gummy bears,” Maletis noted), the
final rosé a floral confection. Like all of his
champagnes, they ranged from $40 to $150
per bottle, including the impressive magnum
he opened.
Maletis repressurized and re-chilled
the bottles in preparation for a Fat Cork
tradition. The following afternoon, 50 or so
local Fat Cork subscribers would visit the
store to pick up their bi-monthly champagne
collections and sample several bottles. The
store is open for standard retail, he said, but
taste is developed by tasting. n
FAT CORK
111 W. John St. Suite 136A fatcork.com
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encore artsseattle.com 7
BOOK SMART
Seattle Bids for UNESCO City of Lit
A few years ago in Iceland, writer Ryan
Boudinot sat down with a poet named Sjón,
Bjork’s frequent collaborator, and had a conversation that might substantially increase the
prestige and reach of Seattle’s literary culture.
Sjón and Boudinot discussed Reykjavik’s recent
designation as a UNESCO City of Literature—
what it meant for the city’s writers and readers,
what it meant for the city as a whole.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization designates cities as
exemplary in particular art forms, including
music, film, design, gastronomy, crafts and folk
art, media arts and literature. Once UNESCO
designates a City of X, that city enters a network
of creative cities around the world with which it
can start collaborating. Current UNESCO Cities
of Literature include Kraków, Iowa City, Dublin,
Edinburgh, Melbourne, Norwich and Reykjavik.
To enter this network, a city has to make a bid detailing its past contributions to literature, a plan
for what it’ll do with the designation, a statement
about what the city can bring to the network and
endorsements from five other UNESCO cities.
After the conversation with his new Icelandic
friend, Boudinot felt inspired. At Elliott Bay
Book Company’s 40th anniversary reading, he
proposed to the crowd that Seattle make a bid.
When the people at the reading said yes, he
assembled a veritable literary Justice League to
help push Seattle’s bid, which the city council
unanimously approved back in January.
“I’m not applying to become a City of
Literature,” Boudinot says. “I’m just trying to get
Seattle to see itself as it truly is, which is a city of
international significance in literature.”
The possibilities of the designation are
exciting. Exchanges could send Seattle writers
to other Cities of Literature, and they’d send
writers to Seattle. Northwest publications could
gain more visibility internationally. Local writers could work on projects related to freedom
of expression and other human rights issues.
Plus, Seattle would have a seat at the table for
UNESCO’s annual Creative City Summit, where
all 41 creative cities gather to develop international programming and to discuss issues
of literary importance. There could also be
opportunities for literary tourism and education
programs.
On March 12 at Town Hall, Boudinot, Ed
Murray, Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim and local literary luminaries Elissa Washuta of the University
of Washington, Gary Luke of Sasquatch Books,
Rick Simonson of Elliott Bay Book Co., Tree
Swenson of Richard Hugo House and Nancy
Pearl of everywhere spoke as representatives of
their respective literary interests. The team was
confident that the city had a good shot at the
bid. The UNESCO application was submitted in
March and Seattle will find out whether or not it
receives the designation in November.
As the lights rose on the pews, a friend and
fellow poet next to me said, “Now I really want
to go home and write.” That kind of eagerness
for reading and writing was one tangible benefit
of the bid, and many took it away with them
that night. RICH SMITH
8 ENCORE STAGES
Presenting
diana
dobson's
by cicely hamilton
Scott Nolte,
Producing Artistic
Director
Karen Lund,
Associate Artistic
Director
Thank you To our
2014 SeaSon
SupporTerS
cAst
(In Order of Appearance)
Miss Smithers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nikki Visel
kitty Brant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olivia Hartshorn
Miss Jay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charissa J Adams
Diana Massingberd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helen Harvester
Miss Morton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marianna de Fazio
Miss pringle/old Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Macall Gordon
Mrs. Cantelupe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Llysa Holland
Waiter/police Constable Fellowes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nathan Jeffrey
Mrs. Whyte-Fraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Vaughn
Sir Jabez grinley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff Berryman
Captain Victor Bretherton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ian Bond
Production
Director
Scenic & Sound Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Stage Manager
Dramaturg
Dialect Coach
Karen Lund
Mark Lund
Sarah Burch Gordon
Roberta Russell
Michelle Rodriguez
Dana Mitchell
Kayla Walker
setting
1908
opening nighT
SponSor:
The upper CruST
act one: One of the assistants’ dormitories at Dobson’s Drapery
Emporium in London, England.
act Two: The Hotel Engadine, Pontresina, Switzerland, two weeks later.
act Three: The Hotel Engadine, Pontresina, twelve days later.
act Four: The Thames Embankment, fourteen weeks later.
Diana of Dobson’s is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes including one 15 minute intermission.
encore artsseattle.com A-1
director’s notes
There is nothing very unusual about coming to the theatre to enjoy a romantic comedy. I love
going to see romantic comedies: the charming characters, the witty dialogue and, most of
all, the love story. But what if there was a romantic comedy that was more than a love story?
What if there was a romantic comedy that had changed lives, deepened understanding, and
even altered laws a century ago?
When Diana of Dobson’s was first presented in London in 1908 it gave audiences a neverbefore-seen glimpse into a world they knew very little about. Class disparity in England meant
that few theatre-goers would have experienced the poverty and its debilitating cruelties that
their heroine (Diana) was suffering on stage. They would have had little knowledge of (and
therefore little empathy for) the unfair labor practices and poverty level wages that kept the
working class from rising above their grim circumstances.
“Accepted as a true picture of the shop assistant’s life,” to quote from a 1908 press clipping, Diana’s story “convinced
people that something should be done about it.”
I’ve always been thrilled by the kind of storytelling that can change hearts and minds through empathy. I am certain you
will be entertained tonight and I hope that you will be drawn to the wonderful acting, the beautiful costumes, the clever
scenery and the wit and romance of this beautifully crafted play. But my greater hope is that the struggles of these very
different people from a very different time period will feel relevant and meaningful to you today.
