Musical brings culture of Appalachia to stage

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 15, 2007

“Fire on the Mountain” is bathed in bluegrass and swaddled in the hardships of coal mining.

The musical takes place in the heart of Appalachia country, where miners bring bluegrass and a little bit of “O, Brother Where Art Thou?” to life at Seattle Repertory Theatre starting Thursday.

The play, written by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman and directed by Myler, is “exuberant and mournful, joyous and gripping (and) is nothing short of a spiritual triumph. The stories of the people of this extraordinary culture are told in the bluegrass rhythms of a uniquely American art form,” according to the Seattle Rep’s written material about the show.

Wheetman shared a Tony Award nomination for best book for “It Ain’t Nothing But the Blues,” in which he appeared at Seattle Rep. He toured and recorded with John Denver for seven years, has written a Christmas song for Kermit the Frog, played a fiddle duet with Itzhak Perlman, worked as an opening act for Steve Martin, and currently plays in the band Marley’s Ghost.

Myler was a Tony Award nominee for best book of a musical for “It Ain’t Nothing But the Blues.” His projects include directing “Union City” with Rosie Perez, and the musical version of “The Immigrant.”

Olympic Ballet Theatre: An “adjudication” sounds like some horrible legal procedure. But in this case, it’s nothing like it sounds because performers from Olympic Ballet Theatre and Whidbey Island Dance will be strutting their stuff in a display of their dancing talent.

Olympic Ballet Theatre and Whidbey Island Dance will be performing this adjudication Sunday at Edmonds Center for the Arts.

This performance gives regional ballet companies a chance to have their works evaluated by a national dance notary. The performance is designed to select the ballets to be shown at an annual festival where almost 4,000 participants will attend, including Olympic Ballet and Whidbey Island Dance.

Sunday’s performance is important to the dancers, who get feedback and technical critiques. And the dancers choose to share the experience with an audience because it gives them support in their performance, according to Olympic Ballet Theatre.

“Traffic Stop”: In this one-act comedy, author Jeff Stilwell asks, “How many ways are there to get out of a speeding ticket?”

The Driftwood Players open Stilwell’s new comedy Sunday on the alternative stage at Wade James Theatre in Edmonds.

Many of us have been there: stopped by a police officer in a strange stretch of road because we were going too fast. This time, Stilwell sets the stage with Claire as the speeder. She is attractive, bored, and slightly spoiled. She tries lots of ways to get around the ticket, and a few ways you might not have been expecting.

The promo for the play states that it offers up laughter, romance, and “an appreciation of the divine when a small town officer pulls over this big city girl on a country road.”

Managing director Gregory Magyar said that Driftwood is doing more original works.

“Our alternative stage programming makes that possible,” Magyar commented in a written statement. “As for ‘Traffic Stop,’ I chose it because of the play itself: It’s a simple drama, really, a true drama, and the characters surprised me.”

The play revolves around the two characters, Claire and the cop, on stage without any scene changes or major plot interruptions. Stilwell said the pacing of the play was important, carrying the actors through the story, sometimes very quickly and, at other times, with “heart-arresting stops.”

The Flying Karamazov Brothers in “Life: A Guide for the Perplexed”: On Tuesday, The Flying Karamazov Brothers bring their high-flying act to Benaroya Hall in a program called “Life: A Guide for the Perplexed,” which was written by Karamazov founding member Paul Magid.

The brothers have been in show business since 1973. They started on the streets of San Francisco and eventually made it to Broadway for six runs.

While they are known worldwide for their juggling acts, the Karamazovs also have created and performed their own adaptations such as Dumas’ “Les Trios Musketeers,” Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat,” Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” and Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov.”

Terry Shapiro photo

Tony Marcus (left), Dan Wheetman, Ed Snodderly and David Lutken in “Fire on the Mountain,” opening Thursday at Bagley Wright Theatre.