I got this e-mail from Mark Siano recently about his final production as Mark Siano and the Freedom Dancers.  This show looks really cool so you should check it out!

Next Friday we are opening the REALLY BIG SHOW!  Holy Wow!  You gotta see this thing, it is the most entertaining, energetic, and ambitious show I've ever been a part of.  Comedian Mark Siano (that's me! I'm switching to 3rd person, look out) and the funny and foxy Freedom Dancers present their grand finale SOFT ROCK performance, The Soft Rock Kid (February 19-27), in the beautiful ACT Falls Theatre.

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This sounds pretty awesome, you guys. Grab some friends and some $10 tix online, head to the Central Cinema this Saturday, December 12 at 9pm and show that smile again (yes, I actually just wrote that)…

My friends over at The Beta Society have put together the perfect holiday activity for those of us who grew up watching Growing Pains and loving "The Thicke" (I cannot convey the depths of my teenage crush on Kirk Cameron, but I will say that show totally jumped the shark when they added the curly red-headed baby sis), or just generally love the cheesiest bits of the 80s.

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So I pulled up this press release today intending to write about The Return of Slashacre and how awesome I think it's going to be when I zeroed in on this flier's photo of Andras Jones and made a HOLYSHIT discovery: I met this guy at a friend's birthday party last week, totally thinking to myself that he looked really familiar the whole time, and now (inside my head, thankfully) I'm like; "Omgoomgomgomg OMG that guy is Rick, the martial arts boyfriend in Nightmare in Elm Street 4: The Dream Master!!!!" It's probably a good thing I didn't realize this while talking to him, or my Elm street fangirl mode would have kicked in and the guy would have thought I was a complete idiot, droning on about Freddy and dream powers and how did you wield those weapons so expertly anyway?* Not that Renny Harlin's entry in the series is some kind of masterpiece, but it's still ridiculous enough to be highly entertaining.

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Joan Didion is not the most empathetic of writers. In her studies of the 1960s and 70s, Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, she treats her counterculture subjects (hippies, Black Panthers, The Doors) with disdain and in her novel Play it as it Lays, she treats her fictitious characters with brimming contempt. Her words are often exact and exacting, completely rational.

The tagline for the Intiman Theater’s production of Didion’s own adaptation of her 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking says “It’s okay to lose your mind; you’d be crazy not to”. Here is a memoir of remarkable honesty and empathy while she navigates her own emotions while her daughter is hospitalized with pneumonia and her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, died of cardiac arrest – both within a few days of each other. Didion’s daughter Quintana died shortly after she finished writing her memoir, so it is left out of the book, but is dealt with in the stage adaptation she wrote.

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The Beta Society’s been getting a ton of press lately, so no doubt you’ve heard of them – they’re the group of friends who rented an 80s style mansion so they could live together 24/7 for the express purpose of creating stuff. What kind of stuff? It’s a little hard to explain (and much better to see live), but basically they make hilariously great films and sketches, and when they do it live, they put it all together in a sketch-style variety show that includes both.

"Headmasters" Celene Ramadan, Annette Auger, and Jessica Aceti are the awesome chicks that formed The Beta Society in 2008, and in addition to running a kick-ass group of Betas, they’re just an awful lot of fun to be around (back in the day when I was a frequent improv/comedy/theater-goer, I got to know Ms. Ramadan pretty well, so I totally know. Seriously. They all rock!). Some of my favorite bits include a fascination and collaboration with Alan Thicke (yes, that guy from Growing Pains), and the fact that they made their own feature-length horror parody called Junkbucket:



Don’t miss ‘em, you guys. There’s nothing else quite like this in Seattle.

{The Beta Society performs at Bumbershoot on Monday, September 7 from 1:14-2:15pm on Comedy Stage West. Photo by Cory Gustason.}

The last time I was really, really starstruck was in late 2005. I went to the Seattle Public Library to see my favorite living American writer, Joan Didion, read from her new-at-the-time memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. I was so nervous to meet my literary heroine that I'm sure I was shaking throughout the time standing in line and when I finally got to the front to have my book signed, I'm sure I couldn't mutter "it's nice to meet you and I love your writing". I'm sure I got through half of that.