What could a deep empathy for our fellow man accomplish within our world? Regardless of the shoes that we have worn or
are currently wearing, we can all imagine what it would be like to try on a different pair. Ask yourself: If the “haves” and the
“have nots” could walk in each other shoes for a time … would anything change?
Enjoy the show!
Karen Lund
Associate Artistic Director
up nexT aT TaprooT:
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A-2 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Music and Lyrics by Paul Gordon
Book and additional lyrics by John Caird
Based on the Novel by Charlotte Brontë
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JuLy 9 - aug 9
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tAProot theAtre stAff
Artistic/Production stAff
scott L. nolte - Producing Artistic Director
Karen Lund - Associate Artistic Director
taproot theatre is a positive
force in the Puget sound region.
We reach thousands of kids and adults
with a message of hope ...
Mark Lund - Design Director
Micah Lynn trapp - Production Stage Manager
sarah Burch Gordon - Costume Shop
Manager & Resident Designer
Wendy Hansen - Resident Props Master
Bellingham
AdMinistrAtive stAff
Pam nolte - Community Liaison
Everett
rick rodenbeck - Finance & Operations Director
nikki visel - Marketing Director
Seattle
elizabeth Griffin - Communications Manager
Bellevue
Wenatchee
sonja Lowe - Marketing Associate
Tacoma
tanya Barber - Creative Marketing Specialist
Acacia danielson - Executive Assistant
Aberdeen
Olympia
Puyallup
Ellensburg
Jessica spencer - Rentals Coordinator for
Isaac Studio Theatre
deveLoPMent
Joanna vance - Development Associate
PAtron services
Jenny cross - Patron Services Manager
Benjamin smyth - House Manager Lead
stephen Loewen, sonja Lowe, cathie rohrig,
dave selvig - House Managers
Bev carter - Stage Door Café Manager
Kristi Matthews - Box Office Manager
... from student and senior matinees,
Pay-What-You-Can performances,
Acting Studio classes and residencies
to our Road Company’s bullying prevention
plays performed in schools
all over the Northwest.
Jessica spencer - Box Office Lead
Laura Bannister, Linda Haugen, charis tobias,
Jd Walker - Box Office Representatives
Marty Gordon - Custodian
Jacob Yarborough - Facilities Maintenance
you can help us expand our impact by
making a tax-deductible gift today!
educAtion & outreAcH
nathan Jeffrey - Director of Education & Outreach
Jenny cross - Resident Teaching Artist
suzanne townsend - Associate Director of
Education & Outreach
LeAd voLunteers
tamara Allison, Jeff corwin, sue danielson,
sharon delong, Mary Leatherman,
sharon Musslewhite, Judy renando, Lee ryan
Hand your donation to an usher before you leave, call
Joanna at 206.529.3672, mail your gift to Taproot’s
address below, or visit www.taproottheatre.org/donate
Taproot Theatre Company
attn: Joanna Vance
po Box 30946
Seattle, Wa 98113
encore artsseattle.com A-3
the comPAny
ChariSSa J aDaMS (Miss Jay) is delighted
to return to Taproot after appearing in
Tartuffe, Wedding Belles and touring
with the Road Company. Her favorite
roles at other Seattle theatres include
Portia in Julius Caesar, Emily in Our
Town, and Jill in Butterflies Are Free. Love to Michael!
Find more information at www.charissajadams.com.
JeFF BerryMan (Sir Jabez Grinley) is
a writer/actor from Seattle. Favorite
Taproot roles include Cervantes in
Man of La Mancha, C.S. Lewis in
Shadowlands and Robert Scott in Terra
Nova. Current writing projects for theatre
include Arthur: The Wars and Lost Cause. Find him at
www.jeffberryman.com. Love to Anjie…
ian BonD (Captain Victor Bretherton),
prior to his Seattle relocation, was a
member of Cincinnati Shakespeare
Company’s Resident Ensemble where
favorite roles include Romeo, Mr. Darcy,
Hamlet (tour), and Al Joad in The
Grapes of Wrath. Recently, Ian acted with the Seattle
Fringe Festival, Sound Theatre Company in Holiday of
Errors and Book-it Repertory in Frankenstein.
Marianna De Fazio (Miss Morton) was last
seen on the Taproot stage as Madeline
Basset in Jeeves in Bloom. You may also
have heard her work as dialect coach,
most recently on Mr. Pim Passes By.
You can hear more of it at Seattle Public
Theatre’s current production of Arcadia. MFA:UW.
Love to AK.
MaCaLL gorDon (Miss Pringle/Old
Woman) recent work includes Henry
V at Wooden O, The Fairytale Lives of
Russian Girls at Washington Ensemble
Theatre, A Lie of the Mind at Central
Heating Lab, The Merry Wives of
Windsor at Seattle Shakespeare, The Happy Ones at
Seattle Public Theater, and Hamlet at Greenstage. She
lives in Woodinville with her very dramatic family and
two comedic dogs.
oLiVia harTShorn (Kitty Brant) is making
her first appearance with Taproot and
is so thankful to be working with such
a wonderful company. She was last
seen in a reading of The Lantern Room
with Village Theatre Originals and as
Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing with the Seattle
Shakespeare Company.
A-4 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
heLen harVeSTer (Diana Massingberd)
is thrilled to return to Taproot! She was
last seen here as Viola in last summer’s
Illyria. Other recent credits include
Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
and Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia
Story, both with Harlequin Productions. Helen holds a
B.A. in Drama from Vassar College and an M.A. from
the Boris Shchukin School in Moscow, Russia.
LLySa hoLLanD (Mrs. Cantelupe) is
co-founder and artistic instigator of
theater simple. Debuting (in Italian)
at Taproot as Costanza in Enchanted
April, she followed up as Charlie’s Aunt.
Other credits include Berkeley Rep,
the Spoleto Festival and the Singapore Arts Festival.
Thanks to Karen, this cast, crew and Taproot for
this escapade, and bottomless love to Andrew for
everything else.
naThan JeFFrey (Waiter/Police Constable
Fellowes) is delighted to be back for
Diana of Dobson’s. He previously
appeared in Bach at Leipzig and The
Great Divorce. Nathan’s other love is
directing. Recent credits include Pretty
Fire at Taproot Theatre, A Christmas Carol and The
Mark of Immediacy with Taproot Touring, Godspell and
Proof at Driftwood Players. Thanks to family, friends,
and Kess.
