Issaquah Film Festival features movie musicals
July 24, 2012
Downtown Issaquah is poised to host a film festival in September, as the municipal Arts Commission shows a series of musicals on the silver screen.
The inaugural Issaquah Film Festival is scheduled for Village Theatre’s First Stage Theatre, 120 Front St. N., from Sept. 14-16.
The lineup includes Busby Berkeley’s “Footlight Parade” and the disco farce “Can’t Stop the Music” — a pseudo-biography of the Village People. The Beatles’ groundbreaking “A Hard Day’s Night” concludes the festival.
Tickets cost $10 per night or $25 for the entire festival. Find tickets and information at www.issaquahfilmfestival.com.
The event also includes a VIP reception featuring wine from local winery Twin Cedars, guest speaker Howard A. DeWitt and Beatles music by Undercover.
DeWitt, a professor emeritus at Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif., has written 21 books, including “The Beatles: Untold Tales,” “Paul McCartney: From Liverpool to Let It Be” and “Beatle Poems.”
In ‘Assassins,’ teenage performers take aim at political correctness
July 3, 2012
Jake Nicholson portrays the Balladeer (left) and Patrick Ostrander portrays assassin John Wilkes Booth in KIDSTAGE’s ‘Assassins.’ By Jean Johnson/Village Theatre
Others ended up relegated in history textbooks. Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz faded into the footnotes.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore turned into comedians’ punch lines after botched assassination attempts.
The assassins — and wannabe assassins — of presidents occupy a strange place in U.S. history. The cadre is reviled and, in some cases, forgotten.
Not in “Assassins” — a Stephen Sondheim musical about the strange group. The show opens at Village Theatre’s First Stage Theatre on July 13.
The dark musical is the latest offering from KIDSTAGE, the long-running youth education program at Village Theatre.
The show is designed, directed and performed by high school and college-age students. Though professional mentors offer guidance, “Assassins” is managed from opening number to curtain call by student-actors in the program.
What’s your Issaquah IQ?
June 28, 2012
So, you think you know Issaquah? Is the city just another buttoned-up suburb? Nope. Issaquah is home to more than 30,000 people — and more than a century of secrets. Issaquah anecdotes stretch deep into the past and continue into the 21st century. Look beyond the basics to discover tidbits and trivia.
Test your Issaquah IQ. (Scroll to the bottom to check the answers, but please, no cheating!)
City hosts sustainability film contest for students
June 19, 2012
Capture a vision of sustainability on film for a city-sponsored contest, and share ideas about how to make Issaquah a more livable community.
City leaders launched the student film contest in part to gather ideas for fostering a healthy environment, a strong economy and active citizens in the present and the future.
Organizers plan to feature selected films on the municipal website. In addition, a panel of judges plans to select 10 winners to receive a special honor and invitation to the Issy Awards at Village Theatre in September. Read more
Who’s News
June 19, 2012
Four Scouts earn Eagle rank
Eric Hall, Zach Hall, Ben Fairhart and Jacob Tierney
Four Boy Scouts from Issaquah Troop 609 — Eric Hall, Zach Hall, Ben Fairhart and Jacob Tierney — earned the rank of Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest honor, at a court of honor ceremony June 4 at St. Andrews Lutheran Church, Bellevue.
Eric Hall planned and led for his Eagle Scout Project a volunteer effort to build the initial 150 feet of new trail in Squak Valley Park. Eric is an accomplished musician in the Issaquah High School wind ensemble, jazz band and Village Theatre Summerstock pit orchestra. Eric also plays football for the IHS football team and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Zach Hall planned and coordinated Scout and neighborhood volunteers to replace 30 yards of sand at South Cove Beach, repair signage and clean up landscaping. Zach is a proficient musician in the IHS wind ensemble, jazz band, Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Village Theatre Summerstock pit orchestra. He is a member of the National Honor Society, Key Club and Japanese Club.
Ben Fairhart’s Eagle project involved the restoration of 150 feet of trail in Squak Valley Park. Outside of Scouting, Ben enjoys playing bass guitar with his band, The Greasy Spoon. Together they have performed in Issaquah, Snoqualmie, Buckley and most recently at El Corazon, in Seattle. He has also been active in service projects and mission trips through his church.
For his Eagle Scout project, Jacob “Jake” Tierney planned and organized the construction and ultimate emplacement of five wood duck nesting boxes along the shores of Lake Tradition. During this project, Jake also coordinated and supervised the relocation of wooden benches to a more useful location adjacent to Lake Tradition. Jake graduated with honors from Liberty High School on June 11. He will study engineering at Santa Clara University, in California in September. Jacob is also the proud recipient of a U.S. Air Force ROTC scholarship.
City hosts sustainability film contest for students
June 15, 2012
NEW — 6 a.m. June 15, 2012
Capture a vision of sustainability on film for a city-sponsored contest, and share ideas about how to make Issaquah a more livable community.
City leaders launched the student film contest in part to gather ideas for fostering a healthy environment, a strong economy and active citizens in the present and the future.
Organizers plan to feature selected films on the municipal website. In addition, a panel of judges plans to select 10 winners to receive a special honor and invitation to the Issy Awards at Village Theatre in September.
