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Neither time nor distance was an issue at a local museum during an October tour. About two dozen visitors to the Skagit Early Keyboard Museum near Snee-Oosh Beach were transported back centuries and across the Atlantic to the birthplaces of classical music. Museum curators Tamara Friedman and George Bozarth literally pulled strings to make it happen. Friedman, an acclaimed pianist, played selections from famed composers on several of the museum's original and replica instruments while Bozarth,...
Imagine being creative, intelligent and head strong, the oldest of four sisters, in 1861. Imagine having a writing talent and the will for a career in a society where you are, legally, the property first of your father then, when you marry, of your husband. You don't have the vote. You can hardly sign a contract. That is the world of Louisa May Alcott, who turned it into her first novel, "Little Women," published in 1868. In 2005 it premiered as a musical on Broadway. Last week a very good...
"Earth and Sky," a mystery opening Friday at the Whidbey Playhouse, is a hard play to figure out. That might be part of its mystery nature. The Playhouse' theme is "The Season of Love," but, not really a spoiler alert, David (played with quiet fortitude by David Thuet) is murdered almost as soon as he appears. Why? Detectives Weber (Wesley Moran, succeeding at not being likeable) and Kershowski (Gary Gillespie, the quiet sidekick) soon show up in girlfriend Sara's (Anna Schenck, a steady...
The Lincoln Theatre is showing classic noire films every Tuesday in November on its 35mm projectors, "the way they were meant to be shown." Source: Lincoln Theatre...
"Always ... Patsy Cline" is at the Lincoln Theatre Nov. 11, 13, 18-19. Based on Cline's friendship with fan Louise Seger, it stars Ria Peth and Kelly Visten, respectively, and their 7-piece country band. Tickets and time information: lincolntheatre.org. Source: Lincoln Theatre...
This year, raising a glass to the artists featured in the annual Art's Alive! festival will be a cinch. Instead of sipping your wine or beer outdoors in a tent – a measure taken in 2021 to keep the unseen but ever-present COVID-19 virus from crashing the party – you can offer your toast face to face with the artists during the Friday night opening gala Nov. 11. Add in some scrumptious appetizers and the 38th Art's Alive! weekend will start with "a more traditional gathering of townspeople to...
The Skagit County Historical Museum hosts their fall party, "Seeds For The Future" on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. in Maple Hall. There will be live music by the C.C. Adams Band, catering by Santo Coyote, stories about the seeds of our past and a raffle. Event tickets are $20 and raffle tickets are $10. Call the museum at 360-466-3365 or go online at skagitcounty.net/museum. Source: Skagit County Historical Museum...
There is over the top and then there is an incredible, all in, completely and enthusiastically well executed over the top production of "Rocky Horror Show" playing at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon the next two weeks. All liberated adults, go if you can get a ticket. A completely over-the-top performance of "The Rocky Horror Show" was exactly what the near sold-out Lincoln Theatre audience was ready for Sunday afternoon. From squirt guns mimicking rain to shout-outs throughout the...
You are reading about last weekend's 10th annual Friday Harbor Film Festival in part to get nudged to click on and watch on demand over 30 films through Oct. 30. They are worth your time. For $75 you can gorge on them all or start with one for $12. In Friday Harbor the Film Festival lit up four theaters Oct. 21-23, gloriously in person after two years of films online only, imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Friday morning at 10 a.m., 27 feature and 13 shorts were shown over three...
A Small project is a big addition to downtown La Conner. Skagit Valley artist Roger Small, whose work is on display at Earthenworks Gallery, is making an impact on the town's outdoor landscape. Small, a retired union ironworker who grew up in Burlington, is creator of a stunning sculpture donated by resident Marilyn Thostenson and installed recently by the Town public works staff at the foot of the Benton Street stairway. It was relocated from the Skagit County Historical Museum. Entitled "The...
Come to the Museum of Northwest Art for three new exhibits. "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: Honoring Our Stolen Sisters" examines the human rights crisis and national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. "Richard Nash: Consonance" offers the first museum survey of works by Pacific Northwest painter and sculptor Richard Nash. . "MoNA Collection: New Acquisitions" offers a selection of purchases made the past two years. These acquisitions reflect the effort of the institution to bring into the collection...
Early morning fog and mist lent a magical twist Thursday to streams of students hauling books from the old to the new La Conner Swinomish Library. The rumble of wheels along Morris Street from carts packed with books began three days of magic – the spell of the written word. Though not part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival itself, it seemed a fitting start. The festival, canceled twice due to COVID-19, brought in dozens of poets from as far away as Argentina and Scotland, hundreds of s...
With the main character’s name Ruby Fortune, the novel’s setting in the Arizona Territory at the turn into the 20th century and its title “Hardland,” the reader can guess this read is going to be quite a ride. And it is from the first page, when a woman who is more philosophical and self-assured than tough talking, introduces herself with the statement – not confession – that she killed her husband. She is wounded from that deed as well. While she wonders if she will ever be forgiven, she understands she would do it again. All that is in the f...