Jenny Vaughn haLL (Mrs. Whyte-Frazer)
is thrilled to be a part of Taproot’s
production Diana of Dobson’s. Favorite
recent roles include Charlotte in A Little
Night Music at SecondStory Rep and
Tansy in The Nerd with Centerstage. She
dedicates this to the lovely ladies of Renton. Thank
you for your kindess, support and fun.
nikki ViSeL (Miss Smithers) was last seen
in Taproot’s Le Club Noel. Most recently
she wrote/directed Ordinary Giants at
12 Minutes Max and this summer she’ll
be in the park with Wooden O’s Julius
Caesar. Previous Taproot roles include
Mrs. Chevely/An Ideal Husband, Athena/The Odyssey,
Rose/Enchanted April, Joy/Shadowlands, and Igraine/
Arthur: The Begetting.
Sarah BurCh gorDon (Costume Designer & Shop
Manager) has designed 45+ shows for Taproot in the
past nine years. Regionally, Sarah has also designed
for TAG, SART, Stage West Theatre, Brick Playhouse
and Venture Theatre. She was nominated for a 2010
the comPAny
Gregory Award. Her MFA is from Temple University.
Petunias and radishes to GoL.
karen LunD (Director) is celebrating over 21 years at
Taproot as Associate Artistic Director where she has
directed or performed in more than 100 productions.
Recent work at TTC includes Jeeves in Bloom, Bach
at Leipzig, Illyria (Footlight Award winner and Gregory
Award nominated) and Mr. Pim Passes By. National
credits include productions at Cincinnati Playhouse,
Idaho Shakespeare and Kentucky Shakespeare. Her
film credits have garnered numerous national awards
including three Telly awards and the New Filmmaker’s
Award at the City of the Angels Film Festival. Karen
sends her love to her amazing husband Mark and
wonderful children Jake and Hannah.
Mark LunD (Scenic & Sound Design) was nominated
for a 2013 Gregory Award for The Whipping Man and
has designed more than 100 TTC shows. Other design
work includes Seattle Shakes, Book-It and awardwinning short films. Mark is also a voice over actor.
Love to Karen, Hannah and Jake.
Dana MiTCheLL (Dramaturg) has loved combining her
interests in theatre and education for her first show
with Taproot. She is an Assistant Instructor at The
Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, works on
staff with STAGEright, and is about to complete the
teaching artist apprenticeship program at Seattle
Children’s Theatre.
MiCheLLe roDriguez (Stage Manager) received her BA
in theatre from the University of Southern California.
Most recently she stage managed Pretty Fire in
Taproot’s Isaac Studio Theatre. Locally, she has also
worked with Burien Actors Theatre, Centerstage,
GreenStage, ReAct and Second Story Repertory,
among others. Love and thanks to her husband,
Thomas.
roBerTa ruSSeLL (Lighting Designer) has worked as
a lighting designer for Mr. Pim Passes By and Pretty
Fire at Taproot Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing for
Seattle Shakespeare Co., and The Secret Garden at
the Cornish Playhouse. She is a professor at Cornish
College of the Arts.
kayLa WaLker (Dialect Coach) is an actress, director
and theatre educator. Recently her work has been
featured at WET, Freehold (Engaged), Strawberry
Theatre Workshop, Theater Schmeater and A
Contemporary Theatre. Kayla holds a BFA in Theatre
from Cornish College of the Arts and teaches acting at
The Village KIDSTAGE Institute program.
SCoTT noLTe (Producing Artistic Director) is a cofounder and the Producing Artistic Director of TTC.
Over the course of 38 years, he’s directed such plays
as The Odyssey and Smoke on the Mountain, and
more recently The Matchmaker, The Whipping Man,
Gaudy Night, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the
Christmas Carol and Freud’s Last Session for TTC.
He has participated in several new-play development
projects, is past president of Theatre Puget Sound
and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers. In 2011, Scott and Pam Nolte
were named Alumni of the Year by Seattle Pacific
University.
Where taste takes center stage
Located adjacent to Taproot Theatre
Open Monday-Saturday, 11am-8pm
seattlestagedoorcafe.com
diAnA of dobson’s stAff
Production stAff
isaiah custer - Assistant Stage Manager
dixon King - Directing Intern
costuMe stAff
courtney Kessler - Dresser
dana friedli-neumann - First Hand/Cutter/Draper
Melinda schlimmer, Kelsey Mccornack - Stitcher
deborah ferguson - Volunteer
erin Perona - Wig Stylist
scenic, LiGHtinG, sound stAff
Kristi Matthews - Master Electrician
daniel cole - Assistant Master Electrician &
Sound Board Operator
Alex Grennan - Light Board Operator
tim samland - Scenic Carpenter
Alex Grennan, Baylie Heims, daniel Miller,
dustin Morache, chris scofield,
robert tobias - Electrics Crew
encore artsseattle.com A-5
from the drAmAturg
Money TaLk
By Dana Mitchell
Our Diana is quite the female protagonist—outspoken, determined, and justifiably angry about her bleak social and
economic reality. She takes an opportunity to have power, wealth and status for a moment, after six years of poverty
and powerlessness.
Both the author, Cicely Hamilton, and the producer and original Diana, Lena Ashwell, knew what they were doing when
they collaborated on this story in 1908. These women were savvy professionals, working in multiple capacities. Ashwell
was not only an actress, but managed her own theatre company as well; Hamilton was an actress, journalist, novelist
and playwright. Their personal experience as women working to support themselves no doubt fueled their passion to
tell Diana’s story.
The 1908 production of Diana of Dobson’s ran for 132 shows and a revival was mounted in 1909, which ran for
another 100 performances. Ashwell and Hamilton had created a script that was both entertainment and social
commentary, bringing the subject of worker’s rights to a public who had been reading about local debates and
legislation in the London Times. Hamilton’s play served to fuel the drive behind the conversation promoting justice; this
was art that contributed to social change.
