1. art and entertainment
2. theatre

APRIL 2015
2015 SeaSon:
directed by
Scott nolte
mar 25-apr 25
the explorerS club
jan 28 – feb 28
the beSt of enemieS
mar 25 – apr 25
jeeveS interveneS
may 13 – jun 13
godSpell
jul 8 – aug 15
dracula
Sep 23 – oct 24
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Truly sensational.
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March-April 2015
Volume 11, No. 5
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CONTENTS
APRIL 2015
2015 SeaSon:
the explorerS club
jan 28 – feb 28
the beSt of enemieS
mar 25 – apr 25
jeeveS interveneS
may 13 – jun 13
godSpell
jul 8 – aug 15
dracula
Sep 23 – oct 24
Best of Enemies
A1
By Mark St. Germain
Based on The Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson
directed by
Scott nolte
mar 25-apr 25
ES055 covers.indd 6
2/24/15 8:50 AM
Visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Five Friday Questions with
Keiko Green
BY BRETT HAMIL
Keiko Green is a half-Japanese writer/performer from Georgia who came
to Seattle via New York three years ago. Since then, she’s appeared in
numerous productions: Annex’s Chaos Theory, WET’s Bengal Tiger
at the Baghdad Zoo, Pony World’s Or, the Whale. This year she makes
her debuts at the Rep in The Comparables in March and at Seattle
Shakespeare in next May’s production of Othello. Her original musical
Bunnies, inspired by the Woodland Park bunny infestation with music
by Jesse Smith, will have its world premiere as part of Annex Theatre’s
mainstage season this April.
Green is preparing for a creatively prolific year. I caught up with her
for this installment of Five Friday Questions.
What’s the best performance you’ve seen lately?
That fake field goal in the NFC championship game. I’m obsessed with
it. I can’t stop watching loops of it online. It’s everything you want in a
performance: a solid set-up and a beautiful twist in the plot. I want all
my work to be like that fake field goal.
There’s also been so much good theatre in town so far this year. I
saw seven shows last week. The performance that is currently sticking
in my mind is Robin Jones as Blanche in Civic Rep’s A Streetcar Named
Desire. She was so layered. Her Blanche was so delicate, and yet she
would victimize herself in a way that fooled no one. You wanted to
4 ENCORE STAGES
shake her and scream,
“Stop pretending to be
broken! You’re broken
already!”
What’s the best meal
in Seattle?
I’m a sucker for a good
happy hour. I often end
up eating dinner really
early because of this
happy hour obsession.
The grilled sardine
tartine at Lecosho is the
single most delicious
bite in Seattle, and it’s
only available at happy
hour unless you use your puppy dog eyes -- which I have used to varied
success.
Add a salad with a perfect egg, some sausages to share, and a glass (or
two) of wine for the perfect meal. If I could get the roasted bone marrow
from Quinn’s Pub added to that, well…a girl can dream.
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
What music gets you pumped up? What do
you listen to when you’re sad?
I like danceable music to get pumped up — or
at least something I can jump up and down
to. I really like Metric’s “Black Sheep,” though
the intro is way too long, so I usually skip 30
seconds in. I actually like the actress who sang
it in Scott Pilgrim’s voice better, so I often listen
to the movie version online instead.
Also my classmate from the Experimental
Theatre Wing at NYU is the lead singer of this
band Avan Lava, and they’re amazing. Their
song “Feels Good” gets me pumped not just
because I love the song, but also because it
reminds me that I’ve worked with tons of people
who are way more talented than I am —it taps
into my competitive nature.
“Don’t stop never stop.” It’s my mantra. Don’t
get left behind.
When I’m sad, I like to listen to songs from
Young Jean Lee’s band Future Wife. Their song
“Horrible Things” puts things into perspective.
The lyrics are depressing and hilarious: “Who
do you think you are to be immune from
tragedy? What makes you so special that you
should go unscathed?” But it’s set to this really
cute music and her voice is so sweet. All the
songs are like that. “I’m Gonna Die” is also
really great. I like to play cutesy sad music and
just lie there and wallow, if time permits.
Do you “treat yourself” to anything special
after a show closes?
Well, I think the Olympus Spa or “naked spa”
in Lynnwood will be my new treat. A friend
introduced me to it last October, and I’m pretty
smitten. They have a Korean restaurant inside
the spa! How am I supposed to resist going to
that place?
Other than that, I pretty much like to
celebrate all night after closing then lock myself
in the house the day after, cooking and eating
all day. Near the end of a run, I’m eating out
more often than I like. So I spend this lazy day
filling my body with hot, stinky, healthy Asian
foods. I’ll stock up on everything fermented at
Uwajimaya a couple days before, preparing for
this stinkfest.
What’s the most useful thing anyone’s ever
taught you about working in theatre?
In an audition, the people on the other side of
the table are always on your side. Auditors want
you to walk into the room and blow everyone
else out of the water. It makes their job easier.
They are rooting for you.
FEB 12 – MAY 17
This exhibition is organized by the American
Federation of Arts and was made possible
by the generosity of an anonymous donor, the
JFM Foundation, and Mrs. Donald M. Cox.
The Seattle presentation is made possible through the
support of these funders
For more previews, stories, video and a look
behind the scenes, visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
PROGRAM LIBRARY
CALENDAR
PREVIEWS
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Generous Support
Anonymous
ArtsFund/Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff
Fund for the Decorative and Design Arts
The MacRae Foundation
Seattle Art Museum Supporters (SAMS)
Corporate Sponsor
Perkins Coie LLP
Image: Child’s jacket, ca. 1880, Apsáalooke (Crow),
Montana, hide, glass beads, 30 x 20 in., Diker no. 846,
Courtesy American Federation of Arts.
seattleartmuseum.org
encore artsseattle.com 5
THRIVE
PARENT PREVIEW
OPEN HOUSES
drop-in event
ACHIEVE
oct. 23, nov. 8, & May 13
Nov. 12 & Dec. 2
jan. 10, 2015
For more information visit WWW.BILLINGSMIDDLESCHOOL.ORG
BE
ENCORE ARTS PREVIEWS
Seattle Rock Orchestra
May 9 and 10
With over 50 instrumentalists and special guest
vocalists, the Seattle Rock Orchestra combines
the energy of rock ‘n’ roll with the colors and
subtleties of classical music. This Mother’s Day
weekend the Seattle Rock Orchestra continues
their chronological foray into the albums of the
Beatles with Abbey Road and Let It Be.
The Moore Theatre
Pilobolus
May 14-16
With a vast repertoire and new works created
every year, the dancers of Pilobolus are known
for their extreme athleticism and strength.
Named after phototropic fungi, this globetrotting
dance troupe has performed on the Academy
Awards, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The
Oprah Winfrey Show.
Meany Hall
Jeeves Intervenes
May 13-June 13
Reginald Jeeves, the expertly capable valet
whose surname has become a synonym for
“manservant,” must once again save the day
in this comedy adapted from a P.G. Wodehouse
story by Margaret Raether.
Taproot Theatre
Threesome
June 5-28
An Egyptian American couple invite another
man into their bed for a threesome and end up
exploring issues of sexism and independence in
this world premiere written by local playwright
Yussef El Guindi and directed by Chris Coleman.
ACT Theatre
Slaughterhouse Five
June 11-July 3
Kurt Vonnegut’s beloved story about the
human consequences of war comes to life in
this Book-It production adapted and directed
by Josh Aaseng. Unstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim
bounces from the firebombing of Dresden to the
alien planet Tralfamadore and many points in
between.