Titanic connection leads North Carolina family to Issaquah
June 12, 2012
Ruth Becker
The tang of saltwater drifted on the cold, midnight air. So, too, did frantic calls for help from hundreds of people.
Titanic — a superlative achievement in engineering, grand and unsinkable — struck a history-altering iceberg minutes earlier.
Ruth Becker, roused to the deck after the collision, headed below for blankets to protect against the chill. By the time the 12-year-old girl returned moments later, blankets in hand, she needed to act fast to board a lifeboat as the ocean liner sank into the North Atlantic.
Becker’s cousin, Jill Carrizales, remembers hearing the account as a child. The tale sparked a lifelong interest in the tragedy. Now, Carrizales and her daughter Jennifer Ramsey plan to travel from Gastonia, N.C., to Issaquah to attend a June 16 event dedicated to the Titanic disaster.
In order to commemorate 100 years since the tragedy, the Kiwanis Club of Issaquah plans to host pre-eminent Titanic historian Don Lynch at a June 16 discussion.
The trip to Issaquah represents a milestone in Carrizales’ yearslong quest to meet Lynch. The historian interviewed Becker, then Ruth Becker Blanchard, before she died in 1990 at age 90.
Carrizales praised Lynch for coaxing Ruth Becker to open up about the disaster.
‘Little Shop of Horrors’ feeds school record for Liberty drama awards
June 12, 2012
Photos from Issaquah School District At left, seniors Sierra Hunt (Audrey) and Tucker Goodman (Seymour) perform in Liberty High School’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ Above, carnivorous plant Audrey II (Sheady Manning-Bruce, Natalie Gress and Addison Halpin-Higman) convinces Goodman to feed it.
Liberty High School performers — and a scene-stealing, man-eating plant — snapped up more awards than any other high school drama program in a statewide competition June 4.
The school received four trophies for a recent production of “Little Shop of Horrors” in The 5th Avenue Theatre’s annual awards to recognize musical theater at high schools across the Evergreen State. The honor is akin to a Tony Award for student performers and productions.
“Little Shop of Horrors” garnered awards for Outstanding Music Direction for choir director Robin Wood, Outstanding Scenic Design, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and the top honor, Outstanding Overall Musical Production.
“We have a strong production team and strong talent,” said Katherine Klekas, longtime Liberty drama program director. “I think that was what made this one so special is that it was consistent across the board.”
The campy musical revolved around a carnivorous plant, Audrey II, a puppet comprised of limbs and vines crafted for the performance.
Jeremy Dodd earned the Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role honor for a turn as a floral shop proprietor.
The sophomore donned a bald cap and extensive makeup to transform from a teenager to the curmudgeonly Mr. Mushnik.
‘The Producers’ at Village Theatre charms, offends for laughs
May 15, 2012
Brian Earp (Leo Bloom), Richard Gray (Max Bialystock), Nick DeSantis (Roger De Bris) and Chris Ensweiler (Carmen Ghia) perform a scene in ‘The Producers.’ Photo by Jay Koh/Village Theatre
“The Producers” caricatures and offends in strokes as broad as the Brooklyn Bridge.
The musical is the ultimate equal-opportunity offender. “The Producers” aims and fires at Jews, gays, women, Nazis — yes, Nazis — and almost everyone else in a rollicking production onstage at Village Theatre.
Indeed, the questionable material, especially the can-they-do-that moments, is the most enjoyable part of “The Producers.”
The mega-musical runs until July 1 and closes the 2011-12 season at Village Theatre.
“The Producers” is a breathless tribute to Broadway and, often in the same breath, a knife-edged parody. The appeal is the cynicism and crassness in the absurdist romp. So what, then, if some songs seem almost forgettable? The numbers still act as a capable delivery device for a handful of funnyman Mel Brooks’ sharpest lines.
The musical is a smash imported to Issaquah 11 years after Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick tore up Broadway in the original run. The lackluster 2005 film adaptation introduced audiences farther afield to the unabashedly old-school show.
Kiwanis Club of Issaquah hosts Titanic expert
May 15, 2012
Don Lynch, a historian considered among the foremost Titanic experts on the planet, descended to the wreck in August and September 2001. The noted author is due in Issaquah next month to discuss the Titanic for a Kiwanis Club of Issaquah fundraiser.
The event is June 16 at the First Stage Theatre, 120 Front St. N. Call 392-3598 or 392-4016, or go to www.issaquah.kiwanis.org.
The ticket pricing is arranged similar to the passenger classes on the Titanic — $55 for first class, $40 for second class and $25 for steerage. The first-class “passengers” can attend a meet-and-greet session with Lynch, receive a complimentary glass of wine or beer, and take home a souvenir from the event.
Lynch also served as a consultant on director James Cameron’s 1997 film about the doomed ocean liner.
April 15 marked 100 years since the Titanic tragedy unfolded about 400 miles from Newfoundland.
Even a century after the Titanic departed the surface, the disaster — 1,514 passengers and crewmembers perished in the sinking — continues to capture imaginations. Only about 700 people survived the catastrophe.