The conversations around labor practices included hours worked, pay and holidays. Bills were being passed that
limited the work week to eight hour days, and 48 hour weeks. By the end of World War I in 1918 formal organizations
were founded that began the process of regulating a minimum wage. In 1908, however, these policies would not have
been in place. If women didn’t live in an overcrowded, comfortless dormitory attached to the shop, they might take a
crowded train in to work, arriving in Covent Garden around 8:30am, and having to wait around for an hour until their
shops opened. Their day wouldn’t end until 7:30pm, with another train ride between their tired bodies and a place
to rest their heads. Their pay was shockingly low. Diana states that her salary is five shillings per week, which is the
equivalent of about $32 a week in today’s currency.
As current economic troubles in America continue to make news, this shop girl’s struggle for a living wage hits home.
Diana’s frustration—her need to “stick it to the man” by quitting her job—is very relatable, even though her decision to
blow the equivalent of almost $40,000 within a month feels like a shockingly foolish choice. But, in doing so, she also
chooses to speak out about economic injustice to some wealthy and powerful people.
It is Diana’s decision to speak out that offers a challenge to us now. We are surrounded by debates about money:
Occupy Wall Street protests, worker’s rights issues, the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act and, most currently,
Kshama Sawant’s rallies to raise the Seattle minimum wage. But even as we tackle these discussions at home, many
American products are made by sweatshop workers (both at home and abroad) who endure horrid conditions and
often are voiceless in systems of power.
As I watch news stories about labor and wealth inequality filling my television screen and smart phone, I am inspired
by Diana’s voice. If money talks … what story is mine telling?
Pleased to be partnering with Taproot Theatre
www.systemsixbookkeeping.com
206-851-4330
Strategic bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses
and high performance entrepreneurs.
A-6 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
helPful informAtion
FooD & Drink
Covered coffee, hot tea and bottled
water from concessions are allowed in
the theatre. Please dispose of your cups
and water bottles after the show. No
food is permitted in the auditorium.
Snacks from concessions can be
enjoyed in the lobby.
We can no longer accommodate
dinner leftovers for patrons because
the refrigerator space belongs to
the Stage Door Café. Thank you for
understanding.
DraMaTurg DiSpLay
Summer Acting Camps available for Pre-K thru grade 12
Visit us online at www.taproottheatre.org/classes
for a full listing of summer acting camps.
RegiSteR online oR CAll 206.529.3668
Visit the upper lobby to view a display
with additional information relating to
the current production.
aSSiSTeD LiSTening DeViCeS
Patrons desiring an assisted listening
device may request one from the House
Manager.
LoST & FounD
boArd of directors
oFFiCerS
Larry Bjork, Chair
Peter Morrill, Vice-Chair & Treasurer
Rob Zawoysky, Secretary
MeMBerS
George Myers
Alyssa Petrie
Dr. Sarah Roskam
Dr. George Scranton
Steve Thomas
Dan Voetmann
Acknowledgements
• Gary Brunt, Greenwood Town Center/Piper Village
• Karen Lund would like to acknowledge The Mint Theatre Company
If you have lost an item, check with the
Box Office in person or by phone at
206.781.9707. If you find a lost item,
please give it to the House Manager
or Box Office staff. Unclaimed lost &
found items may be donated to a thrift
store at the discretion of management.
ProP & set donAtions
Do you have antique or vintage
items you no longer need?
Taproot Theatre’s production team
is now accepting:
• Vintage or vintage-style (pre-1970s)
furniture, luggage, books, trunks,
telephones, radios and kitchenware
• Period newspapers and magazines
• Sorry, no costume donations
accepted at this time
Contact Mark Lund at 206.529.3644
or markl@taproottheatre.org
ViDeo anD/or auDio reCorDing
oF ThiS perForManCe By
any MeanS WhaTSoeVer iS
STriCTLy prohiBiTeD.
encore artsseattle.com A-7
thAnk you
Taproot Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following for their generous support, both to our annual fund and
capital campaign. This list reflects gifts made to both funds between March 1, 2013 and April 21, 2014. While
space limitations prevent us from including every donor here, we are pleased to present a more extensive list
on the front wall of our lower lobby. If you have any questions, or would like more information about making
a tax-deductible gift to Taproot Theatre Company (a 501c3 organization), please contact Joanna Vance at
206.529.3672 or joanna@taproottheatre.org.
corPorAtions/foundAtions
$10,000+
4Culture
ArtsFund
Boeing Gift Matching Program
Seattle Foundation
Gesner-Johnson Foundation
Margery M. Jones Trust
Moccasin Lake Foundation
National Christian Foundation Seattle
The Taxpayers of Washington State
2 Anonymous
$5,000 - $9,999
AmericanWest Bank
Buchanan General Contracting
Company
Horizons Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts-Art
Works
Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund
Washington State Arts Commission
$2,500 - $4,999
Greenwood Shopping Center Inc.
Humanities Washington
Microsoft Matching Gift Program
Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
University Lions Club
1 Anonymous
$1,000 - $2,499
Aetna Foundation, Inc.