Book-It Repertory Theatre
Correction: In the last issue, we mischaracterized
the plot of Book-It’s Little Bee as the story of a
Nigerian immigrant father committing suicide
to keep his son, Little Bee, from being deported.
The actual plot revolves around Little Bee’s
encounter later in life with Sarah, a middle-class
Englishwoman. We regret the error.
For more previews, stories, video and a look
behind the scenes, visit EncoreArtsSeattle.com
PROGRAM LIBRARY
6 ENCORE STAGES
CALENDAR
PREVIEWS
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Beer
Central
from city arts magazine
Saturday, March 21
$39, $34 & $29,
$15 youth/student
Rose Ann Finkel
and Charles Finkel
inspired the craftbeer revolution.
A tribute to the black
musicians of the 1920s
and ’30s who were
part of the Harlem
Renaissance, this show
takes its title from the
1929 Waller song of the same title.
KORESH DANCE COMPANY
Wednesday, April 1
$34, $29 & $24,
$15 youth/student
Pike Place
Brewing
is a secret
treasure.
Thank its
owner for
craft beer.
Founded in Philadelphia
in 1991, Koresh Dance
Company is widely recognized for its superb
technique and emotionally-compelling appeal.
THE WONDER
BREAD YEARS
Thursday, April 16
$34, $29 & $24,
$15 youth/student
BY JONATHAN ZWICKEL
ONE THING MOST museums get wrong is
no beer. Though Pike Brewing Company is
technically a brewpub, it could easily qualify
as a museum. A museum of beer.
In other cities an establishment as grand
as Pike Brew would be a point of civic pride
and a go-to hangout for crusty locals and
gawping tourists alike. Somehow—maybe
because it’s existed so long in a location so
prominent—most Seattleites forget it exists.
The cavernous warren of rooms and bars and
more bars and more rooms winds through
two floors of the South end of Pike Place
Market. It’s a 19-year-old secret treasure hidden in plain sight.
Every inch of every vertical surface is
bedecked with “beeriana,” the highlights of
what might be the greatest collection of beerrelated ephemera on Earth: beer labels, beer
ads, beer articles, beer books, beer accessories, beer photos, beer illustrations, beer
recipes, beer history and legend and data. A
sprawling array, for sure, but thoughtfully
curated, elegantly framed and captioned
in exacting detail. Brain candy for the beer
drinker. One room is dedicated entirely to
the 9,000-year history of brewing; you can
follow the timeline across three walls, from
Sumer to Seattle. Another details the story
of Nellie Curtis, the glamorous madam who
operated one of Seattle’s last brothels in a
hotel below the Market. There’s also a shrine
to King Gambrinus, the legendary Lowlands
royal known as the King of Beer. He purportedly invented the toast.
Contemplate all this lore while drinking
beer made one floor below. Pike Brewing’s
Naughty Nellie—a robust but delicate golden
ale named after Nellie Curtis—is one of
Seattle’s greatest achievements. Pike Entire
Wood Aged Stout is chewy and smooth. The
current seasonal special is the Octopus Ink
Black IPA, full-hopped but balanced and as
dark as its namesake.
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
The owner of the collection—the executive brewmaster and self-described “creative
director” and president and founder of the
brewery—is also the man responsible, at
least indirectly, for the craft beer revolution that began in the early ’80s. Back then,
Charles Finkel was a renegade importer who
believed Americans were ready for beer with
a flavor profile beyond the bland, cornsyrupy lagers that dominated the landscape.
Today Finkel is considered a visionary, one
of the primary catalysts of a new American
industry.
“When we started in the beer business,
sales of craft beer were so small that they
weren’t measurable,” Finkel says, sitting in a
booth inside Pike Brewing’s office (which is
also covered floor-to-ceiling with ephemera).
“Last year, sales of craft beer exceeded sales
of the Budweiser brand for the first time.
That’s a major milestone.”
Vindication through longevity. And recognition: Finkel was described as “among a
dozen principals responsible for the modern
renaissance of beer” by no less an eminence
than Michael Jackson, the scholar who
was to beer what James Beard was to food.
Finkel edited the illustrations to the Oxford
Companion to Beer, 2011’s massive, authoritative volume on the subject. And here he
sits, bowtied and bespectacled, a 71-year-old
Jewish boy born in New York and raised in
Oklahoma, inside the inner sanctum of his
unassuming empire. His wife Rose Ann,
who’s worked alongside him every step, is
answering emails a few steps away.
“You’re speaking to the artist right now,”
she says of her husband.
True in more ways than one. Charles
Finkel’s entry into the beer business wasn’t
as a brewer but as an importer—an auteur, if
you will. After moving to Woodinville, Wash.
from New York and working in the marketing department of the fledgling Chateau Ste.
A fresh & funny salute to
Americana, The Wonder
Bread Years starring
Pat Hazell (Seinfeld) is
a fast-paced, hilarious
production that gracefully walks the line between standup and theater.
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410FOURTHAVE.N.
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206.508.4535
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS
from city arts magazine
We treat the
whole you.
Attentive care that considers
every aspect of your health.
Healthy.BastyrCenter.net | 206.834.4100
photo: wireimage
ROBERT
SCHENKKAN
All the Way, The Great Society and The Kentucky Cycle
Keynote Speaker at Friends of the Libraries
Literary Voices Dinner
Saturday May 9, 6 pm
Club Husky, Husky Stadium
Tickets $150 to support conservation
$300 patron tickets | sponsorships available
[email protected]
206-616-8397
8 ENCORE STAGES
With his encyclopedic knowledge of beer history, Charles Finkel was the first to market traditional European ales
and lagers to an American audience.
Michelle winery in the ’70s, one of his first
entrepreneurial endeavors was to re-launch
Samuel Smith, a 250-year-old brewery in
Yorkshire, England. Rather than make his
own full-bodied beer, Finkel convinced the
owners of the struggling brewery to remake
theirs.
From his travels across Europe with Rose
Ann, he’d developed a taste for artisanal
beers made by traditional methods for regional tastes. “And as a guy from Oklahoma
I’m not beyond going to a guy in Yorkshire
and saying, ‘Can you make an oatmeal stout
for me?’ And the guy from Yorkshire says,
‘What’s an oatmeal stout?’ And I have to
teach them what their own heritage is. It’s
not below my own chutzpah or dignity level
to do that.”
When their product met his standards,
Finkel applied his schooling in graphic design to develop a new, now-iconic label for the
beer. Then, with its sophisticated look and
flavor profile, he began importing Samuel
Smith Oatmeal Stout into the U.S. Soon he
redesigned their entire line of beers. His
success led him to rebranding and importing
beers from Germany, Norway and Belgium.
His import company, Merchant du Vin, is
responsible for introducing American drinkers to their favorite European beers. And this
is how Finkel inspired America’s craft beer
movement.
“He was so far ahead of the curve in
the alcoholic beverage business that even
pioneers like me were astonished,” says
Paul Shipman, co-founder of Redhook, the
Northwest’s first microbrewery. Back then,
he and co-founder Gordon Bowker were
cracking open a brand-new marketplace in
the U.S. (much like the current dawn of the
recreational marijuana industry, Shipman
notes.) “What Charlie did with imports was
a beacon. It was an inspiration to us as we
contemplated doing it ourselves. He was
there at the big bang, recognizing that the
consumer had an interest in a more flavorful,
distinctive product.”
