January 10, 2015

WICA opens intimate 88 Keys Piano Club series

January 10, 2015

Hosted by Maureen Girard

Longtime piano jazz teacher and performer Girard invites some of her most talented friends to join her at the piano in the style of the National Public Radio program, Piano Jazz with the late Marian McPartland.

Girard said the idea is to present a show that’s entertaining and fun and includes the audience. The centerpiece, of course, is great music, but the discussion will center particularly on improvisation.

“I will open the show with a solo performance, then introduce our guest artist,’ Girard said of the format. “We will perform a few pieces together on two pianos followed by some conversation about the music and careers. We’ll invite the audience to ask questions, as well.

Girard welcomes Seattle-based pianist Karin Kajita. Kajita is an accomplished pianist who has been a part of the Seattle jazz scene for many years, including as the leader of the Karin Kajita Jazz Quintet. She also performs regularly with Emily McIntosh, the David George 10 Tet Big Band, Blues Street Voices and Mairin & Friends, and has played several North American cities, as well as having toured several times in Japan and through Europe on the Norwegian Cruise Line.

The second set of the evening will open with a performance by one of Girard’s adult students, Masami Saiku, who has studied classical piano for several years and has learned to improvise through her lessons with Girard. Kajita will also take the stage with Masami.

Girard is a pro at this small concert setting. She draws on her experience with her own popular House Concert Series, which she hosted and presented for 10 years at her 88 Keys Piano Studio in Langley. That series hosted a steady stream of Girard’s talented friends, including Jessica Williams, David Lanz, Claudio Mendez, Karin Kajita and a list of noted pianists from the Seattle area and around of the world. But this time, she said, she can finally see her audience enjoy a glass of wine at the show.

“I am so happy for them to be able to have that now, and to not have my husband Johnny out in the front yard with a flashlight helping everyone park their cars!”

Please join us for this exciting new series in an intimate setting for great piano music with solo performances, duets on two pianos, conversation, plus fine wine and small plates. The show is recommended for all ages (except very young children).

Zech Hall
Saturday, January 24, 2015
7:30 to 9:30 PM

Tickets are $20.

PURCHASING TICKETS

Click Here for Online Purchases
Via Phone: Please Call the Box Office at
800.638.7631 or 360.221.8268
In Person: Visit the Box Office at
565 Camano Ave, Langley, WA 98260

**Online Tickets Purchases are available until 12-Noon the day of the show.**

BOX OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesday through Saturday
1pm - 6pm
and 2 hours before every show

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Or questions regarding your ticket order please call or visit the WICA Box Office.

Whidbey Island journalist Patricia Duff began Patricia Duff Writing Services in 2013. Patricia was the Island Life Editor and arts and entertainment reporter for the South Whidbey Record for six years, followed by almost two years as the start-up editor for the online arts publication, Whidbey Life Magazine. She has been writing about the island community and its artists for about 9 years. Patricia Duff Writing Services creates effective copy for anyone who needs it, including profiles, features, ads, brochures, press releases and web content.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts

January 2, 2015

Elizabeth Austen – poet, performer, teacher

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts

January 2, 2015

Elizabeth Austen performs with the Sandbox Radio Collective. Photo by  John Ulman — Elizabeth Austen performs with the Sandbox Radio Collective. *Photo by John Ulman*

Friday, January 9th
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Austen speaks with Book City columnist and Langleyite Val Easton on the Michael Nutt Mainstage.

Saturday, January 10th
10:30 a.m.

Austen will also offer a two-hour poetry workshop in Zech Hall for up to 20 participants.

Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen returns to Whidbey Island to share her poetry, talk about her new book, Every Dress a Decision.

Easton said she’s very much looking forward to a conversation with Austen.

“I'm excited to have a chance to interview Elizabeth, and hope to encourage her to talk about her life as a working poet,” Easton said. “Where does the inspiration come from? How many jobs do you have to work to write poetry? And what the heck is a poet laureate anyway?”