Ballard Hardware and Supply
Blackrock Matching Gift Program
Dupar Foundation
Google Matching Gifts Program
McEachern Charitable Trust
Nintendo Matching Gifts Program
Ronald Blue & Co., LLC
St. John’s Lodge
$500 - $999
ING
individuALs
angels ($10,000+)
David & Gay Allais
In Memory of Aubrey Bean
John & Ann Collier
Mrs. Phil Duryee
Brian & Laura Faley
Fred & Claudia Gilleland
Richard Gordon
Sandy Johnson
Glenna Kendall
Kraig & Pam Kennedy
George & Alyssa Petrie
Dion & Gregory Rurik
Richal & Karen Smith
Bill Snider & Kendra VanderMeulen
Daniel & Margret Voetmann
Robert & Maree Zawoysky
2 Anonymous
Marquee ($5,000 - $9,999)
Larry & Lorann Bjork
Tom & Linda Burley
Christopher & Patricia Craig
Joyce Farley
Gary & Deborah Ferguson
The Daniel J. Ichinaga & Allison Cook
Fund
Gary & Nancy Massingill
Terry & Cornelia Moore
Scott & Pam Nolte
Susan Rutherford
George & Claire Scranton
Robert L. Smith
Steve Thomas & Kris Hoots
Mr. Chris Thompson
producers ($2,500 - $4,999)
Ted & Ruth Bradshaw
Margaret Bullitt
James & Kay Coghlan
Leon & Sharon Delong
Doug & Linda Freyberg
Donald & Lois Hallock
Carolyn Hanson
Joseph & Elizabeth Helms
Dorothy Herley
Wayne & Naomi Holmes
Mark & Mary Kelly
Philip & Cheryl Laube
Mark & Karen Lund
Fred & Carolyn Marcinek
Peter & Megumi Morrill
George & Joy Myers
Kathy Pearson
Mona Quammen
Sarah Roskam
Mrs. Grace Rutherford
Maryanne & Dennis Schmuland
Loren & Carol Steinhauer
Beverly Taylor
Fred & Judy Volkers
Randon & Carolyn Wickman
Directors ($1,000 - $2,499)
Allan & Anne Affleck
Fil & Holly Alleva
Dorothy Balch
Dr. Brad Bemis & Kris Bemis
Inez Noble Black
Melvin & Cordelia Brady
Tanya Button
Shelly Casale
Don Cavanaugh
Russell & Fay Cheetham
James & Janis Cobb
Benjamin & Amanda Davis
Dennis & Deborah Deyoung
Ronald & Virginia Edwards
David & Peppe Enfield
Juan & Kristine Espinoza
Lee Fitchett
Virginia Fordice
Michael & Karen Frazier
Steven & Jamie Froebe
Catherine Gaffney
Robert Gallaher
Alan & Carol Gibson
Brad Gjerding
John & Sally Glancy
Bonnie Green
Lucy Hadac
Matt & Sherri Hainje
Peter & Cynthia Herley
David & Tanya Hodel
Dr. Rick & Susan Hornor
Jeff & Pam Horton
Lee & Ginnie Huntsman
Mike & Barb Jewell
David & Christina Johnson
Agastya Kohli & Marianna De
Fazio
Karen Koon
A-8 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Susan Lamar
Frank Lawler
Ron & Constance Lewis
Cody & Beth Lillstrom
Gerald & Velma Mahaffey
Bob & Karolyn McDaniel
Lee & Janet McElvaine
McFadzean Family Fund
Tom & Jean Mohrweis
Don & Kim Morris
Eugene & Martha Nester
Lloyd & Jackie Nolte
Gordon & Mary Nygard
John & Lucy Nylander
Jim & Ann Owens
Mary Pagels
Thom Parham
Bruce & Cynthia Parks
Tyler & Katie Parris
Jeff & Joann Parrish
Brian & Christa Poel
Bill & Jodie Purcell
Mike & Catherine Purdy
Patty Putnam
Tom & Claudia Rengstorf
Vic & Kristine Rennie
Kate Riordan
G.M. & Holly Roe
Robert & Cathie Rohrig
Lawrence & Nancy Rudolph
Kathryn Sand
Todd & Teresa Silver
Dale & Susan Smith
Ronald & Dorita Smith
Charles & Marilyn Snow
Barbara Suder
Jack & Cynthia Talley
Jerry & Diane Thompson
Jeff & Margie Van Duzer
Jewely Van Valin
Tom & Connie Walsh
Norma Wills
Daniel & Joann Wilson
Jean Winfield
Isabelle Woodward
David & Ann Woodward
playwrights ($500 - $999)
Mike & Shirley Allert
Mr. Pete Andersen
Jim Angerer
Russell & Janice Ashleman
Geraldine Beatty
Terry & Nancy Beckham
Joanna Beitel
Kent Berg
Bryan Boeholt
Tom & Jan Boyd
Zach & Rebecca Brittle
Jeff & Robin Brumley
Eldon Chelgren
Ron Clinkenbeard
Wayne & Greta Clousing
Alan & Gail Coburn
Chad Creamer & Marcie Zettler
Donald & Claudia Deibert
Dale & Vicki Dvorak
Amelia Earhart
Earl & Denise Ecklund
Gary & Juelle Edwards
Kristine Engels
Pradeep & Janet Fernandes
Stanley & Jane Fields
Marion Fisher
Krista Fleming
Larry Fletcher
Gary & Kathy Gable
Jim & Jeanne Gallagher
Charles & Betty Gardner
Allen & Lori Gilbert
Thurman & Marjorie Gillespy
Carl & Pat Giurgevich
Maren & Braden Goodwin
Arnott Gray
Lyle & Sharon Groeneveld
Rich & Judi Harpel
Peter & Anne Haverhals
Henry & Lauren Heerschap
Jonathan Henke
Jason Herman
David & Connie Hiscock
Loren & Isobel Hostek
Karen Howard
Bruce & Merrilee Howell
Mora Johnson
Glenn & Lisa Knight
Rosemary Krsak
John & Jean Krueger
Henry & Jennifer Laible
Jack Lee & Pm Weizenbaum
Wesley & Merrilyn Lingren
Ben & Donna Lipsky
Harry & Linda Macrae
Carrie McCrimmon
David & Carol McFarland
Tim & Sharon McKenzie
Kim & Dana Moore
Tom & Linda Morris
Les & Carol Nelson
Bryce & Bonnie Nelson
Craig & Linda Nolte
Paul & Cathy Nordman
Sue North
Ann Owens
Nolan & Lorena Palmer
Patrick & Charity Parenzini
Mark & Camille Peterson
James & Annita Presti
Ralph & Joan Prins
Rick & Leah Rodenbeck
Valerie Rosman
Ron & Susan Runyon
Frederick & Caroline Scheetz
Edward & Bonnie Schein
William Seaton
David & Joan Selvig
Angela & Dave Smith
Andrew & Sandra Smith
Jennie Spohr
William & Carolyn Stoll
Elliot & Daytona Strong
Larry & Mary Ruth Thomas
Michael & Laura Thomason
Robert & Gina Thorstenson
Suzanne Townsend
James & Jill Trott
Edel Underhill
Jan Vander Linden
Daryl & Claudia Vander Pol
Dale Voth
John & Sonja West
Leora Wheeler
James & Jo White
Larry & Linda Williams
Donald & Gail Willis
Glen & Eilene Zachry
4 Anonymous
Taproot Theatre
Company is a
professional, nonprofit theatre with a
multifaceted production
program. Founded in
1976, TTC serves the
Pacific Northwest with
touring productions,
Mainstage Theatre
productions and the
Acting Studio. Taproot
is a member of Theatre
Communications Group
(TCG), Theatre Puget
Sound (TPS) and the
Phinney Neighborhood
Association.