Once they’d amassed the finances, the
Finkels opened the original Pike Brewing
Company on Western Ave. in 1989. Charles
developed the beer list and designed all
the labels, both of which remain consistent
through today. They moved to their present location, which serves a full menu of
hearty, wholesome pub fare, in 1996. Pike
Brewing Co. often features guest beers from
upstart Seattle breweries and hosts food and
drink events that draw talent from around
the world. Pike brewers have gone on to
brewmaster positions at breweries across
the country and launched breweries of their
own.
By unofficial count, eight breweries
opened in Seattle in the last half of 2014.
Several others debuted in the burbs. Still
more are slated to launch in the coming
months. Due to their minimal production
capacities, most of them are categorized
as nanobreweries—smaller even that the
original four-barrel facility Finkel started
with. As the brewery count in King County
nears 70—and with some 200 in Washington
state—the craft beer revolution that Finkel
incited shows no signs of slowing. Neither
does Pike Brew.
“We’ve got enough momentum that the
more nanobreweries there are, the more
there’s a need for a place like this, where
you can come and learn about beer,” Finkel
says. “Beer is a great lens to look at history
through. We’re trying to introduce people,
and hopefully encourage those nanobeweries, to recognize that we’re talking about a
serious product of gastronomy through the
ages. Nine thousand years of people having
a civilized attitude about consuming beer.
And we’re beer central.” n
PIKE BREWING
1415 1st. Ave.
MIGUEL EDWARDS
Naturopathic Medicine • Counseling
Acupuncture • Ayurveda • Nutrition
Best of
Enemies
by Mark St. Germain
Scott Nolte,
Producing Artistic
Director
Karen Lund,
based on The Best of Enemies
by Osha Gray Davidson
cASt
Associate Artistic
Director
(In Order of Appearance)
Thank you To our
2015 SeaSon
SupporTerS
C.p. ellis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff Berryman
ann atwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Faith Russell
Bill riddick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Corey Spruill
Mary ellis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Vaughn Hall
Production
Director
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound & Video Design
Stage Manager
Dramaturg
Dialect Coach
Scott Nolte
Richard Lorig
Sarah Burch Gordon
Amanda Sweger
Mark Lund
Claire Branch
Shelby Vander Molen
Simon Pringle
SEtting
1971
Durham, north Carolina
Best of Enemies is approximately 90 minutes. There will be no intermission.
opening nighT
SponSor:
Best of Enemies is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
The upper CruST
encore artsseattle.com A-1
dirEctor’S notES
“Love is
daring to
stay in the
room with
difference.”
Jim Henderson,
Author
When I was in high school a few friends and
I founded the Minority Student Enterprises
with business cards and a select membership
that drew from Japanese, Native American,
African American and various European
subgroups. The only task M.S.E. did was
create promotional banners and posters
for school events, always humorous and
sometimes with a hidden joke in the margin.
Forty-plus years later, remembering I was one of the white kids,
I realize my viewpoint was grossly naive and inadequate. As a
Caucasian, middle class, married, college-educated male, I’ve hardly
ever experienced being “the outsider” and have never been subject
to suspicion, hatred or abuse.
The world of Best of Enemies takes us back to an intense time in
Durham, North Carolina when the civil rights of African Americans
weren’t respected and the Ku Klux Klan’s influence was strong and
insidious. Public schools were tense, and discriminatory injustice
and segregation was rampant. It took courage, empathy and
sacrifice for a pair of community members to forge a new way of
understanding and healing. That’s our story.
Recent events of racially charged
violence should break our hearts
and humble us. We haven’t
come as far as we think we have.
Our hurts, arrogance, fears and
“personal peace” still distance us
from actively extending respect
and care for those even slightly
different from ourselves.
Supporting
daring people
and organizations
since 2008.
Bainbridge Island, WA
oneicity.com
A-2 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
I hope that as you watch C.P. and
Ann’s story unfold, you see the
losses they experience and their
brave steps toward change. Our
seats in the theatre allow us to
safely observe — but I hope we’re
prompted to reflect, and that we
leave with courage and grace to
make our city a better place to live.
Scott Nolte
Producing Artistic Director
theuppercrustcatering.com
206-783-1826
Serving the greater
Puget Sound area
Full-service catering available for
corporate functions, weddings,
fundraisers, memorials, celebrations,
and private parties of all sizes.
tAProot thEAtrE StAff
Artistic/Production stAff
scott nolte - Producing Artistic Director
Karen Lund - Associate Artistic Director
Mark Lund - Design Director
Micah Lynn trapp - Production Stage
Manager
sarah Burch Gordon - Costume Shop
Manager & Resident Designer
Wendy Hansen - Resident Propsmaster
THE
PLAyMAKERS
CLuB
The Playmakers Club is a convenient and affordable
way to express your enthusiasm for plays like Best of
Enemies with a regular monthly gift.
AdMinistrAtive stAff
Pam nolte - Community Liaison
rick rodenbeck - Finance &
Operations Director
nikki visel - Marketing Director
elizabeth Griffin - Communications
Manager
tanya Barber - Creative Marketing
Specialist
isaiah custer - Marketing Associate
Acacia danielson - Executive Assistant
deveLoPMent
Lauren cooper - Director of Individual
Giving
sonja Lowe - Development Associate &
Resident Dramaturg
Patty Putnam - Development Assistant
PAtron services
Jenny cross - Patron Services Manager
Benjamin smyth - House Manager Lead
Acacia danielson, stephen Loewen,
sonja Lowe, cathie rohrig, Bethanie
russell, dave selvig - House Managers
Kristi Matthews - Box Office Manager
Josh Krupke - Box Office Lead
erin Barber, sarah Byrne, Jd Walker,
Alek White - Box Office Representatives
Marty Gordon - Custodian
Jacob Yarborough - Facilities Maintenance
educAtion & outreAcH
nathan Jeffrey - Director of Education
& Outreach
shelby Parsons - Associate Director of
Education & Outreach
Jenny cross - Resident Teaching Artist
$100 x 12 months =
$75 x 12 months =
Provides lumber, paint, and
hardware needed to transform
the Jewell Mainstage into 1970s
North Carolina.
Lights the stage for 20
performances
of Best of Enemies.
$1,200
$900
$50 x 12 months =
$25 x 12 months =
Purchases costume fabric and
supplies, transforming Jeff Berryman into his character of C.P. Ellis.
Buys props needed to fill the
set and bring this remarkable
story to life.
$300
$600
$15 x 12 months =
$180
Underwrites Faith Russell’s wig
and makeup for her character
of Ann.
You'll play a constant role in the magic onstage
through your loyal monthly support.
Join The Playmakers Club and set
up your monthly gift today!
CALL Lauren Cooper at 206.529.3678
EMAIL [email protected]
VISIT taproottheatre.org/donate
encore artsseattle.com A-3
thE comPAny
Jeff BerryMan (C.P. Ellis) is a writer/
actor from Seattle last seen in Taproot’s
The Fabulous Lipitones. Other favorite
Taproot roles include Cervantes in
Man of La Mancha, C.S. Lewis in
Shadowlands and Robert Falcon Scott
in Terra Nova. Current writing projects
for theatre include Arthur: The Wars and
Lost Cause. Jeff is also working on a new art installation
project featuring his original poetry, photography, music
and performance. Stay tuned ... Find him at jeffberryman.
com. Love to Anjie and all my kids.
faiTh ruSSeLL (Ann Atwater) was last
seen on the Taproot stage as Mrs. Reed
in Jane Eyre. Past Taproot favorites
include Le Club Noel (Madame
Valerie, BroadwayWorld Best Actress
Nominee), Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor DreamCoat (Narrator), and
Brownie Points (Deidra, Footlight Award
Winner). Other favorite roles/shows include Slip/Shot
(Miz Athey, Seattle Public Theater), Picnic (Mrs. Potts,
BroadwayWorld Best Featured Actress Nominee, ReAct
Theater) and Once On This Island (Mama Eurilie, Village
Theater). When not onstage, Faith enjoys working as a
Teaching and Directing Artist, as well as a choreographer.
