Three Olympia stages light up Nov. 13–15 with a free choir concert, a Pulitzer-winning play and a musical-theater mashup.
The lineup starts Friday, Nov. 13, when South Puget Sound Community College opens Bruce Norris' "Clybourne Park" at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts. Saturday, Nov. 14, brings both the Olympia Peace Choir's a cappella concert under the Capitol dome and the first of two Harlequin Miscast performances at the State Theater.
'Clybourne Park' at SPSCC
The Pulitzer- and Tony-winning "Clybourne Park" opens Friday, Nov. 13, at SPSCC's Minnaert Center, 2011 Mottman Road SW. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," the 2010 satire is set in the fictional Chicago neighborhood where the Younger family bought a home, becoming the first Black family in an all-white area, Oly Arts columnist Molly Gilmore wrote.
The play begins with the couple that sold to the Youngers in 1959, then jumps to 2009, when another white family wants to buy the same house.
SPSCC drama professor Lauren Love, who is directing, said the play "makes room for us to reflect on our attitudes and assumptions."
"'Clybourne Park' asks the question that I think is at the heart of American democracy: 'How do we form a more perfect union now?'" Love said, according to Oly Arts.
The cast includes Teresita Brimms, Johanna Chhay, Heather Christopher, Kalen McCrea, Jalen Penn, Jerry Romasco, Jed Slaughter and Teddy Spector. Most play one role in each time period.
Performances run at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, 14, 20 and 21 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 15 and 22. A $15 donation is suggested. Students, staff and faculty get in free.
Olympia Peace Choir in the Capitol Rotunda
The Olympia Peace Choir performs a free a cappella concert called "Nothing Between Us" at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, inside the Washington State Capitol Rotunda, 215 Sid Snyder Ave. SW.
The concert is the choir's first under artistic director Matthew Melendez, according to Oly Arts. Melendez took over from founding director Kerri Lynn Nichols, ThurstonTalk reported in August. The nonprofit choir started in 2010.
The Rotunda's 175-foot dome creates a reverberation Melendez has praised. In coverage published in October, he told Oly Arts, "Reverberation actually erases some of the distance between singer and listener … The sound doesn't travel at you there; it arrives around you."
Harlequin Miscast at the State Theater
Harlequin Productions' Miscast show puts performers in roles they would not normally play. According to the Harlequin Productions website, the event is inspired by MCC Theater's annual tradition and "celebrates the joy of theatrical surprises and the magic that happens when artists play against type."
Bruce Haasl and Max Lopuszynski emcee. The cast includes Christian Bolduc, Henry Talbot Dorset, Stephanie Layton, Heather Matthews, Eleise Moore, Jerod Nace, Gregory Conn, Elizabeth Fuller, Melissa Maanao, Elise Tarasova and Travis Tingvall, according to Oly Arts.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at the State Theater, 202 4th Ave. E. Tickets are $30.
