Tag: Jillian Vashro

Sly American fairy tales about alligators and debutantes, told with sprightly vigor and combined with gorgeous choral singing. A storytelling experience like no other.

“As a storyteller, Bret Fetzer is a five star performer and writer. Following in the tradition of the great Southern storytellers, his writing is imaginative, funny and engaging; the performance, in which Mr. Fetzer assumes all the voices and characters himself, is beyond superlatives.” – Drama In The Hood

Rachel and Joe are getting divorced and everyone they know is invited. Guilt, grief, desire, and booze collide in this darkly comedic new play that contemplates a world where the worst moment in your life is something that people dress up for.

Performed by Sydney Andrews, Zoey Belyea, Nick Edwards, Tom Fraser, Amy Hill, Ashton Hyman, Samantha Leeds, Barbara Lindsay, Marty Mukhalian, Ian O’Malley, Jillian Vashro, Mark Waldstein.

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Reviews:

“Local playwright Holly Arsenault’s full-length debut, Undo, has a premise so deliciously simple, it’s a wonder it hasn’t been done already: What if there were a requisite divorce ceremony, a sort of backward wedding, where the original guests gather to get their presents back, hear the toasts again, see the couple’s last dance, then watch them take off their rings and undo their vows?….The script is fantastic, with witty but believable dialogue that sounds cribbed from real family get-togethers and focuses on the small, mundane logistics of the un-wedding that make it so convincing.” — The Stranger

“[Undo] is an exceptionally honest piece of playwriting, moving in the emotional investment of all the characters and both deeply sad and deeply gratifying in its authenticity.” — Seattle Actor

“There is tremendous strength in the writing. The dialogue is realistic and the relationships ring true… The cast is extremely likable, making the audience root for everybody (there aren’t any ‘bad guys’).” — Seattle Gay News

“Undo is an evening of blissful anguish watching two people sever ties to each other completely — a funny, dark look at how relationships end and all that goes into undoing what’s done.” — The Sunbreak

More info:
Get out your wedding dress: It’s time for your divorce – an interview with playwright Holly Arsenault and actors Mark Waldstein and Samantha Leeds

This play contains adult language and content. It is recommended for mature audiences ages 15 and up.

Inspired by the tradition of the old-fashioned circus sideshow, this original dance-theater work by Jenna Bean Veatch features characters whose physical abnormalities bestow them with special powers. Rather than disabilities, they have super-abilities. Supported by a chorus of sideshow performers singing haunting Appalachian ballads, the work highlights the peculiar beauty that can be found only in the unusual and draws on the excitement that comes from catching a glimpse of otherworldliness. With displays that are at times odd and outrageously funny and at other times breathtakingly beautiful, Sideshow falls into the category of children’s art made for adults.

It’s whimsical yet somber, with a tingling strangeness. Blending dance, theater, music, and elements of puppetry, it toes the line between being magical and haunting, simple and fantastical.

“Sideshow is simple, charming, sweet, and completely devoid of power ballads and schmaltz…. [Naomi] Russell’s…innocence and transparency cannot be resisted…[Wyllin] Daigle is a great stage presence….[Jenna Bean] Veatch’s own composition is a highlight of the show as are the folk songs wonderfully rendered by Francesca Mondelli and Jillian Vashro as the Conjoined Twins.” –The Sunbreak

“A tender and modest piece of work [for] people who enjoy Circus Contraption and other neo-vaudeville expressions of that soft spot between innocence and irony.” –The Stranger

“Sideshow is the kind of theatrical experience that reminds you why it’s worth it to live in a cool city. It’s willfully expressive, and silly, and full of joy…. Don’t miss this one. It’s really beautiful.” –Culturemob

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End times are near in the final episode of Scot Augustsonʼs black-and-white comedy Penguins! The conflict of priests vs. nuns comes to a head, along with exorcisms, conspiracies, lesbian love, historical secrets revealed, and more of the caustic comedy thatʼs brought this late night serial acclaim and dismay! Directed by Bret Fetzer.

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The underbelly of Beatrix Potter comes to life in The Tale of Jemima Canard. A young innocent, capricious but willful, falls under the romantic sway of a predatory cad—but the characters are not Edwardian ladies and gentlemen; they are ducks, hounds, badgers, and foxes. As the author is interrogated by one of her own characters, layers of love, envy, jealousy, and much worse become revealed as the play delves into the deceptively whimsical lives of Jemima, her hard-as-nails sister Rebecca, the rugged but earnest St. Hubert brothers, the degenerate Tommy Brock, Miss Potter herself, and the elegant and alarming Tawny Whiskered Gentleman. Seattle actor Brandon J. Simmons makes his playwriting debut with this anthropomorphic dream-play, using Potterʼs The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck as a springboard to explore the nature of fate and time, blurring the lines between animal/human, love/violence, food/sex, and the artist and the art she creates. Directed by Carys Kresny, who previously dug her directorial fingers into dark and roiling emotions in The Changeling and Penetralia at Annex.

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