Corey SpruiLL (Bill Riddick) is thrilled to
work with Taproot on such an important
project. He was last seen on stage in
School for Lies (Sound Theater). His
Seattle theater credits include Girl You
know it’s True (TOJ), Broke-ology (SPT),
Merchant of Venice (Quiet), Zooman and
the Sign (BrownBox), Doggs Hamlet/
Cahoots Macbeth (Sound Theater), A Behanding in
Spokane (Schmeater) and Henry VIII (Greenstage). Corey
would like to encourage everyone to Keep Dreaming &
Keep Striving to achieve your goals. Change is coming,
please believe it!
Jenny Vaughn haLL (Mary Ellis) is thrilled
to return to Taproot! She was last
seen here in the production Diana of
Dobson’s. Favorite recent roles include,
Charlotte in A Little Night Music, Mary
in Middletown and Trisha in Five Women
Wearing the Same Dress. Up next is
Sarah in Time Stands Still at Harlequin
Theatre. She dedicates this show to Dr. John Perkins,
her hero, who first opened her eyes to the power of racial
reconciliation.
CLaire BranCh (Stage Manager) is ecstatic to be kicking
off her third season at Taproot with such a powerful show!
Hailing from California, she has been fortunate enough to
work in professional houses all along the West Coast, and
thanks her lucky stars every day to be blessed with such a
supportive network of artists. Recent credits include Jane
Eyre, In The Book Of, and The Whipping Man (Taproot);
Our Town, The Normal Heart, This Land and Accidental
A-4 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Death of An Anarchist (StrawShop); and 33 Variations
and Evil Dead: The Musical! (ArtsWest). Thank you for
your continued support. Please encounter, engage and
empower the arts!
Sarah BurCh gorDon (Costume Designer & Shop Manager)
has designed 50+ shows for Taproot in the past ten years.
Regionally, Sarah has also designed for TAG, SART, Stage
West Theatre, Brick Playhouse and Venture Theatre. She
was nominated for a 2010 Gregory award. Her MFA is from
Temple University. Beets and Begonias to her GoL.
riCharD Lorig (Set Designer) is pleased to continue a long,
creative partnership with Taproot Theatre and proud to be
working on this powerful story. Some of his previous scenic
designs include Appalachian Christmas Homecoming,
Illyria, Chaps!, Smoke On The Mountain and All My Sons.
He is a freelance designer whose recent work includes
scenery for Youth Theatre Northwest and West of Lenin.
He is also an Associate Professor of Theatre and Scenic
Designer at Seattle Pacific University. With great thanks
and love to Steffanie and Asher!
Mark LunD (Sound & Video Design) has designed more
than 100 TTC shows. Favorite sound designs include The
Fabulous Lipitones, The Beams are Creaking, Around the
World in 80 Days, Moreau and The Voice of the Prairie.
Other design work includes Seattle Shakes, Book-It and
award-winning short films. Mark is also a voice over actor.
Love to Karen, Hannah & Jake.
SCoTT noLTe (Producing Artistic Director) is a co-founder
and the Producing Artistic Director of TTC. Over the
course of 39 years, he’s directed plays ranging from The
Odyssey to Smoke on the Mountain, and more recently
Appalachian Christmas Homecoming, The Fabulous
Lipitones, The Matchmaker, The Whipping Man, Gaudy
Night and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas
Carol for TTC. He has participated in several new-play
development projects, is past president of Theatre Puget
Sound and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers.
SiMon pringLe (Dialect Coach) is glad to be back at Taproot.
Simon is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland and trained
at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Past credits at Taproot as an actor include Appalachian
Christmas Homecoming (Ryan), Jane Eyre (Robert), Illyria
(Sir Andrew), Chaps! (Archie), An Ideal Husband (Nanjac/
Mason) and The Beams Are Creaking (Klaus). Simon
has also performed locally for Harlequin Productions and
Storybook Theater, and is a teaching artist and director
at Studio East - Training for the Performing Arts. This is
Simon’s debut as a dialect coach at TTC.
aManDa Sweger (Lighting Designer) is a lighting and
scenic designer who has worked as a freelance designer
in Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia. She received an
MFA from Northwestern University in 2011 and a BFA
from Webster Conservatory in 2004. She was a Visiting
Instructor of Theatre at Vanderbilt University before
accepting the tenure-track post of Assistant Professor
thE comPAny
at PLU. She was the resident scenic
designer at Timber Lake Playhouse
for five seasons, and has designed
with companies such as The Second
City, TimeLine Theatre, ArcheDream
for Humankind, Mary-Arrchie Theatre
Company, Porchlight Theatre,
InFusion Theatre Company, Lakewood
Playhouse, Seattle Theatre Group, and
many more. Amanda is thrilled to be
working with Taproot Theatre Company
for the first time!
SheLBy VanDer MoLen (Dramaturg) is
happy to rejoin Taproot after recent
work on the 2014 season closer,
Appalachian Christmas Homecoming.
As a past fellow at the Eugene O’Neill
Theater Center in Connecticut and at
the Kennedy Center in Washington,
D.C., Shelby relishes all things
playwriting, theatrical criticism and
dramaturgy. She hales from small
town Iowa.
Mark ST. gerMain (Playwright) Taproot
has previously produced several of
Mark’s plays, including Freud’s Last
Session, which ran for two years OffBroadway and is currently showing
in Argentina, Sweden, Australia and
Denmark; The Fabulous Lipitones, a
musical comedy co-written with John
Markus; and The God Committee.
Other plays include Becoming Doctor
Ruth, Scott and Hem in the Garden
of Allah, Camping with Henry and
Tom (Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics
Circle Awards), Ears on a Beatle, Out
of Gas on Lover’s Leap, and Dancing
Lessons. Mark wrote the Tammy
Wynette Musical Stand By Your Man
as well as several other musicals;
co-wrote director Carroll Ballard’s
film “Duma”; and produced and
directed the documentary “My Dog,
An Unconditional Love Story,” with
Richard Gere, Glenn Close and Edward
Albee. He is an Associate Artist of
the Barrington Stage Company, a
recipient of the William Inge Festival’s
New Voices Award, a member of the
Dramatists Guild and the Writer’s
Guild East, and an alumnus of New
Dramatists. His play Best of Enemies
was first produced by the Barrington
Stage Company and is now being
produced throughout the country.
encore artsseattle.com A-5
from thE drAmAturg
forTy-four yearS anD a few STaTeS away
by Shelby Vander Molen
The first scene of Best of Enemies opens in Durham, North Carolina, in 1965, amidst a Ku Klux Klan celebration of
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assasination. As a Seattle audience in 2015 we react with horror at the violent threats and
unabashed racism. That’s a good response. It’s healthy. But it’s also easy.