Taproot Theatre
Company creates
theatre experiences
to brighten the spirit,
engage the mind
and deepen the
understanding of the
world around us while
inspiring imagination,
conversation and hope.
Mailing address:
PO Box 30946
Seattle, Washington
98113-0946
administrative offices:
206.781.9705
Fax: 206.297.6882
Box office:
206.781.9707
box@taproottheatre.org
www.taproottheatre.org
www.facebook.com/
taproottheatre
twitter: @taproottheatre
E N C O R E A RT S N E W S F RO M C I T Y A RT S M A G A Z I N E
GOLD FROM
HERE ON
Raz Simone
narrates Seattle’s
unconscious.
BY CLAYTON HOLMAN
CHONA KASINGER
S
olomon “Raz” Simone, square-jawed,
with lank and sinew, like a young boxer
with reach, unlocks his new office
space. A black bandana encircles his
Raiders cap; gold rings leave only his
thumbs free.
The office for his entertainment company
Black Umbrella sprawls three rooms on the
base of Queen Anne’s west slope. A black
couch, an empty conference table and a few
cardboard boxes sit on its green carpet. Like
Simone and his company, the office is in a state
of transition.
In March, Black Umbrella released Simone’s
first LP, Cognitive Dissonance, in partnership
with 300 Entertainment, the latest venture
of Lyor Cohen, a music-industry titan,
onetime manager of Run-D.M.C. and former
CEO of Warner Music Group. 300 is shifting
the industry’s bloated model toward digital
efficiency using social media data, and Simone
is its first signee. It’s a unique partnership that
gives Simone full artistic and business control.
Cognitive Dissonance sounds like Seattle
because it sounds like nowhere else. The
production, handled by Simone and a
small team, is movie-trailer boom-bap, a
conglomeration of thick synths, subservient
drums, widescreen strings and live
instrumentation. The album exists outside of
rap’s feedback loop—it must, because Simone
pays little attention to hip-hop at large.
“I am not a hip-hop head,” he says, “but I
am hip-hop.” Simone, who didn’t hear Tupac
until eighth grade, views rap primarily as the
vessel for his writing. “I don’t look at hip-hop
as a martial art, like I need to learn from our
predecessors,” he says. “If there’s some hip-hop
council that wants to do a review and say that
I’m revoked or whatever, then f**k ’em. This is
me.”
The 24-year-old is a thoroughbred Seattleite,
raised by his mother in West Seattle, White
Center, the north end and the Central
On Cognitive Dissonance,
Simone aims to
complicate Seattle’s
self-identity. His themes
are universal but
informed by a distinctly
local experience.
District. When he speaks, his voice carries an
amalgamation of black, white, Christian and
street dialects, the result of exposure to a wide
variety of communities. “I know people that
have never left the block they grew up on,” he
says. “So I’m glad I had that experience.”
When he was 17, Simone got his girlfriend
pregnant. He exhausted himself working
multiple jobs, going to school and taking
college classes through the Running Start
program. “I was like, this isn’t working,” he
says. “No one cares that I have a child coming
into the world.” So he began selling drugs. For
months he kept the pregnancy and his street
life hidden from his mother, a time he describes
as his darkest.
As an outlet, Simone wrote poetry until
he realized he was writing raps. He fronted
a fledgling punk-rap band, Razpy & the
Vigilantes, for several years. In 2010, his first
solo songs surfaced on YouTube—one of
which was a video shot by Central District
rapper/producer Sam Lachow. The two later
collaborated on the popular 2012 EP 5 Good
Reasons. In early 2013 Simone put out his first
solo EP, Solomon Samuel Simone. Both EPs
showcased Simone’s sneering sincerity and
gut-punching couplets: I’m glad I had an absent
encore art sseattle.com 9
E N C O R E A RT S N E W S
Kal Klass, D.D.S.
THE ACTOR’S DENTIST
Chosen as “Best Dentist” in
Seattle Met Magazine, 2014
JULY 11-13,
18-20, 25-26
1001 Broadway, Suite #314
Broadway and Madison
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 324-3800
www.drklass.com
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800.838.3006 OR
themikado.brownpapertickets.com
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Anne
KK fenton
041614 tooth 1_6v.pdf
3/1 – 6/15
Henry
Art
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HenryArt.orG
Anne fenton. Mystical Fire
[video stills]. 2013. Singlechannel video (color, sound); 65
min. Courtesy of the artist
KK 041614 tooth 1_6v.indd 1
10 ENCORE STAGES
father, not an angry dad/Being a bastard child
never made me mad, he raps on “These Kids
Throw Rocks.” He spent the rest of 2013 beating
a gun charge in New York and finishing Cognitive
Dissonance.
As an MC, Simone is more architect than
craftsman. The vision takes precedent. If he has
to squeeze bars to make them fit, he will. His
voice, which can sound like weathered gravel
or shiny silt, stretches and tightens, grunts and
gasps, in service of his narrative. These vocal
contortions abut polished and digestible hooks.
