Short plays, unusual films and classical music are all on the entertainment menu in Olympia

Molly Gilmore
·3 min read
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Peck of Plays returns

An Improbable Peck of Plays, a festival of short works by Northwest playwrights, opens Friday, Nov. 10, at OlyTheater in Capital Mall. The festival, as theater buffs who’ve lived here a while will recall, was a tradition in the early 2010s at The Midnight Sun Performance Space in downtown Olympia. When the Sun closed, the festival — known for the remarkably diverse array of plays it packed into a single evening — went away. Theater Artists Olympia is now in residence at OlyTheater, and the festival, co-produced by the Northwest Playwrights Alliance, is back with a batch of shows that offer mystery, romance, comedy and absurdism. One of the featured plays, “A New Life in a Lifeless World,” was penned by Emmy-nominated screenwriter Dan Erickson, who grew up in Olympia and went on to create Apple TV+’s “Severance.” Check out Erickson’s work and eight other plays — each about 10 minutes long — at Peck, on stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10-11 plus Nov. 16-18 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, as well as Nov. 19 at OlyTheater, near the cinema at the mall, 625 Black Lake Blvd., Olympia. Tickets are $15.

Warren Miller’s “All Time,” screening at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, is a love letter to the late filmmaker’s ski adventure films.
Warren Miller’s “All Time,” screening at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, is a love letter to the late filmmaker’s ski adventure films.

A look back at Warren Miller

It wouldn’t be fall without a film from Warren Miller, whose years of work documenting the thrills of skiing and snowboarding have left a legacy that is still going strong five years after his death. This year’s film, “All Time,” revisits some of the most inspiring and exciting moments Miller and company captured over the years and includes new footage, too. Miller’s latest screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Tickets are $25-$40.

Award-winning music teacher Bruce Walker will conduct Olympia Symphony Orchestra’s “The Animated Orchestra,” a short concert intended for families and children.
Award-winning music teacher Bruce Walker will conduct Olympia Symphony Orchestra’s “The Animated Orchestra,” a short concert intended for families and children.

OSO gets ‘Animated’

The Olympia Symphony Orchestra is aiming to inspire a new generation of music lovers with a family-friendly concert set for Sunday, Nov. 12. The concert, “The Animated Orchestra,” guest directed by Bruce Walker, will last just an hour and focus on music meant to appeal to kids. The titular piece, Gregory Smith’s “The Animated Orchestra,” tells the story of an orchestra that’s playing a score for a cartoon. The catch? The cartoon never shows up — but the orchestra plays on, with narration by OSO executive director Jennifer Herrmann. Both orchestra and audience wind up acting out the climactic scene of the never-seen cartoon. Also on the program: Smith’s “Tempus Fugit,” Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite and Alan Menken’s “The Little Mermaid” Orchestral Suite. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Starting at 2 p.m. and continuing after the concert, musicians from Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia will be on hand with an instrument “petting zoo.” Tickets are available by donation.

The New York Classical Players, playing Saturday, Nov. 11, in Olympia, are the first chamber orchestra to be featured as part of Emerald City Music’s chamber series.
The New York Classical Players, playing Saturday, Nov. 11, in Olympia, are the first chamber orchestra to be featured as part of Emerald City Music’s chamber series.

Also offering classical music this weekend is the Olympia- and Seattle-based chamber series Emerald City Music. The concert, happening at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Washington Center, will feature the New York Classical Players, a chamber orchestra making its Northwest debut. The program includes works by Tchaikovsky and Chopin as well as contemporary pieces. Tickets are $10-$40.

Seattle rapper Fantasy A stars in the dark comedy “Fantasy A Gets a Mattress,” which won Best Narrative Feature Film at the 2023 Seattle Black Film Festival.
Seattle rapper Fantasy A stars in the dark comedy “Fantasy A Gets a Mattress,” which won Best Narrative Feature Film at the 2023 Seattle Black Film Festival.

Seattle rap ‘Fantasy’

The award-winning film “Fantasy A Gets a Mattress,” screening Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11 and 12, in Olympia, is a comic adventure inspired by autistic Seattle rapper Alexander “Fantasy A” Hubbard. Fantasy A plays himself — and deals with some of the same circumstances he faces in his own life — in the colorful and sometimes-surreal film, named Best Narrative Feature at both the Seattle Black Film Festival and Tacoma’s Local Sightings Film Festival. Noah Zoltan Sofian and David Norman Lewis’ 2023 film is screening at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia. Special guests will be on hand both nights. Tickets are $12, $9 for Olympia Film Society members.

Freelance writer Molly Gilmore talks about what’s happening in Olympia and beyond with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.