ArtsLink

Our American Theatre Company presents:
Three Hotels by Jon Robin Baitz

Thurs - Sat, Jun. 12— 28 8:00 PM
Tickets: Pay What You Will

THREE HOTELS by Jon Robin Baitz is an unflinching and deeply human examination of two lives collapsing under the weight of their participation in the multinational corporate world. Ken Hoyle is a hatchet man for a company that sells baby formula (often with disastrous results) to third world countries. It’s been a long time since he and his wife Barbara were idealistic Peace Corps volunteers. But this moral compromise has taken its toll–in the worst way imaginable, and now Ken and Barbara have reached a point of no return.

In this three monologue journey, we sit in three hotel rooms in three different parts of the world and watch a man and a woman set out to parts unknown with much to contemplate, searching for answers and aching for redemption.

Theatre Off Jackson
409 – 7th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
206-340-1049
info@theatreoffjackson.org

Read the play/monologue here: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=1hqQyHboVBgC&dq=%22three+hotels%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=3JBe3tROET&sig=3YC3fbHvMdnUxja9dTQuruVVymA

Tuesday • June 10 • 7pm

Local science fiction author Nisi Shawl published her first piece of fiction in Semiotext(e) #14, an issue that included William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and William Gibson. Her latest title is a collection of stories all her own: strange, haunting tales by a singular voice in contemporary fantastic fiction.

From an interview with Ms. Shawl–

This collection of stories is entitled Filter House. What exactly is a “filter house”?

I like ocean things, I like marine biology [and] I enjoy anything oceanic. I found this article about appendicularia and was reading about them and then looked at other articles on the web and found out about filter houses. They are so, so gorgeous. They are so beautiful. And I was just really attracted to the idea of something that was so ephemeral and beautiful.

So [a filter house] is sort of like an underwater, 3-D spiderweb that [appendicularia] use to trap food. They are filter feeders but they build these filters outside their body that last for about two or three hours, until the appendicularia outgrows it or they become clogged, useless. Then they release them and they drift down to the lower levels of the ocean. If you’ve read about anything in marine ecology, you’ve heard about “marine snow” – all the lower levels of life subsist on [it]; that’s the basic element of their ecology. So [discarded filter houses are] a large component of marine snow. [I liked] the idea that it was something so basic, too.

I wanted to have the title of the collection not be a story and I wanted it to be the sort of combination of words that would make people think, “Well, what is that?” I also was drawn by this idea that the structure of the short story collection is ephemeral, that it’s made up of other elements that are brought together in this moment – because they are so short, short stories are sort of ephemeral too. (find the interview at http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2008/04/seeing-voices-conversation-with-nisi.html)

‘Fight Club’ is a classic and his wide-array of similarly darkly-humored novels marks Mr. Chuck’s off-putting, important role in the literary world over the last decade. Love him or hate him, come hear this twisted author read from his new novel, Snuff, this coming Thursday. 

Thursday May 29th
7:30pm
Town Hall
1119 Eighth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98101

From the master of literary mayhem and provocation, a full-frontal Triple X novel that goes where no American work of fiction has gone before…. Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room. This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet under-acknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing? Who else could do it so well, so unflinchingly, and with such an incendiary (you might say) climax?

What happens when you venture into the forest? For many fairy tale characters, a journey through the forest functions as a test of character and affects their lives forever–for better or worse.

Three of Grimms’ fairy tales involving forest journeys will be performed by UW German students in an original theatrical adaptation. The tales are Hänsel und Gretel, Die drei Männlein im Walde (The Three Little Men in the Woods), and Der Räuberbräutigam (The Robber Bridegroom). The plays are in German; a synopsis in English is available to the audience.

Performances are on May 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ethnic Cultural Theater. Der Räuberbräutigam contains graphic imagery and may not be suitable for small children.

Jonathan Beller (Critical English; Visual Studies, Pratt Institute) considers the failures of realism to provide figures for the current politico-cultural conjuncture in the Philippines at a variety of aesthetic and analytic levels, including representational style, genre, experience, and medium. Beller explores the confluence of the vertiginous changes brought about by globalization, and the intensification of contradiction in the domain of official politics as the current regime struggles to manage the ongoing crisis of the Philippine State.