As the third poet laureate of Washington, Austen said she understands her job is to let Washingtonians know that poetry is available to them. She aims to foster that awareness by visiting all 39 counties of our state to introduce poems and the idea that anyone can benefit from writing poetry. In an interview on KCTS9 with Molly Spurgeon, Austen said that poetry offers us more than something for just weddings and funerals; writing poetry, she said, is a way for us to understand ourselves; a way to deal with the world around us.

In addition to trumpeting the value of getting poetry into our everyday lives, Austen will also introduce audiences to her debut collection of poems, Every Dress a Decision, which was published by Blue Begonia Press in 2011 and was a finalist for the 2012 Washington State Book Award in poetry. The aftermath of her brother’s mysterious death forms a subtle narrative spine for the book, around which other pressing questions revolve. In a voice both lyrical and wry, Austen’s poems delve headlong into the realities and contradictions of 21st century social expectations, desires and identity.

“How can you not admire a poet whose debut poetry collection is titled Every Dress a Decision?” Easton said. “I was delighted and impressed when I heard Elizabeth read in Langley last spring. Turns out she's a Shakespearean trained actor, and brings both her love of poetry and her acting chops to the reading of the work.”

Austen is a Seattle-based poet, performer and teacher. She has also authored two chapbooks, The Girl Who Goes Alone (Floating Bridge Press, 2010) and Where Currents Meet, part of the 2010 Toadlily Press quartet, Sightline.

For more than a dozen years, she has produced literary programming for KUOW 94.9 public radio, introducing recordings of Pacific Northwest literary events and interviewing local and national poets. She served as the Washington “roadshow” poet for 2007, giving readings and workshops in rural areas around the state. She is the recipient of grants from Artists Trust, 4Culture and the City of Seattle, and is an alumna of Hedgebrook, Artsmith, the Whiteley Center, the Jack Straw Writers Program, and holds an MFA in poetry from Antioch University-Los Angeles.

Austen frequently teaches the art of poetry aloud, believing that: “something magical is possible in a performance that doesn’t happen anywhere else — something electric, immediate, and entirely ephemeral… an exchange between performer and audience that is fluid and a little bit dangerous.”

Admission to the 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9 interview with Val Easton is $15; the 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 10 poetry workshop costs $30.

Call the Box Office at 800.638.7631 or 360.221.8268 or click here to purchase your tickets online.

Find out more about Elizabeth Austen and read some of her poetry.

Whidbey Island journalist Patricia Duff began Patricia Duff Writing Services in 2013. Patricia was the Island Life Editor and arts and entertainment reporter for the South Whidbey Record for six years, followed by almost two years as the start-up editor for the online arts publication, Whidbey Life Magazine. She has been writing about the island community and its artists for about 9 years. Patricia Duff Writing Services creates effective copy for anyone who needs it, including profiles, features, ads, brochures, press releases and web content.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts

December 10, 2014

In review

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts

December 10, 2014

A Christmas Story In Review

by Bill Burgua

You have seen the movie maybe a zillion times, so you might ask why would someone go see a live play of something you know so well and or you can’t imagine being improved on.

No matter how beloved, a story takes on a whole new dimension live on stage, and WICA’s 2014 Holiday production A Christmas Story bears this out. Having had the pleasure to see two shows opening weekend, where kids too young to know what the heck the pre smart phone world was like, were still cracking up at the antics of the Parker family of 1950’s Holman Indiana—along with their family and friends. Please don’t think you have to part of a family to enjoy this timeless tale, done so well here. We all can find humor in Ralphie Wesley Parker’s quest for armament, the BB gun that will “shoot his eye out!”

Phil Jordan as the grown up Ralph (and a few other classic characters) tells us the story of Ralphie’s childhood Christmas with the casual elegance of a master storyteller who really could be talking about his own life. He masterfully sucks the audience into the story only to set them up for a big laugh. He has us totally empathizing with the indignities Ralphie suffers.