Tickets are still available for the Skagit Poetry Festival, which starts Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. While a full Festival pass costs $300, you can purchase daily passes. Pick and choose and chase favorite poets and sessions on your schedule. For $50, you can attend the “Welcome to Indian Country” reading at 8:00 pm Thursday, featuring Washington state Poet Laureate Rena Priest, Upper Salish poet Sasha LaPointe, and Meskwaki (Red Earth People) tribal member Ray Young Bear from Iowa. Swinomish carver Kevin Paul and his daughter Katherine Pau...
Some of the 37 guest poets and artists participating in this year’s Skagit River Poetry Festival are crossing oceans to reach La Conner. Others just have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Canadian poet Karen Solie, flying in from St. Andrews, Scotland, is coming the farthest. Katherine Paul of the band Black Belt Eagle Scout can just stroll down the street. Her dad Kevin Paul can commute from Swinomish Village. Father and daughter will open the festival’s Thursday, October 6 program, “Welcome to Indian Country: A Reading to Celebrate our First Natio...
By Anna Ferdinand Forty people gathered on the top floor of Village books to hear local author Jess Gigot read from her new memoir, “A Little Bit of Land” on Thursday, Sept. 15, munching on puff pastry adorned with sauteed lamb raised on her farm, the Sally Best cheese from her sheep, listening to the sounds of local band, Hot Tomatoes. “The book is very relevant in terms of exploring why our regional food and farming knowledge-base is so vital,” said Gigot, who runs Harmony Fields farm with husband Dean Luce. “This is also the story of follow...
A million details make the Skagit River Poetry Festival happen – and they are all coming together. Before the Festival takes place in La Conner Oct. 6-9, there are 34 poets to match to housing, pick up at the airport shuttle and feed. There are half a dozen school buses to arrange so Skagit and Whatcom County high school students can attend for free on Friday, October 7. Not to mention 220 chairs to distribute to Festival venues for a four-day whirlwind of setting up, taking down, setting up a...
By Russell Chandler Local artist and poet Janet Laurel showcases unreleased work at Skagit Cellars tasting room in Gilkey Square through September. "Red Goddesses" is a curated collection, representing decades of her prolific and unseen work. Galleries in Seattle were originally hesitant to hang the work and subsequently Laurel started her own gallery when she bought a church from the steel workers union in West Seattle. Always moving on to another series, this artwork was archived for a later...
By Anna Ferdinand When Rena Priest stood before a crowd at the Lincoln theater Sept. 3, she asked attendees to answer this question: “Where do poems come from?” A theater took pen to paper, writing to the prompt for five minutes, each person free to travel the pathways down which their brains chose to meander, tracking thoughts on the page. The Skagit River Poetry Foundation, a co-sponsor of the poetry reading with Priest, Washington state’s poet laureate, helps us answer the question: For students in and around the Skagit Valley who benef...
Lord knows, the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing to celebrate. But what can be celebrated is what has proved immune to the virus crisis: The sustaining nature of public art. Since early 2022, the Town of La Conner has received donations of new public artwork designed to enhance the creative spirit for which the community is known. Those donations were formally celebrated during ceremonies held by the arts commission at Maple Hall Saturday, Sept. 3. A one-hour program coordinated by arts panel...
Life too serious? The 21st century too complex? Take a break from it, by traveling to Oak Harbor and back to the 1950s and Rydell High School and relax with Whidbey Playhouse’s production of “Grease,” opening the in-person 2022-2023 season Friday, Sept. 9. The large, generally teenage cast holds its own, singing and dancing through the 18 numbers, several which you know and will want to sing. The story is simple, opening at the start of a school year, with boy, gang leader Danny Zuko (Chris King), bragging to his cohorts of his summer beach...
“When you are poeting, you are making the world, creating the universe out of nothing,” Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest said last Saturday at the Lincoln Theatre. That’s because the word poet comes from the Greek word poesis or “maker,” she explained. During the 90-minute reading and workshop, Priest introduced herself and her work to an audience of about 50. Several La Conner-area residents were among those listening as she shared stories from her own life, wisdom from other poets and her own work. Dr. Seuss’s “Red Fish Blue Fish” w...
Two handfuls of greater La Conner artists are featured at the Juried Fine Art Show at the Port of Anacortes transit shed during the Anacortes Arts Festival, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.Aug.3-4 and during Festival hours Aug. 5-7. Over 120 works of a wide variety of fine art by 80 artists from as far away as Oregon and Montana are on display and for sale at the Juried Fine Art Show at the Port of Anacortes transit shed during the Anacortes Arts Festival, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug.3-4 and during Festival hours Aug....
Bring your teenagers to “Henry V” playing at Rexville Blackrock Amphitheatre through Aug. 13. This is a war play, though lots of the roles are played by females. It is a history play, the story of Prince Hal growing up in a hurry: On the throne two years, only 28, he is mocked and threatened by France. War needs justification. In the opening scenes the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely explain to a young Prince Hal how France is rightfully England's by ancient land laws. Enter the French ambassador to convey that his king does not...
Go see “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at the Rexville Blackrock Amphitheatre and appreciate the joy and enthusiasm of community actors again performing live and outside after the two year shutdown imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. The play opens at mob boss Ferdinand’s speakeasy, Navarre, in this production set in 1929 during prohibition. Shakespeare placed it in the kingdom of Navarre among royalty. But the play’s the thing and while 425 year old language is hard to follow, remember comedy is for laughs, not to make sense. Make the effort to f...