While there are surviving contingents of the KKK and hate groups like them, by and large mainstream society has
abandoned blatant white supremacy. In an “enlightened” city like Seattle, this makes it too easy to believe that the
problem of racism has been solved. But, is it possible we have more in common with 20th Century Durham than we like
to admit?
A true story of Klansman C.P. Ellis and activist Ann Atwater, Best of Enemies transports us to the Durham of 1971, and
the hulking remains of its more prosperous roots in tobacco and textiles. East Durham, where blue-collar worker C.P.
lived, sagged with turn-of-the-century houses built by factory owners as a place to “store” cheap labor. Just a weed
patch away stood Ann’s black community called Hayti — an area being obliterated by expanding highways. Fighting
powerful landlords became Ann’s focus as they bulldozed through, displacing black families. Dependency on factory
work and the accompanying lack of education and power blotted the history of both neighborhoods.
Despite a 1954 court order to desegregate Durham schools, little
had changed except for the flight of affluent white families to create
suburban schools of their own. Segregated, under-financed public
schools left in the city proper were simply one more incarnation of the
identical economic problems plaguing Ann and C.P.’s neighborhoods.
“SeaTTLe iS Thinking
aBouT raCiaL inJuSTiCe,
anD So iS The naTion.”
Amidst the churn of civil rights’ action, KKK philosophies were widely
felt in 1971. Sure, the white robes where a bit conspicuous when
C.P. and his men donned them for parades, but overall, the Klan just
said aloud what many people already believed. Politicians like Governor George Wallace and the Durham talk-show
editorialist Jesse Helms spouted similar rhetoric behind a more mainstream cloak.
Today in Seattle no such parades take place. Still, sitting in traffic on I-405, you might read the graffiti on the hulking
corridor walls. Amidst the names, you’ll find a phrase: I CAN’T BREATHE. A dying New Yorker’s last words, in bubble
letters, splotched on the opposite coast’s freeway.
Seattle is thinking about racial injustice, and so is the nation.
Seattle was thinking about it when 1,300 of her students clogged University and 45th, protesting jury decisions in
Ferguson, MO. She considered it when members of her 12th Man argued aloud if their running back’s fines hinted at
franchise distaste for “unapologetic blackness.” She couldn’t help facing it when her cops arrested one of her old black
men for carrying a golf club and shot and killed one of her natives for carrying a traditional carving knife.
In Durham of 1971, the KKK appeared subtler because mainstream ideas reflected it more closely. White robes no
longer camouflage in our “enlightened” city, but problems morph with the times.
What, Seattle, is the robe we wish not to see?
• Davidson, Osha Gray. The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Terkel, Studs. My American Century. “C.P. Ellis, Former Klansmen.” New York: The New Press, 1997.
Located adjacent to
Taproot Theatre
Open 11-8 on performance nights
Open 11-6 on non-performance nights
seattlestagedoorcafe.com
A-6 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Where taste takes center stage
Pre-order your intermission
drinks and snacks before
the show begins and it will
be waiting for you when
you come into the cafe.
BESt of EnEmiES StAff
Production stAff
Baylie Heims- Assistant Stage Manager
costuMe stAff
Barbara cawley - Dresser
Kelsey Mccornack - Costume Shop Assistant
dana friedli-neumann - First Hand/Cutter/Draper
Melinda schlimmer - Stitcher
scenic, LiGHtinG, sound stAff
Kristi Matthews - Master Electrician
Alexandra Marne smith - Light Board Operator
Ben Levine - Sound Board Operator
tim samland - Scenic Carpenter
daniel cole, Alexandra Marne smith, Baylie Heims,
Jacob Yarborough, robert tobias - Electrics Crew
BoArd of dirEctorS
offiCerS
Peter Morrill, Chair
Larry Bjork, Chair Emeritus
Alyssa Petrie, Treasurer
Rob Zawoysky, Secretary
MeMBerS
Anne Ball
Mark Bullard
Jude Hubbell
Dr. Sarah Roskam
Dr. George Scranton
Steve Thomas
Dan Voetmann
Scott Nolte (non-voting)
AcknowlEdgEmEntS
•
•
Gary Brunt, Greenwood Town Center/Piper Village
The John Perkins Center @ SPU and The Church Council of Greater Seattle have
provided invaluable resources and information for the cast and crew of Best
of Enemies. We appreciate their time and effort to continue the conversation
through post-play discussions and in their ongoing work.
Pleased to be partnering with Taproot Theatre
hElPful informAtion
fooD & Drink
Covered coffee, hot tea and bottled
water from concessions are allowed in
the theatre. Please dispose of your cups
and water bottles after the show. No
food is permitted in the auditorium.
Snacks from concessions can be
enjoyed in the lobby.
we can no longer accommodate dinner
leftovers for patrons because the refrigerator
space belongs to the Stage Door Café. Thank
you for understanding.
DraMaTurg DiSpLay
Visit the upper lobby to view a display
with additional information relating to
the current production.
aSSiSTeD LiSTening DeViCeS
Patrons desiring an assisted listening
device may request one from the House
Manager.
LoST & founD
If you have lost an item, check with the
Box Office in person or by phone at
206.781.9707. If you find a lost item,
please give it to the House Manager
or Box Office staff. Unclaimed lost &
found items may be donated to a thrift
store at the discretion of management.
ProP & SEt donAtionS
Do you have antique or vintage
items you no longer need?
Taproot Theatre’s production team
is now accepting:
• Vintage or vintage-style (pre1970s) select furniture, luggage,
books, trunks, telephones, radios
and kitchenware
• Period newspapers and
magazines
• Sorry, no costume donations
accepted at this time
Contact wendy hansen at
206.529.3644 or
[email protected]
www.systemsixbookkeeping.com
206-851-4330
Providing business owners peace of mind
through strategic bookkeeping and accounting solutions.
ViDeo anD/or auDio reCorDing
of ThiS perforManCe By
any MeanS whaTSoeVer iS
STriCTLy prohiBiTeD.
encore artsseattle.com A-7
thAnk you
Taproot Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following for their generous support of our Annual Fund and
Capital Campaign. This list reflects gifts made to both funds between January 1, 2014 and February 9, 2015.
While space limitations prevent us from including every donor, we are pleased to present a more extensive list
on the front wall of our lower lobby. If you have any questions or would like more information about making
a tax-deductible gift to Taproot Theatre Company (a 501c3 organization), please contact Patty Putnam at
206-529-3647 or [email protected].
corPorAtions/foundAtions
$10,000+
4Culture
Artsfund
Boeing Gift Matching Program
Margery M. Jones Trust
Moccasin Lake Foundation
The Norcliffe Foundation
The Seattle Foundation
3 Anonymous
$5,000 - $9,999
God`s Money
Horizons Foundation
Washington State Arts Commission
1 Anonymous
$2,500 - $4,999
University Lions Club
1 Anonymous
$1,000 - $2,499
Aetna Foundation, Inc.
