Eat, play, groove (and catch a really good play).

What a zoo. Scott Campbell and Luke Amundson rehearse for "The Zoo Story."

Coming up soon – Toy Boat Theatre (TBT) is staging The Zoo Story, Edward Albee’s most enduring one-act play – with a twist. The Zoo Story will be the theatrical centerpiece for a full evening of entertainment beginning with a “zoo-themed” dinner (think standard day-at-the-park fare served by a hot dog cart and popcorn stand) and ending with live music by local artists. It’s a three-in-one blast: Eat, play, groove!

“The idea is to have a party centered around a powerful theatrical experience each night of the run,” says TBT artist-in-residence Scott Campbell.

Written in 1958, Albee’s award-winning play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, and dehumanization in a volatile and unstable world. Two characters – Peter, a middle-class publishing executive, and Jerry, a “permanent transient” of New York City’s Upper West Side – meet on a park bench near Central Park Zoo. Their clashing perspectives result in a fast-paced, witty, darkly humorous and ultimately shocking climax.

Director Brie Yost rehearses with Luke Amundson and Scott Campbell for "The Zoo Story."

The Zoo Story at TBT is directed by Brie Yost and features Luke Amundson as Jerry, and Campbell as Peter. This project marks the welcome return to the Tacoma stage of Campbell, who most recently served as artistic director at Tacoma Little Theatre.

Where: Toy Boat Theatre, 1314 M L King, Jr. Way, in the Hilltop neighborhood
Dates: Oct. 13, 14, 15 and 20, 21, 22
Time: Light dinner served in the lobby and theatre at 7p.m. Show starts at 8p.m. followed by live music 9-10p.m.
Admission: $20 for the entire evening; reservations can be made in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/toyboattheatreco/.

Broadway Center Hosts Free Culturefest, Oct. 8-9

Drama queens are welcome at Yes You May.

WHAT: Fall Free for All, a community artfest

WHEN: October 8-9, 2011

WHERE: The Broadway Center and surrounding venues

HOW: Admission is FREE! To get your wristband pass, call the box office at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts: 253.591.5894. Wristbands will be available for pick-up at “will call” only. Click here for your FREE wristband pass.

Get ready for a jam-packed weekend of FREE arts, culture and entertainment at the Fall Free For All, October 8-9. The Broadway Center is hosting this community arts festival with a virtually inexhaustible lineup of events all weekend long. Whether your cultural cravings lean toward cello concerti or ukulele serenades, film screenings or guerilla performance, you’ll find what floats your boat at the Pantages, Rialto Theater and Theater on the Square.

Portland Cello Project is coming to Tacoma in October.

Broadway Center Executive Director David Fischer says the artfest was designed to coincide with the kickoff of the performing arts season and back-to-school, as “an open house of sorts to [showcase] all these great programs that start in the fall.” Events are free because the three publicly-owned venues “[belong to] the citizens of Tacoma, and we wanted to make sure everyone had access to their theaters.” The lineup includes live music, theater, film, dance and a host of family-friendly activities. Come get your cultural fix, support local artists, and check out the spiffy new look of Antique Row and the vibrant Theatre District. Events include:

• 

  Kooser Puppets will perform at the Fall Free for All.

  A Broadway Center original production, 11 Days in the Life of Dr. King

• The world premiere of Voices of the City, a multimedia project designed to “animate democracy” presented by the Broadway Center and EnJoy Productions
• Short plays by local authors sponsored by Northwest Playwrights Alliance
• Films from the Grand Cinema
• Tacoma Philharmonic kids’ concert: Trains & Tunes in the New World
• Diverse dance from many cultures, from traditional forms to hip hop
• Hands-on activities for children
• A screening of the movie, U2: Rattle and Hum
• Dance from Barefoot Dance Collective
• Plus local bands, buskers, magicians, and much more!
• For festival schedule, click here.

Ukulele Ohana will be pulling strings during Fall Free for All's inaugural weekend.

Free for Fall is presented by the Broadway Center with support from the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation Fund of the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, BECU and Key Bank. See you there!

Big Art Plans for Little Town on the Prairie

Art in the making?

Why is this alligator smiling? Check out the latest on the Prairie Line Trail public art plan on Spaceworks’ companion blog: www.tacomaarts.wordpress.com.

Tacoma: Try It, You’ll Like It

Tacoma, how do we like thee? Let us count the ways…Keep on uploading those You’ll Like Tacoma photos that you’ve been taking. Here’s a fabulous montage of them by local filmmaker Adam the Alien – thanks, Adam, for making this awesome video for us!

Click here to read more about the project or visit our Flickr and Facebook pages to look at what others have done (and to upload your own). Don’t have a sign? Click here to download an 8.5″ x 11″ PDF.

The 10th anniversary of Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month is coming up fast. Our catalog has gone to press, so keep your eyes peeled for it in the next week or two. And get ready for Art at Work in November.

Catch Toy Boat Theatre on CityLine, Sept. 15 at 9a.m.

