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MONDAY
COMMUNITY5th Annual Indigenous People's Day Celebration
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, which Seattle City Council officially deemed the replacement of Columbus Day in 2014, celebrate Native cultures in the Puget Soundâparticularly Native womxnâat this fifth annual celebration. After a dinner, activists Luana Ross and Jeri Moomaw will give presentations and Indigenous dancers from around the country will perform.
Author Dinner at Delancey Seattle: Let's Stay In by Ashley Rodriguez
In her debut cookbook, Date Night In, Seattle author and Not Without Salt food blogger Ashley Rodriguez shared the story of her relationship with her husband and extolled the virtues of a weekly dinner for two. (Her internet-famous salted chocolate-chip cookies, riddled with melty pools of chocolate, rank among the best Iâve ever tried.) Now sheâs releasing her follow-up, Letâs Stay In, an ode to the pleasures of sharing cozy meals at home with family and friends. At this dinner brought to you by the adorable Fremont cookbook store Book Larder, Ballard wood-fired pizzeria Delancey will serve a three-course meal inspired by the book with dessert and wine, and youâll go home with a signed copy of Rodriguezâs new book. JULIANNE BELL
Everything You Touch
The premise of Sheila Callaghan's Everything You Touch is so bizarre. Jess, played by Kiki Abba, is a female coder working for a company on the coast. She learns that her mother's health is failing and decides she must return home to make amends. But home sucks and her mom sucks. Growing up, Jess's mom constantly administered withering critiques of her weight and appearance. This application of tough love ended up (surprise!) destroying Jess's ability to see herself as a person capable of receiving love. All that sounds pretty standard, but here's where it gets weird: On her journey home to confront all that, five women who exemplify contemporary beauty standards follow her around wherever she goes. She's also accompanied by Victor (played by Kevin Kelly), a misogynistic fashion genius who also serves as her lover, father, and maybe even just a figment of her imagination. Using beautiful women as propsâand sometimes even props for propsâleaves a lot of room for interpretation, but the metaphor reflects an uneasy reality. Beauty standards for women are oppressive, but they also arise from oppression. RICH SMITH
Benjamin Balint: Kafka's Last Trial
This research fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem has written an account of one of the most interesting civic court battles in history: the 2016 fight for Franz Kafka's manuscripts and other literary remains, a conflict rooted in Kafka's deathbed request to his friend Max Brod to burn his writings.
Chris Hedges: America: The Farewell Tour
Many pundits have been racking their brains trying to understand how the United States got to this tumultuous moment, but few have the chops of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges. At this Town Hall event, hear excerpts from his book America: The Farewell Tour, about the epidemic of hopelessness across the country and the ills that arise from it.
Eric Idle: Always Looking on the Bright Side of Life
In 2016, former Stranger arts editor Sean Nelson wrote: "Of all the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Eric Idle has surely had the most fruitful third act. This would be true even if he'd done nothing more than serving as playwright and co-creator of the monumentally popular Broadway show Spamalot. But following that award-winning revivification of the entire Python enterprise, Idle has been more visible than his counterparts in recent years, owing in part to his discovery that the songs he wrote for the groupâespecially 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' (which, he says, has been the most-played song at UK funerals for the past 10 years)âhave become cherished evergreens." The comic genius will be reading from his book, which is included in the cost of the ticket. He'll be joined by Ryan Stiles of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame.
Jennifer Baker with Anastacia-Renee, Dennis Norris II, and Jessica Rycheal
Publishing professional Jennifer Baker will present the short-story anthology she edited, Everyday People: The Color of Lifeâwhich features work from Yiyun Li, Alexander Chee, and othersâwith readings from Seattle Civic Poet Aastacia-RenĂ©e, Dennis Norris II, and Jessica Rycheal.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
ARTLocal Loops GIF Gallery
Gaze upon a gallery of gifs chosen by Kelton Sears, a featured artist at Local Sightings Film Festival.