His lyrics are equal parts microscope and
telescope, a flurry of converging tensions. On
“Natural Resources,” he champions love of
self: We’re no longer niggas, we’re gods now/
We’re no longer black, we’re gold from here on
out. On “Swim Away” he casts aspersions at his
counterparts, snarling, If they could they would
let somebody else walk in their feet. He wields
complex compassion on “8 Rangs,” declaring
that he’ll buy a house for every mom and my
whores on the strip, but later warns his son’s
mother that he might put rings where your cheek
is at.
“They’ll Speak” is Simone’s veritable mission
statement. He constructs a panoramic paranoia
in which addicts flatter dealers for handouts,
starving men wear gold teeth and men make
“life decisions off no sleep.” By the time he
remembers his dreams for “a big house, big
wedding, big ring,” we’ve forgotten these things
exist.
Simone narrates Seattle’s unconscious,
the unheard stories of its black community.
He makes the music he never heard growing
up in a city that favors sunnier rap sounds.
“Seattle is an extreme as far as the gentrification
and the muting of people,” he says. “There’s
a disconnect. A lot of people in different
neighborhoods don’t go out to events. There’s
nothing there for them.”
But Simone’s concerns with representation
extend further than music. The city’s murder
rate, while relatively low, is concentrated in the
poorer black communities. “Chances are that
if someone dies in Seattle, we know them, so it
means more because it’s targeted toward us,” he
says. “It’s frustrating, because how do you tackle
that? How do you get people behind that? It’s not
affecting enough people to really do anything,
and it gets more and more narrowed down each
day.”
On Cognitive Dissonance, Simone aims to
complicate Seattle’s self-identity. His themes
are universal but informed by a distinctly local
experience. So far people are listening. The
Huffington Post premiered the shadowy video
for “They’ll Speak” and NPR debuted Cognitive
Dissonance in early March. Simone played a
couple of showcases at South by Southwest and
will play Sasquatch! this summer.
As Seattle’s accelerating urban transformation
shakes up the geographies of people and recasts
neighborhood landscapes, Simone’s voice gains
in relevance and power. His story is the city’s
story. It’s one we need to hear. n
F RO M C I T Y A RT S M AG A Z I N E
CLASSICAL UPDATE
Seattle Symphony Launches Label
Listen to selections from Seattle Symphony
Media at cityartsonline.com/symphony.
THE OUTSIDERS
Industrial Revelation wrecks expectations.
BY JONATHAN ZWICKEL
T
he night tilted toward unpredictable
contraction, so intent on expression that
as Industrial Revelation took the
breakage may occur.
stage at the old Comet Tavern, with
That was in January 2013. In the fall, IR
its broken-down bar stools and
released their third full-length album. It
broken-down barflies and bouncer
proved the point: These guys mess with
missing a tooth taking cash at the door. Clad
expectations.
in ties and polite pastel sweaters, the band
Oak Head refines the unhinged energy
had come to play their music at this fraying
of their live show, tames it into a more
dive, but the Comet would not accommodate
fluid ride. It’s mixed and engineered, a
the band without incident.
shave of the stubble that might otherwise
They started their set a quartet: trumpet,
roughen a live set. But even with its trad-jazz
Rhodes electric piano, upright bass and
instrumentation, Oak Head rocks (thanks in
drums, blasting a song that built delicious
no small part to Josh Rawlings’ scuzzy, filtered
tension and rose to a golden climax. The
tone on the Rhodes). In this case, it rocks with
Rhodes hummed like an engine at cruising
an instrumental precision and intimacy native
speed, the horn shone like a solid beam of
to trained jazz guys playing as aggressively
light, drums percolating and distinct, bass
and intuitively as any musicians in the city.
alert and proud.
At the release of the album,
Too proud, maybe. In an
IR left for tour. They spent 10
instant, something happened,
days circling the Northwest
He all but
and Evan Flory-Barnes, the big
then returned to Seattle
dropped the and
man on the big instrument,
and played a welcome-home
suddenly held the neck of
show. That night at Vermillion—
shambles to
his bass at a wrong, violent
unconventional venue
the floor like another
angle, cracked from its wooden
melded to IR’s unconventional
shoulders. He all but dropped
music—the band was even
a throttled
the shambles to the floor like a
stronger, bolder than before.
corpse.
throttled corpse and, ashamed
Songs from the album were
of what he’d done or just mad as
intensified and augmented from
hell, ducked off the stage and bolted out the
the recording. The room echoed, pressurized
front door. The remaining musicians played
with kinetic energy, breezy with release.
on, indifferent to the absence, insistent even
Industrial Revelation embodies jazz; jazz
on erasing it with more sound for the next 40
is meta-musical, embodying everything
minutes.
else. And so IR rocks. But really they’re just
This, I realized, is the best rock band in
virtuoso musicians playing risky and loose.
Seattle.
They are a joy to hear. They slide around
Ferocious and loud, with messy feelings
the music scene, doing the thing they do,
all driving at a specific pinpoint of an idea
mercurial and misplaced and unsung. As
through a process of sonic expansion and
outsiders, they fit right in. n
TOM DOUGHERTY
A brand-new indie label launched in
Seattle this April, and its first release
captures a blockbuster live performance by
a band with more than 50 members.
The Seattle Symphony’s latest platform
is Seattle Symphony Media, a record label
helmed by music director Ludovic Morlot
and executive director Simon Woods.
In the last few decades, the Symphony
has released more than 100 recordings
through small classical labels or majorlabel imprints, but SSM gives the directors
an unprecedented degree of creative
control and Symphony musicians greater
opportunity for financial reward.
“Look at what’s happened in the pop
business,” Woods said after a listening
party held in an office at Benaroya Hall in
mid-March. “There’s so much movement
towards artists controlling their own
destiny. Same has happened in the
classical music business.”
The Symphony has been recording every
performance since Benaroya opened in
1998, but SSM will focus on recordings
from the last three years and onward,
beginning with Morlot’s celebrated tenure
as music director. Morlot, French by birth,
and Woods collected the works of modern
French and American composers for
the first three releases, including Ravel,
Gershwin, Ives, Henri Dutilleux (a personal
friend of Morlot’s) and more.