The memoir was the story of how her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and daughter Quintana both died within a very short period of time. Shortly thereafter, Didion adapted her book into a one-woman play for the stage and when it premiered on Broadway a few years ago, Vanessa Redgrave played Didion.

The Intiman Theater began showing their production of The Year of Magical Thinking on August 21 and it will run through September 20. I'm planning on seeing it Wednesday night, so I'll try to come back with a review after. In the meantime, the play is directed by Sarna Lapine and features the actress Judith Roberts playing Didion.

For more information, including purchasing tickets, visit the Intiman's website.

I’ve probably raved enough about Charlyne Yi, but here I go again: in addition to crafting one of my favorite movies of the year, she’s also an adorable performance artist. Her shows reportedly mix music, magic and personable jokes – but since they mostly take place in and around LA – I’ve never been able to see them. Fortunately for me (and everyone else!), she’s performing at Bumbershoot this year.

As promised on her YouTube page:

"There will be music, joke-telling, story-telling, tatty-telling, scary stories, stories that you can pass on to your children's children... and more!"

So…I don’t really know what to expect, but I hope it’s something like this:

She’s paired up with Patton Oswalt – who, since I’m a novice when it comes to stand up, I totally knew NOTHING about until Ratatouille (he voiced Remy). After we watched it, my boyfriend said “You don’t know who he is???” and proceeded to download every video he could find and play them for me. And I admit, the dude’s pretty funny, even outside his adorable rat persona. He was on Dollhouse too, and hey, if you appear on a Joss Whedon show, chances are I’m gonna like ya’ (HI fellow WHEDONVERSE fans!).

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Everytime I try to get tickets to see Blood Squad, they're sold out - so obviously my only chance to see them is at Bumbershoot this year.

This smart 4-person improv group develops shows based solely on slasher films - something I can totally get behind, and I bet you can too.

Taking queues from Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street (mostly the hilariously bad sequels like F13 part 2, H20 & Dream Warriors), Blood Squad continually creates entertaining shows - I hear raves about them all over town, all the time. They don't use any fake blood or props, relying instead on narration, lighting effects and on-stage action to deliver the goods.

I can't wait to see them. Sounds like a lot of fun!

{Blood Squad is at Bumbershoot on Sunday, Sept. 6 from 4:45-5:45, Comedy Stage West}

“Synchronicity is the star of Radio8Ball” was what the program’s host, a musician and actor named Andras Jones, declared when I saw his program at the Little Red Studio a few weeks ago.

The idea behind Radio8Ball is that audience members write down questions that they are pondering and several are drawn randomly throughout the course of the evening. Jones discusses the question with the audience member and then a wheel is spun, and will land on a number that corresponds with a song by the show’s musical guest, who will then perform the song and Jones, the audience member and the artist will discuss how the song answers the question that the audience member was thinking about.

It’s a really amazing show that is carried by Jones’ charisma and intelligence, as well as the musical guests who appear on the show. The next episodes of Radio8Ball feature the Radio8Band (which is discussed below) and We Are Golden, on August 26 and September 2, respectively. There will also be a performance of Radio8Ball at Bumbershoot on Monday, September 7 (at Theater Puget Sound at 4:45pm). I spoke with Andras Jones, as well as Radio8Ball band member and frequent returning champion Jon Auer (who I have, full disclosure, known as a friend for several years), as well as Radio8Ball sponsor Dibspace’s founder Dominic Canterbury over drinks at Liberty Bar on Capitol Hill last week.

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In addition to all the fabulous bands at Bumbershoot this year, how about exploring the 100s of others things going on?

The first thing that caught my eye on the schedule is The Scream Contest, because it involves screaming your head off, and something called the SCREAM-o-METER. How can that not be tons of fun?

You sign up to read a short radio theater scene that ends with lots of murderous screaming, and then judges consult the aforementioned SCREAM-o-METER to decide who wins! I’m not sure what your prize is, but I know at least a few people who’d love to participate (especially after a spell in the beer garden). I'm considering it my chance to see if I'd make a good Scream Queen - you know, in case Sam Raimi calls me for his next film.

Presented by Performance Space 122 NYC: Seattle Edition, with lo-fi NY band Japanther.

The Scream Contest takes place Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, from 8-10pm.