Closing Thursday
Tacoma Film Festival
Tacoma's offering to the Northwest international film scene includes more than 100 movies, talks, a VR studio, workshops, and parties.
MONDAY-SUNDAY
FILMSocial Justice Film Festival: #HopeDemocracy
As social justice provides the only throughline, many of the movies have little in common. But the selection skews toward limber, on-the-ground filmmaking in the midst of protests and conflicts. The organizers write: "This year's screenings will fill in the national and local picture on immigration, Native American rights, Black Lives Matter, prisoner justice, and more. The festival will host several screenings with community groups and activists." Don't miss the Indigenous Futures event at the Duwamish Longhouse on Saturday, where you'll meet Native filmmakers and watch their works.
TUESDAY
ARTYÉhawÌ Artist Residency - Native Kut
Artists-in-residence Pah-tu Pitt and Sean Gallagher will carve and print in the library, creating work around the theme of water rights.
'Saving Brinton' and Magic Lantern Show
An obsessive Iowan collector has devoted a good chunk of his life to restoring an amazing trove of archival films that belong to one William Franklin Brinton in 1900, including "rare footage of President Teddy Roosevelt, the first moving images from Burma, and a lost relic from Georges MĂ©liĂšs." Saving Brinton is a tribute to this archivist-hero, George Zahs. At this special screening, co-presented by Scarecrow Video and the theater, there will also be Q&A and a 10-minute magic lantern show.Â
Cornell Clayton: Off the Rails
As part of the UW "Bunk" lecture series, political scientist Clayton will delve into the history of mob mentality, paranoia, and populism in American public life, as well as the American tendency to cast politics in apocalyptic terms. On the agenda: Should we be panicking about the state of things right now?
E.J. Koh, Keegan Lester, Carly Joy Miller, Jane Wong
E.J. Koh will read what Rich Smith has called "intense, image-driven poetry" alongside three other excellent poets: Mary Ruefle-approved Keegan Lester, Orison Poetry Prize winner Carly Joy Miller, and local poet Jane Wong.
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ART10 Ătudes for Summer
The summer between my first and second year of graduate school at California College of the Arts in San Francisco (MA, Visual & Critical Studies, 2007) was one of the more difficult times of my life. Iâd absorbed a lot of theoretical texts, and my thesis idea was still in a nascent state. One of our advisers warned us things would get real weird psychologically once we dove into our second year. She wasnât wrong. So it makes perfect sense to me that Emily Zimmerman was inspired by György Ligetiâs frenetic sounding and technically complicated piano Ă©tudes while organizing this exhibition of second-year MFA students. Godspeed and good luck to Granite Calimpong, Lucy Copper, Abigail Drapkin, Jackie Granger, Baorong Liang, Sean Lockwood, Brighton McCormick, Charles Stobbs III, Emily Charlotte Taibleson, and Connor Walden as they head into this next year. KATIE KURTZ
Closing Saturday
Phillip Levine, Dale Lindman
Levine was recently the subject of a book published by the Museum of Northwest Art. His sculptures and drawings have netted him a Washington State Governor's Award and are exhibited in many collections and museums. Abstract painter Dale Lindman has received multiple prizes, including a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, Ford Foundation Scholarship, Northwest International Art Competition at the Whatcom Museum award, and a Morris Graves Foundation residency.