Artistic Director Marilyn Bennett and members of Toy Boat Theatre will appear on CityLine, cable channel 12, Thursday, Sept. 15 at 9a.m. TBT is a recipient of one of Spaceworks’ inaugural Hilltop residencies – see how the troupe is shakin’ it up on Hilltopia!

Woolworth’s: History in a Box

Woolworth's department store opened in 1950 across from the Crystal Sanitary Market. Photo courtesy of Tacoma Public Library

The F.W. Woolworth Building is one of T-town’s favorite works of architecture (and not just because it’s the mothership of Spaceworks). Check out the backstory of this amazing downtown landmark and see more vintage photos on the new Tacoma Arts blog: www.tacomaarts.wordpress.com.

9.11.11

Sequence by Virginia Bunker

“I was seeing a spectator to something so unfathomable” that it could not be described in words or even contained in visual terms, says photographer/writer Virginia Bunker about Sequence, her commentary on the devastating events of September 11, 2001, in New York City. Her diptych isolates a moment in time that, for many survivors, will forever bisect life into the day before, and the day after.

The viewpoint of Sequence could be that of someone working downtown on that clear September morning, “of someone looking across from Brooklyn Heights, or someone in Japan watching the news, or someone like me, watching it here,” she says. At once describing the intimacy and the anonymity of the terrorist attacks that took thousands of lives in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., Sequence conveys the deep and instantaneous shock experienced by people around the world.

• • • • •

Virginia Bunker is a Tacoma artist who lived in Manhattan in the 1990′s, honing her craft and working at a private photo laboratory pulling prints for the likes of Irving Penn, Horst, Avedon and Condé Nast art director, Alexander Lieberman.

10 in 10: 2001 Tacoma Gets Smart

Welcome to our 10 in 10 series marking 10 things that have left a clear imprint on Tacoma over the past decade. A remarkable confluence of outstanding institutions, individuals and ideas have made this city the progressive urban center it is today. Two bright stars on the educational scene were established in 2001: Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA) and the Urban Studies Program at the University of Washington-Tacoma (UWT). A successful alternative high school and a groundbreaking university program, respectively, they’re just a decade old – but we can’t imagine T-town without them.

Photo: Kristin Giordano

The arts are a defining element of Tacoma life, and SOTA is one of its proudest institutions, challenging high school students (grades 10-12) with a rigorous curriculum that fully integrates academic achievement with the visual and performing arts. SOTA was one of three Washington State recipients of the inaugural Schools of Excellence in Arts Education Award, under the auspices of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Awards. It was founded with support from a $450,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Classes are held in 10 different buildings in downtown Tacoma including the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, Tacoma Art Museum and UWT (the buildings are all located within one square mile and students ride the Tacoma Link light rail between classes).

SOTA career counselor Michaele Sein-Ryan notes that the school’s “five hundred 15 to 18 year olds ‘going to work’ each day in downtown Tacoma [bring] creative energy, fresh perspective and a little lunch money” into town. With such a small student body, the average SOTA class size is low and students are closely mentored by faculty and adjunct staff in pursuing academic and artistic goals.

SOTA students catch the Link light rail to class. Photo: Kristin Giordano.

SOTA also gets high marks for offering students unique learning opportunities such as internships with local businesses and service trips abroad. “Many of our graduates have returned to the downtown post-college to continue their participation in this community,” says Sein-Ryan. 2006 SOTA grad Rebecca Solverson is Arts Liaison for the City of Tacoma, assisting Arts Administrator Amy McBride in running the City’s complex schedule of programs and projects. Vivian Irish, recently named head chef at Maxwell’s bistro, undertook her culinary path in earnest through SOTA when she received a senior-year internship at the highly rated Pacific Grill. She was hired by the restaurant full-time the day after graduation, in 2007, and now heads up one of the city’s most creative kitchens.

Fab-5 Featured at Cheney Stadium’s Art Night

By Holly Wolfe, Special to Spaceworks Tacoma

“You might think art and baseball don’t go together, but we are here tonight to show you otherwise!” said Amy McBride, City of Tacoma Arts Administrator, on Monday. Amy and the Tacoma Arts Commission lead about 50 Tacoma residents on a tour through the newly renovated Cheney Stadium for Art Appreciation Night. There were several art installations by local artists including a few pieces made through the Museum of Glass’s Kids Design Glass program. Another installation, a bronze statue of Ben Cheney himself, is sitting permanently in a stadium seat with a wide smile and a bag of bronze peanuts in his hands. The real treat of the night was a special mid-game performance by students from FAB-5′s LIFE program, run by Class 3 Fellow Eddie Sumlin. The kids were pumped to show off their breakdancing down on the baseball diamond, and got lots of high fives and praise from the crowd.

Who says art and baseball don’t go together?

New Tacoma Light Rail Art has Arrived

Workers installing etched glass panels designed by Chandler O'Leary

Tacoma got an intriguing new public artwork on August 23. We caught workers busily installing Chandler O’Leary’s etched glass panels in the two new light rail stations at Commerce and 11th. The stations are directly in front of Tacoma School of the Arts’ Ted Brown building and are arriving just in time for the new school year.

One of O'Leary's early sketches of the piece

Read more about the artwork here, and make sure to check it out before the end of the summer!