Tuesday May 27th
3:30pm
UW Communications Bld 120

“Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”

-Documentary, USA-

This quintessential documentary gives extra dimension to counterculture hero Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the creator of “gonzo” journalism. Focusing on Thompson’s heyday—with home movies, interviews with friends and foes, and unprecedented access to previously unpublished works—the film is entirely narrated by the words of Thompson himself read by Johnny Depp.

Playing at:
Egyptian Theatre
May 23, 2008
May 26, 2008

Purchase tickets here: http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=27279&FID=64

A Night with Poet Populist, Cody Walker
Wednesday, May 7, 2008

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
HUB 106A “The Gallery”

Join Cody Walker and members of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors society, for an evening of poetry and lively discussion. Cody Walker, voted Seattle “Poet Populist” for 2007-2008, teaches English at the University of Washington and poetry through Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program. He also serves as a writer-in-residence at the Richard Hugo House and
the Seattle Art Museum. Cody received the 2003 James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry from Shenandoah and the 2005 Distinguished Teaching Award from the UW English Department. His work
appears on buses and bookmarks, as well as in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, Parnassus, Slate, Prairie Schooner, Subtropics, and Light. His first book, “Shuffle and Breakdown,” will be published in the fall of 2008 by Waywiser Press.

Cody Walker and student volunteers will read selections from “Shuffle and Breakdown” and other poems and open up discussion about the texts. This is not a traditional poetry reading, but a fun, interactive, and informal evening with one of Seattle’s most popular poets and one of the UW’s most beloved English teachers. Come hang out with Cody and company next Wednesday evening at the HUB!

Wow– check out his blog! How fun! I just lost myself in it for twenty minutes.

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Mark Sarvas has spent the last few years writing about books and authors for his very popular blog The Elegant Variation, and in that time he has spared not one of his uncensored opinions on what does and doesn’t make a good piece of fiction. But our man Sarvas is no Monday morning quarterback—he’s put his own fiction where his mouth (or fingers) is and has produced a debut novel that has Booker winners and National Book Award nominees doling out the praise. It’s a funny and tender debut about a self-involved widower trying to grow up.   

Harry, Revised is the story of Harry Rent, a guilt-ridden, down-on-his-luck widower, who tries to reinvent himself following his wife’s untimely death. His emotional journey takes him from his own solipsistic and outrageously misdirected fantasies about an obsidian-haired, twenty-two-year-old waitress at his local greasy spoon, to the tenuous beginnings of an actual, personal transformation.

University Bookstore
7pm - ?
University Ave.

POETRY & CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE ART IN SEATTLE: Untitled [Intersection], 2008

Tickets: Suggested $5 donation.

Location: 2nd floor of  the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center (PNC) in Greenwood.

Date & Time: Friday, April 25th, 7-9pm

Congratulations to these two fabulous theatre companies! Their efforts have truly situated Seattle as a Shakespeare-centre in the Northwest, producing even more plays than Ashland, OR!

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In an unusual move designed to raise the profile and productivity of two respected classical-drama troupes, Seattle Shakespeare Company and Wooden O Theatre have merged their nonprofit operations. (source: The Seattle Times)

Stephanie Shine, the artistic director at Seattle Shakespeare Company issued this notice to subscribers and fans of the SSC.

Our programs will now include: main stage indoor productions, education programs for students and adults, regional touring productions, and free, outdoor summer performances.

If you’re not familiar with Wooden O, they produce free Shakespeare in the parks throughout King County during the summer months. Wooden O is helmed by George Mount, an actor who I have worked with many times and may be familiar to you from our recent production of The Comedy of Errors and his award-winning turn as Kate in our all-male The Taming of the Shrew.

This merger evolves out of the growth and success of both companies. Combining the unique strengths and assets of both organizations gives us an opportunity to achieve even greater community and statewide impact not previously possible. As a stronger, unified theatre company we will be able to provide exceptional year-round experiences for audiences indoors or out, within Seattle or across the state.

(source: The Seattle Shakespeare Company)