Closing Saturday
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTBench Mark
Urban benches are an architectural reflection of the social contract of our shared spaces. They can be built as a place of comfort and rest, or they can be weaponized to discourage use by the unsheltered. Co-curated by Lynn Chou and Negarra A. Kudumu, Bench Mark presents bench designs created by 10 young artists mentored by teaching artists Laura Bartunek, John Hallock, and Jim Nicholls through the Frye's Partnership for Youth Program. In drafting their designs, these students considered not only what kind of design they'd like to look at, but what kind of world they'd like to live in. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Sunday
Cirque du Soleil: VOLTA
Every Cirque du Soleil show Iâve experienced has abounded with breathtaking, eye-popping visuals as well as awe-inspiring feats of movement by Cirqueâs cast of dancers, physical actors, athletes, and circus performers (acrobats, contortionists, aerialists, and the like), all within a big tent. The subject matter of VOLTA, Cirqueâs 41st production, involves extreme sports, touching on (but not limited to) shape diving, BMX, and rope skipping. One fan said it was âabsolutely spectacular," so don't miss this Marymoor Park run. LEILANI POLK
Come From Away
What happens when kind island people who live in the poorest province in Canada realize that they have to play host to a bunch of irritated, scared, and stranded "plane people" who nearly outnumber them? They help. Instantly, food comes off the store shelves, the hockey rink becomes cold storage, and every home's a hotel. An indicative line, given by an actor playing a clerk: "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. Would you like to come back to my house for a shower?" This is the strong, uplifting premise of Come From Away. Normally, I'm a stone when it comes to musicals. But by minute six or seven, I was smiling at all the small town charm and rooting for the spirit these people projected. RICH SMITH
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Based on Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel, Ursula Rani Sarma's play A Thousand Splendid Suns shows what happens when two women, Laila and Mariam, join in unbreakable friendship in wartime Kabul.
WEDNESDAY
FILMSchlock and Awe: Reagan-Era Horror
Deregulation and out-of-control greed were not the only horrors of the Reagan reign. The Forum celebrates slashers, mutants, and gore in a deep dive into the paranoia and excess of the era, and boy does that sound like a fun escape from our own hellscape. Tonight's film is the aptly named parody Wacko.
Trap Kitchen Cookout Tour: Compton 2 Tha 206
Malachi Jenkins, aka âChef Spank,â and his best friend Roberto Smith, aka âSous Chef News,â members of rival gangs (Crips and Bloods, respectively), decided to partner up to create âunderground culinary sensationâ Trap Kitchen, a catering service they advertised through Instagram that has since expanded to include a cookbook, a tour, and a location in Portland. They say the âtrapâ in their name also stands for âtake a risk and prosper,â and prosper they have. Their wildly popular Compton-based pop-up and catering company has counted Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg among its customers. Catch their sought-after grub at this buffet-style pop-up dinner on their tour. JULIANNE BELL
Van Jones
If you don't know Van Jones as Barack Obama's Special Advisor for Green Jobs (remember when the president cared about stuff like that?) or as a co-founder of the social justice nonprofit Dream Corps, you've probably seen him on CNN. He'll present his topical new book, Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together, which is included in the ticket price.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTAlex Katz: A Life in Print
Alex Katz was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn in 1927 and studied under Morris Kantor at Cooper Union, only focusing on painting from life once he graduated from college. He went on to become one of the most important artists in the figurative mode of the 20th century. The "Selections from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" include his matte, shadow-less portraits of New York poets and life-size depictions of bathers at the sea.
Closing Sunday
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
This traveling exhibition is a full-scale reproduction of one of the most monumental artistic achievements of the Western world. Unlike the original, this one's available to see up-close.
Closing Sunday
Beware the Terror of Gaylord Manor
The world-famous Seattle-based drag queen BenDeLaCreme has written and performed three acclaimed solo shows, but Beware the Terror of Gaylord Manor is the artist's first foray into writing, directing, and starring in an original play of her own. It's a spooky, campy twist on the horror flick genre, featuring ghosts, dancers, music, and special effects. It first premiered last year for a sold-out run at ACT, and returns this year surely with a few of its kinks worked out. The chemistry between BenDeLaCreme and Scott Shoemaker alone is worth the price of admission. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
THURSDAY
ARTCapitol Hill Art Walk
Every second Thursday, rain or shine, the streets of Capitol Hill are filled with tipsy art lovers checking out galleries and special events. In October, don't miss the Haunting of Cloud Gallery or the Lush Life 6 Group Show.
Night Heat: The 41st Film Noir Series
They proliferated in anxious postwar America and still occasionally return to brood and smolder onscreen: films noirs, born of the chiaroscuro influence of immigrant German directors and the pressure of unique American fears. Once again, SAM will screen nine hard-boiled, moody crime classics like tonight's Force of Evil.