Dupar Foundation
McEachern Charitable Trust
McFadzean Family Fund
Microsoft Matching Gift Program
Ronald Blue & Co., LLC
Schiff Foundation
St. John`s Lodge
$500-$999
Estate of Albert Watenpaugh
Razoo
individuALs
angels ($10,000+)
John & Ann Collier
Sandy Johnson
Glenna Kendall
Kraig & Pam Kennedy
George & Alyssa Petrie
Susan Rutherford
Richal & Karen Smith
Robert & Maree Zawoysky
3 Anonymous
Marquee ($5,000 - $9,999)
David & Gay Allais
Larry & Lorann Bjork
Mrs. Phil Duryee
Gary & Deborah Ferguson
Greg & Karen Greeley
Philip & Cheryl Laube
Terry & Cornelia Moore
Scott & Pam Nolte
Steve Thomas & Kris Hoots
Daniel & Margret Voetmann
producers ($2,500 - $4,999)
Russell & Janice Ashleman
Anne Ball
Ted & Ruth Bradshaw
Tom & Linda Burley
Leon & Sharon Delong
Dennis & Deborah Deyoung
Juan & Kristine Espinoza
Carolyn Hanson
Dorothy Herley
Wayne & Naomi Holmes
Fred & Carolyn Marcinek
Peter & Megumi Morrill
George & Joy Myers
Kathy Pearson
Ralph & Joan Prins
Mona Quammen
Sarah Roskam
Mrs. Grace Rutherford
George & Claire Scranton
Loren & Carol Steinhauer
Jewely Van Valin-Jackson
Daniel & Joann Wilson
Directors ($1,000 - $2,499)
Mike & Shirley Allert
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Anne Ball
Inez Noble Black
Zach & Rebecca Brittle
James & Janis Cobb
Alan & Gail Coburn
James & Kay Coghlan
Christopher and Patricia Craig
Benjamin & Amanda Davis
Jean Degroot
Ronald & Virginia Edwards
David & Peppe Enfield
Verna M. Eriks
Joyce Farley
Larry Fletcher
Virginia Fordice
Michael & Karen Frazier
Catherine Gaffney
Robert Gallaher
Alan & Carol Gibson
Allen & Lori Gilbert
Brad Gjerding
John & Sally Glancy
Maren & Braden Goodwin
Donald & Lois Hallock
Henry & Lauren Heerschap
Peter & Cynthia Herley
Dr. Rick & Susan Hornor
Mike & Barb Jewell
Julie Johnson
Mark & Mary Kelly
Agastya Kohli & Marianna De Fazio
John & Jean Krueger
Susan Lamar
Frank Lawler
Velma Mahaffey
Lee & Janet McElvaine
Tom & Jean Mohrweis
Don & Kim Morris
Les & Carol Nelson
Lloyd & Jackie Nolte
Gordon & Mary Nygard
Mary Pagels
Nolan & Lorena Palmer
Thom Parham
Tyler & Katie Parris
Jeff & Joann Parrish
Kathy Pearson
Brian & Christa Poel
James & Annita Presti
Ralph & Joan Prins
John & Patty Putnam
Mona Quammen
Tom & Claudia Rengstorf
Carrie Rhodes
Kate Riordan
G.M. & Holly Roe
Robert & Cathie Rohrig
Lawrence & Nancy Rudolph
Ron & Susan Runyon
Dion & Gregory Rurik
Kathryn Sand
David & Joan Selvig
Fredric & Jo Anne Sjoholm
Ronald & Dorita Smith
Ed & Ellen Smyth
Charles & Marilyn Snow
Stephen & Elda Teel
Jerry & Diane Thompson
Jeff & Margie Van Duzer
John & Jan Vander Linden
Fred & Judy Volkers
Randon & Carolyn Wickman
Larry & Linda Williams
Jean Winfield
David & Ann Woodward
2 Anonymous
playwrights ($500 - $999)
Thomas Ackerman
Mike & Shirley Allert
Jim Angerer
Geraldine Beatty
Kent Berg
Jeff & Anjie Berryman
Jack & Maralyn Blume
James & Melinda Bohrer
Tom & Jan Boyd
Melvin & Cordelia Brady
Jeff & Robin Brumley
Margaret Bullitt
Tanya Button
Don Cavanaugh
Ron Clinkenbeard
Wayne & Greta Clousing
James & Janis Cobb
Christopher & Patricia Craig
Todd & Sylvie Currie
Dale & Vicki Dvorak
Gary & Juelle Edwards
David & Peppe Enfield
Kristine Engels
Stanley & Jane Fields
Lee Fitchett
Larry Fletcher
Martin & Esperanza Fracker
Sean & Catherine Gaffney
Robert Gallaher
Charles & Betty Gardner
Arnott Gray
Bonnie Green
Lyle & Sharon Groeneveld
Richard & Louise Guthrie
Ms. Wendy Hansen
Scott & Pattie Hardman
Rich & Judi Harpel
Peter & Anne Haverhals
Jonathan Henke
David & Connie Hiscock
Evan & Molly Holzknecht
Bill & Nan Hough
Lee & Ginnie Huntsman
David & Christina Johnson
Karen Koon
John & Jean Krueger
Cody & Beth Lillstrom
Wesley & Merrilyn Lingren
Harry & Linda Macrae
Charles Maurer
Bob & Karolyn McDaniel
Lee & Janet McElvaine
Tom & Linda Morris
Eugene & Martha Nester
Craig & Linda Nolte
Paul & Cathy Nordman
Sue North
Vicki Olsen
Ann Owens
Nolan & Lorena Palmer
Mark & Camille Peterson
James & Annita Presti
Bill & Jodie Purcell
Richard & Maryann Riddle
Valerie Rosman
Ron & Susan Runyon
Frederick & Caroline Scheetz
Trina & Eden Sellers
William & Carolyn Stoll
Elliot & Daytona Strong
Barbara Suder
Chuck & Kathy Talburt
Farrel Thomas
Michael & Laura Thomason
Robert & Gina Thorstenson
Suzanne Townsend
John & Jan Vander Linden
John & Dianne West
Leora Wheeler
Isabelle Woodward
3 Anonymous
The isaac Studio Theatre is now fully equipped! Special thanks to the following generous individuals who
donated $100 or more to the project in february 2015:
Christopher Boyer
Amanda Chin
Robert de Regt
Lewis Hale
Norman Hamilton
Peter Haverhals
Heather Howard
Kraig & Pam Kennedy
John & Joyce MacDonald
Robert McBride
Dennis McMahon
Kenneth & Nadine Peirce
Steve Pellegrin
Nancy Repenning
A-8 TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Tzila Rozdilski
John & Joan Vander Linden
Kay Williams-Prater
Douglas Warne
Taproot Theatre
Company is a
professional, nonprofit theatre with a
multifaceted production
program. Founded in
1976, TTC serves the
Pacific Northwest with
touring productions,
Mainstage Theatre
productions and the
Acting Studio. Taproot
is a member of Theatre
Communications Group
(TCG), Theatre Puget
Sound (TPS) and the
Phinney Neighborhood
Association.
Taproot Theatre
Company creates
theatre experiences
to brighten the spirit,
engage the mind
and deepen the
understanding of the
world around us while
inspiring imagination,
conversation and hope.
Mailing address:
PO Box 30946
Seattle, Washington
98113-0946
administrative offices:
206.781.9705
Fax: 206.297.6882
Box office:
206.781.9707
[email protected]
www.taproottheatre.org
www.facebook.com/
taproottheatre
twitter: @taproottheatre
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BEHIND
THE SCENES
ARTIST
SPOTLIGHT
NEWS
PREVIEWS
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
A BEAUTIFUL
EXPLOSION
The artists of
Electric Coffin
are helping
define Seattle’s
landscape—
one giant squid
at a time.
