Tag Archives: performance

Ready for the punchline? Emerald City Comedy Club reopens after overhaul and upgrades above Broadway

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(Image: CHS)

By Calvin Jay Emerson

“The first-ever show here. Holy shit,” said comedian Duncan Trussell once he stepped into the limelight of Emerald City Comedy Club. “We should bless this place. This feels like holy ground right now.”

After a spring renovation and restart of the business, the former Comedy/Bar above Broadway has grown from a tiny space into a club its backers hope will fit with the neighborhood’s respected performance venues like Neumos and Chop Suey and even Julia’s down the street.

With double the seats as before, Emerald City Comedy Club is now big enought that it technically has nosebleeds, seats far enough away from the stage that they’re supplemented with two, flat-screen TVs which provide a better view.

In the hours before Trussell took the stage for the first show in the overhauled venue last week, the club’s employees were rushing around to complete the finishing touches. Owner Dane Hesseldahl had rushed back home to pick up a package full of those little, electronic candles. Continue reading →

Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is now Emerald City Comedy Club and is taking on A-list renovations

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Hesseldahl confronting the old walls before the club’s opening in 2023

By Calvin Jay Emerson

Some jokes go over better than others. Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is gone. With the Emerald City Comedy Club, a new start is underway.

If you ever walk north from Capitol Hill Station, you’ll likely pass under an unlit neon arrow. Wrapped around it is a swirling black ribbon, labelled “High Line”, indicating its former purpose. Given that the dive bar of the same name closed five years ago, it now only serves as a reminder of the changes at 210 Broadway E.

Its most recent identity was as Comedy/Bar, a comedy venue that, despite attracting national controversy, has maintained a friendly following. They’ve provided a space to go for a reliable laugh and discover new comedy talent.

However, owner Dane Hesseldahl knew that the club hadn’t reached its full potential. Continue reading →

Theater kids push back on Seattle U’s big plans for new art museum to replace Lee Center

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(Image: Lee Center for the Arts)

(Image: Lee Center for the Arts)

Big plans for Seattle University to create a new art museum along 12th Ave are exciting for the school but some of those closest to the school’s art scenes are rallying to save the much-loved and heavily used building it would replace — the Lee Center for the Arts.

It has been a busy 12 months for Seattle U, the 134-year-old private Jesuit school on Capitol Hill’s southern edge serving approximately 7,200 students.

In December, the school announced it would take over Cornish College of the Arts, the much smaller, 111-year-old private art school in the Denny Triangle neighborhood downtown. Last summer, property developer Dick Hedreen announced he would donate to Seattle University his family’s $300-million collection of more than 200 pieces of art (from Andy Warhol to Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg to Willem de Kooning, and more), in addition to $25 million in seed funding to create a new Seattle University Museum of Art (SUMA).

“We’re still working out logistics of the museum’s location, but it will likely be on a plot abutting 12th Avenue next to the Lee Center for the Arts,” a Seattle University spokesperson told CHS last year when Hedreen’s sizable donation was announced.

Those logistics are a little clearer now, as planning is underway for SUMA’s construction to begin in the summer of 2026, Seattle University told CHS this week. The new museum will replace the Lee Center. Continue reading →

Alice in Wonderland, in person and outside this weekend in Volunteer Park

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As we step into the curiouser and curiouser world of the pandemic reopening, finding ways to experience the transitions at your own pace is key. Starting Thursday, you can enjoy live theater performance again on Capitol Hill — outside in Volunteer Park.

Running July 29th through August 1st and again August 5th through 7th, Seattle’s Theatre22 is bringing Alice in Wonderland to the park’s grassy area north of the Seattle Asian Art Museum:

Alice in Wonderland
Theatre22 presents “an Alice for our time” as we journey down the rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world where rules keep changing, time is fluid and power equals corruption. This contemporary, genre-bending adaptation combines the original beloved characters with song, dance, puppetry, and whimsical wordplay in an imaginative, hilarious, and outrageous interpretation with something for everyone.