The Beauties of Burgundy Wine Dinner
In the second dinner in their wine dinner series, Lark will serve a French-inspired supper with dishes like pork rillons, venison loin, and golden trout, paired with Burgundy wine from wine director Jennifer O'Neill.
Fresh Hop Dinner with Fremont Brewing
Chefs Bradley Layfield and Brendon Bain of the cozy gastropub Brave Horse Tavern will create a comforting menu to complement Fremont Brewing's fresh-hopped creations (Field to Ferment and Cowiche Canyon). A lead brewer from Fremont will be on hand to explain the brewing process and answer questions.
Omnivorous
At this fundraiser for Capitol Hill Housing, support affordable homes as you dig into a smorgasbord of food and drink from an assortment of Capitol Hill and Central District chefs, restaurateurs, bartenders, distillers, and roasters. The lineup will include James Beard Awardânominated chef Shota Nakajimaâs Japanese restaurant Adana, Donna Moodieâs eclectic Marjorie, seafood-focused French restaurant L'Oursin, Terra Plata, Trove, and more. Sweets provided by Hello Robin and Hot Cakes. JULIANNE BELL
The Soul of Asian Cooking
Hungry? Learn fun new ways to fill your stomach with Rachel Lang and Jess Thomson, authors of My Rice Bowl: Korean Cooking Outside the Lines, and Hsiao Ching Chou, who wrote Chinese Soul Food. Nikkie Sprinkle will host.Â
Lit Crawl: Seattle 2018
Seattle was named an official UNESCO City of Literature last fall, which makes us one of only two US cities on the worldwide list (the other is Iowa City). Basically, it means that Seattle is a haven for literary arts, and during this free, one-night-only event, locals are invited to soak it up during a night of booze and book loving, when a huge range of bars, cafes, and businesses on Capitol Hill present more than 80 writers and artists in events ranging from straightforward readings to cooking demos to performances, with a night-ending after-party at the newly reopened Hugo House. LEILANI POLK
See our Lit Crawl picks here.
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
ARTLing Chun and Ashley Norwood Cooper: Color Color
Ling Chun, a Hong Kongâborn sculptor whoâs been living in the United States since the age of 17, is now based in Helena, Montana, where she creates wildly colorful, semi-amorphous ceramics incorporating fake hair, paint, metal, resin, and wood. Her works radiate a childlike adventurousness and a seeming heedlessness of conventional tastes, despite their appeal. Ashley Norwood Cooper, based in Cooperstown, New York, produces imaginative, expressionistic domestic and woodland oil paintings on panel. Though the two artists work in very different mediums, they share a love of busyness, an apparent desire to fill every space with color and pattern. JOULE ZELMAN
Closing Saturday
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
ARTLaunch Party and Art Show: The Magazine of Glamorous Refusal
Welcome a new pop art magazine dedicated to the art of saying no "in a world that conditions women to say yes." Grab your copy and discover art by Koko Jamison and Yale Wolf of Studio Glow. It'll be especially fun at the opening party on Thursday.
Opening Thursday
Borealis: A Festival of Light
At this inaugural festival, South Lake Union will play host to kaleidoscopic light art installations from artists around the world, as well as an "international video mapping" showcase with live music and performances. Revel in luminous work by SKGMedia from China, George Berlin from the US, Sila Sveta from Russia, Flightgraf from Japan, Ouchhh from Turkey, and Akasha VisualStation from Slovakia.
Taste of Iceland
Seattle and ReykjavĂk arenât just close pals, theyâre sister cities. In fact, Seattle is home to more Icelandic people than anywhere else in the United States. To celebrate the culture of the magical Nordic land, Seattle invites Icelandic chefs, musicians, writers, artists, and filmmakers to town every year for the four-day Taste of Iceland festival. This yearâs event includes an Icelandic prix-fixe dinner (Oct 11-14), talks on Icelandic design and architecture and energy and innovation (Thurs Oct 11), a discussion with award-winning Icelandic author Andri SnĂŠr Magnason (Fri Oct 12), a cocktail class (Sat Oct 13), a celebration of the 100th year of Icelandic independence (Sat Oct 13), the Icelandic music showcase ReykjavĂk Calling (Sat Oct 13), and the Shortfish short film festival (Sun Oct 14).