By JONATHAN ZWICKEL
T
ROV E, THE SIX-MONTH-OLD PA NASIA N RESTAUR A NT ON CAPITOL
HILL , throbs like a living thing. An
energ i z e d T hu rsd ay-n ight crowd
radiates a warm din under a ceiling
painted the vivid red of an internal organ.
Exposed ducts and HVAC tubes stretch
through the space like arteries carrying
sweet meat smoke from tabletop hibachis.
Iris-colored wallpaper speckled with Space
Needles and Godzillas lines the restroom
hall. Hanging on the wall of the cocktail bar
is a giant, gilt-framed painting that depicts
Mt. Rainier spewing neon-orange lava into a
bruise-purple sky. Diners and drinkers linger
in the bustle.
Spray paint ready for use at Electric
Coffin’s Ballard workshop, which is set
in a row of warehouses that are home
to metal fabricators, furniture makers,
machinists and woodworkers.
PHOTO BY STEVE KORN
from city arts magazine
2014–2015 SEASON
JUNE 26 & 27
On their way out, a couple stops to
order frozen custards, served from a fullsized ice cream truck parked by the front
door. They fail to notice the peephole
inside the gas cap, set about kneehigh. A look inside reveals a miniature
diorama: Godzilla attacking the Space
Needle.
This is not a place you visit and forget.
More than most restaurants, Trove has
vibe. As in vibration. Trove feels like
action.
Across town, Westward sits on the
shore of Lake Union like a steamship
ready to push off from its gravel mooring
and cruise into the Seattle skyline. Aside
from its dramatic waterfront setting,
the most striking visual aspect of the
year-and-a-half-old seafood restaurant
is a 25-foot-long model ship, its interior
visible in cross-section, revealing
breadbox-sized chambers that each
contain a tiny, 3-D diorama—an angry
yeti, a professional wrestling match,
a great white shark swimming with a
unicorn. Plus life-size bottles of booze,
full of actual booze. Because this highfantasy art installation is Westward’s
back bar.
The food at Westward is superb. But
it wasn’t the menu that garnered the
place a 2014 James Beard Nomination
for Outstanding Restaurant Design. It
was the space, and specifically the ship
that launched a thousand Instagrams.
It, like the whole interior of Trove, was
conceived, constructed and installed
by the three-man collective known as
Electric Coffin.
Patrick “Duffy” De Armas, Justin
Kane Elder and Stefan Hofmann have
worked together as Electric Coffin for
four years. In that time they’ve been
let loose on a slew of interior spaces
across the Northwest with orders to tilt
each one toward the unexpected. Trove
is their most extensive project so far;
Westward the most celebrated. They also
worked on Joule, the Fremont restaurant
WITH THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY
Scott Dunn, conductor / Seattle Symphony
TICKETS GOING FAST!
Presentation made under license from Buena Vista Concerts,
a division of ABC Inc.© All rights reserved.
2 0 6 . 2 1 5 . 4 7 4 7 | S E AT T L E SY M P H O N Y. O R G
encore art sseattle.com 11
ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Detail of EC’s first collaboration, a
diorama inset into a custom-built
coffee table. PHOTO COURTESY OF
ELECTRIC COFFIN
AF 012915 classes 1_12.pdf
Bischofberger
Violins
est. 1955
Professional
Repairs
Appraisals
& Sales
1314 E. John St.
Seattle, WA
206-324-3119
www.bviolins.com
12 ENCORE STAGES
BV 071811 repair 1_12.pdf
owned by the same restaurateurs as Trove;
the Hollywood Tavern in Woodinville,
owned by the same restaurant group as
Westward; EVO, the homegrown snowsports store in Wallingford that recently
opened a new, Electric Coffin-designed
store in Portland; and Via6, the highprofile high-rise apartment towers in
Belltown.
Their style explodes in three
dimensions with Skittles-bright colors
and meticulous, ridiculous details.
It lands somewhere between the
Midcentury hot-rod cartoonery of Ed “Big
Daddy” Roth, the salacious-but-refined
lowbrow paintings of Robert Williams,
the childlike handcrafted charm of
Wes Anderson and the hypermodern
maximalism of Takashi Murakami. Their
work pulls from the restless mania of
three fanatic skaters and snowboarders
who’ve harbored their own iconoclastic,
artistic inclinations since childhood. The
trio matches its collective imagination
with individual skills in fabrication—
carpentry, mechanics, metalwork,
screenprinting, airbrushing—a rare
combination that puts Electric Coffin in
the design/build category that’s highly
sought after by architecture firms and
marketing departments alike.
Electric Coffin’s mondo-destructo/
punk-funk/industrial-artistic aesthetic is
unprecedented in Seattle. Over the past 10
years, restaurants and retail spaces have
sprouted an urban forest of reclaimed
barnwood, corralled a menagerie of
taxidermy and wrought enough blackened
iron to gird a medieval prison. Owing to
a devout sense of history and perhaps
a sense of that history vanishing, the
hunting lodge, the faux dive and the
oyster shell are the traditional touchstones
of Northwest design. These have been
done well—over and over—and they’ll
forever remain part of the regional
visual vocabulary. But as the Northwest
continues its inexorable march into
the 21st century, those designs will be
augmented by new visual cues. Electric
Coffin speaks a homegrown slang that
deftly describes the post-Millennial world.
“Their creativity is born out of an
irreverence to some of the stuff that was
done before,” says Jim Graham of Graham
Baba Architects, who worked with Electric
Coffin on Via6 and Westward. “I appreciate
that about those guys. Architects take
themselves far too seriously. That’s not to
say that we should drape the entire world in
Electric Coffin—that wouldn’t work either,
because then how do you judge it? But that’s
why it’s so exciting. We’re starved for their
work right now.”
T
HERE ARE TOO MANY CHAIRS IN
Electric Coffin’s Ballard HQ. Far more
chairs than people to sit in them, even
when the three guys and their intern
are all present. Plastic shell chairs,
metal wire chairs, vintage office chairs—
more than a dozen around the office, which
is situated up a steep flight of stairs from a
giant construction warehouse filled with
paint and power tools.
“We have a serious chair problem,” De
Armas says. “We love chairs. It gets to a
point where they’re not useful.”
To put it mildly, the decor is eclectic.
One wall is opaque corrugated plastic,
giving off a mellow glow in the afternoon
sunlight. Eighties action figures stand
sentry on desktops next to Power Macs, beer
cans and whiskey bottles. A blackboard
is covered with doodles and agenda
items. The disembodied hood of a Camaro
leans against a wall, screenprinted and
acid-distressed, a piece of De Armas’ art
exhibition showing at AXIS Gallery this
summer. Beside it is a big metal sign for
“Squid Inc.” that looks like it was found at
the bottom of a scrap heap after languishing
for decades.
Turns out Electric Coffin built the sign in
2013, mixing salvaged metal letters, pages
from ’70s porn mags, airbrushed paint and
custom neon. Squid Inc., De Armas tells
me, is a fictional company they dreamed
up as an art project and then designed 150
years of backstory for, including print ads,
packaging artifacts and a subtitled, Frenchlanguage biographical documentary (“Their
from city arts magazine
Electric
Coffin’s mondodestructo/punkfunk/industrialartistic
aesthetic is
unprecedented
in Seattle.
miracle-cure squid ink battled ailments from
halitosis to boot rot and could be found across
the nation—and the world!”). They mounted
a show at Bherd Gallery in Greenwood,
displaying phony vintage ephemera with
painter Kellie Talbot’s photorealistic oil
images of Squid Inc. signage.