Sixth grader Hillel Coates demonstrated his acting experience performing the role of Ralphie Parker with aplomb. He does a good job of going back and forth as the Ralphie described by his older self, to being the Ralphie speaking and interacting with other characters. A much more difficult task on stage than in edited film.

Newcomer to the stage Kristen Carlson is a wonderful surprise. Her Mother so finely walks the line between the wonderful all-knowing all-wise mother and the totally ditzy mother—to great heart and hilarity. She performed this role like she had been this family’s mother her whole life. If Carlson keeps performing like this we hope to see her on stage a lot in the future.

Robert W. Prosch performance as The Old Man is a testament to how much fun it can be for an audience when an actor is having great fun with a role. The multi and very talented Prosch goes easily from the expletive spewing nut (Note: no real expletive were spewed in this production) to the wise loving father and husband. Prosch and Carlson have great chemistry as the heads of their young Parker household.

Photo by Sue Frause

KristinCarlson-Waylan Parsell-HillelCoates-RobProsch.JPG

Younger brother Randy is a big scene stealer in the film A Christmas Story and so is fourth grader Waylan Parsell’s Randy here. Much of the character’s humor is physical and Parsell literally jumps in with both hands!

After seeing Patricia Duff’s performance you will never see the prim, proper, matron school teacher Miss Shields the same way ever again. Duff’s Miss Shields and Jim Castaneda’s Department Store Santa create such a distraction at one point that the audience never notices a set change.

Then there are all the kids that play humorist Jean Shepherd’s memorable cast of supporting characters. These talented local kids appear to have been supported by family and friends, the schools they attend, and wonderful institutions such as WICA, WCT, and WIDT. They turn out wonderful performances while having great fun, and I would venture learning a lot of life’s lessons along the way.

Director Deana Duncan takes all this talent and whips up a delightful slice of life in the days leading up to Christmas in a small town in Indiana over half a century ago. Duncan keeps the action moving along making use of all the spaces of the Michael Nutt Main Stage, slowing nicely where the audience can absorb the timeless personal interactions of the characters.

A shout out to WICA’s creative team members that have created the bitter cold Indiana winter on the outside to the warm (as long as the furnace is working) and heartwarming Parker family home.

WICA has made it easy for audience members to actually be part of several scenes in A Christmas Story! The kids of all ages had fun in joining in with items from their audience participation Christmas Bag: fighting off bad guys with water pistols; joining in a snowball fight; and donning rabbit ears when Ralphie suffers the humiliation of wearing his Aunt’s pink bunny suit Christmas present. Participation bags are available in the lobby; the rabbit ears are worth the price alone.

It’s all there, the dogs, the turkey, the Peking Duck Christmas dinner, and especially all of Ralphie’s long thwarted quest for the best Christmas present ever, and an important step in growing up and growing to be the Ralph that remembers it all for us forever.

The magic of the theatre, especially when a good story is well told, is that it can transport us to a different time and place. By the end of WICA’s 2014 A Christmas Story you will feel like you are part of the families down on Cleveland Street, Christmas in 1950s Holman, Indiana!

About Bill

Bill Burgua after retiring from a career in biomedical research was encouraged by a founder to write as a journalist for an online hyper-local newspaper SacramentoPress.com, first writing opinion pieces on local issues restricted to the six county region surrounding Sacramento California.

When Sacramento Theatre Company, the city’s oldest professional theatre company, asked that their productions be reviewed, the SacPress.com staff being aware of Bill’s nearly 50 years of heavy theatre attendance worldwide, made him the unofficial official SacPress.com theatre reviewer. He then wrote more than 100 in-depth reviews starting with the four Equity (professional) theatre companies; then adding live lectures (fave: John Waters, Thomas McGuane); pre-lecture interviews (Thomas McGuane, Terry McMillan); comedy (David Sedaris, Sarah Silverman); and food, centered around what has become the incredible “Farm to Fork” movement in northern California.

Bill also loves to travel. “How else do you get to see live theatre unless you travel there?” After a holiday week on Whidbey, Bill will be embarking on a winter ski adventure with his companion Lady, an Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler.