The Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs has released their city art grants ($225,000 all told), and the list reads like a season preview for the city of Seattle. Certain individuals have been very grumpy in the past about how the city spent its public art dollars.

But, reading through the press-release-ese, some of these projects sound great, mostly because of the people involved.

Marya Sea Kaminski, theatre, Condomillennium: A Play About Fantasy and Real Estate. To develop and perform a full-length monologue play that investigates the inner-workings of people who have been affected by a major condominium project in their neighborhood. The play will combine real human stories with absurd fantasies to build a theatrical picture of the evolution of our urban landscape and our instinctual need for space and home.

Stefan Gruber, theatre, Psychic Portraiture. To create and perform a show in which the artist paints portraits of audience members with animated light on a stage arranged with a large-sized canvas. Symbols from the life of the model also materialize to decorate the portrait. In a banter with the model and audience, psychic details are intuited.

Dayna Hanson, theater, Great Great Great Great Grandchildren of the Revolution. To create and perform a dance-driven rock musical bringing the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's legendary ride and other iconic moments of the Revolutionary War to life. The work blends dance, theater, music, design elements and testimonials to link revolutionary ideas to modern-day hopes and failures.

Keri Healey, theatre, Torso. To research, write and workshop a new play based on a recent real-life murder case in Minnesota, to which the playwright has a personal connection. "Torso" (working title) will explore new and darker territory for the writer: violence, revenge and broken family relations in America.

Derrick [Ryan?] Mitchell, theatre, Flinch Not and Give Not Back. To create active dramaturgical environments geared towards the idea of third-person narrative dialogue that addresses the non-narrative subtext of the often striking images performance group Implied Violence is known for.

Amy O'Neal, dance, too. To create a dance/video performance following the fragmented and dreamlike events of two dancers who encounter 50 other people duet style, but manage to miss each other while environ-ments and people constantly change. The duo meets people under varying circumstances and their inter-action with these strangers, friends and acquaintances creates a cut- and-paste dance of physical extremes.

John Osebold, music, THE WEST. To create a stage performance deconstructing, debunking and celebrating the myths of the Westward Expansion and American imperialism. This multidisciplinary show will explore Lewis and Clark's discovery of the Pacific Northwest, subsequent growth of regional industry, and social impacts on the modern and future world.

Amelia Reeber, dance, this is a forgery. To perform an evening-length solo dance incorporating the visual element of video. There will be a soundscore that consists of previously recorded songs and a thematic armature of original music by composer/musician Sam Mickens.

Jennifer Zeyl, theatre, Sonic Tales. To design and coordinate the execution of the scenic environment for the work, a series of contemporary fairy tales told through intricately woven dance theater and live music, set in Joseph Cornell-inspired and video-powered landscape. This project will put the idea of heroism under a magnifying glass - exploring the tiny, everyday variety - exploding them into a new mythology.

It's like a theater/dance all-star lineup. And that's just a few of them. See the whole list here.