TWIST Seattle Queer Film Festival
Local shorts, indie features, and national or international releases will stoke and satisfy your appetite for gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and otherwise queer-focused films, from hot romances to incisive documentaries to perverse suspense flicks. The opening film will be The Happy Prince, a portrait of the outrageous playwright and bon vivant Oscar Wilde that's directed by and stars Rupert Everett. The closing film will be Rafiki, Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu's landmark workâbanned in her home country for its "clear intent to promote lesbianism.â Other highlights will include the documentary Transmilitary, a biopic of Mapplethorpe, and the film history doc Dykes, Camera, Action! If you love queer movies and moviemakers, this festival is indispensable.
FRIDAY
READINGS & TALKSMelissa Stein, Sarah Galvin
Well-published, Pushcart and APR/Honickman First Book Prize-winning poet Melissa Stein will read, presumably from her 2018 collection Terrible blooms (published by the local Copper Canyon Press). She'll be joined by witty narrative poet Sara Galvin.
Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur is a bestselling Canadian poet who illustrates her own books and performs her work in theatrical and musical productions. Join her for a live performance.
Women You Need to Know: Jill Lepore
âThe past is an inheritance, a gift, and a burden,â Jill Lepore writes in These Truths: A History of the United States. âIt canât be shirked. Thereâs nothing for it but to get to know it.â These Truths is Leporeâs attempt to both reckon with our past as a nation and get to the truth behind it all. In her ambitious if not exhaustive account of Americaâs history, Leporeâan award-winning historian and writer for the New Yorkerâasks the question "Has America fulfilled its founders' promise to create a nation where all people are equal?" The answer, of course, is hardly. Lenore explains how and why this experiment went haywire when she comes to Benaroya Hall. KATIE HERZOG
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
COMEDYSolo Performance Month
Seventy-five performers from all over Seattle bring short solo works to life during this extravaganza of indie talent, full of weird, cute, satirical, profound, queer, goofy, profane, and spiritual acts. This week, check out Zak Nelson and Lexi Haack (Fri), Alexei Cifrese: The Process, Eva Estrada Campos, and Sam Blackman (Sat), and Ryan Sanders and Erica McIntyre (Sat).
Leavenworth Oktoberfest
Leavenworth is as close as you'll get to an actual Bavarian village without getting on a plane to Germany. For their three-weekend Oktoberfest celebration, they'll have beer, live music, and bratwurst. Leavenworth's mayor, Cheri Kelley Farivar, will perform the ceremonial tapping of the keg on Saturdays.
she is FIERCE
Women and genderqueer people will share true stories about "coming home." The performers will be some very talented comedians, actors, musicians, and others: special guest Alyssa Yeoman, Gregory nominee Aishé Keita, Emily Serdahl, Kellie Martin, Laurie A Lynch, Lyssandra Norton, Michelle Lynn Conklin, Sam Ro, and Susan Lieu.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
ARTDylan Neuwirth: OMNIA
Dylan Neuwirth transforms the entire museum into an enormous metaphor for the cycle of life through five exhibitions composed of neon, video, performance art, digital art, and sculpture. Two parts of this multi-faceted takeover are installed outside, on the building's exterior and on the balcony, while two more are found within the museum. The last piece in the entire installation is an online flash gallery entitled New Folklore. Elaborating on the theme of post-humanish, Neuwirth reflects upon "alienation, subconscious violence, [...] systemic addiction," and the search for freedom and control.