The project was meant as “a discussion
about the reverence for classic Americana
analog,” as De Armas diplomatically puts
it. Like all of Electric Coffin’s work, it was
a playful discussion. It involved some
nose-thumbing—a fake brand imbued with
fake character via the group’s skills and an
intentionally obtuse backstory. It was the
gallery version of their commercial work,
both of which follow the same dictate: If you
can’t source the object you envision from
salvage, make it from scratch. Make it look
old, worn, real. And make it fun.
The design aesthetic of the moment, as
seen on Pinterest and in the pages of Dwell
and Kinfolk, is rather serious. Conservative.
Twee. It fetishizes the old, whether vintage
furniture, reclaimed wood or a dying dive
bar. If it’s old, it’s beautiful, even precious.
The Electric Coffin guys appreciate old stuff—
the vintage chairs, the Camaro hood, the G.I.
Joes—but they appreciate it as a medium, not
as an end to itself. They pay it the honor of
destroying it so they can give it new life.
“Recontextualization of cultural icons,”
Hofmann says. “At the EVO storefront we
built totems, animals stacked on top of
animals. You start creating narrative out
of these kinds of things, almost a pop-icon
sensibility. You put it in this candy shell but it
contains more expansive concepts of idealism
and cultural identities.”
De Armas: “Everyone’s trying to wax their
pants now instead of buying Gore-Tex. Like, ‘I
drink out of a mason jar!’ Just because you’re
buying a mason jar you’re still a consumer.
You’re idolizing the idea of consuming.”
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HENRY ART GALLERY
H E N R YA R T.O R G
Ann Hamilton. Digital scan of
specimens from the Division
of Tetrapods at the Museum of
Biological Diversity at The Ohio
State University. 2013. Courtesy
of the artist.
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ENCORE ARTS NEWS
Elder: “We’re electrifying dead things,
dead images and concepts that have been
lost that we dig up, these archeological
finds.”
The name Electric Coffin applies to the
group’s current obsession with monster
reanimation, but De Armas came up with it
years ago during his time in the University
of Washington sculpture program. It just
sounded cool, like the name of one of the hotrod shops in Phoenix he grew up working in.
De Armas moved to Seattle at 18 with no real
game plan other than to get out of Arizona,
make art and skate and snowboard as much
as possible—which is how he met Hofmann
and Elder.
Hofmann came from small-town Arizona
and Reno to study at the UW sculpture
program 10 years before De Armas. While in
school he won a Fulbright Fellowship that
sent him traveling through Southeast Asia
for three years, taking photos and surfing.
He spent the next 14 years traveling back
and forth from Seattle to Bali, surfing there
and snowboarding here. During that time
he designed a logo to attach to the hand-knit
beanies he imported and sold to friends.
This now-iconic snowcat logo was the start
of Spacecraft, a snow apparel business that
still thrives today. When De Armas arrived
in Seattle, he found work with Hofmann at
Spacecraft.
Elder was raised in the rural woodlands
outside Arlington, Wash., the feral child of
survivalist-hippie parents who eventually
moved the family to Seattle for a more
conventional lifestyle. He graduated with an
MFA in painting and sculpture from Cornish
College of the Arts but found more practical
work as a carpenter. After painting on his
own and skating with De Armas for years, he
gave up his day job and the three went all-in
on Electric Coffin in 2011 with no strategy
other than working on cool projects with
friends, starting with a tentacle-creature
disaster-scene coffee table installation for a
pop-up shop in the New York Nordstrom.
“We don’t live in the real world,” De
Armas says. “That’s one trait we all share.”
“None of us knows where we’re going,”
Hofmann says.
“That approach has helped us,” Elder
adds. “There is no Plan B.”
They clashed at the beginning. Three
artists, three egos. One guy would spend
hours working on a segment of a piece only
to have another guy come in and, without
so much as a blink, paint over it with a giant
roller.
“We got into a lot of fights: ‘Dude, I just
painted that and you just destroyed it!’”
De Armas says. “People were leaving and
yelling. We drank a lot of beer and talked
about it. We’ve come to terms. You just
do it and trust that we all know what
we’re doing.”
from city arts magazine
“When you’re working in a truly collaborative
way unexpected things may come about,”
Hofmann says. “Looking back you can see
the continuity—larger narratives that relate to
consumerism and disaster and sarcasm.”
Elder, De Armas and Hofmann at work.
PHOTO BY STEVE KORN
“We were almost challenging each other,
like we were children trying to understand
the realm of truly collaborating and what
that meant,” Hofmann says. Time and
practice solved that problem. Overlap is now
an intentional part of the process, a sort of
interpersonal geologic layering of paint and
paper and metal and plastic that gives their
work physical depth and creates the illusion
of the passage of time.
Snowboarders know the butterflies-in-thebelly feeling of carving a fresh line on a virgin
run. And they know the feeling of following
a friend’s fresh tracks, helixing them with
your own, side by side, simultaneous but
individual. The crossover between action
sports and Electric Coffin’s gestural art is
uncanny. Elegant chaos, controlled just long
enough to finish the run.
“Creativity in motion,” Elder says.
“Instead of using a canvas to express your
creative vision you’re using the environment,
whether it’s a bowl in a skate park or an open
field of powder.”
“We made a conscious choice to let go,”
Hofmann says.
E
VERYTHING IS UP FOR GRABS
THESE days—the way business is run,
the way we brand and market, the way
we run restaurants,” says Matthew
Parker, lead designer of Huxley Wallace
Collective, the restaurant group that built
Westward. “We’re constantly changing
old models and flipping them around
and creating new ones. The design style
those guys carry fits perfectly with these
contradictions. And within contradictions
things get exciting.”
Electric Coffin’s latest, greatest canvas is
the city itself. As its population explodes,
Seattle is building its own future to live and
work and play in. Developers mostly hew to a
bottom-line principle, wary of expenditures
on risky design—which gives us the lowbudget, low-concept eyesore architecture
that’s turned swaths of the city into the
urban equivalent of Ikea furniture.
Since their involvement with the Via6—
one of the more visible projects in the city—
Electric Coffin has been fielding more calls
for commissions on large-scale commercial
projects. They built a winter forest inside a
yurt at the downtown REI that’s on display
through the spring; REI corporate has since
requested custom installations in each of
their flagship stores nationwide. A new W
Hotel is going up in Bellevue with space for
a three-floor-tall mural in its lobby. And
they’re negotiating a contract to design the
interior of a new high rise in South Lake
Union, a two-year project that would involve
creating multiple installations and art pieces
for the entire building.
“We have an awesome opportunity and a
legitimate responsibility to work with these
people and make things that are progressive,
thoughtful, interesting on multiple levels,
not just to look at but also functional,” De
Armas says. “Seattle is a weird little city
that should’ve been bigger years ago and
now we’re having this boom. Development’s
happening regardless. We can affect the face
of that development by infusing it with art.”
Ready yourself: Tomorrow’s Seattle will
be airbrushed raspberry red and wrapped
in giant-squid wallpaper. It will be expertly
constructed, scaled mini to macro and rich
with subtle visual humor. It will be brandnew but look ageless. It will be distinctly
American—but an America that’s been
blown up, reconfigured and reborn for a new
era.
“There’s something intrinsically beautiful
about an explosion,” Hofmann says. “Aside
from the destruction, it represents rebirth.
What comes from this? What’s the next new
thing? And it’s hopeful in the sense that
whatever it is, it might be better.” n
encore art sseattle.com 15
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