DIRECTED by Julie Beckman and Jasmine Lomax

July 29 – Aug 1 Thurs – Sun 7pm

Aug 5 – Aug 7 Thurs – Sat 7pm

VOLUNTEER PARK  lawn north of the museum

The company’s performances are free with donations welcomed after the show. The performances are sponsored by the Washington State Arts Commission, the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and King County’s 4 Culture.

The performances come as construction continues on the park’s new $3 million amphitheater with a roof, storage and green room space, all-gender bathrooms, upgraded electrical access, and “a resilient floor that will even accommodate dance performances.” Construction is us expected to be completed this fall.

 

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Introducing the Lowdown Ballroom, Capitol Hill’s newest home-based business and performance venue

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Singer songwriter Kat Hjelte performing atop Lowdown Ballroom’s garage terrace (Image: Donia Rose Photography)

What if your Capitol Hill neighbors’ microbusiness is a ballroom that puts on shows in the street? The Lowdown Ballroom is putting the concept to the test on 11th Ave E just north of Mercer in a four-bedroom, 1906-built house with a fantastic basement and a garage that serves as a convenient outdoor summer stage.

“When we were first researching, I said, ‘There is no way we can do this,’” Madeline Yan tells CHS about the unusual Capitol Hill home-based business she and husband Alex Yan have launched out of the pandemic.

But an appreciation and love for music, city zoning, good sound insulation, good insurance, and better neighbors have come together for Lowdown, adding a new venue for live music and performance on Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

Raw and more than a little vulnerable, Seattle Fringe Festival returns to Capitol Hill

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By Tim Kukes for CHS

“I think the Seattle Fringe Festival is really taking on the role of mentoring and offering up opportunities for the artist to learn things,” Jeffrey Robert said.

Robert, who performs as The Gay Uncle, will be part of the 2017 version of the rebooted festival featuring “more than 30 producers of Theatre, Dance, Improv, Burlesque, Musical, Opera, Drag Performance, Solo Performance, Experimental, Clown, and Performance Art” at Capitol Hill’s Eclectic Theater and the Seattle Center Armory. Tickets run between $10 and $15 per show.

Robert is one of many local artists participating in the 2017 Seattle Fringe Festival but he may have gotten a later start than most. A standup comedian turned performance artist/storyteller, Robert didn’t dive into the artist life until his fifties.

“I always wanted to attempt it, but I was afraid to,” Robert said.  “I always wanted to do artwork and sort of toyed around with it.  I studied it in college, but I never ever made a career out of it.” Continue reading →

91-year-old Capitol Hill house of worship lives on as At the Church performance space

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As one old area church appears destined for demolition at 14th and Spring, a large brick church built in 1925 still sits at the corner of E Olive St. and 13th. But while the building may still look like a church, its function has changed.

The building now hosts congregations of a different sort in its new life as performance venue At The Church. The mysterious venue has been hosting events since at least 2013.

While its ownership declined to be interviewed for this story, according to its website, At the Church is “one of the most unique” venue spaces in Seattle available for live performances and other events.  Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Life through the eyes of a driver, played out on board a Capitol Hill bus

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IMG_2312

IMG_2293IMG_2418We may be excited about our new subway but Capitol Hill’s first love is the bus. Performer Stokley Towles has turned interviews with the city’s Metro drivers into a show so public transit oriented, you’ll watch it performed on a real live bus on the real live Capitol Hill.

Check out Behind the Wheel:

“Behind the Wheel: Life on the Metro Bus” will take place on-board a Metro bus parked at the Route #47 bus stop near 727 Bellevue Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102 on Capitol Hill.

Performance running time: 50-minutes. Ticket prices: General $15/Student $10. For ages 12 to adult (performance includes the word f#ck).

April 28, 29, 30. Thursday, Friday and Saturday 7:30pm
May 5, 6, 7. Thursday, Friday and Saturday 7:30pm
Purchase tickets at Brown Paper Tickets.