Opening Friday
Olympic Peninsula Apple & Cider Festival
At the second annual edition of this weekend-long festival devoted to the autumnal tonic and all things apple season, quaff lots of ciders, partake in a harvest dinner, attend apple-themed seminars, tour orchards, witness apple pressing, and snack on cider doughnuts and even apple tempura.
Boba Street x Santouka Pop-Up
Satisfy your craving for sweet, thirst-quenching milk tea, including jasmine milk tea, matcha azuki hokkaido milk tea, and a strawberry lime yogurt spritzer, and snack on food pairings like crispy kaarage chicken and plump steamed pork buns.
Oslo
Oslo won a Tony for its dramatization of the top-secret peace negotiations between Rabin and Arafat in the 1990s. The diplomatic talks were, weirdly, orchestrated by young Norwegian power-couple Mona Juul and Terje RĂžd-Larsen. Expect lots of long gray coats, wary handshakes, dark humor, and fine acting from Christine Marie Brown and Avery Clark. RICH SMITH
SATURDAY
ARTBooktoberfest: Body-Positive Figure Drawing With Tatiana Gill
'Cause real artists aren't afraid of curves, fat, thin limbs, or anything else: Join instructor and cartoonist Tatiana Gill and practice drawing models of all figure types in a session built on body positivity and acceptance. Part of Booktoberfest.
Georgetown Art Attack
Once a month, the art that resides in the tiny airport hamlet of Georgetown ATTACKS all passersby. In more literal terms, it's the day of art openings and street wonderment. If the westerly locations are too far, there's a free Art Ride! In October, check out an open studio with plaster artist Marela Zacarias.
The Nightmare Society
The Nightmare Society tells the story of a commune of artists who act out your nightmares at the sound of a grandfather clock. Explore your deepest fears while intermittently giggling at the revival of this hit improvised horror show, which always comes up with bizarre and compelling imagery.
Depressed Cake Shop
Promote mental health awareness by purchasing sweet treats from local bakers, who will donate all proceeds to NAMI Seattle. And don't be fooled by the grey exterior of the confectionsâthey're all bursting with color on the inside (to represent hope in the face of depression).
Snap Judgment Live!
Snap Judgment is not your great aunt Susanâs public radio show. Hosted by master storyteller Glenn Washington, Snap Judgment is This American Life with a bit more grit and a lot more music. Backed by a live band and featuring some of the finest storytellers haunting stages today, Snap live shows have all the intimacy of the radio show, but brought to life and onstage. KATIE HERZOG
Book Launch Reading with Rae Armantrout & Graham Foust
Don't miss Rae Armantrout; she's won a goddamn Pulitzer (for her 2010 poetry book Versed.) Her other recent work includes Money Shot, Just Saying, Itself, Partly: New and Selected Poems, and Entanglements, plus Wobble (September 2018). Graham Foust, for his part, has been nominated for the Northern California Book Award and the Believer Poetry Award. He'll be reading from Nightingalelessness, his newest book.
John Carreyrou: Bad Blood
Investigative journalist John Carreyrouâwho broke the story of the rise and fall of multi-billion-dollar Silicon Valley startup Theranos (who claimed to revolutionize the technology behind blood testing) in the Wall Street Journalâgoes even more in depth in his book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Hear him read live.
Pistil Books 25th Anniversary
The wonderfully eclectic online bookstore Pistil Books will continue its 25th anniversary celebrations with cake, a reading by the original and witty Rebecca Brown from her short fiction collection Not Heaven, Somewhere Else, and PEN/West Fiction Award winner Stacey Levine.
Washington State Book Awards Celebration
You'll be on the edge of your seat to find out the winners of this year's Washington State Book Awards, but the fun's not over after the announcementsâthere will also be signings, book sales, and mingling. There are too many finalists to list here, but we can tell you that you can hobnob with Nancy Pearl, Laura Anne Gilman, Laurie Frankel, Langdon Cook, David B. Williams, Jaimee Garbacik, and many others.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
ARTAlfredo ArreguĂn: Life Patterns
This Mexican-born Seattle artist, according to his representatives at Linda Hodges Gallery "recognized as one of the originators of the Pattern and Decoration movement in painting," imitates mosaic, tile, and floral decorations in oils. A salmon fisher and nature lover, he often depicts life in the Salish Sea. (As a side note, he was also pals with the writer Raymond Carver.) This exhibition will mount more than 30 of his works, particularly his more recent achievements.