“With our own label we can be nimble on
our feet and literally say, ‘That concert was
great, it’s coming out on CD four months
later.’”
Each release will be available as a
compact disc, iTunes download, highdefinition iTunes download and 5.1
Surround Sound lossless download. Woods
said that as of now there are no solid plans
for vinyl, but he’s considering it.
During the listening party, Woods played
snippets of each release. The sound quality
was stunning (granted, these were the 5.1
versions piped through a high-end sound
system) and the selections brilliant in their
diversity and impact. Each demonstrated
the perpetual vitality of classical music—as
well as an alluring freshness to anyone
bred on a steady diet of pop and hip-hop.
For many, classical offers an entirely new
language to learn, rich and undeniably
moving.
“We want to take the Seattle Symphony
to a broader audience,” Woods said. “We’re
one of the top 15 American orchestras but
not as well known as some of the others.
It’s time to change that.” JONATHAN ZWICKEL
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E N C O R E A RT S N E W S F RO M C I T Y A RT S M A G A Z I N E
Mix and Match
Dana Landon looks to the
street for fashion’s evolution.
BY AMANDA MANITACH
WHO Dana Landon, the 31-year-old freelance photographer and street-style journalist whose blog It’s My Darlin,
now in its sixth year, has spawned fans amongst both
fashionistas and strangers on Seattle’s streets.
IT’S MY DARLIN Landon’s infatuation with personal style
goes back to being a small-town girl growing up in
Connecticut and Idaho, where people thought she was
crazy for wearing heels on a weekday. Pre-internet, she
obsessed over clippings of Bill Cunningham’s New York
Times photos mailed to her by an aunt and uncle in New
York City. When she moved from Boise to Seattle in 2007,
Landon was inspired. Without knowing anything about
photography—but knowing exactly what she was looking
for—she grabbed a camera and began to document whatever caught her eye.
THE LOOK “I dream of a closet that is a carefully edited
mix of one-of-a-kind second-hand finds and timeless, artful
pieces from Totokaelo and Baby & Co., where I can wake
up and easily pick any combination of beautiful things to
make the perfect outfit. In reality my closet is a total mess
of all the things that caught my eye over the years. Right
now I’m wearing a lot of menswear, oversized layers, white,
navy and clean lines. On any given day, I’m likely wearing a
mix of thrifted items, an investment piece (designer heels
or jewelry by Hitchcock Madrona or Rachel Ravitch) and a
basic picked up from Zara or J.Crew.”
STYLE ICONS “It will be different tomorrow but right now:
artist Cathy Cooper, Betty Blue, 1930s and 1940s work
wear/tomboy style but somehow at the same time the ’90s,
Garance Doré, Totokaelo and Annie Hall. Always people I
see on the street.
LAUREN MAX
BEYOND GRUNGE “Seattle gets a bad rap when comes
to fashion, but when I arrived I felt like there was so much
amazing personal style everywhere I looked. I like that we
aren’t slaves to fashion. I see our style as an inspired combination of resourcefulness, practicality and
supporting local.”
encore art sseattle.com 13
E N C O R E A RT S N E W S
BOOK OF THE MONTH
In 2002,
photographer
and lifelong
animal lover
Annie Marie
Musselman
found a sick
pigeon near
her home in
Seattle. She
dialed 911
and soon
ANNIE MARIE MUSSELMAN
(Kehrer Verlag)
after received
a call from a
volunteer at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in
Arlington, Wash. The volunteer drove 55 miles
at night to pick up the bird and nurse it back to
health.
Musselman soon became a Sarvey volunteer
herself: cleaning cages, cutting meat, feeding
and intubating animals, anything required by
the many creatures that call Sarvey home—
some for now, some forever. Musselman had
recently lost her mother and was searching
for something of meaning in her life. Sarvey
became a home for her, too.
“The struggling animals at Sarvey taught me
to love the here and now, and be mindful of
each moment,” Musselman writes in her book
Finding Trust.
Every Thursday for six years, in addition to
her volunteer work, Musselman documented
the residents of Sarvey—birds of prey, bobcats,
foxes. The images she captured defy many
conventions of animal photography. Shunning
anodyne images of pets as well as pages
upon pages of anything sloe-eyed and heartwarming, Musselman’s photos are emotionally
complex, depicting Sarvey with kindness and
without agenda. “Every wild thing has a soul full
of strength, and my goal was to portray them
like humans.”
In Finding Trust, an eagle lies wide-eyed,
motionless on a medical table. A raccoon
sits on a volunteer’s lap, looking as comfy
as a toddler. Birds are held swaddled in
shabby towels and a fawn stands at a screen
door, gazing longingly at the world outside.
These are the quotidian moments of a place
Musselman fondly describes as “an animal
shantytown held together by rare donations
and lots of love.”
Fighting for life and grappling with death
are common occurrences at Sarvey, and
Musselman captures animals in both states
with respect and compassion. On one page,
two tiny cottontail rabbits—eyes barely open
and tiny paws still a pink shade of tender
infancy—fit comfortably inside a woman’s
manicured hand. A page later, “Cottontail
Going to Heaven” captures the soft face of a
rabbit looking up toward the plastic cone fitted
over its face as light pours in from a nearby
window.
Musselman’s open-hearted empathy
filters every image. They’re sad and
happy, straightforward and un-glamorous.
By capturing everyday moments in an
extraordinary setting with love and honesty, she
reminds us of our connection—and obligation—
to the natural world. GEMMA WILSON
Costume Renderings by Sarah Nash Gates
FINDING TRUST
EARS 031114 shakespeare 1_6h.pdf
THANK YOU
RETIRING SCHOOL OF DRAMA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SARAH NASH GATES
for your decades of service to the University of Washington
and for your leadership in the local theater community.
From your friends at
We are
ArtsUW
artsuw.org
School
of
Art
14 ENCORE STAGES
Untitled-5 1
ArtsUW
Dance
Burke
Program
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History and
Culture
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DXARTS
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Kelly
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4/4/14 8:34 AM
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Where the performance
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Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Carla Körbes
in Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote.
Photo © Angela Sterling.
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