The performance debuted last week and CHS stopped by to check out the action as crowds climbed aboard to experience the one-person show that “attempts to see the world through the eyes of a King County Metro bus driver.” The performance was funded in part by 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture.

And, if you plan to attend, you can, of course, take the bus:

We recommend you take the bus to the performance. The #47 stops at the performance site. The #9 and #49 are walking distance from the performance site. The #8 is also walking distance and operates on Denny Way and stops at Bellevue Ave E.

Make note of your driver — Towles might eventually need more material.

CHS Pics | 12th Ave hosts the Epic Durational Performance Festival

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Adam Sekuler's work got the 2015 festival started (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

Adam Sekuler’s work got the 2015 festival started (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

IMG_2283IMG_2292The Yellow Fish Epic Durational Performance Festival is currently taking place at Seattle University’s Hedreen Gallery. Organized since 2013 by Seattle-based artist Alice Gosti, it is one of the only festivals dedicated to durational performance in the world.

Durational performance can be defined as “a [art] form through which TIME is manifested in its original (natural) purity and brought to the forefront as pivotal to the experience.” Basically, it is an artistic performance that takes much longer than the standard two hours.

Yellow Fish performances can be a little out of the ordinary. Last year, one performance consisted of two women “submerged in an inflatable kiddie pool” for more than five hours, with a wolf hide suspended above them dripping pig blood into the water. This year’s festival kicked off last week with a performance spanning three days. Artist Adam Sekuler, a Seattleite living in Colorado, spent this time leading a communal mourning for the “buildings, organizations, and stores that we have lost in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, according to Gosti.

In spite of its unusual genre, or because of it, the Yellow Fish festival has been pretty successful. Last year the festival attracted artists from across the United States and as far away as London. This year, due to budget constraints, the festival has featured mostly local artists, but Gosti says attendance has been “really good.” The festival has also raised more than six thousand dollars through the crowdfunding campaign CHS reported on last week.

Yellow Fish is scheduled to take place daily through August 6th. The majority of the performances will take place at the Hedreen Gallery and a few will be held at the local venues such as the Velocity Dance Center and 10 degrees.

The planned 2015 lineup is below:

XV
it is just the beginning and it may last forever
July 8th to August 5th, 2015 at The Hedreen Gallery
Runn Shayo (New York)
Pol Rosenthal
Pol Budraitis
LIMITS (Corrie Befort and Jason E Anderson)
Megumi Shauna Arai
Juan Franco
Brace Evans
MKNZ Porritt
Laura Curry and Lori Dillon
Jody Kuehner
Ryan Vinson
Adam Sekuler
Keith White
Mother Tongue (kt Shores and Angelina Baldoz_
A K Mimi Allin
and special guests…

Official schedule and specific locations will be posted soon on Yellow Fish // Epic Durational Performance Festival.

Centered at 12th Ave’s Hedreen Gallery, Yellow Fish — Epic Durational Performance Festival starts this week

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It won’t take much to help one of the only art performance festivals of its kind grow in independence for its third edition slated to start later this week at 12th Ave’s Hedreen Gallery.

The Yellow Fish — Epic Durational Performance Festival is only a few hundred dollars from its $6,000 goal to create a third year of “performances lasting a minimum of an hour and a maximum of 48 hours” — you can make your contribution here:

Artists from all over the world have been invited to perform at all moments of day and night. In its third year, the festival will have a monthlong run, made possible thanks to newly-created partnerships with Northwest Film Forum, Velocity Dance Center, Studio Current and New Tomorrow. Artifacts from all of the performances will accumulate at the Hedreen Gallery, where most of the festival’s events will take place.

“As the festival has grown exponentially since the two years of its creation, the costs have also increased. This year we were unable to receive any of the funding we had received in the prior editions,” organizer and artist Alice Gosti explains.

The festival is free to attend — so you might consider your donation a kind of spiritual downpayment for your free ticket.

The planned 2015 lineup is below: Continue reading →