Opening Saturday
Anita Arora: Morbid Anatomy Art Show
Anita Arora's mixed-media shadowboxes evoke creepy medical Victoriana and anatomical oddity.
Opening Saturday
The Turn of the Screw
In 1954, English composer Benjamin Britten (1913â1976) premiered his opera based on Henry James's ghost story The Turn of the Screw. Its music is darkly gorgeous, jolting, manic at times, and often outright scary. In key sequences involving the children in the story, the atonal sounds float like a ghost in a room of mirrors. Anyone familiar with the Portishead track âCowboysâ will already have a good sense of how this echo-stark opera sounds. Because the opera is as much about ghosts as sexual abuse of women and children, it provides new and important meanings for our #MeToo moment. CHARLES MUDEDE
SUNDAY
COMEDYCameron Esposito: Person of Consequence Tour
Fans of queer comedy must get out to see Cameron Esposito, named Comic to Watch by the New York Times, Variety, The Guardian, LA Weekly, Time Out Los Angeles, and many other publications. Host of the podcast Queery and of the comedy night Put Your Hands Together at the Upright Citizens Brigade, she'll be swinging by Seattle for some of her risky and courageous comedy.
Improvised Chekhov
Once again evincing impressive ambition, this improv company will act out scenes based on your suggestions and the classic Russian plays Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, or The Three Sisters. Since the drama of Anton Chekhov relies on deep character development, complex social mores, and lingering melancholy, these performancesâif successfulâwill truly be coups de thÚùtre.
Jonathan Van Ness & Friends
Emmy-winning Queer Eye guy and Gay of Thrones gossip Van Ness will appear to dish to his very enthusiastic fans.
Wonder Woman: Herstory of a Heroine on Screen
Gal Gadot was a brilliant Wonder Woman, representing the latest capable actor to take on and master the role of arguably the most iconic female superhero of all time. The Amazon warrior whoâs guileless yet wise beyond her years, and possesses superhuman strength, speed, durability, longevity, and a helpful set of toolsâindestructible bracelets and Lasso of Truth includedâis the subject of this talk led by pop culture historian and self-proclaimed âlocal geek girlâ Jennifer K. Stuller. Sheâll trace the cinematic history and evolution of the heroine also known as Princess Diana for the last 45 years, beginning with Wonder Womanâs screen debut (as played by Cathy Lee Crosby) in the 1974 film, through the 1970s-era live-action show starring cool blue-eyed Lynda Carter, various animated characterizations, the never-aired 2011 pilot featuring Adrianne Palicki, and of course the 2017 blockbuster starring Gadot. Stuller will show and discuss clips, and, according to the press release, âprovide cultural, social, political, and historical contextâdeepening our understanding of the character and her significance in the pop culture pantheon.â Cosplay is encouraged. LEILANI POLK
Annie Marie Musselman: Lobos
Award-winning photographer Annie Marie Musselman has made a career of capturing images of wild animals not in the wild, from the injured and rehabilitating residents of the Arlington-based Sarvey Wildlife Care Center (featured in her 2014 book, Finding Trust), to the canines of Wolf Haven International, an 82-acre sanctuary with captive breeding and recovery programs. Lobos is a nonfiction collab between Musselman and nature writer Brenda Peterson that follows a family of endangered Mexican gray wolves (lobos) on their journey from the sanctuary to their release in the Mexican wilderness, from pups to adults, and touches on wolf characteristics and behavior, and the challenge of reintroducing an endangered species to the wild. Itâs geared at kids (ages 5 to 9), and if youâve seen Musselmanâs photos, youâll know this is likely a strong addition to your child's library. LEILANI POLK
